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[Editor’s note: Make sure to read Daniel Greenfield’s masterpiece contributions in Jamie Glazov’s new book: Barack Obama’s True Legacy: How He Transformed America.]
In 2019, President Trump signed an executive order on combating antisemitism. The order used the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism which includes “denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination”, “using the symbols and images associated with classic antisemitism to characterize Israel” and applying double standards to the Jewish State.
Biden’s hyped U.S. National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism, released on the eve of the Shavuot holiday, backtracks from this gold standard by claiming that, “there are several definitions of antisemitism, which serve as valuable tools to raise awareness and increase understanding of antisemitism”, including the IHRA, but noting that the Biden administration “welcomes and appreciates the Nexus Document and notes other such efforts.”
The Nexus definition was authored by anti-Israel activists like Tema Smith, who had claimed that, “Hamas — and the Palestinians as a whole — have desperately real and legitimate grievances against Israel.”
“Jews *have* to be ok with Palestinians *explaining* why some turn to terrorism,” she argued.
The Nexus advisory committee included the likes of Hussein Ibish, who had described Hezbollah as a “disciplined and responsible liberation force” whose terrorists had “conducted themselves in an exemplary manner”, along with J Street leader Jeremy Ben Ami, Lila Corwin-Berman, who had defended BDS, and Chaim Seidler-Feller, whose hatred was so intense he had kicked and scratched a Jewish woman over her support for the Jewish State.
The Nexus definition of antisemitism was created to protect anti-Israel activists from charges of antisemitism. That definition, which the Biden administration chose to promote, claims that BDS, or “boycotting goods made in the West Bank and/or Israel is not antisemitic”, and argues that, “opposition to Zionism and/or Israel does not necessarily reflect specific anti-Jewish animus nor purposefully lead to antisemitic behaviors and conditions” and defends double standards by contending that “paying disproportionate attention to Israel and treating Israel differently than other countries is not prima facie proof of antisemitism.”
While the U.S. National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism claims that the IHRA definition is the most prominent, that is not the same as an endorsement and the strategy carefully avoids any mention of BDS and beyond its opening has relatively few mentions of Israel. Despite being hyped by Jewish Democrats, it is undeniably a step back from the Trump executive order.
Even with the seemingly strong language cited by administration supporters, such as “when Israel is singled out because of anti-Jewish hatred, that is antisemitism”, the ‘conditional’ in that sentence is clearly a lawyerly use of the Nexus, not the IHRA definition, defining hatred of Israel only as antisemitism when it can be proven to have originated because of antisemitism.
Incorporating the Nexus defense of BDS and hatred of Israel is a symptom of a larger problem.
The U.S. National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism insists that the only kind of antisemitism is white supremacism or “right-wing” hatred. Its only references to leftist, black, or Muslim antisemitism are cautiously indirect because those forms of antisemitism cannot be condemned.
After multiple Muslim and black nationalist terrorist attacks on synagogues, Muslims and black nationalists are only mentioned as allies and fellow victims of white supremacist bigotry.
The strategy states that, “antisemitic conspiracy theories are often foundational to white supremacy as well as numerous other violent extremist ideologies. For example, in January 2022, an armed hostage-taker motivated by other violent notions terrorized the members of a synagogue in Colleyville, Texas.” The “other violent notions” were Islamic ones.
Malik Faisal Akram, a Muslim Pakistani supporter of ‘Lady Al Qaeda’, broke into the synagogue and held the people inside hostage until he was shot and killed by the FBI. Al Qaeda later called Akram a “martyr” and declared that “there Is no greater enemy of Islam and inhabitants of Islam than the Jews”.
When a national antisemitism strategy can’t even name and describe an Al Qaeda attack on a synagogue because it would undermine its premise that Muslims can only be victims and that the only threat worth discussing is white supremacy then it’s the problem, not the solution.
If the Biden administration won’t even allow a mention of the most violent kind of Islamic antisemitism by a supporter of a terror group we are at war with, it’s collaborating with it.
