Progressive Jews and Antisemitism

By Karin McQuillan, AMERICAN THINKER

My father was a combat photographer in World War II, who filmed our frontline troops in Europe from Omaha Beach through the liberation of Paris and the Battle of the Bulge to Berlin in ruins.  He also filmed the liberation of Dachau, an experience so painful he never spoke about it to me until the last year of his life, at age ninety-eight.  He could hardly speak.  He was crying so hard his frail body was shaking, as he gasped out, “I’m sorry to be so weak.”


Battle of the Bulge

In my father’s his last years, many things fell away, but he always gave charity to one group, the Anti-Defamation League, the voice of conscience of American Jews fighting to purge our society of the scourge of antisemitism.

No more.  Now the ADL is just one more left-wing group, “a radical extension of the Democratic Party,” according to  Isi Leibler, a prominent worldwide Jewish leader writing in the Jerusalem Post.  The only anti-Semitism that it will fight is that of the tiny fringe group of white supremacists.  The greater danger of the radical left and Muslim activists gets a pass.  The Boycott Divestment Sanctions (BDS) movement, declared anti-Semitic by the American government, is supported by Democratic politicians and so ADL won’t fight it.  ADL actively supports the Marxist anti-Semitic group Black Lives Matter, which “incorporates anti-Israel passages in its platform and campaigns against anti-boycott legislation.”

ADL’s moral collapse is even greater than Leibler had space to enumerate.  ADL won’t fight anti-Semitism, even violence against Jewish youngsters on campus, organized by Muslim Brotherhood front groups, because progressive multiculturism privileges Muslims over Jews.  And it utterly refuses to confront the Democrat party mainstreaming anti-Semitism from three out of its four main voting blocs – blacks, new Hispanics, and leftists.

Today in America, Leibler writes, Jews and Israel’s biggest supporters are Evangelicals.  American Jewish leaders are betraying the trust of their community, putting their liberal agenda ahead of protecting Jews at home and Israel abroad.

Jewish identity has become submerged by progressivism. Indeed, left-wing Jews wishing to be regarded as “progressive” are discovering that a prerequisite to their acceptance requires a hostile attitude to Israel.

It all began with Obama, says Leibler. Before Obama, Jewish leaders were not intimidated.  Their job was to speak out in defense of Israel.  No more.

Obama had pro-Israel congressmen spied on by our intelligence services for opposing his pro-Iran policies.  In a favorite Obama technique for suppression, pro-Israel groups were harassed and suppressed by the IRS.

Barack Obama treated Israel “as a rogue state.”  He groveled before the Iranians and treated Israeli defenders and Arab terrorists as moral equivalents.  “The response by the majority of the American Jewish establishment, who were previously never reticent about raising their voices, was a deafening silence,” writes Liebler.

Jewish leadership caved to Obama’s bullying.  They knew that criticizing Obama would be punished severely by liberal activists, jeopardize their funding, and bring down even more hostile attacks from President Obama.

Many Jewish liberals are “so ignorant of their heritage that they regarded social justice and their Democratic political affiliation as the foremost factors in their Jewish identity.”

This past decade has been one of unprecedented passivity and cowardice by the Jewish establishment. It failed to speak out against Obama’s anti-Israel bias and remained silent when the ADL, J Street, the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, the National Council of Jewish Women, progressive rabbis and other Jews engaged in the primitive defamation of Trump from Jewish platforms.

Jewish groups have always been scrupulously bipartisan as a bedrock principle.  Fighting anti-Semitism and promoting Jewish American interests was never partisan.  But after Obama radicalized the party, that went out the window.  Leibler calls out the hysteria sweeping through the Jewish community, as progressive rabbis and their lay leaders call Trump racist, an anti-Semite, and even a Nazi sympathizer.

This, despite the fact that to date, Trump has unquestionably been the most positive president toward Israel and has a converted Jewish daughter who is religiously observant. He introduced significant beneficial policies, such as ceasing financial aid to Palestinian terrorists, moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem and promoting the case for Israel at the UN and international forums.

Meanwhile, they support rabid black and Muslim anti-semites wherever they may be – on campus, in Congress, leading the pussy-hat Women’s March, Farrakhan supporters in Congress, in the social justice movement.

