On Saturday, April 27, 2019, the Jewish Sabbath and the last day of Passover, a murdering bastard walked into the Chabad House in Poway, California and started shooting. One woman was killed and three others were injured. The shooting occurred exactly six months after the mass murder at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh. The shooter was a 19 year old white male and an apparent adherent to white supremacy. In a manifesto that is believed to be the shooter's, he bemoaned what he alleged to be Jewish control over the economy, Jews killing Christ, and other assorted alleged sins. Here is what this hate-filled man wrote: "Every Jew young and old has contributed to these (alleged sins). For these crimes they deserve nothing but hell. I will send them there." (This blog will not name such evil people, and the expletives I may use in private to describe the shooter would not be appropriately stated here.)
We are not born with hatred towards a particular group of people. It has to be learned. And it has to be spoken and written and taught in order to pass it on to others. As stated in this blog previously, religious hate crimes overwhelmingly target Jews. Yes, Jew-hatred comes from neo-Nazis and white supremacists. It is also seen across the country at numerous colleges and universities - by left-wing student groups, Islamic groups and many left-wing college professors. And, as noted in the last post, we hear the Jew-hatred from members of the United States Congress. Congresswoman Ilhan Omar has repeatedly made anti-Semitic comments, from accusing Jews of dual loyalty, to the use of Jewish money in politics, to saying "Israel has hypnotized the world, may Allah awaken the people and help them see the evil doings of Israel."
Then, we had the prominent US Senators who are running for president come to Omar's defense, such as Kamala Harris, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. And we had the Speaker of the House excusing Omar's anti-Semitic comments with "I think she has a different experience in the use of words." What an odd comment given the articulateness with which Omar speaks. Then we have the mainstream media. The self-described "paper of record," The New York Times, just printed an incredibly anti-Semitic cartoon in their international edition. The cartoon showed a dog with the face of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with the Jewish Star of David hanging from its neck, with the dog/Netanyahu pulling on a leash held by a blind President Trump, who is wearing a yarmulke (a Jewish skullcap). The New York Times, the premier paper in the country, depicted the Israeli leader as a dog. What's the difference between that and Arabs depicting Jews as pigs and monkeys, or Nazis describing Jews as rats and animals?
The New York Times issued this "apology": "The image was offensive and it was an error of judgment to publish it." Really? An error of judgment? How many anti-Semites at the paper approved the publication of that cartoon? I have said it before, it matters not to me if the anti-Semitism comes from the left, the right or from Islamists. And given that the anti-Semites share a hatred of Jews, it was not really surprising when the likes of David Duke praised Ilhan Omar with this: "By defiance to Z.O.G. (what Duke calls the "Zionist Occupation Government") Ilhan Omar is NOW the most important member of the US Congress."
The fight against anti-Semitism and Jew-hatred should not be political. But it is. Recall that after another one of Omar's anti-Semitic comments, the House was unable to pass a simple resolution condemning anti-Semitism. Instead, given the push back by the Democrat's "progressive" caucus, the resolution had to condemn all bigotry. Recall the early 2018 Pew Research Center poll finding that Republican support for Israel was at 79%, while Democratic support was at 27%. Then, you have accusations by Minnesota Congresswoman Betty McCollum referring to Israel's "apartheid-like policies." And we have an increasing number of the "progressives" in the Democratic party calling for an end to aid to Israel.
Perhaps Israel's Ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, said it best: "The words, the demonstrators, and the cartoons turn into shootings against worshipers in synagogue." Never again?
Saturday, April 27, 2019
Sunday, April 21, 2019
The Normalization of Anti-Semitism
It is a fair statement to acknowledge that anti-Semitism is worse today than at any time since World War II. We see it throughout Europe, from the Left, from Muslims and from the Right. We see it in the head of the British Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn. We saw it with Jimmy Carter's book "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid" (2006). and we saw it in Professors Walt and Mearsheimer's book "The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy" (2007). We see it in college campuses across the USA, not just in an increasing number of Jew-hating groups, but also in college professors and even administrators. Pro-Israel speakers are either shouted down or denied an opportunity to speak. Pro-Israel students fear for their safety. There is a growing movement of BDS across academia. And we saw the anti-Israel/anti-Semitic attitudes in our last President. When prominent members of society justify their anti-Semitic attitudes, we see the beginning of the normalization of anti-Semitism.
