Despite the complicated nature of anti-Semitism, Democrats have tried, lazily, to blame what’s happening on Trump or white supremacy. As news reports were still coming in after the Monsey attack, Rep. Eric Swalwell, who until recently presented himself as a suitable Democratic presidential nominee, declared that anti-Semitism was being “ stoked” by Trump and tweeted out an op-ed he wrote recently blaming the president for rising anti-Semitism. After the Jersey City shooting, Rep. Rashida Tlaib tweeted, “White supremacy kills.” The Israel-boycotting member of Congress, who has peddled dual-loyalty smears and recently headlined an anti-Semitic conference, was forced to delete the tweet when she realized the attack was actually perpetrated by a follower of the Black Hebrew Israelites. Meanwhile, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, who has presided over the surge of anti-Semitic incidents, in June described anti-Semitism as an ideologically “ right-wing movement.”
Making anti-Semitism about Trump or the “right-wing” reveals a lack of understanding or honesty about the nature of the problem, which guarantees that it will persist. If de Blasio weren’t spending the past few years acting as if Trump supporters and neo-Nazis were the only threat to Jewish populations, maybe he would have addressed the anti-Semitic beatings in his city.
