There is an opinion on the toxic brew poisoning American society
Defending Hate against Jews: A New Approach to the Anti-Defamation League after Kanye West, Jeffrey Myers, and Kyrie Irving
Antisemitic rhetoric and actions are evidence of the damage done to the Jewish community by conspiracy theories that spread on social media. In the Michigan case, the suspect was found in possession of weapons, which shows how dangerous this growing trend is. Hate-filled rhetoric has wider implications as other groups are often targeted as scapegoats.
Whereas in past years the backlash following acts of hate seemed to usher forth a respite – a brief break in the vitriol aimed at Jewish people – lately it seems backlash only fuels animosity.
Rabbi Jeffrey Myers, who presides over the Tree of Life Congregation in Pittsburgh, where 11 congregants were gunned by a White supremacist four years ago, flatly blamed the country at large.
When Kanye West said he wanted to go “death con 3” on Jewish people, Adidas dawdled for days before dropping him. He was banned repeatedly from social media, but upon his most recent Twitter reinstatement this week, he posted a photo of Kyrie Irving with no words.
The NBA and Nets took a long time to do anything. The league seemed content to let Irving go, as he promised to donate to the Anti-Defamation League, but they didn’t want his money anymore. Finally, on Thursday, he was suspended, and he issued an actual apology.
The Nets’ front office said it delayed taking action because the team “believed that taking the path of education in this challenging situation would be the right one and thought that we made progress with our joint commitment to eradicating hate and intolerance.”
ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt explained his organization’s stance in a tweet. He said that the answer to the question of whether or not you have any antisemitic beliefs is never NO without equivocation, and that it was accepted by the ADL. Kyrie clearly has a lot of work to do.”
Many of the country’s politicians do as well. The head of the class is former President Donald Trump, who wrote recently that U.S. Jews have to get together and appreciate what Israel has to offer.
The Jewish community saw it as a threat, and it’s understandable when you see how other politicians have held similar views. An adviser for Pennsylvania’s gubernatorial candidate said that his opponent is a secular Jew. Questioned on this at a news conference, Mastriano let his wife, Rebbie, answer for him, saying, “I’m going to say we probably love Israel more than a lot of Jews do.”
Lake endorsed an antisemitic legislative candidate, but withdrew her backing after being confronted by antisemitic protesters. Mehmet Oz, the Democratic US Senate candidate, delivered a speech in front of a car that was once used by Hitler during a campaign rally. Millions of immigration are on the verge of Replacing You,Replacing your jobs andReplacing your kids in school and replacing your culture, according to a congressman who has invoked Hitler and the Holocaust.
It smacked of the “great replacement” conspiracy theory, which the Southern Poverty Law Center says, “depends on stoking fears that a nonwhite population, which the theory’s proponents characterize as ‘inferior,’ will displace a white majority. It’s also antisemitic. Some proponents of the ‘great replacement’ do not explicitly attribute the plot to Jews. Instead of blaming powerful Jewish individuals, they blame them or use antisemitic language to say that they are globalists. “
Where the Republican Party in the past has called out Greene’s comments – and was emphatic in its response to Rep. Ilhan Omar accusing Jews of buying political influence in 2019 – there hasn’t been much in the way of condemnation lately.
In Jacksonville, Florida, the same message crawled across the outside of the stadium hosting the Georgia-Florida college football game and across a building in the city. Banners hung over Interstate 10 in Jacksonville read, “End Jewish Supremacy in America” and “Honk if you know it’s the Jews.”
“When celebrities spout antisemitic vitriol and fail to accept responsibility, it has consequences” said ADL Southeast regional director Eytan Davidson.
The ADL center on extremism learned that the Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s husband was the target of an attack, which appeared to be connected to antisemitic and White supremacy.
The ADL reported that David DePape was suspected of having antisemitism, Holocaust denial, white supremacist language, and misogynistic writings from August.
You have to fix that, because this is just the beginning. It doesn’t end with antisemitism. … It moves on to another group because there isn’t anyone left to speak up when it comes to all the other groups.
CNN Observer | CNN Attentional General Antisemitic Attack on a Jaded Country’ (Invited, Editorial, Aug. 1997)
Frida Ghitis is a former CNN producer and correspondent. She is a weekly columnist for The Washington Post and a columnist for World Politics Review. The views are her own and she is solely responsible for them. View more opinion on CNN.
That a man was arrested after claiming he wanted to kill all the Jews in Michigan’s government should startle even a jaded country. That it shows the extent of the problem.
Looking at Nessel’s comments on Twitter, I was struck by the call to take the threats seriously. After confirming she was one of the targets, she added, “It is my sincere hope that the federal authorities take this offense just as seriously as my Hate Crimes & Domestic Terrorism Units takes plots to murder elected officials.”
If the suspect shows us the recipe for a toxic mess, he will show us an alternative: pushing back against and removing the same ingredients from our society.
At this time of year, the account is still up, despite the crumbling safeguards. It shows a trail of anger, threats and wild accusations against Jews.
Trump claimed he didn’t know who Nick Fuentes was, and was only expecting Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West. But Ye, too, had already entered the pantheon of celebrity antisemites, with a flurry of antisemitic social media posts which spawned a wave of disturbing incidents, from vandalism to targeted harassment against Jews, according to the ADL.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/03/opinions/michigan-attorney-general-antisemitic-attack-ghitis/index.html
State-Level Hate Crimes in the United States: A Case Study of High-Sector, Low-Religion Failover Rates
This presents a serious challenge to the nation. Countering the threat will require people to speak out against the wrong ideas, help protect the people who are being targeted, and call out those who promote their far flung ideas.
It was disappointing that the agenda of the recent House Democratic Caucus retreat included talks about protecting Asian Americans but forgot about the minority who comprise by far the largest percentage of religion-based hate crimes.
The FBI report said hate crimes reported across the country increased by 12% from 2020 to 2021.
New York is the state with the highest number of reported incidents: 580. California follows with 518, New Jersey with 408, Florida with 269 and Texas with 211. “Combined, these five states account for 54 % of the total incidents.”
There were eight bomb threats towards schools and synagogues in one year, but the number has gone up to 91. The number of bomb threats has increased in the last year.
Young children and educators in K-12 schools were victims of threats or assaults in 494 incidents. There were more than 200 incidents reported on college campuses.
The rise of antisemitism due to the Goyim Defense League: A unified response to the 2022 Orlando nightclub shooting and the wake-up call for government action
The activities of organised white supremacist groups doubled, which was linked to 884 incidents of distributing antisemitic propaganda.
While the study cites a number of factors contributing to the surge, the organization concluded the massive uptick in the spread of anti-Jewish propaganda was “largely due to the growth of the Goyim Defense League,” known as the GDL.
The GDL network has a lot of overlap with other white supremacist groups and movements and was responsible for more than 500 propaganda incidents in 2022, a dramatic increase from 74 recorded in this year.
NPR reported, “GDL members have been accused of a number of charges, including intimidation, threats, stalking, and defacing a memorial for the victims of the nightclub shooting in Florida.”
“Fifty-nine antisemitic incidents from October 11 through the end of 2022 directly referenced Ye, including 44 cases of harassment, 13 cases of vandalism and two cases of assault.”
The organization believes that the audit should be a wake-up call for government officials. The ADL wants leaders to condemn antisemitic incidents. It also urged them to launch “a concerted whole-of-government, whole-of-society response” that would include blocking antisemitism online.