This blog has discussed anti-Semitism a number of times over the years. So, why now again? Following Congresswoman Ilhan Omar's latest controversial remark, this time concerning 9/11, when she said "some people did something," President Trump did a tweet following the lead of the New York Post. It showed the burning Twin Towers in New York City as the "something" that people did. 9/11 was an attack on all of America, not specifically on Jews. Yet, many in the Arab and Muslim world believed it was perpetrated by the Jews/Israel, and that no Jews were killed because they were warned in advance not to go to work that day. (I attended all of public school with a Jewish man who was murdered in the Towers on 9/11.)
Many Democrats and others on the Left were disturbed by Trump's tweet, seeing it as somehow suggesting Omar supports terrorism, and also seeing the tweet as a threat to Omar's safety. Does Omar support terrorists? In 2016, when she was still a member of the Minnesota Legislature, she wrote a letter to the Judge who would decide the fate of nine men accused of planning to join ISIS. She asked the Judge for a "restorative approach" to sentencing, rather than a potential 30-40 year sentence. She added this: "The desire to commit violence is not inherent to people - it is the consequences of systematic alienation; people seek violent solutions when the process established for enacting change is inaccessible to them."
One can argue over the appropriateness of lengthy prison sentences. But Omar's comments about "alienation" and inaccessibility to enacting change, sounds disturbingly similar to her quote about 9/11: "CAIR was founded after 9/11, because they recognized that some people did something and that all of us (all of us Muslims presumably) were starting to lose access to our civil liberties." In any event, following Trump's tweet, the defenders of Omar were quick to express their displeasure with the attacks on her. The same thing happened when Omar accused Jews of having "dual loyalty," among other anti-Semitic assertions. Recall House Speaker Pelosi coming to her defense and saying "I don't think our colleague is anti-Semitic...I think she has a different experience in the use of words." If a man said that he would be accused of being a condescending sexist. Another Representative excused Omar's anti-Semitism by saying she "comes from a different culture."
Except Omar is nearly 40 years old and has been in the USA since she was 12. As Christine Rosen points out in the April, 2019 issue of Commentary Magazine, if Omar truly cannot understand the import of her words, why did Pelosi see fit to put her on the all-important House Foreign Affairs Committee? Following Trump's tweet, the defenders of Omar resorted to what the Left always relies on - accusations of racism, sexism and Islamophobia. Here is Jamelle Bouie in the 4/17/19 New York Times: "...if Omar is a target, it has little to do with what she said and everything to do with who she is: a black Muslim woman - and an immigrant." So, Omar's anti-Semitic comments, and her anti-American comments do not warrant any criticism? We have similar comments in defense of Omar from H.A. Hellyer, described by the New York Times as a "nonresident expert on Islam and the Middle East at the Atlantic Council": "One needn't agree with Congresswoman Omar to recognize that she is being targeted primarily as a black, Muslim, hijab-wearing woman."
And in a front page news story in the 4/16/19 New York Times ("Trump Rekindles Campaign Threat Of Islamic Peril"), the paper tells us that "...Democrats across the philosophical spectrum...expressed alarm at the way Ms. Omar was singled out." And they quote Democratic Congressman Bennie Thompson: "Since Ilhan came to national attention and throughout her tenure in Congress she has been a target of these right-wing extremists; that's why we're standing up for her." Good for you, Congressman, for standing up for an anti-Semitic, anti-American member of Congress. I, for one, will not stand up for her and her hateful comments. Let us keep in mind that when Omar made her comments regarding 9/11, she was speaking at a meeting of CAIR, which in 2007 was named as an "unindicted co-conspirator and/or joint venturer" in support of Hamas.
According to Christine Rosen's article, another new female Muslim member of Congress also has issues with Jews. According to Rosen, "...Rashida Tlaib was recently found to have been following an Instagram account that depicted Jews as rats and vampires and compared Israel to Nazi Germany." Where is the outcry? In one of this blog's much earlier posts (from 9/30/11) I asked the question "Wilful Ignorance?" Were my fellow Jews wilfully ignorant of the growing anti-Semitism within the Democratic Party and the Left? When Obama allowed a completely one-sided anti-Israel resolution to pass the UN Security Council without a veto in his last full month in office in December, 2016, it did nothing to reduce many of my fellow Jews love and affection for him. Here we are, nearly eight years later, with anti-Semitism far more widespread, and many of my fellow Jews remain either oblivious or unconcerned with this growing threat - they remain wilfully ignorant.
