Rabbi Axelman
WILL CLINTON, SCHUMER, BOOKER FINALLY CONDEMN FARRAKHAN?
NO HOLDS BARRED: WILL CLINTON, SCHUMER, BOOKER FINALLY CONDEMN FARRAKHAN?
"But what I did not hear at all last week was that radical antisemites from the left, like Louis Farrakhan, had contributed to a culture of hatred of the Jewish people."
BY SHMULEY BOTEACH NOVEMBER 5, 2018 22:05 Share on facebook Share on twitter
NATION OF ISLAM leader Louis Farrakhan addresses of marchers at the Mall in Washington, DC, during the âMillion Man Marchâ in 1995. (photo credit: MIKE THEILER/REUTERS)
Weâve spent the best part of a week in grief for 11 martyred Jews in Pittsburgh and largely hearing that they died because of Donald Trump. My good friend Bret Stephens, The New York Times Pulitzer-Prize winning columnist, wrote, âThe blood that flowed in Pittsburgh is on [Trumpâs] hands also.â Bret joined me in a public discussion on the subject, along with Elisha Wiesel, son of Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel, at our World Values Network headquarters. I challenged Bret, pointing out not only that Trump had protected Israel against Iranâs genocidal threats and ferociously defended Israel at the UN, but that it would be seen as extreme to accuse President Obama of having Israeli blood on his hands because he legitimized Iranian genocidal language with his nuclear deal. The audience was divided, with some agreeing with Bretâs argument, that Trump had stoked the fires of immigrant-hatred which expressed itself in the murder of innocent Jews, and some agreeing with me that, rather than condemning a president who has shown unprecedented support for Israel and friendship to the Jewish community, we should instead implore him to give a prime-time address categorically and unequivocally condemning white supremacist ascendancy. But what I did not hear at all last week was that radical antisemites from the left, like Louis Farrakhan, had contributed to a culture of hatred of the Jewish people, with Democrats refusing to condemn his recent and vile comparison of Jews to termites. It is right to demand that President Trump condemn neo-Nazis. But why should Democrats give Farrakhan a pass? And I ask this more than ever of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a proud supporter of Israel who has committed the Democratic Party to fighting antisemitism, and my close friend Cory Booker, who has received more pro-Israel financial support than almost anyone in American political life and enjoys a unique friendship with the Jewish community, ever since he served as my student President at Oxford University. A week before the Pittsburgh massacre, a man got up on a stage in the United States of America, called the Jews termites, and received a standing ovation. That man was Louis Farrakhan. The civil-rights activist turned religious leader turned racist, sexist, homophobic, antisemitic incendiary is the official leader of the Nation of Islam. Both religion and social movement, the Nation was born from a combination of elements of traditional Islam with black nationalism. Added to the mix was a healthy infusion of race-based theology, with the group claiming that up until just a few thousand years ago there were no white people. It took an evil black scientist to develop such beings in a lab before setting them loose and allowing them to take over the world â a development which they believe needs to be corrected. The Nation of Islam is also one of the most powerful black organizations in the United States, with up to 50,000 members and a formidable list of powerful allies and celebrity patrons. Martin Luther King famously called the Nation of Islam a âhate group.â The Southern Poverty Law Center did the same, adding on their website that the Nation has earned itself a âprominent position in the ranks of organized hate.â Under Farrakhan the Nation of Islam has emerged as one of our countryâs leading springs of hatred against not only whites, but against homosexuals and, of course, Jews. About white people, Farrakhan insists that they have only the âpotentialâ to be human since they âhavenât evolved yet.â âMurder and lying come easy for white people,â he said on another occasion, eventually topping off the accusation with the judgment that âwhite people deserve to die.â (He actually said these words with a massive banner directly behind him reading the name of his sponsor: the âConflict Resolution Center.