In the last ten days, there have been eight violent attacks on Jews in the New York City metro area. The latest was yesterday when Jews in the suburb of Monsey were gathered in a synogogue for a Hanukkah candle lighting ceremony and a man entered carrying a machete and started stabbing people at random. Many people ended up in hospitals, but thankfully there were no fatalities. This attack came just three weeks after the attack in Jersey City (just across the Hudson from New York City) on a kosher supermarket by gun wielding thugs who specifically were targeting Jews. I've lived in metro New York for the last 45 years, and nothing like this has happened in the past.
So what's going on? How can all these attacks be happening?
Let's look at some of the background that may help us understand.
1. None of these attacks were directed at specific individuals. They were all directed at Jews as Jews. The Jersey City murderers didn't know anyone in the kosher supermarket. They only knew that they were likely to be Jewish. The woman who started slapping a mother walking with a 3 year old child down the street in Brooklyn and who then started hitting that mother with a handbag while yelling "F__k you Jew!" Didn't know the victim. She just knew she was Jewish. The man wielding the machete last night was unknown to the congregants in the Monsey synagogue. All the attacker knew was that these were Jews. That means that this is a spate of hate crimes, in other words attacks aimed at a group of people out of hatred for that group.
2. None of these attacks came from the groups that local politicians like to blame. If you listen to pols like New York Mayor DeBlasio or governor Cuomo, the problem of anti-Semitism comes from far right wing white supremacists. It's neo-Nazis who push anti-Semitism, or so they repeat endlessly. That's clearly not true here. None of the attackers in any of these nine attacks were white. The Jersey City murderers were both blacks who belong to the rabidly anti-Semitic group called the "Black Hebrew Israelites." The man with the machete last night in Monsey (now in police custody) was black as well. The only one of the other attackers who has been caught (the woman who assaulted the young mother with the 3 year old) is also black. And while the other attackers have not been caught, they have all been identified by the victims as black or Hispanic. To be clear, these are not white supremacists.
3. These are real attacks, not Jussie Smollett hoaxes. There have been deaths and severe injuries in these attacks. These are not fake.
4. There seems to be no real effort by the City to stop the violence except in the case of murder or attempted murder. The Jersey City mass murderers did not get away. The machete wielding man accused of last night's Monsey attack is in police custody. Only one of the other perpetrators of the remaining 8 attacks has been caught. And that perp who has many prior arrests and convictions was released by a judge on her own recognizance within a day of being arrested. That's right, the violent woman who decided that it was a good move to attack a mother and her young child on a city street just because they were Jewish didn't even have to post bail. She's right back out on the street. What are the odds that she will show up for her trial when that date arrives?
5. This is not Just a continuation of life as usual in New York City. Over the last decades, there have been periodic anti-Semitic acts in the city. The acts, however, have basically been limited to anti-Semitic graffiti in locations identified with Jews. Someone overturned headstones at a Jewish cemetery. Someone spray painted a swastika on a Jewish Community Center.. That was about it with two exceptions: Al Sharpton incited a mob to attack a Jewish owned business on 125th street that ended with 7 dead around 30 years ago, and there was a riot in Crown Heights also about 30 years ago when the car carrying an orthodox rabbi hit a young black child at a cross walk resulting in the child's death.
So why now have we seen such a spate of these hate crimes? What's changed is an ever increasing level of hate being directed against Jews from the left. On many college campuses, Jews are denounced if they support Israel. The Israelis (and Jews) are wrongfully denounced as colonialists. Think of that; Jews living in Israel are the continuation of a people who have lived in that land for at least 3000 years. That's the antithesis of colonialism, but for the left the facts don't matter. Jews are also called racists by the left because of Israel. Just last week Bernie Sanders (who is never constrained by actual facts) said that the government of Israel was racist. He offered no proof. Nor could he. Moslems in Israel actually have more rights than their fellow Moslems in most of the Middle East. In Syria, for example, the Sunni Moslem majority is controlled by the Shia Moslem minority and the Assad regime. When the Sunnis rose to demand their rights, Assad and his forces started the civil war that ended with close to 800,000 dead and many millions homeless. The Sunnis didn't get those rights, however. We have the Squad going on and on in anti-Semitic rhetoric that gets glorified by the far left in place like Twitter and other social media. Ilhan Omar made anti-Semitic remarks and the Democrats in the House would not even condemn those remarks. The Dems were too afraid to alienate Omar's far left supporters, part of the main base of the Democrat party.