Literally.
The U.S. National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism.rollout press release boasts that “the Council on American-Islamic Relations will launch a tour to educate religious communities about steps they can take to protect their houses of worship from hate incidents.”
That’s the same CAIR which has defended Islamic terrorism against Jews, defended Muslim terrorists who plotted attacks on synagogues, whose official, Zahra Billoo, had urged, “we need to pay attention to the Zionist synagogues”, and which was named an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation trial involving the funding of Hamas.
When Ahmed Ferhani was arrested for a plot to attack a synagogue, CAIR held a rally to support him. It still has materials on its site defending the antisemitic terrorist.
After promoting an antisemite’s definition of antisemitism, the Biden administration is promoting synagogue bombers to tour and educate houses of worship about security measures.
There are good things about the U.S. National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism. It does address campus antisemitism, acknowledging that, “on college campuses, Jewish students, educators, and administrators have been derided, ostracized, and sometimes discriminated against because of their actual or perceived views on Israel.” But it fails to note that the antisemitism is coming from Islamists and leftists, and its focus on “swastikas” and “Kristallnacht” implies the familiar white supremacist narrative even when, in one case, the Nazi reference was actually being employed by a Muslim woman.
The strategy does mention that beyond learning about the Holocaust, students should also learn the “histories of antisemitism experienced by Sephardic and Mizrahi Jews—who trace their ancestry to Spain, the Middle East, and North Africa—and their stories of exclusion, persecution, and expulsion.” And that is a good thing, American Jewish historiography has been dominated for too long by Ashkenazi or European Jewish history, but how will it be possible to teach about Muslim antisemitism without even mentioning Islam?
Even though Orthodox Jews have been the victims of the majority of violent physical assaults, there is only one brief mention of this phenomenon, “some traditionally observant Jews, especially traditional Orthodox Jews, are victimized while walking down the street.”
Inconveniently, the attackers tend to be black or other minorities, and so cannot be mentioned.
The black nationalist massacre at a Kosher grocery store in Jersey City and a machete attack at a synagogue in 2019 go completely unmentioned, even though they were among the deadliest recent attacks on Jews along with the white supremacist terrorist attack in Poway, California.
A better name for the new approach would be the U.S. National Strategy to Counter Those Kinds of Antisemitism We Are Willing to Discuss while leaving out the majority of violent antisemitic threats and avoiding the question of Israel as much as it possibly can.
The U.S. National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism is crippled by the woke dependency on intersectionality, on the need to view antisemitism as interrelated with other prejudices and bigotries, and to position Jews as common victims and allies against white supremacy, and in the process it ignores what antisemitism actually is and what is unique about it. And that approach has actually ended up enabling leftist antisemitism over the 20th century.
Anitsemitism is not simply a racial or religious hatred. The attempts to narrowly define it run aground on its persistence across thousands of years, through different cultures, religions, and nations. Antisemitism morphs, adopting different shapes and forms, emerging in radically different political movements across both the Left and the Right, to form a common denominator. The Biden strategy seeks to compartmentalize antisemitism within a postmodern rainbow coalition of minority victims faced with the bigotry of a majority, even as the document is forced to awkwardly grapple with the fact that much of the hatred is coming from minorities.
At best that’s denial and at worst that’s complicity.
The U.S. National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism isn’t a strategy to fight antisemitism, but to cover up the reality of it as a politically inconvenient reality with a politically convenient myth. And no one should have expected anything else from a radical administration with no shortage of antisemitic nominees, which continues to undermine Israel while supporting hate groups like CAIR. Whether it’s Nexus or the U.S. National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism, putting the enablers of antisemitism in charge of defining and fighting antisemitism can never end well.
Lots of excellent points.
BDS is an existential threat.
