RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://amgreatness.com/2019/02/03/the

This column makes excellent points but I am opposed to Nazi metaphors….The Nazis exterminated millions including one of every three Jews in the world….It is wrong when the Democrats do it and equally wrong when conservatives do it….rsk

In America’s current political climate, Democrats are making frequent use of terms they understand poorly at best. To silence debate and criticism, Democrats routinely employ labels such as “Fascist,” “Nazi,” or “racist” to shut down and intimidate their political targets. Ironically, however, as Democrats engage this way they are quickly adopting the very characteristics of those groups they supposedly despise.

Most notably, the Democrats increasingly display anti-Semitism along with their hostility to Christianity, traditional American values, and individual liberty. The recent revelation that Representative Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) tweeted in 2012 that Israel had “hypnotized the world” is a clear indication of where the Democratic Party is headed—and why Americans should worry.

Beginning with Omar’s tweet about Israel “hypnotizing” the world, the congresswoman’s sentiment is a common theme in Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf. In the 1925 screed that became the centerpiece of Nazi thought, Hitler routinely accuses Jews of undertaking a “campaign of lies” while lamenting the supposed “ignorance of the broad masses” and “narrow-mindedness of the upper classes” about Jews . While Democrats and the Left routinely attempt to distance their hatred of Israel from anti-Semitism, their opprobrium of the Jewish state similarly parallels that of the late Nazi führer. In Mein Kampf, Hitler accuses Zionists of wanting a Jewish state in order to have a “central organization for their international world swindle.” Omar sounds exactly like a real Nazi.

The freshman representative’s subsequent attempt to apologize and deflect by claiming that, “it is important to distinguish between criticizing a military action by a government and attacking a particular people of faith,” makes little sense upon even a moment’s reflection. Imagine a member of Congress saying the Vatican “hypnotizes” the world while committing evil, and then turning around and claiming no ill will towards Catholics. Similarly, one cannot claim to hold no prejudice towards Japanese while also advocating explicitly hostile policy towards Japan. The fact that Omar now sits to the House Foreign Affairs Committee and is openly hostile to the only Jewish country in the world would make any apology meaningless while simultaneously making anti-Semitism at least an aspect of U.S. foreign policy. Unfortunately, Democrats cannot seem to fathom the possibility that someone can embrace Nazi thinking while not being white or German.

Omar’s remarks are only the latest indication that anti-Semitism finds a happy home among the Democrats. Barack Obama’s 2005 photo with Louis Farrakhan was kept secret for years. A notorious anti-Semite, Farrakhan similarly parrots Nazi sentiment with statements equating Jews to “termites” and parasites. While Obama has since denounced Farrakhan’s anti-Semitism, the Nation of Islam leader’s notorious Jew-hatred long pre-dates the 2005 photo. Obama cannot exactly plead ignorance as to the Nation of Islam’s hatred of Jews, and photos do not lie. If anything, the 2005 photo-op is only an early marker of the casual tolerance of Nazi thinking among high-profile Democrats.

Rashida Tlaib, another freshman Democrat in the House, was the subject of a recent scandal when she accused supporters of a bill designed to counter the boycott and divestment movement (BDS) of “forgetting what country they represent.” Yet, again, the spirit of the führer is alive and well among the supposed party of tolerance. Mein Kampf is replete with this sentiment. Hitler routinely asserts that it is impossible for Jews also to be French, German, and so forth. The accusation of dual loyalty is at the very heart of modern anti-Semitism.

While the Nazification of elements of the Democratic Party should worry every American, the tepid responses to the Democrats’ anti-Semitism by others in the party and from the GOP should worry Americans even more.

In Jewish history, every country that embraced anti-Semitism was also authoritarian in other ways. Early modern Spain’s expulsion of the Jews in 1492 ushered in inquisitions, and marked the beginning of an era of forced conversions in the emerging Spanish empire in the Americas. In the Soviet Union, accusations of anti-Semitism were used against members of the old regime after the 1917 revolution to give the appearance tolerance. However, any actual Jewish identity was suppressed along with every other aspect of faith or identity deemed threatening to the Soviet state.

If history is any indication, Democrats’ hostility towards Israel may accompany authoritarianism in domestic policy as well. The Democratic hostility towards the only Jewish country in the world was well advanced during the Obama years.

The Obama Administration pioneered the new Democrats’ anti-Israel policy platform with its attempt to appease Iranian nuclear ambitions. In the context of negotiations with the Iranian theocracy, Obama sent a plane with $400 million in hard currencies to Tehran, effectively circumventing American financial sanctions. This payments eventually topped $1.3 billion. With Iran routinely paying terrorist groups such as Hezbollah and Hamas, Obama effectively made the United States a state sponsor of terrorism while paying off what is arguably the most anti-Semitic regime in the world.

In an ironic twist, the news media have routinely accused Donald Trump of anti-Semitism. From Trump’s use of a six-pointed star on a graphic mocking Hillary Clinton, to accusations that his administration somehow emboldened the attacker in October’s deadly synagogue shooting. Not only did the shooter who attacked the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh not support Trump, but Trump’s own daughter and son-in-law are Orthodox Jews.

In the policy realm, where actions speak louder than words, Trump arguably is the most pro-Jewish president in U.S. history. Moving the American embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem not only fulfilled a campaign promise, it also acknowledged the modern Jewish state’s deep connection to and continuity with its ancient Jewish past. It’s precisely this ancient-modern continuity exhibited by both the state of Israel and modern Jews that fuels the hatred of anti-Semites of all stripes. For their part, the new Democrats are quickly making it apparent that they follow another tradition.

Despite the lip service Democrats pay to ideas of “social justice” and a supposed crusade to root out bigotry, the party increasingly exhibits the oldest surviving form of prejudice: anti-Semitism. Democrats cannot harbor hostility towards the one Jewish state in the world while claiming not to hate Jews, nor can Democrats paper over the parallels between the statements they are now making and those of actual Nazis. Those who dismiss as rhetoric this new development among Democrats, must recognize that Mein Kampf itself was also simply rhetoric before Hitler came to power. Now that Democrats are in power and are making Hitleresque statements, there is every reason to worry and those who care about America’s future should take the time to learn what bona fide anti-Semitism sounds like. Nazis are not all German and not wearing a swastika does not mean that a person cannot think like a Nazi. In the case of the new Democrats, the party is dangerously close to embarking on a path guided by genuine Nazi sentiment.

Photo Credit: Alex Wong/Getty Images