Double Standards and Moral Relativism: The New Left's Approach to Palestine

Mr. Berger is a freshman at Boston University.

Perhaps the last truly divisive issue among college-educated liberals, the Israel-Palestine conflict is far too complicated to be grasped in the brief time that it has taken the spotlight from Ukraine in world affairs. That makes it all the more concerning when young Democrats and liberals immediately attach themselves, without question, to the Palestinian cause. While it would seem on brand for the left to give support to the “underdog”, and the Palestinians are by all means a massive underdog in this conflict, there are some clear contradictions that call in to question the lefts’ stance on this issue.

The most common words I hear from Palestine-supporting leftists to describe the Palestinian condition are “colonized”, “victim”, and “oppressed”, all terms that circulate among liberal circles to lend pity to any group they deem disadvantaged. The problem with the liberal fascination with Palestine, however, is that it runs completely contrary to the strict woke orthodoxy that young modern-day leftists seem to obsess over, especially on college campuses. The double standard that these liberals seem to impose on Israel and the United States is not only mind-bogglingly narrow-minded but almost offensive to the Palestinian cause.

While I’m sure right-leaning Americans are very aware of a so-called “woke agenda” due to the right-wing media’s obsession with trivial corporate pandering - and while I would argue that “wokeness” as defined by these outlets is a tool of division used to distract from serious issues - the reality is that these new societal norms many left-leaning activists champion are strict and uncompromising.

We have reached the Overton window of modern college campus leftism that students protest for tampons in the men’s bathroom, introduce themselves to others with their pronouns, and skip class to voice displeasure with the conservative teachings of certain professors. Unlike many conservative commentators, I don’t care about these things, and living on a college campus it hardly affects my day-to-day life.

The problem arises, however, when the same left-leaning individuals who believe that these seemingly unimportant issues warrant, at times, mass civil disobedience, do not carry weight when examining the government and people of Palestine. It is often the same people who you see tying themselves to doors to protest a school’s bathroom policy who tend to be shouting “free Palestine” at mourning Jews. It is often these same people who call Israel an “apartheid state”, call the IDF a “terrorist organization”, and call dismembered Jewish civilians “colonizers” who had it coming. For a political philosophy so keyed in on semantic issues and who currently claims there is an active trans genocide going on in the southern United States, it seems none of these concerns arise when examining the positions of Middle Eastern nations. 

The unquestionable reality is that Israel is the only place in the Middle East with a semblance of liberal values. According to the UN gender equality index, Israel is by far the best country in the Middle East as it pertains to women’s rights, and it isn’t particularly close. The only other country that comes close is the United Arab Emirates, and their progress is a very recent development that heavily coincides with strengthening ties to the Western world.

Israel is also the only country in the Middle East that recognizes gay marriage, a massive point of emphasis by college liberals. In fact, should the dream of a free Palestine “from the river to the sea” come to fruition, not only would that spell the end of all Israeli Jews, but all chances for the happy life of homosexual Middle Easterners. Palestinian law deems gay marriage punishable by up to ten years in prison, and the social/governmental position is far more severe. Pew research found that 93 percent of Palestinians oppose homosexuality, one of the highest marks in the world. Not only is homosexuality criminalized, but it’s empirically punishable by death. In February 2016, Hamas murdered Mahmoud Ishtiwi, a leading commander, under accusations of homosexuality.

Because the Palestinian population is nearly unanimous on this issue, and given the nature of their dictatorial leadership, it’s impossible to believe that these practices would change under expanded leadership. Ponder then, the consequences of freeing Palestine. The eradication of Israel would end the last woman-friendly and LGBTQ+ friendly state in the Middle East, replacing it with a terroristic autocracy that has gone on record to say that the eradication of Jews and Homosexuals is a value core to their existence. 

Why then, do liberals continue to virulently support such an outcome? In my experience, it comes from their obsession with infantilizing groups they deem as oppressed. Moral relativism is a tool used by liberals only in situations where it’s beneficial to their stance, and results in the infantilization and abdication of personal responsibility from the groups they latch on to.

Many of these “activists” barely view Palestinians as human, and instead lost sheep that need to be saved by their hand, guided out of oppression and towards their ideals (sound familiar?). They have no reservation in their argument, no thought that these “oppressed” groups may have intelligence or can think for themselves, choosing right over wrong or good over evil. It’s a tactical maneuver, as it allows them to easily assimilate into their causes, eliminating pesky nuance and critical thinking.

The tribe mentality that liberals and conservatives alike share causes higher and higher levels of polarization and political-social fragmentation - my exact theory for why the aforementioned “woke” orthodoxy has become such a sticking point for liberal activists. It’s easy to scream at people for things they don’t understand and it’s even easier to fall in line with what the biggest extremists on one side of an issue say, ignoring the flaws in their character and argument.

I hope that as the Palestinian cause is pushed further into the spotlight, liberals can examine their oversights on this issue, and recognize the massive double standard they place on the practices of Western and Middle Eastern social norms. My one hope for this unfortunately requires leading Palestinian voices to gain power, and finally reveal the obvious truth about their intentions, snapping these liberals out of their tribal fervor and recognizing the massive problems with the Palestinian mission. Until then, however, groups like LGBTQ+ for Palestine will still exist, supporting the agents that could soon chop down their brethren in the Middle East.