The people on “my side” are supposed to care about human suffering, whether it’s in the detention camps of Xinjiang or in Darfur. They are supposed to recognize the common humanity of people in need, that a child in distress is first a child in distress regardless of country or background. But I quickly saw that many of those on the left who I thought shared these values with me could see what had happened only through established categories of colonized and colonizer, evil Israeli and righteous Palestinian—templates made of concrete. The break was caused by this enormous disconnect. I was in a world of Jewish suffering that they couldn’t see because Jewish suffering simply didn’t fit anywhere for them. …

As the days go on, the horrific details of what happened—those babies—seem to be registering more fully, if not on the ideological left, then at least among sensible liberals. But somehow I can’t shake the feeling of aloneness. Does it take murdered babies for you to recognize our humanity? I find myself thinking—a thought that feels alien to my own mind but also like the truth.

[I am not in Beckerman’s position, so I can’t say how he sees liberals as opposed to progressives. For me, I’ve seen a more sensible and truthful reaction from those I would call liberals right from the start, which is why the reaction of the progressives and “decolonizer” activists stand out so sharply. But he’s correct to conclude that the Left has abandoned the Jews, and likely never accepted them in the first place. — Ed]