FBI director says US Jews under threat 'from all sides' amid rise in antisemism

[noahx]

Source: Times of Israel

The director of the FBI has said the Jewish community in the United States is “getting hit from all sides” and “desperately” needs further support from the agency amid an apparent uptick in antisemitic attacks.

In response to a question by US Congressman Josh Gottheimer on a recently thwarted attack on synagogues in New Jersey, FBI director Christopher Wray said Thursday that the agency was attempting to address the issue by raising the threat of antisemitism to a “national priority.”

“Antisemitism and violence that comes out of it is a persistent and present fact,” Wray said.

Read more: https://www.timesofisrael.com/fbi-director-says-us-jews-under-threat-from-all-sides-amid-rise-in-antisemism/

[peppertree]

1. From "all sides"?

[AZSkiffyGeek]

2. Is Dave Chappelle a white supremacist? NT

[noahx]

9. I think it was Kanye, not Dave Chapelle

Kanye said horrible things about Jewish people.

[AZSkiffyGeek]

10. Chappelle's SNL monologue

It was a wink wink “Kanye shouldn’t have said the quiet part out loud” - basically “never say the Jews run Hollywood, that’s a no-no, but if you look at the situation, they do.”

[frazzled]

15. Yeah, it wasn't even so veiled

My spouse and I really noticed, and felt pretty uncomfortable … but not all that surprised, given his previous run-in with homophobic statements.

Oddly, so much about Chapelle can be traced back to Jews, mainly his shtick, which is indisputably based on the conversational style developed by Lenny Bruce and Mort Sahl, but even the leather motorcycle jacket he wore that night, introduced back in the late 1920s by two Jewish brothers in the Garment District. Who knew.

[lapucelle]

4. Wray was talking about threats from foreign terrorist groups & domestic right wing extremists.

In Wray's speech "all sides" refers to both foreign and domestic threats.

A full 63% of religious hate crimes are motivated by antisemitism—targeting a group that makes up just 2.4% of our population. Foreign terrorist organizations like ISIS have promoted antisemitic violent extremism for decades. They continue to target Jewish Americans in their attack plots. But we also confront the threat of people here, on our soil, whose hateful views—often paraded online—boil over into acts of violence.

What did you think he meant by "all sides"?

[Elessar Zappa]

11. There are left wing anti-semites.

Go to any pro-Palestine demonstration and you’ll meet some.

[McKim]

18. I am sorry you see that in Pro Palestine Activism

I am so sorry you see that in Pro Palestine Rights Activism. This has not been my experience.

[AZLD4Candidate]

19. Just because it hasn't been your experience doesn't mean it doesn't happen and doesn't exist

The Arab Student Union, when we were doing Hillel's Holocaust Day's remembrances at the University of Arizona, would come out with photos of dead Arabs and scream "Jews caused this" and "who cares about dead Jews" every year.

We never once did it to them and, as hard as it was, we ignored them.

[former9thward]

22. I don't think you were looking close.

[Elessar Zappa]

30. Not all by any means.

But there are a few at every rally that I’ve seen.

[electric_blue68]

3. 😔 😤🤬

Go AWAY Bigots!

[Bernardo de La Paz]

5. Let's be charitable or cautious & say Wray means "multiple threats", not both-siderism,

Means that there are people in their communities and coming in from outside from all physical directions and posing threats to synagogues, kosher businesses, schools, and other identifiable threat targets.

[twodogsbarking]

6. From all the sides that are wrong.

[Justice matters.]

7. All sides includes Walker, West & Irving?

They are millionaire-class assholes too... but hey, they are "starz"...

[Beastly Boy]

8. Antisemitism doesn't take sides

US Jews knew it a long time ago, before it became a "national priority".

[Behind the Aegis]

12. Shhh...

Don't disturb their focus on one phrase that doesn't imply what they think it does.

Oh, I have a book recommendation, if you are interested: People Love Dead Jews: Reports from a Haunted Present by Dara Horne

[ripcord]

14. People who are saying there are no liberal anitisemites are a big part of the problem

[DavidDvorkin]

13. It's a figure of speech

Let's not read anything into it.

[Dysfunctional]

16. As I have said before, there are not any American Jews,

only Jews who are for the moment citizens of America.

[mahina]

31. What do you mean? I don't understand.

[Dysfunctional]

32. Jews in many countries in Europe were killed in WWII just because they were Jewish.

They were citizens of those countries. Go to the link for more. You will find that Jews were the scapegoat when countries had the plague or depression or just wanted what the Jews had. AntiSemitism is growing in this country and as climate change gets worse, Jews, along with other minorities will be killed. That last sentence is my opinion. Off-topic, I also believe that minorities in other countries will be killed first for land, food, and water.



https://www.ushmm.org/research/about-the-mandel-center/initiatives/ethics-religion-holocaust/articles-and-resources/christian-persecution-of-jews-over-the-centuries/christian-persecution-of-jews-over-the-centuries

[mahina]

33. Yes I realize that many millions of Jewish people were killed because of their faith.

It does not follow that there are no American Jews.

