Where Is the Left on Antisemitism?

[Modernistfan]

Where is the left on antisemitism? Of course, I am not referring to relatively mainstream, centrist Democrats such as President Biden or Vice-President Harris who have clearly spoken out in no uncertain terms against it, but to people somewhat further left than that, such as devotees of critical race theory, members of the so-called "The Squad" in the House of Representatives, members of the Democratic Socialists of America, and many others holding similar views. Despite blatant antisemitism now being expressed by such people as Kanye West, the basketball player Kyrie Irving, and far-right fanatics such as Nick Fuentes (who had dinner at Mar-a-Lago with the ex-president) and neo-Nazi Andrew Anglin (who was let back on Twitter by Elon Musk), there has been almost no response from what must be considered as the left, despite the clear and present danger to the Jewish community. These people will go ballistic if someone uses the wrong pronouns in referring to a transgender person, but, in response to this blatant antisemitism, the answer is silence.

Undoubtedly, critical race theory, with its crude and unsubtle division of the populace into "oppressors" and "oppressed," is part of the problem. It does not deal effectively with antisemitism or, for that matter with anti-Asian prejudice, even though the Asians cannot be really regarded as white. (The to my mind highly objectionable term "white-adjacent" has begun to be used in reference to Asians in some precincts of the left.) Perhaps another facet of the failure of the left to respond is a result of some of the antisemitic rhetoric coming from Black people such as Kanye West or Kyrie Irving, and, again according to critical race theory, Black (or Latino) people cannot be racist (of course, in light of the comments made by three Latino Los Angeles city council members attacking Asians, Blacks, Jews, Armenians, and for that matter, Mexicans from the Oaxaca area who are of largely indigenous ancestry, that theory has about as much validity as the astronomical theories of Ptolemy which held that the sun revolved around the earth). However, for whatever reason, the left has failed to respond aggressively. American history clearly teaches that, if Jews are attacked, attacks will follow against Blacks, Latinos, Asians, Muslims, and gays, and possibly other groups as well. (When the synagogue in Pittsburgh was the victim of a shooting rampage by a far-right perpetrator, a number of members of the Charleston African Methodist Episcopal church, which had previously suffered a similar shooting rampage by a far-right perpetrator, actually went up to Pittsburgh (not exactly a short trip) to help, and the Muslim community of Pittsburgh offered to help with synagogue security.)

[diegobueno]

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) on Sunday condemned Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, over now-deleted antisemitic comments he made over the weekend.

Ye had his accounts on both Twitter and Instagram restricted over comments that appeared to threaten harm to Jewish people.

Ocasio-Cortez took to Twitter to slam the rapper and fashion designer’s words, calling them “hateful” and “dangerous.”

“There is absolutely no room in this country or world for antisemitism,” she wrote in a tweet late Sunday.
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The New York rep added, “It is important to see how harmful + dangerous Kanye’s words are — not only to our Jewish brothers, sisters, & siblings, but also to our collective society at large. We must reject this [trash emoji] wherever we see it.”

Twitter confirmed on Sunday that Ye’s account was restricted for an unspecific amount of time for violating the social media platform’s policies. The decision to take action against the “Donda” rapper was made one day after he returned to the platform following a two-year lapse.

Last week, Instagram also took action against Ye, restricting his profile and deleting some of his content.

https://thehill.com/blogs/in-the-know/3 ... ic-tweets/

[Modernistfan]

That is a good start, but we need a lot more. It would also help substantially if the Jewish community would begin to call out the smug, self-satisfied, business-as-usual racism existing in its own ranks, including its treatment of Jews of color.