Biden’s plan to fight antisemitism is a deception—protecting, rather than defeating the enemy

Dear Friend of Israel, Dear Friend of FLAME:

Rather than an effective roadmap to prosecute and prevent hateful attacks on Jews and Israel, the Biden Administration’s new National Strategy to Combat Antisemitism is actually a smokescreen designed to protect many of the most vicious antisemites in America—including those in the President’s own party.

On May 25^th, President Biden laid out his strategy for fighting antisemitism in the US, at a time when the latest statistics show attacks against Jews make up 63% of reported religiously motivated hate crimes, though Jews represent just 2.4% of the US population.

Biden’s new strategy first fails to define the antisemitism that it opposes, since its definitions of antisemitism contradict one another, creating more confusion than clarity. Ultimately, the strategy is little more than a ruse designed to excuse some of the worst antisemitism that exists in the U.S. today: Anti-Zionism.

Biden’s antisemitism strategy also endorses the involvement of a virulently antisemitic organization with ties to Islamist terrorists—the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).

Finally, the President’s strategy does not treat antisemitism singularly, but instead, dilutes the offense by lumping it with other forms of hatred, even though Jews suffer from hate crimes far more than any other group.

In short, Biden’s National Strategy to Combat Antisemitism is simply a public relations attempt to convince Jews and other humanitarians that the government opposes hate crimes, while ignoring a huge swath of haters .

The whole strategy is a deception: While it purports to recommend and take various actions against Jew-hatred, it instead offers a mishmash of definitions that above all leave the extremely prevalent anti-Zionist form of antisemitism free from censure.

To its credit, one definition of antisemitism endorsed by Biden’s strategy is that used by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), which has been adopted almost universally—by 36 other countries, the European Union, the Organization of American States, the Council of Europe and 26 individual U.S. states, not to mention hundreds of institutions around the world. This definition includes anti-Zionism, appropriately, as a form of antisemitism.

But bizarrely, President Biden’s strategy endorses other, problematic definitions—specifically the Nexus Document and the Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism (JDA)—neither of which includes anti-Zionism as a form of antisemitism. This flaw is egregious, which is why many major Jewish organizations have criticized the inclusion of these deficient definitions of antisemitism.

The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA), for example, in a letter to President Biden, said, “The JDA and the Nexus Document are . . . dangerous, wrongly shielding antisemites who try to mask their hatred of Jews by expressing it as hatred for the Jewish state.”

Similarly, B’nai Brith, issued a statement saying that they are “disappointed in the document’s mention of the Nexus definition of antisemitism,” adding, “we believe that definition allows the more invidious of Israel’s nemeses to hide their animus behind ‘strident criticism’ of Israel.”

Anti-Zionism is one of the most prevalent manifestations of antisemitism. It is the form of antisemitism found on most American universities, in the United Nations and on the American left generally, including growing numbers in the U.S. Congress—mostly Democrats, like Representatives Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib.

Omar famously tweeted “It’s all about the Benjamins baby,” implying that Jews were buying political support for Israel, a classic antisemitic trope. Rashida Tlaib has said that people “cannot claim to hold progressive values yet back Israel’s apartheid government,” inferring that Jews cannot be progressive if they support Israel (which in fact does not practice apartheid).

Anti-Zionism is also the predominant form of antisemitism expressed by most Palestinians and by their supporters in the US. Their position denies self-determination of the Jewish people, insisting that Israel be expelled from occupying “Arab” land—“from the [Jordan] River to the [Mediterranean] Sea”—in other words, the entire Jewish state.

Perhaps most outrageously, President Biden’s antisemitism strategy specifically names as an ally an organization notorious for its anti-Zionism: CAIR. According to Biden’s National Strategy, the organization will educate faith groups about how to protect their places of worship, forge inter-faith relationships, and maintain open lines of communication with law enforcement.

But CAIR is an organization known for spewing antisemitic vitriol and having ties to the Islamist terrorist group, Hamas. CAIR’s leadership has accused “Zionist synagogues” and Jewish organizations of being responsible for Islamophobia in the U.S. In short, to include CAIR in a major policy initiative fighting antisemitism is an affront—the group discredits Biden’s entire strategy.

No wonder that CAIR’s national deputy director Edward Ahmed Mitchell applauded the fact that the IHRA definition of antisemitism was not the sole definition endorsed by Biden’s strategy. He’s no doubt delighted that anti-Zionist campaigns like BDS can continue without hindrance—proof that Biden’s strategy is little more than a deception designed to shield leftist anti-Zionists from accusations of antisemitism.

The President’s new antisemitism strategy also deceives by lumping antisemitism with other forms of hatred. It repeatedly mentions antisemitism in the context of other forms of hate. In fact, the first paragraph of the document’s Overview section begins by mentioning several other forms of hate before even mentioning antisemitism. Despite the fact that millennia-old antisemitism is considered by most scholars a unique phenomenon, the Overview asserts “The hatred of Jews shares much in common with other forms of hate, such as racism, Islamophobia, homophobia, transphobia, and misogyny.”

There are, of course, many forms of hate in the US. Nevertheless, failing to address antisemitism on its own additionally proves that President Biden is not serious about combatting antisemitism.

Rather, Biden simply wants voters to believe he’s serious . . . without riling his left-wing base. That’s the reason his strategy mentions only one specific type of antisemite—white supremacists— ignoring all the antisemitism of the left. After all, you don’t bite the hand that keeps you in office.

Please make the point when speaking with family, friends, colleagues—or in letters to the editor—that if President Biden were really serious about fighting antisemitism, he would have created a strategy that includes only the IHRA definition of antisemitism, addressed antisemitism singularly, and ensured that his strategy targets all forms of antisemitism no matter their source on the political spectrum.

I hope you’ll also take a minute, while you have this material front and center, to forward this message to friends, visit FLAME’s lively Facebook page and review the P.S. immediately below. It describes FLAME’s new hasbarah campaign—”Demand Justice for Jewish Students”—which exposes rising attacks on Jewish college students’ identity and how these acts of antisemitism can be defeated.

Best regards,
Jason Shvili, Contributing Editor
Facts and Logic About the Middle East (FLAME)

P.S.

You’ve surely seen headlines describing increasing attacks on Jewish students—in the classroom and in the public square—by radical anti-Zionist students, as well as faculty members. So far, university administrators have failed to prevent this kind of antisemitism on campus. At the heart of this discrimination, Israel’s enemies outrageously claim that Zionism is not part of being Jewish. No wonder more and more Jewish students are hiding their Jewish identities on campus. I think you’ll agree that we supporters of Israel need to speak out. FLAME’s new hasbarah—explanatory message—“Demand Justice for Jewish Students”—tells how recent law suits based on Title VI anti-discrimination laws are putting pressure on college administrators to protect Jewish students from such attacks. I hope you’ll review this convincing, fact-based editorial, which FLAME recently published in the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Houston Chronicle, Star Tribune, Los Angeles Times and Newsmax. This piece will also be sent to all members of Congress, Vice President Harris and President Biden. If you agree that this kind of public relations effort on Israel’s behalf is critical, I urge you to support us. As of today, more than 15,000 Israel supporters receive the FLAME Hotline at no charge every week. If you’re not yet a subscriber, won’t you join us in receiving these timely updates, so you can more effectively tell the truth about Israel? Just go to free subscription.