On March 23, 2023, United Nations Secretary General Antonio Gutteres published a message for the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade, to be observed on March 25th. Gutteres focused on the “evil enterprise of enslavement [that] lasted for over 400 years… of suffering and barbarity that shows humanity at its worst.” He focused on the European slavery of Africans, stating that one can “draw a straight line from the centuries of colonial exploitation to the social and economic inequalities of today. And we can recognize the racist tropes popularized to rationalize the inhumanity of the slave trade in the white supremacist hate that is resurgent today.”
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speaks during the High Level Segment of the 37th Session of the Human Rights Council. 26 February 2018.
While modern slavery exists to this day – much of it the enslavement of Black youths in Africa as soldiers and laborers for Black adults in Angola, Togo, Benin and Nigeria – the U.N. leader focused narrowly on “white supremacist hate” for Africans that was rooted in 400 years of the slave trade. The particularism of Remembrance is for Black victims of White racism, nothing else.
It is interesting to contrast this approach with Gutteres’ statement honoring the victims of the Holocaust, in which Nazi Germany and its allies nearly completed the ethnic cleansing of Jews in Europe.
The title of the United Nations story about Holocaust Remembrance Day was “Honouring Holocaust victims, U.N. chief Guterres pledges to battle anti-Semitism, all forms of hatred.” The lead-in sentence continued that theme, that “the world has a duty to remember that the Holocaust was a systematic attempt to eliminate the Jewish people and so many others.“
A recap of Gutteres’ video remarks noted that “the Holocaust was the culmination of millennia of hatred, scapegoating and discrimination targeting the Jews, what we now call anti-Semitism, he emphasized, adding that tragically and contrary to the international community’s resolve, anti-Semitism continues to thrive. Moreover, the world is also witnessing a deeply troubling rise in extremism, xenophobia, racism and anti-Muslim hatred. Irrationality and intolerance are back, said the U.N. chief.” He further said “that as Secretary-General of the United Nations, I will be in the frontline of the battle against anti-Semitism and all other forms of hatred.“
The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein also offered thoughts about the Holocaust that the “sadistic brutality of the atrocities inflicted by the Nazi regime on Jews, Roma, Slavs, persons with disabilities, political dissidents, homosexuals and others was nourished by layer upon layer of propaganda, falsifications and incitement to hatred.” He added that “is crucial to maintain respect for human rights, especially in respect of the right to life and wellbeing of all people regardless of their origin or ethnicity,… [and that] education must be at the core of all efforts to combat anti-Semitism, racism, and all forms of discrimination.”
The speakers were very holistic and all-encompassing as it related to the genocide of Jews.
While the United Nations solely focused on White slavery of Blacks and drew a line across centuries straight to racism against Blacks by Whites today, it opted for a completely different storyline for the slaughter of Jews. For the Holocaust of just some decades ago – as Survivors still scream in their sleep – the UN chose to include many non-Jewish people in the Remembrance, and attributed the barbarism to broad-based xenophobia which manifests itself in broad-based extremism like anti-Muslim hatred today.
It’s repulsive and shocking. And not shocking.
For the U.N., White racism against Blacks is systemic and persistent, while anti-Semitism is neither special nor unique; a subset of other forms of hatred which much also be addressed. The mantra is that over 1 billion Black people suffer persecution as a targeted minority, while the same cannot be said of 15 million Jews.
Ilhan Omar and Nancy Pelosi (photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
There is no more persecuted group in the world than the Jews. The hatred is so embedded in society, that world leaders do not call it out clearly, uniquely and unapologetically, because they have internalized the venom. The audience doesn’t want to hear it, and leaders don’t really want to talk much about it, as the straight line from the Holocaust to today runs through the radical jihadist Palestinian Arabs and anti-Zionists seeking to destroy the Jewish State.
In woke narrative, perpetrators can only by White Christian Males and victims are anyone else. So when society opts to define Jews as White (they are actually multi-racial), the Holocaust gets subtly reconfigured as a story of broad-based xenophobia which caught Jews alongside confirmed capital-V Victims by White Nazis. When Jews today are clearly targeted by non-Whites, the story is either ignored (like New York City Mayor Bill DeBlasio and The New York Times) or the hatred is whitewashed because Jews deserved it as “interlopers” (as defined by Blacks in Jersey City) or “colonialists” (as concocted by anti-Zionists).
We are being reeducated by progressive powers that believe Jews are over-represented in power structures cloaked in their Whiteness. The woke become incensed when Jews claim victimhood, and spin the Holocaust into a crime against righteous Victims – homosexuals, the disabled and Muslims – which also caught Jews in the broad net.
The particular stand against racism is as correct as the universalistic stance against Jew-hatred-plus is wrong. Pathetic Holocaust Remembrances and watered down denouncements of anti-Semitism are facilitating the noxious evil, as the neo Nazis and jihadists know an opening when they see it.
Very few countries in the world have a position in the government for descendants of the country’s original inhabitants who live abroad. Only one also has non-governmental organizations to combat the hatred of those persecuted members in the diaspora.
Israel.
