The Right Number of Anti-Semites in Congress

Posted on June 11, 2021 by First.One.Through

There is a growing movement for the U.S. Congress to look much like America. The argument goes that a representative government should resemble its constituents which would be better able to incorporate their perspectives when passing laws.

In the early years of American democracy, the halls of government were populated by White Christian men. Over time, women and Blacks were given the right to vote and ultimately began running for and winning seats in government.

The tapestry of America can be seen in a picture of the 117th Congress.

*Members of 117th Congress being sworn in, January 2021 (photo: Franmarie Metzler)*

In addition to outward appearance is the lived realities of people’s experiences, feelings and emotional state.

There are Americans who are mentally unstable. Who are racists and misogynists. Who are psychopaths, anti-Semites and abusers. These individuals are represented by members of Congress and are also members of Congress. It was true when America was only governed by White Christian men and is true now with people with a spectrum of backgrounds.

America’s government looks and thinks more like swaths of America.

Some of today’s notable anti-Semites in Washington, D.C. are Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI). While the passions of Jew haters have representation in government, are there enough people to properly represent Americans’ animosity towards Jews?

According to the Anti-Defamation League 2015 poll, 10% of Americans hold anti-Semitic beliefs. With 100 senators and 435 members of the House, the right number of anti-Semites in government should be 53 politicians. The three infamous anti-Semites may stand out because they have to pull above their weight. Americans may crave more voices disparaging Jews. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY), Betty McCollum (D-MN) and Maxine Waters (D-CA) seemingly know as much, and are leaning in to be carried by the tailwinds of hate.

A Congress that speaks and votes like the worst parts of America thinks, is being showcased by Representatives Omar, Tlaib and Greene today. They are a mirror of the ugliest parts of our society. That frame will only widen and darken should we fail to collectively change course.

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Check Your Kippah Privilege

Posted on June 6, 2021 by First.One.Through

Jews have been the most persecuted minority around the world for centuries. Even in the United States, home to the second largest group of Jews (after Israel), an average Jew today is roughly three times more likely to suffer a hate crime than an average Black or LGBT+ person.

Yet Jews go on and live their lives in the U.S. They walk the streets and run businesses knowing that this incredible country is different than others where ancestors lived until pogroms, edicts and wars forced them to leave. The United States not only has the benefit of not having centuries of systemic Jew-hatred built into its history like many Christian and Muslim countries but was built on the notion of equality and liberty. Jews believe that there is finally a government that will protect them.

With such knowledge, Jews outwardly wear their Judaism, literally. Religious Jewish men wear kippahs / yamulkes (head coverings) on their heads throughout the day. They can be seen wearing their tallisim as they walk the streets on the Sabbath. They place mezuzahs on the doorposts of their homes and businesses and don’t even think about plastering the word “kosher” on their restaurants.

Perhaps, until now.

Amid the current spike in attacks on Jews from virtually every part of society – Blacks, Whites, Muslims and the alt-left – the Biden Administrations’ Jewish engagement director, Aaron Keyak, tweeted on May 21:

“It pains me to say this, but if you fear for your life or physical safety take off your kippah and hide your magen david (Star of David).“

This was not a yeshiva principal suggesting how Jewish boys could lessen the chance of being attacked. This was the president of the United States’ Jewish outreach person telling Jews that the environment in the United States today dictates that they should hide. President Biden’s liaison to the Jewish community delivered a message that the U.S. government cannot assure their safety.

Such a statement on its own is horrifying. When it is delivered the same week as Biden extolling Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) after her smear campaign that the Jewish State was intentionally murdering Arabs in a racist bloodlust (rather than defending itself from a genocidal HAMAS terrorist group), it’s terrifying.

*“You’re a fighter. And God thank you for being a fighter,” Biden said to Tlaib,after she argued for him to stop the Jewish State’s defense against rocket fire from Palestinian Arabs in Gaza*
*(Photo/Evan Vucci) (AP)*

Jews understand the combined message: the Democratic party is being increasingly taken over by shrill voices which seek to halt the protections that the United States once provided its Jewish citizens and Jewish allies. And the leadership is listening.

Jews in the United States in modern times have been blessed with safety and security and have prospered despite the anti-Semitism prevalent in society. If the government’s new policy is for Jews to check their religious privilege as the alt-left advances its distinctly anti-religion and anti-Zionist campaign, Jews will be forced to trade their prayer books for the Diary of Anne Frank as they canvas which neighbor will hide them from the mob.

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Mum on Black, Brown and Leftist Anti-Semitism

Posted on June 1, 2021 by First.One.Through

After several weeks of smearing the Jewish State in its latest defensive battle with the terrorists of HAMAS, The New York Times chose to address anti-Semitism in the United States. However, being alt-left, the former newspaper portrayed all of the assailants in a variety of alt-right / Republican / White supremacy clothing. Not a Black, Brown or leftist anti-Semite could be found.

