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The Latest Attack on Jews in the US
As the crowds scream their hatred at Israel and Jews at or near the universities, and support for the Hamas terrorists, the tensions between Jews and non-Jews in this country continue to grow. The practice of anti-Semitism to such an extreme degree is new for Jews, and we don’t know what it means for our future. As if those protests weren’t concerning enough, the Boycott, Divest and Sanction (BDS) practice is raising its ugly head:
The BDS movement was formed by the League of Arab States in the mid-1940s. It barred trade with Israel and encouraged boycotting groups that still chose to do business with Israel.
In 1977, the U.S. Congress passed anti-boycott legislation that prohibited American citizens or businesses from refusing to do business with Israel at the request of other foreign governments.
The U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights lauds the inroads they have made with BDS in various segments of society.
Over time, allegiance to the movement showed up in fits and starts, but now we may be seeing its reappearance. Its intention is not only to punish Israel, but people, particularly Jews who do business with Israel are the latest target of a boycott:
On Oct. 30, the Philly Palestine Coalition posted on Instagram urging its 15,000 followers to boycott Philadelphia restaurants that are ‘owned by Zionists,’ serve Israeli food, raise money for Israel, or are owned by Philadelphia-based Starr Restaurants.
Among the restaurants on the list is South Philadelphia’s Essen Bakery. Owner Tova du Plessis is Jewish but not Israeli. The coalition says it is targeting her because of an Instagram post she wrote on Oct. 9: ‘I stand by Israel’s right to exist, to be a home for all Jewish people, to defend herself.’
Philadelphia officials are keeping their distance:
What do Philadelphia officials have to say about this anti-Semitic campaign? Very little. Mayor Jim Kenney refused to condemn the boycott, saying in an email that the city’s priority is to ‘consider and care for every community in our region that may be experiencing pain and uncertainty due to this conflict.’ City Councilman Anthony Phillips offered a similar dodge. ‘In Philly, food is not political or geopolitical,’ he said in a text message. ‘Some like cheesesteaks from Dalessandro’s and others like them from Max’s!’
Most of the other city council members have refused to comment.
The reactions to these boycotts should tell us whether people are prepared to support Hamas or support Israel. Will people continue to frequent these and other places of business? Will small business owners have to not only suffer rejection by customers and loss of income, but more violent reactions from those who feel obligated to punish the supporters of Israel?
Will this be a one-off action by a group that supports Palestinians or will other cities take their lead? Will customers ignore the calls for boycott or feel the pressure to shop somewhere else?
Kristallnacht, anyone?
Published in Culture
It sickens me.
Me, too.
It is quite clear that the Democrat party is are now Jew Haters. They always have been really, if you think about it. The Democrats have always been the party of racism. The party of Jim Crow. The Party of Slavery.
If I were a Jew I would be very afraid of a social credit system in the West. (I am not a Jew but I am afraid of one.) With the flick of a switch masses of people can be immiserated to the point of despair and death. The German Nazis could only dream of such power to afflict their enemies.
BDS= Being Damnably Stupid
Meanwhile:
Cowboys Arrive in Israel
You’ll find this interesting from ACLU attorney B. Hauss:
It it *not* ‘tensions between Jews and non-Jews in this country’ as a general matter; rather, it is hostility toward Jews from a coalition of American ‘progressives’ on the one hand and immigrants from historically anti-Semitic countries on the other. Most Americans are not anti-Semitic. (Nor are they out for the blood of Muslims, as the Democrats seem to believe)
And regarding the first category, as I just noted in a comment at X:
“Much current anti-Semitism is different from the traditional kind. While Jews were once disliked because the were too *different* from the overall society, they are not denounced because they *exemplify* things that the ‘progressives’ despise about their own societies.”
The people in the first category are generally under 30, typically under 25, and a whole lot of them are college students. The problem we face is to keep their toxic beliefs from infesting the entire society, especially as they get older and sometimes move into influential positions.
I love both, Hartmann! Especially the cowboys. Some people are forgetting that there is no one to do the real work in Israel because they’re soldiering, whether it’s running businesses, working at corporations or farming the soil. That is wonderful!
I believe almost all that you say, David, but I’m not sure anymore about the sentence I copied above. Maybe it was just latent.
Years ago, three of us were having lunch in Santa Clara. Co-workers in various stages of exiting the company. One had taken the Voluntary Severance Program. I was deciding if I could take an early exit, and the third was just catching up on what we’d been up to. He was the only Jew at the table. He made a comment, seemed embarrassed, and said, “Normally, I wouldn’t say that around anyone who is not in the tribe, but I’m among friends here . . . at least, I think I am.” I let that last comment slide, though I wondered why he would question whether he was among friends. Certainly he was “among friends”. Today, sadly, I can see why such a question might come up.
FWIW, he has two granddaughters in the IDF, both in what he called “combat units”. So far, they are unharmed.
BTW, his sense of humor is as sharp and dark as ever. Couple of days ago, he sent this: Jewish communities were told to set their clocks back last night. To 1938.
Most Americans are not.
What you see are leftists who are. Remember they punch above their weight
I want to agree with David, but the past month has shaken me (and I’m not Jewish). I think a lot of people are gleefully ripping off the masks, and it’s what we see on social media. But is it most? I hope not. G-d help us if it is.
“Buy guns and ammo.” – Kurt Schlichter, Colonel, US Army (Retired)
He’s right.
I think most are not, but the number who are has grown to alarming proportions. It’s enough to give great cause for concern.
I was telling CTlaw that,
“Most rednecks in Idaho aren’t antisemitic. A minority of them are but most just want to drink whiskey and be left alone.”
