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The Lost Cause: Anti-Zionism, Oct. 7, and How Revisionist Movements Can Distort History
Pro-Hamas activists gather in Washington Square Park for a rally following a protest march held in response to an NYPD sweep of an anti-Israel encampment at New York University in Manhattan, May 3, 2024. Photo: Matthew Rodier/Sipa USA via Reuters Connect
Every January, I study aspects of the American civil rights movement and pay tribute to Martin Luther King Jr. for bending the arc of our world toward justice. Since last year, I have been revisiting Lost Cause literature. Much to my surprise, the Lost Cause movement was popularized by universities and influencers in ways that are eerily similar to today’s resurgent antisemitism.
The Lost Cause is a popular revisionist movement that reframes the Confederate States in the US South as the victims of Northern aggression and Confederates as righteous and heroic actors of the United States Civil War. While the Civil War ended in 1865, many secessionists and Confederate sympathizers were determined to bring victory out of battlefield defeat through terrorism and a revisionist counter-narrative of the Civil War. The tactics changed but the struggle for White Supremacy remained the same. The Ku Klux Klan (KKK) was founded in 1865 by former Confederate soldiers to realize the goals of the Lost Cause. As Charles Aycock, the former governor of North Carolina, later proclaimed, “From the mountains to the sea … we must disenfranchise the Negro.”
WEB Du Bois eloquently wrote in Black Reconstruction in America that the Lost Cause and its revisionist narrative was propelled for decades by elite American universities: “The real frontal attack on Reconstruction, as interpreted by the leaders of national thought in 1870 and for some time thereafter, came from the universities and particularly Columbia [University].” Du Bois further states: “The Columbia school of historians … has issued … sixteen studies of Reconstruction … all based on the same thesis, and all done according to the same method: first, endless sympathy with the white South; second, ridicule, contempt or silence for the Negro [italics added for emphasis].” As Du Bois concludes in his seminal book: “A nation-wide university attitude has arisen by which propaganda against the Negro has been carried on unquestioned.”
In addition to universities, influencers helped to mainstream the Lost Cause by disproportionately emphasizing the sins committed by Northerners and Southern blacks during and after the Civil War. From Birth of a Nation to Gone with the Wind to The Dukes of Hazard, the popular Lost Cause narrative celebrated Southern white culture and defiance of “outsider” meddling while downplaying the horrors of slavery and injustices of Black Codes and segregation. The occupying Union soldiers and administrators were labeled “the carpet bagger regime” and the Reconstruction “occupation” was viewed primarily as folly and oppressive.
Similar to the Lost Cause phenomenon, anti-Zionism is a popular revisionist movement that reframes the founding of Israel as a colonial enterprise and the Palestinians/Arabs as righteous and heroic actors of the ongoing conflict. The reality is most Jews were forcibly expelled from what is modern day Israel into the diaspora by the Babylonians and the Romans, yearning for centuries to return to their sacred ancestral homeland, while many Jews remained in the area for millennia. Throughout the early to mid-1900s, Arab anti-immigrant activists in the Middle East pressured the British to restrict Jewish refugees in the British Mandate of Palestine, enabling millions of Jewish deaths in the Holocaust including 80 members of my family. Nevertheless, when the colonial British Mandate in Palestine ended, the Jewish Agency supported the 1947 United Nations Partition Plan to establish a Jewish and a Palestinian state.
Palestinian leaders and surrounding Arab countries refused to compromise and almost immediately attacked Israel in 1948. The goal of the 1948 war against Israeli independence was, as clearly stated at the time, “to eliminate the Jews of Palestine, and to completely cleanse the country of them.”
Most neighboring countries are still determined to eliminate Israel as an independent nation, only tolerating a weak token Jewish presence in their midst. As Bobby Kennedy foresaw in 1948 after visiting the region, “They are determined that a separate Jewish state will be attacked and attacked until it is finally cut out like an unhealthy abscess.” Around 30 countries currently do not recognize Israel’s right to exist. A number of these countries openly support terrorism and exhibit a singular hatred of the Jewish state. Malaysia inscribes on its passports: “This passport is valid for all countries except Israel.” The Iranian president said he would “try to have friendly relations with all countries except Israel.” The Qatari government has given Hamas $1.5 billion over the past 10 years, and systemic antisemitism is woven into their country’s educational curricula. Yet, Israel is widely vilified by the international community.
