Antisemitism is on the rise in the United States across the political spectrum, and it is creating challenging questions for how best to address many of the most pressing moral challenges of our day — particularly U.S. policy toward Israel and a rise in hate incidents.
According to the Anti-Defamation League, which released its audit of 2023 on April 16, hate incidents against Jewish people have increased 140% in 2023 from the prior year, with 8,873 total antisemitic incidents — including harassment or violent assault — on record compared to about 3,700 cases in 2022. The ADL says 5,204 incidents took place after the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks in Israel, with 1,352 anti-Israel rallies allegedly platforming antisemitic remarks.
“Jewish Americans are being targeted for who they are at school, at work, on the street, in Jewish institutions and even at home. This crisis demands immediate action from every sector of society and every state in the union. We need every governor to develop and put in place a comprehensive strategy to fight antisemitism, just as the administration has done at the national level,” ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said in a statement.
Islamophobia
At the same time, reports of Islamophobia in the United States also have skyrocketed, according to Al Jazeera.
Columnists Corey Saylor and Farah Afify wrote on April 2: “In the last three months of 2023, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, received a staggering 3,578 complaints about discrimination based on race, ethnicity or religion.”
They added: “It is clear that we will not see an end to this round of violence against Muslims in the U.S. until we see an end to the violence against Palestinians in Gaza. And yet the crucial step of calling for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza and acknowledging the decades of occupation and apartheid faced by Palestinians remains elusive. Instead, Biden has decided in recent days to approve yet another arms shipment to Israel worth billions of dollars.”
The Israel-Hamas War
The current discussions on antisemitism and Islamophobia are heavily tied to the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. On Oct. 7, the Palestinian militant group launched a coordinated surprise attack against Israel that resulted in the deaths of 1,139 Israeli civilians, security officials and tourists, with 253 people taken as hostages. Israel continues to retaliate against Hamas with a sustained military campaign that already has killed an estimated 34,000 Palestinians and reduced cities to rubble.
The brutality and escalation of the war has led to criticism against the state of Israel. Nearly half of Gaza’s civilian and farming infrastructure has suffered critical damage. Some human rights groups have accused Israel of engaging in genocide against the Palestinian people. On April 16, a U.N. commission looking into human rights abuses in Israel accused the country of obstructing its investigation and hiding evidence.
The war has escalated further in recent weeks with international implications, following Iran’s attempted airstrikes against Israel. On April 12, Iran launched about 300 missiles and drones against Israel, the majority of which either didn’t hit their targets or never reached Israeli airspace. One shrapnel injury was reported.
Israel waited until April 18 to respond until with a limited airstrike. While Iran has signaled it has no plans to retaliate further, these attacks have spurred fears of a nuclear escalation between both nations that could have global consequences.
The American government has continued to support Israel with military aid and support, while vetoing and abstaining from United Nations cease-fire resolutions. President Joe Biden has suggested the Oct. 7 Hamas attack was an attempt to disrupt Israel’s normalizing relationship with Saudi Arabia. He also promised to provide humanitarian aid to Gaza.
Antisemitism vs. Anti-Zionism?
The brutality of the war has spurred an international dialogue about Zionism and the state of Israel, with thousands of cease-fire resolutions being filed by international bodies like the United Nations and progressive city councils like San Francisco.
“This distinction does not mean the state of Israel should cease to exist, as its most virulent critics argue, but that it has the same responsibilities as other nations.”
This dialogue is confused by a non-trivial overlap between anti-Zionism and antisemitism — as anyone who hates Jewish people must necessarily hate Israel — but both concepts are not necessarily indistinguishable. Israel is a political state as much as it is a haven for the historically oppressed Jewish people. If it commits humanitarian crimes, it is as worthy of criticism as any other country. This distinction does not mean the state of Israel should cease to exist, as its most virulent critics argue, but that it has the same responsibilities as other nations.
Many critics of Israel allege this lack of distinction is being abused to censor them.
