Anti-Zionist anti-Semitism is not new. It did not start on Oct. 7, 2023. It had been brewing and growing in international and European circles. Working on a presentation I’m giving to the Jewish War Veterans on May 17, I came across statements made in 2015 by German leaders:
“The past is not over . . . It’s not even in the past,” said Charlotte Knoblauch, a Holocaust survivor and then leader of the Jewish community of Bavaria.
“The root of the increased attacks on Jewish institutions, as well as on Charlie Hebdo is murderous Islamic terrorism and anti-Semitism, the hatred of Jews,” said then-German Prime Minister Angela Merkel.
Germans must “not to close their eyes or ears to these attacks,” she warned, nor ignore the reality that identifiable Jews are today “molested, threatened and attacked.”
Today the root, as it always has been when it comes to anti-Semitism, is multi-pronged.
It seems many American Jews believed that anti-Zionist anti-Semitism would find no purchase on American soil. Even when random chasidic Jews were violently targeted by anti-Zionists during the prior Israel-Hamas conflict in 2021, not much was done on a Jewish institutional level.
But now it’s everywhere in this country — in the halls of power, those vying for power, and the social media morass.
Hassan Piker, darling of leftist political candidates in the vein of Zohran Mamdani, says he would vote for Hamas over Israel anytime. (When he said that, Hamas hadn’t held elections in 20 years, but Piker missed irony.) Piker supports Hezbollah, denies rape on Oct. 7 and fully supports acts of violence against whomever he defines as the oppressor.
These viewpoints are rapidly becoming part of the Democratic Socialists of America progressive platform in this country.
Public service announcement: Don’t be confused by the name. DSA has nothing in common with European-style Social Democracy; it is akin to anarcho-communism. It is up to Democrats to make sure the party isn’t taken over by this bloc, which rapidly looks like it’s in danger of happening.
When any political movement goes to an extreme, it’s never good for society, let alone for Jews.
Shana Goldberg may be reached at shana@ijn.com
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