The May 27, 2021 New York Times article was called “Anti-Semitism Surges in Wake of Gaza Clash,” and began on the bottom of the front page and continued along with three black-and-white images on page A17. The pictures, like the article, chose to sanitize “Pro-Palestinian” Arab anti-Semitism as well as hatred from the Black community.

The article stated:

“Until the latest surge, anti-Semitic violence in recent years was largely considered a right-wing phenomenon, driven by a white supremacist movement emboldened by rhetoric from former President Donald J. Trump, who often trafficked in stereotypes.

“Many of the most recent incidents, by contrast, have come from perpetrators expressing support for the Palestinian cause and criticism of Israel’s right-wing government.”

The Times wrote that there are seemingly two types of anti-Semitism – racists from the right-wing and those opposed to the Israeli right-wing. The two rights are both (presumably) wrong, and the “left” was noticeably absent from any accusation.

When the article wrote about two men recently apprehended in connection with attacks on Jewish persons and locations, it only mentioned their names, Waseem Awawdeh and Ali Alaheri. It did not mention their ethnicity (presumably Arab and Muslim) which the paper does frequently in articles with White attackers.

The article also noted the Charlottesville “Unite the Right rally in 2017” where people shouted “Jews will not replace us!” That event was attended by over 100 people. The paper failed to similarly write about the Black Muslim Nation of Islam leader, Louis Farrakhan’s address to thousands of people in 2018 where he said he’s not an anti-Semite, “I’m an anti-Termite.” Farrakhan posted a video of the remarks to his million followers, but the Times ignored the episode.

The Times went on to list the shootings of Jews by White gunmen in Pittsburgh and San Diego, but did not list any attacks by Black people such as the killings in Jersey City by an organized team of Black Israelites or the machete attack by a Black man at a rabbi’s house in Monsey, NY. Nor would it describe the rocks and bricks thrown into synagogues in Riverdale, NY or at the faces of Jews in Brooklyn by Black people.

Because that would alter the narrative that the progressive left is pushing: hatred and racism are solely the domain of White Republicans.

To underscore the progressive argument, the Times went on to write “Jews and others were particularly stung by comments by Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, who has spent the past week repeatedly comparing mask and vaccine mandates to the treatment of Jews by Nazi Germany, and by the Republican leadership’s slow response to her remarks.” The article would not discuss the repeated disgusting anti-Semitic remarks of Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and the Democratic leadership’s vigorous defense of her. No mention of Rashida Tlaib‘s (D-MI) only showing concern for anti-Semitism when she thought a White person committed the crime. No review of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) comparing the holding cells at the Mexican border to a concentration camp.

The omissions of Black, Brown and progressive anti-Semites were not oversights but a deliberate reorientation by progressive America after the murder of George Floyd to protect people of color.

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) wrote about the Intelligence Project (IP) in October 2020 which called for demoting the racism and anti-Semitism by Black people because it would lead to over-policing. The report argued that Black anger is warranted while White anger is not:

“SPLC, and IP more specifically, recognizes the common language shared by our Black Separatist listing and federal attempts to criminalize Black activism. We reject federal law enforcement’s false and misleading contention regarding threats from Black separatists. We believe this contention is used to justify the over-policing and surveillance of communities of color. Contributing to a false dichotomy does not serve SPLC’s mission of racial equity…. The Black Separatist listing created a color line bias, separating hate and extremism by race and granting the appearance of a false equivalency of equal hate on both sides. But the hate is not equal. Black separatism was born out of valid anger against very real historical and systemic oppression…. Black separatism is a response to white supremacy and white nationalism…. We aim to expose these groups without helping the FBI in its definition of Black identity extremists.”

For the SPLC, Black Israelites may have killed Jews in Jersey City because of anti-Semitism, but at the core, their anger was justified because non-Blacks were moving into their communities. Progressives may note that Farrakhan peddles in anti-Semitism, but they consider it low-grade and based on righteous anger.

For progressives, racism can only be viewed through the lens of power, and they have concluded that Jews have all the power relative to People of Color and Palestinian Arabs, failing to note the deep anti-Semitism in that opinion.

The New York Times has been writing since the Obama years that anti-Semitism exists because the alt-right is racist and Israel is racist because it hated Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The “Defund Police” and BlackLivesMatter movements are giving the progressive media additional leeway to absolve the anti-Semitism of Black and Brown people.

There is a message for Jews to internalize in observing how the left-wing media insists that the only real anti-Semites are right-wing White Republicans as it shields the anti-Jewish hate from people of color: Jews are simply tools in their political machinations to reorient America. Anti-Semitism is not a real concern for progressives but an issue to be used selectively to advance a massive redistribution of power and wealth.

