Does the left hate Israel?

Richard Baehr makes many valid points and offers valuable insights in Why Does the Left hate Israel. However, like many American Thinker articles, it is prone to dangerous generalizations that are a indicative of lack of thought, rather than thought. Perhaps "American Thinker" is an oxymoron.

 

For example, "the left" is not monolithic. There are leftists who do not hate Israel. There are contrariwise, also people like Pat Buchanan, who cannot be imagined to be a "leftist" by anyone, but hates Israel and apparently doesn't have much use for people of the Mosaic persuasion (AKA Jews).

 

Additionally, Baehr seems to engage in some shaky logic, including circular reasoning. For example, Baehr offers us this tidbit in conclusion:

 

The evidence I believe is clear today that Israel faces far greater threats from the left than the right. The left is reflexively anti-Israel and has established important beachheads in significant American institutions -- academia, the media, and the  old line Protestant 'high' churches, as well as in the very seats of government power in many Western European countries, and their intelligentsia. It is not surprising that Israel seems unable to get a fair shake from college professors, the BBC, Reuters, NPR, or liberal churches. Being anti-Israel has become part of their religion.

This sounds like the fellow who believed the communists are tring to sap our vital bodily fluids. Does Baehr really believe that all of the above hate Israel and all are leftists? If all college professors hate Israel, then why has there been such a vocal protest against the initiative to Boycott Israel? If all the "liberal churches" hate Israel, then why did the Presbyterians and UCC reverse their anti-Israel resolutions? Are all college professors "leftists?" Is Reuters news service "leftist?" Baehr asks if why the left hates Israel, without checking first to what extent it is true that the left hates Israel. More than that, the above conclusion seems to imply that according to Baehr, anyone who hates Israel is a leftist. What is Baehr's evidence for example, that Reuters news service has been infiltrated by the international Bolshevik conspiracy, other than the fact that some of their articles were unfair to Israel? If they had a "creative" Arab photographer who liked drawing smoke over Beirut, does that make Reuters "leftist?"

 

Ami Isseroff