Even ultra-leftists who haven’t explicitly come out in favor of Islamic extremism are so blinded by anti-American hatred that they will never support anything their government does; Unholy Alliance features an extraordinary account of a talk by Noam Chomsky, the David Irving of political science, in which he stops just short of saying the United States actively sided with the Nazis in World War II. Meanwhile, many Islamofascist groups have skillfully played to this crowd, adopting the left’s own rhetoric while supporting a totalitarian, sexist, racist, homophobic ideology of hate. (An “open letter” from Hamas, which savages the United States for racism and slavery, could have been written by Chomsky himself.)
Sadly, many liberals who should know better have made common cause with the totalitarians organizing their marches and rallies (as have isolationist conservatives like Pat Buchanan, a development Horowitz barely acknowledges). The mainstream media, meanwhile, has neglected the issue altogether. The likes of Leslie Cagan deserve respectability as much as David Duke does, and since the mainstream media is indifferent to this at best, it’s a good thing David Horowitz is getting the truth out. Someone has to, and it’s too bad he’s dismissed as a “McCarthyite” for doing so. (Joe McCarthy forever made anti-communism a laughingstock among the chattering classes, which is part of the reason the Che Guevara T-shirt has become respectable.)
My problem with Unholy Alliance is not with its thesis or even its content, but simply the fact that this subject has been better dealt with elsewhere – often by liberals and “social democrats”, some of whom opposed the Iraq war but nonetheless have no time for the WWP crowd, and others who see the war on terror (including the invasion of Iraq) as a legitimate conflict against fascism. Paul Berman’s extraordinary Terror and Liberalism is perhaps the best example – by comparison, Unholy Alliance comes across as slight and rushed, and merely preaching to the conservative choir.
More importantly, even Horowitz himself has done a better job with this subject elsewhere, most notably in his excellent memoir Radical Son, which describes, in excruciating detail, his disillusionment with the “New Left” of the sixties and seventies. The events took place long before 9/11, but many of the players are the same – and their attitude toward their country hasn’t changed, even against an ideology which opposes everything for which they stand. Horowitz's point is well worth making, but he made it better in Radical Son.
Correction: the Workers World Party was founded in 1959, not 1956. That was my error, not Horowitz's.
Article comments
1 - John Rosen
David Duke's book Jewish supremacism has become a bestseller in Eastern Europe and is set to be translated into Arabic with endorsements from prominent Syrians.
Could sell millions in the Muslim world.