Much like at the height of Lost Cause influence, antisemitic and anti-Zionist sentiment today is being fueled by elite universities. University presidents refused to unequivocally declare that on-campus advocacy of genocide against Jews violates school codes of conduct. A Columbia University professor who declared Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel “resistance” has been rewarded rather than reprimanded: the anti-Zionist professor is scheduled to “teach” a course on Zionism! Professors and university-supported student organizations at places such as Harvard astonishingly blamed Israel for the horrors of Oct. 7, even before Israel’s military response, despite the government of Gaza explicitly declaring its desire to eliminate Israel through more such attacks.
It’s an upside-down time, where the party that seeks to commit genocide flips the script by labeling the party it wants to kill as evil and genocidal.
The anti-Zionist hostility on college campuses is palpable, as I observed during visits with my college-bound son. Numerous banners promote “the intifada” and decry “the Gaza genocide,” with no “free the hostages” or “free Gaza from Hamas/Iran” signs anywhere to be found.
Well-intentioned people usually gravitate to “the underdog” and social justice rhetoric. But what if the perceived underdog’s values or viewpoints are dangerous? And, what if the social justice slogans are misleading or nefarious? As Bob Dylan forewarns in Man of Peace, “sometimes Satan comes as a man of peace.” (A red flag for the well-intended: university professors and students echo former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke, who participates in anti-Israel protests and claims the Jews are committing “genocide” against the Palestinians.)
Also similar to the Lost Cause, influencers today are legitimizing antisemitism and indifference to Jewish suffering. Eric Clapton’s recent claim that “Israel is running the world, Israel is running the show” epitomizes this perspective. Throughout the world, musicians abandoned their hippie comrades in Israel. There has been no “We are the World” coalition to commemorate the Nova festival massacre or demand a return of the hostages taken from the peaceful music venue — even though Oct. 7, 2023, was the largest and most violent atrocity in music history.
A deliberate effort is underway to separate Jewish identity from Zionism, while branding Zionism as evil. Anti-Zionists hypocritically celebrate longstanding place-based connections of every identity group, except the Jewish Tribe.
Jews and the State of Israel are far from perfect. But Israeli efforts — along with shameful instances of egregious abuse, mistakes, and bigotry — should be viewed within the “bigger picture” context and without double standards. For instance, journalists and anti-Israel activists emphasize the number of deaths “on both sides,” implying moral equivalency or that a higher death toll on one side in and of itself shows the other side is wrong.
Yet, no reasonable journalist or human rights organization suggests that the Americans and English were the bad actors of World War II, even though the American military was segregated at the time, during “D-Day” the Allies bombed Nazi-controlled French villages and cities inadvertently killing over 20,000 French civilians, and an estimated 40,000 German civilians were killed by the American and English bombings of Hamburg. During and after the US Civil War, some white Union soldiers engaged in horrific behavior including instances of rape and pillaging of white southern communities. However inexcusable (and deserving condemnation), such misdeeds are no longer disproportionately emphasized or given equal footing with the perpetuation of slavery due to the waning influence of Lost Cause advocates.
Zionism is a Jewish liberation and self-determination movement that should be widely celebrated but instead is being quieted by antisemitic narratives and supersessionist religious theologies that erase Jewish indigenousness in the land of Israel. Historical documents and archeological findings undeniably prove a sustained Jewish presence in the land of Israel for thousands of years. Denying historical Jewish connections to the land of Israel is, as Yossi Klein Halevi states, part of an ongoing “war against the Jewish story” and should be viewed as a threat to indigenous people everywhere.
Zionists need to do a better job communicating the beauty of Zionism and history of the Jewish people, while not hardening our own hearts and minds in the face of adversity. Rising extremism within our own midst requires unequivocal condemnation and marginalization, including against Jewish-settler terrorism in the West Bank. We must cherish strength and security but continuously strive for peace and compromise, despite the long history of intolerance toward Jews and ongoing hostilities to Jewish sovereignty in the Holy Land.
