#2 ~ Ramblings of a Reservist: Commentary from a Veteran of the Israel Defense Force
July 2, 2021
(3 – 4 Minute Read)
On July 1, 2021 a Chabad Rabbi was attacked by a man who first tried to kidnap him at gunpoint in front of a Jewish school and stabbed the rabbi ten times when we resisted and fled. The attacker is presumably of Arab descent and the Moslem faith. I say “presumably” because it is clear that the name “Khaled Awad” is undeniably Arabic in origin. But, coincidentally, the media and police have not released any details about the attacker. In fact, the Boston Police have so far refused to even designate the attack as a hate crime. In fact, the Boston Herald refused to release the name of the attacker at all. In contrast, when John Timothy Earnest attacked Chabad of Poway in April of 2019, the media emphasized for weeks that he was motivated by white supremacist ideology, and that his heinous murder of Jews in their synagogue was both a vile hate crime and violent act of terrorism.
So what’s the difference? Why is it that if a white supremacist attacks Jews, then it is clearly-defined headlining news? But if an individual with an Arabic name (or other left-aligned ethnic minority) attacks Jews, then the media is largely silent, and details of the attacker are kept confidential?
The answer is obvious: Anti-Semitism in America has been politicized to a shocking and even deadly level.
The simple fact of the matter is that many of those who have been most vocal in criticizing anti-Semitism for the past four years have ONLY done so in the context that it was being used as a political weapon and a smear campaign against what some define as the “far right” or “alt right.” And then President Donald Trump was (erroneously) defined as also being “far right” or “alt right.” Therefore, President Trump and his supporters could all be demonized as as “alt right anti-Semites” and “far right, white nationalist racists.”
However, whenever an individual who ideologically is aligned with the American left has committed an anti-Semitic hate crime or even an act of murderous terrorism, the left generally remains completely silent, or even attempts to scrub the incident.
For instance, most Americans (especially Jews) are familiar with the horrible attacks on the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburg and the Chabad of Poway synagogue shooting. These evil actions were perpetrated by anti-Semitic white supremacists.
However, how many Americans (including Jews) are aware of the attack on a Jewish kosher market and cemetery by African-American Hebrew Israelites in December of 2019 that was even more deadly than Poway? Or what about the vicious knife and machete attack on a Jewish community Monsey, New York, during Chanukkah just a few weeks later? The New York Times headline reads that the attacker was searching for “Hitler” and items related to “Nazi culture.” Never does the New York Times article clearly admit that the attacker, Grafton E. Thomas, was actually an African-American. Other news outlets posted his photo; the New York Times did not. They did, however, post a link to another article about efforts to combat white supremacy online. In other words, a casual reader would erroneously assume that this was yet another attack by white supremacists ostensibly aligned with President Trump, which is the complete opposite of reality. The New York Times also cited “mental illness” as the excusing cause of the attack (similar to statements made about the alleged influencing factor of the recent shooter in Boulder, Colorado, who was a Syrian-Arab immigrant named Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa.) In contrast, hateful white supremacists (that can ostensibly be linked to far right-wing movements) are never afforded any such luxury of excuses.
The movements of Antifa and Black Lives Matter have been notoriously anti-Semitic; even the BLM website expresses strong solidarity with militant Palestinian Arabs (an issue that is completely irrelevant to any aspect of the BLM platform). In May of 2020, BLM protests in Los Angeles devolved into deadly, destructive riots targeting the Jewish community. The leader of these attacks was Melina Abdullah, an African-American follow of the Nation of Islam movement and Louis Farrakhan. Key Jewish infrastructure was vandalized with such phrases as “F*** the police and kill the Jews.” In contrast, no protests labeled as “white supremacist” (correctly or otherwise) have resulted in this type of destruction against the Jewish community in recent history.
The American left (to which many — perhaps even a majority — of American Jews are fiercely loyal) has developed an approach that in and of itself is dangerously anti-Semitic. Hatred and attacks on Jews are only valuable if such hatred and attacks have clear political value to the movement as a whole. If the hatred and attacks do not have value, or even worse, if they are damaging to the political movement, then they must be ignored or even denied legitimacy. Or, it could be said another way: Jewish lives do NOT matter… unless it fits the left’s political agenda.
According to data compiled by statista.com, for several years anti-Semitism steadily rose at an alarming rate during the Trump administration. The media would have us believe that this trend resulted from the supposed “empowerment of white nationalists” by President Trump and his so-called “alt right racist policies.” In reality, however, the motivations of anti-Semites and political leanings are often documented in an ambiguous way. A careful analysis of the data indicates that many, if not most, of the rise in attacks were committed by those aligned with the left. For instance, during the same time period “Islamophobic” attacks (a key idea of actual white supremacy) dropped significantly, indirectly indicating that white supremacists might be less active rather than more active. More pertinently, the Anti-Defamation League has admitted that just in the past few months (while Biden has been in the White House) anti-Semitic attacks have increased by as much as 75%! Nearly all of these attacks are from those aligned with the left who advocate Palestinian Arab causes and demonize Israel. Even Jonathan Greenblatt, chief executive officer of the ADL who has been vehemently antagonistic towards President Trump and monumental in attempting to blame Trump and his supporters for the upward trend in violent anti-Semitism, could no longer deny that the greatest anti-Semitic threat in America is from the left. He stated that in the most recent frightening crescendo of violent attacks in early to mid 2021, “no one is wearing MAGA hats.” Similarly, another ADL leader, Oren Segal, now says that the political ideology is no longer relevant to the discussion, saying “Anti-Semitism is not a right-wing issue, it’s not a left-wing issue. It’s a problem in and of itself.”
The statements of the ADL are an excellent indicator of exactly the premise at hand: to the American Left political machine, Jewish lives ONLY matter in the terms of political expediency. If anti-Semitism can ostensibly be weakly linked to President Trump (despite the fact that he is undeniably the most pro-Israel American president in history and has a Jewish daughter and son-in-law), then anti-Semitism MUST be condemned. If the Left is responsible for the majority of anti-Semitism, then suddenly political ideologies of the anti-Semitic perpetrators become irrelevant. And the hateful rhetoric of such far Left political heads such as Rashida Tlaib and Ihlan Omar, who routinely call for the genocidal destruction of Israel (“From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!”) as well as declaring that Jews are complete strangers to justice and have no comprehension of being the victims of oppression, is generally ignored or even excused.
The simple fact of the matter is that violent, hateful anti-Semitism in the United States is primarly sourced from the left, and the Democrat political machine is drifting farther and farther away from Israel and those who support her, both Jews and non-Jews. A line is being drawn in the sand; American Jews are expected to maintain their loyalty to the Democratic party even in the context of the Democrat party abandoning the Jews to anti-Semitic violence from adherents of their own party. Obviously, violent anti-Semitism coming from white supremacist and far right sources is a serious concern as well. But, as Jonathan Greenblatt of the ADL reluctantly admitted, none of the persons presently attacking Jews in the streets are “wearing MAGA hats.” They are left-wing aligned supporters of Palestinian Arab militancy and even terrorism.
The time has come for American Jews to make a choice. Are we willing to say that the Democratic party and the left have gone to a dark place? Even if our ideology is more liberal in nature, are we willing to say something to the effect of, “I am a moderate Liberal, but the Democratic platform and leftist elements in America (especially the more radical elements) do not value my life as a Jew and have not taken positions that I agree with.”
The Democratic party and the left have abandoned American Jews even in the face of deadly anti-Semitism. When will the American Jews abandon the Democratic party and the left in return?
