In America, Jews Should Fight Anti-Semitism with the Full Force of the Law

Feb. 28 2023

Last week, a neo-Nazi group threatened that it would make Saturday a “Day of Hate” dedicated to attacking Jews. Fortunately, the day passed without incident. Yehuda Kurtzer takes the occasion to analyze the inadequacies of many common Jewish responses to such anti-Semitic provocations, and suggests reverting to a tried-and-true model:

In the aftermath of the Leo Frank lynching in 1915—the murder of a Jewish man amid an atmosphere of intense anti-Semitism—Jewish leaders formed what would become the ADL by building a relationship with law enforcement and the American legal and political establishment. The ADL recognized that the best strategy to keep American Jews safe over the long term, in ways that would transcend and withstand the political winds of change, was to embed in the police and criminal-justice system the idea that anti-Semitism was their problem to defeat.

For Jews, the high-water mark of this strategy came in the aftermath of the Tree of Life shooting in Pittsburgh. It was the low point in many ways of the American Jewish experience, the most violent act against Jews on American soil, but it was followed by a mourning process that was shared across the greater Pittsburgh community. The words of the kaddish appeared above the fold of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. That [would have been] inconceivable at most other times of Jewish oppression and persecution. It tells the story of when we are successful—when anti-Semitism is repudiated by the general public. It is the most likely indicator that we will be collectively safe in the long run.

A strategic plan to defeat anti-Semitism that must be collectively embraced by American Jews [should include] more investment, across partisan divides, in relationships with local governments and law enforcement. . . . [This] means real education and relationship-building with other ethnic and faith communities that is neither purely instrumental nor performative—enough public-relations visits to Holocaust museums!—so that we have the allies we need when we need them, and so that we can partner for our collective betterment.

Read more at Jewish Telegraphic Agency

More about: American Jewry, Anti-Semitism, Leo Frank, Police

 

Egypt Is Trapped by the Gaza Dilemma It Helped to Create

Feb. 14 2025

Recent satellite imagery has shown a buildup of Egyptian tanks near the Israeli border, in violation of Egypt-Israel agreements going back to the 1970s. It’s possible Cairo wants to prevent Palestinians from entering the Sinai from Gaza, or perhaps it wants to send a message to the U.S. that it will take all measures necessary to keep that from happening. But there is also a chance, however small, that it could be preparing for something more dangerous. David Wurmser examines President Abdel Fatah el-Sisi’s predicament:

Egypt’s abysmal behavior in allowing its common border with Gaza to be used for the dangerous smuggling of weapons, money, and materiel to Hamas built the problem that exploded on October 7. Hamas could arm only to the level that Egypt enabled it. Once exposed, rather than help Israel fix the problem it enabled, Egypt manufactured tensions with Israel to divert attention from its own culpability.

Now that the Trump administration is threatening to remove the population of Gaza, President Sisi is reaping the consequences of a problem he and his predecessors helped to sow. That, writes Wurmser, leaves him with a dilemma:

On one hand, Egypt fears for its regime’s survival if it accepts Trump’s plan. It would position Cairo as a participant in a second disaster, or nakba. It knows from its own history; King Farouk was overthrown in 1952 in part for his failure to prevent the first nakba in 1948. Any leader who fails to stop a second nakba, let alone participates in it, risks losing legitimacy and being seen as weak. The perception of buckling on the Palestine issue also resulted in the Egyptian president Anwar Sadat’s assassination in 1981. President Sisi risks being seen by his own population as too weak to stand up to Israel or the United States, as not upholding his manliness.

In a worst-case scenario, Wurmser argues, Sisi might decide that he’d rather fight a disastrous war with Israel and blow up his relationship with Washington than display that kind of weakness.

Read more at The Editors

More about: Egypt, Gaza War 2023