Jewish silence has already sowed the wind.

What must have shocked and sent shivers down the spines of Jews even remotely supportive of Israel was House Speaker Nancy Pelosi‘s appointment of (Ilan Omar) this antisemitic newly elected congresswoman to the prestigious and powerful House Foreign Affairs Committee, which oversees foreign aid and such national security issues as terrorism and the proliferation of nonconventional weapons.

Isi Leibler was born before the Holocaust.  He has seen it happen before.  He is calling out American Jewish leadership for their cowardice and collusion with the forces of left-wing hate.  He says the appointment of Ilan Omar to the Foreign Affairs Committee is a wakeup call.

In truth, it is a wakeup call to all of us.  Pelosi’s folly has given Congresswoman Omar the keys to America’s national security secrets.

When anti-Semitism rules, none of us are safe.

February 10, 2019 | 6 Comments »

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  1. The ADL is a social organization and a arm of the democratic party. There purpose is not anti-Semitism , but collecting money and employing out of work lawyers.

  2. This article in Israel Hayom about Ori’s despicable murderer reveals some of the wrong attitudes of Israelis that have led them to tolerate Palestinian terrorism. The author says that the terrorist may have been “dragged into” into the murder, a phrase that seems to put the blame on the helpless victim. He claims that the crime may not have been premeditated. Worse still he suggests that it may have been a “criminal attack that went wrong, “as if a violent sexual assault wasn’t “wrong” from the start. Notice also the doubts expressed as to whether the crime was “nationalistic” or “criminal” in motivation–as if “nationalistic” crimes, including murder, were not “criminal” in motivation. Not only this author, but the Israeli police, constantly distinguish between “criminal” and “nationalistic” motivations for crimes, and always prefer the word “nationalistic” to “terrorist” when describing these crimes. And they never refer to these crimes as “war crimes,” and “crimes against humanity,” the most appropriate names for them.

    At lightning speed
    The murder of Ori Ansbacher is one of those cases where one has a hard time wrapping their head around the absolute brutality, evil and banality in which someone could harm another person.

    It seems that is exactly the reason it was so important for the Shin Bet security agency, which along with the Israel Defense Forces and the Israel Police was tasked with the investigation immediately following the discovery of Ansbacher’s body, to quickly capture the killer. The violence perpetrated against the young woman, whose only sin was her decision to take a walk in the woods, along with the findings at the crime scene, served to further motivate those involved in tracking down the murderer.

    Indeed the killer was located very quickly, the result of the forensic findings in the field and the Shin Bet’s technological and operational abilities, which allowed them to get to the killer by Friday evening. He was found in an abandoned building in Ramallah, where he had escaped to after spending a few hours hiding out in a mosque next to his work.

    The investigation into the killer, Arafat Irfaiya, stalled because he required medical treatment for injuries sustained during his arrest. From the initial details, it seems the entire incident unfolded at random. While the murderer did leave his home in Hebron with a knife – not an unusual detail in and of itself – he only decided to harm Ansbacher upon encountering her. As of Saturday night, the Shin Bet has been unable to determine whether Irfaiya intended to murder Ansbacher as soon as he saw her or if he was dragged into the act. The Shin Bet has also yet to ascertain whether Ansbacher’s murder was the result of a criminal attack that went wrong or whether she was killed simply for being Jewish. Past incidents have shown that this likely a combination of factors; a criminal incident that is tied to a nationalistic motive.

    At 29, the killer is relatively older, and he has a security past. He was detained in 2009 after exhibiting suspicious behavior in the vicinity of the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron. A search of his belongings uncovered a knife, and he was sentenced to a few months in prison. There is no information that points to Irfaiya having engaged in criminal or terrorist activity following his release. The Shin Bet will now try to ascertain whether or not he belongs to a terrorist organization, although the details of the case thus far indicate he acted alone.

    Ansbacher is the first terrorist victim of 2019. In recent months, security forces have escalated their activity in Judea and Samaria and the Jerusalem periphery following an uptick in attacks. But along with the relative calm that has been achieved, this has also led to security forces being spread thin. Yet it is doubtful if more expansive activity could have prevented this fatal encounter.

