Only when Republicans write a bill that calls out anti-Semites by group, including the KKK, the white supremacists, the neo-Nazis, and others will it be believable that they mean what they say.
In the meantime, the party that supports all the far right wing bigots is not credible.
Talk of passing 2 pieces of Legislation aimed at bolstering the Republican party's ties with America's Jews as a result of their dislike of the BDS movement and the antisemitic rhetoric coming from the progressive left wing of the democratic party is fine but does not address the core problem of burgeoning antisemitism in the United States.
One cringes at the replay of the marching know-nothings of the alt-right in Charlottesville and the cries of "the Jews will not own us" still ringing in my ears, followed by the slaughter of Jews praying in their synagogue realizing that the President plays to his alt-right base to keep their votes.
So we are left with a question; based on the current history, just how real are the Republicans in the desire to deal with and combat antisemitism?
I have come to the conclusion that the Republicans should be eternally grateful for the continuing presence of Congresswomen Ilhan and Ocasio Cortez who with their ill-concealed antisemitism are forcing Jews to look to the Republican Party for help.
As a Jewish southerner, I fail to understand the appeal of the Republican Party for Jews, other than its recent support of Israel. Democrats also support Israel. Democrats also support equality for all, good jobs, a safety net program, voter rights and many other issues that I believe in.
Meanwhile, Republicans have become known for voter suppression, calling minorities names, wanting to end or reduce safety net programs including Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security, and having control of states with the poorest education systems.
I'll stick with Democrats, thanks very much.
The Republican party will not always be represented by
Trump forever and this push by the Republicans to not for 2020 election but for the future.
1
This election is about getting Trump out of office, not about progressivism as that can never be achieved if Trump gets more Supreme Court appointments. The Democratic percentage of the Jewish vote in 2000 was 79%. In 2016 it was 69%. (Pew research. Are Democrats so afraid of the few anti semites within their ranks so that thew are willing to squander a much larger portion of Jewish votes, still the highest portion of any religious group.
Do not pin the legitimate insecurity of the voting Jewish population on neo Nazis fears, while dismissing concerns that the Democratic party is rapidly appearing as fertile soil for anti semitism masked by antipathy towards support of israel increasingly reluctant to face down anti semitic comments , explaining that "the criticism of Israel's treatment of the Palestinians does not have anything to do with anti semitism. It all stems from Netanyahu." Many Jews rightly or wrongly find that that explanation has found footing exactly because of weakening democratic support.
Are the Democrats so afraid of the anti semites within their ranks so that thew are willing to squander a much larger portion of the Jewish votes, still the highest potion of any religious group? Seven candidates refused invitations to appear at AIPAC this year. Does anyone think that goes unnoticed? Are we to be treated to a muffed election in 2020 because of equivocating provoked by fear of a few so-called progressives? Mitch will have his ideal court.
1
Where was McConnell's support for Jews when the highly qualified and moderate Merrick Garland was nominated to the Supreme Court. Just as in this case, it's all politics for McConnell, and he's proud of it. His lack of any sense that ethics even exist is truly shocking.
1
Wow this whole thing is so bad. We are people not labels. This is everything that is wrong with Republican America.
1
For the past 10 years I have watched the Democrats vilify Israel for defending itself while turning a blind eye to the behavior of its enemies.
I saw President Obama ink a deal with Iran which allowed them to continue threatening Israel while rewarding them with enough money to carry out those threats.
I watched Debbie Wasserman Schultz cry as she was pressured into supporting that deal, and saw Bernie Sanders shamefully defend his anti-Semitic colleagues rather than offend the left’s blatantly bigoted fringe.
I’m well aware that Republicans only care about Jews in anticipation of elections and resurrections, but that doesn’t change the fact that Democrats have forsaken Israel and betrayed their Jewish constituents.
For many Jews in America, 2020 is going to be like Sophie's choice.
1
US Jews continue to have a diversity of views and opinions regarding health care, taxes and Israel. They won't be sucked in by the "Dual Loyalty" canard being played by the Republican Party any more than they will let Representative Omar off the hook for her "Dual loyalty" attack.
This bill is about the Christian right, not Jewish Americans. The Christian right is both pro-Israel and anti-Semitic. It's time we stop pandering to anti-Semites on both sides of the aisle.
Jews will continue to be split, like everyone else. Some will buy into this blatant play on "Dual Loyalty" some will see it for what it is. An attack on basic principles of democracy, free speech and the ability to act legally to support your political beliefs.
1
It is baffling to me, an outsider, that criticising a nation and its conduct can be equated with antisemitism.
The Jewish people have been badly mistreated over the course of history, that is beyond a shadow of a doubt, but that does not mean that the state of Israel gets preferential treatment now, that is neither just nor appropriate.
There is something rotten in Israel and everyone knows it, even Israel itself knows it since it charged its own head of state, Mr. Netanyahu.
Acknowledging the fact that that a government of the Jewish people is not impervious to corruption or crime is merely admitting that they are human, just like the rest of us (something they historically were often accused of not being).
Equating criticism of a country to hateful acts is sheer stupidity. That train of thought would make my views on the US government's conduct on the southern border anti-american.
The fact that some of the critiques follow tropes of antisemitism does not mean it inherently is, since that would make talk about corrupt intents, duplicity and lying antisemitic, but I do not believe that any human is incapable of those acts per se and their faith does not change that for me, so that does not make it an antisemitic belief.
The proposals by the GOP are nothing but symbolic acts to court shortsighted evangelical favour from a party that is more bankrupt than Greece in 2011 (does that make me anti-hellenic?)
Ms. Omar merely worded her statement poorly, how antisemitic.
1
"....but Senate Republicans, eager to court American Jews outraged by the rise of anti-Semitism, have other plans."
You mean the GOP is blatantly courting a group which has been all but demonized by the Democratic Left, operating behind, ala Corbynism, anti-Zionism?
You mean the GOP is courting Jews in the same shameless manner in which the Democratic party now seeks votes of "people of color" to the extent that potential candidate Joe Biden permits the leak that his VP running mate will be the losing gubernatorial candidate from Georgia, Stacy Abrams?
The only thing "gut wrenching" about the Dems' recent debate re Rep. Omar, was the spectacle for American Jews, just a few months after Pittsburgh, that anti-Semitism may be used as a cudgel against Trump, but not against other Dems who would be right at home in the U.K. Labor Party today.
The Dems' watered -down resolution condemning Omar was the most "gut wrenching" for American Jews, loyal Dems over all.
The NYT also ignores that while some in the GOP may be just as hypocritical as their Dom counterparts in "courting Jews," there are also true believers who cherish the US-Israel alliance.
Dem presidential candidates avoid AIPAC for fear of their anti-Israel base. A "boycott" if you will of the Jewish state.
As Dem Rep. Ted Deutch said: "The ones to define anti-Semitism should be those who suffer from it: Jews. "
As of now, the GOP is simply filling a vacuum left by Dem cowardice and tacit support for Jew- hatred.
2
An attentive 6th grader would have no difficulty understanding the essence of McConnell's bills. Fortunately for the Republicans, that's about two grade levels above the capacity to of Trump's base to grasp and his yes men and yes women in Congress are following the script.
3
It makes my heart swell that the GOP is all of a sudden the stalwart defender of the Jewish people.
No doubt that this "new era" springs forth from a place of pure altruism.
Despite how preposterously transparent what they are attempting to do here is, there is no doubt that as Democrats we do have a real problem on our hands.
Rep's Omar, Tlaib and AOC endorsement of BDS is a provocative and antagonistic act not only toward Israel but of Jews as well. They insist it's not but there are much more effective ways of expressing disagreement with Israel's policies than to champion a destructive economic boycott.
Their positions are just as laughable as the GOP.
2
Jews are a heterogeneous, free thinking bunch. They don’t easily fall for false and craven attempts to be won over.
There are segments of the Jewish population, especially the ultra-orthodox, who are conservatives and there are the ultra-liberals who are progressives. Neither group is about to change their thinking, opinions or political party.
Then there is the middle sector, myself being one, who are currently “homeless” not liking what is going on in either party and hopefully waiting for a presidential candidate who will restore equilibrium, balance and sanity.
4
@KJSand you are far from being alone in this way of thinking.
I think it is time for Americans to speak in defense of Rep. Omar. It is cruelly ironic that Republicans are using the tactics of 1930 Fascists to paint their opponents as bigots or extremists. Does Trumpism have no limits?
2
McConnell, Trump and Netanyahu are insulting American
Jews and Israelis with insincere gestures of support for the
Jewish State. The recent "official" US acknowledgment of the
Golan Heights as being part of Israel - actually endangers the Jewish State. People will get hurt and may even die in Israel and in Gaza - in order to re-elect Bibi and help re-elect Trump.
I would submit that the Netanyahu/Trump alliance is an anti-Semitic alliance.
4
We should never forget:
a) that the religious right are not our friends.
b) when we lie with dogs, we wake with fleas.
5
Don’t criticize Republican allies or be accused of hate speech. Israel cannot allow Palestinian Arabs full rights in Israel nor to have a sovereign state besides Israel. That makes Israel a state that suppresses the Palestinian Arabs out of fear. That is a fact and if the Palestinian Arabs claim it’s wrong, they can do so reasonably.
2
Can we establish where anti-religion and anti-semitism intersect? Is there such a place? Religion has evovled in my lifetime from something private and dear to an aggressive political weapon where the orthodox and fundamentalist reign. I am anti-religion.
4
@middledge: [Religion has evovled in my lifetime from something private and dear to an aggressive political weapon ....]
It has been that way since the beginning.
5
This is a poor headline for a decision to take a strong stand against anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism. Anti-Zionism expresses hostility toward Jewish self-determination and peoplehood, in contrast to common respect for the concept of self-determination when some other group is involved. Consider that the choice being made is an honorable stand. The Democrats, despite long-term Jewish support, have not shown respect for Jewish dignity in their decision not to condemn anti-Semitism. It leaves Jews to ask why their dignity and Israel's honor is a small matter to the Democratic party. Consider that this is possibly not merely a political tactic by the Republicans, but a correct action which the Democrats could still join in on to show that they understand the implications of abandoning the Jews when they are being murdered in our own country for being Jews.
4
Dictionary.com defines a Semite as follows:
1. a member of any of various ancient and modern peoples originating in southwestern Asia, including the Akkadians, Canaanites, Phoenicians, Hebrews, and Arabs.
2. a Jew.
3. a member of any of the peoples descended from Shem, the eldest son of Noah.
Merriam-Webster defines it as:
1a. a member of any of a number of peoples of ancient southwestern Asia including the Akkadians, Phoenicians, Hebrews, and Arabs
b. a descendant of these peoples
2. a member of a modern people speaking a Semitic language
Encyclopedia Britannica reads:
Semite, member of a people speaking any of a group of related languages presumably derived from a common language, Semitic (see Semitic languages). The term came to include Arabs, Akkadians, Canaanites, Hebrews, some Ethiopians, and Aramaean tribes. Mesopotamia, the western coast of the Mediterranean, the Arabian Peninsula, and the Horn of Africa . . .
As someone who is one-quarter Ashkenazi, and who served in the Army in the Middle East (Iraq and Afghanistan), I am fed up with the wide-spread MISUSE of the term "anti-Semitic" or "anti-Semitism," especially when it involves an action or statement made by someone who is of "Semitic" ethnicity (see definitions above) towards someone else of "Semitic" ethnicity (namely, Jews). Please find another way of saying what you want to say. It's time to stop [mis]using this terminology.
NY Times, and all other media, should know better.
1
@Janis: ["anti-Semitism," ]
The hyphenated term "anti-Semitism" was created to apply specifically to Jews.
It is distinct from Semitic.
Please look up the root of this term. This may help: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/anti-Semitic#h1 or https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/anti-semite
4
We Jews know when we are being used. This cynical tactic by the GOP will not work.
5
Why does this sound so much like "some of my best friends are Jews"? I certainly don't believe that the "Trumpian" party is capable of changing its spots or its leadership.
2
"Never again". Two words that were both a cautionary tale and were part of my upbringing. Though I experienced some antisemitism during my college years, I really believed it was something from the past. Never did I think I would see neo-Nazis with torches marching in the streets of Charlottesville, nor a president too timid to speak out about it, preferring to retreat to the "bad people on both sides" excuse. Aside from the inaccuracy of that statement, it was wrong not to denounce antisemitism and it shouldn't have been a hard decision to make. It's laughable that Republicans are seeing Jews as a wedge issue. Actions, when they count, speak louder than words. Bigotry and hatred against any group is wrong. Republicans, with their "southern strategy" have a history of using hate to advance their agenda. They will never have my vote - ever. Never again.
6
Well, this sounds like an intelligence test for American Jewish voters. Let's hope they do better than the Christian voters did.
6
Please don’t confuse anti-semitism with anti-Zionism when drafting these bills.
5
It's funny I am Italian and watched over the years countless movies portraying Italians as Mafiosi, crime driven families etc...I always tried to understand it and encouraged a discussion. I never heard about movements to ban anti-Italian sentiment or negative depictions in the media, or laws banning criticism of the Italian nation (god knows how often it happened particularly when we had Berlusconi).
I don't understand why, then, in a country where we celebrate our ability to speak freely, certain topics must be avoided for fear of legal repercussions. Welcome to the new Orwellian United States where you are told you are free to speak...but not really, just avoid the topic of Israel or you might be in violation of the law. That cannot be healthy for anyone, when you can't discuss ideas openly.
30
@Sandon I am a Zionist. I also am an ardent advocate of free speech. Free political speech, free expression of ideas, not hate.
I have no problem with anyone exposing a critical remark, comment, no matter how long or short, about Israel. Racial or cultural hate comments, be they anti-Italian, antijewish, or what ever is not to be condemned. Got it?
1
@Sandon That's not at all the issue.
@Sandon
Anti-Italian sentiment and stereotypes are unpleasant, but Italians were not murdered in great numbers as Jews have been. That's part of the issue. Surely you can understand this.
1
I’m waiting for the bill against kicking puppies. Yessir, someone’s going to show those puppy kickers.....
And you betcha (remember that phrase?) McConnell would bring that bill up for a vote.
Republicans are the best at hate speech. Listen to what their members have said through the years. No one will forget that.
1
Never in my life would I have thought that there would be a race to see who is the better friend of Jews! I feel so wanted!!
Many thoughts here...the first being how extreme each side has become. GOP is moving so far right, that it comes around to the left on Free Speech. Democrats moving so far left that they are actually mirroring extreme right groups on matters like this (alienating some groups, etc).
I have my issues with the way Israel operates. I dislike the ongoing establishment of settlement after settlement.
But that is just part of the mosaic of Israel/Palestine/disputed territories. I know the extreme Christian Conservatives ONLY like the idea of Israel because of end times. If it wasn't for that misguided belief, Jews wouldn't be worth anything...other than financial support for election/reelection.
At the same time, I want to hear Representatives Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar comment on the multiple wars and ongoing attacks that Arab neighbors have launched on Israel. And I'd like to know what they have to say about the numerous nations (nearly all Muslim majority) that have never recognized Israel's existence.
Let's have a real discussion, not name calling and trying to win a political point here and there.
5
Rather than supporting Jews, these bills advance the disparaging stereotype about Jews that has long pervaded Congress: that American Jews care only about Israel, and that whenever a Jewish group comes to lobby Congress, it will always be about Israel. In 2001, I was part of a Jewish group that came to Washington to discuss issues of concern to us with our members of Congress. We had three issues. Two of them were entirely domestic. The third related to the so-called Global Gag Rule, which has nothing to do with Israel. Try again, Republicans.
2
I have nightmares and very real fears about being shot in my synagogue as threats are ongoing. How about gun control instead of this horrifyingly off target limitation on free speech!?
5
I remember the young men in Charlottesville chanting "The Jews will not replace us".
Those same young men who Donald J. Trump claimed were "very fine people".
The GOP is trying to use anti-Semitism to once again divide a segment of our population. I hope that Nancy Pelosi can navigate this GOP assault with dexterity. They will go to any length to divide the nation and their efforts must not be rewarded.
3
Everybody likes their home team. If you are Irish you like Ireland;
Italian, you like Italy.
Some people take it too another level. Billionaire Haim Saban is fond of saying,"I'm a one issue guy and Israel is my issue." I heard the late Joan Rivers say "I vote on two issues...taxes and Israel."
Sheldon Adelson, speaking before a group in Israel said "I was in the military. Unfortunately it was the US military not the IDF."
As a people that survived the Holocaust and has had its own country for just 70 years it is entirely natural that many, maybe
most, Jews would have intense feelings about Israel.
It is also entirely natural that a Muslim like Rep. Omar would be moved to comment on the US policy towards Israel that is extremely generous and supportive.
To expect Rep. Omar to speak with clinical precision and without passion is not realistic. Israel's supporters certainly don't hold themselves to that standard.
4
Tom, A problem with Rep. Omar is that she uses terms that could be described as anti-Semitic but could also just be common phrases. I grew up in Brooklyn and have been Jewish my entire life, many more years than Rep. Omar has been alive, and I have never heard of some of these 'tropes'. How can we expect a Somali-born non-English (originally) speaker to know of all these things?
