Chutzpah with a dash of gall

There is something utterly rotten within the Democratic Party of the United States. In what appears to be a mirror image of the catastrophe that has wracked the British Labour Party, the Democratic camp has become a hotbed of anti-Semitism. While on the surface the talking points espoused by Democrats seem to only criticize Israel, under the surface a darker and more malevolent view pulsates. One simply needs to observe the current state of the party to see that there is a dangerous and venomous ideology within the movement. Louis Farrakhan was hugged, kissed and saluted for years by countless Democratic leaders. They did so even though Farrakhan’s anti-Semitic views were widely known and disseminated. The party whole heartedly embraced the Women’s March movement, a group that is spearheaded by the noxious Linda Sarsour. But the most glaring examples of an ever-growing anti-Semitic strain within the party can be seen in the freshman batch of Democrats that were elected as a result of the 2018 election. Representative Rashida Tlaib spouts revisionist nonsense that minimizes or outright denies Arab hostilities against Jews in the British Mandate for Palestine. Representative Tlaib also made a fool out of herself by suggesting that Jews have dual loyalties ( a classic anti-Semitic trope). Representative Ilhan Omar, a never ceasing fountain of bigotry, constantly gets herself into trouble by her warped views. She famously mused that supporters of Israel use money to exert influence on American politics (because Jews use money to control the world, you see) and opined that Israel hypnotizes the global community (behold, Jewish magic!). While the views of these newly election politicians are downright offensive, what is even more distasteful is the fact that the Democratic Party has rushed to continuously defend them. Instead of addressing the issue of anti-Semitism within the Democratic Party, they use smoke screen tactics to deflect blame and portray the accused as being saints and martyrs. So galling are the apologetics that a resolution specifically aimed at condemning anti-Semitism was watered down to a point that the original purpose of it lost all meaning. Behold the modern Democratic Party.

While the aforementioned happenings are indeed troubling, the hypocrisy of the Democrats is starting to truly embody the term ‘chutzpah’. Representative Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, a fine example of a naïve ideologue, took offense at a Politico image that portrayed her beloved savior, Senator Bernie Sanders, in a negative light. The illustration shows Senator Sanders standing beside a money tree. Nothing really offensive, right? But Representative Cortez, who has defended the anti-Semites in her party, had the gall to accuse the image of being anti-Semitic. Amazing, really. Representative Cortez has jumped at every opportunity to defend Representatives Tlaib and Omar, and yet this illustration was a step too far in her book. Senator Sanders is a typical hypocritical ideologue: he demonizes capitalism and the wealthy and claims to be a man of the people. This is a hollow facade, however, as he himself has used the capitalist system to become a millionaire. And so Politico sought to highlight this hypocrisy by portraying Senator Sanders standing beside a money tree. This is clearly a political jab at the most outspoken ‘socialist’ In America. He has become a running joke in some circles because of this. But this image is not anti-Semitic. Had Politico added a few horns to the picture, or fangs, or exaggerated his nose, then perhaps one could state that it crossed the line into anti-Semitic territory. But the image and the article were a critique of a phony socialist icon. End of story. Yet Representative Cortez finds the needs to try to create a scandal over nothing. Again, it is worth remembering that Representative Cortez has defended her fellow Democrats after they have said outright anti-Semitic things. She has also proven herself illiterate in terms of the Arab Israeli conflict, yet she too spouts anti-Israel nonsense. Representative Cortez has also branched out to Jeremy Corbyn, the man who has allowed anti-Semitism to flourish within the British Labour Party. And she has done all these things with wide eyes and a huge grin. And yet now she decides to seize upon a harmless imagine, reconstruct it into something malevolent and then claims to be standing up against anti-Semitism. Now that’s Chutpzha!

Antisemitism is a growing problem in the world. Right wing xenophobes have us in their sights again. But the political Left has also made us their primary targets. There is no safe quarter at this moment in time as we are being attacked from both sides of the political spectrum. But at least the right wingers are open about their hostilities. The members of the Left refuse to address the problem within their ranks, and instead they make excuse after excuse whenever a member of their group is caught with the metaphorical foot in the mouth. This recent ploy by Representative Cortez is yet another example of this tactic. Instead of addressing the ever-growing problems within the Democratic Party, she decides to pick a harmless photo to attack and tries to portray herself as actually caring about Jews and anti-Semitism. If she actually cared, however, she would have condemned the plethora of anti-Semitic characters lurking within the Democratic Party’s sphere of influence. Instead, she openly defends these people and sides with the enemies of the Jewish community. Nice try, Representative Cortez. But your phony antics are not fooling anyone