For example, The Nation argues pro-Zionist groups have “weaponized” accusations of antisemitism in a fashion not dissimilar from McCarthyism — blurring the lines between criticizing Israel as a political entity and ethnic hatred toward Jewish people. Al Jazeera similarly notes that dismissing all criticisms of Israel as antisemitism is damaging society’s urgent necessity to address rising hatred — while admitting that “numerous genuine antisemites have jumped on the bandwagon of defending Palestine to further their own agenda.”
This conflation has resulted in severe consequences on social media and on college campuses.
Asna Tabassum
The University of Southern California last week barred its Muslim valedictorian, Asna Tabassum, from speaking at graduation, claiming her activism had taken an “alarming tenor” after she shared links on Instagram to groups calling Israel “racist-settlers” and calling for the abolishment of the state. She asserts the school is attempting to silence her and that the incident has exposed her to Islamophobic hatred.
Several Jewish professors at Berkley have received heat for stealing the microphone of a Justice for Palestine-supporting student protesting at a private backyard event.
The Washington Post reports an X account hosted by the group StopAntisemitism has gotten dozens of people fired or suspended from their jobs by tagging pro-Palestine and pro-Hamas accounts to their workplaces and accusing them of antisemitism.
However, examples of outright antisemitism in American life have spurred the public to be more sensitive toward these issues.
This includes rapper Kanye West praising Hitler and announcing he was “going deaf-con 3 on Jewish people,” losing his billion-dollar Adidas contract in the process, and Congressmen like Rep. Mike Collins (R-Ga.), Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), and Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) making allegedly antisemitic remarks.
Republicans and Democrats
Both sides of the political aisle are currently caught in political battles over the nature of antisemitism and how (or if) it differs from anti-Zionism. That in turn could have an effect on November’s presidential election.
Partisan antisemitism tends to exist among the extremes of both sides but manifests in different ways — as far-rightists view Jews as subversive outsiders while far-leftists view Jews as dominating oppressors. The American left has grown generally weary toward Zionism while still acknowledging the dangers of antisemitism. According to the Brookings Institution, 36% of Democrats and 32% of Republicans hold negative feelings toward Zionism.
Unreserved pro-Zionism has generally become a right-leaning position. Congressional Republicans took charge in condemning anti-Zionism early on in the war with a December resolution passing the House of Representatives that “clearly and firmly states that anti-Zionism is antisemitism.”
The right, being heavily influenced by dispensational evangelicalism, tends to conflate anti-Zionism and antisemitism — although populist and isolationist conservatives tend to kick back against sending military aid to Israel as a matter of principal.
Evangelicals and Southern Baptists — who tend to skew 64% Republican — have overwhelmingly shown support for Israel, with the Southern Baptist Convention releasing its Evangelical Statement in Support of Israel and affirming “the legitimacy of Israel’s right to respond against those who have initiated these attacks.”
Candace Owens speaks during the Conservative Political Action Conference at The Rosen Shingle Creek on February 25, 2022, in Orlando, Fla. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
There is still disagreement among conservatives, however. This internal conflict could be seen in the ongoing rivalry between Orthodox Jewish commentator Ben Shapiro and former Daily Wire contributor Candace Owens, a prominent Black conservative commentator.
Owens responded to Gaza’s attack by posting Matthew 5:9-11 and allegedly jabbing at her employers by saying, “You cannot serve both God and money” and “Christ is King.” Shapiro responded to this by calling her moral equivalencies“disgusting” and suggesting she quit her job, to which she called him “unhinged.”
The rivalry remained heated through March, when Daily Wire CEO Jeremy Boreing announced Owens’ departure, with the media company allegedly choosing not to renew her contract. That spurred a massive online debate about whether the nebulous phrase “Christ is King” is antisemitic or not — following many social media accounts antagonistically tweeting the phrase at Jewish accounts.