    Two comments:

    Within the framework of its legitimate request to issue a gag order on the murder investigation, the police also asked not to disclose the victim’s name for an extended amount of time. This is an example of the courts being a little too eager to approve these gag orders often without good reason.
    A plethora of horrific theories on what Arafiah subjected the young woman to have been disseminated on social media as a result of the gag order on the details of the case. The murder itself was difficult enough without there being a need to invent details the likes of which could have been taken out of a snuff film. A little bit of restraint, in particular under these circumstances, wouldn’t hurt.

  3. Israel arrests Palestinian suspect in teenager’s killing
    Israeli security forces early Saturday arrested a Palestinian man suspected in the brutal murder of 19-year-old Ori Ansbacher, who was found dead on Thursday in a forest on the outskirts of Jerusalem, police said.

    The Shin Bet security agency and police said in a statement that 29-year-old Palestinian suspect, identified as Arafat Irfaiya, was arrested during a raid in the city of Ramallah in Judea and Samaria and confessed to the crime.

    The Shin Bet said Irfaiya left his home in Hebron carrying a knife with the intention of crossing the Green Line into Israel illegally, saw the victim in the forest and stabbed her to death. Authorities are still investigating the motive and a court-ordered gag order on certain details of the investigation was issued.

    DNA samples taken at the scene were cross-referenced with a criminal database. Due to Irfaiya’s criminal history, investigators were able to identify him quickly.

    Palestinian authorities did not immediately comment.

    Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan said he viewed it as a terrorist attack. “We’re talking about a widespread phenomenon of terrorism we’re dealing with here,” he told Reshet TV.

    Ansbacher was buried Friday in the community of Tekoa amid calls by hard-line Jews for revenge.

    Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu commended the security forces for “apprehending – within a few hours – the abhorrent murderer.” He expressed condolences to Ansbacher’s family.

    Ansbacher’s younger brother, David, eulogized his big sister. “I remember the Shabbat you invited me to go hiking. We walked until we reached two small columns. ‘Here it is,’ you said. ‘This place is the Garden of Eden and the columns are the gate to heaven.’ Now you are at the gates of heaven. Ori, my amazing sister, you turned sadness into joy. Continue being with me when I help others, and when I too am buried in the ground. You spread a lot of light in this world,” he said.

    Her father, Gadi Ansbacher, said: “I have so many things to say about Ori, but I don’t believe this has happened and don’t know what to tell you [my daughter]. You saw things sharply, clearly, you saw everything. You turned everything into the greatest of love. Over the past year we studied together, we spoke a lot about divine spirit and how it resides in all of us. … You accomplished that. You won, Ori. You lived a full life, you are whole.”

    Tair, a friend of Ansbacher who also took part in the search for her, delivered also delivered a heart-wrenching eulogy.

    “Ori, my love, my dear soul. When I was looking for you I saw many beautiful things. We found a really perfect fossil that I wanted to save for you; we saw a family of deer and lots of smiling flowers encouraging me that we would soon see you. When we found you a dark cloud fell over Jerusalem, the jackals cried along with me and reminded me of how many people you touched. I’m trying to be worthy of you, of our friendship, of all the things you taught me. You are a wonder and your soul is a giant miracle. Be strong, Ori.”

  4. The main issue is her transfer of security information about Israel to our enemies. There should be taps on all of her communications and a report of any untoward findings.

  5. This from Arutz Sheva:

    Upstate New York yeshiva set on fire
    Barns on Yeshiva Deah Yoreh set on fire, swastikas painted on yeshiva walls in White Sulphur Springs, New York.

    Definition of anti-Semitism
    A yeshiva located in upstate New York was set on fire and swastikas were spray painted on the building.

    The incident at the Yeshiva Deah Yoreh, located on a former farm in White Sulphur Springs occurred on January 28, but was first reported by the Rockland/Westchester Journal News on Wednesday afternoon.

    Two barns on the property of the yeshiva, which combines education and farming, were damaged and numerous swastikas were painted on the walls.

    The incident is being treated as a hate crime, state police spokesman Steven Nevel told the Journal News.

    Haven’t seen any protests from American Jewish leaders or concern in the Jewish press