Time for Democrats to Address Their Anti-Semitism Problem

[Fenris]

From NRO https://www.nationalreview.com/2021/05/time-for-democrats-to-address-their-anti-semitism-problem/

Over the past few days, Jews have been assaulted and harassed on the streets of major cities across the world- London, Paris, New York, Los Angeles, Miami, just to name a few. And the Democrats, who claim to be against racism in any form, seem quite content to ignore it. Even (or especially) when it's in their own ranks. For shame.

Time for Democrats to Address Their Anti-Semitism Problem

Last week, pro-Palestinian demonstrators trolled the streets of New York and Los Angeles to terrorize and attack Jews. Such outbreaks of violence, perpetrated under the guise of “anti-Zionism,” are commonplace in Europe and the Middle East. It would be an unmitigated tragedy if such political violence were to become the norm in the United States.

Anti-Jewish attacks did not spring forth in a vacuum. Increasingly, the American Left has gone beyond mere criticism of the Jewish State (of the sort that is made against other nations) and adopted the kind of virulent strain of anti-Israel rhetoric that was once mercifully relegated to far-left college campuses.

In this environment, Squad members Ilhan Omar, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Rashida Tlaib can falsely accuse Israel of being an “apartheid state” and of employing U.S. military aid to target civilians and children — a new spin on an old blood libel — and experience almost no rebuke from their own party.

The intense opprobrium saved for Israel, and spared authoritarian nations such as China and Iran, betrays the progressive left’s moral corruption. And rather than react in dismay, New York Times progressive columnist Michelle Goldberg lamented that attacks on Jews might undermine the Palestinian political cause. Rather than distance themselves from violence conducted by their allies, former Bernie Sanders surrogate Amer Zahr implored progressives in a video and tweet to “stop condemning anti-Semitism.” He said, “You are not helping. You are playing their games. It’s a distraction.” Instead, he urged followers to say, “Free Palestine — and nothing else!”

Zahr needn’t worry. Most progressive politicians who did bother denouncing the recent wave of violence against Jews diluted their rebukes by also condemning rising Islamophobia, creating the impression that advocates of both sides of the Israeli–Palestinian debate were engaging in violence — which is, needless to say, a myth.

There is little political upside for Democrats to call out the Squad. Polls show a party that has lurched leftward and become increasingly antagonistic towards the Jewish State. As Ayaan Hirsi Ali recently noted, the Israeli–Palestinian conflict feeds into many of the progressive left’s ideological biases: “the narrative of the oppressor versus the oppressed, of the coloniser versus the colonised, of the genocide perpetrator and system of supremacy.”

Those few Democrats who unapologetically defend Israel, such as Ritchie Torres, a freshman congressman representing New York’s 15th district, find themselves ostracized. “The moment I sent out a statement denouncing the terrorism of Hamas, I was swiftly demonized by extremists as a white supremacist, as a supporter of apartheid, ethnic cleansing, genocide,” Torres told an audience at a recent United Jewish Appeal–sponsored event.

Surely, condemning those who instigate anti-Jewish violence should not undermine the cause of Palestinian statehood. And if it does, then there is something wrong with that cause.

After Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene recently made an ignorant andintellectually lazy historical analogy, comparing the campaign for vaccination passports to the Nazis’ forcing of Jews to wear gold stars, reporters began chasing down Republicans to get their reactions. Minority leader Kevin McCarthy and other members of the House leadership eventually issued statements condemning the Georgia congresswoman.

When it comes to Ilhan Omar and Co., where is Nancy Pelosi? Where is Chuck Schumer or Dick Durbin? To this point, nowhere to be found. It is, of course, true that neither Left nor Right has a monopoly on anti-Semitism. These days, however, one party is increasingly under the sway of a noxious, all-encompassing hostility to the Jewish State.

[Buckshot]

It is really a shame that those that will burn businesses or make public declarations of disgust for one group will not even speak out for other groups. What’s really bad is the ones that will try to fight for right and stand with Israel are cancelled.

It’s not fun to have to start accounts over after being deleted but very worth it.

[Fenris]

What’s really bad is the ones that will try to fight for right and stand with Israel are cancelled.

This is sperate from support for Israel, which is a different (although related) issue. This is about Jews being attacked here, in this country, today. And the Left seems very comfortable allowing it to happen.

[Brother Mike]

What’s really bad is the ones that will try to fight for right and stand with Israel are cancelled.

