Around ten years ago, I had the privilege to interview the late, great Charles Krauthammer. I traveled to Washington to meet the legendary figure, and it is the personal conversation we had after the interview that has stayed with me.
I have had the good fortune to interview many famous individuals, but Krauthammer remains one of the most notable for matching brilliance with kindness and consideration. He seemed as curious about me and my background as I was about him.
I remember commenting on how challenging it must be for him to write a weekly column. How does he think of new topics, week in and week out? “Gd is good to me and I always come up with something,” he responded with a smile.
I think of Krauthammer now. The current challenge of finding topics to write about stems from having too many to choose from. The glut of material is enough to stymie the best of writers. A sort of writer’s block from overconsumption.
The supersaturated news cycles that predominated before President Trump’s election grew exponentially with the big bang of activity accompanying his inauguration. The sheer mass and volatility of the news shows no sign of abating as Trump just completed his first 100 days.
It is almost impossible to keep track of the lightening-speed movement. However, no one topic seems to dominate the headlines in its many variations as consistently as the topic of the Jews.
In the years leading up to October 7, Israel was in the news by dint of being Israel. But it was rocked more by internal protests against judicial reform than by terrorism. Global antisemitism was on the rise, and stories of antisemitic assaults, mainly on visibly Orthodox Jews, were on the uptick. However, while any incident is one too many, they were sporadic.
Israel and the Jewish community are now featured regularly, often daily, in one iteration or another. There is the war in Gaza and the hostages, Iran and its proxies, pro-Hamas protests and antisemitism, especially in universities, and the Trump administration’s countermeasures. There’s Jew-hatred in Europe, Australia and Canada; vilification of Israel at the UN, and of Israel’s leaders at the ICC and the ICJ. There are Democratic efforts to block aid to Israel and to halt the passage of the languishing Antisemitism Awareness Act.
Jews are featured everywhere, directly or indirectly. Even subjects that do not relate solely to Jews are tangentially related to them. These include negotiations with Iran, the volatile situation in Syria, and unrest in Turkey, Egypt and Jordan. It includes Qatar and Saudi Arabia, which have been pouring billions of dollars, and antisemitism, into American universities.
President Trump has come out swinging against this antisemitism across American campuses. The Trump administration has frozen billions of dollars in federal funding to elite universities, launched investigative probes into allegations of violence against Jews on campuses, toughened disclosure requirements surrounding foreign funding and threatened to revoke their tax-exempt status.
A week ago, President Trump posted on Truth Social, “Harvard is an Anti-Semitic, Far Left Institution, as are numerous others, with students being accepted from all over the World that want to rip our Country apart.”
Having President Trump squarely in our corner is the only enviable position of an unenviable one. The ubiquity of Jews in high profile affairs risks exacerbating an already growing problem. Jews no longer seem to be the proverbial “canary in the coal mine” – they have become the coal mine itself.
With antisemitism linked with far-left ideology, such as DEI, Jews are put more directly in the crosshairs. According to those on the left, Jews are guilty by association. If Trump defends the Jews, and the left is opposed to Trump, then Jews deserve a bulls-eye on their backs.
As is characteristic of self-hating Jews, Jewish leftists blame the victim too. Jewish Senate Democrats, including Senators Chuck Schumer, Jacky Rosen, Richard Blumenthal and Adam Schiff, accused President Trump of weaponizing antisemitism as a pretext to punish universities. Rather than applaud the president for standing up to antisemites, they inexplicably stated that his actions “undermine the work of combating antisemitism” and ultimately make Jewish students “less safe”.
Ditto a statement put out by the Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA) and the heads of major American non-Orthodox denominations. They condemned President Trump for “escalating federal actions [that] have used the guise of fighting antisemitism to justify stripping students of due process rights.” High profile Jews like Abe Foxman, former ADL national director, and Deborah Lipstadt, who monitored antisemitism under the Biden administration, concur.
Publicly putting ideology above self-preservation undercuts the safety of all Jews. And it further thrusts Jews onto center stage by exposing infighting amongst them at their most vulnerable point.
But the negative focus on Jews comes from the far-right too, albeit incidentally and by far fewer figures. Unwilling to get sucked into global quagmires, America First isolationists oppose any military action with Iran, despite the threat Iran poses to America too. This shortsighted approach, born of a tightfisted fiscal dogma and an aversion to risk American lives in what is perceived to be “never-ending wars”, creates worry over bailing out America’s Middle East ally. This, despite Israel’s insistence on its ability to go it alone.
Here again, President Trump champions the State of Israel. When asked in a recent Time Magazine interview if he worries about being “dragged in” a war with Iran by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump answered, “You asked if he’d drag me in, like I’d go in unwillingly. No, I may go in very willingly if we can’t get a deal. If we don’t make a deal, I’ll be leading the pack.”
Matt Brooks, the CEO of the Republican Jewish Coalition, calls the Republican Party “pro-Israel” and President Trump the “the most pro-Israel president in history.” All the same, Brooks cautions the GOP to “combat the rise of neo-isolationism in our party “who might “argue that Israel is a liability”. And he warns against “the cancer that has taken over the Democratic Party with the woke progressive left” from infiltrating the Republican Party.
Somehow, Jews always get blamed. Mounting circumstances have put Jews in the position of victim and continue to shine a spotlight on them. And that spotlight is a danger in itself because of its power of accrual.
What can be done? Other than support the State of Israel in its existential fight and thank our benefactor and his administration in the White House, perhaps Jews should combat adverse media tit for tat. Counteract negative news about the Jewish people with positive news.
Educate about antisemitism, the Holocaust, and Islamist Jew-hatred. Reach out to natural allies on the local and federal political levels, get involved in organizations that fight antisemitic threats and violence and that faithfully educate the public about Jews and Jewish history. A media blitz is not an instant panacea but active engagement is key. Jews cannot be guided by “too little, too late.”
In an effort to offset pro-Hamas protests in the most public of spaces, the Israeli Consulate in New York, under Ambassador Ofir Akunis, has launched a campaign in the heart of Times Square calling for an end to funding the Palestinian Authority educational institutions that promote hatred and terrorism. There need to be more initiatives in similar arenas.
Antisemitism will always be here until the coming of Mashiach. Even a tidal wave of positive publicity, together with behind-the-scenes efforts, will not eradicate the tidal wave of Jew-hatred that has recently burst on the scene. In Israel, PR certainly does not replace actual fighting on the battlefield. But too much exposure leads to too much censure, and that must be mitigated.
When it comes to Jews, no news is good news.