Studying the Lost Cause offers opportunities to understand how harmful human beliefs and behaviors can become widely accepted. Long after the Civil War, American blacks and their allies were lynched, harassed, and intimidated to suppress black liberation. Universities and influencers for decades fueled anti-black hatred and oppression, while claiming to champion social justice. On the other hand, the abolition and civil rights movements show the difficult and ongoing efforts required to push back against slavery and Lost Cause themes. While the US Lost Cause and civil rights movements are unique experiences, Jews and our allies would be wise to learn from them to overcome our struggles for freedom and liberty.
The post The Lost Cause: Anti-Zionism, Oct. 7, and How Revisionist Movements Can Distort History first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Jamaal Bowman Launches New PAC in Attempt to Unseat Pro-Israel Politicians
US Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) speaks during the National Action Network National Convention in New York City, US, April 7, 2022. Photo: REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz
Former US lawmaker Jamaal Bowman has started a new political action committee (PAC) in an attempt to raise funds for progressive candidates and unseat pro-Israel incumbents.
On Thursday, Bowman, who served in the US House of Representatives as a New York Democrat from 2021-2025, announced the creation of the “Built to Win PAC,” a new attempt to boost aspiring left-wing candidates by galvanizing minority voters. The progressive firebrand hopes that the political committee will serve as an effective competitor against groups that elevate moderate congressional candidates who, he argued, neglect the needs of working-class constituents.
“For too long, the system has failed the people. Built to Win is here to change that. We’re mobilizing Black, Arab, Asian, and Latino communities to reclaim our power. Join the movement – because when we vote, we win,” Built to Win wrote on its official X/Twitter account.
“Today, I am officially launching the Built to Win PAC. I’m back, and I’m coming back to win,” Bowman added on his own person X/Twitter page.
This is Jamaal Bowman, former Congressman from New York, reaching out to let you know that today, I am officially launching the Built To Win PAC. I’m back, and I’m coming back to win. pic.twitter.com/0JeWggAyQE
— Jamaal Bowman Ed.D. (@JamaalBowmanNY) February 27, 2025
While speaking to City & State, a media company that covers New York politics, Bowman confirmed in a new interview that the Built to Win PAC will likely prioritize targeting sitting lawmakers who support Israel.
“Any candidate that supports [Israeli Prime Minister] Benjamin Netanyahu and genocide more than their constituents, any candidate that’s tied up with corrupt crypto money, any candidate tied up with the real estate lobby as opposed to renters, we’re going to go after those candidates very aggressively,” Bowman said.
The former lawmaker has also tapped Lexis Zeidan, co-founder of the anti-Israel “Uncommitted National Movement” to help build out and manage his PAC.
The Uncommitted National Movement emerged in 2024 as a result of frustration stemming from the Israel-Hamas war. The initiative sought to encourage voters to abstain from voting first for US President Joe Biden and then for his vice president, 2024 Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris, unless they adopted anti-Israel policies.
During Bowman’s time in Congress, he established a reputation as a stalwart progressive and intense critic of American foreign policy. However, since the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, invasion of and massacre across southern Israel, Bowman narrowed his focus onto the Jewish state.
In the past year, the ex-congressman has made unsubstantiated allegations that Israel has conducted a “genocide” in Gaza while accusing the Jewish state of committing “apartheid” and “ethnic cleansing” against Palestinians in the West Bank. He also came under fire for initially dismissing widely corroborated accusations of rape against Israeli women by Hamas terrorists during their Oct. 7 onslaught as “propaganda.”
Bowman lost his Democratic primary election in June to Westchester County executive George Latimer by a staggering margin of 58 percent to 41 percent.
In contrast to Bowman, Latimer attempted to woo residents of the affluent, heavily Jewish Westchester County community by positioning himself as an ally of Israel. Furthermore, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the foremost pro-Israel lobbying group in the United States, assisted Latimer in the primary, unleashing an eye-popping $14.5 million torrent of cash to benefit his campaign.
