Ms. Magazine Likes Only Certain Women

This is not a surprise, but the context is not hating Sarah Palin or Ann Coulter, but rather a different set of women.

The American Jewish Congress sent an ad to be run in Ms. Magazine featuring three women in Israeli political life who have broken through the glass ceiling. The organization thought that a woman’s magazine calling for complete enfranchisement of women would be eager to highlight in its pages an ad showing that enfranchisement has indeed happened, in Israel. Pictures of Israel’s President of Supreme Court, its Vice Prime Minister, and Knesset/Parliament Speaker — all women — were to be placed under a heading “Women in Israel.”

To the amazement of the AJC, Ms. Magazine refused to run the ready-to-be-paid-for ad because, as it said, “it would set off a fire storm” and that “there are very strong opinions” on the matter. In other words, the people who run Ms. Magazine maintain that featuring anything positive about mainstream Israel is contrary to its editorial convictions and the wishes of its readers. Ms. Magazine’s message: Israel is bad and we want no part of it, even if Israel fulfills the aspirations we have for years called for.

So why does the left hate Israel?

Simple. Israel is too much like America. It is America’s ally, is rooted in western values, and is a success. The last is particularly galling to the left, since the left wants victims to patronize.

Thus, the Palestinians play the victim. The fact that their victimhood is partly their own fault (supporting terrorists who want to destroy Israel) and heavily the fault of Arab states (who find the existence of the stateless Palestinians all too convenient) isn’t something they are willing to comprehend.

It’s not really a secret that feminism is not a pro-woman movement, but a leftist movement. On this issue, like dozens of others, the feminists stand with the left, and against women.