Campus Israel Advocate Confounds ‘Progressive’ Opponents By Identifying As Anti-Zionist

“The far-left toolbox doesn’t have many tools, and the ‘oppression!’ cry is their go-to tactic for silencing opponents.”

Davis, May 11 – A student activist in California’s state higher education system has confused and stymied anti-Israel groups at his school by wielding one of their own political culture’s chief weapons to silence criticism and dissent against them.

Stephanie Morris, 20, recounted in a weekend interview how she has exploited the incoherent and self-contradictory principles of the progressive movements on campus to stem what used to be a tide of virulent anti-Israel activity and rhetoric: she invokes the progressive rule by which each person’s self-declared identity deserves respect and may not be questioned, declaring herself an anti-Zionist, then defending Israel and shutting down those who oppose her by screeching at them that they are oppressing her by denying her identity and her lived experience.

“I’m not sure how long this success will last,” admitted Morris, a sophomore pursuing a degree in psychology. “The far-left toolbox doesn’t have many tools, and the ‘oppression!’ cry is their go-to tactic for silencing opponents. It might take a few weeks or months for them to adapt, but intelligence isn’t one of the tools in that box, at least on this campus, so we may be good for a while longer.”

COVID-19 restrictions have played a part in decreasing the anti-Israel activity on campus at Davis, but Morris has taken her approach to the online communities where the anti-Israel and antisemitic activists operate. “Just the other day I got into the equivalent of a shouting match with a Jewish Voice for Peace guy who tried to ‘inform’ me of various poisonous ideas in defense of Palestinian terrorism, and I was able to turn it around on him with my ‘lived experience’ of being a genderqueer of color who feels zer safety compromised by his mansplaining what ‘anti-Zionism’ is, as if I have to accept his definition, which is the product of patriarchal systems of oppression. I think he deleted his account.”

“The best defense is a good offense,” she observed. “The actual content of an argument has little bearing in those circles; it’s all about identity groups, victim status, and who can appear the most offended, not necessarily on one’s own behalf. But invoking my own identity, which a far-left progressive cannot challenge without violating far-left axioms, it’s not that difficult to trap them, but you have to find the right moment and tone.”

“Ah, whom am I kidding,” she added. “It’s all about who can shriek the loudest.”

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