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Hamas Attacks Bring Fresh Scrutiny to Left-Wing Antisemitism in U.S.

Posted on Monday, October 9, 2023
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AMAC Exclusive – By Ben Solis

Israel flag next to American flag, amidst Hamas attacks.

In the wake of Islamic terrorist group Hamas’s shocking and brutal assault on Israel, which Hamas leaders say was funded by Iran, President Joe Biden has rightly received criticism for releasing $6 billion in frozen Iranian assets just months prior to the attacks. But Biden – as well as his Democrat allies – have largely escaped accountability for failing to address the extreme anti-Israel sentiment harbored by the modern American left that emboldens groups like Hamas.

In September, the Anti-Defamation League – a group normally quite friendly to Democrats – published a report on “Anti-Israel Activism on US Campuses, 2022-2023” which tallied 665 anti-Israel campus incidents in one academic year. Many of these, the report found, were openly antisemitic. Overall, campuses saw 302 anti-Israel protests and at least 24 incidents in which pro-Israel students were verbally harassed.

The report also noted that some of the most active anti-Israel groups like Students for Justice Palestine (SJP) “appeared to be less restrained in expressing support” for organizations like Hamas which are designated as terrorist groups by the U.S. State Department.

In one case, an event at George Mason University hosted in February by SJP was advertised on posters around campus as “confronting Zionism on college campuses.” The posters also featured an image of a man wearing a keffiyeh styled after those worn by Hamas militants. In another instance at the University of Wisconsin, posters promoting an interfaith meal were vandalized with the angry slogan, “Do not break your fast with Zionists!”

In an ostensible attempt to combat antisemitism, President Biden earlier this year launched the “U.S. National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism,” which he called “a historic step forward.”

But as some prominent Jewish scholars and diplomats have pointed out, the plan forged by Biden turns a blind eye to some of the most glaring examples of antisemitism in the United States today – including the organized and well-funded anti-Israel movement on American college campuses that targets Jewish Americans with intimidation and harassment.

“The White House strategy lacks substance and credibility,” a former Israeli diplomat told this author. He described the strategy as “phony, failed, and disastrous.”

Dr. Yigal Carmon, a co-founder of the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) an Israel-based think tank that monitors antisemitism, also called Biden’s plan “fundamentally misguided.”

Both Biden and other Democrat leaders who proclaim to care about combatting antisemitism fail to account for the antisemitism that runs rampant on the American left today stemming from a hatred of Israel.

The late professor Robert S. Wistrich, whose family escaped the Holocaust and found sanctuary in modern-day Kazakhstan, explained in his 2010 book A Lethal Obsession that contemporary Jewish hatred was an integral part of the anti-Americanism peddled by both Islamic radicals and the American left.

“Postwar anti-Americanism is the most socially respectable form of anti-Semitism today since it is untainted by the Holocaust,” Wistrich wrote. “The Islamists are the spearhead of current antisemitism, aided and abetted by the moral relativism of all too many naïve Western liberals,” he argued.

Wistrich also explained that anti-American Islamists view America and Israel as an embodiment of evil, the empire of tyranny, oppression, and bullying, and the twin agents of a crusade against Muslims.

Notably, it was also left-wing communist regimes during the Cold War that began labeling Israel an “apartheid state” – a line repeated by today’s American leftists. In the Hungarian Communist Party’s archives, this author read instructions for high school teachers to educate students about “Pretoria-Tel-Aviv-Washington, an axis of colonialist and apartheid evil,” which “the Communist world of justice and equality” led by the Kremlin intended to dismantle. Today, one could easily find similar rhetoric on SJP posters adorning college campuses.

For more than three decades, Islamic leaders have taught that Israel is the “small Satan” that usually does the dirty work for the “great Satan” – the United States. But sometimes, the little Satan pulls the great Satan’s tail. Iranian clerics regularly compare Zionism to Nazism and colonialism and say that U.S. dollars fuel it –claims which, once again, are repeated by American leftists.

By failing to acknowledge that radical anti-Israel sentiment is a fundamental part of modern leftist ideology, Biden is turning a blind eye to one of the most prominent sources of antisemitism in America today.

