JUNE 2 • 2022 | 11

— and “the Squad” itself — 
so quick to accuse anyone 
and everyone of racism 
on the slightest pretext, 
remained all but completely 
silent throughout.
This pogrom did not erupt 
merely because Israel was 
involved in a conflict with 
Hamas at the time. It was 
the product of years, decades 
of work by these activists 
and organizations. The idea 
that their incitement and 
defamation did not poison 
the Muslim-American 
community against not only 
Israel but all Jews is absurd. 
And that it resulted in mob 
violence — a pogrom — 
should be no surprise. For 
this alone, the Muslim-
American establishment, the 

anti-Israel progressive left, 
the numerous activists who 
support them and the Squad 
itself stand condemned.
Tlaib’s resolution should 
not be seen, then, as mere 
anti-Israel politics, nor 
as a simple expression of 
pogromist ideology. It is the 
pogrom. It seeks to further 
the pogrom on another level. 
It attempts to institutionalize 
the pogrom, to enshrine 
it in American law and, 
through it, American society. 
We have seen, in other 
words, the emergence of 
the Congressional Pogrom 
Caucus.
This is all quite monstrous, 
of course, but it also reveals 
an important truth: The 
pogromists know that 

they cannot break the 
State of Israel without also 
breaking the Jews. Especially 
American Jews, who they see 
as the true source of what 
they genuinely believe to be 
Israel’s omnipotent power. 
They are prepared to do 
almost anything in service 
of this goal and will not 
stop unless they are stopped 
by any and all legal means 
necessary.
This means, above all, that 
American Jews must wake 
up. Often sympathetic to 
progressive politics, they do 
not want to believe that such 
a thing could happen among 
those they view as admirable 
allies. But denial never 
works, and now it represents 
an existential danger. 

American Jews may be in 
sympathy with the ideology 
of “the Squad,” but they 
must understand that these 
people hate you. And however 
progressive, compassionate, 
empathetic and idealistic 
they may seem, when the 
chips are down, they will eat 
you alive.
So, remember their names: 
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, 
Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, 
Betty McCollum, Marie 
Newman, Jamaal Bowman 
and Cori Bush. They are not 
finished. They will be back. 
And you must be ready for 
them. 

Benjamin Kerstein is a writer and 

editor living in Tel Aviv. 

MIDDLE EAST from page 8

agreed, live-happily-ever-after 
two-state solution. 
 The rest of the world, we 
easily forget, is not like the 
U.S. The assumption that 
other peoples, in their heart 
of hearts, really want to be 
like Americans, that they 
instinctively favor Western 
political institutions, underlay 
the disastrous U.S. nation-
building exercises in Vietnam, 
Iraq and Afghanistan. In every 
case, American intervention, 
rather than promote peace 
and compromise, dramatically 
increased violence, extremism 
and suffering.
That the PA, not to mention 
Hamas, could embrace 
compromise and democratic 
norms is very unlikely. 
Both organizations, military 
dictatorships, refuse all free 
elections, routinely torture 
and/or execute political 

opponents, and forbid free 
speech or civil liberties. The 
most respected ranking of 
global democracy, the British-
based Economist Democracy 
Index (with No. 1 the best, 
No. 167 the worst) ranks Israel 
No. 23, the U.S. No. 26 — and 
Palestine No. 109. 
What then is to be done? 
Rather than declare, “After 75 
years our patience is finally 
exhausted, and we are going 
to settle this problem now 
once and for all”; rather 
than penalize Israel for an 
impasse rooted chiefly in 
Palestinian refusal to accept 
Israel’s right to exist; rather 
than ask Palestinians to 
tolerate something they 
have long regarded as 
intolerable, America should 
seek to modify the status quo 
gradually and quietly. 
 

BIDEN’S APPROACH
In fact, this is a rough 
description of President Joe 
Biden’s approach. Specifically, 
the U.S. should build upon the 
Abraham Accords, promote 
economic development in 
Palestinian territories, and 
do what it can to strengthen 
the PA in the hope that 
moderation somehow might 
ultimately prevail.
But blithely to wish away 
the past, to penalize the 
party that has been most in 
favor of compromise while 
rewarding the party most 
opposed, can only whet 
Hamas’ ambition and convert 
chronic low-level violence 
into yet another massive 
explosion. (Space precludes 
discussion, but any attempt to 
impose a one-state solution, 
which even Congressional 
advocates of sanctioning 

Israel deem unrealistic, would 
almost certainly hasten that 
explosion.) 
If history teaches anything, 
it teaches that America 
cannot impose solutions 
on peoples of very different 
cultural background without 
risking unforeseen, deeply 
unwelcome consequences. 
The Two-State Solution 
Act, though perhaps well-
intentioned, promises to 
do precisely that. Some 
problems, history avers all 
too sadly, can be contained, 
but are not amenable to rapid 
solution. 

Victor Lieberman is the Raoul 

Wallenberg Distinguished University 

Professor of History at the University 

of Michigan, where he teaches 

a course, the most popular in the 

department, on the Arab-Israeli 

conflict.

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