Black Anti-Semitism

2018 saw a rising tide of black anti-Semitism. James Kirchick explains it well in a Commentary article, and the subject deserves the serious attention he gives it.

Both blacks and Jews are important parts of the Democratic Party coalition. Barack Obama could not have been elected president without Jewish support, not so much in terms of ballots cast, but in terms of financial and intellectual support.

Liberal Jews happily overlooked Obama’s association with Jeremiah Wright and even Louis Farrakhan because… well, just because. They had always supported civil rights and had bought the narrative that we needed to have more social justice. Liberal idealism trumps all. Besides, supporting the civil rights movement made them feel especially virtuous and principled. Precisely why they were willing to support a president who sold out Israeli and even American interests is a mystery wrapped in an enigma.

They turned a blind eye toward Obama's association with notable anti-Semites... for reasons that defy reason. And they allowed it to fester for eight years. Not, it's showing its ugly face and making Obama's Jewish supporters look like enablers.

One awaits the uproar over white Jewish privilege. The point is not facetious. If Jews count among the more successful ethnic groups in America, other, less successful groups ought to emulate their example. Nowadays less successful groups ought to emulate the example of Asian Americans—the new Jews, if you will.

The choice is between emulating and deconstructing. If you do not emulate those who do better, you will be following the failed policy adopted by Palestinian terrorists: if you can’t build anything yourself, tear down what others have built. Terrorize them so much that they become so guilt ridden that they can no longer function. The success of Israel is an active and ongoing repudiation of this absurd and appalling policy.

As happens in the Middle East, Jews are the solution, not the problem. But, of course, the Obama administration acted as though Jews, especially Israeli Jews, were the problem in the Middle East. For that gesture of overt anti-Semitism Obama received the vast majority of Jewish votes.

Kirchick explains at length that it makes no difference if blacks support Louis Farrakhan because Louis Farrakhan is a nobody, with no power or consequences. If anyone were to say of blacks or Muslims what Farrakhan says about Jews, he will instantly be shunned from the media and polite society. But blacks and Jews alike tend to give Farrakhan a pass.

Kirchick opens his essay:

The year 2018 has thus far been toxic for black-Jewish relations. In February, Women’s March co-president Tamika Mallory attended the Nation of Islam’s (NOI) annual “Saviours’ Day” gathering, where sect leader Louis Farrakhan delivered a characteristic anti-Semitic tirade. “When you want something in this world, the Jew holds the door,” Farrakhan declared. “White folks are going down, and Satan is going down, and Farrakhan by God’s grace has pulled the cover off of that Satanic Jew—and I’m here to say, your time is up.” For good measure, Farrakhan also claimed that Jews control the FBI as well as Mexico, and he repeated a relatively new conspiracy theory, the “Pot Plot,” alleging that Jews promote homosexuality among black men through the distribution of a special form of marijuana.

As he continues, I was struck by this note:

While some black leaders and writers criticized Mallory, her stubbornness found support in high places. “Now you work with people all the time with whom you disagree,” said Valerie Jarrett, former senior adviser to President Barack Obama, to the ladies of The View. Jarrett spoke as if America’s foremost anti-Semite were just some recalcitrant House Republican in need of a stern, Oval Office arm-twist. To this day, Mallory (along with her Women’s March sisters-in-arms Linda Sarsour and Carmen Perez) proudly considers Farrakhan an ally, and there is no indication that she or the organization she leads has suffered serious reputational damage because of her association with him. 

Now Valerie Jarrett is not just anyone. She was a close adviser to President Obama. That she can rationalize supporting Louis Farrakhan tells us more than we wanted to know about the Obama administration’s attitude toward Jews. It tells us that it was not an accident that Obama was willing to fund Iranian terrorism, terrorism that would primarily be directed against the state of Israel. It was not an accident that Obama was willing to submit to Iran and to give it eventual access to nuclear weapons… when Iran wanted to use such weapons to annihilate Jews.

And yet, American Jews supported the Obama presidency to the death. They have been up in arms at the Trump presidency for overturning the Obama legacy, for walking away from the Iran nuclear deal. They hate Trump with a white hot rage, even though half his family is Jewish, even though he has just moved the American embassy to Jerusalem and even though he actively supports Israel. (Witness Nikki Haley at the UN.) There is no effective comparison between the Obama and Trump administrations when it comes to Israel… and yet American Jews despise Donald Trump.

Kirchick continues:

Even among those conservatives and Republicans opposed to Trump, Jewish writers, intellectuals, and philanthropists are vastly overrepresented, a point that has not gone unnoticed by the president’s white-supremacist backers.^**Prior to the rise of Trump, Jewish voters overwhelmingly gave their money and support to Barack Obama, the nation’s first black president, in both of his campaigns. While his administration’s policies toward Israel and his Iranian nuclear agreement may have divided the Jewish community internally, opposition to the latter waged by much of organized Jewry did not result in serious conflict with American blacks.

So, blacks despise Donald Trump. And yet, they ought to be asking themselves how well their communities were doing during the Obama presidency and how well they have been doing—in terms of unemployment—under the Trump presidency. Jews have noted that some of Trump’s support comes from white nationalists, but compared to the Obama record… what terrible things have white nationalists done lately. True enough, some anti-Semitic  groups have arisen in Western Europe of late, but they are a reaction to the immigration policies promoted by Angela Merkel and other bien pensant elites.

Jews are joining in a crusade against white people, and especially against white privilege, while the most important promoters of anti-Semitism, most actively and most fervently, especially in Western Europe are Muslims. Whereas Donald Trump has dared to speak ill of Muslim anti-Semitism, Barack Obama wanted to fight the good fight against Islamophobia. If you do not see that he was thereby accepting anti-Semitism you need to have your vision checked.

As we have often noted, Donald Trump has far better relations with Israel than did Barack Obama. But he also has far better relations with Sunni Arab states… states that despised Obama’s tilt toward Shia Islam. Obama was projecting weakness and nations to not respect weak leaders.

It is fascinating to see liberal American Jews embracing anti-Semites or, at best, ignoring their bigotry. They seem to be willing to join the march against white privilege, even though they are among the most privileged white people. It would be comic if it were not appalling. Cognitive dissonance, anyone?