Mick Hartley

Writer and feminist Phyllis Chesler was interviewed by Meghan Murphy, a young and radical Canadian feminist, a few weeks ago. She was pleased with the way the interview had gone, and, as she says, went back "on a whim" to check on the response. Oh dear.

But then I started reading the Comments. Around sixty-five percent by my count were about something I’d said in passing at two different times and for a total time of less than one minute on the podcast.

I had said that I’d been “accused” of being too “positive about Israel” (although I said nothing further about Israel) and that I’d noted a “rise in ethnic bigotry towards the Jewish people in general, and among some feminists too.”

Thus, I spent less than one minute on these two points, over and against fifty-four minutes of an intense, feminist conversation. It is important to note that the audience here is primarily a feminist one. However, only twenty-seven percent of these comments were about feminist and gender issues; and 6% praised (or critiqued) the conversation. Some defended my right to speak, no matter what I had to say.

But the loudest, most vocal, and most vicious comments spouted blood libels about Jews and Israel. One must assume that such Judeophobic poisoned propaganda has fully infiltrated the feminist discourse.

She prints a selection. For example:

I don’t think you understand the scale of what Israel and more specifically the zionists have done, are doing and plan to do. It is very very serious and they are very serious rogue state, as bad as the US and worse, because they are responsible for 911 and a very fake war of terror. (Again, I am not shooting from the hip. I’ve studied this since its inception.) The hatred for Israel also goes back to historic animosity for Jews because they have been and still are usurers who are stealing people’s lives through debt slavery, and because they are tribal supremacists – very well funded networks of them are. Until we recognize that, until we understand the reasons behind the expulsions (abusive usury), until the Jews themselves recognize this (some do) and look at their group’s behavior, the world will be stuck in a tribal world largely created by Jews. This is some of the root of the animosity.

She lost me at Israel. Women who read Feminist Current do their research. She is a shill for Israel. I respect Judaism as a religion, but Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinians, Israel attacked the USS Liberty, killing American sailors, and Israel and the neocons in the Bush administration did 9/11.

And so on.

It is possible that in my case, my reputation precedes me and Jew- and Israel-haters lie in wait to pounce wherever I may appear. But it is just as likely that the Jew-hating virus has spread and maddened people everywhere, including those who are literate, educated, and have time to read and comment online.

Thus, in our time, one is not allowed to speak about either Islam or Israel unless one is prepared to praise Islam and to condemn Israel. These two forms of speech are highly permissible online.

For a further insight into the state of some modern feminist thought, check out Women's March leader Linda Sarsour, in a speech she made last month:

You know what I feel like I got cheated out of? Nobody told me that my beloved Prophet Muhammad was an activist. He was a human rights activist. […]

We don't need a workers' rights movement or an environmental justice movement. We don't even need a Black Lives Matter movement, because our religion has taught us that black lives mattered way before there was ever a hashtag, or a movement, or people protesting outside on these streets. Our religion has always been an anti-racist, feminist, and empowering religion. I don't need people in the West, or people in Europe, or people in the United States of America to teach me what feminism is.

A leading feminist campaigner draws her inspiration from Islam, and from the Prophet Muhammad. At which point we quietly tiptoe away….