Texas Synagogue Hostage Crisis: A Case Study in Downplaying Antisemitism By David Harsanyi
“And, in the historic harmony of American life, there are more anti-Jewish crimes perpetrated than all the other religiously motivated crimes combined — often at the hands of other minority groups. And the habit of downplaying this kind of antisemitism, or appropriating it for partisanship, is a dangerous game.”
Being cautious about assigning motive seems to apply only to certain politically inconvenient acts.
W atching the Congregation Beth Israel hostage situation unfold this weekend, one might have been under the impression that a 44-year-old British Islamist named Malik Faisal Akram had traveled 5,000 miles and then merely wandered into a temple in a Dallas suburb by happenstance, before taking four hostages and demanding the release of a notorious terrorist.
Akram — or as the Telegraph described him, a man “with an English accent” — allegedly demanded the release of Aafia Siddiqui, known by the moniker “Lady al-Qaeda,” from the nearby Carswell Air Force Base. Siddiqui, a Pakistani neuroscientist who spent years in North America, is serving an 86-year sentence for the attempted murder of a U.S. soldier in 2010. The Justice Department alleges that she was picked up carrying notes on how to manufacture a “dirty bomb” and held plans for potential attacks on the Empire State Building and the Brooklyn Bridge.
Siddiqui’s incarceration is a cause célèbre in Islamist circles abroad. Here at home, her cause has been championed by Bernie Sanders surrogate Linda Sarsour and the Council on American-Islamic Relations, whose San Francisco executive director, Zahra Billoo, rails against the “Zionist synagogues.” (And until Jews expunge every mention of Jerusalem from the Torah, they are all “Zionist synagogues.”) CAIR Austin claims that Siddiqui was “kidnapped, ripped apart from her children . . . for a crime she did not commit.”
During her trial, Siddiqui, who blames the Jews for American involvement in the Middle East, demanded that jurors take DNA tests to prove they weren’t Jewish. “Study the history of the Jews,” she implored Barack Obama after her conviction. “They have always back-stabbed everyone who has taken pity on them and made the ‘fatal’ error of giving them shelter,” and it was the “ungrateful back-stabbing of the Jews that has caused them to be mercilessly expelled from wherever they gain strength. This is why ‘holocausts’ keep happening to them repeatedly! If they would only learn to be grateful and change their behavior!!”
Akram’s presence in a Jewish house of worship on the Sabbath was no accident. One woman watching the stream of the service told the Washington Post that the hostage-taker admitted to choosing the synagogue because the United States “only cares about Jewish lives.” Akram allegedly forced the rabbi of Beth Israel to call another rabbi in New York so she could exert influence to get Siddiqui released. The belief that Jews are members of a giant cabal that shares power over government is one of the most enduring and popular antisemitic tropes.
So, you can’t really blame some Jews for being perturbed at the FBI, recently charged with keeping an eye on “domestic terrorists” who challenge school-board members, for initially contending that the Texas synagogue attack was “not specifically related to the Jewish community.” Or, our suddenly judicious president, who only last week was smearing anyone who refused to support his power grab as a white supremacist, for now saying, “I don’t think there is sufficient information to know about why he targeted that synagogue or why he insisted on the release of someone who’s been in prison for over 10 years, why he was engaged — why he was using antisemitic and anti-Israeli comments. I — we just don’t have enough facts.”
Being vigilant is fine. In fact, it would serve the nation better if law enforcement, media, and politicians always took their time assessing these events before placing blame. This cautious approach, however, seems reserved for certain politically inconvenient crimes. Everyone knows well what will happen the next time a white male commits anything resembling a politically motivated act. The media still seem to think every conservative is somehow culpable for January 6, while liberals will never be asked to answer for the terrorist who attempted to massacre the entire Republican leadership on June 14, 2017, or for the widespread rioting of 2020.
As Batya Ungar-Sargon pointed out today on HillTV, there is no need to get hysterical about every anti-Jewish incident, as Jews in the United States are still the luckiest Jews in history — safer, freer, and better off, than at any time. That, however, goes for everyone who lives here. As Ungar-Sargon also notes, it is unreasonable to diminish the presence of anti-Jewish behavior to protect “marginalized” groups. Antisemitism is quite popular in the Islamic world. Forget the Middle East, where Pew found near unanimity among national populations on the Jewish question; look at allegedly liberal Europe. As one recent EU study found, among the most serious incidents of antisemitism in the European Union, 31 percent include someone the victim did not know, but 30 percent were perpetrated by someone with extremist Muslim views; 21 percent with someone who held left-wing political views; 16 percent by a colleague from work or school; 15 percent by an acquaintance or friend; and 13 percent by someone with known right-wing views.
And, in the historic harmony of American life, there are more anti-Jewish crimes perpetrated than all the other religiously motivated crimes combined — often at the hands of other minority groups. And the habit of downplaying this kind of antisemitism, or appropriating it for partisanship, is a dangerous game.
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