Monday, October 29, 2018

Tolerance for Anti-Semitism Must End



Too often, hatred against Jews is disregarded as an almost archaic form of racism. The horrific massacre shooting at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life Synagogue is a tragic reminder that anti-Semitism is alive and well in the United States. 

As someone whose life was touched by the nation of Israel, the Tree of Life shooting, which cut eleven innocent lives short, tears at my heart. As a little girl growing up in Southern Lebanon, I was often taught that we would only have peace in the Middle East when all the Jews were killed and driven into the sea. I’ll never forget what I learned when I visited an Israeli hospital as a young girl, worried sick over injuries sustained by my mother when a mortar shell launched by Islamic terrorists hit our bomb shelter. As I looked around the hospital, I witnessed Jewish doctors actually treating terrorists that probably would’ve cut their throats had they not needed their help. The Israeli physicians and nurses treated everyone according to their injuries, not their religion. Had my mother been a Jew in an Arab hospital, she would’ve been thrown out to die, rather than saved. It was in this moment that I realized how appalling anti-Semitism can be. Right then and there, I realized that to hate anyone for their religious beliefs or their origin of birth is truly barbaric.

The same hatred which led Hitler to commit unthinkable genocide against innocent Jews still persists throughout the world and, tragically, here in the United States. Remarkably, despite being responsible for the most hate crimes, anti-Semitism seems to be one of the only forms of hatred and bigotry that is still tolerated by the mainstream media. It’s almost as if this hatred is seen as an ancient myth and in the most egregious circumstances, the mainstream press is actually propagating it.

Whether it’s CNN pundits repeating Hamas talking points when covering the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, or Nation of Islam’s favorite politician Keith Ellison getting a free pass on his anti-Semitism, or even anti-Semites like Linda Sarsour being held up as a virtuous symbol of diversity, the mainstream media simply does not view Jews as victims the way they do other groups.

Not surprisingly, soon after the deadliest anti-Semitic shooting in American history, the media blames, you guessed it, President Trump - arguably the most pro-Israel President in American history, who moved the U.S Embassy to Jerusalem despite media backlash, who also happens to have Jewish grandchildren born to a Jewish son-in-law working in his administration. Just when you think the media can’t go any lower both morally and intellectually, they manage to top themselves.

Not only is President Trump the most pro-Israel President in history, but the evil shooter who committed the massacre was vehemently anti-trump. In fact, the shooter once tweeted, “There is no #MAGA, as long as there is a k*** infestation.” An anti-Semitic shooter would only harbor such hatred toward President Trump because in addition to his heroic embassy move, President Trump cut off aid to terrorists of the Palestinian Authority, and has fought to dismantle the Obama administration’s Israeli death sentence - the disastrous Iran deal. Unlike our former "apologist-in-Chief," President Trump never hosted Islamic front groups at his doorstep, or referred to anti-Semitic attacks as “random” like Obama did.

President Trump never appeared onstage with Louis Farrakhan like Bill Clinton recently did, nor did he have an anti-Semite with terrorist ties like Linda Sarsour introduce him at a rally like Senator Kirsten Gillibrand recently did. Why? Because this President doesn’t aid and abet anti-Semitism the way the Democrat party does. Anti-Semitism shouldn’t have to be a right or left issue; it should be a human issue. 

Unfortunately, even things such as this have become politicized. The civilized world must band together in solidarity to ensure that people of all faiths can live in peace and harmony and that Jews are never persecuted and victimized by barbaric, murderous ideologies ever again. To allow anti-semitism to continue to exist unchecked in the 21st century destroys a piece of everyone’s humanity. There is simply no room for such hatred in the world.

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