The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Anti-Semitism Canard

House Intelligence Committee counsel Daniel Goldman with committee chair
Adam Schiff during the impeachment inquiry into Donald Trump's
communications with Ukraine. (Ha'aretz)

The so-called Jewish "leadership" has scuttled American Jews' future

Recently my aunt, who is almost 70 years old, told us that the current climate is the most anti-Semitic that she's seen in the USA having lived here her entire life. But I had to struggle to keep myself from saying how surprised I was that it wasn't worse. And I'm not the only one as a friend, like myself also Jewish, has observed the House impeachment hearings and said to me "this is bad for the Jews" for weeks on end. He says this because a glaringly prominent selection of people, from the heads of the committees (Adam Schiff and Jerrold Nadler), to their majority counsels (Norm Eisen and Daniel Goldman), to the witnesses (Gordon Sondland, Alexander Vindman), to the experts (Pamela Karlan and Noah Feldman) are Jewish. This is on top of others involved in the Russiagate controversy from Trump's former attorney Michael Cohen, who flipped on him, to Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein that have fueled rumblings of a deep state coup against him. These suspicions of a deep state that were once dismissed as conspiracy theories are now acknowledged to be real and a "good thing" by outlets like The New York Times. It would also take too much space to list all of writers, anchors, and other journalists across the media that are Jewish who continue to rail against Trump from the comfort of MSNBC studios or New Yorker bylines. But beyond these people, who I would say are acting to the detriment of the USA in general in addition to the Jewish community, the ADL supported scare wave about anti-Semitism is serving as a feedback loop that actually encourages rather than combats it. 

To be clear, I will never claim that a president is above criticism, whether it is the current one, his predecessors, or one that's passed away. However, not only are many leaders and media figures within our community ungrateful towards this president for his results, they seem eager to inflate and validate allegations of anti-Semitism on his part. Many of them still carry the same grudge over Charlottesville from 2017, despite the fact that Trump in his very first statement condemned neo-Nazis and white nationalists, causing some of his more edgy supporters like James Allsup to call him out as a turncoat to them. But it is past time to rehash these old episodes of media-manufactured allegations against Trump, when there's a fresh one just off of the complaint tree. Over the weekend a fresh case has come up, one so absurd that is plainly partisan. 

The IAC Conference

Donald Trump was accused of being anti-Semitic while delivering an address condemning anti-Semitism to roaring applause from a largely Jewish audience. This example reaches Syd Barrett levels of acid induced hallucinations in this pathetic saga of anti-Semitism allegations. Donald Trump was at the Israeli-American Council this weekend promoting various policies of his that are directed toward the Jewish community and Israel. In the midst of his remarks to the audience, he took a shot at nemesis Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), calling her Pocahantas:

“You’re not going to vote for the wealth tax. Let’s take 100 percent of your wealth away. No, no. Even if you don’t like me — and some of you don’t; some of you, I don’t like at all, actually — and you’re going to be my biggest supporters because you’ll be out of business in about 15 minutes.”

This was interpreted by the Times of Israel as an anti-Jewish jab highlighting the greed and materialism of Jews as their main motivation. Other than that, from his statements regarding America-Israel relations to his hug fest with a musical group made up of adults with Downs syndrome and other mental handicaps, Trump's speech drew rave reviews and rousing applause from the audience and much of the media. Any alt-right or anti-Jewish Trump fan would have probably been fuming in range at the speech or images like the one below. Trump was so folksy with the attendees that at one time he crowed: "I learned all these tricks from Sheldon (Adelson)".  All of this was done on the backdrop of a stage draped with the IAC logo of the star of David wrapped in the American flag. If one listens to the entire hour of Trump's speech (above) where he calls everyone in the room a "national treasure", condemns the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement it becomes clear that those that have the most to be angry about from it are: a) People that hate Jews, b) Israel critics, and c) left-wingers that hate the wealthy. Everything about this speech would have been a thorn in the eye of anyone from those categories. 