The Jewish State of Israel was founded on three central beliefs of Modern Zionism: that Jews are a people who originate in the land of Israel; they have a right to self-determination and sovereignty in their homeland; and that their country will not only be a safe haven against Jew-hatred, but will combat noxious anti-Semitism around the world.
Today, Israel’s Minister of Diaspora Affairs is Amichai Chikli. Born in Jerusalem, he is the son of a Tunisian Conservative rabbi. His governmental position is to strengthen the bonds between Israel and Jews of the diaspora.
Israeli MK Amichai Chikli (Photo by Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
Outside of the government, the World Zionist Organization promotes Zionism, and is a vehicle for world Jewry to interface with Israel. Nerya Meir assumed the head of the Diaspora Department and Raheli Baratz-Rix heads the WZO’s Department for Combatting Antisemitism. Last year, Prime Minister Yair Lapid appointed the actress Noa Tishby to a new position of Special Envoy for Combating Antisemitism and Delegitimization.
This letter is for each of them.
To Israel’s leaders to Diaspora Jewry,
We know that Israel is very busy with countless issues, and the roles each of you play to ensure a strong bond between the Jewish State and Diaspora Jewry is always appreciated.
We are keenly aware of how the nature of our relationship has changed since the re-establishment of the Jewish State in 1948: from a nascent struggling country fighting for survival seeking bodies and funds from diaspora, to a thriving democracy in the heart of an illiberal Middle East with the greatest concentration of Jews anywhere for the first time in almost two thousand years. The modern state welcomes Jewish immigrants, visitors and investment, while it no longer feels they are critical to its survival.
There are a few things to keep in mind as we enter this stage of our relationship.
The United States
Since 1948, the Diaspora has changed remarkably. In 1948, at the country’s founding, there were 34 countries with over 25,000 Jews. Today there are only 17, half that number. To put that in context, the 15 non-U.S. diaspora countries with over 25,000 Jews stands in contrast to 27 U.S. cities with more than 25,000 Jews.
Two countries – Israel and the United States – account for roughly 85% of world Jewry, with the U.S. accounting for 73% of the Jewish diaspora. While the U.S. does not define the diaspora, it is the most significant country by a very wide margin.
There are eight other diaspora countries which have over one percent of diaspora Jews living there, but only two of them – France and the United Kingdom – are also significant trading partners with Israel and members of the United Nations Security Council. Some of the other countries – like Argentina and Russia – have declining Jewish populations and should be viewed as countries for Israel to target for aliyah, rather than as significant long-term outposts of global Jewry.
Diaspora Anti-Semitism and Terrorism
Historically (the 1970s through 2010s), anti-Semitic and anti-Zionist attacks occurred in world capitals such as Athens, Rome, Istanbul, Paris, Brussels, Buenos Aires, Mumbai and London. Fanatics burst into synagogues, Jewish community centers and kosher restaurants and killed as many people as possible.
While the scourge has not left major international cities, the current trend in violence is more prevalent in American cities such as Pittsburgh, PA, Colleyville, TX, Jersey City, NJ and Poway, CA. It shouldn’t be a surprise: there are three times as many Jews in Pittsburgh (42,000) than in all of Turkey (14,300).
The same is true for Jews living in the Israeli territories east of the 1949 Armistice Lines (E49AL). While there are 25 countries in the world with over 10,000 Jews (including the U.S. and Israel), there are nine cities (and growing) in E49AL with such totals. Almost all have experienced attacks.
The facts above have been true for many years but have not penetrated the minds of most people. Part of the reason is attacks on Jews in European cities and E49AL is almost always tied to anti-Zionism, easily triggered in societies with centuries of ingrained anti-Semitism. This is in contrast to attacks in the United States which arise from anti-Semitism in a country established on the basis of religious freedom.
This is changing.
While the Israel-Gaza war in 2014 saw a sharp rise in anti-Semitic attacks in Europe, there were virtually none in the United States. Not so for the eleven day skirmish in May 2021, when gangs assaulted Jews all over the country. Jonathan Greenblatt of the ADL said during that time that “the brazenness, the audacity of these assaults in broad daylight. We have seen people basically say, if you are wearing a Jewish star, you must be a Zionist and you should be killed…. we have unhinged, fictionalized conspiracies about Israel, that somehow the Jewish State is systematically slaughtering children or committing genocide. And then that leads to real-world attacks on Jewish people in the streets of America, on our campuses, in our communities.”
It is in the streets of dozens of American cities that the danger of anti-Semitism is now the most pressing, and the scourge is increasingly tied to anti-Zionism.
America’s Jewish Cities and Universities
The 27 cities in the United States with over 25,000 Jews are not only in the biggest states which are solidly Democratic as popularly believed. While many are found in New York, New Jersey, California, Massachusetts and Illinois, a growing number are in Florida, Texas, Ohio and Pennsylvania.
As shown in the table above, fifteen of the top 27 U.S. cities are located in solidly Democratic states per the 2020 presidential election. Seven cities were found in Republican states and five were in swing states.
Beyond these major Jewish population centers, are cities with universities with significant Jewish populations, many of which are suffering from anti-Semitic and anti-Zionist violence and rhetoric.
Anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism have also spread to universities with significant Jewish populations in cities with relatively few Jews. Those include Brown University in Providence, RI (14,200 Jews) and Duke University in Durham, NC (12,000).
