There’s A Charlottesville Every Week. Most Dems Are Fine With It
The article discusses a recent acknowledgment by Snopes, a fact-checking website, that President Donald Trump did not refer to neo-Nazis as “very fine people” during the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville. This misinformation had been widely circulated and was even cited by Joe Biden as a motivation for his 2020 presidential run. The article goes on to describe what it refers to as “the new Charlottesville” occurring weekly in America, involving violent events spearheaded by Islamists and leftists targeting Jewish communities, such as a recent incident in Los Angeles where a synagogue was surrounded by a pro-Hamas group. The author criticizes the media and political figures, including President Biden, for allegedly insufficient or misguided responses to these antisemitic events. The text also accuses Biden of fearing to alienate the pro-Hamoas faction within his political party, suggesting a parallel between Biden’s statements and the misattributed comments of Trump, implying both suggest that there are ”very fine people” on both sides of these conflicts. The author concludes by criticizing the broader handling of such movements and protests by law enforcement and government officials, implying a double standard in governmental responses to different forms of extremism.
A few days ago, Snopes, a left-wing “fact checking” site, finally admitted that Donald Trump had never called the neo-Nazis who marched at the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville in 2017, “very fine people.”
For years, Democrats, including Joe Biden, have repeated this false claim. Indeed, Biden, who’s been running for the presidency since 1987, ludicrously told the press in 2019 that the events in Charlottesville, and Trump’s alleged reaction, inspired him to run in 2020.
Well, there’s a new Charlottesville every week in America nowadays. They aren’t led by a few hundred Nazi cosplayers, but thousands of Islamists and leftist fellow travelers whose goals are supported by numerous administration officials, congressmen, and newsrooms.
Our latest Charlottesville occurred this weekend, when a mob of pro-Hamas goons showed up in front of a synagogue in the heavily Jewish Pico-Robertson neighborhood in LA — because it’s all about being “critical of Israel,” right? They wore terror apparel, called for violence against Jews, allegedly beat up a Jewish woman, and impeded people from worshipping. Unlike in November, when a 69-year-old Los Angeles Jewish man was killed after a pro-Hamas “protester” threw a megaphone at his head, no one died.
If reports are true, and I have zero reason to believe they aren’t, the LAPD ensured that Hamas supporters were able to encircle the synagogue and kept Jewish worshippers and counter-protestors out. Only one person was arrested, charged with a misdemeanor for allegedly possessing a “spiked flag” — as one does at a peaceful protest. I wonder if it was a Hamas flag or Hezbollah one?
Many in the media again framed the violence as a clash between anti-Israel and pro-Israel protesters — “Protesters clash outside synagogue in L.A.” or “Fights break out during dueling protests in Pico-Robertson” and so on.
The (rhetorical) question is why do the pro-“Palestine” protestors show up in front of synagogues, Holocaust museums, and the performances of Jewish comedians in the first place. Why do they target Jewish students and Jewish businesses?
Pro-Israel protestors don’t show up in front mosques. Nor do “peace protestors,” who never seem to object to the string of atrocities happening thousands of miles away in the Islamic world — which, unlike most claims regarding Gaza, aren’t concocted. If anyone did, the entire media and federal government would be mobilized to battle the evils of Islamophobia.
But back to Biden. His very presidency supposedly hinges on the events of Charlottesville, and yet outside the occasional perfunctory and vague denunciations of anti-Jewish “protests” — where he usually reminds everyone of the imaginary scourge of “Islamophobia” or championing the Palestinian cause — he does nothing.
“I condemn the antisemitic protests …” Biden told reporters after anti-Jewish demonstrations at Columbia University a few months ago. “I also condemn those who don’t understand what’s going on with the Palestinians …”
Boy, that sounds like the president is saying there are “very fine people” on both sides. Biden, you see, denounces antisemitic keffiyeh-wearing terror cheerleaders who hate America and the West and also those who refuse to “understand” that there’s no moral rationalization for Hamas’s murder and rape of civilians. It is the kind of odious moral relativism one expects from Jew-baiters like Jamaal Bowman or some powerless right-wing clout-chasing halfwit on X.
The truth is Biden, who has repeated fake “genocide” casualty numbers to Muslim audiences, is scared to offend the pro-Hamas faction in his party. And it’s not just words. While Biden’s DOJ is raiding the homes of pro-life protestors who pray in front of abortion mills or trying to throw elderly anti-abortion activists into prison, it does nothing about the systemic, highly funded, violent antisemitic movement that have erupted on campuses.
While Merrick Garland likens the actions of parents who are opposed Covid restrictions and racist curriculums to “domestic terrorism” — there still hasn’t been a single incident to substantiate his action — the AG doesn’t have the same designation for pro-Hamas rioters who target synagogues and Jewish businesses.
While the Biden administration helps states deal with scary MAGA terrorists who embrace “anti-government or anti-authority violent extremism,” they do nothing about the DAs and AGs who let antisemites funded by Qatar do whatever they like.
Last week, the Manhattan district attorney let dozens of rioters (not protestors), who occupied and trashed Hamilton Hall off without any charges. This week a Jewish couple was allegedly beaten at a Brooklyn elementary school graduation by an Arabic-speaking family — who taunted them with shouts of “Free Palestine!” “Gaza is Ours!” and “Death to Israel!” I’m sure the perpetrators have nothing to worry about in NYC. They are perched high on the left’s victim class hierarchy.
It would be nice if there was even a fraction of the anger or coverage of these new Charlottesvilles. But most Democrats aren’t offended by all antisemites. If you insult George Soros, sure, you may be condemned in the pages of the New York Times. If a pro-Hamas mob beats down a Jewish woman, we’re lucky if the paper even reports on the incident.
And every time there is a new Charlottesville, it not only affirms why Israel needs to exist — or that “anti-Zionism” and antisemitism are now indistinguishable — it tells us that Jews can’t rely on the contemporary left to be on their side. Not while the president needs to placate the left’s extremist anti-Israel faction and he trolls for antisemitic votes in Michigan.
David Harsanyi is a senior editor at The Federalist, a nationally syndicated columnist, a Happy Warrior columnist at National Review, and author of five books—the most recent, Eurotrash: Why America Must Reject the Failed Ideas of a Dying Continent. Follow him on Twitter, @davidharsanyi.
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