FREE SPEECH DISPUTE REVEALS
CONTRADICTION IN ANTISEMITISM
Elon Musk’s liberation of Twitter has warmed the hearts of those who value freedom of speech.
It’s terrified those who fear open discussion, in particular open discussion of Biden Administration policies, election integrity, and other issues (not to mention Hunter’s laptop).
Charges are flying that — bereft of its former content-moderation practices and the hoard of woke operatives who implemented them — Twitter is becoming a wellspring of white supremacy, racism, misogyny, and every other frightening variety of hate and hostility. Especially antisemitism.
An article on Business Insider claims that “experts” report…
“antisemitic and racist slurs have skyrocketed on Twitter since [Musk’s] takeover….” And those “experts” have breathlessly issued a warning that “the hateful rhetoric will translate to real-world acts of violence.”
The Washington Post quotes Juliette Kayyem, former assistant secretary in the Obama Department of Homeland Security, who claims that open expression on Twitter…
“re-socializes the hate and rids society of the shaming that ought to occur regarding antisemitism.”
The Post also reports that the Network Contagion Research Institute…
“has been tracking various indicators that show antisemitism is on the rise, including fast-multiplying Twitter references to the New World Order, a bogus theory that features cosmopolitan elites, sometimes explicitly Jews, wrecking institutions and values in multiple nations to exert more control.”
God forbid anyone should bring up the “bogus” theory of the New World Order (otherwise referred to as The Great Reset).
I don’t doubt for a minute that antisemitism is on the rise. Things are becoming increasingly insecure for Jews, in the U.S. and Europe alike. But I also observe how handy a slander this charge has become in the world of politics.
It’s being turned against Elon Musk and Twitter, just as it’s been turned against Donald Trump, who’s regularly called an antisemite. You remember Trump; he’s the one with the daughter who married a Jewish guy and converted (that Jewish son-in-law then becoming one of The Donald’s closest advisors).
Not to mention how Trump moved the U.S.’s Israel embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, and has been Bibi Netanyahu’s staunchest supporter. (Contrast that with the attitude toward Israel exhibited by the current White House occupant.)
The truth is that, despite an ill-advised, and much criticized, meeting with the Jew-obsessed, bi-polar Kanye West and the Mexican-American provocateur (and Mussolini fan), Nick Fuentes, Trump is the State of Israel’s best friend.
Sorry, but the predominant center of antisemitism isn’t Twitter.
Rather, Jew hatred is most concentrated in the network of institutions, political factions, and organizations of the Left. British journalist Melanie Phillips has written that progressives, even progressive Jews, have dirty hands when it comes to antisemitism. Phillips notes that while Kanye West…
“draws upon the ideology of Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, who has spent decades vilifying the Jews as ‘satanic’ …. President Barack Obama had previously helped with Farrakhan’s organization, former President Bill Clinton shared a stage and a smiling handshake with him and the Democratic establishment has remained silent about his Jew-bashing.”
Moreover, “progressive Jews”…
“have themselves connived at the promotion of antisemitism. In particular, they have failed to condemn the ‘Squad’ of Jew-bashing congresswomen [that is, the AOC-Rashida Tlaib-Ilhan Omar-Ayanna Pressley circle].”
Phillips insists that…
“Antisemitism will still roar out of control because it’s being fueled by defamatory lies about Israel. It’s not just the hard-left but the softer ‘progressives’ who push this narrative, which is the cause of causes for Western liberals.”
That’s undeniably true — especially so in the academic world, which is the epicenter of the Divest-Boycott-Sanction (DBS) movement intended to penalize Israel for its alleged “aggression” and “apartheid.” Anti-Zionist feelings tend to shade over into a more generalized hostility toward Jews and Jewishness…
The atmosphere on many campuses is so prickly that antisemitism has become an important consideration for young Jews in selecting the schools to which they’ll apply. They must now factor in incidents such as one at Rutgers, where the University chancellor actually apologized for condemning attacks on Jews.
Of course, antisemitism can also be found in the woke corporate world. And it’s frighteningly present on the streets of our major cities, where it represents a greater and more immediate threat. Take New York, for instance, which has the largest Jewish population outside the State of Israel, and where The New York Times has reported that in 2018 there were…
“four times as many crimes motivated by bias against Jews … as there have [been] against blacks.”
