[Beerinkol]

I think the end of the Left's affair with Israel goes back to 1956. When Israel effectively told the Soviet Bloc to sod off and then joined the French and English in un-nationalizing the Suez Canal the left in the west decided that Israel was an enemy. The so called golden age of liberal tolerant acceptance of the Israel I think was imaginary - it never existed. Here in the west at any rate liberal Jewish involvement in socially progressive movements was a strictly internal matter - like the US Civil Rights movement. At the time there was actually some hesitation among Jewish groups that their involvement in the Civil Rights movement would hurt them in Washington vis a vis Israel. By the late 60's with the rise of militant black movements in the US like the Black Panthers and the NoI the break between the radical left and the Jews was obvious. That's when Jews started moving rightward.

Now as far as the left's abhorrence for all things religious - we have to pick our way through that carefully. Who spearheaded the antiwar movement? Liberal Catholics? Who spearheads the 'targeted' human rights movements in Africa? Liberal Protestant churches. Who helps them? Liberal nominally religious Jews. Clearly the left has staked out a position that religion is an evil thing, unless of course it suits them to work with leftist religious groups. So perhaps it's just a kind of methodical pragmatism. Maybe it has more to do with the difference between expressions of faith and the use of the philosophy of religion for political goals. Who of really knows anything of the Dalai Lama's personal religious beliefs for instance?