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‘The Maiming of the Jew’

Posted on May 25, 2021 by First.One.Through

Joseph Borgen, a 29-year old Jewish New Yorker, was walking on his hometown’s streets on a sunny May day, when a gang of Arabs surrounded him, beat him to the ground and sprayed his face with mace for a minute. The police apprehended one of the assailants, Waseem Awawdeh, 23, from Brooklyn who said “If I could do it again, I would do it again.“

*Palestinian supporters call for violence against the Jewish State amid days of conflict between Israel and HAMAS, in Brooklyn, New York, US, May 15, 2021. (photo credit: RASHID UMAR ABBASI / REUTERS)*

The unprovoked hate crime happened amid various pro-Israel and pro-HAMAS protests in New York City in the aftermath of a 10-day fight between the two forces. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio tweeted after the attack on Borgen “Anti-semitism has NO place in our city.“

But it very much does. Attacking Jews because of Israel is celebrated on the stages of New York’s opera house and loudly defended in the liberal New York media.

In October 2014, the Metropolitan Opera House put on “The Death of Klinghoffer,” an opera that explored the killing of an elderly wheelchair-bound Jew vacationing on an anniversary cruise around Greece, by Palestinian terrorists. The New York Times wrote that the general manager of the Met, Peter Gelb, noted that the composer “John Adams said that in composing ‘The Death of Klinghoffer’ he tried to understand the hijackers and their motivations, and to look for humanity in the terrorists.” The Times editorial on June 19, 2014 offered its disapproval that “bowing to the wishes of Leon Klinghoffer’s daughters and other Jewish critics,” the Met cancelled the global telecast of the show so the whole world could not watch the spectacle. The New Yorker magazine wrote that “when Adams walked onstage, during the curtain calls, he received a huge ovation. I imagine that a similar roar would have greeted Gelb had he appeared,” and added “the opera is not anti-Semitic, nor does it glorify terrorism.”

If Jews would only read the local progressive rags, they would know not to be offended and let the masses enjoy their re-education that Palestinian terrorists have rightful grievances to attack Jews – ambulatory or otherwise – around the world.

Alas, those powerful Jews ignored their enlightened teachers and tried to stop a production that explored “the humanity of the terrorists” in killing an American Jew who had absolutely nothing to do with Palestinians. This became another reason to hate Jews, again of their own making: because of Israel and because of their powerful control on society. Don’t take the progressive press’ word for it: ask New York Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo about their oversized clout.

For the past decade, the liberal media has systematically ignored, minimized and excused anti-Semitism. For example, when their champion President Barack Obama said in February 2015 that “vicious zealots… randomly shoot a bunch of folks in a deli in Paris,” not one liberal media outlet challenged the absurd assertion that the attack was not rooted in anti-Semitism and that the killer was not targeting Jews.

In March 2016, the New York-based United Nations passed resolutions to ban the usage of religion when tied to terrorism in an effort to curb “Islamophobia.” Yet less than a week later, it called out “Jewish extremists.” The Arab and Muslim-dominated global agency acted to “protect” the honor of 1.8 billion Muslims but had no concern about vilifying a few million Jews at the same time.

In early 2019, the leaders of the U.S. Congress could similarly not condemn Ilhan Omar (D-MN), a freshman member who repeatedly spouted anti-Semitic bile, and instead called out generic hatred (which Omar called a victory for Muslims). Some months later, the same members of Congress – including New York Senator Chuck Schumer – knelt on the floor wearing African Kente cloth to specify that Black Lives Matter in a moment of solidarity he could not find for fellow Jews earlier.

In September 2019, New York’s only Ivy League school, Columbia University, invited Malaysian Prime Minster Mahathir Mohamad to speak on campus, even though it was widely known that he referred to Jews as “hooked nosed” and was “glad to be labeled an anti-Semite.” Shortly thereafter, the Columbia Alumni for Campus Fairness produced a report documenting 100 anti-Jewish incidents at Columbia and Barnard over the prior three years including a swastika painted on a Jewish professor’s office and various faculty members who promote Holocaust denial.

Perhaps not wanting to be outdone, New York University awarded the President’s Service Award to Students for Justice in Palestine, an anti-Israel and anti-Jewish group.

The reality is that Jews have always been the most targeted victims of hate crimes in the United States – more than Blacks, Muslims or the LGBT community. They’ve been attacked when there have been fights in Israel and when it has been calm, when the Democrats ruled as well as when Republicans were in charge. The anti-Semitism is a disgraceful constant.

