The Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) blasted President Joe Biden’s new antisemitism technique on Thursday, because it emerged that it was crafted with assist from the antisemitic Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR).
The technique excludes excessive criticism of Israel from the definition of antisemitism, rejecting the Worldwide Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition that was adopted by President Donald Trump in 2019.
(Democrat Alan Dershowitz stated Trump’s government order, which additionally prolonged civil rights protections to Jews on faculty campuses, was “[o]ne of the most important events in the 2,000-year battle against anti-Semitism.”)
As Breitbart Information reported on the time:
[Trump’s] government order would undertake the definition of antisemitism urged by the Worldwide Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA). It states: “Antisemitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.”
The State Division has already adopted that definition of antisemitism. And there’s bipartisan assist in Congress for laws to undertake that definition of antisemitism as effectively, Kampeas notes.
Nonetheless, pro-Palestinian teams have argued that the IHRA definition is just too broad, and defines opposition to Israel as antisemitic.
In fa[c]t, the IHRA states particularly: “Manifestations [of antisemitism] might include the targeting of the state of Israel, conceived as a Jewish collectivity. However, criticism of Israel similar to that leveled against any other country cannot be regarded as antisemitic.”
The Biden White Home boasted Thursday about its new antisemitism technique, claiming it’s the first such technique adopted by any White Home. However the doc excludes excessive criticism of Israel as antisemitism.
The Biden technique additionally lumps antisemitism in along with Islamophobia, which fails to acknowledge the truth that the 2 are basically completely different, and that antisemitism is steadily motivated by Islamic extremism.
Critics famous that CAIR was concerned within the drafting of the doc, because the White Home acknowledged.
I finished studying Biden’s #Antisemitism plan after I noticed @CAIRNational listed as a companion…
CAIR is an outspoken supporter of the BDS motion, they usually have a monitor document of terrorizing Jewish college students on faculty campuses.
Any feedback @StateSEAS? pic.twitter.com/XNsIL5ZYtr
— Bryan E. Leib (@BryanLeibFL) May 25, 2023
CAIR has steadily used antisemitic rhetoric, blurring the boundary between criticism of Israel or “Zionism” and outright assaults on Jews and Judaism. For instance, as Breitbart Information reported in December 2021:
The chief director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) within the San Francisco Bay Space referred to as to “know your enemies” as she blasted Jewish organizations, “Zionist” synagogues, and Hillel campus teams who she accused of betrayal and supporting human rights violations.
…
“We need to pay attention to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). We need to pay attention to the Jewish Federation. We need to pay attention to the Zionist synagogues. We need to pay attention to the Hillel chapters on our campuses,” she stated.
…
Talking in opposition to “Zionists,” a time period traditionally used as a euphemism for “Jews” to keep away from costs of antisemitism, Billoo referred to as to “oppose the vehement fascists” in addition to the “polite Zionists, too,” claiming they “are not your friends.”
CAIR listed as companion org in Biden Nationwide Technique to Counter Antisemitism
Heres CAIR Director Zahra Billoo calling 2 state answer laughable; US Jewish orgs that assist Israel the enemy; Jews who assist Israel fascist; & calls on Muslims to oppose any Jew who helps 🇱 pic.twitter.com/g1IuxF51xh
— Ari Ingel (@OGAride) May 25, 2023
The group additionally has a infamous status that crosses worldwide boundaries, as Breitbart information has famous:
In 2007-8, CAIR was named an unindicted co-conspirator within the terror financing trial of the Holy Land Basis for Reduction and Improvement. That case, in flip, led the FBI to discontinue its work with the group. In 2009, a federal decide dominated that the federal government “produced ample evidence to establish” the ties of CAIR with Hamas, the Palestinian terror group. The United Arab Emirates labeled CAIR a terrorist group in 2014 (a call that the Obama administration opposed).
For its half, CAIR boasted Thursday of its involvement in crafting Biden’s antisemitism technique, and particularly praised Biden for shielding criticism of Israel:
“We welcome President Biden’s commitment to confronting the threat of #antisemitism, a dangerous and pervasive form of bigotry that has become even more widespread in recent years…” @EdAhmedMitchell https://t.co/RRJ2bGfnqk pic.twitter.com/1irBhTzxMr
— CAIR Nationwide (@CAIRNational) May 25, 2023
In a press release, CAIR added (unique emphasis):
CAIR famous that the White Home’s nationwide technique on anti-Semitism doesn’t undertake the disputed IHRA definition of anti-Semitism as binding coverage…
Because the technique states, “When Jews are targeted because of their beliefs or their identity, when Israel is singled out because of anti-Jewish hatred, that is antisemitism. And that is unacceptable.” Emphasis added.
