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Anti-Semitism Is Thriving in America
(Atlantic) Deborah Lipstadt - In my neighborhood, there are a number of synagogues and churches. The church doors are open, welcoming all. The synagogues have armed guards, fences, door codes, and people who will stop strangers as they enter. Ostensibly these are welcomers, but their real job is to check whether these strangers wish to do the people inside harm. When it comes to anti-Semitism, the right and the left often find common ground. The far right talks about the federal government as the Zionist Occupation Government; the left sees the American Israel Public Affairs Committee as a behemoth of unbelievable proportions, driving American policy in ways that are antithetical to America's best interests. This absence of a dividing line between left and right when it comes to anti-Semitism was evident when former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke "liked" Rep. Ilhan Omar's tweet claiming that American support of Israel is "all about the Benjamins baby." Certainly the government must act, but in the interim, we must be willing to criticize our political allies when they cross the line into anti-Semitism. Acts of terror begin with words. We must place this kind of talk well outside the pale of legitimate discourse. There is nothing legitimate about these views. We must strive to banish open anti-Semitism so that we will no longer need armed guards screening worshippers as they enter their synagogues. The writer is professor of Holocaust history at Emory University.