Much of what she has said may very well be true. Criticism of Israel or even actual anti-Zionism is not ipso facto anti-Semitism. Many American Jews also find problems with the behaviors of the current Israeli government toward non-Jews under Israeli control, including Israeli citizens.
Perhaps the political pile-up on her shows that she was actually right about political influence. After all, a California Democrat recently wrote, "...questioning support for the U.S.-Israel relationship is unacceptable.” How can questioning anything that our government does be "unacceptable"?
I have read some of the things that Omar said which were claimed by many politicians to be anti-Semitic comments directed at Jews and found that these statements had been miss-characterized, deliberately I suspect. The statements were not directed specifically at Jews but at politicians, mostly Christian, who were taking what many American Jews consider to be actions favoring the Israeli right. One such was the anti-BDS bill (now law) put forth by Sen. Rubio which is considered by many to be an attack on freedom of speech.
1
It bears mention that the Republican Party is led by a president with a long, long history of anti-Semitic statements that reflected anti-Semitic sentiments.
Not to mention the fact that, in the aftermath of Charlottesville, he said that there were "very fine people on both sides." One of those sides was represented by "very fine people" tatted up with swastikas, marching with tiki torches while chanting "Jews will not replace us" and "Blood and Soil," and carrying American flags with swastikas sewn into the center.
It also bears mention that the Republican Party is led by a president who enjoys the support of such "very fine people" as Richard Spencer and David Duke---each of whom has reached into the grab bag of anti-Semitism to drive his white supremacist movement.
2
I would appreciate it if the Times took this opportunity to acknowledge that the GOP is not trying to persuade Jewish voters, who make up 1% of the population and for the most part reliably vote Democrat, but is actually trying to court EVANGELICAL voters, who make up a significantly larger portion of the population, and largely adhere to an eschatological belief that Jews must return to Israel and rebuild the temple so the Messiah can return. That is what is at the foundation of all the Republican hand wringing about Israel, and it is why Republicans can keep proposing "anti-Semitism" bills while continuing to support overtly anti-Semitic colleagues.
4
@J: [but is actually trying to court EVANGELICAL voters, ]
The GOP already has the Evangelical vote locked up. They are trying to promote Jexodus.
1
As usual he underestimates the loyalties & intelligence of most American Jews.
We have as much respect for Netanyahu, as we have for President Trump.
First and foremost we are Americans.
5
Given the statements expressing hatred for Jews made by at least two Democratic Congressional reps, and apparently similar sentiments on the part of other Dems, I cannot understand how any of my fellow Jews can support the Democratic Party in light of this. Yes, I know, they claim they are criticizing Israel and not Jews but this is a commonly heard excuse offered by many anti-Semites. These virulent anti-Semites are just trying to communicate their hatred in a more politically correct manner. My fellow Jews would do well to realize that the Democratic Party has morphed considerably over years and Jewish interests including Israel's survival will be better served by the GOP going forward.
4
@Mike: I have read some of the things that Omar said which were claimed by many politicians to be anti-Semitic comments directed at Jews and found that these statements had been miss-characterized, deliberately I suspect.
The statements were not directed specifically at Jews but at politicians, mostly Christian, who were taking what many American Jews consider to be actions favoring the Israeli right. One such was the anti-BDS bill (now law) put forth by Sen. Rubio which is considered by many to be an attack on freedom of speech.
Those politicians who originated and continue the 'she made an anti-Semitic comment' movement have a dishonest agenda: Take votes from Democrats and/or squelch criticism of Israel. Many others who are repeating the claim are also dishonest.
Most honest people who are claiming that Omar made anti-Semitic remarks are basing their opinions on what they heard commentators say about her comments, not by actually reading her comments.
1
I’m Jewish, too, and find more to take the GOP to task over this issue than Democrats. The latter is not a party that dislikes Jews — but the former certainly is, which makes this much ado about nothing. Republicans are basically saying, “Don’t make any sort of anti-Semitic statements, because some of my best friends are Jews.”
@Allen - Well then how about this:
(At the CAIR event in CA)
"people ask me ---- Why are you always talking about this particular country? Why are you not talking about that particular country? My choice of a country to talk about is not my preference of country. It is based on what country is violating basic human rights." - Ilhan Omar.
VIolating human rights? She must be talking about every country in the ME except Israel, correct?
1
How ironic, the party backed by white supremacists is pushing antisemitic bills. How many American Jews would fall for this sham? If the Republicans really cared about antisemitism they would show more concern about white nationalist terrorism. How many more synagogue mass shootings will it take? This type of violence must be stopped. Republicans win elections by bringing out the worst in people. Their staple is lies, hate, and fear, and of course suppressing the votes of minorities. On antisemitism the Republican Party has lost all credibility. It needs a total reform to return to defending Americans values. It protects a president who speaks just like a fascist. Any Jewish person who is outraged by what is perceived by antisemitism in the Democratic Party should realize only the Democratic Party is fighting to protect liberal democracy against right wing authoritarian rule and is standing up to Trump, Bannon, Miller, Mercer, Fox News, Breitbart, Limbauigh, Hannity, Beck, and the rest of them.
1
So, the Republicans are pushing a bill on Anti-Semitism, a good thing, presumably. But, instead of simply indicating that this is a good thing, being pushed by Republicans, The New York Times is putting an opposite spin on it, stating that it’s for some kind of nefarious political means, to “court favor” with Jewish Democrats, hoping to move them to the Republican side. Really? Really New York Times? I voted for Hillary Clinton. But, with each passing day of hearing about the likes of Bernie Sanders, AOC, Elizabeth Warren and the extreme left, including the New York Times’ clear daily agenda in favor of Socialism/Communism, I find myself moving more and more towards the Right. I’m socially VERY liberal (pro-choice, pro- everyone having the right to whatever sexual orientation they want, for total separation of church and state, against guns, etc) and fiscally very conservative (for small government). But the fiscal Left and the Leftist media have really been getting on my nerves lately. To the extent others feel similarly to me, I think the extreme Left is doing a serious disservice to the Democratic party, pushing moderate Democrats further to the Right.
1
I would like to point out that Mr. Thrush’s characterization of Congresswoman Omar’s comments, as written in the following sentence, is not fairly characterizing what she said and offering only one particular interpretation:
“...comments made by Representative Ilhan Omar, Democrat of Minnesota, who suggested that some American Jews had dual loyalties to both Israel and the United States. “
Given the way her words have helped fuel this debate, I think it’s of the utmost importance for the times to leave any predetermined interpretation or lens out in the reporting on her words. The Times would be better off directly quoting her words given at the talk at Busboys and Poets (you can Google it), and providing a link to the actual transcript so that readers can decide on their own. My own personal take as an American Jew is that she is clearly talking about the way Israel is lionized or held to a different standard in American politics (which she makes clear in juxtaposing the statement in question with claims about how Palestinian perspectives and lives are not valued in the same way in our nation's politics), in a way that is probably foreign or strange to political newcomers. Look no further than the anti-BDS bills propagating across the US, putting limits on how state employees can exercise their right to boycott. Regardless of how one interprets her words, it’s important to provide proper context and an unbiased reading of her words, with a link to the words themselves.
6
This is vintage McConnell: the country has real needs - infrastructure tops the issues - and all he concentrates on are political gotchas. What a waste of leadership!
6
Would prefer that Congress focus on bills to revamp immigration, fund infrastructure that hasn't had adequate maintenance since it was built it the Eisenhower era, health care consistent with 1st world countries, corrective measure to deal with effects of climate changes, and generally those efforts that demonstrate governance for the US. Symbolic efforts aimed at influencing Israeli politics have some merit but only after the substantive efforts aimed after influencing US politics.
7
@Jao
You want them to do their jobs but they can't move past the little things & can't agree among themselves about the major things that need to happen to make this country better. Infrastructure, immigration, etc. all need financing & they can't agree on any of that. Immigration is not even on the republican mind...they like to use it for the hate basis of their campaigns.
2
If Israel has successfully influenced Congress since the Nixon Administration to receive more military aid and military grants than what Congress has allocated to the rest of the world, combined, then American citizens have a right to know how, and where, Israel is using all that free military aid. If Israel can successfully lobby Congress and State legislatures to pass legislation equating the BDS (Boycott/Divest/Sanction) Movement with anti-Semitism, then American citizens have a right to inquire about Israeli human rights abuses committed in the military controlled Occupied Territories and the Israeli humanitarian aid blockade of Gaza with fear of being jailed. If self-appointed American Jewish organizations are formed to speak “In the name of the Jewish People”, politicize Jewish Nationalism efforts to create a “Greater Israel” and demand that Americans accept Judaism and Israel as synonymous concepts, then American Jews and non-Jews have the right to protest these controversial statements without being smeared as “Self-Hating Jews” and “Anti-Semites”.
44
@DCJ
But that isn't true.
In fact it's not even close to the truth.
However even if it was true that point is irrelevant as no one is trying to limit that conversation.
Read the article again.
3
I am flabbergasted at how easily the Democratic Party - even after winning back the House Majority - has allowed the Republicans to set the playbook rules.
I loved the presidency of Barack Obama, but I am saddened at how the Democratic Party keeps bringing a knife to a gun fight.
The comments of Rep. Ilhan Omar two weeks ago were anti-Semitic! She is sympathetic with the Palestinians. She has been making anti-Semitic statements for years.
Her comment that Jews have dual allegiance was a bow shot at the Jewish community. Her comments that Jews use their money to control foreign policy is a tired trope.
Why didn't the Democratic leadership call her out specifically on those comments? Why did the leadership allow the Republicans - of all people - to set the tone and dictate the discussion?
We live in the world of social media where it doesn't take much effort to slant a point-of-view, or plant in people's minds ideas that may not be exactly truthful.
As a life-long Democrat I wish my party would fight fire with fire, rather than the pathetic and ineffective attempts at watering down sanctions so no one particular person is offended.
Could you see the Republicans doing that? Not a chance.
27
@Len,
Its people like you that the Republicans are targeting and judging by your erroneous understanding of Rep. Omar's comment (attributing to her something she never said) I think they just might be successful. With Dems like you who needs Republicans?
3
@Len
Are you suggesting that the contributions of Sheldon Adelson have not had some impact on Trump Administration policies and personnel concerning the Mideast?
3
@Len Ms. Pelosi tried at first to call out Ms Omar, but the Black Caucus came to Ms. Omar's rescue and Ms. Pelosi cowered and backed down. So, actual anti-Semitic statements are made by Democrat members of congress and now they go unchallenged. Is it any wonder the Republicans are happy to welcome Jews that are fleeing the Democratic party. Where else would they go? As to admiration of President Obama, please recall he went to Cairo and apologized to the Muslim world for Americans! But, for what? For 9/11? That was done to the US not the reverse. Then, though in the middle east, Obama snubbed Israel by not going there during his middle east trip. The dye was case that Obama had little regard for Israel. But, Evangelicals in congress are big supporters thought they have their theological reasons ( the second coming). So, antipathy to Israel and by extension to Jews started with Obama, but Jews would not admit it. Now it is full blown in the Democrat party. It is like Labor in the UK: it is patently anti-Semitic. Omar and her supporters do not bode well for Jews and none of this bodes well for the US. The Jews are just figuring this out, maybe. The rest of America needs to wake up too.
4
It is a wonder that they don't burst into flames and that my head doesn't explode. This is the most cynical, calculated move the Republicans have made since George H.W.Bush appointed Clarence Thomas to fill Thurgood Marshall's seat on the Supreme Court, betting on making it impossible for Democrats to vote against him for the "black seat" on the Court, despite his positions and the credible testimony of Anita Hill.
These past two years have been unrelentingly depressing and exhausting. As a Jewish woman and the daughter of a Holocaust survivor, this cynical manipulation infuriates me. And sadly, it may work.
64
@DebbieYou have no evidence this is cynical manipulation. Maybe your disapproval of Republicans is causing you to attribute bad motives to them even when they do something honorable, like speaking out against anti-Semitism. Meanwhile the Democrats weren't willing to stand up to call attention to anti-Semitic remarks when spoken by their own fellow Congressional members, because they take Jewish loyalty for granted. Why wouldn't Pelosi condemn classical anti-Semitic remarks and decide that someone who made them was unfit to serve in a foreign relations role? Because the Democrats are willing to tolerate anti-Semitic attitudes and the villification of Israel. You have no evidence for your beliefs, and the Democrats are not doing the right and brave thing in this case, whatever else you may approve of about Democratic policies.
When did she specify "American Jews" in her dual loyalty statements? She said only some people, which includes many Christians and other non-Jews. Check your facts.
21
@Nathan H
Trying to rewrite facts is a bad choice.
Here is her comment:
""I want to talk about the political influence in this country that says it is OK for people to push for allegiance to a foreign country. I want to ask why is it OK for me to talk about the influence of the NRA (National Rifle Association), of fossil fuel industries or Big Pharma, and not talk about a powerful lobbying group that is influencing policies?""
notice the three words "in this country"? that means Americans and in particular American Jews.
This comment follows her other accusatory and antisemitic claims about AIPIC and other Jewish based groups.
She is one of those congresspeople that, rightly, supported the stripping of committee seats from Steve King. He own words show she should also be stripped of her assignments as she is just as bigoted as King.
The Democrats will only help themselves if they nip her power in the bud, otherwise they will demonstrate a deep hypocrisy in the current quest for "purity" of voiced opinions.
6
@Nathan H You are right, and she only said she herself did not want to promise to never criticize the government of Israel no matter what they did or did not do. All the rest that is swirling around is made up propaganda
3
@mike: [notice the three words "in this country"? that means Americans and in particular American Jews. ]
If you think that she is wrong, you have never read the bragging on AIPAC's website of their clout.
She spoke the truth.
It's just that you do not want to hear the truth.
1
Am I the only reader who finds this “sound bite” headline offensive? It implies that the only reason to “push a bill on Anti-Semitism” is to “court Jews”. Are the creators of headlines at the NYT unaware of the rising anti-semitism in the USA and the world? Does this headline show any cognition of that fact? A shorter headline such as “Republicans push bills to counter Anti-Semitism” would be more sensitive and appropriate. Stoking the fires of anti-semitism by headlines like this are contemptible.
23
@Charles Pollick
Republican have never in the last 25 years been willing to stand up against any form of racism, homophobia or even anti-semitism.....except for political expedience and to create divisions.
the headline is correct as it addresses their motivations in trying to push the issue this way.
3
@Charles Pollick
If the Republican bills also covered the many groups who are suffering at the hands of miscreants who target people for their differences, then you'd be correct. However, when the bills to cover other victims of hate crimes are blocked by Republicans, it seems that they are indeed courting the Jewish vote. Nothing wrong with pointing that out.
2
@Charles Pollick
But this IS the only reason the republicans are doing it. Unfortunately, the democrats gave them an opening. Republicans are ruthlessly shrewd. Democrats, not at all.
Seems "progressives" have a problem with prejudice against many groups. And so it should be. But somehow anti-Semitism doesn't hit their radar. These possible bills are a ploy by Republicans. It's very obvious. However, the Democrats are weenies for caving into passing a ridiculous resolution that was originally against anti-Semitism but which was so changed as to make it into a joke, and to not to upset Omar and other Democratic minorities. I'm speaking like this as a life long Democrat.
18
@leftrightmiddle,
Yeah anti-Semitism doesn't hit the Democrats radar that's why they brought up two censure motions against one of their members who actually spoke the truth about the Israeli lobby.
Despite all other hatreds consuming the country, apparently its anti-Semitism that must be condemned by Congress and yet you still complain.
@Nassir Hussein - There are more attacks against Jewish than towards any other group. Omar only speaks "truth" towards Jews. I see she is talking at the CAIR convention, a group which gave money for her campaign and which refuses to apply as a lobby, while AIPAC, a lobbying group which doesn't even make it into the top 50 lobbyists in the U.S., gives no contributions to candidates.
1
In light of the Holocaust,
Antisemitism revealed its
relentless and incomprehensible
horror. One can never look at
hatred of the Jewish people in
the same manner as previous to
this catastrophe. In light of growing
Antisemitism, it was
incumbent on the Democratic
Party to unequivocally condemn
this evil. Jews have been consistently
loyal to the Democrats. The fact that
they made condemnation of Antisemitism
a political tool was a big mistake. It has
led to further politicalization. One wonders
if anyone truly cares about this terrible history
and the fact that this irrational hatred
never dies. Personally, it breaks my heart.
15
Gee - and where are those elected Jewish Republicans in Congress to speak for American Jews? 40-50 years ago there were more Jewish GOP congressional members than today. Javits, Spector, Cantor. bye, bye American Jews are not fooled. When McConnell blocked Merrick, Obama's SCOTUS appointment, many American Jews saw that as another Republican Anti-Semitic act. The GOP has never nominated a Jew to the SCOTUS. Hmmmmm.
