My recent series on the worrying signs with Zioness has certainly generated much discussion. I have received many comments and messages in agreement with what I wrote, with some even proving such more inside information on the goings-in behind the organization. But there has also been a not insignificant amount of people who have taken me to task for it, most consisting of supporters of the movement and people on the Left who shares Zioness’ all-encompassing loathing of Donald Trump. In most cases, these people have not read carefully what I wrote, attributing to me thoughts and opinions that I simply did not express in the posts, nor do I believe.
Then there’s the reaction of another group of people – the haters and antisemites. They have tried to use my series as a “gotcha” moment.
It was always obvious that the @ZionessMovement was not entirely what it was claiming to be, and here's proof: it was originally a side project of, and funded by, the very not-progressive Lawfare Project (h/t @EgSophie) pic.twitter.com/jlaIqCwEc4
— Natasha Roth-Rowland (@NatashaRoth01) September 4, 2019
With even Linda Sarsour getting in on the action.
This is a ridiculous claim, given Zioness has always been up front about its goals (the name should be a giveaway, you’d think), and the fact the Lawfare Project is merely an American, nonprofit, think tank and litigation fund that works to protect the human and civil and rights of Jewish and pro-Israel communities worldwide. There is nothing “not-very-progressive” about that – unless you are one of those Israel haters or antisemites of the far Left suggesting you cannot be progressive and pro-Israel, the very thing the Zioness movement was set up originally to combat (True, Lawfare’s Brooke Goldstein did take a back seat publicly, but that was only because she has appeared on outlets like Fox News, despite herself being a liberal Zionist).
Alas, honesty is not a mark of the haters, as evidenced by this hit piece in antisemitic rag Mondoweiss (which I prefer to call MondoScheisse).
Written by Nada Elia, a “Palestinian scholar-activist, writer, and grassroots organizer,” it is willfully dishonest, nothing more so than this allegation about yours truly:
In his three-part series on “How the Zioness Movement Lost its Way,” David Lange laments the fact that the Zioness Movement has grown to focus more on opposing antisemitism than promoting Zionism.
The suggestion I somehow object to Zioness opposing antisemitism is outright libelous. This is what I did write:
Now do not get me wrong: I do understand the need to take on many of the positions of the Left – Zioness is a liberal-progressive movement after all. And I do acknowledge that Zioness still speaks out against antisemitism, even some of it emanating from the Left. But it seems to ignore much of this antisemitism, and does not bring back authentic liberal values that embraced Israel as a bastion of liberal freedoms, as per its original objectives.
In other words, part of my issue with what Zioness has become is the fact it seems selective regarding the antisemitism it does oppose.
This dishonesty and lying is par for the course for the haters, and MondoScheisse is no exception; This is the same rag that falsely implied I was behind a flyer campaign, while painting Israellycool as “a notorious platform for anti-Palestinian and Islamophobic voices.”
What makes this all more laughable is MondoScheisse’s faux concern for antisemitism. This coming from a rag funded by the notoriously antisemitic Unz Foundation (also behind the Unz Review, that favorite of Democrat Congressional candidate Valerie Plame).
This is yet another example of the gaslighting efforts we see from actual antisemites.