As an example, in February 2022, Duke passed a resolution which condemned anti-Semitism which included using the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Working Definition of Antisemitism which covered anti-Zionism. This was likely in response to vile anti-Semitic and anti-Israel speakers at the campus in 2019 as covered by a Ami Horowitz video. However, by March 2022, the Duke Student Government was sponsoring Student for Justice in Palestine events featuring noted anti-Zionist and anti-Semite Mohammed El-Kurd. The AMCHA Initiative has long tracked how universities with an SJP chapter are much more likely to have anti-Semitic incidents on campus.
College campuses have become fertile ground for extreme fundamentalist governments including Qatar and Saudi Arabia to pour over $1 billion to influence the next generation of students. Leading schools which have taken their money include Columbia University, Tufts University, the University of Southern California, George Washington University, NYU, MIT, Harvard, Georgetown and Carnegie Mellon. The Arab states have used their oil wealth to export the demonization of the Jewish State and Jews around the world.
And the impetus for exporting their hatred onto American shores is their hatred for Israel. Killing the Jewish State’s strongest supporter is a key aim of anti-Zionists.
Israel’s Fight Against Anti-Semitism in America
It is noble and appreciated that Israel is taking up the fight against global anti-Semitism.
Minister Chikli, you talked about the diaspora community and suggested that small communities might be best served by making aliyah to Israel, and plan on investing a good portion of your 500 million NIS budget in the education of the larger communities. This is wise. While it will be difficult for Israel to match the dollars of the Muslim Gulf states going into America’s leading universities, it can invest in the middle and high schools of the United States’ largest Jewish cities.
America’s Jews and communities are mostly well-off and well-organized. We have numerous Jewish schools, synagogues, community centers and Israel advocacy groups, especially compared to the other countries in the diaspora. But there are things that must come from Israel to the various cities listed above to help fight the rising anti-Semitism. Here is the start of a list:
Israelis and Israeli products in the schools and markets
Collaboration between American universities and companies and those in Israel
Eloquent and well versed Israelis on news channels
Establish pro-Jewish narratives
Bi-partisanship, connecting with all streams of Judaism
Open and clear communication between Israel and U.S. Jewish leaders
Israelis and Israeli products in the schools and markets
Getting young Israelis into cities across the United States with programs like shinshinim should be expanded. The Israelis get a better appreciation for America, and Americans get a first-hand account of what is happening in Israel, not from the news or textbooks, but from young Israelis living in the Jewish State.
The BDS (boycott, divest and sanction) movement against Israel should not only be fought legally but on the ground. Getting lots of Israeli products and brands into stores should be a priority of the Israeli government, not just the Israeli companies.
Collaboration between American universities and companies and those in Israel
Israeli universities and companies are in a good position to continue to leverage their leading research and technological prowess to collaborate with American institutions. An active bi-lateral flow of human and financial capital can cement positive long-term relationships.
Eloquent and well versed Israelis on American media
Israel must develop a comprehensive team of fluent English speakers who are adept at public relations on a range of topics. The most glaring problems are when Israeli spokespersons cannot handle basic questions on television when Israel is in a conflict. The government must have a team of people in constant dialogue with the full range of American media on political, economic, cultural, religious, historical and scientific matters.
Establish pro-Jewish narratives
It is very important to establish and correct information that is being propagated in the media and on campuses, but the Israeli government must do more to craft the narratives. For example, not only should the statistics about the Arab population in Jerusalem and Israel be laid out to dismiss the ridiculous charges of genocide and ethnic cleansing, but stories of real people should be featured. The world loves a good story, and Israel is more than capable of humanizing the liberal country it has built in the heart of the illiberal Middle East.
Bi-partisanship, connecting with all streams of Judaism
As described above, there are Democratic and Republican Jews and they live in a range of cities. It is imperative for Israel to maintain good relations with both parties, ESPECIALLY as the divide in the country grows.
Similarly, it is important for Israel to connect with all the streams of Judaism which are much more common in the United States than in Israel and the rest of the diaspora. The Reform, Reconstructionist and Conservative branches of Judaism are much larger than the Modern and Ultra Orthodox streams. Those liberals tend to be much more critical of religious and nationalistic actions by Israel, while the more Orthodox tend to be more likely to make aliyah. Israel needs to keep a good relationship with each community.
Open and clear communication between Israel and U.S. Jewish leaders
The last item on this short list is for good lines of direct communication. If the government of Israel is directly communicating with American Jewish leaders, hopefully it will prevent Jewish leaders from lobbying the U.S. government to take actions against Israel, as J Street did aggressively, in pushing the Obama Administration to allow UN Security Council Resolution 2334 to pass.
Israel is at a very sensitive moment in history with Iran on the verge of obtaining nuclear weapons capability, and the largest percentage of West Bank Arabs itching for violence against Jewish civilians in twenty years. At the same time, American Jewry is more divided as it faces growing anti-Semitism, a break from historic norms when Jews normally come together when faced with Jew hatred.
The global fight against anti-Semitism can be won with Israeli and American forces acting together with common purpose. We look forward to working together with you at this important time in history.