Just where were any GOP leaders in 2017 when Trump commented about Charlottesville? How many Americans of all faiths died to destroy the Nazis? The GOP's current effort to keep out Central American refugees reminds American Jews of 1930s when Republicans & Southern Democrats blocked Jewish refugees from Europe, limited immigration after WWII, sent Jewish children back to Europe to perish. How many Americans know that the GOP tried to keep Einstein out of this country? There deep historic reasons for the distrust and dislike of today's GOP by American Jews.
Where were McConnell & Ryan after Pittsburgh or Parkland. The GOP is only trying to save Netanyahu's election. He is another piece of corrupt sleaze financed by billionaires and disliked by most American Jews. Nobody in the GOP said Netanyahu was wrong when he 'dissed Obama.
So many of the comments on here are full of ignorance about the American -Jewish community & its values. The GOP may currently love Israel, but has never proved it values a connection to the America's Jewish community.
20
@Fla Joe The GOP loves Israel because the Evangelicals require Israel for their myths and the GOP needs the Evangelicals. I am a Jew. I am not fooled.
1
Jew speaking here: not crazy about recent Democratic remarks regarding Israel etc. But Hell will freeze over before I vote for a Republican in my lifetime. I can't wait to get the current administration out of office so I can feel safe-ish again.
19
What a joke
The party of racism homophobic anti Semitic principles now wants to court the Jews
It’s deplorable
20
One would have to be clueless to think the GOP is protective of Jews. When Nazis were screaming Jews won’t replace us in Charlottesville their president, allegedly anointed by god, was saying there are good people on both sides! Nazis, he could even condemn Nazis.
14
Am I the only reader who finds the title of this article offensive? “Eager to Court Jews...”? How about “Eager to counter anti-semitism...”?
14
Is this about anti-semitism or about protecting Israel?
7
@Mathias It's about pleasing deep-pocketed donors.
Sanctimonious Republican hypocrites should be forced to explain how the mob in Charlottesville chanting "Jews will not replace us" fits into their newfound antisemitism. Remember those darn tiki-torch kids?
12
I'm always fascinated by whose comments the NYT chooses to withhold and whose comments it posts. Slander Ilhan Omar in the defense of these hypocritical action and it's not at all hard to have your comments posted. Recognize the hypocrisy of a political party that supports the 'good people on both sides' of a neo-Nazi, fascist, white supremacist demonstration and protest and your comments never see the light of day.
8
@Davina
That's exactly what the Democrat resolution did—to water down the condemnation of blatant anti-Semitism.
They should have censured Ilhan Omar not find excuses why she was was "not aware" or ignorant about the connotations of her words and "apologizing" without apologizing.
That would have been a brave stand.
If not at least some Democrat brave souls should have walked out on the resolution they passed.
To be considered pro-Semitic do you have to be pro Israel? Where is that line?
8
@Greg H. What do you mean by pro-Semitic or pro-Israel? It seems very fuzzy to me. I can very pro-American and be anti-Trump. Why, unless you want its dissolution,
would you be anti-Israel, a country with an amazingly multi-cultural populace. Where you can pray and worship as you like, (except on the Temple Mount which is controlled by Jordan and where you will be told to leave if you're not Muslim and are "caught" praying or even suspected of praying), or where women are not 2nd class citizens? Please visit israel.
2
@Greg H.Yes
Governments can pass any bills they want. They won't prevent me from speaking up for Palestinian rights. They won't stop me from boycotting Israeli products.
16
AOC is the gift that keeps on giving for Republican industrial-strength panderers.
9
"a Republican strategy to show that they are more willing to tackle hate speech than Democrats"
This is all blatant smoke and mirrors -- as usual from Mitch and his gang!
The Republican don't give a fig for curtailing hate speech, racism, anti-Semitism, anti-immigrant demonetization, etc, etc. This is just another political stunt to try to pull the wool over voters' eyes... AGAIN!
Why parrot the Republican talking points (again!)?
Even when pointing out that this is all part of the "neww" "Republican strategy"?
9
I don't think many Jews in this country are single-issue voters, considering the overwhelming majority who vote democrat and continue to vote democrat, so this ploy is not going to work and is quite frankly offensive to Jews (in my opinion, as a Jew).
However, the left does have a problem with anti-semitism.
Yes: One can criticize Israel, especially under the reign of Netanyahu, who is so intelligently evil he is destroying everything that Israel originally stood for just to stay in power.
But (and a big but): Criticizing Israel using anti-semitic tropes, dog-whistles, and refuting its right to exist is anti-semitic.
I have been a liberal my entire life and will continue to be, but I'm tired of being silent in the face of the sometimes anti-semitic progressives. I'm tired of being told that my struggles are not real, considering that Jews are the number one targets of hate crimes in this country. I'm tired of the knee-jerk response to "anti-semitism is real" from the left being "CRITICIZING ISRAEL IS NOT ANTI-SEMITIC." To me, that shows the lack of care about Jews and their concerns, regardless of how "valid" one may think they are. That's anti-semitism and closed mindedness.
The reason I care so much about anti-semitism on the left (and why I think many Jews do too) is because I've grown to expect this kind of hate from the right, hence the current administration. I guess I just expect the left to be better.
Is that asking for too much?
48
Arabs and Jews are Semitic peoples. When white nationalists express anti-Semitic attitudes, it’s racial bigotry and stereotyping. When Arabs express hatred and resentment towards Jews, it’s the bitterness of old rivals.
@Kyle D
Why is "refuting Israels right to exist" antisemitic?
Does the Soviet Union have a right to exist? Does North Korea? If Im opposed to either one of those political entities existing, does that demonstrate some sort of bigotry or hate towards Russians and Koreans?
Of course not. Only Israel gets a special "right to exist."
3
in America, i think brown and black people might disagree
2
These bills have nothing to do with Anti-Semitism. They’re about criticism of Israel and the power of the Israel lobby.
16
If Democrats embrace Netanyahu and Israeli expansionalism inan attempt to placate pro Israel Jews like Sheldon Adelson, they will lose far more voters than they will gain.
12
Can't think of a better way to burnish your anti-bigotry bona fides than to use a discriminated group of people as a political prop
6
Coming from a Holocaust family, I have just two questions for Mitch McConnell. Where you when neo-Nazis marched in Charlottesville chanting " Jews will not replace us" and Donald Trump refused to condemn them? Where were you when Trump created hysteria about a immigrant caravan invasion inciting one of his followers to massacre 11 Jews in their Pittsburgh synagogue? This latest political ploy to create a wedge issue is just anti-Muslim bigotry cloaked as "Fake News" antisemitism. It's ugly, disgraceful and dishonest. You know it, and so do most Jews.
22
The 30 year radicalization of the Republican Party starting with Reagan, along with Nixon’s southern “strategy”, and the overt courting of white supremacists and their neo nazi cousins, has done more to hurt Jews worldwide than anything a freshman congressman has said. The hypocrisy is breathtaking but not surprising considering the folks in charge. I don’t see this working.
10
Nazis shout "heil trump" with Nazi salutes when he stole the election
Republicans marched in Charlottesville chanting the English version of the Nazi slogan " the Jews will not replace us" before murdering Heather Heyer. trump declared them "good people."
Desecration of Jewish cemeteries by trumpers is WAY up
The MAGA shooter in Pittsburg cited Republican rhetoric as his motivation
The MAGA bomber used trumps words about Jewish philanthropist George Soros as his motivation
Almost ever Jewish member of congress is a Democrat
The Democrats have as their senate leader Chuck Schumer, a Jew whose family included members murdered by Nazis in the Holocaust. trump frequently mocks Senator Schumer for shedding tears for his murdered family members at Holocaust memorials,
Only one party is anti-Semitic. It is not Democrats.
15
How come if one breathes a word of criticism against a Jew he’s called an “anti-semite”, but if he makes the same criticism against blacks, old white guys, or any other group he doesn’t get a special name?
1
@Max It is not criticism of a Jew, it is criticism of Israels policies that is labeled as antisemitism and questioning of the right of Israel to exist.
3
The scary part is that we Jews are being targeted by the extreme left and the extreme right but most of the anti semitism in New York where Jews are being attacked daily are being committed by liberals that claim they only hate Israel but they use Israel as a guise to cover their hatred towards Jews it's time to tackle anti semitism on the right and on the left.
13
I keep hearing the real feelings of the Right in the "Jews will not replace us" chants from Charlottesville
7
Trouble is, the trio (Cortez, Tlaib, and Omar) are the only new members being heard. It would be excellent to hear from at least some of the other 59 freshman members.
7
Anti-Semitism is a rising concern on campuses, with purported anti-israel activities frequently leading to harassment ofJewish students thereafter.
8
@TMDJS
At the same time Anti-Muslim attacks on and off campus has increased with the rise of Trumpian behaviors and his personal goading of the far right wing.
Both types of behavior are unacceptable in our nation and all sides need to recognize the extremists in their respective groups and ostracize them as cancers to the ideals of this nation.
Both Omar and King are examples of who should NOT be in our Congress and of thinking that must be marginalized and shunned.
6
My trust in the NYT and the Democrats has been destroyed by this Russian hoax and the fake Clinton dossier. If their goal was to waste my time then I would say I have much better things to do.
8
"What she said and what some stupid birther said are equally idiotic.”
But the most idiotic thing is the leader of the "stupid" birther movement is now President of the United States.
9
Isn't the current GOP beholden to Evangelicals and there "support" of Israel tied not to their deep and abiding love of we Jews, but to pleasing and appeasing their base? And must the Republican leadership constantly prove that they, like Trump are at bottom, craven? I get it already.
7
This Jewish person will not vote republican for some empty congressional statement. I will never vote for the party of obstruction, agency dismantlement, voter disenfranchisement and tax breaks and deregulation for the wealthy.
If republicans were to support HR 1, fund infrastructure and tax all income as ordinary income and tax stock buybacks aggressively- then I would have to take a look but until then....they are just corrupt criminals to me.
13
This is like Republicans pushing a bill against lying.
10
GOP... Grand Old Projectionists.
The GOP is the party of hate and division and has been since their southern strategy of 1968.
This is a classic case of the pot calling the kettle black.
7
Why is anti-Semitism the only "Anti" in America that causes Congress (and a majority of states) to pass laws criminalizing speaking out against an apartheid nation? Speaking out- against the authoritarian corrupt regime of Benjamin Netanyahu is not anti-Semitism.
And...please no "Israel does not have the right to exist..." rejoinders for stopping all honest dialogue about the influence the Israeli government has on our own government.
6
Really? Ask how many Republican elected officials welcome Jewish members into their private clubs.
8
This is a joke. Because anyone who thinks anti-Semitism is simply going to go away with some mere stroke of the pen hasn't paid close enough attention to American history, Republicans, or the racism that continues to plague this country today.
Good luck with that.
5
There are eight Jewish members of the US Senate. All are Democrats. There are thirty Jewish members of the House; twenty-eight are Democrats. So who is hostile to Jews? This is a cheap, playground trick. Don’t go for it.
9
"The centerpiece of the resolution is the declaration that “anti-Semitism has for hundreds of years included attacks on the loyalty of Jews.”"
Wow, if Hate is the new Love, then the Democrats have a bevy of legislation to start working on.
The centerpiece of the resolutions could be the declarations that:
“Black racism has for hundreds of year included attacks on the loyalty of Blacks after they served the US in combat”
"Anti-minority has for hundreds of years included attacks on the loyalty of immigrants who built this nation”
"Anti-women has for two hundred years included attacks on the free choice of women at the hands of men”
"trump’s tacit support for white nationalists for four years includes nationally increasing attacks against Muslims and Jews” (does this ring a bell, "Jews will not replace us!")
This move is a lie from the start, otherwise, Steve King would have been gone years ago.
This is the Republicans throwing some alms to the Jews for a vote, and nothing more. Do not be fooled.
6
The RINOS of trump-team 'republicans' of the U.S. Congress(all of them ... yet and still identified 'in' T.V. chirons with the "R" of old):
Manipulators … 253 (199 + 54)
Legislators … 0
1
Obvious trojan horse gift.
3
I doubt that many of us American Jews will be gulled by Mitch McConnell’s cynical ploy. We’re not enamored of being used.
On the other hand, recent actions by House Democrats have demonstrated that they believe all bigotries are abhorrent, but that some bigotries are less abhorrent than others.
It’s like a fish bone that remains lodged in the throat.
17
@Michael N. Alexander
Michael,
It is greatly troubling that Pelosi embraced Omar and appointed her as a brand new freshwoman Congresswoman to the House Foreign Relations Committee AFTER it was well known that Omar was engaging in antisemitic slander.
Pelosi never explained her performance in this regard,
and Omar remains on the Foreign Relations Committee.
This is a very legitimate issue for the GOP and Democrats alike.
1
@Michael N. Alexander
Mitch McConnell did not and would not embrace Omar after she engaged in antisemitic slander, and McConnell did not and would not appoint Omar to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
McConnell would not oppose antisemitism only "if the wind blows in the right direction."
Millions voted Democratic in 2018, but most did not vote Democratic only to have Omar appointed to the House Foreign Relations Committee.
And yet Omar retains her seat to this day on the House Foreign Relations Committee, depending of course on how the wind blows.
Yet Republicans could not speak out against the White Supremacists in Charlottesville who said "Jews will not replace us". They believe there are good people on both sides.
It's rich they bring forth a bill now pretending to care about racism. Hypocrisy at its finest on display.
5
Politics is so dirty.
2
Good. any source that fights anti-semitism in any way is to be embraced and supported. Thank you GOP.
4
So you left out Stenny Hoyer and Republican oppo to the initial Bill because....?
2
Congress should focus on our agenda---healthcare/gun control legislation/$$$ in politics/on and on.
Steve King / Omar---two opposite sides of same coin.
When McConnell and Cruz want to pass their "we love Israel more" legislation we should all remember the words of the great R leader---"there were fine---very fine people on both sides."
Do your job and stop the divisive nonsense.
5
@DB Yes, I agree, King & Omar are the same, just opposite in the spectrum. However, the Republicans stripped King of his committees, last I saw, the Dems did not do that to Omar. Why?
6
@Joe
Maybe because Omar was just elected to Congress and apologized, while King has made these comments for decades, never apoligized and the GOP lost the House by over 40 seats.
The Republicans under the able leadership of Mitch McConnell are learning from the Trump playbook the principles of divide and conquer. They are trying to divide American Jews and draw them away from the Democratic Party. But Jews are smarter than that. They know that Trump attracts the racist White Supremacists who shout "Jews will not replace us" on the streets of American cities. Many American Jews may support Israel, regardless of the behavior of the current Israeli government,but they will not leave the Democratic Party principles for the likes of Donald Trump's Party with "Good people on both sides". The present-day Republican Party has given Trump divisiveness a pass for too long. Antisemitism is a dog whistle because of the injudicious remarks of a Democratic Congresswoman, but American Jews (at least a very large majority) know where true antisemitism really persists.
3
@RLW This is what happens with inaction. It would have been easier if the Democratic Party simply denounced Omar. Denounce Omar, case closed, next topic.
6
Remember when Oprah was sued for doing a show about Mad Cow Disease? Using the so called Veggie Libel Laws, the Beef Council and some others sued to silence criticism of practices in the Beef Industry. These laws specifically try to stifle the 1st Amendment Rights of citizens. The government may NOT silence citizens, which is far different than a business saying an employee or customer cannot get away with spreading lies about it; those actions are either libel or slander, not 1st Amendment issues.
That the republicans have already tried to make criticism of Israel illegal as shown by this statement:
'Mr. McConnell has already passed a measure this year giving local and state governments the authority to break ties with companies that boycott or divest from Israel.'
Demonstrates the length the republicans will go to stifle free speech. These new moves are just a furtherance of that aim. They create division and spin hate.
Representative Omar was out of line in her comments and should have been removed from her committees. The D's have established a paradigm of "purity" for others, but no themselves. That however does not justify the R's trying to stifle the free speech rights of Americans.
The R;s are going to continue to play a game of hate, and continue to try and limit rights and protections to old white men, white christians, and jews. They will continue to pander to the extremists in their party in the hopes they can win in 2020.
Vote to stop them!
8
Many of us remember with pain Democartic President FDR’s refusal to open our borders to Europe’s desperate Jews facing annihilation in the 1930’s and 1940’s. And Democratic President Truman’s Arms Embargo in 1947-48 against a newly formed Israel with Holocaust survivors seeking its shores and facing Arab nations determined to “force the Jews into the Sea”. More recently Democratic President Obama’s “Iran Deal” bitterly opposed by Israel’s government. So there’s a history here long before Representative Omar came on the national scene. Sadly Democrats seem “unimpressed’ with the well noted scourge of anti-Semitism flowing across Europe demonstrating again that Europe hasn’t fully reckoned with its participation in the Holocaust. The great fear for Amerian Jews is that Europe’s anti-Semitism will take firm hold in America. For Democrats to ignore the powerful rise of anti-Semitism is just unfathomable. What Democrats have done is for the first time in our nation’s long proud history make many American Jews wonder if they really have a viable long term “home” here. Or whether they’re in the same position of early 1930’s German Jews, 300,000 strong, resident for many centuries and incapable of believing their world would come asunder with an unimaginable barbarity. Democrats need do much better to assuage fears of Amerian Jewry that anti-Semitism has no place in America. Nor in the Democratic Party.
