They are also slumming, erotically thrilled by contact with real outlaws, real killers, Really Bad Men. Look: Male serial killers have no end of fans, including marriage proposals after they have been jailed.
Some academics and activists—and here I am thinking of many Jews—are exercising their secular version of religious Judaism. They are “repairing the world” but not for Jews, mainly for non-Jews, the strangers at the gate, and for the enemies of America and Israel. Although such Jews may be secularists or atheists, they behave with a fundamentalist-style religious zeal. They truly believe that their work is what alone will save the world, fulfill the Jewish ethical mission, redeem, even justify Israel’s existence. Their work consists of criticizing Israel, partly because they feel that Israel’s existence must be justified. They believe that Israel must be better than other nations to justify its right to exist.
Some academics and activists—and here I am thinking especially about Jewish feminists and lesbians—believe that they will lose their pariah status if they scapegoat Jews, indeed, if they are the first to do so. This alone will allow them to live. This is what makes them tough and trendy “radicals.”
Such feminists, leftists, and gay liberationists have not thought through what their lives might be like under Islamic rule. In fact, they still deny that there’s a “problem” with Islam and insist that the main problem is with American and Israeli colonialism, imperialism, and militarism.
All these Israel-bashers may be far more terrified of Islamic Jihad than I am—and are assuming the position of dhimmi-appeasers long before it is necessary to do so.
I have not come here today to bash feminists. I am one. As I’ve said, I don’t understand what happened to the best minds of my Second Wave generation. However, our feminist work is certainly not worthless and was not done in vain. Today, I do my feminist work with Muslim and ex-Muslim feminists and dissidents. We work on Islamic gender apartheid. My vision of universal human rights has not changed. Feminism now provides a bridge in our collective fight to defend both Israel and the West. Such anti-Islamist Muslims are marginalized and need our support. We need to convince western governments to use them, listen to them. We need to unify and fight the war to delegitimize Israel. It is the key to preserving the West.