Anti-Semites around the world suffer terribly. Consumed by hatred for Jews, they often feel that their sentiments need a broader outlet. They seek the comradery of others who despise Jews, and public forums to attack those they believe are stains on mankind.
In February 2023 in Orlando, FL, Neo Nazis stood outside a Chabad house and taunted Jews with chants of ‘Heil Hitler’, and asked how many Jews could fit in a barbecue grill and how many Palestinian Arabs they killed. White Supremacist groups called for February 25, 2023 to be a ‘Day of Hate‘ to gather momentum for attacks on Jews.
Consider when Israel rebuilt the Hurva Synagogue in the Old City of Jerusalem in 2010 which the Jordanian army had blown up in 1949. Palestinians called for a ‘Day of Rage‘ with hundreds of Palestinian Arabs attacking Jews. The Palestinian Center for Human Rights (I guess meaning only for Arabs) released a statement which “strongly condemns recent measures taken by Israel in East Jerusalem, the latest of which has been the inauguration of a synagogue in the old city. PCHR holds Israel responsible for the escalation of the situation in the occupied Palestinian territory.“
The sick symmetry.
Neo Nazis come for Jews in their houses of worship in the United States because they hate the presence of Jews in their goal of a purely White Christian society. Radical Islamists come for Jews in their synagogues in Israel because they believe the land is purely Muslim. Both sinister radical groups consider Jews to be vile whose basic physical presence is an affront to their sensibilities to be fought en masse.
David Duke, the Grand Wizard of the KKK reached out to radical jihadists like Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) to join forces against the Jews. Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) invoked Nazi stereotypes about the Jews seemingly in an effort to reach out to Nazis.
The United Nations and global media have rightfully denounced the Neo Nazis but have pathetically rallied to support anti-Semitic Muslims. The Nazis and jihadists don’t care, and will bond together to attack the most persecuted minority in the world. Perhaps they will unite under the banner of radical jihadists, who have wrongfully gathered global sympathies with abundant resources.
At least until the Islamic State of Iran initiates its own genocide of Jews.
Neo Nazis (with no government and media support) and Islamic radicals (with tremendous government and media support) are rallying fellow anti-Semites to take on the Jews wherever they live and pray. White Supremacists have joined the global jihad against the same Jewish infidels while the world considers which dead Jews deserved it.
Peace in the Middle East has long been a goal and struggle, as the Arab-Israeli conflict is well into its second century. While the situation has had many highs and lows, a small hurdle towards peace was cleared this week.
Under a new Republican-led Congress, Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) was removed from the powerful House Foreign Affairs Committee, a position she was granted under Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), who sought to embrace the far left extremists of her party.
As a Congresswoman, Omar made many anti-Semitic remarks, much like her comrade in arms, Rep Rashida Tlaib (D-MI). Their vitriol does not make them unfit to serve on committees; it makes them unworthy of being in Congress. It says pretty horrible things about the majority of their constituents to vote them into office. Repeatedly.
But Congress can protect itself, to a degree, from the stupidity and malice of voters, by shuttling the worst voices into minor committees. Pelosi did the opposite, and it took a change to a Republican-led House to make a course correction.
The reason Omar was an obstacle to peace was not just her anti-Israel views but her basic lack of understanding about foreign affairs, and her mainstreaming toxic ideas.
In September 2021, Congress voted to supply $1 billion of supplemental military aid to Israel to restock its defensive Iron Dome missile intercept system. The Israeli-design shield prevented thousands of Israeli deaths and billions of dollars in damage during the barrage of missiles fired by Gazan terrorists into Israeli towns. It also saved the lives of thousands of Arabs, as Israel was not compelled to retaliate in an extreme manner due to the loss of Israeli lives. Instead, the violence ended rather quickly.
Everyone in Congress understood this basic arithmetic of peace, except for nine people who voted against the resolution: Cori Bush (D-MO), Andre Carson (D-IN), Chuy Garcia (D-IL), Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ), Thomas Massie (R-KY), Marie Newman (D-IL), Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI). Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) voted present.
None of these people should be anywhere near policy related to foreign affairs. Two of them sit on the House Foreign Affairs Committee: Omar and Massie.
Here are the committees of the other members of Congress who have no concept of foreign affairs.
CongressPerson
Committees
Cori Bush
Judiciary; Education and the Workforce
Andre Carson
Energy and Commerce
Chuy Garcia
Education and the Workforce
Raúl Grijalva
Natural Resources
Thomas Massie
Foreign Affairs; Judiciary; Rules
Marie Newman
Transportation and Infrastructure
Ayanna Pressley
Education and the Workforce
Rashida Tlaib
Oversight and Accountability
House Resolution 76 called out the anti-Semitic and anti-Israel comments by Rep. Omar, and the vote to remove her from the Foreign Affairs Committee was fortunately passed. However, the resolution failed to mention her extremist vote against funding the Iron Dome system which saved thousands of Jewish and Arab lives. In doing so, the House missed the opportunity to remove another unfit member of the committee, Rep. Massie.
On December 19, 2022, The New York Times published an article about a menorah that was lit in the window of a Jewish home across from a Nazi flag in Germany, in defiance of the edicts to ban Jews from participating in society. The descendants of that German family brought the menorah back to Germany to rekindle it once again.
