Antisemitism Weaponized
Updated 2024-08-24
StopAntisemitism.org https://www.stopantisemitism.org/anti-semite-of-the-week
2024-05-06 Antisemitism: The big lie smearing campus protesters Mainstream journalists and politicians have engaged in a campaign of mass slander against U.S. college students protesting the Gaza genocide. Their “antisemitism” Big Lie echoes the racist hate campaigns of the past, inciting hostility toward young people whose only crime is their dedication to justice.
A newly published survey provides some important context for these protests and undermines the smear campaign against the protesters. Students Are Not Antisemitic
The Chicago Project on Security and Threats (CPOST), a project of the University of Chicago, recently published “Understanding Campus Fears After October 7 and How to Reduce Them,” subtitled “a non-partisan analysis of Antisemitism and Islamophobia among College Students and American Adults.” Robert A. Pape, political scientist and CPOST’s director, writes that its findings “are an opportunity to re-center the national discussion around students and away from politics.” Let’s hope so. https://www.alternet.org/antisemitism-on-college-campuses/
2024-05-02 Antisemitism: The Big Lie Smearing Campus Protesters Mainstream journalists and politicians have engaged in a campaign of mass slander against U.S. college students protesting the Gaza genocide. Their “antisemitism” Big Lie echoes the racist hate campaigns of the past, inciting hostility toward young people whose only crime is their dedication to justice.
A newly published survey provides some important context for these protests and undermines the smear campaign against the protesters.
The Chicago Project on Security and Threats (CPOST), a project of the University of Chicago, recently published “Understanding Campus Fears After October 7 and How to Reduce Them,” subtitled “a non-partisan analysis of Antisemitism and Islamophobia among College Students and American Adults.” Robert A. Pape, political scientist and CPOST’s director, writes that its findings “are an opportunity to re-center the national discussion around students and away from politics.” Let’s hope so.
President Biden, like the others, has condemned what he calls “antisemitic protests.” That slur is challenged by the Chicago study. The authors found that “while college students are not more antisemitic than the general population,” they are “more anti-zionist.” They also found that “prejudicial antisemitism and anti-zionism are largely separate phenomena,” with an “overwhelming” absence of any overlap between antisemitism and a negative view of Israel.
We’ve know for decades that the lie which equates anti-zionism with antisemitism serves a political goal by suppressing speech. We now have evidence to back it up. https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/antisemitism-campus-protests
2024-05-02 Columbia’s President Sold Out Students and Faculty to Far-Right McCarthyism The right is weaponizing antisemitism as a way of furthering its campaign to suppress the kind of freedom of thought and speech on campus that threatens its authoritarian goals of turning this country Christian, conservative, straight, and white. Not only is the slaughter in Gaza getting lost in the growing fog of hysterical speech about antisemitism on American college campuses, but so is the fact that Arab and Muslim students are being targeted, too.
Shafik’s craven performance in front of Republican lawmakers opened a Pandora’s box of troubles. Faculty members wrote outraged opinion pieces condemning Shafik’s behavior. And when she called in the police to arrest students, more students than ever joined the protests all over the country. Then, on April 24, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson visited Columbia with Republicans Mike Lawler, Nicole Malliotakis, and Anthony D’Esposito (and even Foxx from North Carolina), acting as if some kind of terrible riot had gone on here.
I looked behind me at the encampment on the other side of campus. In front of the tents on the grass, the students had erected a sign listing what they called “Gaza Encampment Community Guidelines.” These included: “No desecration of the land. No drug/alcohol consumption. Respect personal boundaries.” And most significantly, “We commit to assuming the best intentions, granting ourselves and others grace when mistakes are made, and approaching conflict with the goal of addressing and repairing.” Designated faculty and students stood at the entrance to make sure no outsiders got in, and that nobody entered the encampment unless they had read and agreed to that list of commitments. The noisiest people on campus were the thronging media. But nobody and nothing was out of control.
Sadly, despite the reality on the ground at Columbia, the right’s wild narrative of virulent antisemitism here has been swallowed whole, not just by Republicans but by a long list of Democrats, too, including President Joe Biden and Senators Kirsten Gillibrand and Chuck Schumer, not to speak of New York Representatives Hakeem Jeffries, Jerry Nadler, Dan Goldman, and Adriano Espaillat. They have all publicly condemned the supposedly rampant antisemitism on campus without, it seems, bothering to check their facts. https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/columbia-sold-out-far-right
2024-04-30 Democrats fume at Mike Johnson over antisemitism vote House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has left many Democrats frustrated over his plans for an antisemitism vote that is proving divisive on their side of the aisle. Why it matters: Johnson has put antisemitism front and center this week amid pro-Palestinian protests at colleges around the country. But some Democrats argue he is wasting an opportunity.