This is sperate from support for Israel, which is a different (although related) issue. This is about Jews being attacked here, in this country, today. And the Left seems very comfortable allowing it to happen.

Unfortunately, the progressives are VERY COMFORTABLE for violence being perpetrated against any group they do not like (along ideological lines) . And that means just abut everyone except themselves. And I do agree with you Buckshot. The terrible violence against Jews here in the U.S. is very different than our support Israel. Jews, AAPI, "people of color", etc are all being used by the left, who do not care a rat's back side about them in reality. ANd they still do not see this, as these groups, historically, keep voting the left into office.

OK. I have reached my max political commentary for the day.

[Buckshot]

Trying to understand, if this is separate from what is going on in Israel right now, what spurred the recent outbreak of violence against the Jewish people here in the states? Normally the left (media) support whatever meets their agenda at the time. I think the media (propaganda) probably sparked what is going on here by not supporting Israel in the current world events. Kind of like the way that people started attacking our law enforcement after the media started twisting the truth.

[Fenris]

Unfortunately, the progressives are VERY COMFORTABLE for violence being perpetrated against any group they do not like (along ideological lines) .

But this is not an ideological group. It's a minority ethnic group. And what Israel does or doesn't do should have no bearing on this. Imagine if, after 9/11, bands of thugs were roaming around cities beating men wearing turbans, and further imagine that nobody cared. It's sick. And it's happening today.

[Fenris]

Trying to understand, if this is separate from what is going on in Israel right now, what spurred the recent outbreak of violence against the Jewish people here in the states?

The haters are basically saying "Members of group X in another country did something I don't personally approve of, so I'm going to persecute members of group X that I come across in my country". This is not a normal mindset. Furthermore, Democrats, who claim to speak for oppressed minorities, are either silent, or encouraging this groupthink.

[Brother Mike]

Unfortunately, the progressives are VERY COMFORTABLE for violence being perpetrated against any group they do not like (along ideological lines) .

But this is not an ideological group. It's a minority ethnic group. And what Israel does or doesn't do should have no bearing on this. Imagine if, after 9/11, bands of thugs were roaming around cities beating men wearing turbans, and further imagine that nobody cared. It's sick. And it's happening today.

True. It is not an ideological group as you stated. We have folks in the halls of our congress who are haters of Israel, as well as others in this administration. They howl how bad Israel is, blah, blah.

The media, of course, picks up on this and runs with the same narrative. This all feeds the other haters here to equate the actions of a nation state with an ethnic group of people here. Far removed from what is going on the the middle east. The left is very good at playing identity politics with whatever group of people they wish and pit group against group. Look at the violence (of which they did not hide or even condemn) last summer with the BLM protests RIOTS. They stoke the flames of hatred for political gain, and for some reason, are never held accountable.

It will not be long, as it is already happening, for Christians to become the target of the full brunt of their attention. I try not to use this word directed to people, but the left is just utterly EVIL. To the core.

[agnostic]

I find the original article very misleading and disappointing, for the usual methods of deceptive reporting (cherry-picked quotes, minimizing decades of Republican antisemitism, especially from the last five years, etc.).

Some of you are saying the media is controlled by "the left", and is "propaganda" against Israel. But the media is reporting on these attacks. They're reporting comments from Democratic politicians condemning the attacks. BBC, NBC, ABC, NYT, WaPo, PBS, CNN, USA Today, Variety... You can't have it both ways. Either these media outlets are "propaganda" arms of "the left" and are "comfortable" and "silent" with the attacks, or they're reporting that the attacks have been happening and that they should be condemned.

The left is very good at playing identity politics with whatever group of people they wish and pit group against group.

In 2020, "the left" in Congress was ~35% non-whites, ~23% non-Christians (~40% Protestants), and ~35% women.

The same year, "the right" was ~10% non-whites, ~7% non-Christians (~70% Protestants), and about ~15% women.

Both sides need improvement here, but these statistics beg the question: What is it about the Republican party which causes it to overwhelmingly favor white Protestant men?

Although both Democratic and Republicans parties have had problems with racism, sexism, and religious bigotry across US history, one side has made leaping strides toward fixing those problems over the last twenty years, while the other has crawled. Neither side is perfect. But the Republican party simply has not made as much progress in condemning bigotry within its ranks, and appears to have regressed over the last five years.

