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Jan 17, 2022Liked by Nellie Bowles

When the anti-semitism comes from the right, it is recognized as a pathology. When it is unleashed by the left, it is deemed a consequences of a grievance and thus possesses some legitimacy. The left has control of most of our cultural institutions and thus more potential to inflict lasting harm on Jewish society and on American Jews

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People are so afraid of being called a racist that they will remain silent if the perpetrator is non-white across the board. If you scroll Left Twitter you will see zero coverage of crime in NYC or Chicago or anywhere else. As if it doesn't exist at all. But if you scroll Right Twitter it's everywhere. It is strange to see such a radical disconnect.

Have you noticed, for instance, the lack of concern for what is happening to not just women and girls Afghanistan but they're facing a massive humanitarian crisis? The same side that supposedly cares about social justice has gone completely quiet, perhaps because on some level they think it is somehow racist to criticize the Taliban or even Biden for his catastrophic withdrawal. It seems that our media and our community on the left really only cares, or will invest themselves in a tragic situation, if it confirms their world view of oppressor and oppressed.

There is a lot of anti-Israel hatred among young people now because of this binary philosophy of who is good and who is bad based on skin color.

It's hard to put ourselves in the mindset of the Germans in the 1930s. They did not see themselves as bad people. They saw, and were conditioned to believe, that the Jews were bad people. Dehumanization is never a good thing for our species. Never. Whether it's migrants or Jews or even Trump supporters. It is always the thing we should fear the most and pay close attention to when it creeps into our collective mindset.

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Jan 17, 2022Liked by Nellie Bowles

I am a Christian and this whole episode, and the elite reaction to it, chills me for three reasons:

1) Many in elite circles view identity as more import than behavior. Wrong can be right depending on the person’s immutable characteristics. 2) Rights, religious or otherwise, are subservient to the ‘correct’ ideology. 3) Respect for individual life and liberty, a brilliant hallmark of America’s founding, is crumbling.

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Jan 17, 2022·edited Jan 17, 2022Liked by Nellie Bowles

No one can argue with this essay. I have discussed this issue with my (Jewish) husband over dinner many evenings. However, few if any Jews speak out against the virulent anti-Semitism coming from The Left today. The Democrat Congress even refused to censure Rep, Ilhan Omar for her continual stream of hateful anti-Semitic slurs. Nancy Pelosi even covered for her saying, “Omar didn’t realize herself what she was saying”!? And the Jewish community remained silent. Go figure.

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Jan 17, 2022Liked by Nellie Bowles

"What seems to matter most to media pundits and politicians is not the Jews themselves, but the identities of their attackers."

There seems to be a strong implication in the government officials' statements, as reported in the WSJ, that because it seems the hostage-taker was not entirely mentally competent, we should assume he *randomly* chose a synagogue on the Sabbath for his insane attempt to free a convicted terrorist. It's just a coincidence that he didn't target an HEB or a Dairy Queen.

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founding
Jan 17, 2022Liked by Nellie Bowles

Thank you Bari for coverage and context. My wife and I watched in horror Saturday to the conclusion of this atrocity, and watched in vain throughout Sunday for adequate journalism in the aftermath. I told her “Bari Weiss will have something soon.” Thanks too for your update late Saturday with information the press was not reporting, in tense late hours of the standoff.

You are helping to move the national discussion. YK

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It's become pretty obvious that under the anti-racist dogma, antisemitism that's not expressed by "white supremacists" is considered nothing more than an expression of grievance and not a pathology. What's more, it seems that concern about such antisemitism is somehow a form of racism itself.

America 2022

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Unfortunately, many Jews vote for the Democratic politicians who encourage many of the anti-Semites in this country and accept their support. It is about time that Jews who instinctively and mindlessly vote Democratic realize that today's Democratic Party is not their grandparents' Democratic Party. The Irish and Italians realized it generations ago. No one in my family has voted Democratic since 1936.

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An Asian woman was just pushed in front of a subway train in New York. Only in the New York Post have I found an indication of the killer's ethnic association -- a Black man with a history of mental illness. If this had been perpetrated by a White Oath-Keepers type, it would be the subject of wall-to-wall coverage for the rest of this week, and every major media outlet would assign reporters to find some connection to Trump and Jan. 6. These stories all must be bent to advance The Narrative.

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Biden: "I don't think there is sufficient information to know why he targeted that synagogue why he insisted on the release of someone who's been in prison for over 10 years... why he was using anti-Semitic & anti-Israeli comments."

When you elect a senile imbecile, bad things happen. When you excuse anti-Semitism because of the race or religion of the anti-Semite, even worse things happen. Why are we afraid to stand up for the America we all grew up in? We know that America was, and can be again, a place of goodness and tolerance and opportunity. But only if we fight for her and reject the vile division and politics of envy and hate that Biden and his party and their media toadies push on us every day.

