As Jewish Americans, we are witnessing a horrifying rise in antisemitism, feeling insecure about displaying our heritage publicly and unsure whether can live our daily lives without facing hostility and threats at home and calls for the destruction of our historic homeland.
Sadly, this is nothing new. For thousands of years, Jews have been unfairly scapegoated by demagogues and deceivers for their own political gain. Even so, we are shocked and appalled that we have now seen this in the United States from Rep. Sara Jacobs (D-Calif.), a Jewish congresswoman.
In a recent column, Jacobs not only blamed Israel for ongoing conflicts but also amplified numerous fallacious Hamas talking points.
The congresswoman decried a Gaza casualty figure of 39,000 without attributing it to a source. That source is the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry. It is unverified, does not differentiate between terrorists and civilians, and was revised downward by the notoriously anti-Israel United Nations.
In fact, the chair of urban warfare studies at the Modern War Institute at West Point John Spencer cited a combatant-to-civilian casualty ratio of roughly 1:1, which is “historically low for modern urban warfare. The U.N., E.U. and other sources estimate that civilians usually account for 80% to 90% of casualties, or a 1:9 ratio, in modern war.”
Jacobs repeated other Hamas lies.
She criticized Israel for attacking Gaza schools and hospitals without explaining that these facilities were functioning as bases of operation for attacks on IDF soldiers and launch sites for rockets targeting Israeli civilians.
She warned of “starvation” in Gaza, which even a U.N.-linked food security organization denies is happening.
She condemned the internal displacement of Gazans but not the tens of thousands of Israelis driven from their homes for nine months by Hamas and Hezbollah attacks.
She is entirely mum on the closed borders of neighboring Arab nations, including Egypt, which refuse to provide refuge—even temporarily—to their Arab brethren.
Jacobs references the Jewish value of tikkun olam, “repairing the world,” as her reason for boycotting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s recent address to Congress. Had she attended, she would have heard about four Israeli soldiers who exemplify tikkun olam through their bravery and humanity.
These heroes, including Lt. Avihail Reuben, Master Sgt. Ashvahal Bacheri, Lt. Assa Solfer and Lt. Jonathan Yona, demonstrated remarkable courage and dedication to protecting Israeli lives, even at great personal cost.
Jacobs would also have met Noa Argamani, who was violently kidnapped to Gaza from the Nova peace rave and held in slavery until she was rescued in a heroic operation by Israeli forces. She returned home just in time to embrace her mother, who passed away from cancer only days later.
Jacobs’s attacks on the Jewish state undermine the essence of Tikkun Olam.
Furthermore, she entirely neglects another important Jewish value: Klal Yisrael, Jewish unity and responsibility for one another. Instead, Jacobs weaponizes her Judaism, using it as a cudgel to beat her fellow Jews. She aligns herself with other “Azajews,” haters who begin their attacks on Jews and Israel with the words, “As a Jew … ”
In her column, Jacobs justified the killing and harming of Jews in the name of Hamas’s radical ideology, requires of Israel a behavior not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation and blames Israel—the collective Jew—for acts committed by Gaza terrorists.
These are all expressions of antisemitism, according to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) working definition that my organization, StopAntisemitism, embraces.
Israel is morally, rightfully and legally responding to the worst mass slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust. It is not the cause of this war. In the words of Golda Meir, “Peace will come when the Arabs love their children more than they hate us.”
Perhaps congresspeople like Sara Jacobs, insulated from the harsh realities of the Middle East conflict, struggle to grasp the complexities faced by those on the ground. Perhaps she is merely ignorant rather than hateful. Either way, our leaders must be informed, compassionate and dedicated to truth.