What is also undeniable, is that physical attacks on Jews have skyrocketed as politicians call Jews both powerful and dangerous while the liberal press anoints Victims of Preference which cannot be Jews. The daily headlines and editorials in The New York Times serve as propaganda material for HAMAS, inverting cause-and-effect, by repeating lies about “ethnic cleansing” and refusing to mention the anti-Semitic genocidal foundation of HAMAS. To cleanse any appearance of anti-Jewish animus, it allows Jews to join the fray.

New York’s cultural and educational scene welcomed anti-Semites to the stage, and liberal politicians and press took box seats. As the world democratized content, the play moved outside. It’s called ‘The Maiming of the Jew,’ and features real New Yorkers.

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Asking for an Anti-Semitic Friend…

Posted on May 13, 2021 by First.One.Through

“Listen, I’ve got a friend who really hates Jews but doesn’t want to be called an anti-Semite. It seems that the current situation in Israel may be a good cover for beating up some Jews or torching synagogues. Any thoughts?”

“You have to be careful. Many synagogues in Germany are guarded by police and have bulletproof glass.”

“You know the police all work for those Jews now, right? It’s all part of them controlling our country. How about burning Israeli flags in front of synagogues or vandalizing a Holocaust memorial?”

“If you burn – excuse me – if your friend burns an Israeli flag, why do it in front of a synagogue instead of the Israeli embassy? Same thing with doing something at a Holocaust memorial – you’ll still be accused of anti-Semitism because that has nothing to do with Israel but with Jews.”

*Muslims in Europe protesting Israel and Jews, showing solidarity with far-right anti-Semites and Nazis in a bizarre push of solidarity against a common perceived enemy*

“What about vandalizing Jewish cemeteries? I… I mean, my friend… can always just be accused of some youthful pranks rather than Jew-hatred, right?”

“Possibly. Certainly by progressives.”

“Yeah, but the problem with cemeteries is that those Jews are already dead. How about smoke bombs at kosher restaurants and groceries. They probably don’t have bulletproof glass and likely have a good number of Jews who really care about being Jews.”

“You’ll get yourself back in that trap of being called an anti-Semite.”

“Not necessarily. You remember that President Obama said that the shooters in the Parisian kosher supermarket were just doing it ‘randomly.’ Maybe no one will care.”

“You may be right. The New York Times repeatedly talked about the European pogroms against Jews during the 2014 Gaza war as simply having an “anti-Semitic Tinge.” First in an article by Dan Bilefsky on July 21, then a July 24 article by Helene Cooper and Somini Sengupta, and yet again in a July 27 article by Jodi Roduren. Despite all of the violence against Jews over the week, the main newspaper in the United States totally downplayed the obvious Jew-hatred.”

“The liberal media is actively pushing the notion that a person can be anti-Israel without being an anti-Semite. It seems like good cover for attacking Jews. We know the United Nations won’t say differently.”

“It’s an excellent point. That must be why so many anti-Semites donate to Palestinian charities – it’s not that they care about a bunch of Arabs; they don’t give anything to any other Muslim group. It’s the fact that it not only irritates the Jews but inflames a war in Palestine so they can begin to attack their local Jews with free abandon.”

“I know. I admit that I go to the website NGO-Monitor which tracks all of the charities which give money to Palestinians and then I give money to all of them. I just sit back and wait for the missiles to fly so I… I mean this guy I know… can begin to beat up the Jews in the neighborhood carefree.”

“Yup. The Palestinian cause is the gift that keeps giving for anti-Semites.”

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The Hate Crime Offenders

Posted on March 23, 2021 by First.One.Through

On certain days, it seems like the hate never ends.

Shootings, sucker punches, vandalism. The hate inspired attacks keep happening around the United States and around the world.

*Trend in hate crimes in the United States. Source: FBI Hate Crimes Reports*

The FBI has been tracking hate crimes for years and principally, the hatred falls into three main categories: race/ ethnicity; religion and gender. As to the victims, Blacks, Jews and the LGBT community are attacked the most frequently, respectively.

The overall trend in hate crimes was declining but began to uptick in 2015 due to a 23% spike in anti-religion attacks. The numbers spiked again in 2017 with year-on-year increases of 18%, 23% and 23% for race, ethnicity and religion-based hate crimes, respectively. It is the only year when three different categories had double-digit increases in attacks.

The news reported the headline numbers and sometimes did an iota of work in discussing the frequency of attacks. For example, with Blacks making up 13.4% of the U.S. population and Whites constituting 76.3%, the fact that the gross number of attacks on Blacks is the highest than any racial group is magnified when factoring that there are 5.7 times fewer Black people than Whites.

There is almost no coverage regarding the attackers but the FBI tracks such information too, albeit the data is rough as in many cases, the ethnicity of the attacker is unknown.