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2020 FBI data: Jews were the victims of 55% of all religious based hate crimes. They also account for 2% of the population. Let that sink in next time some pearl clutcher warns of anti-islamic blow-back.

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founding

As we know, society operates on ‘white supremacy’. This is because whites have outsized power in our institutions and as merchants and bankers…..stop me if you’ve heard this before.

This has happened because the primary loyalty of whites is towards other whites. They like America but it’s a sort of dual loyalty and as a result they have accumulated resources and hypnotized the world with the money and power they hoard only for themselves……stop me if you’ve heard this before.

My favorite commentator, John Podhoretz, has noted a few times that his grandfather would have been shocked to find that his grandchildren are now considered whites.

In my opinion it is noteworthy that Jewish people being considered whites coincides with ‘white supremacy’ being the sickness that plagues society and the primary threat.

BLM is sponsored by Nike, Apple, Goldman Sachs, the public health apparatus, and The Party (Democrats). Joe Biden said the word “middlemen” at least three times in his most recent statement on inflation.

The point of being paranoid is to stop it from getting to the point where it’s too late to be paranoid.

The real threat, and we can argue about the severity, is coming from ONE direction. Say what you will about Trump but his stance on Israel obviously would not have flown if Trump supporters were the threat.

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Jan 17, 2022·edited Jan 17, 2022

As a parent this is especially concerning to me because the left’s stance on this is what is being taught in our public schools. Identity politics on either extreme of the political spectrum claim Jews hide behind their whiteness to maintain privilege and control. It’s somehow OK for one side of that extreme to be taught to children. Our public school district has affinity groups, segregated peer mentor training and one convenient group that’s excluded - despite laws prohibiting that practice- are Jews. And somehow to question this as parents makes us white supremacists. It’s a dangerous turn that we need to stand up against. Thank you Bari for your willingness to do so.

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We have members of Congress who are openly antisemetic. They have not been sanctioned by Nancy Pelosi and they’ve not lost their committee assignments. As long as the leadership of this country allows these people to serve the public we will not end this scourge. Antisemitism is allowed in the government, in universities, in many public and private sectors and is not publicly ostracized enough. So this is what we get.

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Bari, I think that unfortunately your concerns are well founded. But please don't underestimate the deep reservoir of good will that exists toward American Jews by fellow citizens like me—an Irish Catholic of all things.

While it's true that anti-Semitism—one might call it humanity's ur-prejudice—exists on the Right, I think that nowadays the real danger emanates from the progressive Left. To verify that claim, one need look no farther than the toleration extended to the vile Ilan Omar, whose smirking Jew hatred is studiously overlooked by most of her fellow Democrats and most of the legacy media.

This refusal to acknowledge what is obvious is made easier by the replacement of crude and obscene anti-Semitism in the style of Julius Streicher with the pseudo-intellectual formulations of the postmodern Left: anti-Zionism, anti-colonialism, etc., etc. In a weird way, the establishment of the State of Israel has made anti-Semitism respectable again. Nowadays you can call Israel a fascist state, colonialism's last bastion; accuse the Jews of committing genocide against the Palestinian Arabs; accuse American Jews of harboring dual loyalties, etc.—all without feeling that you're a repulsive bigot. And if anybody calls you out you can always say: "Hey, what's wrong with criticizing Israel?"

There is a remedy, however, and that is to call out said bigotry where and when one can. You've provided a space where this can be done and believe me, many people are grateful for it.

On a somewhat lighter note, I find myself smiling at the idea of a good liberal like you, who in the past has probably looked askance at America's gun culture, contemplating the ownership of a firearm. Possibly you view it as an unfortunate but necessary concession to reality. But that's the wrong way to look at things. An armed citizen is an empowered citizen. If you do decide to take advantage of your Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms, just make sure you get the training you need to own and use firearms responsibly.

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founding
Jan 17, 2022·edited Jan 18, 2022

Can we not say the obvious? That the coverage of violence -- not just of Jews, but of just about every group -- has little to do with the victims and much to do with the identity of the perpetrators. When a white lunatic murders sex workers and states as his motivation that they were sex workers, we get a national campaign to #StopAsianHate. But when Asian Americans are assaulted in our cities in broad daylight, time and again, primarily by young black men, there's very little acknowledgement. The same goes for transgender persons, also routinely brutalized by young black men. And Hasidic Jews by... well, the same group. The common thread is that the violence against these minorities seems to be occurring in cities where a black, urban underclass exists side-by-side a non-black minority group that is perceived to be prospering. We do no favors to anyone, victims or perpetrators alike, in failing to grasp the commonality.

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