10
So where is the Senate resolution condemning President Trump for his support of those "very good people" who just happened to be Nazis?
Where is the Senate Bill authorizing funds to support both federal and state law enforcement to better track and combat Anti-Semitism? In many jurisdictions there are no such programs in place.
Where is the Senate's understanding of the First Amendment? Does anyone even know what “discriminatory anti-Israel conduct that crosses the line into anti-Semitism” is?
There are some campus groups that assert that it is any criticism of Israeli policy.
Professors have already been monitored as have student groups and now they can invoke a federal civil rights investigation whose purpose can only serve to chill speech.
At the end of the day this is not about a true commitment to combat anti-semitism. It's about seeking Jewish campaign money, that until recently has mostly favored the Democrats. On that score Representative Omar is right. It's all very cynically about the Benjamin's.
7
The litmus test is easy: anti-Semitism is about Jews among us, not over there. Anti-Semitism is not about Israel. I grew up in Belgium, and I remember that racism when I was a child was about Moroccan immigrants. Not about the Kingdom of Morocco. No one cared about the Kingdom of Morocco. Actually the racists’ message was “go back to Morocco!”. It’s the same thing today. Some people, like Bret Stephens from NYT, will pretend that anti-Israeli bias is a form of anti-Semitism. But it’s not. And this explains why Victor Orban, the anti-Semite leader of Hungary, can be a good friend of Netanyahu. Their message is the same. Jews should move to Israel and don’t belong in the West (of which they have been one of the most successful and prolific and beneficial constituency, what a sad thing that would be if they did move away…). And that explains why Netanyahu’s approval rating is so low among the diaspora, while it is quite high in Israel (as is Trump’s…). And that explain why Trump can be both a racist/antisemite (good people on both side in Charlotteville...) and pro-Israel (let's move the ambassy and recognise the Golan hights).
3
Well, there's a counter measure, the House passing a resolution to ban divided loyalties to Putin's Russia and his Syrian ally (watch the diplomatic shift this week!); Saudi Arabia's blood-prince, the Dutarte Philippines, ultra-right Brazil, neo-fascist Italy, antiSemitic Hungary, the French Ultra-Right, the German and Dutch neo-Nazis, the Brexiters, & diverse other tribes that Trumpers are funding & colluding with.
1
When is Israel going to start paying for its own defense without any GIANT help from American taxpayers?
9
The headline of this article itself shows a bias.
Antisemitism is to be condemned not to gain political advantage. Antisemitism is to be condemned because it is wrong.
11
@Austin Liberal
The Republicans arent condemning antisemitism because its wrong. They are doing it solely for political gain.
8
@Joe
Their motives may be skewed. Their action is to be praised. That they are doing it for political gain is of no concern to me.
The end justifies the means. (Oops . . .)
1
@Austin Liberal
Which means the House resolution condemning all hate trumps this singular resolution.
1
Only two viable political parties in this country, and they both spend their days vying for the affection of powerful organizations rather than advocating for working people.
Indeed, they spend their time trying to limit the influence of the public on policy, because the agenda of the powerful is almost completely opposite to what the public wants:
Single payer,
Medicare for all,
Immediate and meaningful policy to address climate change,
A financial transaction tax,
A 70% tax on wealth,
Increased Social Security benefits,
Big money out of politics etc.
When a politician calls for these, they’re labeled “extremist”. Those who advocate for the corporations are called “moderates”.
That is a major symptom of a sick society.
9
Once again the Republicans show that they are smarter, more clever and faster to the ball than their democratic opponents. The democrats who seem to be steadfast and in many case outmaneuvered into taking unpopular positions that don't jive with most old fashioned democratic ideas. Unless the democrats can work their way back to the center, and do it quickly, they have no chance to defeat Trump in 2020 especially if the economy keep humming along.
6
Does this Senate bill also include prohibitions against Islam and people whose ancestry is Arab and/or Persian? Let's see the Republican senators vote in favor of that kind of anti-discrimination.
7
The persistent conflation of religious identity with (especially Likud) Israeli government policies and actions is, obviously a shared objective of religious haters and the Likud government itself. Sometimes you get what you ask for.
3
If the mention of "dual loyalties" is considered antisemitic, then what of the hardships laid on American citizens affected by the Muslim ban? Is the exclusion of families from visiting the US not an implication of dual loyalties?
3
@zee
You miss the point.
She wasn't referring to people who were pro Israel.
She was only referring to Jews.
1
The Democrats with their mania for divide-and-demonize identity politics have a lot of these fault lines to exploit.
East-Asian and South-Asian immigrants are already well-represented in Republican pro-business politics, and suffer from racial quotas. Latinos go to church in large numbers and realize they suffer more than anyone from uncontrolled immigration while Democrats are relentlessly atheist and want every unskilled person in the world to come here to drive down wages. And men of all colors and persuasions increasingly realize that Democrats only support women and ignore men’s issues like equal educational rights, due process justice, and response to men’s epidemics like HPV-caused cancers of the head and neck.
2
Actually a law that tackles on campus antisemitism is very necessary. Some readers and politicians seem to think antisemitism is diet discrimination, all the flavor not the consequences. Nothing could be farther from the truth.
Antisemitism is one of the most virulent forms of discrimination and a very accurate measurement of the moral compass of an institution or society - nowadays many universities and colleges should look st their reading and be ashamed.
Many American college campus had become hostile places for kids that support Israel or simply are Jewish. The people that discriminate against Jews hardly cares about the difference outside public speaking.
If we are really concerned about free speech campuses, we should ensure that groups like BDS have a voice, but not de facto veto on campus political speech. That Jewish kids are not afraid of violence or discrimination if they identify themselves as Jews. And that supporter of Israel can participate freely and without threats of violence on political debate and bring speakers without having to cancel their talk for safety concerns.
In many colleges BDS has sponsored talks by Hamas, Hezbollah supporters or plainly antisemitism like L.Farrakhan without glitches. This is not true for Jews and other supporters of Israel. BDS as an opinion is legitimate, BDS as a mob and intimidation factory is not.
7
All hate speech is wrong. When a Republican does it, nothing much gets done.
I didn't like what Omar said because it did have negative connotations within the Jewish community and experience. She said she was unaware, and she apologized!
Dems have to understand more than Republicans that words matter, because Republicans will always get a pass on FOX. Dems--NEVER!
The real problem is backing every Israeli action under Netanyahu when he is wrong as labeling it anti-Semitic. I truly hope the people elect someone who wants peace in the region and will work towards it.
3
This is utterly maddening.
"The centerpiece of the resolution is the declaration that 'anti-Semitism has for hundreds of years included attacks on the loyalty of Jews.'"
So it's fine for the Republicans to blatantly use racism against non-whites--trumpeting tropes like "poor people in inner cities (black people) are only poor because they're lazy," and "those mexicans are sending rapists and drug dealers."
But if a hijab-adorned Democratic woman says "I want to talk about the political influence in this country that says its okay for people to push for allegiance to a foreign country," (a statement which is perfectly reasonable, and literally not aimed at Jews, but at PACs--then Republicans go haywire.
These bad-faith accusations of anti-semitism are driving me crazy. Ilhan Omar is not anti-semitic. And if the Republican party was seriously concerned with hate speech, they would be focusing on their own ranks. But they don't care about hate speech. Not even remotely.
7
Is the GOP just as willing to tackle Trump's hate speeches?
5
Of all the conflicts in the world, of all the many issues and disagreements, it really strikes me as odd that such a disproportionate amount of criticism and hostility is leveled against Israel - the one, small, Jewish state in the world.
So when people explain that they're not anti-Semitic, they're simply critical of Israel, ask them their thoughts on the other world conflicts and see how much they care about anything other than the state of the Jewish people.
7
@Jon
I personally know a ton of critics of Israel, and every single one of them cares far more about other things. The human rights abuses committed by America are far worst than those committed by Israel.
But that won't prevent me from condemning AIPAC any more than being critical of Israel will prevent me from condemning American Imperialism and American Anti-worker laws.
1
One of the most overlooked things about this hypocritical "antisemitism" bill is that support for the right wing Netanyahu government in Israel is probably greater among Evangelical Christians now supporting Trump and the Republican members of Congress than is the support for the Netanyahu government among American Jews, both Republican and Democratic.
3
"One measure, a “sense of the Senate” resolution, is intended as a direct rebuke of comments made by Representative Ilhan Omar, Democrat of Minnesota, who suggested that some American Jews had dual loyalties to both Israel and the United States."
It's easy to cherry-pick Jews for having dual-loyalties to both Israel and the United States. However, I would opine that most immigrants to the US have the same loyalties.
One born in one country cannot simply disinherit their mother country when they become American citizens. I do make one exception. I would say that anyone who came from an oppressed country that oppressed the entire population or just one group, would have less loyalty to the the country where they were born.
And as far as the Republicans go with their resolution, we all know that this is but a sham!
4
Sen. McConnell,
Thank you so much for your kind offer to join the Big Tent of the Republican Party. Unfortunately it seems the tent is already so full of White Nationalists, Anti-Semites, homophobes, and misogynists, that there just is no room for most of us Jews!
Yes, I know "there are fine people on both sides," but I still prefer the ones on the outside. I realize that the Evangelicals are all in it for Israel, but I'm afraid it's mainly that "End of Days" thing, so I'm not so sure about how that is really a "good" thing.
This was an unforced error on the part of the Democratic leadership who unfortunately didn't call out Omar's remarks directly and forcefully. They should know better... and do better!
Lastly... playing politics with Anti-Semitism should be beneath even the low level of this administration, and its supporters.
Sorry Senator, but that's the way I see it.
6
Well, you'll notice that the headline is NOT, "Eager to Court Women (and Fracture Democrats), Republicans Push Bills on Anti-Misogyny".
Yeah, I've given up on looking for that one....
5
When a Democratic director of Homeland Security warned of the rise of right-wing hate groups (such as the Jews will not replace us marchers) and sought to focus resources on protecting us from these hate groups, the Republicans shouted her down, stopping the initiative.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/posteverything/wp/2017/08/21/i-warned-of-right-wing-violence-in-2009-it-caused-an-uproar-i-was-right/?
What McConnell is doing now clearly is a pure-play publicity stunt. If Republicans cared about anti-Semitism, instead of shutting down this work they would have support funding targeted to protect us from right wing hate groups.
4
Which came first, the chicken or the egg? Is modern Antisemitism because people intrinsically dislike or even despise Jews, or is it a response to the atrocities Israel commits followed by lumping all Jews together (despite the best and most effective criticism of Israeli policies coming from people who are often themselves Jewish)? I would argue it's the latter.
Is it wrong? Yes.
Is it stupid? Yes.
Is it true? Yes.
If you limit the expressions of free speech on campuses you will not suppress antisemitism, you will fan the flames. If people knew on a wide spread basis that it's illegal in 26 states to do business with the government and support BDS - directly limiting freedom of action and speech of Americans and in support of a foreign country - it would do the same (wait until someone is actually charged).
Look, when a terrorist blows up a bus or more recently shoots a rocket into someone's house and injures 7 people, I do not feel obligated to say "Well, Israel does bad things,too." It's just wrong. Period.
When Israel does bad things, I don't feel obligated to offer caveats there either.
I also don't feel obligated to convert to offer a condemnation in either direction.
I promise that limiting free speech because criticism of Israel without the prerequisite caveats is antisemitism in sheep's clothing is mistake - A. Because it usually isn't and B. because it will essentially lend credence to her comment.
2
Personally I’m am sick of the anti semitism cries while we’re persececuting Refugees at our border and locking up children. Lots of pundits and politicians freely condemn Muslims but I don’t see any legitimate legislation to protect the refugees and Muslims. I don’t see a threat to Israel or the Jewish people because of the words of three new congresswomen. What I see is a threat to Aipac’s power over our congress and a kiss up to the visiting Israeli leader struggling with reelection. Some people are just too reactionary and tribal to see this Republican maneuvering for what it is.
2
The ‘Diaspora’ is forever. A Nation-State is not, whether we’re talking about the United States, or the State of Israel.
I’m not sure why Congress believes that it has the right, or duty, to legislate what ‘anti-Semitism’ means, but I do know what my guttural reaction to this nonsense is:
“A plague on both your houses.”
1
The fact that the majority of Times' readers think a condemnation of anti-Semitism is problematic is all one needs to know about how ingrained this bigotry is among progressives. We don't say "Next year in NYC" at the Seder folks, though that seems to be sufficient (pun intended) for so many here. Omar and AOC are both anti-Israel and anti-Semitic. Deal with it.
9
Isn't it possible the GOP is "pushing" these bills because they think they are needed and the right thing to do?
3
@R. R.
The GOP will do the "right thing" when pigs fly.
5
@Joe
Hyperpartisanship on both sides is hurting the US.
@R. R.
Ive voted for Republicans about as often as I have for democrats. The Republican party resembles nothing I or my parents ever supported. It deserves to go down in flames.
1
McConnell's quickness in promoting bills whose only purpose is political contrasts with his refusal to let bipartisan bills that do something useful see the light of day.
1
We do so much for a country that does so little for us. Perplexing, isn't it?
4
I have no desire to boycott Israel, nor to encourage one. However, to have my government make such actions illegal strikes me as tyrannical.
Increasingly, it feels as though America has raised Israel to the level of a highly protected state, and in doing so is trampling on our own democratic principles.
Plainly, this is trend further degrades our standing as a would-be honest peace broker in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
25
@Ricardo Chavira You are conflating "Israel" with American Jews -- a different subject. Punishing American Jews for acts of Israel has become the latest breed of anti-Semitism -- excactly what this bill is meant to call out, before it explodes, as it has already arguably done in Western Europe.
4
@superf88
I am not conflating anything. As far as I'm concerned, American Jews are first and foremost Americans. That's how I view them and it's how I'm sure they would like to be viewed.
My post is strictly about my government's actions with respect to the nation of Israel.
If this bill passes what will be the penalty for putting “trope” in quotes?
10
Does anyone remember when Trump supporters marched and chanted “Jews will not replace us” in Charlottesville 2 years ago? I guess tackling anti-Semitic hate speech at that moment wasn’t politically expedient. But now? The motivation for this legislation is breathtakingly transparent.
51
@Tom T. Heck, I remember, the house minority leader campaigning against soros, bloomberg & "globalist" last November. And Rep . Gaetz bringing a Holocaust denier to the State of the Union a year ago. Wonder how the bill-writers are going to thread this needle.
5
@Tom T.
I think criticism of Trump in this area is futile. Unfortunately the leftists have taken over the party. Hence no one went to AIPAC.
@Tom T.
An odd reality is that the most Jew hating right-wing extremists are rabidly pro-Israel. Again, this isn't about actual Antisemitism but about banning criticism of Israel.
2
The problem, when Congress fails to directly censure Omar for her anti-Semitic comments and leaves her on powerful committees is that Democrats are simply taking Jewish voters for granted.
It is embarrassing for a Republican to finally (finally!) move the US embassy to Israel's capital, Jerusalem. Obama could have done it but he didn't.
It is embarrassing that a Republican recognized The Golan as part of Israel and not a Democrat.
It is an embarrassment that a Republican is renegotiating the poorly done nuclear accord with Iran.
It is embarrassing that it is Republicans are passing laws to address anti-Semitism on college campuses such as the anti-Semitism Awareness Act.
Israel has made repeated attempts to negotiate a new state for the Palestinians, including Camp David in 2001, which their leadership turned down.
Meanwhile because of terrorism Israel has to install a security barrier which as saved many lives from terrorists.
But this BDS moment wants to remove this security barrier which has saved so many lives from terrorism.
What kind of people want people to die from terrorism?
When are the Democrats going to start acting like Democrats again and stop taking Jewish campaign donations and Jewish votes for granted?
24
@David MD
Interesting comment "when are the Democrats...[going to] stop taking Jewish campaign donations and Jewish votes for granted?" In other words, they should do something because of the donations? Omar was called anti-Semitic because she suggested that Republican views were "all about the Benjamins" - i.e., campaign donations. If her comment was anti-Semitic, I guess yours is, too.
6
@David MD
So you are saying Democrats should take positions on Israel to cater to Jewish donors and voters. Wasn't that the complaint that was labeled anti-Semitic?
4
@David MD
From NPR:
Netanyahu Says Israel Is 'Nation-State Of The Jewish People And Them Alone'.
Maybe this has something to do with Democratic attitudes?
1
The Democrats deserve this.
18
The Republicans are as hypocritical as ever, but they are clever to exploit this issue. It keeps Evangelical zealots in their pocket, convinces a few Jewish voters that Republicans aren't as antisemitic as they seem, and thus offers another useful wedge with which to chip away at Democratic unity. They have already successfully convinced free-speech absolutists that campuses are ablaze with PC SJ warriors (which, believe me, they are decidedly not). Now they want to convince some Jewish Democrats that the left is ablaze with antisemitism. Even if these strategies are not wildly successful, the Republicans could erode just enough support to make a difference.
16
Thank god some will see the light.