Republicans had an out white supremacist in Congress until just last year. The leading Republican pundit on TV espouses white supremacist ideology on a regular basis. The Republican president of the last four years publicly told four non-white women in Congress to "go back" to their home countries, despite three of them being born in the US and the fourth immigrating to the US when she was a child in the 90s. He defended neo-Nazis and neo-Confederates on multiple occasions. When they chanted "blood and soil", "white lives matter", and "Jews will not replace us", he called them "very fine people". When they attacked the Capitol building and waved a Confederate flag inside, and caused the death of five people (including a police officer), he called it a "love fest" and told them "we love you". One of the most visible Republicans in Congress this year tried to make the transparently racist "Anglo-Saxon Caucus", and genuinely can't grasp why comparing anti-vaxxers to Jews in the Holocaust is so offensive.

The accusation that "the left" is just "playing identity politics" is a cognitive dissonance strategy to avoid the otherwise obvious conclusion: "the left" is simply far more inclusive, tolerant, and welcoming of women, non-whites, immigrants, non-Christians, LGBT+, which is why "the left" is so much more diverse on all those fronts.

Look at the violence (of which they did not hide or even condemn) last summer with the BLM protests RIOTS.

The huge majority of BLM protests were legal and non-violent. The premise of their complaint, since the beginning, has been the disproportionate use of violence by police against non-whites, that white people have routinely silenced Black voices, and that white people often justify violence against Black people with the age-old lie that Black people "riot" while white people "protest". When violence did erupt at BLM protests, and when some did turn into all-out riots, Democrats unequivocally denounced it. For example, VP candidate Kamala Harris' public statements in August 2020 after a recent police shooting led to an outbreak in looting.

It will not be long, as it is already happening, for Christians to become the target of the full brunt of their attention.

I was taught this for decades. It is a persecution complex with no grounding in reality. "The left" has no interest in "targeting" Christians. It's not a thought that even crosses their minds, much less a conspiracy on the rise. The source of the claim is the large strides society has taken over recent decades in recognizing the legal rights of groups who have historically been denied those rights. Conservative Christians think of "rights" as "power", so more rights means more power. (Because I guess Christianity is supposed to be defined by its "power" over society?) It might be a shock, but equal rights for others does not mean fewer rights for Christians.

In fact, most people on "the left" are Christians, and the majority of the ones who aren't, are still tolerant and respectful of Christians. Most of the time you hear anyone on "the left" complaining about Christians, it has to do with condemnation of pastors, churches, or Christian communities enabling abuse, protecting abusers, or using politics to justify abuse: sexual abuse, emotional abuse, spiritual abuse, economic abuse, child abuse, spouse abuse, sexism, racism, homophobia, etc.

I try not to use this word directed to people, but the left is just utterly EVIL. To the core.

I know most of you are going to be leaning right, but I hope the general consensus of the forum is not that I am utterly evil to the core.

[Fenris]

I find the original article very misleading and disappointing, for the usual methods of deceptive reporting (cherry-picked quotes, minimizing decades of Republican antisemitism, especially from the last five years, etc.).

You're ignoring the issue. There are Democrats in Congress who are anti-Semitic. This point is beyond dispute. Meanwhile the Democrat party seems perfectly content to ignore them. The one time that a united congress spoke out, they condemned "all racism and bigotry", while ignoring the actual problem. Anti-Semitism itself is not a "right" or "left" issue, it exists anywhere in the political spectrum and indeed even transcends politics. But the Republican party has done a much better job calling it out from within it's own ranks, as opposed to the Demoocrats.

Some of you are saying the media is controlled by "the left", and is "propaganda" against Israel. But the media is reporting on these attacks.

They're really not. When it's reported, it's a few days late and very lightly touched upon, if indeed it's reported at all. I live within the NYC media market and it's barely reported on here, let alone in parts of the country without Jews.

He defended neo-Nazis and neo-Confederates on multiple occasions. When they chanted "blood and soil", "white lives matter", and "Jews will not replace us", he called them "very fine people".

