Are Anti-Semitic Attacks Driven By Politics?

Anti-Semitism is on the rise across much of the Western world, most shockingly in New York, where seven or eight episodes of anti-Semitic violence have occurred in just the last few weeks. Normally I don’t blame the actions of lunatics or even extremists on mainstream politicians, but the orchestrated anti-Semitism that has infected the Left in the U.S. and across Western Europe in recent years may justify an exception to that rule.

The Lid argues that the Democratic Party bears responsibility for recent anti-Semitic violence:

Saturday night saw the seventh violent anti-Semitic attack in recent days. A machete-wielding attacker stabbed five people in the home of Rabbi Chaim Rottenberg during a Chanukah celebration in Monsey, New York.

Perhaps the most honest reaction to the anti-Semitic attack came from a member of the Democratic Party. Former New York State Assemblyman Dov Hikind said what most pundits are afraid to say, the Antisemitism originates with members of Mr. Hikind’s own party, the Democrats.

A lot of history supports that conclusion:

Obama refused to recognize the Antisemitism of others. During his presidency, Obama allied himself with Al Sharpton who was a leader of the anti-Semitic pogrom in Crown Heights and incited the anti-Semitic firebombing of Freddy’s Fashion Mart in Harlem. He sent his closest adviser, Valerie Jarrett, to keynote an anti-Semitic ISNA conference whose discussions included: how key Obama aides are “Israeli,” proving Jews “have control of the world,” or how the Holocaust is the punishment of Jews for being “serially disobedient to Allah.”

Of the anti-Semitic Occupy Wall Street movement the President said, “We are on their side.”
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Another hater favored by the Democratic Party is Louis Farrakhan. Farrakhan is one of the most disgusting anti-Semites in America today. But he was supported by members of the Congressional Black Caucus. The Democratic Party leadership said nothing.
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Maxine Waters is another believer in the AIPAC Jews controlling America anti-Semitic canard: Earlier this year, a video was released of Waters embracing Louis Farrakhan. Asked multiple times whether she still supports the anti-Semitic Nation of Islam leader, Waters refuses to answer.
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Al Sharpton is a card-carrying anti-Semite who led two anti-Semitic pogroms in NYC. He was a regular visitor at the Obama White House, and Democrats fawned over Sharpton during his 65th birthday gala last year. It was attended by Democrats like Chuck Schumer, Andrew Cuomo, and Jerold Nadler. Despite his hatred of Jews, most of the 2020 Democratic Candidates visited Sharpton to kiss his ring.

There is much more history at the link. And, of course, the most “modern” of Democrats, like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rashida Tlaib, make little effort to disguise the Jew-baiting that apparently goes over well with their constituents. As the Lid points out, “Back in March of 2019, after Ilhan Omar made her second anti-Semitic declaration in less than a month, the Democrats who run the House were asked to censure Omar and her hatred. The Congressional Black Caucus blocked a stern resolution.”

When the leaders of the Democratic Party, like Barack Obama, lionize Al Sharpton and tolerate Louis Farrakhan, is it surprising that rank and file members of the party believe that anti-Semitism bears official sanction? The liberal media generally covered it up, but after the attack on the kosher deli in Jersey City that killed three, and may originally have intended to target a Jewish school next door, a number of African-American neighbors who were interviewed by local news outlets considered the murders understandable and blamed the Jews. Those who carry out murders are by definition extremists, but sometimes their extremism has roots in the communities in which they live and the politicians who lead those communities.

You might think that mass murder, or attempted mass murder, can only be condemned by any sane person. But for some Democrats, mass murder is a subtle phenomenon. (This shouldn’t be too surprising; consider how many liberals wear t-shirts sporting the picture of sociopathic mass murderer Che Guevara.) Thus, in the wake of the machete attack on Jews celebrating Hanukkah at a rabbi’s home in Monsey, New York, NBC News fact-checker (!) and BBC reporter Erin Biba tweeted that the attack was “massively complicated” and shouldn’t distract us from the grave threat of white supremacy. (The attacker was black.) Biba thereafter deleted her tweet and took her Twitter account private:

I was going to ask @erinbiba about this tweet, but I seem to can’t find it … hmmm? … and now the courageous Blue Check Mark tweeter is hiding behind protected tweets … @jack can your elite Blue Check Mark brigade lock their accounts? I thought that was against policy 🤷🏽‍♂️ pic.twitter.com/kJBLlTNGKq

— Wingo is a Jedi name 🎅🏼 (@mikepinkshoes) December 29, 2019

It is rarely possible to draw a straight line between a noxious political ideology, such as the anti-Semitism that has been broadly embraced by the Democratic Party for several decades, and a particular crime. But the Democrats’ complicity seems to me to be so broad, and so deep, and its consequences so foreseeable, that if that party’s leaders have any integrity at all, they will engage in some serious reflection.

Of course, I am not holding my breath. Bill DeBlasio, Mayor of the city where anti-Semitic incidents have become commonplace, blames…Donald Trump, whose daughter converted to Judaism, whose Jewish son-in-law is a close adviser, who has Jewish grandchildren, and who is one of the most pro-Israel presidents in our history. So, no, I don’t expect the Democratic Party to engage in self-reflection any time soon.