It’s an interesting story on many levels. To consider the defiance and fear that the Jewish family must have felt in 1931 as Nazis gathered power in Germany, to openly declare their Judaism in the face of growing anti-Semitism. And then, eighty years later, to return to Germany after the genocide of European Jewry with that same menorah.
Chanukah candles lit in the ashes of millions of slaughtered Jews.
Yehuda Mansbach, the grandson of the Jewish couple who lit that menorah in the iconic 1931 photograph, wept openly after lighting the two candles to mark the holiday of Chanukah in Germany in 2022.
It was the only story that the New York paper would write about the Jewish holiday of Chanukah, other than some recipes for latke cocktails and how to make a DIY menorah. The actual holiday story of Jews expelling the Hellenist pagan rituals from the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem and throughout the Jewish holy land 2,200 years ago must have been considered too political for the anti-Zionist paper.
During the holiday, the paper preferred to write stories about Arabs who had “ancestors” in “modern day Israel” whose towns were destroyed at Israel’s creation. These “Palestinian citizens of Israel” (commonly called Israeli Arabs) have been trying to get back to the homes where their grandparents lived but have been blocked from doing so by the Israeli military and courts because the town sits in a buffer zone along Lebanon which is in a state of war with the Jewish State.
These are stories that neatly contour to the Times’ jaundiced narrative: Jews are native to Europe but were pushed out by Nazis, and Arabs are native to Palestine but were pushed out by Jews.
The actual Chanukah story disrupts the anti-Zionist propaganda, that Jews have thousands of years of history in Israel and not just throughout the land, but on the Jewish Temple Mount itself. That is where the original menorah of the Jews was lit, not in defiance of any edict but as a basic part of Jewish religious ritual.
Today, while Arabs may be blocked from returning to living in villages alongside the border of a hostile country by Israel’s military, Jews are considered to be in violation of United Nations edicts for going to Jerusalem and the Temple Mount. While Israeli Arabs freely drive around Israel as recognized citizens of the Jewish State, countries around the world demand that Jews be forbidden from living and praying in their holiest city.
Jews have been lighting menorahs for 2,200 years, even in the face of blatant anti-Semitism from neighbors, governments and media propaganda. And Jews will continue to light their menorahs in their windows as proud Jews, and visit the reestablished Jewish State, as they use the anti-Jewish and anti-Israel propaganda as the rags that they are.
A single menorah of defiance lit before a Nazi flag in Germany, dozens of menorahs held aloft in Montana in 1993 amidst a wave of anti-Semitic attacks, and thousands of menorahs lit in Jewish homes in Jerusalem and around the world today in the face of blatantly anti-Semitic articles and resolutions. Jews are indigenous to Israel and will always insist on the basic human right to practice their faith everywhere, especially in their holiest city.
On December 5, 2022, 126 members of Congress sent a letter to President Joe Biden urging a comprehensive government response to the scourge of anti-Semitism. Many people did not sign the letter despite historic comments that they strongly support Jews, such as Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX).
Other names missing from the letter were not surprising.
Consider the nine members of Congress who voted against supplying Israel with funding for its defensive Iron Dome system against Palestinian rockets: Cori Bush (D-MO), Andre Carson (D-IN), Chuy Garcia (D-IL), Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ), Thomas Massie (R-KY), Marie Newman (D-IL), Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI). None of them signed the letter.
In another vote, several members of Congress voted against supplying Israel with American made weapons in May 2021, as Israel fought against terrorists in Gaza. Co-sponsors included Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Mark Pocan (D-WI), Betty McCollum (D-IL) and Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) in addition to Cori Bush, Ayanna Pressley and Ilhan Omar. None of them signed the call to combat anti-Semitism letter.
In February 2020, members of Congress voted to send money to the terrorist enclave of Gaza. In addition to Pocan and Debbie Dingell (D-MI), signers to the letter included Don Beyer, Earl Blumenauer, Suzanne Bonamici, André Carson, Judy Chu, Danny K. Davis, Peter A. Defazio, Mark DeSaulnier, Ruben Gallego, Jesús G. “Chuy” García, Raúl Grijalva, Deb Haaland, Jared Huffman, Pramila Jayapal, Eddie Bernice Johnson, Henry C. “Hank” Johnson, Jr., Dan Kildee, Barbara Lee, Betty McCollum, James P. McGovern, Gwen S. Moore, Ilhan Omar, Chellie Pingree, Donald M. Payne Jr., David E. Price, Bobby L. Rush, Jan Schakowsky, Jackie Speier, Rashida Tlaib, Paul Tonko, and Peter Welch. Of this list, the only signers to the letter to fight anti-Semitism were Bonamici, Dingell, Lee and Schakowsky. All of the others did not sign the letter to fight Jew hatred.
While many New York members of Congress signed the fight-anti-Semitism letter including Sen. Kirtsen Gillibrand, Rep. Ritchie Torres, Rep. Grace Meng, Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, Rep. Lee Zeldin, Rep. Thomas Suozzi, Rep. Carolyn Maloney, Rep. Jerry Nadler and Rep. Mondaire Jones, several in the tri-state area did not.