It's time for Americans to step up and condemn anti-Semitism. It's time for local and state governments to take action against those who push anti-Semitic acts. In one party places like New York, the local mayor can't be afraid of the anti-Semitic far left base of the Democrat party. People with courage need to confront this mess before it gets further out of hand.
So what's going on? How can all these attacks be happening?
Let's look at some of the background that may help us understand.
1. None of these attacks were directed at specific individuals. They were all directed at Jews as Jews. The Jersey City murderers didn't know anyone in the kosher supermarket. They only knew that they were likely to be Jewish. The woman who started slapping a mother walking with a 3 year old child down the street in Brooklyn and who then started hitting that mother with a handbag while yelling "F__k you Jew!" Didn't know the victim. She just knew she was Jewish. The man wielding the machete last night was unknown to the congregants in the Monsey synagogue. All the attacker knew was that these were Jews. That means that this is a spate of hate crimes, in other words attacks aimed at a group of people out of hatred for that group.
2. None of these attacks came from the groups that local politicians like to blame. If you listen to pols like New York Mayor DeBlasio or governor Cuomo, the problem of anti-Semitism comes from far right wing white supremacists. It's neo-Nazis who push anti-Semitism, or so they repeat endlessly. That's clearly not true here. None of the attackers in any of these nine attacks were white. The Jersey City murderers were both blacks who belong to the rabidly anti-Semitic group called the "Black Hebrew Israelites." The man with the machete last night in Monsey (now in police custody) was black as well. The only one of the other attackers who has been caught (the woman who assaulted the young mother with the 3 year old) is also black. And while the other attackers have not been caught, they have all been identified by the victims as black or Hispanic. To be clear, these are not white supremacists.
3. These are real attacks, not Jussie Smollett hoaxes. There have been deaths and severe injuries in these attacks. These are not fake.
4. There seems to be no real effort by the City to stop the violence except in the case of murder or attempted murder. The Jersey City mass murderers did not get away. The machete wielding man accused of last night's Monsey attack is in police custody. Only one of the other perpetrators of the remaining 8 attacks has been caught. And that perp who has many prior arrests and convictions was released by a judge on her own recognizance within a day of being arrested. That's right, the violent woman who decided that it was a good move to attack a mother and her young child on a city street just because they were Jewish didn't even have to post bail. She's right back out on the street. What are the odds that she will show up for her trial when that date arrives?
5. This is not Just a continuation of life as usual in New York City. Over the last decades, there have been periodic anti-Semitic acts in the city. The acts, however, have basically been limited to anti-Semitic graffiti in locations identified with Jews. Someone overturned headstones at a Jewish cemetery. Someone spray painted a swastika on a Jewish Community Center.. That was about it with two exceptions: Al Sharpton incited a mob to attack a Jewish owned business on 125th street that ended with 7 dead around 30 years ago, and there was a riot in Crown Heights also about 30 years ago when the car carrying an orthodox rabbi hit a young black child at a cross walk resulting in the child's death.
So why now have we seen such a spate of these hate crimes? What's changed is an ever increasing level of hate being directed against Jews from the left. On many college campuses, Jews are denounced if they support Israel. The Israelis (and Jews) are wrongfully denounced as colonialists. Think of that; Jews living in Israel are the continuation of a people who have lived in that land for at least 3000 years. That's the antithesis of colonialism, but for the left the facts don't matter. Jews are also called racists by the left because of Israel. Just last week Bernie Sanders (who is never constrained by actual facts) said that the government of Israel was racist. He offered no proof. Nor could he. Moslems in Israel actually have more rights than their fellow Moslems in most of the Middle East. In Syria, for example, the Sunni Moslem majority is controlled by the Shia Moslem minority and the Assad regime. When the Sunnis rose to demand their rights, Assad and his forces started the civil war that ended with close to 800,000 dead and many millions homeless. The Sunnis didn't get those rights, however. We have the Squad going on and on in anti-Semitic rhetoric that gets glorified by the far left in place like Twitter and other social media. Ilhan Omar made anti-Semitic remarks and the Democrats in the House would not even condemn those remarks. The Dems were too afraid to alienate Omar's far left supporters, part of the main base of the Democrat party.
It's time for Americans to step up and condemn anti-Semitism. It's time for local and state governments to take action against those who push anti-Semitic acts. In one party places like New York, the local mayor can't be afraid of the anti-Semitic far left base of the Democrat party. People with courage need to confront this mess before it gets further out of hand.
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