*Percent of hate crimes committed by White people. Source: FBI Hate Crimes Reports*

White people are much more likely to attack Jews than the Black or the LGBT communities. In every year since 2004, White people accounted for more than 76% of the anti-Semitic crimes, the rate one would expect if every race and ethnicity was just as likely to commit a hate crime. The disproportionate share of anti-Semitic attacks peaked in 2005 and has run at roughly the expected rate since 2015.

White people accounted for roughly half of the racist attacks in 2019, quite a bit below the expected 76.3% level. Their share of the racist attacks – mostly against Black and Hispanic people – has been rising up since 2016. This coincides with the Trump presidency as the media reported.

White attacks against the LGBT+ community has been on a steady decline since 2008. While White bias attacks by race and sexual orientation used to track closely from 2004 to 2009, the gap has opened up considerably.

*Percent of hate crimes committed by Black people. Source: FBI Hate Crimes Reports*

The chart for Black offenders is the inverse of that for Whites.

Black people are committing a disproportionately high level of the hate crimes against the LGBT community, and the trend line is getting worse. Rather than committing 13.4% of the hate crimes in line with their overall population, Blacks committed 27.2% of the hate crimes motivated by sexual orientation.

When it comes to bias attacks stemming from hatred of religion and race, the Black community is roughly in line with the expected distribution, however the trends are on a fairly steady upward climb. Consider that Black people accounted for over three times the percentage of anti-Jewish hate crimes in 2019 as they did in 2005.

*Percent of hate crimes committed by Hispanic people. Source: FBI Hate Crimes Reports*

The FBI has only tracked the Hispanic community as a distinct Offender category since 2013, with little data in that year and 2014. Presumably, they were included in the category of Black offenders, so the combined data would make the Black and Hispanic numbers look quite bad.

Using the FBI data as compiled, the Hispanic community commits far fewer hate crimes than the size of its population (16.7%) would suggest. However, the trend lines are going up for every category.

Asian Americans account for 5.6% of the U.S. population, and commit an insignificant percentage of all hate crimes.

Comparing the the three main ethnic groups shows a difference in the focus of hate crimes.

Offender	Whites	Blacks	Hispanics
#1 Target	Jews (flat)	LGBT (climbing)	LGBT (climbing)
#2 Target	Race (climbing)	Jews (erratic)	Race (climbing)
#3 Target	LGBT (declining)	Race (climbing)	Jews (climbing)

Ranked Targets of Hate Crimes, by Offender Groups

When looking at hate crimes by victim, race-related attacks are the most frequent and gather the most attention. Yet when viewing hate crimes by offenders, race-related hate crimes are not the leading motivation for Whites, Blacks or Hispanics, where anti-Semitism and anti-LGBT sentiments dominate. Perhaps it is time to look at hate crimes through the other side of the prism.

(note: in 2019, there were 2,314 attacks against Black people while there were 995 against Jews and 867 against gay men. There was another 752 against others in the LGBT+ community. An average Jew and LGBT person is much more likely to be attacked in a hate crime than an average Black person.)

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The Re-Introduction of the ‘Powerful’ Jew Smear

Posted on March 20, 2021 by First.One.Through

Henry Ford Sr., the founder of the Ford Motor Corporation was a well known vile anti-Semite. He published a four-volume work called “The International Jew” in the early 1920’s which encapsulated much of the bile from the Russian forgery “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion“. Both publications assert that Jews seek to control the world, as summed up in a line from Ford’s work: “If there is one quality that attracts Jews, it is power. Wherever the seat of power may be, thither they swarm obsequiously.“

This smear has been uttered from the lips of the world’s worst genocidal anti-Semites, from Nazi Germany in the 1930’s and 1940’s, to the Palestinian political / terrorist group Hamas in the present day.

It is catching on in liberal circles today as well.

Consider the March 13, 2021 New York Times article about “nearly $3 billion earmarked for private schools… which came after Mr. Schumer was lobbied by the powerful Orthodox Jewish community in New York City, riled other Democratic leaders and public school advocates.” The “powerful” Jews got a U.S. senator to funnel money to their schools “even after House Democrats expressly sought to curtail such funding by effectively capping coronavirus relief for private education in the bill at about $200 million. Mr. Schumer, in the 11th hour, struck the House provision and inserted $2.75 billion — about 12 times more funding than the House had allowed.”

New York Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo agrees with the Times about Orthodox Jews. In October 2020 he berated the community about their actions during the pandemic and added “these ultra-Orthodox communities, who are also very politically powerful, don’t kid yourself.“

In January 2019, CNN’s Christiane Amanpour said that the pro-Israel community controls Congress saying “that is generally sort of a right of passage for politicians in the United States and that is sort of to profess sort of fealty, or at least pay homage, to AIPAC, the pro-Israel PAC that is very, very prominent.” Newly-minted Democratic member of Congress Ilhan Omar of “it’s all about the Benjamins“-fame enthusiastically agreed. The former Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan David Duke was so impressed, that he sent Omar a heart emoji.

