When the news came about the murderous attack against two Israeli embassy staffers in Washington, D.C., last week, I was grief-stricken and outraged, but not surprised. For a while now, some in the Jewish world have been anticipating that the venomous antisemitism of the left would turn deadly. And so, it has.
We know too well that where Jew-hatred is concerned, inflammatory talk often devolves into violent actions. So, for the past few years, over meals, at conferences and on text exchanges, my friends and I wondered when the blood would spill at the hands of leftist extremists. Frankly, we thought the first deaths would take place on a college campus, not outside a Jewish museum just minutes from the U.S. Capitol.
For decades, violent antisemitism had been considered to be in the purview of the far right. And before last week, it was true that most of the murderous antisemitic attacks on American soil—in Pittsburgh, Poway, Calif., and elsewhere—have been at the hands of neo-fascists fighting for racial and religious purity.
What of the left? Well, they generally had limited their actions to thousands of aggressions, large and small, denigrating Jews and our ancestral homeland. Their aim was clear: To make Jews feel unsafe and alone, and to define our beliefs as aberrant and uncivilized. They tried to disguise their bigotry under the mantle of free speech, social liberalism and equity. And yet, despite their best efforts, the veiled threat of violence was always present, the menacing revolver under their well-tailored suits.
Now, that weapon has been drawn. And, ironically, the left may have achieved a symbolic victory in its perpetual crusade for equity, for the murders outside the Capital Jewish Museum are irrefutable proof that its fanatics are just as vicious, stupid, violent and lethal as their counterparts on the right. Equal outcomes, indeed.
What’s next? Leaders on the left have the chance to demonstrate moral fortitude and aggressively push back on the antisemitism that has infested their movement. I truly hope that they seize the moment. Unfortunately, showing courage is hard, so I assume that they’ll squander their opportunity, pay minimal lip service to the tragic events or otherwise remain silent. After all, it’s easy to attack Jews. Protecting us is much more difficult.