The House is set to vote Wednesday on the Antisemitism Awareness Act, which would require the Department of Education to use the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism in its enforcement of anti-discrimination laws.
The legislation, led by Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.), is co-sponsored by 33 Republicans and 14 Democrats — mostly moderates and staunch supporters of Israel.
But controversially for many Democrats, the IHRA definition includes “claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor” and “drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis.”
“It could be divisive,” one senior House Democrat told Axios of the upcoming vote. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/democrats-fume-at-mike-johnson-over-antisemitism-vote/ar-AA1nUODi?
2024-02-19 Roger Waters Calls Bono an ‘Enormous S—‘ After Israel Tribute Roger Waters, a loud and consistent critic of Israel, has thoughts on Bono’s salute to the victims of the October 7 attack on the Supernova music festival by Hamas. Waters describes Bono’s tribute, which took place during one of U2’s residency shows at the Sphere in Las Vegas, as “disgusting” while labeling Bono “an enormous shit.”
The comments that incensed Pink Floyd’s former mastermind arrived before U2 launched into “Pride (In the Name of Love)” back in October. “In the light of what’s happened in Israel and Gaza, a song about non-violence seems somewhat ridiculous, even laughable, but our prayers have always been for peace and for non-violence,” Bono told the crowd. “But our hearts and our anger, you know where that’s pointed. So sing with us … and those beautiful kids at that music festival.” https://ultimateclassicrock.com/roger-waters-bono-enormous-shit
2024-02-17 Weaponizing Anti-Semitism Against the World Court Antony Lerman says Israel’s response to the ICJ ruling continues a decades’ old ploy for neutralizing criticism of, and generating sympathy for, the Jewish state https://consortiumnews.com/2024/02/17/weaponizing-anti-semitism-against-the-world-court/
2024-01-18 IMEU Policy Analysis #9: IHRA Definition Silences Speech for Palestinian Rights Policy-makers are being increasingly pressured to codify into law a controversial definition of antisemitism that is broadly opposed by civil rights and human rights organizations. The definition has drawn widespread opposition because its primary purpose is to police and silence political speech in support of Palestinian rights. This crackdown on freedom of speech violates the First Amendment rights of Americans to speak and act for freedom, justice, and equality for the Palestinian people. It also does a disservice to the principled fight against all forms of racism and bigotry, including antisemitism. https://imeu.org/article/imeu-policy-analysis-9-ihra-definition-silences-speech-for-palestinian-righ
2023-12-12 Barbra Streisand Under Fire Over Israel-Gaza Statement Barba Streisand is facing criticism after sharing a statement surrounding the ongoing war in Gaza. Streisand comes from a Jewish family and described herself as “a Jewess through and through, although I’m not religious,” in a 1987 interview with Esquire magazine. Now taking to her Instagram account, Streisand has shared her support for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This envisions an independent State of Palestine alongside the State of Israel, west of the Jordan River.
She wrote: “When I first met Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres years ago, I asked him ‘How can you help the Palestinians?’ He replied ‘By making their lives better!’ We needed his advice then, and should urgently heed it now. In my humble opinion, we need a two-state solution that will hopefully bring peace and prosperity to the region.”
Her post has proven to be divisive, with people taking to the comment section to share their disappointment in the star. However, others have spoken out in support of Streisand, thanking her for her statement. “Thank you for your bravery Barbra! We love you!” one person wrote. “These comments are absolutely wild, check in with your souls before you lose them entirely. Israel are an apartheid state, free Palestine,” commented another Instagram user. Someone else added: “Thank You Barbra. We need everyone to speak and especially those whose voices are heard more loudly than others. It is going to take all of us to find the path forward. The path we are on today, is not it. #ceasefirenow.”