*David Duke Tweets to Ilhan Omar about the “Zionist Occupation Government”*

MSNBC wrote articles about how Republican “candidates for president are trumping out to Las Vegas to go kiss the ring of a billionaire casino owner,” Sheldon Adelson. However, when MSNBC wrote about Michael Bloomberg spending $400 million on the 2020 presidential race it wrote “Bloomberg’s ambitions serve as a reminder of the limits of money.” It also wrote in a positive tone that “Mayor Bloomberg and his team are making good on their commitment to beating Donald Trump.” For the liberal MSM, it would seem that Jewish billionaires are manipulative schemers when they back Republicans but noble fighters who sometimes lose when supporting Democrats.

The media’s education about Jewish control is not limited to politicians. The New York Times bemoaned how the Metropolitan Opera House “bow[ed] to the wishes… of Jewish critics” of the ‘Death of Klinghoffer’ opera and cancelled its global telecast.

When the largest newspaper and the governor of the state with the largest number of Jews comfortably smear the Jewish community in the manner of Henry Ford, decent people must assess the state of anti-Semitism everywhere in the United States, and most definitely, the rest of the world.

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Orthodoxy in ‘Shtisel’ and ‘Nurses’

Posted on February 25, 2021 by First.One.Through

The Ultra Orthodox Jewish community does not often get represented in mass media. In recent times, two shows focused on that community with dramatically different results – and seemingly, intentions.

Netflix aired two seasons of an Israeli show “Shtisel” about an Ultra Orthodox family in Jerusalem. The show revealed the complicated family structure and dynamics of a dysfunctional Haredi family to a surprisingly broad public appeal. Jews and non-Jews around the world flocked to watch the show as they saw much of themselves in the family relationships despite the distant and insular community in which they lived.

This was in sharp contrast to a recent episode of NBC’s “Nurses” which aired on February 9 which also featured religious Jews. In that episode, a young Hasidic patient refused a bone graft lest the skin come from a “dead goyim leg from anyone. An Arab, a woman.” Due to howls of protest of the disgusting portrayal, NBC pulled the show from its online library.

“Shtisel” did not shy away from the peculiar traditions of the Hasidic community such as rigid gender roles, courtship rituals or dress code. The writers did not try to make the characters perfect in any matter: they were at once deeply flawed and deeply human. Their failures and pains enveloped the audience. While the people on screen were clearly different, the common humanity was appreciated and celebrated by all viewers.

This was in sharp contrast to the approach of “Nurses.” The show did not try to show religious Jews as sharing the same day-to-day conflicts and concerns but cast them as distinctly foreign with unheard of alien beliefs. These Jews held racist and xenophobic attitudes that were designed to shock the audience. These were another set of the “deplorables” that Hillary Clinton had warned America about. They weren’t the classic white-hooded clansmen, but black-hatted supremacists all the same.

Screenshot from episode of TV show ‘Nurses’

Not two weeks later, NBC’s Saturday Night Live aired a segment of “Weekend Update” which accused Israel of only vaccinating Jews against COVID-19, leaving non-Jews to die, a complete falsehood. No apology was forthcoming from the comedian, the show or network.

The vilification of religious Jews in the United States is growing ever more commonplace and mainstream media and liberal politicians will tell you that it is all from right-wing fringe groups, even as they air anti-Semitic segments with increasing regularity.

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The Crime, Hatred and Motivation. Antisemitism All The Same

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The Veil of Hatred

Posted on December 29, 2020 by First.One.Through

The expression “the best defense is a good offense” is most often applied in the military and sporting competitions. It is now being used regarding anti-Semitism with greater frequency.

The World Conference Against Racism met from August 31 to September 7, 2001 in Durban, South Africa with a stated noble goal: to rid the world of racism and intolerance while promoting human rights. However, the forum was hijacked by several Muslim and Arab countries who pushed for particular attention on one country, Israel, even as the conference was conceived to address a global phenomenon without delving into any specific country.

Several western countries did their utmost to strip the Israel agenda item from the conference to no avail and were left with the choice of not attending an important event. The United States’ compromise was to send a mid-level representative rather than Secretary of State Colin Powell. Ultimately, the conference became so toxic with anti-Israel sentiment that many withdrew. Powell ultimately described the situation as “a throwback to the days of ‘Zionism equals racism’” at the United Nations.

The Durban Conference became the playbook for many Muslim and Arab countries as well as far-left progressives to attack Israel under the veil of fighting racism. Each held conferences and promoted peace centers to establish co-existence bona fides while simultaneously trampling human rights in their own countries and promoting a fictitious anti-Israel narrative.

