Another great article Dylan!
First, with regards to Israel, I have to say I also agree with you that it is not genocide. As a progressive Democrat,I have been saying that and of course getting lambasted by fellow progressives who are all falling in line with accusation- some seem quite gleeful to say Jews are committing genocide. I do think Israel is committing ethnic cleansing, however. Prior to the Hamas attack, this has been a slow roll activity in the west bank. The Netanyahu government has taken advantage of the US relationship now for years.
Another issue for which I have been accused of NOT being progressive is my support for my friend Elisa Slotkin who is running for an open US Senate seat here in Michigan. I put a link to the wikipedia page about her below. She was recruited into the CIA after college and is fluent in Arabic and Swahili. Later worked in national security for both Bush and Obama. My fellow progressives say "we don't need a CIA agent as a Senator". They are supporting Hill Harper, an actor and activist. And he has a great activist background by my retort to them is "I could just as easily say we don't need another actor as a politician, too." I support Slotkin because senators have a lot more foreign policy responsibility than do US House representatives and as an already elected member of congress the learning curve in the senate will be shorter than for someone fresh off the street.
Regarding your main point, that's not to say the US hasn't done things we shouldn't. I personally think our policies in latin America for the last 100 years have in large part directly led to the so-called crisis of migration to the southern US border. The Republicans play on this xenophobically for political gain. When rightwingers online complain about the border issue of migration , I challenge them to tell me "what is the root cause of the migration." They never think that deeply.
Now, as to Noam- fully agree. He feeds a tendency on the left for "professional america hating." Everything that happens is the fault of the USA no matter what. Another is Australian writer Caitlin Johnstone, whose articles blame the USA for everything. She has blocked me on social media because I have critiqued her points a few times. Of course, she parrots the line that Russia HAD to invade Ukraine due to USA/NATO encirclement. She never criticizes Russia (or China for that matter), because they would do what they are doing were it not for the US' bad deeds and intentions.
When challenged whether these leftist progressives would rather live in Russia as it now exists or under an Islamic Hamas government they typically avoid responding. Though I have been accused of Islamaphobia when I say that to which I reply I don't want to live under ANY theocracy, including a christian theocracy.