Barbara posted October 20 on X , which read: “My heart is broken for all the suffering of innocent civilians in Israel, Palestine, and Ukraine. Terrorism must not triumph.” Streisand also denounced the rise of antisemitism and fascism in the United States during an interview with Stephen Colbert from her Malibu home. “It’s so sad. It’s sad about what’s going on today. Meaning, people have to live together even though they are different religions or whatever. People are people. It’s true. You know, we all want the same thing. We all want love in our hearts. We all want family. We all want to feel secure,” she said. “I hope for the best because this is heartbreaking, what’s happening now with these people. The children, the mothers, doesn’t matter what religion they are. You know what I mean? This is beyond religion. This is insanity for us not to learn how to live together in peace. “See, this is what’s hard to talk about my career or even my book when this deadly combustible thing is happening in the world.” https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/barbra-streisand-under-fire-over-israel-gaza-statement/ar-AA1loxvc
2023-12-11 Peter Beinart & Omer Bartov on UPenn President Resignation, Gaza & the Weaponization of Antisemitism University of Pennsylvania President Elizabeth Magill voluntarily resigned her position Saturday after a House Education Committee hearing last Tuesday on how colleges have handled antisemitism. Magill has faced demands to resign since September, when she refused to bow to pressure to cancel the Palestine Writes Literature Festival on campus. More universities face accusations that they have failed to protect Jewish students since the October 7 Hamas incursion into southern Israel amid a broader effort to restrict pro-Palestinian speech on campus. We speak with Peter Beinart, professor of journalism at the City University of New York and the editor-at-large of Jewish Currents, and with Omer Bartov, a professor of Holocaust and genocide studies at Brown University. “This whole discussion seems to me to be the least important issue,” says Bartov. “What is most important now is that Israel now has been conducting a war for weeks and weeks in which it has killed thousands and thousands https://www.democracynow.org/2023/12/11/campus_antisemitism_and_resignations
2023-12-05 These 105 Democrats declined to vote for a resolution declaring ‘anti-Zionism is antisemitism’ 105 House Democrats on Tuesday declined to vote for a resolution condemning antisemitism, pointing to language that equates it with anti-Zionism. The final vote was 311-14, with 13 Democrats and one Republican voting against the resolution. With 92 Democrats voting “present” on the resolution, most of the caucus ultimately did not support it. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/these-105-democrats-declined-to-vote-for-a-resolution-declaring-anti-zionism-is-antisemitism/ar-AA1l2Wkj
2023-12-00 Senator Chuck Schumer issues stark warning against antisemitism amid the Israel-Hamas war Senator Chuck Schumer asked for a condemnation of antisemitism before it “metastasizes into something even worse.” https://www.msn.com/en-us/video/news/senator-chuck-schumer-issues-stark-warning-against-antisemitism-amid-the-israel-hamas-war/vi-AA1kJVf0?
2023-11-16 The Left are blind to anti-Jewish racism for one simple reason [MEK Note: Not one mention that people might be extremely angry at Israel’s five-week genocide attack on Palestinians. Just playing the Nazi Holocaust victimization theme as an excuse justifying Israel’s genocide of Palestinians! Criticizing Israel is antisemitic! Quite disgusting]
At the anti-Israel marches overwhelming our cities each Saturday, some of the rhetoric has been outright alarming. There have been chants warning Jews that “the army of Mohammed is returning”. A speaker disparagingly referred to Suella Braverman’s “Jewish husband” – before hastily correcting it to “Zionist husband”. There have even been images of swastikas.
Many progressives, however, remain silent about such nakedly hateful invective. Which is odd. Normally, when an ethnic minority group is subjected to intimidation and abuse, progressives are the first to call out racism. So why not now?
The reason, I suspect, is simple. Many of the people on these marches are non-white. And a lot of progressives are incapable of processing the idea that non-white people can be racist. They just can’t compute it. They see racism as unique to white people. Such a belief is remarkably widespread in modern Left-wing circles. It even gets promoted to children. As we reported at the weekend, schools in Scotland have been supplied with books which tell children that “racism started” when “white people wanted to have more control over people who were not white”, and that “being racist against white people is not a thing”.
But the idea that white people can’t be victims of racism is ridiculous. Many European Jews have white skin. Does this mean that the Nazis weren’t racist? Of course not. Nazis didn’t loathe Jews because of their religion. Nazis loathed Jews because they considered them to be an inferior race, regardless of what colour their skin might be. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/the-left-are-blind-to-anti-jewish-racism-for-one-simple-reason/ar-AA1k0Sj9
2023-11-15 American multimillionaire couple fund Marxist group coordinating anti-Israel protests Neville Roy Singham, a U.S.-born entrepreneur who made millions after founding and selling an IT consulting firm called Thoughtworks, and his wife Jodie Evans, the co-founder of left-wing anti-war group Code Pink, have been the primary funders of a group called The People’s Forum since 2017, according to a report by The Free Press’s Francesca Block. The group bills itself as a “movement incubator for working class and marginalized communities” and “nurtures the next generation of visionaries and organizers who believe that through collective action a new world is possible.”
The People’s Forum has played a role in organizing several pro-Palestine protests since Hamas’ attack on Oct. 7 in which the terror group’s members killed at least 1,200 Israelis and took over 200 hostages from Southern Israel into Gaza.