In fact, when I pointed out in a comment feed to a Jewish critic of the speech the real reason that Trump discussed the Warren tax plan to this audience his response was that that Adelson and the other billionaires in the audience are indeed greedy and obsessed with money. So while in his mind it is anti-Semitic for Trump to joke about money with a Jewish audience, it is perfectly fine for Trump critics to attack with a straight face that audience as a bunch of capitalist plutocrats. I want to emphasize this point to you readers to illustrate what type of logic I have to contend with in political conversations with other Jews in person. Some of these conversations have ended years-long friendships or led to estrangement from relatives. 

But enough about me. Is it possible that talking about Warren's tax plan could be an anti-Jewish backhanded attack? Sure, anything is possible. But let's put that into perspective. The common image of political leadership in America at least in the electoral context is of a person standing at a podium in a factory or at a county fair and at least pretending to care about the concerns and desires of the constituent on the local level. By contrast in the Jewish community, as I can state from first-hand experience, it is very often a black tie dinner where the speaker ascends the dais to bow and curtsy to the power brokers in the room that have either sponsored or set up the event. That's not a criticism, it is an observation that I've made as someone that has been dragged through family obligations to go to these boring affairs - if they're not by invitation only - and stand in the back like a wallflower. This is not unique to the Jewish community, by the way, it is standard in almost any industrial, professional, or networking event.   

Often the people sponsoring the event want to be either acknowledged in name or addressed implicitly as a matter of ego or as a form of advertising. Who were the people in the audience or hosting the event? They were mostly the wealthiest and most powerful people within the pro-Israel and Jewish communities and I'll list just a few:

• World Jewish Congress president Ronald Lauder, the heir to the Estee Lauder cosmetics fortune. When asked by reporters, Mr. Lauder stated that he doesn't believe Donald Trump has an anti-Semitic bone in his body. Interestingly, a lot of the same critics of Trump are heaping praise on Lauder for donating $25 million to fight anti-Semitism. 
• Israeli-Canadian billionaire Sylvan Adams, a real estate mogul. 
• Fellow casino magnate Sheldon Adelson and his wife Miriam.
• David Zalick, CEO of GreensSky, a financial company that caters to banks and merchants.
• Current IAC Chairman Adam Milstein, an Israeli immigrant who made his fortune from real estate investments.

These are just the most visible luminaries of the IAC, and not a single one walked out of the speech or condemned Trump for calling them greedy, not even Milstein who has been attacked in the past by The Intercept and pro-Palestine blog Electronic Intifada for a tax evasion conviction in the 2000s for which he served three months in federal prison for a misdemeanor. And this opens up yet another rotting pumpkin regarding Jewish American political culture that dovetails with the earlier examples: We have a lot of very wealthy people in the Jewish community that donate a ton of money or even run for higher office. But no one complains about anti-Semitism when Democrats, the left, and the media attack them for greed and materialism:

• Just last year banking billionaire JB Pritzker used his fortune to win the governor's race in Illinois. A week before the Democratic primary, the Chicago Tribune published Dahleen Glanton's opinion titled "J.B. Pritzker, a billionaire with offshore accounts, really isn't like us" and calling him a "shifty politician". No one at the time called it anti-Semitism, even though a recent Washington Post op-ed claimed Republicans calling Adam Schiff "Shifty Schiff" was anti-Semitic. 
• Former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz launched an exploratory committee for an independent presidential bid in 2019. Did anyone call for the firing of MSNBC's Ali Velshi for anti-Semitism when he panned Schultz to his face as a "rich guy" for talking about fighting income inequality? 
• Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), a candidate for the 2020 presidential nomination, complained a week before Trump's speech that the entry of Jewish billionaire Michael Bloomberg into the race along with Tom Steyer (who's father was born Jewish) made it impossible for candidates like her to compete due to their money and influence. No one saw this as anti-Semitic. This is particularly amusing to me as some Jewish Democrats that I personally know adore her -- yes Amy "2.3%$ national polling, salad comb, snow lady" Klobuchar -- and consider her their top candidate.
• Fellow candidate Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) also complained about Bloomberg: "I'm not a billionaire. I can't fund my own campaign. And as the campaign has gone on, it's become harder and harder to raise the money we need to compete." Did anyone see this as an attack on the wealth and influence of the media billionaire as a Jew? Of course not, nor should they. Instead, when she dropped out most commentators claimed that her failure was because, as the Tribune's Glanton now says, "a black woman like Kamala Harris never had a chance at the presidency". 