While the phrase itself is an innocuous statement of Jesus’ lordship, its rhetorical usage did spur concerns it was being abused as an antisemitic dog whistle.
Not all anti-Zionist Christian nationalists may fully qualify as antisemitic, but there are more extremely outspoken figures on the far-right such as young activists Nick Fuentes and Corey Mahler. Much of the more extreme antisemitism is coming out of younger circles.
Mahler was excommunicated from the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod on April 30, 2023, for his “continued impenitence” due to his public statements online, where he regularly calls race mixing sinful, denies the Holocaust and proclaims Adolf Hitler a saint. He recently called Israel an “ally of none, enemy of all.”
Could Anti-Zionist schism sway the election?
The left side of the aisle has faced its own schism over these issues. With the House’s antisemitism resolution passing in December, Democrats split 84 to 125 over the resolution, with many Jewish Democrats alleging the bill was “weaponizing antisemitism” as a political tool. The bill was co-sponsored by Jewish Democrat Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.), and several Democrats reportedly voted for the resolution out of fear of the backlash of not voting for it, Axios reported.
Party leaders tend to be split on the issue. On March 24, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) accused the state of Israel of committing genocide, further elaborating in an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper that Israel’s strategies have “crossed the threshold of intent.” Conversely, Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) has become a fiery voice of support for Israel, so much so that Republican donors are beginning to support him.
“If you’re not willing to just support the president now, and say these kinds of things, you might as well just get your MAGA hat because you now are helping Trump with this,” said Fetterman said against Biden’s stance on Israel.
“The war has scrambled Democratic politics across the United States.”
Much remains to be seen in the current race between President Biden and former President Donald Trump. The most recent Emerson College polling shows Trump edging out a slight lead, with the elections still seven months out. As ABC reports, an upcoming congressional race in Pittsburgh could offer insight into the party’s overall stance on the war, with the anti-Zionist Rep. Summer Lee (D-Pa.) facing a primary challenge from Bhavini Patel, after she accused Israel of committing war crimes and called for an end to American aid.
“The war has scrambled Democratic politics across the United States,” AP reported. “It’s dividing traditionally progressive groups, including Pittsburgh’s sizable Jewish community, in ways that don’t always fall neatly along ethnic or cultural lines. But it’s an especially potent issue in Lee’s district, which is home to the synagogue where a gunman in 2018 killed 11 congregants in the deadliest attack on Jews in U.S. history. The April 23 primary could shed light on whether the war alone is enough to turn a critical mass of Democrats against Lee.”
It remains unclear how President Biden will pivot under pressure, particularly if one or more Democrats are successfully primaried over the summer.
In the meantime
In the meantime, anti-Zionism continues to make a lot of noise in the national media. Numerous revolutionary and socialist groups have praised Palestinian actions as a necessary step toward liberation.
Oscar-winning director Jonathan Glazer condemned Israel in his recent acceptance speech broadcast live on national TV and called people to “refute their Jewishness.” Then 300 Jewish creatives came out in support of Glazer, while more than 1,200 condemned his speech.
On February 25, U.S. airman Aaron Bushnell died in an act of self-immolation outside the Israeli embassy in Washington, D.C., setting himself on fire in protest and saying he “will no longer be complicit in genocide.”
And Jewish people in America continue to report they feel increasingly vulnerable and unsafe amid the rising tide of antisemitism.
After Oct. 7, “we saw an explosion of anti-Israel activism that incorporated expressions of opposition to Zionism, as well as support for resistance against Israel or Zionists that could be perceived as supporting terrorism or attacks on Jews, Israelis or Zionists,” the ADL report states. “When they occur during public activism (such as at protests), in confrontations between individuals or in the form of vandalism (such as graffiti), these expressions constitute an implicit attack on the great majority of American Jews who view a relationship with Israel to be an important part of their religious, cultural and/or social identities.
“Such rhetoric can be traumatizing to many American Jews and has led to their exclusion from some spaces simply because of that element of how they define and express their Jewishness.”