No Solidarity with Anyone, Ever

What the current Israel/Palestine solidarity frenzy teaches us about our self-interests

It’s that period again where Israel is in the news. We haven’t heard much about it in recent years and had perhaps wondered when the conflict would flare up again if we thought about Israel that much at all. In fact, the years of global catastrophism (2020-) didn’t see many large-scale terrorist attacks in the Western world. One thing flares up, another thing mysteriously settles down. So we thought, if we thought about it at all, trying to reassemble the tiniest crumbs and specks of a little normality amidst the new normal totalitarianism inflicted upon every one of us.

While the EU introduced the most high-impact censorship laws in the history of the West, in what should be viewed as a surprise attack, Hamas military and paramilitary groups have raided homes, weddings and outdoor raves from Gaza and killed around 1200 Israeli Jews, mostly civilians, kidnapped children, teenagers and women, and celebrated their triumph in the little Dogma-style videos that for some reason adds a vibe of audacity and excitement to their murderous spree. Hooded and masked in black with the Hamas flag tied around their heads, a calligraphy of the Shahada against a green background, on film they were seen holding little boys, presumably kidnapped, and making them say something antisemitic, before the kids were allowed to drink or eat. To them, this perhaps adds to the outrage, or the justification, or whatever. I don’t need proof for beheaded babies if I can have that. No wonder the US Left is head over heels in love with the black-clad Hamas fighters; as with their admiration for the similarly black-clad Antifa, they are always on hand when the killing, intimidation, and persecution of innocent people can be glorified – especially if they are Jews.

And then – surprise, surprise - the Palestinians had it coming. The IDF took no hostages and “is currently pounding the living shit out of Gaza”, as Niccolo Soldo put it, with many civilians killed as a result. Palestinian civilians cannot flee to the south, as Egypt is little eager to open its doors to Islamic terrorism, which could perhaps not be avoided. One hears that the IDF hospitals and apartment blocks and being bombed. One hears that water, gas, and electricity supply had been cut off. This is a very obvious breach of international law, but I guess the killing of 260 party ravers isn’t in line with international law either. We also hear stories that Netanyahu “planned all this”, and had the face of young Israeli female soldier telling us that Iron Dome could not have possibly overlooked the attack, hammered into our minds.

US-led International politics asks us to “stand in solidarity with Israel” – the Brandenburger Tor lit in the white-blue colors of the Israeli flag, the Star of David prominently displayed in the middle – , while the US Congress’s own Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib and the rest of the Squad speak of a “genocide” and “ethnic cleansing” against Palestinians, while having no shame to use the occasion to draw attention to anti-Muslim discrimination and US “racial profiling”, which is just to give you an idea how much they care about Palestinian children 6000 miles away. There are pro-Hamas protests on the streets of Berlin, New York, and US Ivy League campuses, there are pro-Israel protests much in the same cities, there are Palestinians protesting against Hamas, there are Israelis denouncing the IDF attacks.

In my lifetime alone, I must have seen this movie on repeat for about 11 times. My radical left anti-German political socialization was destined to stand with Israel, but I never did anything as silly as carry an Israeli flag. Remember when Adorno was asked to participate in an Easter peace march and answered: “Ich laufe keiner Fahne hinterher” – “I don’t march behind a flag.” That has pretty much always been my conviction.

I did not clap for the NHS. I never “stood with women”. I do not collect money for the Uighurs. I do not participate in rallies for the Kurds. I do not support the Basque, Flemish, Scottish fight for independence. In fact, I could not care less for the Basque, Flemish, Scottish, Puerto Rican, Philippine, Kashmir, Serbian fight for independence. I do not support Ukraine. I do not support Russia.

I do not support Palestine. I do not support Israel.

The only people I care about are my own. I care about my family, and – by extension – the politics of the governments that directly affects my family and my extended family’s lives. Who else will do it? Who else will “stand in solidarity” with my closest family, if not I? I hold that this is the only truly ethical position one can hold in good faith.

What superficially looks like a “selfish”, egotistical position would in fact spare the people of this world a lot of suffering, given that “solidarity” is something only the better-off parts of society can afford to have, with the expected consequences (think of “official foreign development aid” in Africa, something from which Africans will not recover in decades). And this has not only been the case since “solidarity” has been tainted in such a way that it could never be again understood as anything but a call to submission to one unhinged form of authoritarianism or another. Self-reliance is the antidote to these calls of false sympathy, support, “solidarity”. Never underestimate the power of the enunciation of solidarity with this or that group. The enunciator does not risk a thing. But he or she will be applauded. Other people will join. Flags will be held up. Other flags will be burned. The noble sound of “solidarity” is nothing but the signalling of virtue, and only that – a signal, a symbol. Yet, the call for “solidarity” is not virtuous at all. It is a deep fake call for clout, for ethical purity, for being “on the right side of history”. It is petty and vile theatrics. Only adults can be so shamelessly childish as to believe their “solidarity” with the downtrodden will make a difference in these people’s lives. In fact, this is perhaps not what the call for solidarity is about at all.

In her critique of altruism, Ayn Rand made a similar observation. No one is really an altruist. Moreover, the people who claim to be, or who display an altruist set of ideas, are in fact very much in love with their self-presentation – they are leading “second-hand lives”, thinking that the denial of self-interest will make them look good to the world. What is decisive is the altruists’ hatred of anyone who does not victimize himself to “stand with” someone else:

Notice how they’ll accept anything but a man who stands alone. They recognize him at once. By instinct. There is a special, insidious kind of hatred for him. They forgive criminals. They admire dictators. Crime and violence are a tie. A form of mutual dependence. They need ties. They’ve got to force their miserable little personalities on every single person they meet. The independent man kills them – because they don’t exist within him and that’s the only form of existence they know. Notice the malignant kind of resentment against any idea that propounds independence. Notice the malice toward an independent man.[1]

This, to me, is more telling of the current political moment than what others label as “genocide” for me to incite my anger, to incite my hatred towards one group of people against another. It is perhaps futile to think that not being drawn into the snake pit that people think of as their “heart” can change much, or anyone’s attitude. Even if we assume they really mean it, the masses with their good intentions will never understand that by wanting to end all suffering in the world, they want so much. Our task would be to remain realistic, no: to demand an end to this idealist hyperbole, to return to reality.

The insight that politics has been replaced by an aesthetic simulacrum is neither new nor exciting. But it does not make it any less true. Fascism’s flying colours have historically always come with the call for solidarity – think of the poor Sudetenland-Germans in 1938. The playbook has only been rewritten for dramatic effect, and more in line with the new ideologies that have replaced antisemitism, racism, nationalism. Genocide “for the protection of minorities and vulnerable groups” seems more real than ever. But then again, that was pretty much a historical Nazi Party talking point, too.

Against this background, which is currently ideologically prepared to make you think of anyone but yourself, what remains to be said is that when they come for you and your family, it is time to rise. Learn to defend yourself: spiritually, intellectually, and – if necessary – physically.

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[1] Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead, London, Berkley (1943/1993), p. 606-7.