The New “Normalized” Anti-Semitism

Dear Editor:

A new and vicious antisemitism is now normal among most young Americans. Conversations praising Hitler and joking about the “so-called” Holocaust are all over X, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok. Most Jews of my “Boomer” generation are clueless.

We grew up in an America where it was normal for Jews to live safe and comfortable lives. We laughed at Adam Sandler’s Hanukkah Song because it seemed like almost everyone in public life had a Jewish connection. American Jews generously funded the ADL, AIPAC and countless Jewish Federations and other organizations to protect Jews and fight antisemitism.

What happened?

The short answer is that America today is no longer the “goldene medina” (golden land) it was for us Boomers, our parents and grandparents. It is now more like the “Old Country” that our parents and grandparents escaped from.

To make things worse, the “best and brightest” of American Jews openly and loudly promoted and cheered that “fundamental transformation”.

We need to talk. We cannot blame Netanyahu. We saw this antisemitism on October 8, 2023. That was months before Israel attacked Gaza.

We cannot blame “white supremacists” or the “far right”. For years, most hatred and deadly attacks against Jews came from Blacks, Muslims, and “woke” activists on the left.

In 1995, Benzion Netanyahu, the father of Israel’s Prime Minister, wrote a 1,400-page book about the Inquisition in 15th Century Spain. It describes how its Jews were once as successful and comfortable as we were in the United States. It explains how Jewish elites, not the Catholic church, created most of the antisemitism that killed thousands of them and forced the others to leave or convert.

It would take another 1400 pages to describe in detail how Jewish elites created similar hatred against Jews in America. However, I can start the discussion by just mentioning these seven examples:

1. Openly and proudly supported socialist and left-wing causes and politicians. This included “Diversity Equity and Inclusion” programs and the transgender madness that put men into women’s sports.
2. Attacked and ridiculed Christian and American values and traditions in the media, Hollywood and TV pop culture and in schools and colleges.
3. Openly supported, defended and advised politicians who got rich and powerful from massive government spending, debt, bureaucracies, and Wall Street bailouts that crushed the middle class.
4. Falsely accused Bible-based Christians who supported and defended Jews and Israel of being “far-right” and “white-supremacists”.
5. Taught a narrative that falsely blamed irrational “hate” and the “far-right” for the Holocaust while avoiding the obvious cause – National Socialism. (Read the book by Goetz Aly called Why the Germans, Why the Jews?).
6. Openly and proudly supported massive legal and immigration to America of Muslims and others with cultures that hate Christians and Jews and basic American values.
7. Reached out to Muslims while snubbing Hindus and Christians whose families were persecuted and murdered by Muslims in Africa and Bangladesh.

For the past fifty years, American Jewish leaders enabled and supported our worst enemies. At the same time, they insulted and attacked our best friends. Now we are hated by both sides. We need to talk.

Sincerely
Seth Grossman
Atlantic City, NJ

Qatar’s Long Push for Soft Power

Dear Editor:

Qatar is the fox in the hen house. It is friends with America. At the same time, it is undermining America. It funded Hamas, yet forced it to accept the American cease-fire. It is a key player in Trump’s 2025 Peace plan with much of the Islamic world, and is also the main backer of Zohar Mamdani, the anti-American Jihadi who will likely be the next mayor of New York. The Mamdani family is closely linked to the Qatari royal family which was implicated in the first World Trade Center bombing in 1993.

The Moslem Brotherhood is assaulting our democracies. It uses antisemitism to fragment the fabric of societies, a technique employed by Hitler as he stormed across Europe. Qatar is the Brotherhood’s epicenter. It has unlimited funds to spread around, influencing politicians, business people and NGOs. It spent 100 billion dollars on America’s Ivy League, buying chairs of learning and indoctrinating our future leaders with anti-Infidel, anti-American ideology and the Palestine hoax, which was invented by the Soviet KGB and Egypt in 1964. Palestinianism’s only function is the negation of Israeli sovereignty.

Qatar is dangerous. President Trump must be vigilant, but he has only three more years in power. Will his successor and our feeble Western partners manage to keep the Islamists at bay?

Sincerely
Len Bennett, Author of ‘Unfinished Work’
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

Thomas Friedman Whitewashes a Sex Predator–Again

Dear Editor:

There are plenty of Israeli journalists who would be glad to be quoted in the New York Times. So why does the Times’ foreign affairs columnist, Thomas Friedman, keep choosing the one who is an admitted sexual predator?

Back in June, I wrote about Friedman’s troubling attempt to rehabilitate Ari Shavit, by featuring quotations from him without mentioning Shavit’s record of sexual harassment. This week, Friedman did it again.

In his October 15 column in the Times, Friedman quoted “the Israeli writer Ari Shavit.” Naturally, Shavit’s quotes aligned perfectly with Friedman’s latest denunciation of Israel.

Shavit used to write for the newspaper Ha’aretz—until it fired him in 2017 after he admitted sexually harassing and molesting numerous Israeli and American women, including a staff writer for the Jewish Journal of Los Angeles and several staff members of J Street.

Shavit tried to weasel out of responsibility for his actions by claiming his sexual aggression was “misconstrued” by the women, and that his behavior consisted of “flirtations” and “misunderstandings.” In one instance, he even accused his victim of perpetrating a “blood libel” against him.

For Thomas Friedman to continue treating Shavit as if nothing happened is like the New York Times now inviting Harvey Weinstein to write movie reviews, or asking Steven M. Cohen for his thoughts on matters of Jewish demography (as it often did, years ago—until Cohen admitted harassing and molesting numerous women).

Sex abusers should not enjoy this kind of de facto rehabilitation after a brief period out of the limelight, if they have not provided a full public accounting of their actions, publicly and explicitly apologized for what they did, and made restitution to their victims. Shavit has done none of that.

So again, I ask: with so many other commentators on Israeli affairs available to quote—commentators who do not have track records of predatory sexual misconduct—why does Friedman keep turning to Shavit?

Sincerely
Prof. Rafael Medoff