The U.S. is home to a drastic surge in anti-Jewish violence as tensions between Israel and Hamas escalated this spring. And despite a hard-won temporary cease-fire, as reported on Liberty Nation, anti-semitic hatred from the left continues unabated.
In Beverly Grove, CA, a pro-Palestinian caravan of people yelling anti-Semitic expletives threw glass bottles and scuffled with diners. Another mob pulled up at a restaurant and asked who was Jewish, then proceeded to beat them up. In Los Angeles, an Orthodox Jew was allegedly chased down by a convoy of Palestinian activists yelling racial slurs. But perhaps the most injurious of all is the anti-Jewish sentiment flying across social media with abandon this week.
Preliminary data from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has counted 17,000 plus tweets of “Hitler was right.” Both in real world and in online activity – it’s getting ugly out there for anyone of Jewish heritage. One might rightfully ask: How on Earth did we get here?
Pro-Palestinian Is the New Cool
It’s not just okay to be down with the Palestinians these days, it’s approved of and admired – especially in Democratic quarters. As The New York Times observed, “The ascendant left views it [the Palestinian cause] as a searing racial justice issue that is deeply intertwined with the politics of the United States.”
One would expect such sentiments from Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), a Palestinian-American who has relatives living in Gaza. But now, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) has offered up an impassioned speech on behalf of the Palestinians. Rep Cori Bush (D-MO) thundered on the House floor, “Until all our children are safe, we will continue to fight for our rights in Palestine and in Ferguson.” Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) – formerly a stalwart supporter of Israel – now says he’s “deeply troubled” by the Israeli airstrikes in Gaza.
This anti-Israel stance is nothing less than a flashing green light to the online community, which is going berserk with anti-Semitic memes, tweets, and Facebook posts. It appears all the social media sensors who flag the public for “violating community standards” have gone on holiday.
Twenty-nine-year-old Amani Al-Khatahtbeh, aka MuslimGirl.com, noted the pro-Arab trend on Instagram, “This level of social media support for the Palestinian people has never happened before.” Indeed, a new generation is taking to TikTok with missives such as “Stand with the oppressed.” On Twitter, a popular hashtag is now #FreePalestine.
Regarding the pro-Palestinian activists, The New York Times commented, “They refer to Israeli policies as ‘the colonization of Palestine,’ describe its discrimination against Palestinians as an apartheid regime, and characterize the proposed eviction of Palestinian families from the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, which helped set off the current conflict, as an ‘expulsion’ and part of an ethnic cleansing campaign.”
The Palestinian is the cause célèbre of the progressive left. It did not take much for the ADL to unearth “extreme antisemitic and anti-Zionist content” that was “found across a wide variety of channels calling for the destruction of the Jewish state.” Included were such anti-Jewish tropes as this one, which appeared in all caps: “GAS THE K—ES RACE WAR NOW.”
As The Times shockingly and astutely observed, “The online protesters have linked arms with popular movements for minority rights such as Black Lives Matter …” As evidence, they pointed to the podcast The Breakdown, hosted by BLM advocate Shaun King, who characterized the Palestinian people as those who “experience a brutality from police and the military very much akin to what African-Americans experience in the United States.”
There was a time in America when anti-Semitism was as uncouth and unacceptable as the Ku Klux Klan – but no more. Without a doubt, a growing number of prominent Democrats can take credit for this changing paradigm. This newly minted form of hate, however, is as old as the hills. As author Simone de Beauvoir once opined, “If you live long enough, you’ll see that every victory turns into a defeat.”
~
Read more from Leesa K. Donner.