Moreover, Biden has repeatedly empowered leftists with ties to openly antisemitic groups. In June 2021, Biden nominated an individual to a top government post who was a board member with Emgage Action, a group that refers to Israel as “the occupier” and has accused the United States of supporting “illegal Jewish settlements.”

Earlier this year, Biden also hired a college professor who has publicly accused Israel of “systematic genocide” and helped defend terrorists detained at Guantanamo Bay.

This tolerance of extreme anti-Israel sentiment that even under the most generous interpretation borders on antisemitism runs rampant through the rest of the party as well. Many congressional Democrats, for instance, openly defended Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar following her repeated antisemitic comments.

With some notable exceptions, Biden and most leading Democrats have done the right thing by strongly condemning Hamas’s unprovoked attack and pledging support for Israel. But in order to truly support America’s strongest Middle East ally, Democrats should engage in an honest and thorough examination of how their own actions have encouraged Israel’s enemies.

Ben Solis is the pen name of an international affairs journalist, historian, and researcher.

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Paul F
Paul F
1 year ago

Bravo Ben. I agree with you that the ruling class tolerates antisemitism among themselves. Modern antisemitism is an essential part of their political creed. Anti-Zionism is what they preach. Unfortunately, some on our side repeat after them, but it does not change that its origins are not here. As most people know, Hitler was a leftist – a national socialist.
I doubt, however, that Biden will do anything about his report. These Hamas-like groups described by the Anti-Defamation League are his voters.

Gerrye
Gerrye
1 year ago

Remember Jesus was born a Jew! He brought Christianity to the Jews and the entire world! Praise God for his knowledge!

Gregory J. Kohl
Gregory J. Kohl
1 year ago

This is a very timely text, Amac. Today, a bunch of learned idiots from Harvard and other dumbing-down institutions, formerly known as universities, published a declaration in defense of Hamas despite seeing or reading about the atrocities and animalistic behavior of these individuals who killed so many Israelis. American Universities are occupied by these indoctrinated morons with the Middle East murderers’ propaganda akin to ISIS and bin Laden’s group.
Ben, you did a great job.
Yes, these Leftist antisemites hate us Americans, as they hate Jews, even moderate Democrats who care for Israel.
Astonishing even individuals here appear not to understand anything, anything.
Thanks, Amac.

Jim
Jim
1 year ago

It is rarely discussed problem which even here some readers have huge trouble to grasp. But it is refreshing to learn that it is connected to anti-Americanism.
Obviously, Soviet used antisemitism at their foreign policy instrument.
Today, our Universities, academia and Democrats are infested with it.

lawrence greenberg
lawrence greenberg
1 year ago

Over the last 30 years or so, the Communist – er, I mean Democrat – Party has not only allowed overt antisemitism within its ranks, but has welcomed and protected its followers and practitioners.

anna hubert
anna hubert
1 year ago

And yet the Jewish population consistently votes democrats Is it a sadomasochism or what?

Carolyn
Carolyn
1 year ago

Joebama…is Joe and Barrack (2 Criminals) along with many others of the same have brought us to the point of WWIII..

Rik
Rik
1 year ago

Is anybody going to be surprised that Jackass Joebama WON’T EFFECTIVELY DEAL with this attack on Israel! After all, Lying Crooked Jackass Joebama Biden was a former backer of the Ku Klux Klan and even though American Citizens have been murdered and some even taken as prisoners. I will bet this Cowardly Bozo WON’T DO THE RIGHT RESPONSE NECESSARY saying that he doesn’t want to involve America in “another” Afghanistan!

I hope that I’m wrong but I just don’t “trust” Lying Crooked Jackass Joebama to react in the right way!

Inquirer
Inquirer
1 year ago

The Jihad Squad is showing their true colors during this crisis. But I’m more concerned about those constituents who send such reprobates to Congress.

Philip Seth Hammersley
Philip Seth Hammersley
1 year ago

The ADL is unfortunately (usually) liberal first and Jewish second. They once castigated Pat Robertson over some miniscule complaint and there wasn’t ANY non-Jewish person who was more pro-Jewish and pro-Israel than Pat!

Robert Zuccaro
Robert Zuccaro
1 year ago

Hatred isn’t restricted to any one political party but, yes, there are antisemites or, at a minimum, anti-Israeli members of the “Squad” whom probably “condemned” the attacks but will scream louder if Israel retaliates at a level they don’t like.