If Idaho rednecks aren’t all that antisemitic. I can’t imagine most Americans are. But there is a very big overlap between people who don’t want to leave other people alone and antisemitism.
Well said.
They make noise louder than their numbers.
Most of ’em can’t make a fist.
You don’t see the majority of us out in the street, because we are working. By the vast majority are not anti-Semitic; on the contrary.
We have to wonder how much the numbers matter. Everyone is guessing.
https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/antisemitism/article-772043
This is not a new phenomenon in this country. I was teaching in Ocean Hill-Brownsville in 1968 when the local school board for a decentralized district formed around a middle school, IS-271, decided to fire all of the teachers under their hegemony. The vast majority of those teachers were, of course, Jewish. This set off a strike throughout the whole New York City school system which lasted ten weeks. The school I was assigned to at the time was outside of the decentralized district, but it was only one block away from IS-271.
1968 was my second year in that school, and it was very difficult to not hear the anti-white, and, specifically, any Jewish comments often repeated by the children in my classes. These were elementary school kids who were repeating the things that they had heard their parent say. They, of course, had no idea of what Jew was or who was or wasn’t Jewish. However, they had heard things said at home and on the street, and they parroted what they heard. It wasn’t pretty.
All in all, it was a pretty awful year. Besides the strike there was the assassination of Martin Luther King, and a show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art called Harlem on my Mind. The show was actually quite interesting, but the book published for the show contained what was clearly one of the most anti-semitic tracts ever I have ever read. It was a clear statement of black antisemitism, and it was decried as such, and largely “excused.”
Through my long career in which I taught in schools with predominantly to largely black populations I saw how deeply engrained antisemitism was in the black community, whether in New York or Seattle. There wasn’t much difference. I had seen the same in white neighborhoods. I grew up in Forest Hills Gardens, a very white upper middle class neighborhood. The Westside Tennis Club around which the neighborhood was built did not allow Jews to join. The New York Athletic Club had the same policy, as did the Washington Athletic Club until 1969 when it was forced to admit its first Jewish member by a law firm whose newest member was originally denied membership. He happened to be a friend of mine, so I heard the full story.
Perhaps the street demonstrations are a new phenomenon, but antisemitism certainly isn’t. It sort of reminds me of a saying I read years ago, “You haven’t converted a man just because you have silenced him.” There are a lot of the uncoverted who are now unmasking because they think it is safe to do so, and it aint pretty!
Oh, ctlaw. That’s awful. But not surprising in Britain. So disappointing. Thanks for letting us know.
A number of people on this post have made the statement, most Americans aren’t anti-Semitic, and I want to believe them. But that comment raises so many questions, Eugene. Like how many Americans being anti-Semitic would raise concerns? What if they are passive anti-Semites now, but might be aroused to act later? Unless a person makes anti-Semitic comments or takes actions against Jews, how would any of us know? I’m really trying not to be paranoid, but it’s getting harder to stay objective.
What is more symbolic of America than a cowboy? I like the look.
Funny. I always thought it meant Bondage, Discipline and Sadism. (Masochists are always the odd man out.)
But what you wrote is fine.
Hope from Powerline
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2023/11/americans-are-on-israels-side.php
Thanks, Bryan. I’m feeling a little encouraged.
Susan, I think that ultimately it doesn’t matter whether they like Jews or not, so long as they take no action against Jews, and very few would. They are more often simply indifferent, would simply prefer to not have Jews among their friends. They used to make the occasional stupid comment, like how someone “Jewed someone down”. For the most part those people are harmless. I found that the real active antisemitism is in the black community, and largely among the rising members. They want an enemy that they can point to and use. We have seen in often in the BLM movement. Jews are an easier target than just “whites” largely because of the low grade pervasive antisemitism. I don’t see NAZI Germany in the future, nor do I see a return to some of the nasty stuff that was prevalent in the ’50s and ’60s where Jews were redlined out of some neighborhoods or memberships. I just don’t see a lot of support happening, and I do hope it wakes up a lot of self-hating Jews who vote Democrat and consider themselves fully integrated and above being hated. I do think that there were a lot of that type in the 1930s who thought, It can’t happen to me. I say this as someone who has a Catholic mother and a Jewish father, but was raised as a Christian. I don’t think and I never have thought, at least since I read about the Inquisition and the NAZIs that my upbringing immunizes me from any genocidal movement. I definitely don’t believe that Jews and Israel can look to the Democrat party to remain supportive in a pinch. The Republicans are probably far more dependable, at least of the time being.
I have to add a comment. I received a note from my son this morning that had a link to a site with a map showing an allegedly proposed canal east of the Suez canal passing through parts of Gaza as best I can tell. The text talks about the desire of the Israelis to depopulate Gaza so that they can accomplish this. It was new for me. So I looked to see if any credible site had any mention of it. None was found, but a bunch of half-wit conspiracy sites did have some reference to it.
Unfortunately, my son went to Seattle Public Schools. He got a full dose of their leftist agenda. I tried to counteract that, but I have to admit that as close as we are, I was unable to fully overcome his leftist tendencies. The things he chooses to read tend to be leftist in origin, and I have stopped fighting it because it has only led to long periods of being incommunicado. I hope his awakening isn’t an effect of bumping up against reality painfully, but I fear that is the one thing that will wake him up. His mother was Jewish. He was raised as a Jew, but I am not sure how much he relates to that. It is very sad to see him, a really brilliant person, so oblivious to reality. I guess, as the old saying goes, he will have to be mugged before he truly sees the light.
Before October 7 and the demonstrations I would said, yes, there is antisemitism in the US but it isn’t a big problem. Now I am not so sure. It is one more (significant) sign that we are in trouble as a nation.