Gaslighting Jewish Communities About Anti-Semitism
About a fortnight before the British parliamentary elections, the Washington Post tweeted that Jeremy Corbyn, the leader of the British Labour party, faced allegations of anti-Semitism due to pro-Palestine activism. Within a few hours, the tweet was gone, and an apology was put up in its place. Despite the correction and apology, this incident highlights a problem recurring on the left and growing on the right, that when Jews call out anti-Semitism, others deliberately misrepresent the allegations to downplay the issue at hand. Contrary to popular belief, this is not contained to the comments section and social media. Our current political environment is one that collapses any distance between the public conversation and the rhetoric of our politicians, as one can see when the president makes policy statements on Twitter. That anti-Semitic rhetoric is increasingly present in papers of record and in the mouths of political leaders reflects an entire society’s deep-seated failure to treat the issue with the gravity it deserves.
In the United States and Europe, most Jews pin the rise of anti-Semitism mostly on the rise of the alt-right. White supremacists and other assorted far-right bigots are responsible for most of the violence against Jews in both the UK and the U.S. In the U.S., many Jewish-Americans point to Preisdent Trump as a catalyst, and Fox News, a major media empire, repeatedly invokes anti-Semitic conspiracy theories when discussing philanthropist George Soros. But anti-Semitism is not a partisan phenomenon, and, while less violent and less virulent, it is also present on the American left. Representative Ilhan Omar, for example, has taken heat for previous ill-advised anti-Semitic comments, and anti-Semitic activity on campus is well-documented. Allegations of anti-Semitism fractured the Women’s March, too. This is not to minimize the violence against Jews by the far-right, but neither does this allow Jews the luxury of avoiding addressing anti-Semitism that comes from other sources.
In both the UK and the U.S., Jewish people are on edge. The Anti-Defamation League logged a 57 percent rise in anti-Semitic incidents in the United States in 2017, compared to the previous year — including bomb threats, assaults, vandalism, and anti-Semitic posters and literature found on college campuses. The Community Security Trust logged a rise in anti-Semitic activity in the UK by a full 10 percent, and a record 46 percent jump online — a fact attributed in part to the ongoing scandal involving the Labour party.
How Labour got itself in hot water, thanks to Corbyn’s questionable choice of political allies and worse leadership as head of the party, resulting in a mass departure of Jewish MPs from the party and leaving Labour subject to investigation by Britain’s Equalities and Human Rights Commission, has been well covered. This whole mess has prompted the chief rabbi to make an unprecedented statement, urging people not to vote for Corbyn because of this fear. But instead of receiving understanding from their fellow citizens, some are falsely accusing British Jewry as being “pro-Brexit,” even though the majority are against it. The British left insists that the accusations of anti-Semitism are merely a “smear” to drag down the party rather than a legitimate concern, while others accuse British Jews wholsale of being Tories or supporting Islamophobia.
This is what makes the Washington Post’s tweet concerning. The paper simply declared that the issue stems from Corbyn’s pro-Palestine activism instead of Labour’s repeated failures to address Jewish safety in Britain. In other words, Jews are being constantly told they are wrong about their lived experiences. It is profoundly unsettling to be constantly told that you are wrong about something you’ve lived. To add insult to injury, the hypocrisy here is that progressives insist that minorities get to define what constitutes bigoted behavior and discrimination against them. But they don’t extend this courtesy to Jews.
The resulting scandal embroiling the British Labour party is at a fever pitch right as voters head to the polls. Most British Jewry feel stuck in the middle with no good choices. Similar to the Democratic party in the U.S., Labour has long been the party that attracted a large portion of British Jewry, and Rabbis allegedly used to joke that when young Jews attained their bnei mitzvah, when they take their place in the Jewish community as young adults, they’d be given lifelong membership in the Labour Party too. Those days are gone. In a poll released last month, a shocking mere 7 percent of British Jewry said they would consider voting for Labour, 87% said the party has become “too tolerant” of anti-Semitism, and 47% said they would consider emigrating outright if Corbyn won the election and became prime minister.
Yet, every time someone Jewish raises their voice about anti-Semitism, a predictable chorus of denial and downplaying rises from all over the political spectrum, and everyone seeks to politicize the sins of “the other side” instead of accepting that anti-Semitism, like all forms of bigotry, is a scourge on society, no matter who does it. As we have seen throughout history, when the world is in bad shape, it is inevitable that someone will blame the Jews for it. Left unaddressed, this will rot society and prove toxic to democracy, not because Jews are so important, but because normalizing hatred against Jews is a major step towards normalizing bigotry and oppression against other people, too.
This problem is not contained to the UK. For so long, America was seen as a safe haven par excellance for Jews, arguably safer than Israel, where parts of the country are under constant rocket attack, and the threat of war remains omnipresent. But since the 2016 elections, anti-Semitic hate has exploded both online, particularly in unregulated forums and image boards, and on the streets. Polling shows that anti-Semitic sentiment has not appreciably increased in the U.S.A, even as anti-Semitic violence continues to climb. This discrepency is due to the the bigoted minority finding that previously censured rhetoric and behaviour is increasingly normalized — and this is reflected back into our political discourse and our elected officials.
In the runup to the 2018 midterm elections, Congressman Matt Gaetz engaged in the anti-Semitic conspiracy theory that George Soros was giving migrant caravans money to come to the U.S. He also made headlines when he invited known Holocaust denier Chuck Johnson to the State of the Union Address as his special guest. When criticized, Gaetz defended Johnson’s noxious views. Gaetz has also appeared on Alex Jones’s show, who has made his name engaging in all sorts of far-right conspiracies, including anti-Semitic ones.
Steve King is another infamous white nationalist and anti-Semite who retains his position in the House. Last year, King extended his European Holocaust education tour, paid by a Holocaust memorial organization, to meet with far-right anti-Semitic groups. He also wanted to stay longer to understand “the Polish perspective,” an allusion to his support for fellow Holocaust revisionists on the rise in eastern Europe.
There are no shortage of examples of the far-right engaging in anti-Semitism. But the problem also manifests on the left. Congresswomen Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar have accused American Jews of dual loyalty. Some college campuses have become rhetorical battlegrounds, making campus life for Jewish students excruciating. This isn’t a partisan problem.
But perhaps the worst is the anti-Semitic rhetoric that comes from the highest office in the land, the President of the United Sates. Every time President Trump engages in anti-Semitism, including when he defends violent white supremacists, he hides behind his support for Israel and projects the worst of his sentiments onto his political opponents in the Democratic party, further politicizing the issue. When he tells American Jews that Benjamin Netanyahu is “your prime minister” and tells them that Israel is “your country,” he reinforces the bigoted notion that Jews are forever a nation apart, rather than citizens of the country they are in. He has made formerly fringe rhetoric the standard in American politics. Will Jeremy Corbyn do the same to British Jewry?
It is psychologically easy, even comforting, to fixate only on the mistakes of your political opponent, but it is a terrible strategy. We do not have the moral or political luxury of ignoring bigotry in any facet of our society. If you denounce anti-Semitism — or any other form of bigotry — only when politically convenient, you’re not just failing a moral standard. You’re making things worse. That’s the position Jews are facing across the U.S., U.K., and the rest of Europe. We not only are witnessing a rising tide of violence against our communities, we also face a deafening chorus of gaslighting from the far-right and the far-left about it, thereby crippling the strong community response we need in the process.
