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Republicans' fake anti-semitism crusade exposed again [1]

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Date: 2025-05-05

This fake crusade has been exposed many times before that makes anyone who opposes Israel automatically an anti-semite.

The far-right likes to lay blame on Jews for killing Jesus, when they had no part in it. Even Pope Benedict, a real stickler for scripture detail, said so. It was the Romans.

Trump's use of battling anti-semitism as a weapon to attack universities for having allowed pro-Palestinian protests has been played out right in the open for all to see.

The Anti-semitism Awareness Act passed the House easily in the last Congress. The Senate is having problems with it and Democrats have proposed many amendments that Sen. Rand Paul has signed on to. The most problematic one states that criticism of Israel is not anti-semitic. Sen. Bill Cassidy put in amendment allowing the far-right's free speech to, you guessed it, say that the Jews killed Jesus. That amendment hasn't been voted on, yet. The myth of Jews being responsible for Jesus's death has been front and center to those saying the Holocaust was justified. Funny that the Republicans want to call that free speech, with the worst attack on Jews ever, while attacking free speech elsewhere. If you want the best definition of anti-semitism, the place to go is modern Germany. The same for a definition of Nazism.

The intent of the bill is good. It is to create a clear, uniform definition of anti-semitism. The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance and the ADL signed off on the House version. It calls into play the Civil Rights Act of 1964. It was received in the Senate last year in May (PDF). It's really quite short.

The old saying of the road to hell being paved with good intentions describes this bill perfectly. Had it been passed in it's original form from the House, which is the PDF link above, I don't think anyone would have a problem with it, reading it through. Now it's the Republican Senators jockeying for carve outs that is the problem.

It is what it is. Anti-semitism is always about attacks on being Jewish. Anti-Israel is sometimes anti-Zionism, but unless Judaism is brought up as part of the mix, it is not anti-semitic.

The worst anti-semitic offender is Donald Trump. He says Jews that didn't vote for him aren't good Jews and they are anti-Israel. He even has claimed the power to decide who is Jewish or not, with him calling Chuck Schumer a Palestinian. The last guy with the power to debase Jews like that was Hitler.

Trump's attack on higher education has used anti-semitism as a weapon. Colleges are wise and doing something about the problem. Punishing universities for allowing free speech is wrong.

But, Trump will never understand that. It's all just part of his program to marginalize minorities while co-opting their slogans and talking points and turning them on their head. It's not to late to rescue DEI. Trump and his agencies cannot be continue to be allowed to claim DEI is discrimination. What if a Jew was given preference?

Isn't the 250 years of DEI for white people discrimination? Oh, wait a minute, discussing that might make some people uneasy. That must be woke.

If the Anti-semitism Awareness Act just sticks to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, this will all work out. If the Republicans ask for the ridiculous, it should be shot down and fixed.

I await for Trump to rear his ugly head and weigh-in on the battle. Whatever he says will wind up being racist, because that's what he is.

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