It’s over. Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) just doesn’t understand that. Her antisemitism schtick no longer packs the same punch. People see through it now.
Tag: antisemitism
Here they go again. The members of the United States House of Representatives are set to vote Tuesday on another resolution listing off statistics purportedly demonstrating very high and growing amounts of antisemitism in America.
Tiring from its overuse, we have heard many times the accusation that this or that person has expressed an “antisemitic trope that Jews control” fill in the blank — Hollywood, the government, whatever.
Charlie Kirk became well known and helped build his organization Turning Point USA by coming on to college campuses to present views that some students and, often, the people running the colleges did not want aired. In doing so, he helped advance the exercise of free speech at colleges. It was at one of his campus events at which he was discussing and debating issues that Kirk was murdered last week.
On Wednesday, the United States House of Representatives approved yet again legislation (this time H. Res. 352) to counter “antisemitism” — something the US government has been redefining for its purposes as going beyond being related to race, ethnicity, or religion so that it also includes criticizing the government of Israel. In its concluding section the resolution states, in addition to a couple other demands, that the House “calls on elected officials, faith leaders, and civil society leaders to condemn and counter all acts of antisemitism.”
Supporters of liberty had much reason for hope due to Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. becoming secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). This man’s tenacity and eloquence in challenging the coronavirus crackdowns suggested great potential accomplishments for both liberty and health at HHS with him in the lead.
A repugnant tactic of authoritarianism is categorizing people’s desire for or exercise of freedom as illness that government should suppress. An example of this was the deeming of dissidents in the Soviet Union as mentally ill to justify their detention and punishment.
The United States government does not need to give a dime to any college. But, if it does continue its funding of colleges, the First Amendment of the US Constitution bars that funding from being denied to a college because the college is determined to have insufficiently prevented speech the US government opposes, such as speech the US government deems to be critical of the Israel government.
An effort is being undertaken in America to broaden the definition of antisemitism from its commonly understood meaning to include criticism of the government of Israel. The absurdity of this effort is demonstrated by the fact that there are many Jewish people in America and around the world who criticize the Israel government in regard to its war efforts and a variety of other actions.
This week, the members of the United States House of Representatives are scheduled to vote on H.Res. 1215, a resolution “Calling on elected officials and civil society leaders to join in efforts to educate the public on the contributions of the Jewish-American community.”
In the whereas clauses of the resolution there are mentions of Major League Baseball players Sandy Koufax and Hank Greenberg, presented as “Jewish-American athletes” who “excelled at sports while staying true to their heritage.”
But, there is also outright deceit in the resolution’s whereas clauses. In particular, consider the statistic presented in the following whereas clause:
Whereas Hillel International has reported 1,597 antisemitic incidents on college campuses since October 7, 2023, a 700-percent increase over the same period in the prior year;