This blog has discussed anti-Semitism a number of times over the years. So, why now again? Following Congresswoman Ilhan Omar's latest controversial remark, this time concerning 9/11, when she said "some people did something," President Trump did a tweet following the lead of the New York Post. It showed the burning Twin Towers in New York City as the "something" that people did. 9/11 was an attack on all of America, not specifically on Jews. Yet, many in the Arab and Muslim world believed it was perpetrated by the Jews/Israel, and that no Jews were killed because they were warned in advance not to go to work that day. (I attended all of public school with a Jewish man who was murdered in the Towers on 9/11.)
Many Democrats and others on the Left were disturbed by Trump's tweet, seeing it as somehow suggesting Omar supports terrorism, and also seeing the tweet as a threat to Omar's safety. Does Omar support terrorists? In 2016, when she was still a member of the Minnesota Legislature, she wrote a letter to the Judge who would decide the fate of nine men accused of planning to join ISIS. She asked the Judge for a "restorative approach" to sentencing, rather than a potential 30-40 year sentence. She added this: "The desire to commit violence is not inherent to people - it is the consequences of systematic alienation; people seek violent solutions when the process established for enacting change is inaccessible to them."
One can argue over the appropriateness of lengthy prison sentences. But Omar's comments about "alienation" and inaccessibility to enacting change, sounds disturbingly similar to her quote about 9/11: "CAIR was founded after 9/11, because they recognized that some people did something and that all of us (all of us Muslims presumably) were starting to lose access to our civil liberties." In any event, following Trump's tweet, the defenders of Omar were quick to express their displeasure with the attacks on her. The same thing happened when Omar accused Jews of having "dual loyalty," among other anti-Semitic assertions. Recall House Speaker Pelosi coming to her defense and saying "I don't think our colleague is anti-Semitic...I think she has a different experience in the use of words." If a man said that he would be accused of being a condescending sexist. Another Representative excused Omar's anti-Semitism by saying she "comes from a different culture."
Except Omar is nearly 40 years old and has been in the USA since she was 12. As Christine Rosen points out in the April, 2019 issue of Commentary Magazine, if Omar truly cannot understand the import of her words, why did Pelosi see fit to put her on the all-important House Foreign Affairs Committee? Following Trump's tweet, the defenders of Omar resorted to what the Left always relies on - accusations of racism, sexism and Islamophobia. Here is Jamelle Bouie in the 4/17/19 New York Times: "...if Omar is a target, it has little to do with what she said and everything to do with who she is: a black Muslim woman - and an immigrant." So, Omar's anti-Semitic comments, and her anti-American comments do not warrant any criticism? We have similar comments in defense of Omar from H.A. Hellyer, described by the New York Times as a "nonresident expert on Islam and the Middle East at the Atlantic Council": "One needn't agree with Congresswoman Omar to recognize that she is being targeted primarily as a black, Muslim, hijab-wearing woman."
And in a front page news story in the 4/16/19 New York Times ("Trump Rekindles Campaign Threat Of Islamic Peril"), the paper tells us that "...Democrats across the philosophical spectrum...expressed alarm at the way Ms. Omar was singled out." And they quote Democratic Congressman Bennie Thompson: "Since Ilhan came to national attention and throughout her tenure in Congress she has been a target of these right-wing extremists; that's why we're standing up for her." Good for you, Congressman, for standing up for an anti-Semitic, anti-American member of Congress. I, for one, will not stand up for her and her hateful comments. Let us keep in mind that when Omar made her comments regarding 9/11, she was speaking at a meeting of CAIR, which in 2007 was named as an "unindicted co-conspirator and/or joint venturer" in support of Hamas.
According to Christine Rosen's article, another new female Muslim member of Congress also has issues with Jews. According to Rosen, "...Rashida Tlaib was recently found to have been following an Instagram account that depicted Jews as rats and vampires and compared Israel to Nazi Germany." Where is the outcry? In one of this blog's much earlier posts (from 9/30/11) I asked the question "Wilful Ignorance?" Were my fellow Jews wilfully ignorant of the growing anti-Semitism within the Democratic Party and the Left? When Obama allowed a completely one-sided anti-Israel resolution to pass the UN Security Council without a veto in his last full month in office in December, 2016, it did nothing to reduce many of my fellow Jews love and affection for him. Here we are, nearly eight years later, with anti-Semitism far more widespread, and many of my fellow Jews remain either oblivious or unconcerned with this growing threat - they remain wilfully ignorant.
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