If one follows Bay Area news, one has probably seen the controversy regarding Scott Wiener, the Jewish Democratic candidate for House - who backed an arms embargo to Israel - and who has been heckled and run out of the trans pride march in downtown SF by anti-Zionist protesters. This ofc has been the object of much hand-wringing and even more gloating over some sectors of Jwitter and the Jewish press, as it seems to prove that the Palestine solidarity mvt is indeed antisemitic.
I thought I would mention, on the way back from California, I listened to a segment on KPFA's Upfront w the organizer of the march who put some of Wiener's heckling in perspective. First, there is a tradition of hostility to lawmakers at the trans day march. Indeed this wasn't even the first time that Wiener has been chased away - only the previous incident was a reason that didn't involve Palestine: Wiener had backed anti-homeless ordinances in the city. This ofc received far less attention and is rarely mentioned in press accounts. And second, Wiener is portrayed by some media sources as an anti-Zionist, or at least a critic of israel, in order to score points against Palestine solidarity protestors - see? I saw one post read: even Jewish anti-Zionists are protested etc etc. Only Wiener is not an anti-Zionist, and certainly not the most progressive member of the House on this question should he win his election: he defends a Jewish majority in Israel and was quite late to backing a ceasefire and arms embargo.
In short, while Wiener may be in some ways an improvement over Pelosi, and does support trans rights, he seems to be still a liberal Zionist on Palestine and a neoliberal range of other things. Was he protested bc he's Jewish, in addition to everything else? Impossible to say. Nonetheless the story is clearly being spun into something it isn't: there is a concerted effort to portray the Palestine solidarity mvt as antisemitic, bigoted and so on, and would love nothing more than to be able to point to protesters turning on Jews, even those who support Palestine. While surely there are antisemites who say they support Palestine, and one may question whether Wiener is the most important target for anger, this appears to have been a largely manufactured controversy.