For those that will say in their defense that neither Harris nor Klobuchar mentioned Bloomberg by name, neither did Trump regarding Adelson. If there's one thing to disagree with Donald Trump's speech about it is not some "anti-Semitic trope" but rather the valid observation that he is indeed hobnobbing with billionaires and corporate donors. Of course, that type of criticism would roll off his back, as the president has never been shy about his wealth or his wealthy friends. He's not one to talk about modest origins like Schultz or lie about them like Mitt Romney's wife Ann. 

Those who won't take yes for an answer. 

With regards to Middle East policy Pres. Trump has been so accommodating toward Israel that his critics see him as completely in the tank for it, causing former Trump supporter Ann Coulter to complain that Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu was not reciprocating by publicly supporting the US-Mexico wall. By contrast the LA-based Jewish Journal published in April a somewhat wishful prognostication that Netanyahu could break with Trump after the Trump Peace Plan is released (who knows when?) thereby ending what they deem to be a too-close relationship and hurting both of the two politically. This is the first time in my memory that Jewish community media have openly supported a) tension in US-Israel relations at the expense of an American administration and b) turmoil that could lead to chaos within the Israeli leadership. 

Why do these people continue to either gripe about or openly oppose Trump? It has nothing to do with anti-Semitism or statesmanship, they simply hate him and don't care about results. No pro-Israel commentator is contending that Trump's policies have been adverse to Israel, and examples abound from his movement of the US embassy to Jerusalem in 2018 to the decision by his State Department to grant legal endorsement to West Bank settlements. In response to this last policy revision, this weekend the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives passed HR 326 reaffirming the US commitment to the "Two-State Solution" of the Israel-Palestine conflict  which was greeted with support from Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. The only Democrats to object were members of the radical "Squad" such as Rashida Tlaib that want a one-state binational replacement for the current Jewish state. With just this event we have reached the point where the US political system is so distracted by events in the Middle East that the White House and GOP are in some cases more pro-Israel (or anti-Palestine) than the Jewish community and Israeli government itself, and a faction of the Democrats is more pro-Palestine (or anti-Israel) than the official Palestinian government. And yet much of the "leadership" of the Jewish community has shown complete disdain for this administration, despite it granting ample attention and goodies even though it is not even on the radar of most American voters who are focused on healthcare, immigration and the economy.

Flyover Israelites

I'll end with another gloomy observation which is that the Jewish political figures, media commentators, lawyers, law professors  ADL functionaries and others that have been a part of these campaigns against Donald Trump don't actually fear anti-Semitism. At least not as it concerns them personally. People like Chuck Schumer and Adam Schiff live in coastal bubbles and Washington, DC where most people that are politically active blindly vote for them out of habit. As senior members of Congress they have the privilege of personal security details, especially Schumer who is Senate minority leader. However, those that live in metro New York that are visibly Jewish like Hasidic men ambushed on the sabbath don't have the same luxury, and their tormentors are not neo-Nazis or hill rods from Appalachia, but local "people of colour" from Williamsburg and other neighbourhoods. Democrats won't address that issue, because they need those people, specifically the votes of both the assailants and their victims!

In the Midwest we've been fortunate, or at least I have been lucky speaking as someone living there. But that can change. Many Americans are starting to look at the events of Russiagate and the impeachment, as well as the media allegations of anti-Semitism, and connect the dots while circling the J's. The result could eventually be, as my friend said "bad for the Jews", especially here. TruNews founder Rev. Rick Wiles recently made headlines for calling recent events a "Jew Coup". Schumer and his ilk don't care that when the backlash comes it will be us "Flyover Israelites" that suddenly become the target. Up until now, only the ineptitude of the plotters has helped avert disaster. A Colorado man bragged online about a plot he had to attack a local synagogue in November and was arrested after buying fake pipe bombs from the FBI. Another one was arrested in Toledo last year, and yet one more in August in Youngstown. Of course there have already been attacks in Pittsburgh, Poway (CA) and earlier in Overland Park, Kansas where people did lose their lives. In the Kansas attack the four victims ended up all being not Jewish, so this is an issue that spills over beyond anti-Semitism. Those that fear violence shouldn't be encouraged by such arrests, but rather preparing themselves for the person that slips through the cracks. Support your local firearms dealer.