[keithbvadu2]

17. They get confused.

[SleeplessinSoCal]

20. Jon Stewart Chimes In

Jon Stewart Lengthily Defends Dave Chappelle's SNL Monologue Against Claims Of Anti-Semitism

....there was a specific point in Dave Chappelle's monologue that stood out to him, as he related to the comic’s frustration over not being able to talk about sensitive topics in today’s culture.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/entertainment/tv/jon-stewart-lengthily-defends-dave-chappelles-snl-monologue-against-claims-of-anti-semitism/ar-AA14dVxn

That's where I land. Frustrated that we can't discuss sensitive subjects. I've had posts deleted when trying to find the acceptable words. It's very frustrating. I empathize with Chappelle.

[Behind the Aegis]

21. Stewart was a joke.

He defended Chapelle's BS defense of the anti-Semitism that was already in the news from the past few weeks. Minimizing, denying, or making excuses for anti-Semitism is anti-Semitism. Stewart was such a firebrand for veterans (which he is not) and 9-11 first responders (which he is not), but he couldn't bother to even try to be educative about anti-Semitism, well, fuck him!

Perhaps, he should read the words of Rabbi Hillel: If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If I am not for others, what am I? And if not now, when?

[noahx]

24. They think his opinion is extra important

The logic being that he's Jewish.

But they dismiss the antidefamation league and other organizations protesting Kanye.

[ck4829]

23. ...

[maxsolomon]

25. Can one be opposed to Israeli policy in the West Bank & Gaza

and not be an Anti-Semite?

I like to think I'm not anti-semitic but I might be fooling myself. I don't live in Berkeley, if that changes things.

[Behind the Aegis]

26. Yes.

I am also including as a response to your "question".

Your comment is a common misdirect, a red herring of sorts. I read the article again, just to be sure. Not ONCE is Israel mentioned. NOT ONCE! So why ask that question in a thread about an article describing anti-Semitism in THE US?!

Can you criticize Obama, Walker, Kanye, Candace Owens and not be racist? Of course. Does that mean that all criticism of those individuals is never racist? Again, of course not. Can one be critical of China and not be Sinophobic? Yes, but again, it doesn't mean there can't be elements of it. One only has to look to the former POS who squatted in the White House and his comments about China and Chinese individuals in regard to COVID and see some criticism was indeed bigoted.

Some criticism of Israel is indeed anti-Semitic, but most is not. Some of the criticism is nothing more than regionalism, another form of bigotry for which many are quite fond; think of comments about The American South, Latte Liberals of the Northeast, and the "earthy-crunchy" individuals of the Pacific Northwest, these are all examples of "regionalism". And, of course, it should go without saying, but any fucking time someone, especially a Jew, doesn't "know their place", we have to let everyone know that, yes, there is and always has been legitimate criticism of Israel.

Perhaps you were asking a question with no malintent, I don't know. What I do know is there has been WEEKS of anti-Semitic actions and words in the news, and PLENTY of people defending it, excusing it (or the speakers of it), or minimalizing it, so I am already on the defense, add to it I am gay and having to watch another group of my brothers and sisters get mowed down, I am not just on edge, I am fucking PISSED OFF!

So, if you were not baiting and were asking a legitimate question, I only slightly apologize for my tone.

[maxsolomon]

28. I was mostly serious but not entirely. Thanks for the polite response.

If I have to pinpoint what antisemitism is coming from the Left side that Wray might be referring to with "all sides", I've learned from posters on DU that it's from the BDS movement.

[Behind the Aegis]

29. While there is certainly anti-Semitism from the BDS on occasion, it wasn't what Wray was saying.

Wray's comment "from all sides" wasn't meant to mean "left and right", but rather a multi-prong set of attacks. Think of it this way, you are at work and your boss gives you paperwork to be completed by day's end, and your spouse is demanding you do the grocery shopping before coming home, despite having a doctor's appointment, and the doctor is saying before your appointment you need to walk at least two miles. Everything has to be done before you get home. One could say, you are "getting it from all sides". That was what Wray was conveying.

[Solly Mack]

27. Can one be opposed to an American policy and not be anti-American?

I know the right enjoys calling people like me anti-American for being against certain actions by various American presidents and or the Congress/SCOTUS at a given time.

But that doesn't make me anti-American.

I was against the invasions of both Afghanistan and Iraq.

That didn't make me anti-American either.

One can criticize the actions of a country and its leadership without the intercalation of bigotry into that criticism.

Here's a link to the same story from the Washington Post via MSN

LINK

The question to ponder is, had this article been used, would Israel have even come up in this thread?

Or did it come up because the source is the Israeli Times?

Or would it have come up anyway, because people see the word antisemitism, and immediately have to talk about what they don't like about Israel, even when the story is about what is happening in America?

Even when to link all Jewish people everywhere as a single being, as if they are a hive mind, beholding only to their Jewish identity, thereby making them responsible for all things someone doesn't like about Israel, is a form of bigotry?

It even carries with it the suggestion that if not for Israel, Jewish people everywhere else wouldn't be under attack. Because bringing up Israel in a story about hate and the violence it engenders in America is going off topic just to bring up Israel. The story is about violence against Jewish people in America, not about Israel.

Foreign papers cover American news stories, just as American papers cover foreign news stories - but that doesn't mean they are pushing an agenda. A current event, and Wray speaking was a current event, can be news and reporting it is simply reporting a current event.

Israel would be interested in the rise of antisemitism anywhere.

Just as women pay attention to the rise of attacks on women anywhere.

Same with the LGBT community about attacks on them.

Same with many people and groups who have been attacked throughout history.

History demands we pay attention.