I do not want to downplay the issue of left-wing anti-Semitism and the closely related anti-imperialism that sees Hamas as a hero. Both phenomena shocked me in the months after October 7, but they should not be rationalized as understandable reactions to Israeli barbarism in Gaza.
In a cover story for The Atlantic, Franklin Foer recently reported on anti-Semitic bullying, vandalism, and conspiracy theories in Northern California. “In the hatred I witnessed in the Bay Area, and evident on college campuses and in progressive activist circles across the country, left-wing anti-Semitism is characterized by many of the same violent paranoia as the right. “I can now feel the tension in the wings,” he wrote. The fact that this kind of anti-Semitism more often emanates from ordinary people than from public officials and authority figures is unlikely to comfort most Jews, who have inherited a deep fear not only of dictators but also of mobs.
Still, we need to be clear about which political factions are trying to give power to anti-Semites. And even if you believe that Michigan Democrat Rashida Tlaib’s use of the anti-Zionist slogan “River to Sea” is clearly anti-Semitic – I don’t think so – -It is worth asking why this received so much more coverage than Mr. Robinson’s apparent Holocaust denial. , or for that matter, the promotion of anti-Semitic websites and social media posts by Republican politicians like Paul Gosar of Arizona and Mike Collins of Georgia.
This year, white supremacists had unusually easy access to the Conservative Political Action Conference, where Trump gave the keynote address, according to NBC News’ Ben Goggin. “At Friday night’s Young Republican Mixer, a group of Nazis who avowedly call themselves National Socialists mixed with mainstream conservative figures, including members of Turning Point USA, touting ‘race science’ and anti-Semitism. discussed conspiracy theories of doctrine,” Goggin wrote. If this caused a national uproar, I missed it.
There are several reasons why anti-Semitic positions on the right, including Robinson’s, often do not receive the attention they should. First, they are old news. Back in 2022, scholars Eitan Hirsch and Laura Royden debunked the idea that anti-Semitism is a similar problem across ideological extremes, left and right, writing: “The data shows that the epicenter of anti-Semitic attitudes is far-right youth.” Anti-Semitism at Columbia University, located in the city with the largest Jewish population in the world, has It is surprising that anti-Semitism among people no longer exists.