It looks like anti-Semitism is starting to become a new fad among politicians in the United States — or perhaps those who long have cherished such feelings simply now feel safer about expressing and promoting them.
On the heels of reports this week that Georgia Congressman Hank Johnson referred to Jewish Israeli residents of Judea and Samaria as “termites,” came another revelation that a former Congresswoman from the same state also held anti-Semitic views on Israel. Johnson was compelled to issue a grudging apology for his slurs, although he refused to back down from the rest of his comments; it remains to be seen what the future will bring with former U.S. Representative Cynthia McKinney, PhD, who was also the 2008 presidential nominee for the Green Party.
On the Twitter social media site a week ago (last Saturday night) McKinney tweeted: “Same Israeli photographer captures Nice and Munich tragedies. How likely is that? Remember the Dancing Israelis?”
Same Israeli photographer captures Nice and Munich tragedies. How likely is that? Remember the Dancing Israelis?… https://t.co/QH2j9HqQHY— Cynthia McKinney PhD (@cynthiamckinney) July 24, 2016
The photographer in question, Richard Gutjahr, tweeted photos from terror attacks both in Nice and in Munich, where the death tolls rose to 84 and 9 respectively.
Gutjahr is not Israeli, although he is married to former Labor Knesset member Einat Wilf, an Israeli woman. Wilf served in the elite IDF Unit 8200 intelligence unit.
The ‘Dancing Israelis’ thing is a reference to a conspiracy theory that five Israeli men were detained by New Jersey police on Sept. 11, 2001 after they were allegedly seen celebrating the Al Qaeda attack on Twin Towers of the World Trade Center.
When McKinney’s tweet was challenged online, in response she defiantly followed it up with another: “Yes, remember the Dancing Israelis? Why were they dancing in the park as Americans were dying? Why were they in the park in the first place?”
Yes, remember the Dancing Israelis? Why were they dancing in the park as Americans were dying? Why were they in the park in the first place? — Cynthia McKinney PhD (@cynthiamckinney) July 24, 2016
But McKinney’s anti-Semitism didn’t stop with her potshots referencing the 9/11 blood libels. Take a look at her cozy relationship with the Boycott, Divest and Sanctions (BDS) movement. She tweeted a cry of joy in another post during her July 24 ‘blitzkrieg‘: “This is huge: NLRB rules that unions have a right to boycott Israel.”
This is huge: NLRB rules that unions have a right to boycott Israel. https://t.co/bhYbJ7nVsZ
— Cynthia McKinney PhD (@cynthiamckinney) July 24, 2016
And last but not least, another in the series which she retweeted and praised, saying, “I LOVE this!”
@cynthiamckinney pic.twitter.com/7e8OqVwH6s — Emanuelgoldstein (@MrCharrington75) July 24, 2016
It remains to be seen what McKinney will do, now that the Democratic National Convention is over and all the hoopla of national attention is diverted elsewhere.