This so called statement is not worth the paper it is written on . ADL has assumed the role of full scale appeasement of terror and Democrat cheerleader while completely ignoring woke anti Semitism especially on college campuses
Under Jonathan Greenblatt, ADL has become a “facilitator of Anti Semitism” by providing school curricula that pushes woke, leftist ideology, by partnering with noted Anti Semites (i.e. Al Sharpton), by campaigning for open borders, by falsely accusing political opponents of Anti Semitism and openly supporting renown Anti Semites (i.e. Ilhan Omar). At the same time they refuse to actively support efforts to fight hate on college campuses where it is most prevalent. They refuse to identify any perpetrators by name of Anti Semitism unless they are on the right. This happens when an NGO is led by a political operative. We don’t need the ADL
That above picture Joe Biden and his comrade Mahmoud standing together may rightly be viewed as a symbol of what is called the leftist /Islamic alliance.
First that demonic alliance against Israel is doomed and fated to fail because those two sinister characters in this photo are greatly overruled by God , Who , very much favors Israel. and has declared so in His Word, the Bible, Psalm 135:4.
Second , that photograph of Biden and Abbas joining their hands together is a clear reflection of the Bible truth found is Proverbs 11:21. Which reads “Though hand join in hand, the wicked shall not be unpunished.” [K.J.V.]
Don’t sweat anti-semitism, we’ve got the ADL and Doug Emhoff to protect us.
But, but, but Biden says he “has Israel’s back.” He doesn’t have the back of Israel or Jews (unless they belong to J-Street) except as a target. What a pos, and one that 67% of Jews voted for.
Dear Mr Daniel Greenfield,
Now, I’m not anti-Jewish; although, I suspect that I would probably be labelled an ‘antisemite’ due to some of the things I might say and think. Nevertheless, I believe that natural Israel (a holy remnant) will one day be used as the visible representative of the Kingdom of God.
That aside, on the matter of antisemitism, it appears to me that anything that is said in opposition to Israel (it’s treatment, killing, of Palestinians, including children) is automatically considered ‘antisemitic’ by many Jews.
Furthermore, many on the far right do not appreciate the fact that 2% of the population have such power in the USA. Also, the Jewish peoples are enemies of Christ & Christianity, and so many resent this group having such power & authority in what was a protestant nation.
The fact of the matter is, the Scriptures do suggest that Israel’s lovers will abandon her. It’s likely that a Conservative faction, probably predominantly Catholic (with ‘protestant backing) will at some point ascend to power in the USA. At that point there will no doubt be a reckoning in the USA. There is a divinely permitted coming time of trouble upon Israel, and it will be worse than the holocaust.
Jewish people would do well to draw close to God, read the Law of Moses (not the Talmud) a learn to practise love of neighbour.
Antisemitism is being used by governments worldwide to distract from the truth.
To suggest that the Jews have so much power is ludicrous. They have one of the tiniest nations on the planet.
Thanks for the reply.
The power being referred to is likely banking, media, news & also in government(s). There’s no doubt that Jewish people are over represented in many of these areas, especially in the USA – is that antisemitic for me to say that?
The State of Israel came about in part due to the support of billionaire banker Jews (Rothschilds), and given the backing by various other countries – Britain, USA, etc. (Divinely foretold, mind you, that a regathering to Israel would occur before the end of this Age).
Israel appears to be given special treatment. Even the holocaust education worldwide is viewed by some as ‘special’ treatment – despite the fact that far worse atrocities have been committed. Yet, to say this is ‘antisemitic’. To question the holocaust is even illegal in many countries.
At any rate, from my understanding, Israel has absorbed more and more land into its State – illegally (according to United Nations boundaries and agreements related to the two-state solution). This goes back to the ‘special’ treatment Israel seems to get.
The Scriptures indicate that God is not happy with the fact His land has been partitioned, and so, in the future, this situation will be divinely resolved.
In the future, it’s true, many ardent antisemites will struggle to accept Jerusalem as the visible capital of God’s Kingdom – the Jerusalem above.