On the day of Hamas’ attack, the group appeared to offer no condemnation of the terror group’s actions and called for an end to “US aid to the Zionist occupation” and tweeted images of posters stating, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” – a slogan that has been criticized as being antisemitic and was cited in the House’s censure of Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/american-multimillionaire-couple-fund-marxist-group-coordinating-anti-israel-protests/ar-AA1jZrPj?
2021-05-27 Supporting Palestinian rights is antisemitic because Israel wants it to be In recent weeks, there has been a rise in antisemitic incidents in the United States and in Europe. Synagogues were vandalized with swastikas in England and with rocks in Germany, and Orthodox men were allegedly harassed in New York City by a group shouting “kill all the Jews” — one of at least two attacks in the city recently. These are just a few of the despicable incidents that have led to condemnation from President Joe Biden, Human Rights Watch and others.
Historically, criticism of the Israeli government has been linked to antisemitism. But it’s not nearly that simple. By conflating Judaism and Israel, the Israeli government created a paradox in which Israel’s actions are beyond critique. The irony is that Zionism and antisemitism are each other’s best recruiting tools. But conflating Israel with Judaism — and Israelis with Jews — is unfair and leads to tropes about dual national loyalties. It also conflates a diverse religion with the politics and policies of a single country. But Israel engages in this conflation all the time. https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/how-jews-can-support-palestinian-rights-condemn-antisemitism-ncna1268680
2021-05-24 To distract from Gaza slaughter, Israel lobby manufactures antisemitism freakout Following an 11-day assault on the Gaza Strip in which the Israeli army killed over 220 people, including more than 65 children, and days of videotaped rampages of Jewish extremist mobs against Palestinian people and property inside Israeli cities, Israel lobbyists in the US and Canada have launched a carefully coordinated public relations campaign to deflect outrage.
Having failed to successfully defend massacres of entire families in their homes and the deliberate demolition of civilian residential towers and media offices in Gaza City, the US Israel lobby and the Israeli government it advocates for have manufactured an epidemic of antisemitic violence with the goal of portraying American Jewry as the true victim of the crisis.
Led by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), Israel lobbyists have portrayed a series of street scuffles between supporters of Palestine and pro-Israel activists as anti-Jewish pogroms. In nearly every case, no evidence exists to substantiate claims that Jews were targeted as Jews for violent assault. There is ample proof of deception, however, as video and photographic evidence reveals pro-Israel elements provoking demonstrators, initiating violence and falsifying or embellishing their testimonies.https://thegrayzone.com/2021/05/24/gaza-slaughter-israel-lobby-antisemitism/
2021-01-21 Weaponizing Antisemitism is Bad for Jews, Israel, and Peace The IHRA’s promotion of its understanding of antisemitism is the latest attempt to instrumentalize antisemitism to control how people are allowed or not allowed to talk about Israel. This account of antisemitism, however, is only possible through the flawed equation of Israel with all Jewish people, forcing all Jews the world over to accept and endorse a military occupation and a country that is increasingly more aligned with the wave of neo-fascism sweeping the world than with international law, democratic values, human rights, pluralism, https://contendingmodernities.nd.edu/global-currents/weaponizing-antisemitism/
2020-12-14 The Antisemitism Industry: how antisemitism is being politicized and weaponized in Europe to defend Israel The same European leaders who a few years ago marched in Paris shouting “Je suis Charlie” – upholding the inalienable free speech rights of white Europeans to offend Muslims by insulting and ridiculing their Prophet – are now queuing up to outlaw free speech when it is directed against Israel.
Jewish organizations and their allies in Germany, as Haaretz reports, are openly weaponizing antisemitism not only to damage the reputation of Israel’s harsher critics, but also to force out of the public and cultural domain – through a kind of “antisemitism guilt by association” – anyone who dares to entertain criticism of Israel.
Cultural associations, festivals, universities, Jewish research centers, political think-tanks, museums and libraries are being forced to scrutinize the past of those they wish to invite in case some minor transgression against Israel can be exploited by local Jewish organizations. That has created a toxic, politically paranoid atmosphere that inevitably kills trust and creativity. But the psychosis runs deeper still. Israel, and anything related to it, has become such a combustible subject – one that can ruin careers in an instant – that most political, academic and cultural figures in Germany now choose to avoid it entirely. Israel, as its supporters intended, is rapidly becoming untouchable. https://mondoweiss.net/2020/12/the-antisemitism-industry-how-antisemitism-is-being-politicized-and-weaponized-in-europe-to-defend-israel/
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