Dangerous escalation: the attack on Judaism reaches the US Congress

On By Pranco

Last week the Western attack on Judaism escalated as 17 Democratic Senators and 71 Democratic members of Congress wrote a stunning letter to US President Joe Biden, urging him to sanction the two elected leaders of Israel’s national religious population, effectively eliminating the votes of more than 10% of the Israeli electorate were suppressed.

This is an attack not only on Israeli democracy, but also on US national security, as fighters and victims in the wars in Gaza and Lebanon disproportionately come from the national-religious sector.

These religious heroes also fight and die for the safety of Americans. The attempt to deprive them of their fundamental right to choose their own representatives symbolizes an extreme form of ingratitude for the sacrifices of members of the armed forces – both in Israel and the US.

This letter from Congress follows the initiative of Josep Borrell, EU foreign policy chief, who wanted to impose sanctions on Israeli elected officials he does not approve of because of the way they speak! This underlines that the Western attack continues Judaism is also a proxy for an attack on America – in this case on the American principle of freedom of speech.

And yet, one reason given by the 88 US lawmakers for sanctioning the two Israeli ministers – Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir – is their “call for Israel to annex the West Bank.” This while the exact same call is being made by a number of nominees in the incoming Trump administration.

(LR) Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir, Minister of Finance Bezalel Smotrich (credit: FLASH90)

This could be a chilling sign of things to come: Those 88 Democratic lawmakers cannot sanction President-elect Trump and his nominees, but they can try to sanction Israeli Jews who express similar views as an outlet for their frustration.

No doubt many Israelis, especially on the left, are dissatisfied with the two ministers, but Israelis firmly believe that Israeli politics should be a matter for the Israeli democratic process, and not for the EU and the Democratic Party.

Recurring attempt to target religious Jews?

Some American Christians see this as part of an effort by Democratic leaders to target people of faith.

Israeli religious Jews consist of two groups: the national-religious, who are targeted by proposed sanctions against their political leaders, and the Charedi Jews, who were targeted in April in an attempt to destroy the Israeli army unit in which they serve to dismantle.

That unit, Netzah Yehuda, led heroic battles in Gaza and suffered casualties, including during the week it was targeted by the Biden administration.

Stay up to date with the latest news!

Subscribe to the Jerusalem Post newsletter

The “reason” given for withdrawing funding in the middle of the fighting wasn’t even about the fighting in Gaza, but rather about an incident in 2022 involving a handful of soldiers accused of criminal negligence that led to the tragic death of a Palestinian prisoner from a heart attack. arrest. That same year, more than 3,700 criminal investigations were opened in the US Navy alone. Should Marines and other U.S. military personnel worry that their units will be defined as “collateral damage” in the Western attack on Jewry?

This further underscores the connection between the Western attack on Judaism and American national security discussed in last week’s article.

The Democratic leaders I spoke with at the time assured me that such measures were temporary—merely “to win Michigan”—and that things would be different after November. November came and things got worse. After targeting Israeli democracy and its religious population, the 88 Democratic lawmakers turned to spreading the new anti-Semitic bile: settler violence.

‘Settler Violence’, a whitewashed term for Jewish violence

As anti-Islamic violence and rhetoric have mushroomed in the US and Europe, the Biden administration has decided to promote the European-sponsored fable of settler violence, which Israeli lawmakers labeled a “modern blood libel.”

This was apparently done to minimize the Hamas atrocities of October 7 and claim “extremists on both sides,” which in turn helped promote the Democratic Party/EU’s sacred concept of a two-state solution. The congressional letter to Biden shockingly states: “We welcome your Executive Order, which calls out actors from all sides who are undermining peace, security and stability in the West Bank… We also believe that the Administration must continue to step up its efforts to ensure that all actors complicit in this violence are also subject to US sanctions.”

At the launch of my new book, The Assault on Judaism, noted Times of London columnist Melanie Phillips argued that she was particularly alarmed by the level of joy at the Western attack on Judaism.

In what is reminiscent of the anti-Jewish propaganda about the attack on Judaism of the last century, the letter announced another reason for sanctioning the Minister of Finance: “He has denied tens of thousands of work permits to Palestinian citizens since October 7. ”

Should US Secretary of State Antony Blinken also be punished for denying tens of thousands of visas to citizens? In 2023, more than 250,000 student visas to the US were denied. Furthermore, are those 88 Democratic legislators unaware of what their continuity is? Israel is at war.

‘We the people’ versus ‘We the donors’

You have to wonder: Did those 88 lawmakers set aside America’s core principle of “We the People” to make way for the competing concept of “We the Donors,” some of whom are at the forefront of the Western attack on Judaism?

It must be made clear: most of the 88 lawmakers are not anti-Semites. They are patriotic Americans who deserve much thanks for their public service. Yet their actions are indicative of how deeply the Western attack on Judaism has penetrated—so much so that it was considered a higher priority than other values, including freedom of speech, representative democracy, American national security, and the truth.

Although the letter was signed by 88 Democratic members of Congress, it is also important to note that more than 30 Democratic senators and more than 140 Democratic members of Congress refused to sign the angry letter, including fierce critics of Israeli policies. In fact, many within the Democratic Party would like it to abandon its “European values” and obsessive opposition to the Jewish state and return to its own core values.

In the meantime, the congressional letter has arrived at the White House. Biden should not dignify it with presidential attention. Instead, he should refer it to the Senate and House of Representatives ethics committees.

Perhaps steps can be taken there to ensure that the attack on Judaism – a proxy for an attack on Americanism – will be kept beyond the reach of the US Congress.

The writer is the author of a new book, The attack on Judaism: the existential threat comes from the West. He is chairman of the Judaism 3.0 Think Tank and author of Judaism 3.0: Judaism’s Transformation to Zionism (Judaism-Zionism.com). His geopolitical articles can be found at EuropeAndJerusalem.com