The Red-Green Axis: An Alliance That Begins With Israel but Will Not End There

One of the most dangerous political alliances of our time is also one of the least honestly discussed.

It is commonly called the Red-Green Axis: the convergence between the revolutionary far left and political Islamism.

“Red” represents movements rooted in Marxist, anti-capitalist and anti-Western ideology. “Green” represents Islamism, not Islam as a religion, but the political project of imposing religious supremacy over society and government.

These movements appear to be natural enemies. The radical left speaks about feminism, LGBTQ rights, secularism and personal liberation. Islamists frequently reject those principles altogether. One side claims to oppose religious authority, while the other seeks to place religious authority above the individual.

Yet they increasingly march together.

This is not because their values are compatible. They are not. It is because they share enemies: Israel, America, capitalism, liberal democracy and the political traditions of the West.

Scholars have examined this convergence for years, describing how political Islam and the radical left adopted overlapping narratives and built a common front against the United States and its allies. What once appeared to be an intellectual contradiction has now become a visible political movement.

A Muslim’s warning about Islamism

I write this not as an enemy of Muslims, but as a Muslim.

I am also a Zionist, a U.S. Army veteran and a human rights activist. I know the difference between Islam and Islamism because I have seen what happens when political extremists claim exclusive ownership of a religion.

Islam is the faith of nearly two billion human beings, representing countless cultures, traditions and political opinions. Islamism is an authoritarian ideology that treats Islam as a vehicle for acquiring political power, controlling society and silencing dissent.

Conflating the two is unjust to Muslims. But refusing to confront Islamism is equally unjust, especially to Muslim reformers, women, minorities, dissidents and young people who are often its first victims.

The Red-Green Axis protects Islamists from scrutiny by presenting every criticism of political Islam as “Islamophobia.” In return, Islamist networks provide the radical left with a powerful narrative of grievance, identity and revolutionary struggle.

Each side launders the other’s extremism.

The radical left gives Islamists the language of social justice, decolonization and human rights. Islamists give the radical left a disciplined political constituency and a cause that can be presented as resistance against Western power.

Israel becomes the point at which their narratives meet.

Why Israel is their central target

Israel is not targeted only because of borders, settlements or the policies of a particular Israeli government. Those issues can be debated, as they are debated every day inside Israel.

Israel is targeted because its very existence contradicts the ideological story promoted by the Red-Green........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)