Senator Brian Schatz Calls on Fellow Progressives to Fight Anti-Semitism Within Their Ranks, Not Just On The Right
As someone who reports regularly on anti-Semitism across the globe and the political spectrum, one of the most frustrating parts of my job is seeing how anti-Jewish bigotry is constantly dismissed as the perpetual sin of other people. That is, while many individuals are happy to oppose and expose anti-Semitism among their ideological opponents, they balk at confronting it among their allies. Invariably, when faced with evidence of anti-Jewish hate on their side, partisans will insist that the other side is worse, as though this is a relevant retort rather than an evasion.
We’ve seen this unfortunate pattern play out repeatedly in recent days, whether it has been progressives dismissing the anti-Semitism of Louis Farrakhan and his Women’s March fans by gesturing to Trump and the alt-right, or conservatives waving off Trump’s apologias for neo-Nazis by pointing to leftist critics of Israel who lapse into anti-Semitism. In reality, the only people who win this fight over which group or political faction is “more anti-Semitic” are the actual anti-Semites, who keep on spreading their hate while their would-be opponents instead point fingers at each other.