Inquirer
Inquirer
1 year ago

Liberal Jewish voters support causes and people who, given the means, who exterminate every Jew on the face of the earth. Useful idiots?

GTPatriot
GTPatriot
1 year ago

I hope Israel destroys all structures in Gaza and creates an agriculture only area. Only silos and rail tracks should be allowed. Current peaceful citizens should be moved elsewhere. Gaza should be a none-inhabited area.
The Hamas barbarians will move elsewhere and will have to be eliminated wherever they are but that’s what Israel has always faced and will continue to face.
At the end of the day, we know now that Israeli security was asleep and is not the strong force we have expected. Now we can only wonder what is the degree of the Israeli’s knowledge about Iran’s nuclear capability. We cannot depend on them to tell us where the Iran nuclear program is. Israel is not the force we thought they were. We cannot depend on the Israeli’s to keep us up to date on Iran.

Steven
Steven
1 year ago

No more working class and middle class American citizens should be sent back to our government failures in the Middle East period! Funny the politicians and elites children seldom to never serve in our multi wars!! The threat to America is primarily our open borders in the north and south along with our liberal immigration policies. The enemy of America crossed the southern border a long time ago and more continue to do so based on US government policy…

invictus
invictus
1 year ago

Racism in any form and against any group is the same thing as being anti-American. And THAT also applies to both sides of the US aisle.

David Millikan
David Millikan
1 year ago

Dictator Beijing biden is RESPONSIBLE for the attack on Israel since he FUNDED TERRORIST Iran by giving them $6 Billion just like obama FUNDED TERRORIST Iran by flying in HUGE planes with pallets of CASH SUPPORTING TERRORIST and THEIR NUCLEAR WEAPONS ADVANCEMENT TO ATTACK THE U.S..
EACH GETTING AMERICANS KILLED WHILE HAVING BBQ’s AT THE WHITE HOUSE CELEBRATING AND WEAKENING AMERICA WHILE VIOLATING U.S. NATIONAL SECURITY AND OATH OF OFFICE.
BOTH ARE GUILTY OF ESPIONAGE AND HIGH TREASON AGAINST THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA BY PAYING TERRORIST Iran.
BOTH ARE COMMUNIST CHINESE AGENTS WITH DICTATOR Beijing biden STEALING AND HIDING SENSITIVE HIGHLY CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS (Giving them to Communist China) AND HIDING THEM ALL OVER INCLUDING IN CHINATOWN SINCE BEING A SENATOR AND AS VP TO obama.
THESE ARE FACTS AND BOTH MUST BE ARRESTED AND PROSECUTED WITH Hunter biden, H. Clinton, pelosi, schumer, nadler, schiff, and the Socialist/Communist Squad Congress democrats.
AND PROSECUTED FOR ELECTION FRAUD and ELECTION INTERFERENCE, ACCEPTING BRIBES, INCLUDING HIS ILLEGAL ALIEN TERRORIST INVASION.
These are the FOOLS and TRAITORS who have BETRAYED the UNITED STATES of AMERICA and AMERICANS INCLUDING PUTTING US ON THE BRINK OF WWIII.
THEY ARE GUILTY AND EVERYBODY KNOWS IT.
AND TO DICTATOR Beijing biden, YOU CAN SHOVE IT WITH YOUR EFFORT TO CENSOR AMERICANS.
I WILL NOT BE CENSORED BY A FASCIST CRIMINAL.

GTPatriot
GTPatriot
1 year ago

xxx

Tom
Tom
1 year ago

The ADL is an unregistered entity of a foreign government and they attack those making truthful statements.

GTPatriot
GTPatriot
1 year ago

We can no longer depend on Israel to keep us informed on Iran’s nuclear bomb progress. We now know that Israel’s security in inept. That’s a shock but its better to know it nthan to experience another 9/11 or worse. Our concern is not what Israel will do in the next few days but what Iran will do to the US. The job of the US is not to eliminate Hamas but to eliminate the Iran dictators and move 25,000 US troops into Iran permanently.

Dan W.
Dan W.
1 year ago

OK Ben, you’ve outlined the left’s problems with antisemitism.

Next, can we expect an equally hard hitting article on the right’s problems with antisemitism as well ?

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