27 Comments

Thank you for this data. I am not surprised that the data shows what it shows. Once again, I have to ask the so called right, why are you lying? Just own it because it is who you are.

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Allan Kulikoff, retired academic, and an anti-Zionist, supposedly self-hating Jew since 1968, when I told a colleague at the GWU Hillel that Israel needed the conquered territories like they needed a hole in the head (I used a Yiddish expression). Your data analysis is right on because you have properly excluded ADL's "data" that calls many anti-genocide protests (with Jewish participants) antisemitic.

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I shared this on Facebook and got a notice warning me not to post it. Do you know what the hell is going on?

Thanks Jim Miles

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As someone born in the US in 1939 and who has recently finished reading Rachel Maddow's book Prequel, I would have bet money on the right/white supremacist cadre of the totalitarian leaning GOP and its fellow travelers. The GOP's "Southern strategy" was merely the public revelation of its nasty anti democratic behaviour and the proof of its betrayal of the Lincoln republicans. Had he not already been 20 years dead, my grandfather would have risen from his grave at the insult to the Grand Old Party

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Jun 12Liked by Qasim Rashid

Actually, and I have said this before, the first House Hearing, run by Stefanic and her Republican colleagues, was “stealth” anti-semitism at a most dangerous level. As well as being an attack on higher education. While pretending to root out and punish perpetrators of anti-semitism it actually brought to the fore the usual tropes about money and control. The hearing was never intended to be about education, which is what could have been helpful.

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Thank you so much. I just responded to someone screaming about attacks on campuses and this was perfect.

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author

Excellent to hear. I love when people use facts to debunk misinformation.

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Probably won't work because some people are too attached to their feelings than facts -- but we can only try.

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Thank you!

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I just tried to replicate what you showed in this article and, in selecting strictly for antisemitic acts found that the search could not be filtered by ideology,so I'm curious how you were able to do that.

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author

It’s there. I just did it. There’s an option to select by ideology. Looks just like the screen shots I shared.

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I sent you a note, with a screenshot, because I couldn't find a way to do it here. There is NO way to do what you suggest if you select strictly for antisemitism.

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author

Oh wow! I just went back and checked, and they've now changed their own website and banned the ability to do exactly what I did right as I published this. Fascinating that they'd make that unilateral change. My screenshots demonstrate the ability to search by ideology, because that's exactly what they had before. I need to do more digging. Thanks for the heads up, Sherri.

Graem - I see your point about the ADL and I want to make clear, that the point here is even the ADL admits the hate is coming from the right, not the left. And the fact that now they're changing access to their own data is truly remarkable, and on brand.

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Hi Qasim, I’m a subscriber and agree with your point that antisemitism is a demonstrably right wing issue, but Sherri is correct. Selecting antisemitic incidents gives a pop-up that reads:

“Note: “Antisemitic Incidents“ is a separate dataset whose results are not filterable by Ideology. For a full thematic analysis of antisemitic incidents, including the ideology of the perpetrators, please see ADL’s annual Audit of Antisemitic Incidents.”

I think you need to retract or rewrite this article not because it misrepresents the data, but because the data is not worth legitimizing in the first place. The ADL is a propaganda outlet for Zionism with far more serious issues to cover. They label calls to boycott Zionist businesses as antisemitic incidents and put them in the same dataset with incidents of swastika graffiti, bomb threats, and nazi salutes.

There is a strong case to make when it comes to dispelling the myth of the “virulently antisemitic left” but this is not it.

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As a non-practicing Jew who does not normally write on the topic of antisemitism and who writes commentaries regularly for Raw Story and Salon neither one nor the NY Times, WP, etc was interested in publishing this commentary on the campus protests and anti-Zionism.

By Gregg Barak

During a Holocaust remembrance ceremony on May 7, President Biden condemned a “ferocious surge” in antisemitism.

The president’s remarks resonated with a February cover article in Time magazine, The New Antisemitism, claiming that the source for increasing antisemitism in the United States is the pro-Palestinian left.

The article argued that while antisemitism has always been a right-wing phenomenon, “the most perniciously creative current in contemporary antisemitic thought is more likely to come from the left.”

Writing earlier this month in Jewish Currents, Adam Haber and Matylda Figlerowicz contend that the “surge” in antisemitism may actually reflect a recycled “moral panic,” a concept first introduced in Folk Devils and Moral Panics.

They argue that the folk devils or villains of antisemitism are the pro-Palestinian college protesters.

As part of their evidence against the false narrative of leftist antisemitism, Haber and Figlerowicz refer to The New Anti-Semitism published in 1974 that was referring to a new form of anti-Jewish animus allegedly emerging from the left. Blaming the new antisemitism on Arabs and Black Americans.

Between then and now, many books and articles have been written using “new” antisemitism in their titles. The Jewish Currents article maintains that these works as well as many conservative politicians have been conflating anti-Zionism with antisemitism in conflict with the late 19th century Jewish tradition which viewed Zionism as antisemitic and discriminatory.

The common denominator is always moral panic as an increase in antisemitism attributed falsely to leftist and youthful social movements rather than to an increase in anti-Zionism as moral justice.

