Bari's comments are insightful. Nevertheless, it is hard to explain why Jews have been such loyal supporters of the Democrat Party when Republicans have been more supportive of Israel and when prominent Democrats like Ilhan Omar regularly spew anti-semitic rants.
Why hasn't the media reported on the multiple genetic studies indicating that today's Jews did originate in ancient Israel, as opposed to claims by West and the Black Hebrew Israelites? Are they afraid to offend the Black Hebrew Israelites, or the Palestinians who claim that Jews never lived there before modern times? I myself ran my genetic kit through Gedmatch, dissatisfied with with the vague findings from 23andme that I'm 99% Ashkenazi Jew. Every platform indicated that a proportion of my DNA is middle eastern.
I do not know if it is OK to post links here to my own substack, but it seemed a little too long to write as a comment. I am mostly a gun writer, but being Jewish and having grown up among the anti-semitism prevalent in the Soviet Union, I thought it was worth pointing a few things out: https://darklordofoptics.substack.com/p/kanye-west-and-anti-semitism?sd=pf
I was glad to see Ben Shapiro call out Kanye's antisemitism. Candace Owens is the fringe pundit at Daily Wire who will never concede her faith in Kanye was misplaced. Ben called her out for this some 7 years ago, way before she was employed by DW. Candace is still maintaining Kanye's comments are not antisemitic. https://drive.google.com/file/d/134aSpxcGLwdps5P9Y0IQxCEZzGPMVE76/view
I initially became a paid subscriber to Common Sense thanks to its coverage of the issue of antisemitism on college campuses. Now, I'll be unsubscribing largely thanks to this piece. I've long felt like Bari and Nellie derive just a bit too much pleasure dunking on the left but don't seem to get the same kick out of directing their ire at the right. Reading this piece, I was waiting for Bari to point out how dangerous it is to have an antisemite commanding the following that DJT does. Instead, "The Trump White House did a tremendous amount for the cause of Middle East peace." (Citation very much needed). Even if that assertion were true, it seems like a strange response to brazen antisemitism coming from the former *president of the United States*. Why so many words directed at West (who, yes, is a sick and evil person!) but none at Trump? Sorry, I enjoyed my time as a subscriber here, but I'm of the position that both the left and the right have lost their f****** minds and that we shouldn't be favoring the latter over the former. Have fun dunking on the wokesters, gang.
I'm not a Trumpist, but I think you can find a more accurate interpretation for his words. Israelis are balanced politically left to right, they overwhelmingly support Israel, and they tend to like Trump. American Jews are overwhelmingly on the left, they are mostly critical of Israel and doing their virtue signaling to the left in all matters including Israel, and they overwhelmingly hate Trump.
Those are all obvious facts to a political observer, and Trump is on this matter a reasonably astute political observer. It has nothing to do with stereotypes of ungrateful Jews or veiled threats.
If you read that into his comment anyway, I'm afraid you're not construing it in terms of its most plausible meaning, which is what we're always supposed to do for understanding what is meant by a statement, but instead constructing it as a social construct, in terms of an interpretive social narrative that you want to fit it into. In this case, the narrative was transparent from your article: that anti-Semitism is all around us, Left and Right no difference.
Anti-Semitism is indeed a huge and growing problem, probably more on Left than Right but too much on both. It is far from prevalent in America, but it mostly gets a pass in "the institutions" and treated as "not really anti-Semitism but just legitimate fairness and equity concerns" as long as it's felt to be coming from the Left. That seems to me a cause for concern greater than the anti-Semitism of the Right, extreme though that is too on the far right.
All this Hate is rooted in "South Side Chicago Black Moslem Faraclown" and his mosques!! He pushes conspiracies and dumb blacks parrot this hate all over social media at their will. Obama and all progressives (squad called him goat) bow to him and the media hides the Bigot behind all this. Bari look at the root and in the pile of manure is Faraclown.
The rise - unchecked - of anti semitism on the left is baffling, horribly ironical and should be cause for deep reflection. Ye, Trump are mad men with zero notion of the consequences of their utterings. But why is the culture quiet? Haven’t we seen this story before? Specific people, leaders of groups, with smaller standing eg., in this case names of talk show hosts, interviewers and others who express such views should be called out and asked to resign their positions for this kind of awful bigotry.
As an American Jew, I agree with Trump on this support Israel issue 100% . The Dems are doing more to hurt Israel than any hate group. Funding Iran is the single worst thing America can do. Keep the Trump Sanctions on Iran! Don't send them Billions of dollars like Obama did. The Republicans stand behind Israel 110% all the time. If we vote for what is best for Israel, then we need to vote Republican. There is no way to change the Democratic party on this.
