Bandwagon “Activism,” Uncritical Thinking, and the Ostracism of Jews in the Name of Progressive Anti-Zionism

ABSTRACT The October 7, 2023, attack on Israel by Hamas changed the positionality of Jewish progressives in the United States. Left-leaning American Jews were suddenly viewed as politically conservative, right-wing, and even extremist by the same organizations they had supported and advocated for just days earlier. Many progressive activists and organizations, especially on college and university campuses, condemned Israel and shared anti-Zionist messages before Israel had even responded militarily to the massacre. While modern progressivism can be interpreted as critical in both thought and action, the unquestioning allegiance of some American progressives with Hamas and Palestine is rooted in factual inaccuracies, false equivalencies, and rehashed antisemitic stereotypes that have existed for millennia. The progressive left’s refusal to see the Israel–Palestine conflict as anything but a “with us or against us” binary has left American Jews in a state of existential flux. This paper explores the progressives’ reactionary, uncritical stance during the current Israel–Palestine conflict, the place of American Jews in the changing sociopolitical spectrum, and what this means for American Jews and progressive solidarity in the future.