â) In 1984, he referred to the worldâs only Jewish State as one âstructured on injustice, thievery, lying and deceit.â He accused the Jews of âusing the name of God to shield [their] dirty religionâŚâ Like all haters of Israel, Farrakhanâs antisemitism has nothing to do with a belief in Palestinian rights. On the contrary, itâs because Israel is filled with Jews. Louis Farrakhan hates Jews, pure and simple. Most often, Farrakhan parrots the oldest antisemitic tropes. Taking verbiage right out of the Nazi playbook, Farrakhan has on a number of occasions referred to Jews as âbloodsuckersâ for having worked as landlords in black communities. Heâs also taken time to point out the severely unoriginal idea that the Jews control Hollywood. He added to the conspiracy the even older idea that Jews use their influence to bring people all over the world âdown in moral strengthâ by spreading âfilth and degenerative behavior.â In this particular instance, he was referring to Hollywoodâs belief that itâs OK to be gay. âItâs the wicked Jews, the false Jews, that are promoting lesbianism [and] homosexuality.â He didnât say this decades ago. These quotes all come from speeches given in 2006 and 2018. Where he went further than almost any of his Jew-hating peers, however, was in his accusation that the Jews âhave been conclusively linked to the greatest criminal endeavor ever undertaken against an entire race of people ⌠the black African Holocaust.â Unlike the earlier examples, these words were not spoken in the heat of a speech or in the casual environment of a radio interview. These words came right out Farrakhanâs book, The Secret Relationship Between Blacks and Jews. Two weeks ago, Farrakhan managed to surmount every one of those poisonous words, tweeting out a clip of a recent speech in which he declared âIâm not an anti-Semite. Iâm anti-Termite.â In Farrakhanâs universe, Jews were no longer just bad people. Now, there were no people at all. They were vermin. Cockroaches. Termites. And we all know what you do with termites. You exterminate them. Throughout history, antisemites of all stripes have sought to cast the Jews as something utterly worthless yet massively destructive. It was a way of making the act of killing a Jew something that was not only necessary but meaningless. Hitlerâs SS troops, therefore, were able to exterminate tens of thousands of Jews in a day. You see, they were killing an infestation, not people. It may be extreme to compare Farrakhan to Hitler. But he did it himself. During a radio interview, Farrakhan acknowledged the fact. â[T]he Jews donât like Farrakhan, so they call me Hitler.â Instead of rebuffing the comparison, he embraced it. âThatâs a good name,â he said, âHitler was a very great man.â He then reinforced it. â[Hitler] raised Germany up from nothing,â he explained, adding, âIn a sense, you could say thereâs a similarity in that we are raising our people up from nothing.â Heâs also used the Holocaust as a metaphor to describe what awaited the Jews in hell. My late friend Christopher Hitchens personally heard Farrakhan punctuate a tirade against Jews with this: âAnd donât you forget, when itâs God who puts you in the ovens, itâs forever!â The only question that remains is this: how could leading political figures like Bill Clinton have agreed to legitimize such genocidal hate by recently appearing on the same stage as Farrakhan at Aretha Franklinâs funeral? And given the unfortunate association, why didnât Clinton immediately condemn Farrakhanâs genocidal Jewish reference? Just days before his âtermitesâ slur, Farrakhan announced the release of a new music album made in collaboration with some of the most powerful men in music, including Stevie Wonder, Rick Ross, Snoop Dogg and Common. At least seven members of Congress â including Maxine Waters, Barbara Lee, Danny Davis, Andre Carson, Gregory Meeks, Al Green and most famously, DNC whip Keith Ellison, have all sat down for personal meetings with Farrakhan while representing the American people in Congress. Farrakhan even attended a 2005 meeting of the Black Congressional Caucus. At that meeting, former president Barack Obama even smiled for a photograph with Farrakhan just three years before becoming president. American Jews need to draw a line. It is not only neo-Nazis that need to be condemned by Republicans. It is Farrakhan and his ilk who should be repudiated utterly by Democrats. Never again must mean exactly that: Never Again.