We’ve been calling out how the Democratic Party has increasingly accepted anti-Semitism for years now, but when a prominent leftist U.S. Senator, who also happens to be Jewish, is willing to acknowledge where the rise of anti-Semitism in America is coming from, that’s significant.
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On Wednesday, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) gave a speech on the Senate floor about the rise of anti-Semitism in America in the wake of the October 7 Hamas terrorist attack against Israel. While some focused their coverage of the speech by highlighting Schumer’s attack on Trump, the media largely ignored the noteworthy part.
“After October 7, Jewish Americans are feeling singled out, targeted, and isolated. In many ways, we feel alone. The solidarity that Jewish Americans initially received from many of our fellow citizens was quickly drowned out by other voices,” Schumer said. “While the dead bodies of Jewish Israelis were still warm, while hundreds of Jewish Israelis were being carried as hostages back to Hamas tunnels under Gaza, Jewish Americans were alarmed to see some of our fellow citizens characterize a brutal terrorist attack as justified because of the actions of the Israeli government.”
“A vicious, bloodcurdling, premeditated massacre of innocent men, women, children, the elderly — justified!” Schumer continued. “Even worse, in some cases, people even celebrated what happened, describing it as the deserved fate of quote ‘colonizers’ and calling for quote ‘glory to the martyrs’ who carried out these heinous attacks.”
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Many of the people who have expressed these sentiments in America aren’t neo-Nazis, or card-carrying Klan members, or Islamist extremists. They are in many cases people that most liberal Jewish Americans felt previously were their ideological fellow travelers.
Not long ago, many of us marched together for black and brown lives, we stood against anti-Asian hatred, we protested bigotry against the LGBTQ community, we fought for reproductive justice out of the recognition that injustice against one oppressed group is injustice against all.
But apparently, in the eyes of some, that principle does not extend to the Jewish people.
Schumer even made a thinly veiled critique of our nation’s education by noting that young people — who generally vote Democrat, I should add — are ignorant of history.
“For Jewish people all across the world, the history of our trauma going back many generations is central to any discussion about our future,” he said. “Too many Americans, especially in our younger generation, don’t have a full understanding of this history.”
Last month, a Harvard CAPS / Harris Poll found that while most Americans support Israel, older generations were far more likely to side with Israel than younger generations. Whether Schumer realizes the role our education system plays in that disparity, I cannot say, but the fact that he acknowledged how ignorant younger generations are is a solid first step.
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Unfortunately, while Schumer admitted that anti-Semitism is a growing cancer on the political left, he didn’t acknowledge or allude to the anti-Semitic members of his party currently serving in Congress. This calls into question whether Democrats will do anything about the problem.
Today, I’m giving a major address on the Senate floor on the dangerous and disturbing rise of antisemitism in America.
Watch live: https://t.co/SeHnGFJdLq
— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) November 29, 2023