Recent conferences and center openings include:

Opening the King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz (Saudi Arabia) International Centre for Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue (KAICIID) in Vienna on November 26, 2012
Forum on the Role of Religious Leaders in Preventing Incitement that could Lead to Atrocity Crimes, held in Fez, Morocco, on April 23 and 24, 2015
the International Institute for Tolerance and the Muslim Council of Elders in the United Arab Emirates, in 2017
Doha Conference on Interfaith Dialogue, held in Qatar February 20-21, 2018
the World Tolerance Summit, in Abu Dhabi on November 13-14, 2019

The notion of interreligious dialogue and peaceful coexistence sounds wonderful, but the hypocrisy of the situation doesn’t seem to enter the minds of the willing participants.

The KAICIID website states that “Our vision is a world where there is respect, understanding, and cooperation among people, justice, peace and reconciliation, and an end to the abuse of religion to justify oppression, violence, and conflict.” Yet this statement comes from an organization founded and named for the leader of Saudi Arabia which denies women basic rights and kills people for converting from Islam.

Apostasy is subject to capital punishment in many of the countries which hosted recent interfaith conferences, and include: Afghanistan; Brunei; Mauritania; Qatar; Saudi Arabia; Sudan; the United Arab Emirates and Yemen. In 2013, the Supreme Council of Religious Scholars in Morocco issued a fatwa that Muslims who leave Islam should be sentenced to death.

Additionally, Qatar funds mosques around the world which host imams calling for people to kill Jews.

Yet these countries host conferences and centers promoting coexistence among faiths.

People would never attend a conference on the freedom of the press in Turkey as they comprehend the irrationality of discussing such topic in the country that jails the most journalists every year. They would similarly not attend a forum on Holocaust studies in Iran when its leaders actively deny the Holocaust.

But they show up for interfaith dialogue in countries that deny basic human rights.

When the Jewish Voice for Peace hosted a discussion in December 2020 to discuss anti-Semitism with panelists who want to destroy Israel, it employed that familiar twist of attempting to excuse the accused.

anti-Israel group hosted event about anti-Semitism to absolve people accused of anti-Semitism

Genuine reform to combat bigotry and anti-Semitism is most welcome and should be encouraged but many of today’s conferences are only granting absolution to haters and sanctifying them as champions of a just cause. Beware of the Durban Conference coming to a forum near you.

Peter Beinart is an Apologist for Anti-Semites

Posted on December 4, 2020 by First.One.Through

Peter Beinart writes for the New York Times, is a contributor to CNN and serves as the Jewish mouthpiece to mask anti-Semitism as something less than anti-Semitism to the world.

In attempting to defend Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) of the accusation that she promotes the destruction of Israel when she says “From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free,” Beinart offered the following:

“I get why many Jews find slogan “Palestine from River to Sea” frightening. Some have used it to disregard Jewish rights (1st Hamas charter, for instance). But @RashidaTlaib has been clear that Jews + Palestinians deserve equality. Suggesting otherwise is a smear“

Peter Beinart defends Hamas and Rashida Tlaib

The founding Hamas Charter in 1988 did not simply “disregard Jewish rights” as Beinart claims. It is a screed against Jews as evil creatures who have taken over Muslim land.