In the months following his loss, Bowman has repeatedly criticized AIPAC, whose mission is to foster bipartisan support for the US-Israel relationship, for involving itself in the primary battle, condemning the organization as a “Zionist regime” operated by “racist Republicans.”
Bowman, alongside former Congresswoman Cori Bush, are also set to headline a new show on the anti-Israel Zeteo network. According to the duo, the show will deliver an unvarnished look into the “corruption, the lobbying, the big money” that influences federal politics, “and how it could all be working better for you.”
The post Jamaal Bowman Launches New PAC in Attempt to Unseat Pro-Israel Politicians first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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BBC Apologizes for ‘Unacceptable’ Mistakes With Gaza Documentary, Admits Palestinian Interviewees’ Ties to Hamas
The BBC logo is seen at the entrance at Broadcasting House, the BBC headquarters in central London. Photo by Vuk Valcic / SOPA Images/Sipa USA via Reuters Connect
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) on Thursday apologized for “unacceptable” and “serious flaws” during the filming of a documentary about Palestinian children living in the Gaza Strip.
The admission came after the BBC removed the documentary, titled “Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone,” from its iPlayer streaming platform on Feb. 21 when it was discovered that the film’s 13-year-old Palestinian narrator (now 14), Abdullah Al-Yazouri, was the son of a senior Hamas official.
The documentary was also taken down after it was revealed that two of the cameramen who worked on the BBC documentary had voiced support for Hamas, and following revelations about inaccurate translations in the film that masked the antisemitism of some participants. Examples of the latter issue include mistranslations in the film that refer to Hamas terrorists as an “army” and “jihad against the Jews” as “resistance against the Israelis,” according to Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA), a British volunteer-based charity. The Telegraph cited at least five instances in the film where the Arabic word for “Jew”— “Yahud” or “Yahudy” — was mistranslated as “Israel” or “Israeli forces,” or removed altogether.
The BBC has also now admitted that licensing fee payments were given to the family of Al-Yazouri, who is the son of Hamas’s Deputy Minister of Agriculture Dr. Ayman Al-Yazouri. Pro-Israel researcher David Collier said the father and son come from the same family as Hamas founder Ibrahim Al-Yazouri. Hamas is designated as a terrorist organization by both the United Kingdom and United States.
Deborah Turness, the CEO of BBC News and Current Affairs, sent an e-mail to staff on Thursday that included a statement about the documentary, remarks which were publicly shared on Friday by a BBC spokesperson.
In the statement, the BBC said it takes complete editorial responsibility for the film and admitted that the corporation and Hoyo Films, the production company behind the documentary, have made “unacceptable” flaws in the making of the documentary. “BBC News takes full responsibility for these and the impact that these have had on the Corporation’s reputation. We apologize for this.”
The spokesperson added that the BBC was not informed in advance by Hoyo Films about Abdullah’s family connection to Hamas.
“During the production process, the independent production company was asked in writing a number of times by the BBC about any potential connections he and his family might have with Hamas,” the corporation explained. “Since transmission, they have acknowledged that they knew that the boy’s father was a deputy agriculture minister in the Hamas government; they have also acknowledged that they never told the BBC this fact. It was then the BBC’s own failing that we did not uncover that fact and the documentary was aired.”
Hoyo Films told the corporation that it paid Abdullah’s mother “a limited sum of money” for narrating the film by way of his sister’s bank account, according to the BBC. Hoyo Films “assured BBC” no payments were given to Hamas members or its affiliates “either directly, in kind, or as a gift,” and the corporation is “seeking additional assurance” about the film’s budget. The BBC said it will initiate a full audit of the film’s expenses and is asking Hoyo Films for financial accounts to help with the audit.
The BBC said the controversy surrounding the documentary had “damaged” public trust in the corporation’s journalism, and that “the processes and execution of this program fell short of our expectations.” The BBC also has “no plans to broadcast the program again in its current form or return it to iPlayer.” It added that it launched a review into the film, an initiative that the BBC Board discussed on Thursday.