And who’s behind this Jew-focused violence?…
“During the past 22 months, not one person caught or identified as the aggressor in an anti-Semitic hate crime has been associated with a far right-wing group….”
Leftists are shamefully hypocritical in raising the cry of antisemitism when it’s politically useful. But I should acknowledge that Jew-hatred isn’t the exclusive province of the Left.
Robert Gregory Bowers, who shot and killed 11 people at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life Synagogue was a right-winger, of sorts, the kind that sees white supremacists and neo-Nazis as Conservatives.
And in deference to those who tremble at the mention of Elon Musk, it must be said that free-speech social networks do tend to attract their share of paranoids and pissed-offs. All too often, I’ve started reading what seems like a perceptive analysis of our national decline, only to find it morph into a screed against the Jewish “cabal.”
Such is often the case on GAB, for instance, the social network where Robert Gregory Bowers liked to vent his antisemitic spleen.
GAB itself is a case in point. Founder and driving spirit Andrew Torba is a true defender of free expression who has stood by his principles, despite an ongoing series of legal and economic attacks. He’s justly proud of GAB’s content-moderation policy which “adheres to the First Amendment” and…
“allows hateful ideas, such as anti-White CRT [Critical Race Theory], to be exposed and subject to scrutiny and challenge.”
Torba grants that such a restrained approach…
“means having the stomach to accept that people will say ‘edgy and offensive’ things.”
But he rightly asserts that it…
“also allows Americans, and others around the world, to enjoy the full measure of their human right to speak freely online.”
Champion of liberty that Torba is, there’s a sinister theme that emerges regularly in his writing, of which this is a recent example…
“Our broken society and culture have no problem whatsoever discussing and questioning any atrocity in world history except one.
“We have no problem discussing, questioning, and praising any other world leader in history except one.
“We have no problem generalizing and being critical of any group of people except one ….
“I don’t even have to say which ‘one’ for you all to know exactly what and who I am talking about — and that’s the problem.”
No. The problem is antisemitism. It’s clear that Torba is referring to the Holocaust, Hitler, and the Jews.
Andrew Torba is a devoted and highly outspoken Christian. His faith informs his defense of freedom, as well as his advocacy of an alternative economy that might help to shield believers from the totalitarian longings of our woke economic, political, and academic leadership.
I admire him greatly for his commitment and his courage.
But Torba stumbles over the fundamental contradiction in antisemitism, which has persisted throughout history: Jesus was a Jew.
He was born a Jew. He lived his life as a Jew. He died a Jew. While he offered a new teaching and a new way to live in faith, he never renounced his Judaism.
You can believe that Christianity offers answers other religions do not. You can be convinced that following Jesus is the way to salvation for everyone. You can feel compelled to share the Gospel and the love of Christ in response to the Great Commission.
God bless you for all of that.
But you cannot be a Christian and hate Our Lord’s own people.
It’s evident that the charge of antisemitism is used cynically as a political weapon. Right now, it’s being applied in an evil effort to muffle free speech.
Nevertheless, antisemitism is real, and it must be opposed.
That’s something to ponder as we prepare to celebrate the birth of Jesus the Jew.
____________
Part of my purpose in writing my novel about the family of Jesus, “My Brother’s Keeper,” was to debunk the recurring antisemitic claim that the Jews, as a people, killed Jesus. I’m not going to tip my hand as to how I approach that challenge. But I invite you to find out more about the book — which won the Catholic Arts and Letters Award for best adult fiction. Click here…
https://www.billkassel.com/brothers-keeper-novel-family-jesus/
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San Francisco psychotherapist Rachel Wahba takes special note of how antisemitism has infected the Left. A Feminist with a “progressive” and highly cosmopolitan background, she has been active in counseling within Bay Area LGBT circles. Wahba observes…
“Antisemitism never stays in one lane. It is no longer limited to racists chanting ‘Jews will not replace us’ in Charlottesville or Nazis marching in Skokie. No group is immune to the ‘world’s oldest hatred,’ repackaged today as ‘anti-Zionism.’ We are told we cannot be both a Zionist and a Feminist, that we cannot bring a Rainbow Flag with a Star of David to a Pride Parade.”
Check out Wahba’s reflections at The Times of Israel…
https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/progressively-sliding-into-antisemitism/
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