The Republicans can now create Senate Bills to confirm something we all agree on like antisemitism, in the interest of promoting division, but they can't come up with an alternative Health Plan to Obamacare?
18
@EPMD Nope. And Democrats can't condemn antisemitism. So here we are.
2
Would Senate Republicans support a bill against anti-Islamism? Or against anti-LGBTQ? They are showing hypocrisy of the highest order.
Israel is a very complicated issue. It seemed reasonable after WWII that Jews have a place of refuge. However, the details are far f. rom pure Being opposed to Netanyahu's policies is not being anti-semitic. Being totally pro-Israel and anti-Palestine demonstrates hatred and devaluing of human lives.
30
How many Jewish Republicans are there in Congress? None.
How many Jewish Democrats are there in Congress? Plenty.
How many Muslim Republicans are there in Congress? None.
How many Muslim Democrats are there in Congress? Three.
How many black Republicans are there in Congress? Two.
How many black Democrats are there in Congress? Plenty.
How many Jewish Republicans are there on the Supreme Court of the United States? None.
How many Jewish Democrats are there on the Supreme Court of the United States? Three.
How many black Republicans are there on the Supreme Court of the United States? One.
How many black Democrats are there on the Supreme Court? None?? Sonia Sotomayor?
While America has 40% of the world's 16 million Jews only 1.8% of Americans are Jewish. About 13.3 % of Americans are black.
In the 2016 Presidential election 71% of Jews voted for Trump. While 58% of white voters went with Trump. And 92% of black voters went with Hillary Clinton.
6
@Blackmamba
Interesting statistics, although I believe sources are necessary... In 2016, 71% of Jews actually voted for Cinton according to https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jewish-voting-record-in-u-s-presidential-elections. It is important that we share accurate statistics and cite them so people do not make conclusions with inaccurate data. Especially in this case as you are portraying Jews in a light which does not represent their actual beliefs and actions.
6
@Blackmamba
71% voted for Clinton, not Trump. (Pew Research poll). I'm ashamed enough of the 24% and of support for Netanyahu; please do not add to my shame.
4
@Blackmamba
71% of jewish voters voted for Trump? Where on earth do you get your numbers from. It was just about the opposite. And, by the way, there are two Jewish Republicans in Congress.
3
The Democratic Party is divided between old line liberals like Steny Hoyer and Nancy Pelosi, who are strong supporters of Israel, and radical leftists like Omar, Cortez and Tlaib, who follow the old Soviet Communist line on Israel that it's a white colonial settler state that has no right to exist. The radical leftists are winning at the moment. It's not a good time to be Jewish and a Democrat.
20
@Douglas I hope you're wrong. Jewish Democrats have been the backbone of our liberal democracy. We owe much in our labor, civil rights, and gay movements to them. They should know by now the Republican Party had no use for them and their humane principles. It's now the best time to stick with other Democrats to rid our government of Trump and his cronies.
2
@Douglas There is nothing radical about Omar, Cortez and Tlaib. Stop name calling.
2
Anything that disagree with you is radical left.
1
Ilhan Omar says "some" American Jews had duel loyalties... see Sheldon Adelson. She's not wrong. There is a powerful lobby for Israeli interests and a whitewash of some of the policies that its government engages in. And please, being opposed to some of the Israeli policies in the middle east is no the same as being anti-semitic. In fact many Muslim and Jewish communities in this country are fairly close and supportive of each other, but the divide is much bigger in Israel.
24
@Mary And Irish Americans have a dual loyalty when it comes to Ireland vs, Northern Ireland. A friend of mine - born in America -has both American and Irish citizenship (and won't drink whiskey produced in Ulster). But no one questions the loyalty of the Irish - so why is Omar running off at the mouth about the Jews? In my eyes, she is a representative of the Palestinians but who happens to live in Minnesota.
7
@Mary No, she is wrong. "Some" can mean 99% or 1% depending on context and attitude. My sense is her attitude slides more toward more than less. As with all human attitudes and feelings, loyalty is complex unless you're Trump; then it's all or nothing. Many Americans feel loyalties toward more than one country. If they're Canadian Americans they feel attached to Canada, and if they're Japanese Americans they feel toward Japan. Too many of them have died in our wars to question their loyalties to our country.
4
@Mary:
“... being opposed to some of the Israeli policies in the middle east is no[t] the same as being anti-semitic.”
Is being opposed to some Muslim countries’ policies in the middle east the sama as being anti-Muslim? Strange that the question never comes up. The charge of “dual loyalty” is applied *only* to Jews.
2
The "Some of My Best Friends Are Jewish Bill".
21
Isn't this the GOP that supports, for all intents and purposes, a President who supports the KKK and other white supremacist groups?
One expects politicians to be cynical and hypocritical to a degree, but the GOP has taken it to a whole new level.
On the other hand, perhaps this is simply an extension of the rank bigotry exhibited by the GOP leadership, albeit under the cloak of genteelness.
10
@MassBear
Your comments concerning Trump are totally off base. I do think that Ms. Tlain, Ms. Omar and Ms. Cortez-Ocasio are anti Israel by their words and actions,
3
It's such a sham - praising the Jews while putting down all brown people. By remaining silent, Congress is complacent in Trumps evilness. Like Congress, Trump courts the Jews, but he doesn't have to. While praising the intelligence of the American electorate, he secretly knows that they can be led around like a bulls with nose rings - only instead of bull rings, he uses their beliefs and prejudices to lead them wherever he wants.
If DJT doesn't destroy our fragile democracy, he has published the blueprint and playbook for some other demagogue to do it later. If a democracy like America's is going to exist, there will have to be a paradigm shift in human thought throughout the world.
In the near future, we will program the human mind in the computer based on a "survival" algorithm, which will provide irrefutable proof as to how we trick the mind with our ridiculous beliefs about what is supposed to survive - producing minds programmed de facto for destruction. These minds see the survival of a particular group of people or a belief as more important than the survival of us all. When we understand all this, we will begin the long trek back to reason and sanity.
See RevolutionOfReason.com
2
not happening gop
“... Representative Ilhan Omar, Democrat of Minnesota, ... suggested that some American Jews had dual loyalties to both Israel and the United States.”
No, she did not. She questioned why Representatives, of any religious or cultural background, were expected to declare loyalty to Israel. Not the same thing at all.
19
@Benjamin Hinkley:
Maybe. But I’d call it artful blowing of a dog whistle. Please check your hearing.
1
@Benjamin Hinkley
Actually, it's exactly an example the same thing. Sad that you either can't recognize it, or are in denial.
1
Well, it is disconcerting to see photos of an irate student pushing her finger into a very pregnant Chelsea Clinton's face and calling her a murderer.
Even more disconcerting that Trump Jr., rather than Democrats, backed Ms. Clinton up.
We are in trouble.
23
@B.
Glad you noticed. Not a word from the Dems on that one. Apparently you must be black, brown, gay, muslim, or illegal to be a Democrat. Whites need not apply.
3
If you genuinely cared about fighting anti-Semitism, which is on the rise worldwide, you would not use it as a partisan political issue. Using anti-Semitism as a partisan, political issue is itself anti-Semitic.
27
@MC
It's only partisan if you are anti-Semitic and stoop so low as to using slurs and tropes - regardless of which party or race, religion you belong to, or how many times you have been born.
2
When politicians accuse other politicians of playing politics, they are in bad shape themselves.
6
Really? The GOP is the same group of people that said NOTHING after Trump's remarks ("there are good people on both sides...") following the Charlottesville debacle. Hypocrisy is strong with the GOP.
12
This bill is unconstitutional because it limits free speech. McConnell knows this, but doesn’t care. This is a misuse of our legislative system to generate PR intended to drive Jews into the republican column.
McConnell should be sanctioned for this obvious attempt to use the Senate as a spin machine for his party. The house’s denunciation of anti-semitism was appropriate. The senate could pass the same non-binding resolution.
A bill that purports to outlaw “anti-Israel language” also clearly violates the First Amendment, not to mention being void for vagueness. I assume that the term is intended to cover any criticism of Israel. It would be laughable, if it didn’t concern a very serious subject.
I have no idea why the republicans think this bill is necessary. Trump is the most pro-Israel president in our history. He moved the American Embassy to Jerusalem and last week handed Israel the Golan Heights (never a part of Biblical era Israel). Trump has never asked anything from Israel in return.
5
I’m Jewish and I’ve had just about enough
from both the right and the left. Please leave us alone.
18
Great and necessary Bill now that we have actual terrorist sympathisers in government.
11
This is the most cynical piece of legislation yet from the master manipulator mcconnell.
Once again he outsmarts the feckless schumer, feckless? or perhaps useless is a better word for him, anyway, once again the republicans under the guise of fairness are in their Orwellian double speak, actually proposing the opposite of what they pretend to be offering.
Their silence on the real rise of White supremacists is really how they feel about anti-semitism, just as this bill does. Whatever , which ever, way it works best for their power and their base - is how they feel. It's about power.
American Jews , of which I am one, will hopefully see through this charade by McConnell.
This is NOT designed to protect anyone , but to get more judges , more power more restricting laws.
Don't be fooled again. Never again.
5
Rep. Omar suggested that Congress has a divided loyalty, not individual Jews, though some may. Her words have been skillfully twisted by the same Congress which applauded Netanyahu, now again facing charges of corruption, and will gladly do so again if told to.
14
The majority of American Jews see Donald Trump as he is, a vulgar divisive man. Nothing at this point will change that. The republicans have used divide and conquer strategies since Nixon but it won't work in the Trump era.
8
@RMB
I wouldn't count on it.
2
The inadvertent — I hope — use of the phrase “Court Jews” in the headline is an unfortunate invocation of an ugly stereotype (noun-to-verb transmutation notwithstanding). I urge the Times to revise the headline.
To the extent that Jewish voters (still?) constitute an identifiable bloc, commitment to a domestic agenda based on civil rights, justice, and political, judicial, and economic equality remains central, easily outweighing (and with much less variability than) particular positions on foreign policy matters. (Sources are personal experience and Pew research survey data.)
3
You write:
"A draft circulated in the Senate also links the dual loyalty charge to the 'circulation of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion by the secret police of Russia,' a reference to a fabricated early-20th century document intended to whip up anti-Semitism by purporting to show a Jewish plot for global
domination."
The Times' sentence leads one to believe that it was the Russian secret police, the Okhrana, that fabricated the Protocols. In short: Russia did it. Certainly, this was the unquestioned belief in the West for nearly a century.
The Senate bill doubtless seeks to continue this bit of Russia Bashing.
As it turns out, recent first class Western research has shaken the postulate of Russian responsibility for the document. Proponents of the conventional view have been reduced to writing: "many authorities believe" in place of their former straightforward affirmation.
An example of the new analysis is that of Michael Kellogg. Although concerned to blame Nazism on Russians, he elsewhere quotes authorities to the effect that the Okhrana did not fabricate the Protocols, and that the distinctive features of its original composition suggest that a Ukrainian wrote it. ["The Russian Roots of Nazism", Kellogg, pp.57-58; see his sources]
While the Senate is concerned to circulate Israeli boilerplate on the alleged anti-Semitic subtext of many innocent comments, it is apparently not concerned to correct a devastating historical slander against Russia.
1
@alyosha Are you possibly suggesting that eastern europeans, particularly russians do not have a deep and violent history of anti-semitism and bigotry. Pogroms ring a bell.
Putins soccer team Zenit St Petersburg has a contract that says no gays and no minorities.
1
@HT
We Russians have a lot to live down. But, we don't have to live down false stories. The Protocols is one.
Don't throw everything at me at once.
Since you bring it up, the fact of pogroms is true. But, the rest of the usual telling is a distortion, according to recent, largely Jewish, research.
BTW, virtually no pogroms were in Russia: try Ukraine and Poland.
@alyosha It is rather complicated. Maybe not nearly as nefarious as slavery in the US, but it was an issue.
Rep. Omar never suggested American Jews have dual-loyalty to Israel. She stated that American politicians support Israeli actions at the expense of stated US commitments to human rights. She also stated this was due to powerful lobbying groups. By the way, those lobbying groups are largely funded by evangelical Christians. That the NYT continues to repeat this unfounded accusation of anti-semitism so matter-of-factly is ridiculous.
10
@Thomas: Rep. Omar’s words struck many of us as an artful attempt to conceal a dog whistle.
6
the medium is the message and in this case, the message is that this story sells the newspaper medium. Enough of this story- methinks the republicans protesteh too much.
1
And you continue to lie about what Ilhan Omar said NY Times. She did not question the loyalties of Jewish Americans. She asked why some pushed for everyone in Congress to support a foreign country.
None of this is about addressing anti-semitism. It is entirely about political positioning between the parties and Jews and Muslims are both being used--and harmed in the process.
8
Unless the commnets by Representative Omar are strongly rebuked we will see the slow abandonment of Jewish people away from the Democratic Party. Speaker Pelosi took a politcally frail position by painting all discrimation with the same brush. New York is not the epicenter of the voting univrese. It is the center of the national media. Democratic support is no longer a given due to the radical views of those representatives who many perceive as mainstream without guardrails.
11
Keywords:
Mainstream
Radical
“Eager to Court Jews (and Fracture Democrats), Republicans Push Bills on Anti-Semitism.”
So much in this title makes my skin crawl, but I’ll try not to let it distract me.
So a Republican pushing a bill on antisemitism is courting Jews? If that’s how it is interpreted, seems the bill is appropriate. And even if Republicans are primarily “trying to court Jews” by standing up for them, that’s great for us Jews, thanks for being there for us.
8
Ignore the "very fine people" that the President loves.
We passed a bill.
Very Truly Yours,
Republican Hypocrites
6
We watched and heard president Trump say that "The Democrats are anti-Jewish, anti-Semitic". Do we believe our own lying eyes and ears today? Sen. McConnell and his Republican cabal are pushing bills on anti-Semitism and courting Jewish voters for 2020. P.S. another brouhaha in Washington with Bibi Netanyahu Israel's Prime Minister jawing with his pal Trump this morning before jetting back to Israel to attend to the Hamas missile attack on Tel Aviv last night. We await the fallout from the AIPAC Conference today -- 2 weeks before the seminal (game-changing?) elections in Israel.
I suppose there are some people dumb enough to be swayed by this stunt; namely those who think that a single issue should control their votes. The Republican party has been pandering to those sorts of people for decades (anti-abortion, racists, ...). If they think that this resolution will make me forget about their criminal disregard for the exiexistential issues that face this country and this world, like climate change, overpopulation, and the subversion of democracy by money in politics, they are sorely mistaken.
38
@DavidinSF I think you might be forgetting a fundamental truth of the american electorate. Do not underestimate its ignorance.
4
@DavidinSF A most cynical posture on all counts!
If Democrats, instead of directly challenging Trump, agreed with him while winking to their constituents and holding their crossed fingers behind their backs, I think they'd get more Republicans to vote for them. Duplicity is the platform. Everybody except Bernie Sanders knows that! The question is one of style. People who know their own minds and are honest probably don't vote. Voting, for them, would by hypocrisy. People who vote are people who embrace duplicity and vote for the candidate who best represents their style. Either the bully (Republican) or the victim (Democrat). When the victim sides with the bully, they can get behind enemy lines. I know that from experience because I used to wear a tie everyday to work, as a teacher. Administrators, who judge by appearances, always thought I was "one of them." Students who look for the truth behind appearances always thought I was their teacher. Everybody was happy and nobody the wiser! Style, not critical thinking rules.
2
Americans have the right to boycott whomever they choose. Period. End of story.
14
@an observer
The bill does not touch individual rights to boycott, but rather if a company is doing business with the U.S. Government, or is funded in part by the U.S. Government then it is not allowed to boycott. You can boycott until the cows come home as an individual consumer, But you knew that or show have, If you are an employee of a company doing business or funded, in part by the U.S. Government then, when acting as an employee (only then) must you abide by the company rules. Get over it.
5
@Mark Shyres
Individuals are often companies. If Im a federal contractor then I am both an individual and a company. This bill would infringe on my rights. Numerous Supreme Court cases have affirmed the right to boycott and not be denied access to government jobs because of it.
1
@Joe
Just searched regarding your claim.
Name one such SCOTUS decision. I can't find any.
Democrats don’t need the GOP to fracture them. They can do it themselves, thank you, with the assistance of three loud freshman representatives who can’t keep their mouths shut, unlike the other 47 freshman Democrats.
12
It would be much easier if the democrats were all white and Christian. There would be less division in the party.
1
This is a gift that will keep giving to Republicans. When all the major Democratic candidates passed on speaking at Aipac while both Pelosi and Schumer spoke it is a message to American Jewish voters that the future of the Democratic party is heading in a direction that they will not like. Maybe the current Republican party is a bridge to far for most but I think you will find decreasing enthusiasm in the Jewish community for a party that couldn't even call out anti-semitism among their own.
9
This is another ploy of the republicans and to some extent democratics to look busy and pass legislation that is not a priority for most Americans. How about working on healthcare, the student loan debacle and climate change, the some of reasons they don't work on these issues are; a. They don't care, b. They have no ideas, c. Thier corporate paymasters won't let them. We are looking at the most inept and useless Senate and Congress in modern day America history.
