Democrats and Republicans Must Take on Their Own Antisemitism | Opinion

It isn't just raining antisemitism in America, it's hailing. Jewish people make up about 2 percent of the U.S. population, but experience the vast majority of hate crimes based on religion. No other religious group comes close.

The attacks come from both ends of the political spectrum, including neo-Nazis and white supremacists on the far right and deluded members of the far left who regurgitate hateful lies about Israel. In fact, Nazi and Islamist antisemitism have historic ties.

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) lists more than 400 antisemitic incidents in the United States so far this year. And Noa Tishby, author and campaigner against antisemitism, provided a list of some of the latest ones in a recent Instagram video.

Propaganda blaming Jews for all sorts of global problems is being distributed in cities and college campuses. Yet another visibly Jewish man was punched on the street last week. A synagogue security guard was attacked on Yom Kippur. Mezuzahs are being torn down, swastikas are going up and billboards are being defaced. Meanwhile, at Berkeley Law, nine student groups added a policy that is so bigoted it has earned the moniker "Jewish-free zones."

Trump, Kanye, and Silence from the GOP

Against this backdrop, Ye (a.k.a. Kanye West), a prominent Donald Trump supporter occasionally featured on Fox News, decided to launch tirades against Jewish people, threatening to go "death con 3" on us. While critics have responded, including powerful remarks from Jamie Lee Curtis, Ye's follower count on social media has grown. It was already much larger than the world's entire Jewish population—an estimated 15 million.

Then came Trump, condemning Jews for failing to support him and ominously warning us to do so before it's "too late." Retired Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, the key witness in a Trump impeachment trial, accurately tweeted that Trump is "executing the fascist playbook to turn his mob on Jews." (To understand why fascists like to pretend a secret Jewish cabal has tremendous power, see this helpful explanation from Rachel Maddow.)

Rather than condemning these remarks, Republican leaders have been silent. An official GOP Twitter account still has its recent tweet up simply saying, "Kanye. Elon. Trump." The second is a reference to Elon Musk, who will likely take over Twitter and keeps expressing support for Trump and Ye.

There are some moments when individual Republicans call out some antisemitism from within. Earlier this year, Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) rejected the antisemitism of a GOP Tennessee state senator. But overall, the party hardly ever acknowledges the problem. In fact, despite her long history of antisemitic statements and conspiracy theories, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.)—a self-described "Christian nationalist"—is moving to the center of the GOP establishment, The New York Times reported.

Republicans have no problem going after Democrats for their antisemitism. A report late last year from the Republican National Committee accused Democrats of having a "growing anti-semitism problem." But when it comes to looking inward, they fail. (As of this writing, the ADL told me the only GOP recognition they've seen of Trump's antisemitic missive is an apparent reference from Adam Kinzinger, an anti-Trump Republican.)

Performative Allyship From Some Democrats

Some on the left engage in hypocrisy as well. Take Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), who condemned Ye's remarks and called for rejecting antisemitism "wherever we see it"—while refusing to see how her own frequent lies and distortions about Israel fan the flames of antisemitism. In one case, she claimed that the word Palestine is "banned" and "censored"—an antisemitic conspiracy theory based on the idea that Jewish interests control media and government. And she falsely accused Israel of putting West Bank children in cages. AOC also has a history of reportedly refusing to meet with Jewish groups, making something of an exception in 2021.

Meanwhile, Representative Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), AOC's former member of "the squad," has a "record of trafficking in incendiary, antisemitic comments," David Harris, then-CEO of the American Jewish Committee, explained in a Newsweek column last year. And another squad member, Representative Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), recently yet again singled out Israel for unique condemnation and repeated the "apartheid" libel, which is rejected by many including Israeli Arab leader Mansour Abbas. In fact, Israel outranks the United States on the democracy index.

To be fair, many Democrats have long publicly rejected this antisemitism, and slammed Tlaib's "litmus test." Representative Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.) tweeted, "There's nothing progressive about advocating for the end of Israel as a Jewish State." He has previously called out the "hysterical demonization" of Israel that "has set off a global wave of antisemitic violence."

Just as Kanye has his defenders (like rightwing firebrand Candace Owens, who denies his words are antisemitic), the squad have supporters who insist that "anti-Zionism" is somehow not bigotry against Jews. But anti-Zionists are fine with the existence of many Muslim-majority states, while considering one tiny Jewish state an affront to humanity. (To learn more on antisemitism and anti-Zionism, watch this brief video.) In a 2020 poll, 85 percent of American Jews and three-quarters of the general public understood that anti-Zionism was a form of Jew-hatred.

It's time for the parties to do much more to tackle their own internal antisemitism. The GOP has much further to go, but that does not let Democrats off the hook. Listen to Jewish people when we call out bigotry. Stop tokenizing Jews who have joined pro-Trump or anti-Zionist crowds; they don't represent the vast majority of us. Acknowledge and reject the growing antisemitism in your midst. That's what needs to happen before it's too late.

Josh Levs is a consultant, entrepreneur, and author of All In.

The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.