The Catholic Church pushed Diocide. Greek Orthodox pushes it still. Putting a mark on me (I didn't even know the guy )and my family to this day. In the fifties the Catholic school bullies would beat up jews as payback (until we fought back) .....This hate goes generationally deep.
For what it's worth, I also agree with other commenters here that Trump's words probably mean "they should stick with Me or else Israel, or America, will suffer". And I'm NO supporter of his!
But I also agree with Bari that there's an echo of an old calumny in his remarks, regarding "the ungrateful Jew". He doesn't seem to know how to keep that spite out of his thoughts when it comes to people who don't support him. There's just something nasty ever below the surface in his comments--they're un-American, foreign, not us--and it's so often that to not notice it as a listener after all this time, in my view, is to be willfully obtuse. I've just stopped giving a shit that it comes from narcissism in Trump rather than from a supposedly-more-evil place in the human soul. How are the rest of you not sick of that little turd-nugget being slipped in when he talks about normie Americans who vote Democrat, or at least, vote against him? What Hillary Clinton did with the "basket of deplorables" comment Trump has done a thousand times over with respect to the other HALF of American voters. He's not talking about just the bossy, neurotic pink-haired sociology graduate students, or professional Democrats.
And few of his supporters seem to care when he gets nasty. News commentators must of course be free to do this, although notice how they profit from making us all angry at each other, Left and Right alike. Presidents and ex-presidents, and candidates, should find a better way, because they have the power to really tear us apart. We have to be able to talk without this invidious bullshit, and Himself is never going to be able to lead us that way.
Just getting caught up after the two-day festival of Shemeni Atzeret and Simchat Torah. I wonder if this time was carefully chosen, to make sure that the most informed Jewish people wouldn't be around to respond.
Just like Trump pissed off Euro when two years ago he scolded them for growing dependence on Russian gas, and they and the Western Media laughed at Trump. Now, your rhetoric foolishly flies against Trump and West for their pointing out the conflict between the Jewish control of US Democrat Party and what the Beltway, Brussels and Wall Street do to Israel and US.... in the name of nation building and Muslim Arab Springs across the world.
Ye isn’t a brilliant musician. He’s a hack.
Bari's comments are insightful. Nevertheless, it is hard to explain why Jews have been such loyal supporters of the Democrat Party when Republicans have been more supportive of Israel and when prominent Democrats like Ilhan Omar regularly spew anti-semitic rants.
Why hasn't the media reported on the multiple genetic studies indicating that today's Jews did originate in ancient Israel, as opposed to claims by West and the Black Hebrew Israelites? Are they afraid to offend the Black Hebrew Israelites, or the Palestinians who claim that Jews never lived there before modern times? I myself ran my genetic kit through Gedmatch, dissatisfied with with the vague findings from 23andme that I'm 99% Ashkenazi Jew. Every platform indicated that a proportion of my DNA is middle eastern.
Beautiful column, Bari, as always.
I do not know if it is OK to post links here to my own substack, but it seemed a little too long to write as a comment. I am mostly a gun writer, but being Jewish and having grown up among the anti-semitism prevalent in the Soviet Union, I thought it was worth pointing a few things out: https://darklordofoptics.substack.com/p/kanye-west-and-anti-semitism?sd=pf
I was glad to see Ben Shapiro call out Kanye's antisemitism. Candace Owens is the fringe pundit at Daily Wire who will never concede her faith in Kanye was misplaced. Ben called her out for this some 7 years ago, way before she was employed by DW. Candace is still maintaining Kanye's comments are not antisemitic. https://drive.google.com/file/d/134aSpxcGLwdps5P9Y0IQxCEZzGPMVE76/view
I initially became a paid subscriber to Common Sense thanks to its coverage of the issue of antisemitism on college campuses. Now, I'll be unsubscribing largely thanks to this piece. I've long felt like Bari and Nellie derive just a bit too much pleasure dunking on the left but don't seem to get the same kick out of directing their ire at the right. Reading this piece, I was waiting for Bari to point out how dangerous it is to have an antisemite commanding the following that DJT does. Instead, "The Trump White House did a tremendous amount for the cause of Middle East peace." (Citation very much needed). Even if that assertion were true, it seems like a strange response to brazen antisemitism coming from the former *president of the United States*. Why so many words directed at West (who, yes, is a sick and evil person!) but none at Trump? Sorry, I enjoyed my time as a subscriber here, but I'm of the position that both the left and the right have lost their f****** minds and that we shouldn't be favoring the latter over the former. Have fun dunking on the wokesters, gang.
I'm not a Trumpist, but I think you can find a more accurate interpretation for his words. Israelis are balanced politically left to right, they overwhelmingly support Israel, and they tend to like Trump. American Jews are overwhelmingly on the left, they are mostly critical of Israel and doing their virtue signaling to the left in all matters including Israel, and they overwhelmingly hate Trump.
