Former Obama aide and Hollywood actor Kal Penn is back with another hot take on the news of the day. This time the “Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle” star is upset with Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., for his address to the pro-Israeli AIPAC summit in Washington.
New York is a beautiful state with incredible people from so many faiths & backgrounds. Instead of using his office to bring people together & really make a difference, @SenSchumer is making speeches to divide us. Looking forward to the day he’s out of office.
— Kal Penn (@kalpenn) March 7, 2018
Describing a pro-Israel speech as an effort to divide us isn’t merely a dumb statement. It’s an intellectually pathetic rendering of peak-Hollywood. Penn’s tweet here is also utter hypocrisy.
After all, by attacking those with pro-Israeli sentiments for holding those sentiments, Penn is effectively telling the adherents of those views that they are inherently immoral.
And if that isn’t divisive then I do not know what is.
More broadly, however, this speaks to the challenge facing pro-Palestinian advocacy on the western Left.
Because it illustrates how rather than focusing on practical ambitions such as greater (and freer) commerce in Gaza and the West Bank, or better education for Palestinian kids, or new investment from Saudi Arabia, certain platoons on the Left wave their keffiyehs, screams about Israel, and renders itself a collective gimp to the Che Guevara-esque mystique of the PLO.
And just like Che Guevara, they fail to achieve any semblance of positive change.
Of course, some on the Left take it further. Watch any video of a major pro-Palestinian march in a European capital and you’re likely to see the yellow flag of the Lebanese Hezbollah (which includes a hand holding an assault rifle high) flying proud.
Here’s the thing. Penn and company should recognize that their wailing won’t bring a peace deal any closer. On the contrary, the stupid emotionalism of their arguments only serves to encourage Israeli hardliners into more uncompromising corners.
Moreover, it alienates those like me who otherwise support a two-state solution. Maybe, as I do, you believe that Israel should cease most of its settlement construction in the West Bank. Maybe, as I do, you believe Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should purge his cabinet of extreme parties.
And maybe, as I do, when you hear Penn, you’re left shaking your head thinking screw this. Because Penn isn’t a purveyor of peace and tranquility, he’s a zealot for stupidity. And no one likes listening to morons.