Hoyo Films said it is working with the BBC to “help understand where mistakes have been made.” The production company added, “We feel this remains an important story to tell, and that our contributors – who have no say in the war – should have their voices heard.”
A separate statement from the BBC Board added, “The subject matter of the documentary was clearly a legitimate area to explore, but nothing is more important than trust and transparency in our journalism. While the board appreciates that mistakes can be made, the mistakes here are significant and damaging to the BBC.”
The CAA said on Friday the grave errors carried out by the BBC in connection to the documentary should result in resignations and a police investigation. The charity also called for an independent investigation into bias at the BBC and said pending the results of the investigation, the license fee should be suspended to stop additional funds from going to Abdullah’s family, and potentially Hamas. “Hundreds of people are contacting us telling us that they refuse to pay the license fee until they can be sure that the BBC is trustworthy,” the charity said.
A spokesperson for the CAA called BBC “a national treasure [that] has become a national embarrassment.”
“The BBC has now admitted that license fee funds were paid to the family of a senior Hamas official. It has not yet been able to rule out that further payments to Hamas were made as it continues to investigate where hundreds of thousands of pounds went,” the spokesperson noted. “The BBC’s statement is an exercise in desperate damage control and shows why an internal review is no substitute for an independent investigation into this documentary and the wider bias at the BBC that allowed it to be made and aired. Clearly those responsible must lose their jobs.”
“It is unconscionable that the British public should have to pay a license fee to an organization that gives that money to proscribed terrorists,” the spokesperson added. “It represents a shocking double standard in our law. Pending an independent investigation, the license fee must be suspended.”
During a press conference on Thursday, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the secretary of state has had a meeting with the BBC regarding the documentary. On Friday, British Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy said she was going to have an “urgent meeting” with BBC Chairman Samir Shah that same day.
“I want assurances that no stone will be left unturned by the fact-finding review now commissioned by the BBC’s director general,” Nandy said. “This review must be comprehensive, rigorous, and get to the bottom of exactly what has happened in this case. It is critical for trust in the BBC that this review happens quickly, and that appropriate action is taken on its findings.”
The post BBC Apologizes for ‘Unacceptable’ Mistakes With Gaza Documentary, Admits Palestinian Interviewees’ Ties to Hamas first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Jewish Rocker David Draiman Calls Kanye West a ‘Pathetic Jew Hater Without a Soul’ for Non-Stop Promoting Swastikas
David Draiman of Disturbed at Summerfest Music Festival on June 30, 2022, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Photo: Daniel DeSlover/Sipa USA
The lead singer of the rock band Disturbed intensely criticized rapper Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, on Friday after the latter reiterated his desire to make a t-shirt that features a swastika, and now also a swastika necklace.
Ye returned to X on Friday to repeat his hopes of making a shirt emblazoned with the extremist symbol used by Adolf Hitler’s Nazi party. In one post, he wrote: “It was always a dream of mine to walk around with a Swastika T on.” In a separate post, he called on jewelers to reach out to him with designs for a swastika chain necklace.
David Draiman responded by writing, “Hey @kanyewest, Here’s a design for you” and he included an emoji of a middle finger. The “Sound of Silence” singer, who is Jewish, then attacked the rapper by saying, “You’re nothing but a Jew hating, misogynistic, pathetic, attention starved A–HOLE. You’ve destroyed any legacy you once had. You will be remembered as a sad, angry excuse of a man, without honor, without decency, and without a soul.”
In early February, Ye sold on his website Yeezy.com only one item – a white, short sleeve t-shirt that featured a large black swastika on the front. He purchased a commercial that aired during Super Bowl LIX on Feb. 9 that encouraged viewers to visit his website and purchase the offensive shirt. The shirt went live on his website — which has since been shut down – two days after Ye went on a rabidly antisemitic tirade on X in which he talked about his hatred of Jews and his admiration for Hitler. He even called himself a Nazi and a racist.
The rapper said last week he has had the idea for the swastika shirt “for over eight years” and has continued to promote his affinity for the Nazi symbol repeatedly on social media.
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