By Sam Litvin
TEL AVIV, Israel — A rabbi shot in the hand, an 8-year-old girl who moved from Sderot and her 32-year-old uncle visiting from Israel, a mother with a 22-year-old who shielded the Rabbi with her body: are these the victims of the right or the left. He was a teenager, 19, with the freedom to carry an automatic rifle with pure hatred of a people because of propaganda online with a clear right-wing ideology and a fan of New Zealand anti-Muslim killer. He radicalized online, on Facebook and Twitter. These companies cannot take down that hate because it originates from the base of the President. It originates from people like Congressman Jim Jordan, a well-known antisemite.
I look on twitter and who do we focus on? New York Times cartoon, a barely literate Congresswoman Omar and Congresswoman Rashid. These are people also hated by the same killers. This killer would have killed Omar and Rashid as he was moved by the writings of the New Zealand killer.
We confuse the antisemitism of the left and of the right as the same thing, they are not. The antisemitism of the left is easy to spot, it is anti-Israel and confuses all Jews for supporters of Israel. They say they have no qualms with Jews, they clearly lack the understanding that being Jewish can be a religion and ethnicity, that Jews are also Semitic and that Jews come from Israel and that we are not colonizers but returning refugees. BDS and left anti-Israel activists say they have no issues with Jews living anywhere but in Israel.
The far-right ideologues are the opposite, they are fine with Jews living in Israel but nowhere else. They are fine with Jews living in Israel but having no power or influence. The difference between the methods of the left and the right are stark. Whereas the left leave leaflets and protest and boycott in a peaceful manner, the right takes out arms and attacks with deadly force. But just as the people in America are confused by the rhetoric, confused by the ethnic and religious duality of Jewish people, confused by the ignorance of the lack of information, in the same way, are Americans of all creeds and religions confused by the differences in the two hateful ideologies.
The difference is important. To Israel, the threat is from the left as it funds and supports terrorism. To diaspora around the world, the threat is from the right that has tried to purge the Jewish refugees from their midst since their exile from Israel by Romans 2000 years ago.
I repeat, the differences are important and Jews and all who fight for equality and respect in the United States must understand them, must understand who and where and how is attacking them to battle them in the legal arena and in the press. By treating them as one and the same, we will continue to fail on both fronts because if we call them one and the same, both will have the ability to deflect an attack.
“Never Again” has lost its meaning. From Israel to Pittsburgh to San Diego, the prayer hall where I put a kippa and a tallit, “Never Again” has become Again and Again. If we want to stop the next time, we must learn from the past, we must stop saying and doing the same failed actions, and defend ourselves from these threats. Defense from a knife is different from defense from a gun. Let’s know when to use which defense, so that we can say Never Again, and mean it. We must demand action from the left on Israel and from the right on antisemitism. Action like re-instating the DOJ task force monitoring and prosecuting the white supremacists that Trump and Sessions dismantled. We must all as a united force monitor events and demand specific actions to ensure they do not happen again. Empty words will no longer do. Empty words will not do help the Rabbi, nor the 8-year-old girl, nor her uncle, nor the 22-year-old daughter without a mother. If we say “Never Again” we must mean it and act on it.
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Litvin is a former San Diegan now living and reelance writing in Tel Aviv.
Dear Sam,
Thank you for taking the time to reply, truly.
It is true that I’ve not seen or heard Ilhan Omar reading from a script, but I have heard her speak spontaneously and she is, in that format, well-spoken and articulate. What I couldn’t quite make out from your essay is what you imply when you say you look on Twitter and who do we focus on–Omar, Rashid and a New York Times cartoon. Do you mean that these people are not worthy of some “focus”. Your comment just came off as a bit snarky–but maybe this was not your intent.
When you say that the left funds and supports terrorism, would you clarify your understanding of the “Left”. Would that include dangerous lefties like Noam Chomsky or Bernie Sanders? It’s my observation that the United States government is and has been the most dangerous terrorists of all.
Anyway, I know that I know very little, really, and I appreciate your feedback.
Sincerely,
Nancy Deming
Dear Nancy,
A person can be bright and eloquent and convincing but that does not make them well read and that determines their breadth of knowledge and ability to analyze facts and come to correct conclusions. Ilhan from her ability to read and from other reports is not a well read person, neither is Trump. These people are swayed by emotions, react on emotions and convince with emotions. This means that they are also harder to sway because their ability to analyze facts and thus trust facts is limited.
I think we must always go after actions that show antisemitism. But we must be careful in how we go after people. Because an action can be antisemitic from a person who is pro-Semitic and pro-Semitic words can come from a complete anti-Semite. An anti-Semite is one who believes that Jewish people should not exist. The left attacks Israel based on a an emotional lie created by clever anti-Semitic extremists in the Arab world whose focus is to undermine and exterminate Jewish presence in Middle East. These are not the goals of people on the left, but because the world is so partisan and because the Republican party has allied itself with Israel, many on the left have said what Republicans support, I must be against. This is why I say, that the left support, whether they realize it or not, is a threat to Israel. When I look on Twitter, the majority of work to fight anti-Semitism that I see is on the front of Conservatives against people like Ilhan Omar, who say anti-Semitic things but I do not believe to be anti-Semites.
On the other hand, people like Jim Jordan, who are anti-Semites, who say similar things to Ilhan Omar but are not fighting to undermine the Jewish presence in Israel but rather, the Jewish presence and Jewish freedoms in US, have very little response.
What I tried to say in my article, is that the two are dangerous ideologies to two different sections of Jews: one to Jews in Israel, the other to Jews in America. The conservatives are pro-Israel and so we assume they are not anti-Semites. The anti-Israel leftists are pro Jewish Americans but we assume they are anti-Semites. These are complex ideologies and we must have different strategies and tactics for both. We must also not ignore one over the other and we must also understand who says what and for what reason. This is the core of my article.
Thank you again,
Sam Litvin
I beg your pardon. Congresspersons Omar Ilan and Rashid Talib are extremely “literate”. Do not besmirch a person’s intelligence because they are Muslim and questioning the morality of the Israeli regime, which is what you have done. If this is untrue, please give examples of their illiteracy.
Questioning the Israeli goverment and America’s Not To Be Questioned immense flow of arms and cash into it’s arsenals, is trying to open a conversation that would seem to be treasonous, given the outrage that follows. How offended you seem that anyone dare question the suspect reasoning behind America’s Never-t0-be-Questioned allegience to Israel.
Dear Nancy,
It appears you read only the first few sentences of this article before writing down your feelings. I invite you to read the rest of it before you make a judgement.
In response to your criticism:
I did not say Rashid Talib is barely literate, only Omar Ilhan. Omar Ilhan is not barely literate because she is Muslim, but because she is barely literate. You can see her trying to read when questioning Elliot Abrams. She is reading from a statement prepared for her, clearly not known events she is reading about and not understanding when she reads a question and not able to read basic words. She’s a good speaker but under-educated and sadly ignorant and more sadly, barely literate.
As for the rest of your comment, plenty of people open that conversation without reverting to antisemitic tropes, which is what Omar did.
Regards,
Sam Litvin