Hussein Aboubakr Mansour is one of those rare examples of a civilized, cultivated Muslim so often invoked by admirers of jihad, despite having nothing whatsoever to do with jihad himself. Much like Ed Husain or Maajid Nawaz. Their somber, melancholy essays on the gradual decline of the West are worth reading because they are both analytically sharp and deeply perceptive. They are not direct participants in our internal quarrels. They observe us from the outside and notice things we ourselves often fail to see.
This time, Mansour published a particularly interesting essay on the evolution of the Western left. He correctly observed — something difficult to perceive from within — that strategists in left-wing parties now face an extremely difficult choice. They know perfectly well that the public rejects open migration, seventy-six genders, anti-white racism, and the closing of factories over the theoretical threat of a one-degree rise in global temperatures. Yet these very issues are central to the activist base of their parties. Without activists, campaigns cannot function; without broader public support, elections cannot be won. So what is to be done?
Fortunately, Israel exists, Mansour notes. By denouncing Israel — and occasionally harassing Jews more generally — they can secure the enthusiasm of radical activists while the wider public remains largely indifferent. The strategy only needs to work until election day, because once elections are over, the seventy-six genders and factory closures will return anyway. What matters most is the period before the vote. Hence the extraordinary interest in the rights of anyone inclined to amuse himself by killing Israelis.
Mansour frames this analysis in the context of American politics, where Democrats have become the anti-Israel party and Republicans the pro-Israel one. The situation within the EU is quite different, since Europe’s ruling class does not need to pay much attention to public opinion or public sentiment. Yet one can observe a remarkably similar dynamic in the Czech environment, where supporters of a conservative left — still a significant current here — found themselves forced into uneasy coexistence with an ultra-progressive faction surrounding Prague’s communist circles. A deeply deranged faction, perhaps, but one with enormous influence inside the party apparatus. There too, Palestinian flags and idiotic stories about the limitless power of the Israeli lobby proved politically useful.
Perhaps it is not an entirely ineffective strategy. It allows the Western left to continue functioning, and in practical terms it will likely have little effect on the people of Israel themselves. Yet it introduces the problem common to every form of antisemitism. The real issue is not Jewish communities — they are generally capable of protecting themselves — but rather what other forces and impulses such rhetoric ultimately invites through the door.