5
McConnell has refused to take up many important pieces of legislation to avoid having to force Republicans to take a stand but he is willing to take up this meaningless legislation to try to embarrass Democrats.
2
"Representative Ilhan Omar . . . who suggested that some American Jews had dual loyalties to both Israel and the United States"
I remembered this differently; I remembered that she had made the "dual loyalty" comment about legislators, not about Jews. It took some serious searching through pages of Google results that took fragmentary quotes out of context in order to make a political point, but I found a fairly extended video of Ilhan Omar's remarks. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0Uw1cRBHKU ) The gist of her remarks were about the common ground of suffering between oppressed people, whether Jewish, Palestinian, Black, etc. She complained about her words being twisted to foment hatred against her, and to shut down discussion of Palestinian rights. The "dual loyalty" quote was about what some people (presumably lobbyists & politicians) were demanding. I don't think any open minded person would make a judgment about antisemitism based on these remarks, especially not without speaking with her directly about it. But obviously no one, neither Republican nor Democratic politicians, neither Fox nor the NY Times, is interested in Ilhan Omar as anything but a political tool.
12
@Martin: No parsing of words can conceal her hatred. As the father of a son who graduated from Ramaz and speaks fluent Hebrew, what Omar said is unpardonable and she has done irremediable damage to her party.Omar's presence as a congresswoman with anti semitic views is a problem that the party does not need.
6
@Alexander Harrison
Examples, please?? And please, refer me to unedited speeches or writings, not phrases and sentences pulled out of context to score political points. And please clarify what you mean by "antisemitic views."
@Martin: " that took fragmentary quotes out of context in order to make a political point"
See Ahmadinejad, threatening to "wipe Israel from the map."
Boycotting Israel because of its illegal settlements and its treatment of Palestinians is a form of speech. If state governments punished businesses for doing so, it would be a clear violation of the first amendment. If state universities punished students for advocating such boycotts or for deriding Israel, that also would be a clear violation of the first amendment—of which Republicans, those cynical, smirking hypocrites, have hitherto portrayed themselves as champions when they perceived right-wingers as being in danger of having their speech stifled.
3
Because the Republicans spend their time figuring out new ways to pervert the system instead of working for the good of the country, America is in steep decline, the Russians act with impunity and the Chinese are eating our lunch around the world. The GOP does an excellent job of fostering voter suppression or inventing cynical measures on topics such as anti-Semitism, but it is not very good at all in repairing America’s dysfunctional healthcare or public education systems, or our crumbling infrastructure.
3
Once again, Congress wastes time on political jockeying instead of tackling real issues like upgrading our failing infrastructure....
5
Many people are divided in their loyalties. It is the human condition. The biggest ones that come to mind are big money and cheating on your spouse. This is definitely not a problem reserved for one group.
2
What would be very interesting is to listen to the candid opinions of the other 59 members regarding the "radical" three. I can just imagine breakfast around these households when the rep says, again, "She said WHAT?" followed by a face palm.
3
@Steve
However the three are the darlings of the media.,
2
The whole strategy of the Republicans in courting Jewish voters is based on the same belief that Omar was accused of - that is, American Jews had dual loyalties to both Israel and the United States. I am surprised the Dems aren't pointing out this hypocrisy.
6
@Aspyr your comment is ridiculous. There is no element of dual loyalty in demonstrating that the Democrats are afraid to confront anti-Semitism in their ranks.
3
@skeptic
Given that the Republicans won't confront racism or homophobia in the Congress OR the support of neo-nazis by the President, your comment about the issue of confronting prejudice is hardly unique to the Democratic Party is somewhat hypocritical.
1
"“It’s misguided to legislatively declare a broad range of nonviolent campus criticism of Israel as anti-Semitism, especially at a time when the prime driver of anti-Semitism is the xenophobic, white nationalist far-right,” he said."
I would use a far stronger word than "misguided." Let's play fill in the blank: "hypocritical, cynical, manipulative, devious, self-serving, and mendacious"--any, or all will do.
This is the weaponizing of accusations of bigotry when the party doing it has plenty of bigotry problems of its own.
You can't make this stuff up except to say, there is no issue so shameful that Republicans' won't use it to their advantage--no matter how discordant it sounds because of the party's special affiliation with white nationalism, which includes antisemitism at its core.
5
I admittedly am one of Israel’s defenders in this paper, arguing to exhaustion that a double standard is being applied to a people, who for so many centuries have been tormented and slaughtered, now finally regaining their homeland, only to see it threatened since inception with annihilation, first by war and terror, and lately be “peaceful means.” (Calls to boycott until it retreats to indefensible borders and accepts enough refugees who will vote it out of existence.)
But I am disappointed by Netanyahu and Trump seeking to divide Israel along party lines. For many years, both the Left and Right have championed Israel’s existence and it’s right to defend itself. Now Israel is no longer a bipartisan issue. Six Democrats who spoke at last years AIPAC conference, are staying away this year.
It does Israel no favors to boost support among Republicans, but lose the Democratic Party. I don’t know where this is heading, but it is very disheartening.
4
The Republicans are having a vote on the Green New Deal. And now are voting on an anti-semitism bill. On both resolutions the democrats in the house refused to vote on. And it was them who created the votes. The Democrats created the Green New Deal. And oddly enough are angry that the senate is taking it up on a vote. One would think that they would be angry at Pelosi for not letting it be vote on. After all it is the democrats who drafted it.
The democrats started an anti-semitism resolution but then in a show of stupidity watered it down. Setting themselves up for the senate vote. The democrats have been a great help to the republicans as of late.
4
The Labor party in Britain and The Dems in US lost the plot on this one for sure.
A majority of people in both countries do not tolerate Anti- Antisemitism, yet these two parties fumbled in their messaging.
4
Bring critical of Israel’s political policies is not anti-semitism.
If Congress passes a bill equating the two, we will all wonder where their loyalties lie.
5
@EmmettC
"Their" meaning who? Congress?
Anti-semitism is alive and well in sectors of both the Republican and the Democratic parties and their bases, but by not fully denouncing it, the Democrats can no longer claim the moral high ground.
The Democrats are being dragged down by a small group of representatives driven by ignorance of history and reality, and a slice of the base (including a minority of Jews) who believe they prove their progressiveness by bashing Israel.
8
It isn't just that there are Jews that have divided loyalties. There are many Christians that put their faith ahead of loyalty to the country and what is best for the country as well.
I personally have no use for religion of any kind for many reasons, one of them that government and religion too often go hand in hand tot he detriment of the people in general.
This republican bill is just a form of propaganda.
3
This will be a test for not only Democrats but for the mainstream media as well.
Mainstream media has allowed politicians to characterize BDS as anti-Semitic and therefore pass laws to ban it and withhold govt funding from those who do not adhere to that law.
America's western allies have refused to join these curbs on free speech and freedom of action. When people supported BDS against South Africa for its policy of apartheid such laws would have never received the support of Democrats though Republicans like Jesse Helms would have supported it.
This move is similar to attempts to divide the Labour Party in UK.
Will the pro-Israel groups lend their support to actions which will divide the Democratic party to stifle any legitimate criticism of the State of Israel?
1
I find it hilarious that the Republicans think that they can court Jewish people to vote for them when their actions the last many years are so troubling, so disturbing, so Anti-American. We judge by actions, not by a couple of bills that would arguably try to reduce antisemitism.
15
@marty Whoever thought of an "Anti-Semitism" bill must be Jewish (as I am) because otherwise they would apparently not understand how deeply it resonates, for a country other than Israel to actually stand up for the right of Jews to live. It sounds ridiculous I guess unless you are very close and knowledgeable to the history of Jewish people, even in just the last 200 years.
Democrats made a grave mistake by choosing a position that seems very simply cynical and spineless at best.
Wouldn't it be nice -- and good for the orderly functioning of government -- if freshmen members of Congress, flush with electoral victory, took a little time to think, and maybe run proposed statements past more experienced members, before speaking?
16
I sometimes tell my kids that, when promoted to the adult table, to first count to ten before uttering something that may be seen as insulting to others.
3
Recently Rep. Deutsche condemned Omar as an anti-Semite, but also defended "my people". Is that Americans or Israelis? Hence the permanent question of divided loyalty. Happily I don't have this problem, because I'm American only. It's good enough for me.
12
I'll give you the benefit of the doubt. He's Jewish. Though benefiting from the blessings of America at this time, this has not always been the case for Jews. Persecution of Jews throughout the millennia usually begins with them being othered - not one of us. That, my friend, is the story of "our people.".
6
@SF
I think it's important to remember that many other ethnic groups have what you call "divided loyalty."
I remember conservative Irish Americans during the Troubles raising money for the IRA which was openly aligned with far left governments such as Cuba that those Irish Americans vehemently opposed and who would never have voted for any candidate who had anything good to say about them.
2
@SF I didn't know that Rep. Deutsche was an Israeli?
You surely know that "Anti-semitism" refers to a faith (like Christianity and Muslim), not a place (like Vatican or Mecca). Such a comment reminds one why such a law would be helpful in the struggle against racism or ignorance.
Glenn Thrush writes: “The actions are part of a larger political strategy aimed, in part, at showing that Republicans are more willing to directly tackle anti-Semitic hate speech and anti-Israel language..”
Equating and conflating anti-Semitism with “anti-Israel language” is the objective of many of those, not least AIPAC, who support such strategies and initiate such legislation.
10
@Alfred di Genis
I like Greek yogurt. Are you suggesting I check AIPAC's refrigerator before I buy some?
1
my heritage is jewish and am not picking up anti-semitism as a fresh, new political toy. for the republicans to put out this proposed bill is a crass bold faced lie. they're interested in speaking out for jews like a beef farmer is for animal rights, animals have value but only for the profit they can gain from them. what crass carnival barkers they are, swirling water in a bucket and claiming its a drain. it ain't going down!
26
Jesse Ventura, Al Franken, Ilhan Omar - three novelty political candidates elected by the great people of Minnesota... Enough with jokes already. If Congress needs to pass any bill rather urgently, it would be the one that prohibits drunk and prank voting in MN. Before expanding on that let me clarify my conviction that anti-Zionism is in many cases a proxy for anti-Semitism, and that support of Israel is voiced - among others - by anti-Semitists who despise Muslims even more.
But my point is about the impact of electing political figures without proper deliberation. Pro-wrestler, TV comedian, and now a Muslim. Muslim is not a qualification, no more than BA in political science is an education. If anything, the declarative secularism of this country needs strengthening, instead of being watered down by the election of a candidate whose religious affiliation is her/his only defining characteristic. In case of Representative Omar we got a political figure with rhetoric borrowed from Bernie, but otherwise a run-of-the-mill theist with a religion-specific set of sectarian grudges. And speaking about dual loyalties - before questioning allegiance of American Jews to the United States, Representative Omar should reflect on the weakness of her allegiance to reality. I personally am very worried when a politician speaks about her/his God doing this or that, or asking Him for advice. This is a domain of TV evangelists, not progressives.
15
@Gordon SMC You really hit the nail on the head. You said something that no one else has pointed out. Thank you.
2
@Gordon SMC Gordon!! If I could recommend twice I would. Best, most insiteful comment of the day.
A lttle criticism though.....dont lump the TV evangelists in with the Muslim anti-zionist crowd.
If you monitor the cable preacher channels objectively, you are immediately faced with the evidence that about half the TV preachers are "jewish" anyway and are all preaching a reconciling of jews and christians......many preaching the line that in order to be christian you MUST be jewish first. They throw a lot of hebrew words around too! (in and out of correct context...but hey even the rabbis do that too)
Race is specifically protected in the Constitution which was amended after the Civil war. Religion is specifically protected in the Constitution.
Let's see the Republicans promote a constitutional amendment that protects all minorities, including , gay rights, women and and specifically Jews and Muslims if they feel the 1st amendment doesn't do it. That way we no longer have to depend on the Supreme Courts interpretation of "Equal Protection" when it comes to protecting the rights of all minority groups.
It will never happen. The Christian right will never support it. This is nothing more than pandering to the "Christian right".
71
Why is the GOP so busy trying to help Netanyahu with his political problems at home?
Him and his corrupt Hamas cronies already got a plan to win the Israeli election through the classic “Gaza mini-war.
Why are democrats so afraid?
Take a stand against corruption and just point put how ridiculous it is to equate anti-corruption and anti-semitism. Which is what the GOP is doing!
10
Never mind that the vile GOP worked with Zuckerberg Facebook on an (actual!) antisemitic attack against sane anti-Facebook activists. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/14/technology/facebook-data-russia-election-racism.html
Nope, it's the Democrats who do that. Pay no attention to the racists behind the curtain!
That party-cult makes me barely stomach living anymore, but does make me look forward to every election day, each an all-too-rare chance to stuff a ballot box with—disguised as my vote generally (D)own the line—my opinion on where they can stuff themselves.
And the only thing Democrats in Congress were doing wrong was harassing Omar for speaking TRUTH.
5
@SR:No disrespect, but if 1 has completed successfully a Ph.D. 1 knows the value of objectivity, and 1 learns to avoid employing emotionally charged words like "vile" in a serious comment. Am reminded of time I filed a grievance against the departmental chairman at Brandeis High--I was dean and taught bilingual, French and Spanish there for 20 years--and his response was what was I angry about, as if my grievance stemmed from feeling, emotion, rather than reason!At present Cong,Omar is a liability to her party, an easy target for Republicans, invitation to label whole party as anti semitic. Solution: "Less said quicker mended!" Rather than go on a junket to Eritrea where I hear she is at present, let her take care of her constituency AT HOME. There r pueblos in Minnesota in her c.d. where living conditions for resident Amero Indians r atrocious. Let Omar see to their needs, thus changing the narrative. As they say, all politics is LOCAL. She will not get far by reviving old tropes straight out of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.Omar should also request a sit down with folks from AIPAC in order to better understand their viewpoint which is a valid one!I got to know officials from AIPAC when I was with LS and found them to be polished diplomats!
4
The rhetoric is as high as an elephant's eye. Meanwhile, I'm channeling what my grandparents would say. None of this is good for the Jews.
12
Its not that the Republicans are so smart, or so strategic.
Its that the Democrats make it so easy to use their own words against them to make them look so radical and dangerous.
Chess vs Checkers approach
11
Americans reserve the right to be critical of Israel.
16
This bill only further proves Rep. Ilhan-Omar right. It isn't about "Antisemitism" but about banning criticism of Israeli human rights abuses or support of BDS. Again, the power of AIPAC is on display. Imagine banning criticism of China, Russia or Saudi Arabia.
28
@Al M Yes! This is exactly it!
3
What are democrats afraid of? Surely they don't support anti-semitism...
7
So clearly AIPAC has started contributing to McConnells 2020 re-election campaign....
5
Since this "noble" effort by the Republicans is clearly aimed at Rep. Omar, may I make an observation about her and her comments.
Without doubt, she has questioned the loyalty of American Jews who support Israel. But has Rep. Omar questioned her own loyalties. She is from Somalia , a country over 2,000 miles from Israel. Unlike Rep. Tlaib, who is from area known as Palestine and who still has family living there, Omar does not. What makes her so anti-Israel? Dare I say it is her Islamic religion that, in my opinion, is the principal reason for her stand against a mainly Jewish Israel..
17
What we are seeing here is the effect of multiculturalism in its worst forms. I doesn't feel right or good.
12
Rep Omar did not say American Jews had dual loyalty. She said she was required as a legislator to show sufficient loyalty to Israel in order to serve on committees that discussed U.S. foreign policy. She asked why politicians in the U.S. were required to show this loyalty regardless of the behavior of a foreign nation. These are valid questions, and suggesting she said otherwise (in your headline, no less) is misleading.
64
Smart political move, the dems blew this one.
9
As an American Jew and a combat veteran (US Navy), I am often asked why I didn’t join the IDF the Israeli army ... my answer is simple
I’m an American and if I’m going to fight and die for a country it will be mine, no one else’s.
37
The issue of how to deal with anti-semitism in the Democratic Party threatens to split it. As a member of a Reform Jewish congregation, I see many Congressional Center, as well as Far-Left and Black Caucus Democrats rationalize and water down direct and strong condemnation of Ilhan Omar's remarks. Ilhan should have been rebuked as Steven King was by the Republicans, and stripped of her Committee assignment.
14
Let’s be clear about why the GOP feels the need to this. Their decision is not based in a vacuum: had numerous Democrat Party reps and Senators not devolved into blatant anti-Semitism, this would hardly have been necessary. The old stir the pot and blame the soup for the steam trick will not work.
8
@JBC
Examples, please, of “numerous Democrat (sic) Party reps and Senators...devolved into blatant anti-Semitism”?
1
@Jean Louis
Read this whole NYT piece. It's all there.
("Democrat" was intentional. There's little or nothing democratic about the party)
@JBC
Of course I read the whole NYT piece. Hoyer, Omar, Pelosi, Reid are mentioned. Where is the “blatant anti-Semitism”?
