Democrats and Anti-Semitism-The problem isn’t ‘tropes’ that are ‘hurtful.’

The Democrats have an anti-Semitism problem, and it isn’t subtle. Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar tweeted Sunday that congressional support for Israel is “all about the Benjamins baby,” a slang term for $100 bills—a straightforward accusation that American lawmakers who support the Jewish state are being bought off. Who does she think is paying American politicians to be pro-Israel, the Forward’s opinion editor asked. “AIPAC!” Ms. Omar gleefully replied, notwithstanding that the American Israel Public Affairs Committee does not contribute to political campaigns.

House Democratic leaders—though none of the Democrats running for president—quickly condemned Ms. Omar’s smear, saying in a statement that her “use of anti-Semitic tropes and prejudicial accusations about Israel’s supporters” was “hurtful” and “deeply offensive.” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said her “anti-Semitic stereotype” was “offensive and irresponsible.”

That Ms. Omar would slander Israel is disturbing not because of the feelings it tramples. Since her appointment to the House Foreign Affairs Committee, her statement raises alarm about how her enmity for the world’s only Jewish country—and the world’s largest Jewish population—might translate into policy aims. The issues for Israel’s supporters are security and survival, not hurt feelings, which are trivial in comparison. Assuming that all Jews love gefilte fish, play klezmer music, and suffer overbearing mothers? Those are stereotypes. Actively working to isolate Israel and accusing pro-Israel Jews of bribing Congress isn’t “insensitive.” It’s something far darker and more malevolent.

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I rarely post from the Journal since it's a paysite, but this was a particularly good editorial.

What does she imagine would happen to the Jews who inhabit the land if Israel were replaced by “Palestine”? Whether she envisions expulsion or genocidal war, the malign intent is unmistakable.
Perhaps we can drop the charade that obsessive hatred of Israel has anything to do with tropes, stereotypes, cultural insensitivity and the like. Such talk permits wrongdoers to claim credibly that they were not aware of a particular Jewish sensitivity. And it makes fools of us all, as lies tend to do.
As long as Democrats continue to condemn anti-Semitism while trivializing its presence within their party, this anti-Semitism is unlikely to subside. Melissa Byrne, a former aide to Sen. Bernie Sanders’s presidential campaign, tweeted of Ms. Omar: “She is a new MoC”—member of Congress—“figuring out how to navigate calling out AIPAC (which is a terrible organization aligned with Bibi).” The soft bigotry of low expectations: Ms. Omar is new here! She didn’t know it was offensive to accuse pro-Israel Jews of graft.
Sometimes hate is just hate. But threats cause alarm because of what they hope to achieve, not because they are hurtful in themselves. Democrats should stop pretending that hatred is a matter of feelings and take Ms. Omar, Ms. Tlaib and their compatriots at their word.

It doesn't matter what democrats think is a problem in their own ranks. They've swallowed the Jacques Derrida* bait, hook, line, and sinker. Not a one of them has the authority or even the will to define anything as an absolute truth or historical fact. That leaves them in the perfect position for a dozen factions like the one forming around Occasional Cortex to rise within the party like multiple cancers.

Any alliance they form will fracture and weaken every time the party poll numbers improve in a national race and lead to one or more independent parties growing out of the current democrat party. The Democrat party will survive, and may even become nationally strong again for a while longer, but they're heading for an implosion worse than and lasting longer than what followed Chicago in '68.

Basically, their chances for national office victories depends entirely on whether or not they can fracture or induce apathy in Republicans and Independents to a greater extent than they themselves are fractured at any point in time.

Hence, the huge number of trolls dropping their masks of late here and there on the web at places 'Conservatives' gather and NeverTrump notables dropping their pretense of accepting Trump.

JMHo

* Jacques_Derrida

‘’A Jew hating party that has a street bully group...’’. One hundred and fifty eight years ago it was called The Confederate Army.

Okay. Now, I'm no fan of the Confederacy (my own Southern ancestors fought against it) nor do I stand silent in the face of claims that George Washington would have been a Confederate or that Thomas Jefferson's "strict construction" is "the official and true" way to interpret the Constitution. And I sure as blazes hold no love for our mondern day "neo-Confederates" who are anti-Semites and hold positions the Confederacy fought against and are total frauds. But sir . . . you have told a blatant lie.

The Confederate States of America at no time was ever anti-Jewish. Ever. The first Jew to get a cabinet post in American history did so in the Confederacy. Hundreds of Southern Jews fought for the Confederacy (I restrict the number only because I don't think enough of them lived there to contribute thousands, though I could be wrong). The Confederate leaders, both civil and military, were philo-Semites. The only Jewish military cemetery outside Israel is one for Jewish Confederates in Virginia.

On top of that, Jews were leaders in the development of the South. Charleston, South Carolina was so identified with Jews that anti-Semites claimed it was world Jewish headquarters from which they conducted their nefarious plans. The first white settler in Alabama was a Jew. The first mayor of Greenville, Mississippi was a Jew. How in the blazes you have the brass to come on this forum and claim the Confederacy was anti-Semitic? Are you really that ignorant?

On top of that, it was the Union that sometimes engaged in anti-Jewish policies. The most anti-Semitic decree in American history was signed by General Grant. Even Benjamin Franklin Butler, "the ultimate Yankee," was a notorious anti-Semite. The North was, after all, more traditionally "American" and Protestant while the South was looked on as some sort of un-American offshoot of Medieval Europe.

The whole "Southerners hate Jews" meme was invented by liberals and "palaeoconservatives" for the distinct purpose of separating the Jews form the ancient Israelites in the public mind (you know, because "anti-Semitic" Southerners interpret the Hebrew Bible literally and Jews are supposedly all atheists, union organizers, and dirty nightclub comics???).

The whole this is a fantasy. Most anti-Semitism entered the South only via the (at that time left wing) Populists in the later nineteenth century. Since that time there have certainly been Southern anti-Semites (who again are used to prove how "evil" Genesis is since it "causes anti-Semitism"). Tom Watson and John Rankin are notorious examples and of course the lynching of Leo Frank was a black spot on the South. But these were all deviations from the Old South and have long since given way to philo-Semitic Biblical Fundamentalism. Even Bull Connor wasn't an anti-Semite.

Shame on you. Of course, having made the claim you probably don't care what the consequences are, but some of us care very much.

You want to find an anti-Semitic area of the country? Try Harlem, which has been the site of at least two pogroms!

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