Those are all obvious facts to a political observer, and Trump is on this matter a reasonably astute political observer. It has nothing to do with stereotypes of ungrateful Jews or veiled threats.
If you read that into his comment anyway, I'm afraid you're not construing it in terms of its most plausible meaning, which is what we're always supposed to do for understanding what is meant by a statement, but instead constructing it as a social construct, in terms of an interpretive social narrative that you want to fit it into. In this case, the narrative was transparent from your article: that anti-Semitism is all around us, Left and Right no difference.
Anti-Semitism is indeed a huge and growing problem, probably more on Left than Right but too much on both. It is far from prevalent in America, but it mostly gets a pass in "the institutions" and treated as "not really anti-Semitism but just legitimate fairness and equity concerns" as long as it's felt to be coming from the Left. That seems to me a cause for concern greater than the anti-Semitism of the Right, extreme though that is too on the far right.
All this Hate is rooted in "South Side Chicago Black Moslem Faraclown" and his mosques!! He pushes conspiracies and dumb blacks parrot this hate all over social media at their will. Obama and all progressives (squad called him goat) bow to him and the media hides the Bigot behind all this. Bari look at the root and in the pile of manure is Faraclown.
The media willingly hid Obama’s happy smiley photo with Farrakhan. They’re all on the same team.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/wp/2018/09/04/what-was-louis-farrakhan-doing-at-aretha-franklins-funeral/
The rise - unchecked - of anti semitism on the left is baffling, horribly ironical and should be cause for deep reflection. Ye, Trump are mad men with zero notion of the consequences of their utterings. But why is the culture quiet? Haven’t we seen this story before? Specific people, leaders of groups, with smaller standing eg., in this case names of talk show hosts, interviewers and others who express such views should be called out and asked to resign their positions for this kind of awful bigotry.
As an American Jew, I agree with Trump on this support Israel issue 100% . The Dems are doing more to hurt Israel than any hate group. Funding Iran is the single worst thing America can do. Keep the Trump Sanctions on Iran! Don't send them Billions of dollars like Obama did. The Republicans stand behind Israel 110% all the time. If we vote for what is best for Israel, then we need to vote Republican. There is no way to change the Democratic party on this.
Does anybody really know why Jews have been attacked consistently for centuries?
To have thrived despite all of that is the Jewish legacy, and it is unmatched.
The Catholic Church pushed Diocide. Greek Orthodox pushes it still. Putting a mark on me (I didn't even know the guy )and my family to this day. In the fifties the Catholic school bullies would beat up jews as payback (until we fought back) .....This hate goes generationally deep.
I don't know anything about Ye's music, but he does appear to be a sick person who has become influential. This is very disturbing.
For what it's worth, I also agree with other commenters here that Trump's words probably mean "they should stick with Me or else Israel, or America, will suffer". And I'm NO supporter of his!
But I also agree with Bari that there's an echo of an old calumny in his remarks, regarding "the ungrateful Jew". He doesn't seem to know how to keep that spite out of his thoughts when it comes to people who don't support him. There's just something nasty ever below the surface in his comments--they're un-American, foreign, not us--and it's so often that to not notice it as a listener after all this time, in my view, is to be willfully obtuse. I've just stopped giving a shit that it comes from narcissism in Trump rather than from a supposedly-more-evil place in the human soul. How are the rest of you not sick of that little turd-nugget being slipped in when he talks about normie Americans who vote Democrat, or at least, vote against him? What Hillary Clinton did with the "basket of deplorables" comment Trump has done a thousand times over with respect to the other HALF of American voters. He's not talking about just the bossy, neurotic pink-haired sociology graduate students, or professional Democrats.
And few of his supporters seem to care when he gets nasty. News commentators must of course be free to do this, although notice how they profit from making us all angry at each other, Left and Right alike. Presidents and ex-presidents, and candidates, should find a better way, because they have the power to really tear us apart. We have to be able to talk without this invidious bullshit, and Himself is never going to be able to lead us that way.
Just getting caught up after the two-day festival of Shemeni Atzeret and Simchat Torah. I wonder if this time was carefully chosen, to make sure that the most informed Jewish people wouldn't be around to respond.
The hubris of the Orthodoxy ...we regular jews (we are no less hated) can defend ourselves.
Just like Trump pissed off Euro when two years ago he scolded them for growing dependence on Russian gas, and they and the Western Media laughed at Trump. Now, your rhetoric foolishly flies against Trump and West for their pointing out the conflict between the Jewish control of US Democrat Party and what the Beltway, Brussels and Wall Street do to Israel and US.... in the name of nation building and Muslim Arab Springs across the world.