Jamaal Bowman, who rejected the Abraham Accords and declined speaking to an American Jewish Committee electoral event, did not sign the letter. Hakeem Jeffries, who is slated to replace Rep. Nancy Pelosi as leader of House Democrats also declined to sign. Other anti-Israel New Yorkers like AOC and Paul Tonko also did not sign. Click on the links above to write them voicing your displeasure.
During the 2022 election campaign, J Street, a pro-Palestinian lobbying group which markets itself as “pro-Israel”, wrote checks to 138 members of Congress. Very few of those recipients signed the letter to combat anti-Semitism. Omissions included: Rep. Andy Levin (D-MI), Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-NJ), Rep. Josh Harder (D-CA) and many others including those voting for anti-Israel measures listed above, such as Bowman, Newman, McCollum, Tonko, Jayapal, Pocan, Garcia, Carson, Chu and Davis.
Members of the anti-Israel squad all declined to sign the letter urging President Biden to address anti-Semitism
When so many anti-Israel members of Congress also refuse to join decent voices in Congress to combat the scourge of anti-Semitism, it offers another response to the question of whether anti-Semitism and Anti-Zionism are one and the same.
There are many popular conspiracy theories. Some are innocuous, like the belief in Big Foot or the Loch Ness monster. Others are more elaborate, such as the notion that the government is engaged in a cover up of UFOs or faked the moon landing. The ideas have followings in the fringe, and do not, for the most part, change a person’s interaction with society.
However, there are some conspiracy theories that get mainstreamed and hurt people.
Alex Jones is perhaps the best known conspiracy theorist with (or used to have) a large platform. He’s said that the terrorist attacks on 9/11/01 by Muslim jihadists were actually an inside job; that the Boston Marathon bombing by two Muslim radicals in 2013 was the work of the FBI; and that the shooting at the Sandy Hook elementary school in 2012 by a deranged man was a hoax. Just last month, the courts ordered Jones to pay $965 million in damages because of a suit brought by parents of the murdered Sandy Hook children.
Despite his crazy and hateful ideas, according to an August 2022 poll by The Economist / YouGov, 9% of Americans think that Jones is trustworthy. An astonishing 21% of people who consider themselves very conservative believe his bile, compared to just 6% of liberals. As to the Sandy Hook massacre itself, 18% of Americans think it was a hoax.
That’s no longer a small segment of society. That’s an alarming percentage who have bought in to the “disinformation.”
In the era of losing trust in mainstream media and government, we have collectively taken to believing pop cultural liars. These individuals have social media platforms that reach millions of people around the world with the ability to spread either old conspiracy theories or new ones.
Some old conspiracy theories gain new twists. The same Economist / YouGov poll found that 20% of Americans believe that COVID-19 vaccines are being used to microchip Americans. It’s a spin on the popular control-themed conspiracy theory with a current event. A number of world leaders have taken to combining that control conspiracy theory with anti-Semitism – such as the leaders in Bulgaria, Turkey and Iran – that Jews engineered the coronavirus for profit to control the world.
Conspiracy theories are alive and unwell.
Conspiracy Theories of “Power” and “Control”
The biggest conspiracy of all – typically tied to extreme Jew hatred – is that the world is controlled by a shadow government. A whopping 58% of Republicans polled hold such belief as well as 26% of Democrats. Some believe that this shadow government is the “Illumanti“, while others contend it is the Jews.
Kanye West / Ye recently came out with a broad conspiracy theory about Jews controlling Black people. He said “They can control Shaq. They can control Charles Barkley. They can control LeBron James. They can control Jay-Z and Beyoncé. But they can’t control me. You see it ain’t no name I won’t name. It’s up.” He then suggested that “Hollywood” deliberately kills family members of Black stars. “Michael Jordan, what about him? His daddy, right? Bill Cosby, his son. Dr. Dre, his son. Out in Hollywood, a lot of people come up missing. It feels like it might be a lot of that, in order to control, traumatize.“
Followers of KanYe West point to companies like Adidas pulling their commercial deals from the musician after threating to go “death con 3 on Jewish people” as evidence of Jewish power. Comedian Dave Chapelle talked about KanYe and Jewish power on Saturday Night Live and ended his monologue “I hope they don’t take anything away from me. Whoever they are,” with the last sentence said in a deep conspiracy-oriented undertone.
Politicians like Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) and Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) both have called out Jewish control with outrageous smears like Omar’s “Israel has hypnotized the world, may Allah awaken the people and help them see the evil doings of Israel,” and Tlaib’s comment that Jews “do it from Gaza to Detroit, and it’s a way to control people, to oppress people… designed by those who exploit the rest of us, for their own profit.“
The media echoes the sentiment of Jewish power, whether at The New York Times or CNN, with the Times sometimes using language right out of Hitler’s Mein Kampf. It’s curious that the left-wing media does it so frequently, as Republicans are twice as likely to believe the conspiracy theory of a shadow government.
Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) taking to the extremist left-wing group Democratic Socialists of America, that Jews are controlling Black and Brown people for profit.
The concept of “Jewish power” was covered in several of the Anti-Defamation League’s polling questions about anti-Semitism around the world. The poll asked eleven questions about Jews, of which five were specifically about Jewish power – over the business world, financial markets, global affairs, the U.S. government and the global media. It was in those five areas, that almost every country scored higher (meaning more believed the trope) than other questions such as being more loyal to Israel than their own country, or talk too much about the Holocaust.