Just as you do with your condemnation of the Democratic Party, you seem to need blunt generalities to make your point. I go to D Party meetings and events—they’re plenty democratic. And criticism of Netanyahu’s Israel is not blatant anti-Semitism. Before you accuse me of naïvete, I have lived 70 years as the son of Holocaust survivors. I am aware of what anti-Semitism is.
So the two bills, aimed at limiting lawful behavior and stifling free speech, are being promoted by the GOP just to prove who loves Jews more. Gotta hand it to them, they are masters of craven division tactics. Ironic too, just as Trump’s executive order enforces “free speech” on campuses, the senate promotes a bill sharply curtailing it. I love my Jewish friends and allies, but the GOP is acting cynically, and their only true motivation is to divide and smear, even if it weakens our country in the process.
85
Dual citizenship is dual loyalty. It was illegal until a 5-4 decision by the Supreme Court in 1967.
12
@Eugene Windchy.
You can have dual citizenship with many countries, as well as the US. Ask the many Canadians, Europeans, Mexicans, Australians, Philippines, etc who have it.
1
@Eugene Windchy.
It was "legal" only until it was tested in the courts. The SCOTUS decision did not mean "it used to be legal." It meant it already was illegal, and they finally had the opportunity to so declare.
Let me try that again. Got my positives and negatives interchanged.
It was "illegal" only until it was tested in the courts. The SCOTUS decision did not mean "it used to be illegal." It meant it already was legal, and they finally had the opportunity to so declare.
Criticism of Israel, like criticism of any country, is legitimate. But one-sided criticism of Israel with the added dimension of supporting the boycott, divest and sanctioning of Israel is not. Especially not, when Israel has been fighting enemies for its entire history and when Israel has tried numerous times to make peace with the Palestinians only to be met with rejection and terror. There's a name for people who single out Israel for condemnation -- and say nothing of the actual atrocities committed in Syria, Iran, Gaza, Lebanon, et.al. They're called anti-Semites.
94
@Pragmatist In CT Syria, Iran, Gaza, Lebanon don't pose as liberal secular democracies my friend.
9
@Pragmatist In CT
From NPR:
Netanyahu Says Israel Is 'Nation-State Of The Jewish People And Them Alone'....and he means it.
9
@Pragmatist In CT
A healthy democracy is based on the ability to criticize government, whether it be your own or another countries.
Criticizing the actions of Israel's government does not equal anti-Semitism.
Boycotting products made in areas occupied illegally by Israel does not equal anti-Semitism.
30
Donald Trump has fueled anti-Semitism (despite having a son-in-law and daughter who are Jewish) by saying that protesters in Charlottesville (let's say Neo-Nazies) who were chanting, "Jews will not replace us" and wearing swastikas, and waving Confederate flags, had some "very fine people."
Where were Jarrod and Ivanka then, by the way? Not a word, even after that poor young woman was murdered by a white supremacist.
189
@Pat funny, but I seem to recall a former President as the one who embraced Israels enemies, a former President who refused to invite Israels PM to the White House, a former President who abandoned Israel at the UN for the first time in American History.
Of course this same former President is above reproach on these pages and can do little wrong, If only he had invited Israel and those Arab countries who want to see its demise to the Rose Garden for a Beer, this might have been solved.
15
@Pat FALSE! This is not what happened. Because people are too lazy or don't want to be bothered with the facts, I'll lay them out for you re: Trump's comments at Charlottesville:
Here's the "offensive" comment: "We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides, on many sides." https://www.vox.com/2017/8/12/16138906/president-trump-remarks-condemning-violence-on-many-sides-charlottesville-rally
Then, after the press jumped on this opening and broadcast that Trump supported white nationalists and neo-Nazis, he made clarifying comments the next day: "...I've condemned neo-Nazis....But not all of those people were neo-Nazis, believe me. Not all of those people were white supremacists, by any stretch. Those people were also there because they wanted to protest the taking down of a statue, Robert E. Lee."
https://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-trump-charlottesville-transcript-20170815-story.html
I'm personally in favor of removing Confederate statues, but the point is that Trump was clearly referring to these peaceful protestors who had assembled with a permit, not the Richard Spencer thugs who marched onto the demonstration carrying tiki torches.
But to this day, this is the main justification people give for calling Trump an anti-Semite, and a supporter of neo-Nazis and white supremacists. Absurd.
13
@Sara
President Obama "abandoned" Israel at the UN the same way Israel "abandoned" the USA when we voted to sanction Russia for invading Ukraine and Israel didnt. Israel cant back up the USA when confronting our enemies? What kind of ally are they really?
10
What we see is the very real problems of antisemitism weaponized by parties and factions of parties to use against each other.
It isn't to remedy antisemitism, or overcome it, or put it behind us. It is to use the accusations to political advantage.
Both sides do it to each other, and to their interior factions. What is bipartisan is the misuse of the concern.
104
@Mark Thomason: Both sides! Again? Examples please--preferably from this century.
12
@Des Johnson
Could there be a better example than the current one? Both Democrats & Republicans are fighting to use an absurdly reductive distortion of Ilhan Omar's words to claim moral superiority.
1
Wow, great to see the Senate working on productive matters again. I thought all they had time for was tax breaks for the rich and confirming unqualified political hacks for judges. Good to see they are addressing the tough problems again. Go Mitch.
6
Well, this is straightforward. There should be an amendment denouncing anyone who approves of people who march with neo-Nazis to Unite the Right.
2
Only Republicans don’t denounce their President who calls nazis “very fine people” in Charlottesville.
Only Republicans sit in deafening silence as their President detains children in Tender Age Camps, where 4,556 cases of sexual abuse have been reported since 2015.
Republicans can bloviate as much as they want about anti-semitism, but they’ve lost my vote for a lifetime.
17
Clyde Haberman, a contributor to this paper, once commented on a broadcast regarding this subject. He said that American Jews do not have dual loyalty, but only one---and that is to Israel. Examples of where US and Israeli polices differed, e. g., AWACs to Saudi Arabia, were given with the comment that there was not a single case where major American Jewish organizations supported the American side over the Israeli. It would seem that Israel is the golden calf of modern Judaism.
5
Ilhan Omar never said Israelis had dual loyalties. She just said she shouldn’t have to be loyal to a foreign government herself!
11
“Fracture the opposition”- that’s a classic Russian tactic, which served the Trump well for the 2016 election. Of course it will be well employed ahead of next election too.
2
The underlying problem with the GOP’s reasoning is that it seems to work. Assume everyone lacks nuance and the ability to discern the truth from facts that are somewhat, but not very, complicated. It will work to a certain extent, but we need NOT capitulate to the fear of losing and stick to whatever integrity we can muster. I don’t want to beat the GOP at its own game, it’s a short term game and if we play it, we will end up undermining our entire system, heck we are already well on the way with the GOP’s tactics dating back to Clinton. We need to be the adults in the room. The GOP will have their unreasonable temper tantrums and we need to stay calm. Mueller is over, we need to move on and govern.
2
I’m heartened to know Senator Cruz has found a purpose beyond antagonizing Democrats whilst wrapping himself in the flag of injustice.
3
So much for all that rightwing brouhaha about free speech on campus. Sounds like the GOP wants to enforce its own idea of "political correctness."
12
“One measure, a “sense of the Senate” resolution, is intended as a direct rebuke of comments made by Representative Ilhan Omar, Democrat of Minnesota, who suggested that some American Jews had dual loyalties to both Israel and the United States.”
No she didn’t. This is flatly false. She was talking about these types of bills, where people are penalized for not showing loyalty to Israel.
15
This reaction is over the top. The Israel lobby does shower politicians with money, so they are bought. The Israel lobby is a foreign lobby, so they are trying to buy policy.
The hate speak has been around for a very long time, that's not different. A newly elected Representative calling them out as a lobby that has become far too powerful in this country is what's different.
Why is no allowed to say these things out loud?
35
The Republicans are brilliant playing this the way they are but more importantly it proves that Omar was right on the money.
17
I have voted Democrat since 1980 when I pulled the lever for Jimmy Carter. Those days are officially over. I intend to vote for anyone but the Democrats because they have proven, unquestionably, they are not my friends.
If this is a tactic to steer me away, it worked.
10
@Martin X
So instead vote You support the party who use the Star of David to call people corrupt? Get real.
https://mic.com/articles/147694/donald-trump-s-latest-anti-hillary-ad-uses-a-star-of-david-to-call-clinton-corrupt#.8IP13UfF2
1
Lifelong Democrat here. And Jewish.
I’ll tell you something. I’m sick of being a punching bag. I’m tired of being told that “naturally, you’re good with money” because I saved/invested early so that I could retire early. I’m tired of Israel being the sole culprit on campuses, at the U.N. and other “human rights” groups.
I’m tired of being told that I have dual loyalties. I ask, “Can’t I love America and Israel, as I love both my father and mother?”
Besides being a homeland for Jews, Israel has done so much good in the world in the areas of medicine, science, and technology. They’ve made a lot of mistakes too, but all I hear about is the mistakes. It’s a litmus test for progressives to see how anti-Zionist you can be. Zionism has become a dirty word.
I’m leaving the Democratic Party to become a Republican.
17
@David G.,
Bravo. Welcome, my friend. I was a 'red diaper' baby, raised by leftist, European born Jews, and nurtured by liberal intellectuals. I left the Democratic Party, when it was hijacked by the likes of Farrakhan and company. Never looked back once. I found a new home in the Republican Party.
10
@David G.
Israel is the only punching bag? Look people being biased against you is completely wrong. You love Israel and that is fine. However, Israel is genuinely doing terrible things.
It deserves criticism for that, not because Jews are different, but because Jews are not different.
We criticize human rights issues in Iran, we criticize human rights issues around the globe. Why should we have lower expectations for Israel?
9
@David G.I might leave the Democrats, but I could never, ever become a Republican
5
"Look how nice we are to the poor benighted Jews" says the Republican Party. "We will protect you from racism and discrimination with this lovely anti - bigotry resolution . And oh, by the way, join our party in thanks".
This is a reprehensible action.
Republicans do not care about Jews, they simply want to use them.
I think this comes under the headings of bigotry and racism.
62
@dog lover yep. Most American Jews are alarmed by the rise of dog whistle rhetoric on the left but by no means trust the far right.
Clearly, McConnell is in the pocket of AIPAC, which is ironic considering how antisemitic Mr. Trump and the "republican" party are.
SMH
12
With so few Jews in the world and with Israel being so tiny a country, let there be no mistake......Anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism. Sorry there's no other explanation for the selective criticism
26
Who said it’s selective?
I oppose Israel’s policy towards the Palestinians. I’m also opposed to Myanmar’s treatment of the Rohingyans and China’s treatment of the Uyghur.
17
@Marc
Im anti the Soviet Union. Does that mean I hate Russians?
8
No expectations, no criticism? Blind loyalty. Doesn’t sound like a particularly healthy relationship. If you only look at Israel as a Jewish state, if it gets a pass solely because it is Jewish, then why should 98% of America care about it? I care about it because it’s a beacon of democracy in a sea of dictators. I care about the fact that it is a haven for an ethnic/religious group that has been singled out and persecuted for centuries and such a haven is, unfortunately, very necessary in our world. I care about it because it has been a staunch ally of MY country, the US. I admire it because it punches above its weight and I love that. I don’t like the Palestinian issues, I think they need to be the adult in the room but violence begets violence and both sides need to take responsibility for the violence. Once any of those factors start to change, I will care less about Israel, because the religion of its citizens really doesn’t matter to me. Think about Israel as an ally of China on issues that are adverse to US which could easily happen in a decade or two. How are the non-Jews in the US going to feel about Israel then? Bibi needs GOP on a personal level to get elected, but it’s a dangerous game for Israel to choose sides.
2
Any member of Congress who believes that there are fine people in the South who are right to worry about the loss of their Confederate heritage is not in a position to condemn anti-Semitism. This member just wants to show you one face while hoping you'll ignore the other one.
12
It is interesting, and no coincidence, that in the US and in the UK it is the “left” that is accused of anti-Semitism and it is from the “left” in both countries (and in other western democracies) where criticism of Israel and Defense of Palestinian rights come from.
9
I hope it will be TRUE anti-Semitism, so that it says “anti-Semitism has for hundreds of years included attacks on the loyalty of Jews and Arabs.”
The Senate Bill should be amended to say “harassment on the basis of actual or perceived shared ancestry or ethnic characteristics with a religious group” and also targets “discriminatory anti-Israel or anti-Palestinian conduct that crosses the line into anti-Semitism.”
9
The Democratic Party pf today is still a serious and center leaning institution , made up of Pelosi , Schumer , Obama , Biden , Schiff , Hoyer and other very good people .
It has a left , or even extreme left wing , with Sanders ,
AOC , and some very noisy and attention seeking newcomers from Minnesota and Michigan . Very young , inexperienced , aggressive and flailing .
Similarly the Republicans have a noisy right wing .
Neither party should let extremism establish prominence in its ranks , and it is smart politics to point out and exploit the other's failures .
The Republicans are smart . Let us see how smart the Democrats are .
7
These bills are not about anti-semitism. They are about protecting a foreign country, Israel, from any criticism. This is a cynical misuse of the word.
56
The house democrats need to ask themselves: "why is it so difficult to simply condemn anti-Semitism? Shame on them for permitting IIhan Omar to keep her committee assignments.
22
She’s anti-Israel, not anti-Semitic. Being anti-Trump is not “anti-American” either.
36
@Laume
So the “Benjamins” she referred to in her condemnation of their source came from Israel, not American Jews?
I don’t think so.
1
@Ann N
Shame on Israel and it's US supporters for countenancing the oppression of Palestinian Muslims and Christians in the illegally occupied territories!
Very interesting tell about the Republicans. Their inclination to bigotry is apparent as they legislate under the assumption that anti-semites hate all jews. I can only write about my own feelings. I do love Jews but ridicule those in Israel who are stealing Palestinian lands claiming they have always been the rightful owners. My distrust is limited to the land thieves and Netanyahu who persistently thrives on conflict to stay in power. That's it. Otherwise I admire Jews as well educated pius followers of God, especially the Orthodox Jews who devote themselves so fully.
I would venture most people expressing displeasure with Israelis are of a similar mind. What would you think of me stealing land by force in Ireland without enumeration? Or trying to hold public office by stoking hatred and anger of another ethnic group?
You might call me an anti-semite, but it is not true. I deplore all criminals while accepting the frailties of conduct by all when unwitting.
Here the Republicans have clearly shown the structure of their minds that practice bigotry with their total blanket legislation pandering to a well funded organization likely dangling campaign funding incentives.
It's a political spectacle for public opinion of appearing to be good but is of evil ends. And what about the boycott legislation? Isn't it Communism when a government tells a business how to operate?
13
I find the GOP’s attempt offensive; where were the condemnations when Trump called the white supremacists “fine people”?
38
At this point Israel is essentially an Apartheid state (or Apartheid lite since it isnt full on race based like South Africa). The fact that our legislators wont see it and now want to punish those who do is of serious concern.
Ilhan Omar didnt say that Jews have dual loyalty. Look up the quote. She says others push dual loyalty on her, which is entirely true and the point of SB 1.
67
@Joe - In what way is Israel an Apartheid state? People of other religions can't vote? Oh, oops. Yes, they can. They have no representation in the government or Supreme Court? Oh, yes, they do. They have separate drinking fountains? Uh,no. Can't eat, play, worship where they want? Yes they can.
Am I getting this right? Trump and the GOP will punish people for anti-Semitic hate speech yet have signed an executive order permitting anti-Muslim, anti-gay, anti-everyone who isn’t white hate speech? What’s a white suprmacist to do? He (as they’re almost all male) thought Trump was ushering in this great, not-brave new world where he could foam at the mouth over everyone who doesn’t look like him and spout hatred and incite violence against everyone doesn’t think like him. But now he can’t be an equal opportunity hate speaker because the GOP won’t allow it for Jews? Republican hypocritical pandering knows no moral bounds.
41
I am amazed at the amount of hate speech I read in comments that are opposed to hate speech. Who gets to decide whose hate speech is worse.
7
I wonder about this strategy. Omar's remarks were reprehensible. But by making her a center of attention aren't we to some degree giving her what she wants: a politicization and polarization of the Israel issue which has until now been largely bipartisan?
5
@Mike Livingston That is how Jewish persecution started in Europe, by "a little bit" of anti-semitism becoming acceptable in polite society...We must fight this evil when and wherever it appears.
2
When did it become anti-Semitic to acknowledge that there are Jews in America whose loyalty is divided between this country and Israel? How can that not be true when they hold dual citizenship? They are not alone in that divided loyalty or dual citizenship. I do not dig it myself, but I am aware of it.
22
There you have it. Anti-semitism exposed. Stereotyping an entire people over the few. By the way, dual citizenship does not mean dual loyalty. Many people have dual citizenships from many countries but love this country over all. Including Jews.
13
@Michael Bachner
There are people in this country with dual loyalty to other countries. There was an entire special counsel investigation into the President and his authorities to determine whether any of them had dual loyalty with Russia. A certain American Jew named Jonothan Pollard went to prison because of his dual loyalty to Israel.
