I have argued in the past that at the core of the self-destructive policies of some of Israel's leftists lies a crisis of Jewish identity. While I still find that argument compelling, I must confess that it must be reconsidered in light of one plain and obvious fact. Many of the most outrageous meshugassen of Israel's left have recently been mirrored by the Angry Left in the United States. (Yes, lots of them are Jewish but far from all.) The arrogant portrayal of religious people as country bumpkins, the attribution of all forms of self-defense to primitive bloodlust, the insistence of the privileged to speak in the name of the poor -- it's all way too familiar. A broader explanation seems to be called for. I do want to get this much off my chest, though:

Many of the angriest leftists in both Israel and the U.S. display great love for an abstraction called mankind but great contempt for actual people.

So there. I feel better already.