I have a few ongoing online conversations with conservatives. A cousin’s husband who is a climate change skeptic. An old school friend who is a Trump supporter. A group of old men my age from my synagogue. They believe Democrats are bad for Israel.
Those worried about Israel are particularly worried about Black Lives Matter. In 2016, a new platform for Black Lives Matter described Israel as a genocidal apartheid state targeting the Palestinian people. I can’t find the platform, but the story is not fabricated. Haaretz reported on it. Jonathan Greenblatt of the Anti-Defamation League denounced the claim, but not the Black Lives Matter organization.
These men see Jews in danger. The y see Black Lives Matter as an organization with a socialist or Communist agenda. They are deeply distrustful.
One of the men with the strongest opinion lived through the Holocaust and through Communist regimes in Eastern Europe. You have to respect someone with that experience. He has good readon to distrust and fear movements. He cites Eric Hoffa about the dangers of people who join such movements. I have have respect for someone who cites Eric Hoffa.
Nevertheless, I believe these men are mistaken. The Black Lives Matter organization is not a secret Communist organization intent on enlisting Palestinians in the effort to create a Communist world free of Jews. It is not a secret that some BLM leaders see a resemblance between Blacks in the US and Palestinians in Israel; that some BLM leaders wish for communal ownership. Those beliefs do not make BLM a danger.
The Jerusalem Post, a conservative Israeli newspaper writes: “Unfortunately in the US there is a radical fringe among some African-American activists who blend antisemitism with their activism.” Radical fringes are not the movement, though they might include “true believers” that Eric Hoffa would recognize.
The venerable Jewish Telegraph Agency headlines a June 10 story: “Stop using Israel as an excuse not to support Black Lives Matter”. The story includes the following injunction: “If we expect people to show up for our pain, we have to show up for theirs. And for Black people in America, the pain of police brutality is not only counted in the death toll: Its shadow hangs heavy over all people of color in every interaction with the police, in every city and town across America, every day.”