In the most recent limited European 2019 poll, Poland and Ukraine were the most anti-Semitic (Muslim countries are the most anti-Semitic, as covered in the global 2014 poll). The conspiracy theories about Jews having power topped the concerns of Poles and Ukrainians.
56% and 72% of Poles and Ukrainians, respectively, felt that Jews had too much power in the business world
56% of Poles and 68% of Ukrainians felt that Jews had too much control over the financial markets
40% and 56% believe that Jews control global affairs
41% and 33% believing they control the United States government
39% and 45% believe that Jews control the global media
The scores for the six non-control questions were much lower, meaning that the driver of anti-Semitism is the Jewish power conspiracy theory, not other items like “Jews think they’re better than other people.”
Clear and Present Danger
The widespread libels are not a curiosity but a clear and present danger. The notion of Jewish power directly influences people to take harmful actions against Jews.
Consider that a radical Muslim man flew from England to Texas, where he took Jewish hostages in a synagogue, and then placed a call to a rabbi in New York, to help free a jihadi extremist in custody. Why would anyone believe that a rabbi could possibly influence the FBI to release a terrorist, other than believing that Jews have some crazy power.
English terrorist, Malik Faisal Akram, flew to Texas to try to release terrorist Aafia Siddiqui, serving an 86-year sentence for attempting to kill U.S. soldiers, by taking Jews hostage.
A deranged white man who believed that Jews are importing Hispanics to destroy “White America” shot Jews in a synagogue in Pittsburgh in 2018, saying that the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, “HIAS likes to bring invaders in that kill our people. I can’t sit by and watch my people get slaughtered. Screw your optics, I’m going in.“
Two African-American “Black Israelites” shot up a kosher grocery store in Jersey City, NJ in 2019, killing a number of people because these Black people felt there was an invasion and “insidious onslaught to African American life” as “Black homeowners were threatened… by brutes of the jewish community.” How does a couple of Jews moving into a predominantly Black neighborhood constitute an “insidious onslaught” worthy of killing people, unless these Black people have been led to believe that the Jews will overpower them?
The vile anti-Semitic conspiracy theories and violence are no longer fringe held in one corner of America. It is mainstreamed in many communities, including Muslim, Black, alt-right and alt-left.
And this is very much about communities, not organized hate groups.
According to the ADL, the sharp rise in anti-Semitic attacks in the United States are NOT from hate groups, but individuals who have become radicalized, an incredible 87% from “lone wolves.” These are people who have been spoon-fed hate-filled lies that Jews are coming to get them, both directly and indirectly.
Conspiracy theories about Jewish power and control are widespread on college campuses, mainstream and social media platforms, and from the mouths of politicians. It is broadcast from the extreme right, the left, Islamic radicals and Black influencers. The drip of noxious anti-Semitic lies is now a steady stream, coupled with calls to “punch up” and dismantle the visible and invisible power structures hurting the common person and preferred community.
It’s the same narrative that brought Nazis to power to annihilate Jews in the 1930s, and despite knowing history, society is seemingly incapable or unwilling to stop the torrent.
In New York’s 17th congressional district, Democratic incumbent Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney lost his seat to a Republican challenger, Mike Lawler. The pundits – and Maloney himself – offered their opinions as to why the five-term incumbent who spent 5.6 times more than his opponent, lost.
Their conclusion is disheartening, as it further underscores how liberals simply refuse to acknowledge the rampant anti-Semitism and attacks against Jews in society.
The New York Times asked the question directly in its headline “A Powerful N.Y. Democrat Was a Shoo-In for Re-election. What happened?” It offered some ideas including that Maloney opted for running in the wrong district after his historic contours were redrawn. The article wrote that it may have appeared like a safe choice in “diverse, left-leaning places like Peekskill and Ossining,” it neglected to consider the “significant population of right-leaning ultra-Orthodox Jews.“
Jews were the only ethnic group mentioned in the article. Not Hispanics, Blacks, Asians nor any others. Jews were the thorn in the side which helped lead to this congressman’s demise, and possibly Democratic control of the House of Representatives.
In another Times’ article, Maloney was asked why some of his constituents voted against him. He blamed media fear-mongering.
Maloney said that people in the suburbs of New York City are fed lies by conservative media about crime. “New York is home to the fiercest outlet in the News Corporation fear machine. In fairness to the governor, she and the rest of us have to contend with the hysteria of The New York Post and of Fox News… you have these suburban voters who are experiencingthose messages coming out of New York City outlets, which were heavily focused on crime.”
The outgoing congressman said that the media cooked up “messages” about crime to manufacture “fear” and “hysteria.” The issue for this New York politician who’s been serving in congress for ten years was media spin, not actual crime.
Hate crimes against Jews – particularly in New York – is not a fiction concocted to make Democrats look weak on crime. It is an alarming reality, and the scourge is reported by all media outlets, whether CBSNews, CNN or Reuters.
Jews are being harassed, assaulted and murdered with increasing frequency and rather than acknowledge the serious problem, liberals are treating it like false news.
