When looking into this subject, there were a number of interesting findings which might cause one to pause and wonder about the why, who, and impetus behind things going on here. One of the first items was that there appear to be far more left leaning groups pointing fingers than right leaning groups. On the other side of that coin and unsurprising was that there appear to be more right leaning groups identified as hate groups than left leaning groups. The one item which everybody agreed upon was that the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) appears to be the self-appointed hate group identifier. There was also an amount of disagreement about whether this was a balanced and appropriate group to be trusted. The left leaning groups all unanimously applauded the SPLC efforts and findings having virtually no problems with almost anything stated by them while most right leaning groups gave the SPLC credit for doing a difficult job but insisted on pointing out that they had missed a number of definitions, especially on their “Hate Map” (see below). All the varied commentary on the “Hate Map” from any direction all had some glaring omissions which we, of course, took exception to and will now list. The hate groups missing consist of almost all anti-Israel, anti-Zionist groups and but very few anti-Semitic groups. Glaringly absent were BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions on Israel and Israeli products), BLM (Black Lives Matter who have been rabidly guilty of all three forms of anti-Semitism), Nation of Islam, Free Gaza (who organize the flotillas to attempt to break the legal arms blockade of Hamas and Islamic Jihad), Act Now to Stop War and End Racism (ANSWER who protest almost everything Israel and Zionist), Al-Awda (the largest Palestinian-American grassroots organization based in California), Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), Friends of Sabeel-North America (anti-Israel, anti-Zionist and anti-Semitic group demanding the eradication of Israel denying the Jews are entitled to a homeland and supporting replacement theology), International Solidarity Movement (ISM who support and aid Hamas and the PLO and have been caught using United Nations ambulances to ferry terrorists and munitions in Gaza), Jewish Voice for Peace (decidedly anti-Israel and largely anti-Netanyahu actively supporting the leftist parties in Israel to the point of interfering in Israeli election campaigning against the sitting government in the media between elections in attempts to weaken the Likud and Jewish Home parties as well as any Zionist or religious parties), Muslim American Society (MAS who are extremely active on American campuses pushing the Palestinian claims to all of Israel from the River to the Sea Palestine must be free is one of their rallying cries), Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP are actually an arm of MAS and was founded by a former MAS member) and finally, if the 2012 Democrat Party Convention (see video below) is any indicator, a fairly significant segment of the Democrat Party could also make the list and we suspect parts of the Republican Party as well. Unfortunately for Israel and the American-Israeli alliance which has been strong since a relatively rocky start where one could point to 1969 as the turning point where the United States began full support of Israel and the two nations have shared technological defense discoveries but that appears to be weakening after a long run. It was said by Henry Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston, as part of the Treaty of Adrianople, “I say that it is a narrow policy to suppose that this country or that is to be marked out as the eternal ally or the perpetual enemy of England. We have no eternal allies, and we have no perpetual enemies. Our interests are eternal and perpetual, and those interests it is our duty to follow.” Perhaps the wise man has a point, no permanence between nations except as serve the immediate needs of each nation.
Hate is a difficult subject at any time and even more sensitive in the United States at the moment as charges of institutional hate are being brought against conservatives in general and the Republican Party and associated groups in particular. The media and some entertainment individuals have harped on this subject refusing to allow anything to calm after the horrendous display in Charlottesville a number of weeks back. The coverage of the violence there has been one sided in the mainstream media with an opposing view of a different tone coming from conservative talk personalities. There has been one area of agreement from both sides, namely that the Nazis, KKK and white supremacists are all unjustifiable hate groups who have no legitimate place at the table in American society. Where the left and right differ is the level and amount of support these fringe groups presumably have. According to the right leaning talk and opinion hosts and editorialists, these groups are marginalized by the conservatives and are a fringe area which has no power and very few followers and are given no quarter by conservatives and are a disgrace to all Americans. According to the left mainstream media, these groups are pervasive throughout the society and rule the conservative movements and dictate policy to the Republican Party and have a very strong showing at all right leaning events and are within all the right leaning groups almost without exception. Obviously, both sets of commentary cannot be valid; either they are a marginalized group of outcasts and are small in number or they can be found all throughout the conservative groups and rule the roost. Here we have exactly similar argument as was presented about the SPLC and their objectivity. Where you stand on either issue, we are willing to bet that you either support the conservative or the leftist side of the argument on both. We would be starkly surprised to find people taking opposing sides on these two issues, though we must assume such is possible.
Hate comes in different packages within any society and it will never be eradicated. Some hatreds are actually valid, though such strong feelings are rare. We can assume that cancer is universally hated, as are most diseases and illnesses. But these obvious items are also not areas of contention within our societies. Where hatred becomes a problem is when one group within the society holds such feelings for another group within the society. Often such feelings are mutually felt as if a group hates your group; it is human nature to hate that group in return. It takes a rare breed of people to resist such a reaction when targeted by hatred. These are the kinds of hatred which if we were to be a better people we could find resolutions to such feelings. Some of these hatreds go back hundreds if not thousands of years and are passed on from parent to child almost in their mother’s milk. Anti-Semitism is just such hatred as it has a history which reaches back before written history. Anti-Semitism has such a pernicious nature that we recognize it in the story of our liberation from bondage in Egypt when towards the end of the Seder dinner service we state, “In each and every generation they rise up against us to destroy us. And the Holy One, blessed be He, rescues us from their hands.” The validity of that ominous prediction is absolutely bone chilling terrifying. If one were to follow the entirety of the history of the Jews, they would be capable of identifying some atrocity perpetrated against the Jewish People either within Europe or the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) going back to before Islam and Christianity took turns persecuting or expelling Jews. Even the history of the United States has its examples which include but are not limited to the Order Number 11 issued by Major General Ulysses S. Grant on December 17, 1862, during the American Civil War which ordered the expulsion of all Jews in his military district, comprising areas of Tennessee, Mississippi, and Kentucky. The order was subsequently reversed by President Lincoln but not before much of the Jewish population had been dispossessed of their lands and property. Also there was the refusal by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt who in 1939 refused to permit any of the refugees to enter the United States from the ocean liner the M.S. St. Louis which was carrying over nine-hundred Jews fleeing Nazi Germany forcing the ship to return to Germany where the Jews were sent to concentration camps. Neither episode would make any rational person’s list of memorable events about which to be proud. And that is where we can get to a definition of hate which both groups could probably live with. Hate is any action which in general a population would rally against and refuse to grant it their support. With this definition, it requires that the population as a whole to concur that something is contributing to hatred before making that judgement. After all, would not being able to identify and define hate be preferable to allowing each group to get together and decide who they wish to call outcasts of society with an accusation of being part of a hate group. If any small group could decide who are parts of a hate group, then we would all soon find ourselves accused of hate. To accuse a group of being a hate group should be something taken carefully and with a general consensus. And not to worry, Nazis, the KKK, and White Supremacists would all easily qualify as hate groups despite the accusation that the conservatives are all members of such groups because that accusation is pure politicizing hate, and that is one thing which must be avoided at all costs unless your aim is to tear the fabric of American society asunder and turn brother against brother once more.
Beyond the Cusp