The
response from much of the rest of American society has been
insufficient. The upswing in antisemitism deserves outright
condemnation. It has already killed people and maimed others, including
an 88-year-old Holocaust survivor who was burned in Boulder. And history
offers a grim lesson: An increase in antisemitism often accompanies a
rise in other hateful violence and human rights violations. Societies
that make excuses for attacks against one minority group rarely stop
there.
Antisemitism is sometimes
described as “the oldest hate.” It dates at least to ancient Greece and
Egypt, where Jews were mocked for their differences and scapegoated for
societal problems. A common trope is that Jews secretly control society
and are to blame for its ills. The prejudice has continued through the
Inquisition, Russian pogroms and the worst mass murder in history, the
Holocaust, which led to the coining of a new term: genocide.
In
modern times, many American Jews believed that the United States had
left behind this tradition, with some reason. But as Conor Cruise
O’Brien, an Irish writer and politician, noted,
“Antisemitism is a light sleeper.” It tends to re-emerge when societies
become polarized and people go looking for somebody to blame. This
pattern helps explain why antisemitism began rising, first in Europe and
then in the United States, in the 2010s, around the same time that
politics coarsened. The anger pulsing through society has manifested
itself through animosity toward Jews.
The
political right, including President Trump, deserves substantial blame.
Yes, he has led a government crackdown against antisemitism on college
campuses, and that crackdown has caused colleges to become more serious
about addressing the problem. But Mr. Trump has also used the subject as a pretext
for his broader campaign against the independence of higher education.
The combination risks turning antisemitism into yet another partisan
issue, encouraging opponents to dismiss it as one of his invented
realities.
[What the Times describes as a "pretext" for a "campaign against the independence of higher education", is actually an attempt by the administration to stop blatant violations of the Civil Rights Act by academic institutions, violations that have led to the outbreak of antisemitic incidents at the most progressive universities in this country. It's not Donald Trump that created a partisan issue. The partisan issue was created by progressives turning much of academia and other institutions into platforms where only their opinions are considered legitimate, where dissent is suppressed, and where discrimination is rampant against disfavored groups. In fact, the Supreme Court case that gave birth to "diversity" used the term because of the perceived importance of diversity of opinion, which is not allowed today on most campuses. Without addressing these violations, which the Times apparently supports, antisemitism in academia will never be effectively curtailed, because it is embedded in the very essence of academia. I discussed this at exhaustive (and probably exhausting) length in The Danger Within: Equality or Equity, Which Side Are You On?]
[Donald Trump can be, and has been, reckless and careless at times in his actions and rhetoric, as I've pointed out at length in numerous posts, but it is his administration that has tried to dismantle the ideological framework leading to the increase in antisemitism. In contrast, while a number of Democratic politicians have voiced support for Israel and/or opposition to antisemitism, I don't know of any prominent figure in the party who objected to the Biden administration's goal of embedding this hateful ideology into the federal government and American society as a whole.]
Even worse, Mr. Trump had
made it normal to hate, by using bigoted language about a range of
groups, including immigrants, women and trans Americans. Since he
entered the political scene, attacks on Asian, Black, Latino and
L.G.B.T. Americans have spiked, according to the F.B.I. While he claims
to deplore antisemitism, his actions tell a different story. He has dined with a Holocaust denier, and his Republican Party has nominated antisemites for elected offices, including
governor of North Carolina. Mr. Trump himself praised as “very fine
people” the attendees of a 2017 march in Charlottesville, Va., that
featured the chant “Jews will not replace us.” On Jan. 6, 2021, at least
one rioter attacking the Capitol screamed that he was looking for “the
big Jew,” referring to Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, Mr. Schumer
has said.
["Even worse, Mr Trump had made it normal to hate". Doesn't the Editorial Board read its own newspaper? According to the 1619 Project, which the Times published to much fanfare, America from its inception has been a nation founded on the principle of whites hating others. According to the Times, we've always been a horrible country. And, if you don't accept the Times characterization of this country, let's look at another indicator of hate and race relations. Since the early 1970s the Gallup organization has been regularly polling white and blacks on the status of race relations, asking whether they are good, okay, or bad. Over four decades, starting in 1972, those of both races responding good or okay had slowly but steadily climbed, reaching in 2012 to 72% of whites and 67% of blacks. And then the trend began reversing, well before Trump's appearance on the scene. By 2022, the figures were 42% for whites and 33% for blacks. You can now look at numerous surveys of use in the media of terms like "racism", "white supremacy", and see an enormous upturn in their use during the second Obama administration. Fomenting racial tension and resentment has been part of the declared mission of the Times over the past decade.]
[The term "Since he entered the political scene" is doing a lot of work here. According to the FBI data there was no increase in hate crimes for much of Trump's first term. There is a huge surge during the George Floyd riots of summer 2020 (make of that what you will), and while it is followed by a rapid decrease, hate crimes during the Biden administration occur at a rate of about double that of the Trump administration. The increase in Asian attacks is, uncomfortably, attributed to a highly disproportionate number of assaults by blacks, which is why it has attracted less attention after an initial outburst aimed at alleged white anti-Asian hate. Perhaps the Biden administration's relentless emphasis on race essentialism and promoting the conspiracy theory that whites and Jews have plotted to maintain White Supremacy may also have had something to do with the increase.]
[By citing the Charlottesville quote, the Times shows it is a prisoner of its own false narrative. It is part of the "unexamined life" of those that work at the Times. The full transcript of Trump's remarks show that right after he says "very fine people", he goes on to state he is not talking about neo-nazis and white nationalists. Later in the same ramblings, he restates he is not talking about neo-nazis and white nationalists, adding "they are bad people". In the context of his remarks it is clear Trump is referring to the debate over what to do with the Lee statue and clear he condemned those the press explicitly and repeatedly said he refused to condemn. In 2024, the leftist "fact checker" Snopes finally acknowledged that the prevailing media use of the term was misleading and false. Nonetheless, President Biden, VP Harris, and former President Obama all used the false accusation during the 2024 campaign, with Biden saying it was the reason he decided to run in 2020.
The Charlottesville incident also demolished the last bit of lingering respect I held for the traditional news media. While, by 2017, I mistrusted most of what I heard and read from those sources, I still felt that they could get the basics right. My mistake. When I first heard about Trump's Charlottesville remarks my reaction was "Well, the guy's an idiot" and assumed he said it and meant exactly what the media told me he meant. It was only a couple of years later when I came across a full transcript of the press conference that I realized I had been lied to.]
["On Jan. 6, 2021, at least
one rioter attacking the Capitol screamed that he was looking for “the
big Jew,” referring to Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, Mr. Schumer
has said." Oh, my God, one rioter!! And the source is Chuck Schumer? The Times is really reaching here for examples. Here's something we do know about Senator Schumer. In 2024, confident that the Dems would hold regain the House, and hold the Senate and the Presidency, he reassured Columbia University, in an email obtained by a Congressional committee, that it could ignore all those Republicans pestering the school about antisemitism because it would all go away after the election. I don't think the Times wrote a story about that email.]