Yesterday, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) released a report that antisemitic incidents in the United States had reached their “highest number on record” since the organization began keeping records in 1979. There were 2,717 incidents in 2021. Most of these involved harassment and vandalism, but 88 were cases of non-deadly assault. According to the ADL, most cases amounted to “antisemitic fliers, banners, stickers or written messages.”ADL CEO and national director Jonathan Greenblatt claimed that “Jews are experiencing more antisemitic incidents than we have in this country in at least 40 years.”
Democratic lawmakers are fine with condemning antisemitism in the abstract. Indeed, during a Republican administration, the political and media castigations are at their loudest. In 2019, House speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) described America as being rife with “bigotry and hate,” while other congressional Democrats, such as Steve Cohen, lamented what a left-wing comedian called “three years of anti-Semitism” in the Trump administration.
They are less willing to condemn it in their own ranks, however. So even as some Democrats share the ADL’s concerns, support for movements like the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions program — widely regarded as purveying antisemitic rhetoric — has been open and full-throated by others, especially by members of “the Squad.” That two Democratic congresswomen — Ilhan Omar (D., Minn.) and Rashida Tlaib (D., Mich.) — were banned from entering Israel in 2019 for their public support of boycotts should illustrate how cavalier some Democrats have been in their rhetoric.
Some Democrats can talk a good game on antisemitism, but they fail to address it when it comes from their own side. Rather than sidestep the blame, they should be held accountable for the hatred that continues to spread on their watch. Voters will have a chance to do so in November.