This clear distinction based mostly on the motivation for criticism of Israel highlights the administration’s dedication to combating antisemitism whereas safeguarding free speech and the best to have interaction in human rights activism.
The technique acknowledges “several definitions of antisemitism, which serve as valuable tools to raise awareness and increase understanding.”
The IHRA definition, criticized by CAIR and plenty of Jewish and Palestinian American teams, in addition to home and worldwide human rights organizations, is seen as doubtlessly conflating criticism of the Israeli authorities with antisemitism, limiting free speech on Palestinian human rights.
RJC CEO Matt Brooks issued a powerful blasted Biden’s antisemitism technique, noting it was a step backward:
Joe Biden had an opportunity to take a powerful stand in opposition to antisemitism and he blew it.
The IHRA definition of antisemitism is the definition endorsed by each mainstream Jewish group. Biden’s personal Particular Envoy to Monitor and Fight Antisemitism has urged different international locations to “embrace” it as an “integral” instrument in opposition to the rising tide of Jew-hatred. The IHRA definition is indispensable as a result of it acknowledges that criticism of Israel is antisemitic when it delegitimizes, demonizes, or applies double requirements to Israel.
After preliminary reviews that its new technique would enshrine the IHRA definition, the Biden administration got here underneath heavy strain from the anti-Israel left, forcing a delay within the roll-out. Now, hours earlier than a Jewish vacation [Shavout, or Pentecost, which begins Thursday evening] and within the waning days of Jewish American Heritage Month, the White Home is trying a last-minute straddle – undermining the IHRA definition by selling alongside it another definition that claims making use of double requirements and singling out the Jewish state for criticism isn’t antisemitic.
This resolution critically weakens the White Home technique. It’s one more occasion of Biden caving to the anti-Israel radicals who represent a rising Democratic constituency at each the elected and grassroots ranges. It’s clear that solely a Republican president will absolutely embrace the IHRA definition and put the total power of the federal authorities behind the battle in opposition to antisemitism in all its types.
One other Jewish group, the Louis D. Brandeis Middle for Human Rights Beneath Legislation, a non-partisan group, stated that Biden had “forcefully embraced IHRA” however was additionally responsible of “regretfully muddying the water by also acknowledging a lesser standard” in defining antisemitism. The middle additionally objected to the truth that Biden had appeared to retreat from President Trump’s 2019 dedication to defending Jewish college students on campus.
The Zionist Group of America (ZOA), the oldest pro-Israel group in the USA, additionally blasted the Biden administration’s antisemitism technique and its reliance on a left-wing doc referred to as the “Nexus,” in addition to the so-called “Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism” (JDA), one other most popular left-wing various:
The JDA and the Nexus Doc are [] harmful, wrongly shielding antisemites who attempt to masks their hatred of Jews by expressing it as hatred for the Jewish state. For instance, the Nexus Doc states that opposition to Zionism – i.e., the best of the Jewish folks to self-determination and to dwell as a nation-state of their spiritual and ancestral homeland – isn’t essentially antisemitic. The Nexus Doc fails to understand that for a lot of if not most Jews, their connection to their spiritual and ancestral homeland is a vital a part of their Jewish id.
The Nexus Doc additionally states that “disproportionate focus on Israel and treating Israel differently than other countries cannot necessarily be considered antisemitic.” But when Israel – the one and solely Jewish state on the earth – is singled out for criticism and punishment, then there may be little doubt that antisemitism is at play.
The JDA is much more problematic. It doesn’t even acknowledge that anti-Zionism, i.e., denying the Jewish folks their proper to self-determination, is antisemitism.”
Biden’s effort was spearheaded by Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff, who has reportedly embraced his id extra vigorously since his spouse, Kamala Harris, grew to become the vp.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Massive at Breitbart Information and the host of Breitbart Information Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He’s the creator of the brand new biography, Rhoda: ‘Comrade Kadalie, You Are Out of Order’. He’s additionally the creator of the latest e-book, Neither Free nor Truthful: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He’s a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Comply with him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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