But sure, clutch those pearls that someone suggest that anyone might not be totally loyal to the USA. To suggest that ALL Jews are more loyal to Israel than the USA is antisemitic. To acknowledge that some actually do, is not.
15
@Michael Bachner You are be disingenuous in your comment as Penseur did not say ALL Jews - this is the problem with some people they read it the way they want to- to justify their argument.
Discussion requires intellectual honesty.
11
I applaud these efforts. Perhaps if the Labor party in the UK had also acted swiftly and decisively it would not be overrun by what a majority of Brits believe is Anti-Semitism. The bill passed by Congress obfuscating hate language targeting Jews to targeting everyone is no different than diluting Black Lives Matter into All Lives Matter. Both are true but the motive is to camouflage the victim.
9
Anti-Semitism is a historic plague on the world. Trump himself tried to make the snide Anti-Semitic claim that George Soros was financing the march of asylum seekers on the US border. You know the one, which Trump claimed was full of disease ridden criminals, that ended in a tragic mass killing at a Jewish synagogue in Pittsburgh. Trump is Netanyahu's big friend. Trump and Sheldon Adelson have made Jerusalem the capital of Israel violating decades of work to not trash the Palestinians to the last degree. Schumer states that Jews have the right of self determination. Which is true but the Palestinians it seems only have the right to get beat down. The mass killing of Palestinians during their march on Gaza border was met with a major news media effort to blame the victim or bury the story. This legislation is a violation of free speech not a restraint on an age old blight of hatred of Jews.
25
We jews are best served by vigorous a vigorous defence of freedom of speech not self-serving attempts to limit the speech of those who criticize Israel. The free market of ideas is still the best defence against anti-semitism.
142
You can talk for yourself, but refrain to use ‘we’. I support freedom of speech, but not when I am insulted.
9
@Uriah M
If you dont support freedom of speech that insults you, then you dont support freedom of speech.
21
@Uriah M- then you do not understand freedom of speech. Freedom of speech is my freedom to offend you and yours to offend me.
4
Didn’t Kevin McCarthy say some inflammatory stuff too - about Soros being part of some thing or other? The Rs are brazen and shameless ... they think nothing when one ☝️ d their own does it but draft laws when it is one of the Ds.
11
When Ilhan Omar said, "I want to talk about the political influence in this country that says it is OK for people to push for allegiance to a foreign country", she was being no more or less “anti-semitic” than the many prominent Jews who signed the below statement in 1919, among them Adolph Ochs the great-great grandfather of the current publisher of the New York Times:
“All Jews repudiate every suspicion of a double allegiance, but to our minds it is necessarily implied in, and cannot by any logic be eliminated from, the establishment of a sovereign state for the Jews in Palestine....As a rule those who favor such a [state] advocate it not for themselves, but for others. Those who act thus, and yet insist on their patriotic attachment to the countries of which they are citizens, are self-deceived in their profession of Zionism and under the spell of an emotional romanticism or of a religious sentiment fostered through centuries of gloom.”
https://www.nytimes.com/1919/03/05/archives/protest-to-wilson-against-zionist-state-representative-jews-ask-him.html
It would be absurd to label Ochs and his co-signers “anti-semitic”. Yet that is what Cruz’s Senate bill entails.
Defenders of Israel often use the bogus anti-Zionism is anti-semitism claim in order to to intimidate and silence their opponents. One sees how the cynical Republicans are now using the manufactured controversy in order to increase divisions in the Democratic party. That isn’t what you really want, is it?
87
Taking a statement from 1919, before the Holocaust, ignores history. Ochs, like many Jews of that time, were, like many new immigrants, including Italians and Irish, consistently trying to prove their Americanism by distancing themselves from their roots. Thankfully we no longer live in that time. Or so I thought.
11
@Michael Bachner
They were not anti-Semitic, nor was their rejection of Zionism. They did not believe that Zionism is the culmination of Judaism, or that Zionism and Judaism are co-extensive.
You no longer live in that time? There are people still living today who were born before that time. Historically speaking, it was yesterday.
7
@FB
You write: "...That isn’t what you really want, is it?"
It is not clear to me who is being addressed in that "you". Do you anticipate that only Democrats, only Zionists, or only Jews, would ever read your comment?
There are others in this country sick and tired of seeing the nation's blood and treasure vanishing into the black holes of unwinnable wars fought for the sole benefit of the state of Israel.
Kindly refer to this recent article for a brief summary of that issue - wholly unrelated to antisemitism, I might add:
https://www.traditionalright.com/the-view-from-olympus-the-next-stupid-neocon-war/
Sadly, my fellow Democrats walked into this trap when they raised petty objections to the straightforward denunciation of anti-semitism proposed a few weeks back and felt the need to water that down into a sort of “all hate matters,” statement. Krone is right that “dual allegiance” is just birtherism for progressives.
Illiberal ideology has seized the GOP, the Democrats shouldn’t flirt with it, but rather speak clearly and forcefully for American values of equal citizenship and religious liberty.
11
@Cormac
You're right that this is a political game.
Whatever the feelings, raw and deep, aroused by all this, what we're doing now is infantile one-upmanship, nothing more.
Antisemitism where it exists is a damnable problem, one that calls for vigilance and diligence, not one side praising itself and blasting the other, not the endless catcalls that any- and everything can be antisemitic just because, well, it can be.
Worst is the bizarre notion that this is a policy matter. Or a legal matter. This is where the trouble starts, for all sides.
If we can't manage to create a culture open and tolerant enough to obviate ugly issues such, as this we have work to do.
If we honestly think passing rules and laws about it is any kind of solution, we're doomed.
If we tell ourselves allowing political opportunists who care not at all about the underlying issue but relish the opportunity to beat up on their enemies is any sort of way to address the real challenges we face in this regard, we are plain stupid.
And those sensitive souls who find abomination in the thoughts of Ilhan Omar, who only questioned why we don't think seriously about what the US us doing in Israel, are misguided or, as she infamously suggested, not particularly concerned for their home country.
As FB's quote from Adolph Ochs above demonstrates, there are subtleties and different ways of thought here. Any side that seeks thought control is cynical and dangerous. And not helping.
2
“anti-Semitism has for hundreds of years included attacks on the loyalty of Jews.”
That is absolutely true.
But it's also true that some - and I stress the word 'some' - mega wealthy influential donors who are Jewish have explicitly stated their loyalty is with Israel first and foremost.
" The uniform that I wore in the military, unfortunately, was not an Israeli one" Sheldon Adelson
"I'm a one-issue guy, and my issue is Israel" - Haim Saban
Are we supposed to pretend this political influence on Israel's behalf does not exist simply because it feeds a stereotype?
140
The support of Israel is consistent with US interests. Since when is supporting the only democracy in the Middle East anti- American? Why is that a dual loyalty? For many people, Jew, Christian and Muslim alike, support of Israel is the support of American values.
7
@Michael Bachner reread Luciano’s , that’s not what he argued.
7
@Michael Bachner
Do US interests include getting pretty much the entire Muslim world to think we are total hypocrites when it comes to human rights?
12
The fascists call: "Jews will not replace us." The head of the Republican party responds: "very fine people on both sides.” The Republicans, ever the obsequious dog to Trump, do and say nothing. Meanwhile, there are children separated from their parents and are in concentration camps in this country. Children. In concentration camps. In American. In 2019. There are fake emergencies to support racist policies. There are mass murders on school campuses, and nothing is being done. The litany of awful, divisive policies, words and actions by Trump and his Republican minions against every community in this country, and many persons of good character, is so long and wide it cannot be recounted here, but about which every American knows. How stupid does Mitch McConnell think people are (I am) to fall for this patronizing and pandering? How stupid does Ted (doesn't like "New York" values) Cruz think we are? There is no decency left if the Republican party, and I am insulted if you think "this" is what would attract me or anyone else to vote Republican.
75
"Concentration Camp" is an intentional reference to WWII. I strongly suggest you investigate what occurred in those camps. Detention centers in the US are NOT concentration camps. And ICE are not Nazis.
13
@Tom Schwartz
They are concentration camps. Just like we marched Japanese Americans into concentration camps.
They arent death camps or labor camps, which is what Nazi concentration camps essentially were. They are concentration camps, literally.
14
@Spencer Weisbroth Also, Spencer, in addition to your awful concentration camp reference, go back and actually read what Trump said in Charlottesville. His reference of "fine people" was clearly re: those peacefully protesting the removal of a confederate statue, not neo-Nazis and white supremacists. When the never-Trump press seized upon this opening, he clarified it the next day, explicitly denouncing neo-Nazis and white supremacists.
2
Hey Mitch, do you remember Donald’s response during the White Power rally in Charlottesville when the goons were chanting, “Jews will not replace us?” I do. Very fine people on both sides in case you need a reminder.
Do you remember Donald’s condemning anti Semitism after the Tree of Life Synagogue massacres in which elderly congregants were murdered as they prayed? Neither do I. He stood on the tarmac and uttered NRA talking points about arming people in houses of worship. Elderly people didn’t survive the Holocaust in order to have to arm themselves while they pray but maybe that’s just my opinion.
Donald’s embrace of conspiracy theories about the globalists and caravans of invading marauders is thinly veiled anti Semitism, one of the oldest tropes in the book. His final campaign ad of 2016 featured George Soros, Lloyd Blankfein, and Janet Yellen, with dark allusions to sinister global forces. A classic anti Semitic ad.
Donald can stand behind Jared and Iavnaka and his three Jewish grandchildren as props. If they want to play into that, so be it. But most of us are not stupid enough to think Donald is not an anti Semite.
31
See that wizened old man over there?
In standard-issue "Important Legislator" blue, poorly fitted collar, and an expression saying he'd just as soon not touch the ground as he walks?
He's the one who makes it not insane to imagine Alex Jones as a serious conservative Presidential candidate at some ugly future point.
He's the one moving us toward status as a paranoid theocracy.
The man who created legal and constitutional privilege for wealth (money pure, crass, and simple), the definition of patriotism and human worth.
Now he gives us mindless devotion to another once-potentially-great-but-rapidly-failing-state, a state whose interests run openly counter to our own in many important cases, as a test of devotion to the red, white, and bruised.
Not shocking I suppose, given how careless we have been of one and other and our country.
Still, its surprising the emphasis in all that mishigas of political woe is on the word "mindless".
That distasteful little man, call him Mitch, needs you to shut-up and get in line.
If he needs you to worship Israel, future Site of The (Re-)Appearance of God at Evangelicals' Violent Command (A befuddled deity drops from the clouds, muttering "Wha' happened?") just do it already and get out of his way.
Funny thing, Mitch has no particular truck with God and all that. He just wants you to stop thinking and jump. Like he hopes them Jews will do.
One of a thousand cuts. The death of democracy and America.
Mitch Triumphant.
5
What about the Muslim ban? By Trump and the Supreme Court. Or are we not allowed speak about this.
15
I'm just an American who was born with a mother and father who were both of the Jewish faith.
I'm not even all that religious, just a person trying to get by with some peace in my life.
I agree or disagree with either political party, an independent voter, depending on what ideas make sense to me, or not.
Sometimes i wish there weren't any political parties so we could all have a little more peace in our lives.
THEN ! i open my screen to the New York Times to Suddenly find the headline "Eager To Court Jews (And Fracture Democrats) Republicans Push Bills On Anti-Semitism !
By writer Glenn Thrush March 24th.
I never had in mind that one of our political parties should "court" me in any way and i wasn't planning to "fracture" any Democrats
This whole thing is getting a little Mashugana (crazy) !
I'm Jewish enough to understand "mashugana" when i see it
in the news.
9
@M.W. Endres
When I read the headline I thought: Court Jews have not been around for centuries, and what on earth are Fracture Democrats?
Most Jews are Dems. It's in the blood, despite the fact that the GOP is more solidly on their side when it comes to issues that means the most to them like insuring Israel's ability to defend itself.
7
@MIKEinNYC
> when it comes to issues that means the most to them like insuring Israel's ability to defend itself.
If you knew anything about American Jews you would know Israel isnt "what means most to them."
1
Cynicism is boundless in the modern Republican Party.
4
These Senate bills provide an occasion for fulsome public committee hearings to determine more clearly and specifically what need there may or may not be for such action and to understand the consequences of such action. What is "harassment on the basis of actual or perceived shared ancestry or ethnic characteristics with a religious group" ? Would that include asking whether a US Congressman or federal official has Israeli citizenship? Or suggesting that such individuals as well as those holding security clearances be required to disclose whether they have any other citizenship? What are the actions of AIPAC which have come under scrutiny? Does AIPAC ask for pledges of loyalty to Israel? How is it that Ron Dermer , a dual citizen of Israel and the US as well as a former US Representative, was accepted as Israel's Ambassador to the US ? Is there not a clear conflict of loyalties in such a scenario? The public hearings need to expose both sids of this debate. What the country does not need is another effort at sweeping the issues under another Senate rug.
4
No matter who the Republicans become by next year they will still lack any genuine interest in sharply reducing the income inequality and wealth inequality or adequate support for public colleges and universities, student tuition relief, family leave, and Medicare for all or single payer programs.
Add to those Repub disinterests their general lack of interest in the bottom 89.5 percent among us, and their lack of belief or willful ignorance in climate change.
The GOP may continue to lead the way on the road to the demise of the American Republic and to a possible further growth of proto-fascism.
5
Instead of a "strategy", perhaps is is principled position that Jews should be treated fairly and decently.
7
Anti-semitism has been with us for as long as Judaism. If passing legislation was the solution, anti-semitism would not be a problem.
The Republicans would be better served by addressing the ignorance and divisive tone and rhetoric Mr. Trump thrives on if they were serious about addressing the root causes of anti-semitism. But since today’s Republican party only exists by exploiting wedge issues and societal divisions, there is not much room for optimism.
12
Court Jews ?! “Win back” or appease might have been a better choice of words. It sounds like the article is referring to the historic Court Jews.
7
Jews have been excoriated and persecuted through the ages. Their supposed role in rejecting and crucifying Jesus Christ is the basis for much of that ill-treatment and murder. But do Republicans even understand English? The term "anti-Semitism" is broad and non-specific, unless used in a short-hand manner, aka dog-whistle language. Arabs are Semites, and maybe not all Jews, including many Ashkenazi Jews, are Semites. So what does anti-Semitism mean? Surely it must not be allowed to encompass criticism of extreme Israeli politics? Even some Jews I have known consider themselves anti-Zionist. Anti-Semitism, if it must be defined by the Congress of the USA, must be defined to mean specified discriminations against specific people. And if Republicans seem hell-bent on misunderstanding English, do they have any sense of unintended consequences? How far is it from making anti-Semitism illegal to making anti-Calvinism illegal? After all, there is much ill feeling in America about the role of some Calvinists in shaping our laws and the attitude of our law-makers to science and the climate. How about anti-Catholicism? Or, if it is illegal to criticize Judaism why might it not be illegal to criticize Islam? Fools rush in… But then, what else is new about the Trump-supporting GOP?
10
I'm in favor of calling out ant-semitism wherever it rears its ugly head. How about the Republicans start with rebuking the incendiary speech -- "there are good people on both sides" -- of their president first before they court the Jewish vote. I'm far more afraid of what comes out of Trumps mouth since he has the bully pulpit and his far reaching tweets inspire his white nationalist fans to act with violence on his dog whistles, than Ilhan Omar whose audience pales in comparison.
39
So why not strengthen our laws about liability. The problem with this new bill is that someone could be jailed for expressing the truth. Example: The Israeli state is not a law abiding state because it is occupying land it confiscated during war. That is a true statement but it is also called being anti-semitic. Why can't we have free speech that is truthful? Does the truth hurt so bad that you have to beat down your antagonist? I hope not, but I do know one thing " the truth will set you free" let's hope so.
There are many bad things that a country does in the corse of its business over many years. To write a law forbidding free speech is just plain wrong. It would be better to find a solution that satisfies both positions. Better yet do not brake the law and you would not have any position to hold that people would oppose.
7
@oscar jr, you fail utterly to understand the nature of anti-Semitism. "The Israeli state is not a law abiding state because it is occupying land it confiscated during war" is not an anti-Semitic statement; nobody who understands what the term actually means would call it that. It is a criticism of Israel as a country that one can agree or disagree with, but that's all it is.
In contrast, anti-Semitism traffics in tropes and stereotypes, and blames a country's policies and practices on supposedly innate characteristics. This is true not only for anti-semitism, but for all forms of racism. Please educate yourself. And along those same lines, it's "break," not "brake," the former being what you do when when you do not follow the law, and the latter being what you do when you press on a foot pedal to stop a car.
4
@oscar jr, can you name a law-abiding state by your definition?
When you single out one group or state for accusations, you're inviting people to ask what motivates you.
1
It's a shame this issue of anti-Antisemitism, views shared by one of our Congress members, had to be addressed through an official resolution at all. What's troubling is Omar's fellow Democrats refusal to call her out for her remarks which is cowardly on their part. If resolutions have to be created and signed into law as a formality, what about coming up with a decree to quash the Socialist agenda, an ideology shared by more than one of their Congress members?
14