This is a lie. He specifically condemned the racists. Actual quote from his speech-

" You had some very bad people in that group, but you also had people that were very fine people, on both sides. ... I saw the same pictures as you did. You had people in that group that were there to protest the taking down of, to them, a very, very important statue and the renaming of a park from Robert E. Lee to another name. ... So you know what, it's fine. You're changing history. You're changing culture. And you had people — and I'm not talking about the neo-Nazis and the White nationalists, because they should be condemned totally — but you had many people in that group other than neo-Nazis and White nationalists. Okay? And the press has treated them absolutely unfairly. Now, in the other group also, you had some fine people. But you also had troublemakers, and you see them come with the black outfits and with the helmets and with the baseball bats. You had a lot of bad people in the other group."

[Fenris]

The accusation that "the left" is just "playing identity politics" is a cognitive dissonance strategy to avoid the otherwise obvious conclusion: "the left" is simply far more inclusive, tolerant, and welcoming of women, non-whites, immigrants, non-Christians, LGBT+, which is why "the left" is so much more diverse on all those fronts.

The left isn't more inclusive of Jews, which is what the original post was about.

The huge majority of BLM protests were legal and non-violent.

That's certainly debatable. Those protests led to billions of dollars of damage across dozens of cities.

The premise of their complaint, since the beginning, has been the disproportionate use of violence by police against non-whites,

Which certainly could be a valid issue for discussion. Wanton looting and setting whole neighborhoods on fire does nothing to advance that discussion however.

For example, VP candidate Kamala Harris' public statements in August 2020 after a recent police shooting led to an outbreak in looting.

Kamela Harris also ran a collection for bailing out the worst offenders of rioting and looting. Hardly the mark of someone who takes the matter seriously.

I was taught this for decades. It is a persecution complex with no grounding in reality. "The left" has no interest in "targeting" Christians. It's not a thought that even crosses their minds

I'm not even a Christian and yeah, the left is very much targeting Christians.

In fact, most people on "the left" are Christians, and the majority of the ones who aren't, are still tolerant and respectful of Christians.

It's been my observation that the left isn't very tolerant at all, certainly not of anyone whose viewpoints they don't agree with.

I know most of you are going to be leaning right, but I hope the general consensus of the forum is not that I am utterly evil to the core.

I save "utterly evil to the core" for gross human rights offenders. The left isn't evil for having different values, but they are wrong.

[Athanasius]

The accusation that "the left" is just "playing identity politics" is a cognitive dissonance strategy to avoid the otherwise obvious conclusion: "the left" is simply far more inclusive, tolerant, and welcoming of women, non-whites, immigrants, non-Christians, LGBT+, which is why "the left" is so much more diverse on all those fronts.

There's a lot to be said of the word 'just', but that the Left is playing identity politics - and the Right too at times - is undeniable. And no, the Left broadly isn't more 'inclusive, tolerant, and welcoming...' as anyone in the groups you listed is at risk of excision unless they adhere to the ideology of the Left, espouse the correct beliefs as the Left, etc. If you don't then you're not black, you're not gay, you're not LGBT+, you're immoral, regressive, living in the past, part of the problem, internalised-whatever, and so on. These things become political identities that can be taken away, and indeed are taken away. It's easy to talk about classical racists, and a bit more difficult when the racism is hidden behind layers of obfuscated academic theory. It's okay to be a little racist as long as you're fixing problems along the way. Gotta correct those historical wrongs by instantiating new wrongs, today.

The Right has its own issues, but they're just as inclusive, tolerant and welcoming -- or possibly more. I know for myself at least that it's the Right who accepts me without much hassle, whereas the those I know on the Left accept me while ascribing to me beliefs and views I don't hold solely on what they perceive to be my political and identitarian associations. Should I disagree with the morally superior Left I'll find myself kicked to the curb.

But that same identity politics is there in your reply as well: you've reduced diversity to mere identity, as if, say, white Christian people are all the same by virtue of being white and Christian. That's just silly, and it's racist, and probably sexist, and hiding behind some diverse/inclusive ideal doesn't remove that fact.

That's just my experience though, as someone who is apparently 'LGBT+'. I'd rather we all get smarter about these political divisions, and you'll notice that I haven't commented on the article.

[agnostic]

The Right has its own issues, but they're just as inclusive, tolerant and welcoming -- or possibly more.

I know we're getting into experiential/anecdotal points here, but this is entirely the reverse of my experience. As I said before, I don't believe any side is perfect or without fault, but the differences in my experience with how welcoming, inclusive, and tolerant "the right" and "the left" each are is night and day. I can't stress how vast the gulf is between the behavior of these two social spheres as I've experienced it.

