JEWISH WORLD

By EMILY BENEDEK I t was an unexpected sight: a photo of Leila Khaled, the world’s first female airline hijacker, cradling an AK 47, fea- tured in an adulating tweet from a young Socialist leader in the United States celebrating the 49th anniversary of Khaled’s hijacking of TWA flight 840. Was it possible that an ambitious American political organizer was lionizing a terrorist who blew up a (then-empty) American plane? The leader in question, Olivia Katbi-Smith, is co-head of the Portland, Oregon chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) — the reformatted, millen- nial version of a group once distin- guished for its Socialist roots extending back to Eugene V. Debs, five-time presidential candidate and one of the founders of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). The membership of DSA has grown fourfold since Bernie Sanders’s presidential run in 2016. Likewise, its average age de- creased from 68 to 33 between 2013 and now. After Sanders’s loss in the primary to Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump’s subsequent presidential win, on a national level the DSA’s new, young members marshaled their efforts to help elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY), Rashida Tlaib (MI), and Ilhan Omar (MN) to Congress on a progressive platform that promoted Medicare for all, quality housing, and free college tuition. Since the election, the group has tipped further left and Katbi-Smith is part of a movement that is chal- lenging traditional Democratic gov- ernance. But for supporters of Israel, there is a troubling side to her agenda: She helped lead the DSA to adopt a pro-Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) plank in the group’s charter during its national convention on August 5, 2017 at the campus of the University of Illinois at Chicago. When 90 percent of the 697 delegates voted in favor of the BDS resolution, Katbi-Smith was jubilant. She and the other attendees waved a Palestinian flag and chant- ed, “From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free.” In defense of Omar, Katbi-Smith tweeted in February, “They’re com- ing after her because they’re terri- fied of how mainstream support for BDS is becoming. And thanks to the growing movement of young anti-Zionist Jews (who they will gladly throw under the bus) the charge of anti-Semitism for being critical of Israel is on its last legs.” She added, “Zionism is colonialism and anyone who fights against our right to boycott is an anti-Arab bigot.” T he political writer Paul Berman recently wrote in Tablet , “Lately, DSA has had the misfor- tune to get taken over by a flash mob of fresh-faced hipsters just out continued on page 18 A Love For Violence A trend among younger generations invites disaster and conflict REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK JEWISH WORLD • NOVEMBER 1-7, 2019 5 Violence being an aphrodisiac, Khaled became an icon. Part of her popularity was fueled by her sex appeal. A young Leila Khaled, who successfully hijacked a TWA airliner to Damscus, Syria, in 1969, poses with a knife and totes a submachine gun at a Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon in this November 29, 1970 file photo.