Remember the Christian Peacemaker Teams, the outfit that had four of its members kidnapped in Iraq a while back? Today's Des Moines Register features an op-ed by one Pat Minor, a CPT member, in which she explains why she supports terrorism against Israel. But don't worry, some of her best friends are Jewish:

"What do you think about Hamas' victory?" I asked a co-worker, Sid Oxborough. He shrugged. "Personally, I think it's great. But, it probably won't help their cause." . . .

While I abhor violence of any kind, it is hard to condemn a people who are resisting an oppression that has rendered them silent for more than 50 years. . . .

Sid, who considers himself a diaspora Jew, says, "Obviously, the Israelis are Jews, so they are my people. But, the Palestinians are oppressed, so they're my people more."

This is an example of what Arnold Kling calls "folk Marxism":

Folk Marxism looks at political economy as a struggle pitting the oppressors against the oppressed. Of course, for Marx, the oppressors were the owners of capital and the oppressed were the workers. But folk Marxism is not limited by this economic classification scheme. All sorts of other issues are viewed through the lens of oppressors and oppressed. Folk Marxists see Israelis as oppressors and Palestinians as oppressed. They see white males as oppressors and minorities and females as oppressed. They see corporations as oppressors and individuals as oppressed. They see America as on oppressor and other countries as oppressed.

Folk Marxism leads a Jew to applaud the murderers of Jews, and a Christian to condone violence even while claiming to abhor it. And note what Oxborough said to Minor about the Hamas victory: "Personally, I think it's great. But, it probably won't help their cause." Folk Marxism isn't actually about helping the "oppressed"; it is nothing more than a perverted moral vanity.