And if that’s not bad enough, they are now blaming Orthodox Jews for flipping congress and thereby hurting the Democratic agenda in the entire country. A little more fuel for liberal Jew hatred for the coming years.
What’s Bigger News, The Killing of 80 Civilians Or 5 Terrorists? Wrong Question.
The media is obsessed with Israel. Don’t believe me? Look at The New York Times newspaper published on October 26, 2022.
Leading off the International section on page A4, was an article written by three reporters – Isabel Kershner, Gabby Sobelman and Hiba Yazbek. It was one of only two articles on the page, and featured a medium-sized picture of Palestinians at the funeral of “militants” killed by Israel.
The article spoke about Israel’s military raid on the most active Palestinian terrorists who have been shooting Israelis and planting bombs. The army successfully eliminated five of the group’s members, including its leader.
In another part of the world, 80 civilians in Myanmar were killed when several military jets deliberately bombed an outdoor music concert. That story was on the last page of the International section, page A10. It was one of three stories on the page and was written by a single journalist. It contained no pictures and competed for readers attention against two large color photos on the page, including one with cute penguins.
The population of Myanmar is 54.8 million, 5.8 times the size of Israel’s 9.4 million people. The 80 Myanmar civilians killed is 16 times as large as five Arab terrorists. Despite this, three journalists were deployed on the “smaller” story which dwarves the minimum number required to write about the large massacre at an outdoor concert.
Why does a larger story by every measure get less emphasis and coverage?
It’s not just the media. The United Nations has special agencies just to deal with Israel. Its Human Rights Council has a standing item every session for one country- Israel – to “produce a database” of Jewish businesses. It has censured Israel more than the rest of the world combined.
Reporting. Investigating. Censuring.
Watching the Jews.
Society may have acknowledged that the Protocols of the Elders of Zion is an antisemitic forgery, but has none-the-less internalized its lie that Jews are conspiring to control the world. The smear emanates constantly from the mouths of antisemites like Marc Lamont Hill’s “from Ferguson to Palestine” and Rep. Rashida Tlaib’s “from Gaza to Detroit“.
As such, the media deploys teams of journalists and spills much ink on the Jewish State just as the UN overspends time and money, as each believes that Israel will ultimately impact everyone much more than billions of people around the world. Martin Niemoller’s famous saying may have warned about “Then they came for the Jews…” portraying them as persecuted victims, but in fact, the antisemitic conspiracy theorists focus on Jews as the globalists, perpetrating vile crimes wherever they are found.
Israel is not simply held to a double standard; it is constantly under a microscope by antisemitic voyeurs who are waiting to “Catch the Jew” to validate their noxious Jew hatred.
The New York Times has used the 2022 election year to celebrate left-wing extremists and denounce right-wing political loons. Lost in their “elevated” twisted mindset is that one feeds the other and both are dangerous.
For its Sunday magazine on October 23, 2022, The Times featured Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. The cover story with large spread was entitled “The Problem of Marjorie Taylor Greene.” The paper was clear that in their opinion, her insanity is not only bad for the Republican party, but for the nation as well, as her brand of crazy becomes mainstreamed.
The same could not be said of the paper’s handling of another extremist, a member of the left-wing “squad”, Rep. Rashida Tlaib. In March 2022, weeks before the Democratic primary, she was featured in the Times’ Sunday section under “What Rashida Tlaib Represents.” Her story was portrayed as one of courage, referring to her as someone “who has risen from adverse circumstances to play a significant role in American politics, most notably bringing greater awareness to the ongoing conflict over Palestine.” She was hailed as a hero fighting for the underdog, while the paper minimized her noxious anti-Semitism. She was not flagged appropriately as a lunatic nor did the paper convey that her toxic viewpoints are harmfully infecting the Democratic Party.
To be clear, both of these women are vile anti-Semites. Greene calls out the supposed evils of George Soros, the “Rothschilds” and Jew lasers from space starting forest fires. Meanwhile, Tlaib says that Jews in Israel and the United States instigate racism to make a profit. Both are embarrassments to the United States and a threat to the safety of millions.
But the jaundiced media serves red meat to its hungry base, as the vileness becomes so commonplace that congress doesn’t bother to censure it anymore.
The cycle of depravity is in full swing. The election of one extreme feeds the election at the other end of the spectrum in another part of the country. The celebration of Tlaib on the cover section of the Times and her socialist comrade Rep. Ilhan Omar on MSNBC, feeds the extremists of the far right media to their viewers and voters. And vice versa.
We have both Republican and Democratic extremists. Christians and Muslims. Blacks and Whites. Male and Female.
All should be shunned. All should be driven from office and positions of influence.
Alas, decency is in short supply.
Instead, we abandon reality for an exciting fantasy. We’ve allowed the media and social media to manufacture worthy false gods of noble superheroes and evil super-villains supposedly fighting for us and our entertainment, like a script in a Marvel comic book universe. In this version, we get to be avatars in the fiction, with likes and retweets.
To our own crippling detriment.
The adrenaline is now our elixir and desired end-state, as peace and stability have become discarded as outdated fictions that never existed. Tragically, we are woefully watching the destruction of a great society, and rather than demand a sharp pivot to the center, we remain transfixed, scrolling our screens for more.