Opening: The text makes clear the problem is Jews: “they who have received the scriptures [Jews]… the greater part of them are transgressors… smitten with vileness wheresoever they are found.” The solution to the problem of Palestine is found in a religious war: “Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it.“
Preamble: The preamble lays out the enemy and charge: “Our struggle against the Jews is very great and very serious. [Hamas] is but one squadron that should be supported by more and more squadrons from this vast Arab and Islamic world, until the enemy is vanquished and Allah’s victory is realised.”
Articles 1 & 2: Makes clear that the fight is a religious one: “The Movement’s programme is Islam… one of the wings of Moslem Brotherhood.”
Articles 3 & 4: Is a call to “raise the banner of Jihad in the face of the oppressors, so that they would rid the land and the people of their uncleanliness, vileness and evils.” A call to expel all non-Muslims.
Articles 5 & 6: Hamas seeks to “raise the banner of Allah over every inch of Palestine… in the absence of Islam, strife will be rife, oppression spreads, evil prevails and schisms and wars will break out.”
Articles 7 & 8: States that the “struggle against the Zionist invaders… goes back to 1939,” well before the Six Day War in 1967, and should be fought by killing Jews: “Moslems fight the Jews (killing the Jews).”
Articles 9 & 10: Declared that evil arises wherever Islam is not in charge
Articles 11 & 12: Declare that “the land of Palestine is an Islamic Waqf consecrated for future Moslem generations,” and “Nothing in nationalism is more significant or deeper than in the case when an enemy should tread Moslem land” making non-Jews a national and religious offense and threat
Articles 13 & 14: Call for a religious war as there “is no solution for the Palestinian question except through Jihad,” because diplomacy and “conferences are only ways of setting the infidels in the land of the Moslems.”
Articles 15 & 16: Declare that this is a religious war: “In face of the Jews’ usurpation of Palestine, it is compulsory that the banner of Jihad be raised…. the Palestinian problem is a religious problem, and should be dealt with on this basis.”
Articles 17 & 18: Call for every Muslim man, woman and child to fight to “liberate” the land from Zionists who are “hostile to humanity and Islam“
Articles 19 & 20: Actually calls Jews by the names of the people who had slaughtered them: Jews are a “vicious enemy which acts in a way similar to Nazism… In their Nazi treatment, the Jews made no exception for women or children… [Jews] attack people where their breadwinning is concerned, extorting their money,” repeating an antisemitic canard.
Articles 21 & 22: Tout conspiracy theories which combine Hitler’s Mein Kampf and the forgery ‘Protocols of the Elders of Zion’- “With their money, they took control of the world media, news agencies, the press, publishing houses, broadcasting stations, and others. With their money they stirred revolutions in various parts of the world with the purpose of achieving their interests and reaping the fruit therein…. They obtained the Balfour Declaration, formed the League of Nations through which they could rule the world. They were behind World War II, through which they made huge financial gains by trading in armaments, and paved the way for the establishment of their state. It was they who instigated the replacement of the League of Nations with the United Nations and the Security Council to enable them to rule the world through them. There is no war going on anywhere, without having their finger in it.“
Articles 23 & 24: call for Muslim unity to fight their enemies.
Articles 25, 26 & 27: Call for Arab and Muslim unity in the “the liberation of Palestine… our fate is one and the enemy is a joint enemy to all of us... Islamic Resistance Movement is a fighting movement.”
Article 28: Continues to label Zionists as contemptible: “The Zionist invasion is a vicious invasion… using all evil and contemptible ways… infiltration and espionage operations on the secret organizations… aim at undermining societies, destroying values, corrupting consciences, deteriorating character and annihilating Islam. It is behind the drug trade and alcoholism in all its kinds so as to facilitate its control and expansion…. Israel, Judaism and Jews challenge Islam and the Moslem people.“
Articles 29 & 30: Call for the Islamic world to fight “the ferocity of the Zionist offensive and the Zionist influence in many countries exercised through financial and media control.”
Article 31: Calls for the supremacy of Islam, “Peace and quiet would not be possible except under the wing of Islam… It is the duty of the followers of other religions to stop disputing the sovereignty of Islam in this region… The Zionist Nazi activities against our people will not last for long.“
Article 32: Continues to build on the conspiracy theories found in Articles 21 & 22: “The Zionist plan is limitless. After Palestine, the Zionists aspire to expand from the Nile to the Euphrates. When they will have digested the region they overtook, they will aspire to further expansion, and so on. Their plan is embodied in the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion”, and their present conduct is the best proof of what we are saying.… here is no way out except by concentrating all powers and energies to face this Nazi, vicious Tatar invasion. The alternative is loss of one’s country, the dispersion of citizens, the spread of vice on earth and the destruction of religious values… fight with the warmongering Jews.”
Article 33: A call to global jihad against the Jews, “everywhere in the Islamic world will come forward in response to the call of duty while loudly proclaiming: Hail to Jihad. Their cry will reach the heavens and will go on being resounded until liberation is achieved, the invaders vanquished.”
Articles 34 & 35: Are calls for a religious war, “Moslems were able to retrieve the land only when they stood under the wing of their religious banner… This is the only way to liberate Palestine… Nothing can overcome iron except iron.… confront the Zionist invasion and defeat it… rid themselves of the effects of ideological invasion.”
Article 36: Hamas are the “soldiers… against the Zionist enemy and its lackeys.”

That is the Hamas Charter which Beinart said simply “disregards Jewish rights.”

The United Nations disregards Jewish rights when it opposes Jews – and only Jews – praying in their holiest location. It disregards Jewish rights when it declares that Jews – and only Jews – cannot live in parts of their holy land.

Hamas doesn’t “disregard Jewish rights” as Beinart states; it denies the basic humanity and dignity of Jews and Judaism with vast conspiracy theories and calls to kill Jews and destroy Israel. To voluntarily and publicly defend the Hamas Charter in such way is outrageous and appalling. Beinart is as likely to defend the Nazi regime with such heinous sentiments, and underscores why he is so comfortable defending Tlaib.

Related First One Through articles:

Too Many and Too Few Charges of ‘Nazi’

WHY The Progressive Assault on Israel

The War Against Israel and Jewish Civilians

I See Dead People

The Insidious Jihad in America

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