(RNS) — It never fails. Whenever I discuss antisemitism with someone who leans either to the left or to the right, they invariably retort: “Yes, but what about … ” At that point, they start telling stories about the antisemitism on the other side of the political divide.
On the one hand, those responses deflect responsibility for hatred and kick that responsibility into the other camp, as if it were that side’s sole problem.
But on the other hand, those responses happen to be accurate. There is antisemitism on both sides of the political aisle — on the left and on the right — and it shows up in interesting ways.
Consider two members of Congress who could not be further apart from each other, politically: Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia Republican, and Rep. Rashida Tlaib, a Michigan Democrat.
And yet, despite those political differences, they each voted the same on a resolution that was responding to the attacks on Jewish targets in Boulder, Colorado, and Washington, D.C.
The resolution was titled “Condemning the rise in ideologically motivated attacks on Jewish individuals in the United States, including the recent violent assault in Boulder, Colorado, and reaffirming the House of Representatives’ commitment to combating antisemitism and politically motivated violence.”
How did they vote?
“Present.” Which means: no comment.
Why could they not support the resolution?
Because, they each said, Congress was not paying attention to other groups that have been facing deadly threats.
Let’s start with Marjorie Taylor Greene. She does not support outsized attention to threats facing Jews. She suggested that Congress’ support for Jews and Israel was, in fact, driving antisemitism in the United States.
“Antisemitic hate crimes are wrong, but so are all hate crimes. Yet Congress never votes on hate crimes committed against white people, Christians, men, the homeless, or countless others,” she tweeted.
She added:
Americans from every background are being murdered — even in the womb — and Congress stays silent. We don’t vote on endless resolutions defending them … Prioritizing one group of Americans and/or one foreign country above our own people is fueling resentment and actually driving more division, including antisemitism. These crimes are horrific and easy for me to denounce. But because of the reasons I stated above, I voted ‘present.’
This is classic whataboutism, and it is irrational. Hate crimes against white people, Christians, men, the homeless? I would be quite willing to see the statistics and hear the stories. Moreover, she repeats the familiar and disgusting “abortion as Holocaust” trope. Not to mention blaming victimized groups for calling attention to themselves.
Here’s the thing: Greene has made her own share of antisemitic statements. You must remember that she attributed the wildfires in California to “Jewish space lasers.” She has also said “Zionist supremacists” are conspiring to flood Europe with migrants in order to replace the white populations there — the Great Replacement theory.
Last year, she voted against a bill that would have codified a definition of antisemitism, claiming that it would have criminalized the Gospel teaching that “the Jews” handed Jesus over to his executioners. For the last 60 years, sincere Christian thinkers and leaders have been working to liberate Christianity from what Jules Isaac called “the teaching of contempt,” the deicide charge. Greene would turn the clock back on that effort.
So, that’s Rep. Greene and her antisemitic ideas.
Now, for Rep. Tlaib.
She denounced both resolutions as “Republican-led attempts to cynically politicize tragic acts of violence — like the recent horrific attack in Boulder — to demonize immigrant communities, praise ICE, and pave the path for the further repression of our constitutional rights to free speech and protest in support of Palestinian lives and human rights.”
She noted that Congress had not issued resolutions when Wadea Al-Fayoume, a 6-year-old Palestinian American near Chicago, was murdered, or when three Palestinian college students were shot in Vermont.
Let’s go further. “I stand firmly against antisemitism. And I stand firmly in support of a Free Palestine,” Tlaib said in a statement. “These values are not contradictory. Our fight against antisemitism is connected to our fight against Islamophobia, anti-Black racism, white nationalism, and oppression in all forms. We must continue to speak out for a world free from dehumanization and violence.”
All of these issues — immigrants, the concerns over Immigration and Customs Enforcement, free speech, Islamophobia, racism, white nationalism — deserve our attention.
But why can’t we allow antisemitism to simply stand on its own? Why Velcro it onto every other hatred in the world? It is the mirror image of Greene. We should care about all people. Why should the Jews get special treatment?
As for standing against antisemitism and supporting a Free Palestine? If a Free Palestine means freedom from Hamas, I would agree, wholeheartedly. If a Free Palestine means a Palestinian state living in peace beside Israel, then I would agree — at least theoretically.
But if a Free Palestine means a judenrein land of Israel, no: That actually is antisemitism.
And as we have seen, the Free Palestine rhetoric can become violent. That is precisely what the killer in D.C. shouted as he pulled the trigger, and what the flame thrower in Boulder yelled, as well.
So, you will forgive us if we say that the very phrase “Free Palestine” has some powerful resonances for Jews.
Let us remember Rep. Tlaib’s record. In 2023, she was formally censured by her colleagues for using the phrase “From the river to the sea” on social media. “From the river to the sea” means from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea there will be no Jewish sovereignty. Those who shout that might engage in all sorts of intellectual pirouettes, but that is exactly what it means.
So, there you have it. Let me put it this way: If you go far enough to the right, and far enough to the left, those two ideologies intersect, precisely, in versions of antisemitism that mirror each other.
I am imagining that Rep. Greene and Rep. Tlaib might have been surprised to find themselves in agreement on their opposition to this resolution.
They deserve each other.