The Most Powerful Anti-Semite in America

By Steve Sheffey

If you remember nothing else, remember this:

• A two-state solution is essential for Israel to remain Jewish and democratic, which is why the pro-Israel community must oppose unilateral annexation.
• Peter Beinart’s binational state is not the preferred option, but could become the only option if we do not support a two-state solution.
• The 2020 Democratic Platform will remain firmly pro-Israel.
• Trump appointed another white supremacist to a key position in his administration. Trump is the most powerful anti-Semite in America.
• Which is a greater threat? Anti-Semitism combined with political power or anti-Semitism in the world of celebrity and sport? We can condemn all anti-Semitism while recognizing that with an election less than four months away, the best way to fight anti-Semitism is to target the anti-Semites with the biggest platforms and the most power: Trump and the GOP.
• If we are more focused on a couple of Black celebrities than Donald Trump and his Republican supporters, we need to rethink our priorities.

Get into trouble, good trouble, necessary trouble. May all of us be inspired by the life and ideals of civil rights icon Congressman John Lewis (D-GA), who passed away on Friday. Lewis was an unflinching opponent of racial injustice and anti-Semitism and a good friend of the Jewish community. Maybe we can honor his legacy by electing a Senate that will pass, and a president who will sign, the Voting Rights Act that’s been sitting on Mitch McConnell’s desk for 226 days. Elections matter. John Lewis knew it.

The Zionism I grew up with had two purposes: to ensure that Jews everywhere always have a safe haven from persecution and to create a state that was not simply a place where lots of Jews lived and you could find kosher restaurants, like New York, but a state run by Jews that lived on the Jewish calendar and was uniquely Jewish. To be democratic, such a state was only possible with an overwhelming majority of Jews.

The U.S., until recently, was culturally Christian (stores closed on Sundays, Christmas music in stores and on the radio, government holidays on Christmas and Easter), but could provide religious and political freedom for non-Christians because the country was overwhelmingly Christian. So too with Israel and Judaism. But if Israel contains approximately equal numbers of Jews and Muslims, then Israel will be Jewish or democratic, but not both. In theory, a binational state could still be a safe haven, but it would not be the Jewish state I have described. Jews could again find themselves in the minority, ruled by non-Jews. The safe haven rationale might fade as the memory of the Holocaust recedes, but it will recur once the cycle too familiar in 2,000 years of statelessness repeats itself.

A two-state solution, which would ensure a large Jewish majority by separating Israel from the West Bank and Gaza, is becoming less possible thanks to the current government of Israel. Peter Beinart, whose intelligence and integrity I admire, recently made the case for a binational state. I disagree, but Beinart’s option might become the only option if Israel proceeds with unilateral annexation, which is why it is important that the pro-Israel community speak out and oppose it.

Indeed, the current draft of the 2020 Democratic Platform opposes unilateral annexation even as it reiterates opposition to BDS and support for a two-state solution, a strong, secure, and democratic Israel, and “ironclad” commitment to Israel’s security, its qualitative military edge, and its right to defend itself — as well as the 2016 Obama administration’s Memorandum of Understanding establishing $3.8 billion in annual aid. Republicans deleted support for a two-state solution from their platform in 2016.

If you read Beinart’s long article, and you should, you owe it to yourself to read these shorter articles from Anshel Pfeffer, Michael Koplow, and Yehuda Kurtzer, as well as Chemi Shalev’s analysis of the controversy. Israel Policy Forum analyzed various solutions to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and concluded that the two-state solution, though imperfect, remains the best option.

According to IPF, the “one democratic state idea in principle could solve the conflict, obviate the need to bridge the Israeli and Palestinian positions regarding core status issues, and create a liberal democracy with equal rights to all [but] given the very poor to non-existent support for one democratic state among Israelis, and the fact that it means the end of the Zionist vision of a Jewish state, this option is deemed completely non-viable.”

Another white supremacist joined the Trump administration. You know we’re living in the Trump era when you tell people there’s a neo-Nazi working in the White House and the response you get is “which one?” In this case, it’s Sebastian Gorka.

Trump announced on July 14 that Sebastian Gorka is returning to his administration; this following more anti-Semitic rhetoric from the Trump campaign.

Gorka, who was fired from the FBI for anti-Muslim diatribes, was first appointed by Trump in 2017 and left the White House on August 25, 2017. Gorka called criticism of Trump’s omission of Jews from Trump’s first Holocaust Remembrance statement “asinine.” The Forward reported that Gorka “has in the past chosen to work with openly racist and anti-Semitic groups and public figures” and that in 2007, Gorka “publicly supported a violent racist and anti-Semitic paramilitary militia that was later banned as a threat to minorities by multiple court rulings.” Gorka has also appeared in multiple photographs wearing the medal of a Hungarian group listed by the State Department as having collaborated with the Nazis during World War II. But some right-wing Jews are defending Gorka.

So let’s talk about Black celebrities instead! Jewish Republicans, few but vocal, would rather we did not talk about anti-Semitism coming from the leader of their party. They’d rather we forget that the guards at our synagogues are not there to protect us from the Nation of Islam, but from the white supremacists who murdered Jews in synagogues in Poway and Pittsburgh. They prefer to talk about Black anti-Semitism, even though, as Tema Smithnotes, there is no “empirical evidence that anti-Semitism in the Black community is meaningfully different than anti-Semitism in the White community.” Let’s not generalize from a few public figures the views of the entire Black community.

The GOP would love us to generalize — parroting Bari Weiss, they draw a false equivalence and say that each side should call out its own side. But Republicans have yet to condemn Donald Trump for any of his anti-Semitic rhetoric and Trump has never apologized. Instead, Republicans want us to focus on persons of color with far less power than the President of the United States, like DeSean Jackson and Nick Cannon.

And we’ve fallen for it. Try this fun test at home: Ask your friends if they’ve heard about Jackson and/or Cannon. Ask if they’ve heard of Sebastian Gorka. Who did they hear of? Who is more important — a couple of celebs or a top advisor to the President of the United States?

Jackson apologized and was disciplined by the Eagles. Cannon apologized and was fired by Viacom. Trump has never apologized and has never been censured or condemned by the GOP for his anti-Semitism. If you are focusing on anti-Semitic comments made by two Black celebrities the same week that the President of the United States appointed a neo-Nazi (Seb Gorka) to a key position in his administration and the same week that a senior advisor to the President (white nationalist Stephen Miller) was added to the Southern Poverty Law Center’s extremist files, you’ve got some serious soul-searching and prioritization to do.

The anti-Semitism that has permeated the Republican Party is the threat that all of us, Black and white, Republican and Democrat, should focus on. That doesn’t mean ignoring anti-Semitism anywhere. It does mean maintaining perspective and recognizing that Donald Trump is the greatest threat to Jewish Americans, not some football player or celebrity.

Anti-Semitism exists in every community. It is never acceptable. But those who generalize from anti-Semitic statements made by a handful of Black celebrities to a problem within the entire Black community might ask themselves why they ignore our Black allies in Congress and why they are letting Trump and the Republicans off the hook by playing the both sides game.

Trump’s anti-Semitism does not excuse anti-Semitism from anyone; that would be whataboutism. The most important election of our lifetimes is 100 days away and a candidate is running for president on a platform that is basically “four more years of hate,” as Halie Soifer put it. Perhaps it’s time to focus on the most powerful anti-Semite in the world.

Steve Sheffey is Senior Strategy and Policy Adviser to the Jewish Democratic Council of America (JDCA) and the publisher of the weekly Chicagoland Pro-Israel Political Update. Sign up for his newsletter here. The views expressed here are his own.