It is utterly opposite to the criticisms and accusations being made in this thread. But -- I don't mean to be snarky -- it sincerely sounds like my experiences are invalid for this discussion, simply for being on "the left".

[Athanasius]

The Right has its own issues, but they're just as inclusive, tolerant and welcoming -- or possibly more.

I know we're getting into experiential/anecdotal points here, but this is entirely the reverse of my experience. As I said before, I don't believe any side is perfect or without fault, but the differences in my experience with how welcoming, inclusive, and tolerant "the right" and "the left" each are is night and day. I can't stress how vast the gulf is between the behavior of these two social spheres as I've experienced it.

It is utterly opposite to the criticisms and accusations being made in this thread. But -- I don't mean to be snarky -- it sincerely sounds like my experiences are invalid for this discussion, simply for being on "the left".

I don't think that's snarky, and I would hope that you're not being invalidated simply for being on 'the left'.

It's interesting to me how I can take my experience - for example - and extrapolate from it a broad picture of 'the Left' or 'the Right' as if my experiences hold true for others as well. It's more difficult to imagine either end of the political spectrum from a perspective that is not my own, and especially when it conflicts with what I've experienced.

If 'the right' is engaged in a 'cognitive dissonance strategy' in its accusation that the 'the left' "is just 'playing identity games'", then I have to wonder: is 'the left' engaged in a similar 'cognitive dissonance strategy' when it imagines itself to be 'far more inclusive, tolerant, and welcome of...', that is, when it images 'the right' to be exclusive, intolerant, unwelcoming? Probably, or maybe the reality is more nuanced. Maybe the division isn't as simple as left or right, liberal or conservative, young or old Hegelian, etc.

So my experience of 'the left' is that it's very welcoming, inclusive, and tolerant, as long as I hold the correct beliefs, say the correct things, and nod my head at the right times. Those I know on the left talk disparagingly of those on 'the right' as if there's some implied moral chasm between the two. Those I know on the right have mentioned the identity politic of the left, the 'wokeism', or maybe even, cultural marxism. But like I was saying: it's those on the left who judge me for being LGBT+ in the wrong way. Those on the right don't care.

[RandyPNW]

A big problem is human nature itself. I find that on both sides of the political spectrum there is group think, an almost mindless agreement with an ideological position.

We are taught critical thinking in the schools, but at the same time we have propaganda implanted in our minds, though I don't question the sincerity of those who do this. Anybody who looks at how the history of America, for example, was told 50 years ago would admit that the history is being told quite differently now, with a huge focus on diversity, Indian rights, Hispanic rights, women's rights, gay rights, etc. etc.

It's even children's rights. All this is propaganda, and those who use it may very well be sincere in what they believe *should* be used as propaganda.

What should really determine what we believe and whether we should accept propaganda one way or another is our conscience. But our conscience has been turned into a blank slate by those who don't want to believe a conscience exists, unless it is created by their own innate sense of what is right for everybody.

I do believe there is a conscience, and a God who speaks to our conscience. There is a right and a wrong, objectively, without propaganda. But being that humanity is, by nature, weak, we do need coaxing one way or another, an appeal to our conscience.

By my conscience, I think the diversity and religious pluralism we're indoctrinating people with is wrong. It's right to give all people respectful choices, in terms of religious beliefs. But in terms of social behavior, I don't think we have a right to protect aberrant minority practices that the vast majority disagree with religiously.

For example if Judeo-Christianity sees declaring immorality wrong, minority perverts do *not* have a right to have their rights defended and spread through propaganda in the schools. Just my feelings about it.

And the Democrats, I believe, are more on the side of religious liberals and on the side of diversity and pluralism, in a negative, anti-social, anti-moral way. How does this cause Democrats and Liberals to side against Jewish human rights?

I think the lack of conscience and a formal sense of religious beliefs cause Democrats to simply opt for the more convenient position of siding  with larger majority groups than with smaller Jewish groups. It is known that certain misbehaving Christians hate Jews, that Muslims hate Jews, and that the large number of countries and people in the Middle East are not Jews, but Muslims!

And so, Democrats don't find it "against their conscience" to side more conveniently with the large majority, as opposed to their pretend stand to support minorities. They support minorities if it helps them win elections. Here in the U.S. it helps Democrats stay in power, politically, if they pander to a variety of minorities. It actually helps them to ignore one minority, namely the Jews.