I hope Mr Greenfield replies to some of your more idiotic and outrageous statements. But to cut to the chase, yes you are an antisemite. You are abysmally ignorant on anything connected to Israel and the Jewish people’s right to that land.
You are a theological anti-semite w/an Israel hangup. Worry about the credibility of your scriptures and leave-off the lurid fantasies. No one exists to validate you or your beliefs.
7 million Jews live in Israel
6 million Jews live in the US
2 million Jews in the rest of
the world
For which Jews is Biden’s anti-Semitism strategy?
The students who defy anti-Semitic professors spewing lies and hatred, encouraging violence and murder in America and in Israel, whom the universities refuse to condemn and fire?
The ones who are targets of viciously anti-Semitic media, social media, sports and entertainment personalities who profoundly influence millions of followers in America and around the world?
The ones against whom this very government’s members of Congress and State Department embrace and advance the most anti-Semitic foreign policy, ever, towards Israel and, duh, Jews?
The ones who feel no connection to Israel?
The ones who feel connected to Israel?
Was Biden actually talking to America’s Jews?
Maybe Biden can consider incorporating this idea into his strategy:
I believe it’s possible that the Romans borrowed from the greek word “palaestra” which refers to a school of “wrestling”.
In the Torah, Jacob wrestled with God.
Jacob prevails and is renamed Yisrael (Israel in english) meaning, in hebrew, “he strived with God”. Jacob, family man, became Yisrael, father of the nation of (the children of) Israel, living in the land of “Israel”. Forever.
The invading Romans took the original hebrew meaning of Yisrael, and translated it into its (now dead) language.
And did you know that there is no “p” in arabic?
This so called antisemitism str isn’t worth the paper it’s written on. All a sensible person needs to learn is JStreet and CAIR are involved in the development of this waste of time. Israeli officials do not meet with JSreet leaders. Figure out why.
>>Israeli officials do not meet with JSreet leaders.
Lo nation, motek….Labor and Meretz officials are joined at the hip with JStreet.
And they are a pretty dismal minority in government now. Do try to keep up. Their views are by no means accepted by most Israelis. Meretz has no one in the Knesset and Labour has either two of three sears. Negligible. They can meet with JStreet. They have no impact
Dear Rachelle & Taylor,
For a moment I didn’t realise you were replying to me. I understand why you feel this way. However, I really do not hate Jewish people. In fact, I’m not even concerned about the issues many of those on the ‘far right’ even say about Jews. I recognise that Divine providence is in operation in all of these matters.
Regarding the ‘right to the land’, my understanding is that Jerusalem was laid desolate in about 70 AD, and the Jews were scattered (the temple destroyed – a clear sign of God’s disfavour). I merely pointed out that according to international agreements, Israel appears to be in breach of these worldly agreements.
At any rate, I thank you for confirming that by simply expressing what seems to be obvious facts, Jewish people will slander a person as being an ‘antisemite’.
It’s kind of amusing, too, in view of the fact that I am acknowledging that Israel will one day be the Capital of the world – the ancient worthies ruling as princes throughout the world, a holy remnant of cleansed Jews coming out from the Time of Jacob’s Trouble yet to come. Purify yourselves & obey the Law of Moses, soon, you will look to Him whom you pierced – the Greater Moses – to delivery you!
Why did you bother to reassert your bigoted views. We got it the first time. You are the one who doesn’t get it.
Dear Rachelle,
I’d like to know precisely what views you consider ‘bigoted’ (& why?)- I’m sincerely interested in trying to understand. If you would kindly please take the time to explain, I would very much appreciate it.
Thank you.
Its been both sad and funny watching right wing Islam run head on into the Western far left. They find they have much in common. Both hate Jews, hate Israel, hate Christians, hate the United States, hate Capitalism, hate Western culture and both are wildly intolerant of any ideas with which they disagree. Yep, right wing Islam and leftist progressives have much in common. And both pose a dangerous threat to our democracy and our way of life.