Unacknowledged, Undeniable, Anti-Semitism
According to FBI statistics, Jews are the predominant victims of hate crimes in the United States. Jews are assaulted, simply for being Jewish, more often than Muslims or Christians are ever attacked for practicing their own faith. Despite topping this list, both liberals and conservatives seem less than concerned about the rise of anti-Semitism in the U.S. in 2016. While Democrats are busy calling Republicans Islamophobic, and Republicans are worried about Democrats oppressing Christians with their agenda, neither party is addressing the obvious anti-Semitic tendencies that exist on both sides of the aisle.
On the right, anti-Semitism is becoming prominent in the Alt-Right movement. One of the main Alt-Right spokesmen is Richard Spencer, who is often disavowed for his white nationalist views and ties to white supremacy. Spencer shouted “Hail Trump, hail our people, hail victory!” to a crowd of hundreds at a conference for the National Policy Institute. Many in the audience responded with Nazi salutes. Spencer has also referred to the press as “Lügenpresse,” a term Nazis used to describe their critics in the media.
Further proof of anti-Semitism on the Alt-Right can be found in the increase in hateful rhetoric directed at Jewish journalists online. A 12-month study by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) found 2.6 million tweets over a one-year period targeting over 50,000 Jewish journalists with hate speech. These tweets had an estimated reach of 10 billion people. The #1 target of these attacks was conservative political commentator Ben Shapiro. Shapiro is popular amongst conservatives for his strong stance against political correctness in the U.S.
Although being anti-PC is normally associated with being pro-Trump, Shapiro was a Cruz supporter who became a part of the “Never Trump” movement, and refused to support Trump for a variety of moral and political reasons. This opposition to Trump infuriated the Alt-Right, which is an entirely pro-Trump movement, despite being disavowed by Trump himself. The same study by the ADL found that the majority of the hate speech directed at Shapiro came from accounts with the words Trump, nationalist, conservative, and white in their bios.
This anti-Semitic problem does not only exist in the Alt-Right. The current frontrunner to be the next chair of the DNC is Keith Ellison, who has controversial ties to the anti-Semitic Nation of Islam (NOI) group. The leader of the NOI has labeled Jews as “satanic” and has described Judaism as a “deceptive lie” among other things. The NOI has even gone so far as to say that the 9/11 terrorists attacks were planned with the collaboration of the Israeli and United States governments. Ellison himself has compared 9/11 to the Nazi Reichstag fire, which was a 1933 arson attack in Berlin that the Nazi party used to advance its anti-communist agenda and seize more power. Ellison believes that 9/11 “paved the way” for discrimination against religious minorities. It would be a stretch to associate Ellison with everything terrible about the NOI, and he has obviously denounced the group and expressed regret over working with them in the past. However, that does not excuse his extensive writings published in support of the organization, and in defense of their anti-Semitic leader Louis Farrakhan.
Furthermore, in 2014, an emergency joint resolution was passed through the House and Senate to provide funding for the Israel Iron Dome defense system to counter short-range rocket attacks. The bill passed in the House 395–8. Ellison was one of the 8. When asked why he voted against protecting Israel from missile attacks on Meet the Press, he responded that he wanted to prioritize a ceasefire. Does Ellison really think that such a measure makes sense, or he is just anti-Israel?
In recent years college campuses have become somewhat of a breeding ground for anti-Semitism. In the first six months of 2016, 287 incidents of anti-Semitic behavior were recorded at 64 schools, which was a 45 percent increase from 2015. A study also found that activity by the anti-Israel movement, Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS), correlated directly with anti-Semitic behavior on campuses. Additionally, schools with student governments that considered anti-Israel divestment resolutions saw an increase in anti-Semitism on campus.
At New York University in 2014, 2,000 undergraduates believed to be Jewish had mock “eviction notices” slipped under their doors by Pro-Palestine students.
At Oberlin College in 2015, it was revealed that the administration knew about a professor spreading blatantly anti-Semitic material on Facebook (claims the Jews were responsible for 9/11, claims the Jews brought down Malaysia flight 17, and so on) and failed to dismiss her until after the mainstream media reported the story.
In response to these instances, a bipartisan bill has been proposed in Congress to assist the department of education in investigating the “surge” of anti-Semitism in American colleges. The co-chairs of the Bipartisan Task Force for Combating Anti-Semitism wrote the department of education in April:
An alarming rise of anti-Israel programs on American college campuses contribute to increasing harassment, intimidation, and discrimination against Jewish students. While we believe that students’ freedoms of speech and assembly should be respected, there are increasing reports that activity advertised as anti-Israel or anti-Zionist is devolving into displays of subtle, but sometimes outright anti-Semitism.
The task force also named the BDS movement as a key contributor to anti-Semitism.
It is becoming statistically undeniable that an increasing number of anti-Israel college students are boycotting more than Israeli “occupation,” they are boycotting Jewish students themselves.
The growing problem of anti-Semitism in the U.S. needs to be addressed. The hate that exists in places like the Alt-Right and BDS movement needs to be condemned and thoroughly investigated when necessary. Both political parties and the mainstream media need to place the appropriate focus on anti-Semitism, as it is the most prominent, and seemingly least talked about religious bias.
