How the Israeli flag became a symbol for white nationalists
JVL Introduction
When rioters stormed the Capitol, an Israeli flag was spotted in the crowd.
It may not have been typical but nevertheless it is not the first time the Israeli flag has appeared at right-wing rallies in the United States.
Here Ben Lorber explores the elective affinity between Israel and the far right.
It is, says Lorber, “ viewed as a nation that embodies the strong arm of xenophobic nationalism and militarized masculinity, unapologetically pushing back invading ethno-religious Others, expanding its territory, and protecting its heritage in bold defiance of a chorus of liberal outcry.”
This article was originally published by +972 magazine on Fri 22 Jan 2021. Read the original here.
How the Israeli flag became a symbol for white nationalists
The U.S. white nationalist movement’s admiration for the Jewish state’s supremacist values fits comfortably with its deep antisemitism.
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““[Israel] is the best $3 billion investment we make,” remarked then-Senator Joe Biden in 1986”
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There’s no real evidence for this. Across the greater Middle East, the United States has thrown good money after bad – $6.4 trillion on the ‘forever’ wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere: https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/figures/2019/budgetary-costs-post-911-wars-through-fy2020-64-trillion These were wars carried out partly (not entirely) at Israel’s behest: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2441880.The_Transparent_Cabal $6.4 trillion is vastly more than the profits of the US arms manufacturers from these wars, and almost a quarter of US national debt: https://www.usdebtclock.org/ Israel has arguably gained strategically, with both Iraq and Syria (two supposedly significant enemies of Israel) effectively destroyed (alongside Yemen). For America, however, these wars have been a financial catastrophe, and have eroded – rather than enhanced – US influence in the region, as Iran and Turkey have emerged as the most significant regional powers.