As Haber and Figlerowicz explain, the concept of a left-wing antisemitism and texts on the subject are “revived each time Israel’s oppression of Palestinians leads to another wave of international crisis.” Like at the turn of the millennium “after Israel’s reprisals following the Second Intifada prompted a global outcry and a fresh mobilization of diasporic Jewish dissent.”

As for social movements, “leftist” and “rightist,” they can be divided historically into those that have aligned themselves ideologically as either left, broad-minded, and progressive or as right, narrow-minded, and regressive.

Examples of leftist movements include the peace, ecological and Black Lives Matter movements. These have been driven primarily by younger people and the next generation of political leaders. Their objectives are about liberation and expanding the rights of all people.

So it is not surprising that college students of all ages and genders and ethnicities – including Jews – were congregated in campus encampments, demonstrating on the side of the Palestinians, standing in opposition to Israel’s occupation of Gaza and the mass killing of innocent civilians there.

Conversely, the rightist movements include the Ku Klux Klan, the Neo-Nazis, and the Christian nationalists. These movements have been driven primarily by white, middle-aged adults looking backwards to when societies were supposedly better off. Their objectives are mostly about subjugation and restricting the rights of marginal peoples.

So it is therefore not surprising that many, if not all, right wingers support Zionist oppression of Palestinians, while prominent Republicans continue to echo antisemitic tropes as the two go hand in hand.

Support for this polarity or division in attitudes about Jews and antisemitism comes from the two most important takeaways from the Anti-Defamation League’s Antisemitic Attitudes in America 2024: 1.) Antisemitism continues to increase because belief in anti-Jewish tropes such as Jews stick together more than other Americans, Jews are more loyal to Israel than America, or Jews always like to be the head of things continues to grow, and 2.) “Conspiratorial thinking and social dominance orientation are key predictors of anti-Jewish beliefs.”

Regarding the first take away, let me point out that racism and sexism are also increasing because of a belief in stereotyped racist and misogynistic tropes that continue to grow as well. With concomitant growth in antisemitism, racism, and sexism, then what accounts for a surge in protests against any one of these isms?

They typically happen locally and globally whenever the mass media focuses its attention on the harms and deaths occurring publicly to members of any of these victimized groups.

As for the second take away: The findings of “conspiratorial thinking” and “social dominance orientation” as the best predictor of anti-Jewish beliefs blows away the claims that antisemitism has to do with leftist social movements. The left does not generally engage in conspiracy theories while the right is all about them – from Hitler back in the day to former President Trump or his minions all the way down to his MAGA base.

Social dominance orientations refer to personality traits that measure an individual’s support for social hierarchy and the extent to which individuals desire that their ingroup be superior to the out-groups. Once again, the “left personality” is anathema to inequality, privilege, and discrimination. On the other hand, the “right personality” is all about reinforcing caste systems and social statuses; segregation and separation; them and us.

Gregg Barak is an emeritus professor of criminology and criminal justice at Eastern Michigan University and the author of numerous books, including Violence and Nonviolence: Pathways to Understanding. His latest book published April 1, 2024, is Indicting the 45th President: Boss Trump, the GOP, and What We Can Do About the Threat to American Democracy.

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Jun 12Liked by Qasim Rashid

as a jew whos attended campus events and many pro palestine marches in chicago, i can say that the right wing hate is real. But, the adl conveniently leaves out another group. zionist jews. yeah. the most antisemitism and hate i have gotten in the past year has been from zionists. Everything fron ‘youre not a real

jew’, to ‘ youre ancestors should have been gassed’. yeah. From Jews! ADL leaves out zionist jews for a reason. they are complicit in this.

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author

That's a fascinating point and I hadn't even contemplated that. I wonder if there's an org documenting that?

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Jun 12Liked by Qasim Rashid

I can really only speak to what ive seen but perhaps JVP has some more insight? I know i have seen videos from the USC or maybe it was UCLA campus where zionist women were yelling at jewish pro pali women telling them they hope they ‘get raped by hamas’ and their ‘children are murdered’. Even seeing Medea Benjamin being called a ‘terrorist’ by a congressman should give us all pause. ADL needs to add Zionist to their category. This doesnt just happen at camous or rallies, there are multiple incidents recorded where zionists have faked their own attacks and tried to blame ‘islamists or leftists’ recently.

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author

Yep, have seen those abusive campus videos too, and yes I wonder who is documenting it. It certainly needs to be researched.

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Haha just like every other hate crime.. weird right

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author

Color me shocked.

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Jun 12Liked by Qasim Rashid

Why does the media belong to the right? Why isn't there a method to point out the media's errors / lies?

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author

That was one of the two main driving factors behind me launching Let's Address This on Substack. Grateful that I'm drawing people like you who recognize this need and help support it.

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Still would be dope if you uploaded video of you discussing these topics through trnn. I can give you Max's email Addy.

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Jun 12Liked by Qasim Rashid

It’s an agenda to create more chaos.

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Jun 12Liked by Qasim Rashid

Important. Thank you

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