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Pbading the local reformist temple with my daughter this Shabbat, I felt a wave of fear that I have not felt since my life in Israel at the height of the Second Intifada. There were no specific threats, but the temple is prominent and outspoken in its liberalism – a prime target for another white supremacist, trumpist, and anti-Semitic attack.
And then I felt betrayed. The "dominant" American Jewish institutions, which are actually very much to the right of the American Jewish mainstream, have abandoned American Jews as a result of Pittsburgh. The Pittsburgh shooter was extremely clear about his intentions: he was a fanatic of anti-immigration immigration, enraged by the hysteria of the right on the so-called "migrant caravan" and the involvement of the Tree of Life synagogue at a pro-refugee event run by HIAS, the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society.
So what are American Jewish leaders doing in response? Blame the left.
Not only the "Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations," a coordinating group claiming to speak on behalf of the American Jewish community, failed to mention any of the root causes of the Pittsburgh mbadacre, but it also addressed issues that have not contributed to the least: the anti-Israeli leftist feeling.
In a statement, the COP called for "a standardized definition of anti-Semitism for all government agencies and universities". [which would include judging Israel by a ‘double-standard’], the adoption of anti-BDS legislation and increased efforts to combat anti-Semitism that is growing on university campuses across the country. "
It goes beyond the spirits. Again, the shooter was a right winger, a white nationalist and, although not being a supporter of Trump (as Trump is, according to him, insufficiently anti-Semitic), a creature of the same extreme marsh right which is the basis of the president. He did not say anything about Israel, Palestine or the BDS.
But the American Jewish establishment is not based on logic. It's based on money. And the money that finances it comes from the right – people like Sheldon Adelson, whose wife, Miriam, is now, unknowingly, sentenced to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Thanks to them, the American Jewish establishment lost its head. Pittsburgh now has something to do with 21-year-old campus activists protesting the bombing of Gaza. The non-violent Boycott-Divestment-Sanctions Movement is a form of anti-Semitism. And it is forbidden for anyone to have anything to do with them to receive a penny of Jewish communal funding or to gather in Jewish common spaces (especially on campus).
Even J Street, the reputed Zionist organization, "pro-Israel, pro-peace," has been denied a seat at the so-called presidents' conference because of the pressure exerted by the right.
Indeed, once Shabbat came to an end and I saw the news online, it was as if Trump had spat in my face. It's the family that has distorted the American Jewish establishment more than any other family (although, of course, there are others). It is they who are responsible for this establishment that has not reacted to the worst mbadacre of Jews in American history. And now, one of them receives a medal.
Of course, the medal is probably more related to the Adelsons' $ 21 million donation to the Trump campaign (out of the $ 100 million initially pledged) and $ 30 million to the Republican "Congressional Leadership Fund". in 2018, rather than $ 200 million paid annually. But it was in the American Jewish world and in Israel that the Adelsons had the most lasting impact: they financed the Israeli right in numerous elections and turned the Jewish establishment into a nationalist, even fierce supporter of the right. Israeli.
Needless to say, the vast majority of Jews do not agree with the party line of the Jewish establishment. A recent poll showed that 72% hold Trump partly responsible for the Pittsburgh Mbadacre.
We should too. Trump lied about the "migrant caravan". It was Trump who lied about George Soros, the renowned Jewish philanthropist, who is sort of behind her. And it is Trump who has propagated conspiracy theories against the "coastal elites", Hollywood and the media – all of which are badociated, in an anti-Semitic fantasy, with the Jews.
More generally, when the president of the henchmen of the United States circulates a falsified video, created by a right-wing conspiracy trafficker, to discredit a member of the press, American Jews know that this type of mbadive deception and conspiratorial thought will end up hurting us.
How could he not? The same people who tampered with this video are also spreading lies about the Jews. And if there is no more truth, if the conspiracies are true and the free press is the enemy of the people, why not believe in the Protocols of the Sages of Zion, in the Bloomberg-Soros-Yellen alliance or in any other what is overheated right plot that someone prepares next?
A rational response to this reality would involve repressing conspiracy practices, ensuring the safety of synagogues while training security guards not to marginalize Jews of color; fight and monitor hate online (rather than eliminating programs to do it, as Trump did);
But the Israeli right wing and the Jewish establishment have now united around a very different story. The day after the mbadacre, Israeli Ambbadador Ron Dermer said on MSNBC that "Simply saying that it is because of a person, this only comes on one side, that is to say. is not to understand the history of anti-Semitism or the reality of anti-Semitism. Antisemitism is one of the great strengths of college campuses. And these anti-Semites are not usually neo-Nazis on college campuses. They come from the radical left. "
It would be ridiculous if it were not offensive. No left campus has built a synagogue. No idea of "radical left" inspires an extreme right-wing racist.
And perhaps more importantly, the "anti-Semitism" mentioned by Ambbadador Dermer is not even anti-Semitism; It is the criticism of Israel which, among the nations of the world, receives every year 4.5 billion dollars of American aid and refuses to 6.4 million inhabitants the right to vote, to move freely or to choose your future in your own state. Israel is not chosen by anti-Semitic activists, as its apologists claim; he stands out for his shocking actions during half a century of occupation, alone among American allies, not to mention recipients of US foreign aid. Campus activists, many of whom are Jewish, react to this reality.
Thanks to people like Sheldon and Miriam Adelson, the American Jewish establishment no longer speaks for American Jews. With a few exceptions, the establishment as a whole has lost all semblance of credibility and legitimacy in recent years. It is an instrument of the Jewish-Israeli nationalist right, unable to recognize the reality of anti-Semitism in 2018, even after the murder of innocent Jews.
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