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A Message to Hamas Supporters Next Door

(Jerusalem Post) Ted Deutch - Irish diplomat and historian Conor Cruise O'Brien once remarked that antisemitism is a light sleeper. He was right. Unless you believe that legions of people suddenly became antisemites post-Oct. 7, we must assume that their latent antisemitism simply found a pretext to surface. The burned homes in Kibbutz Be'eri, Nir Oz, and Kfar Aza were still smoldering and the blood on the field at the Supernova music festival was not yet dry when antisemites used murdered Israelis to taunt and intimidate the living. In the 10 largest U.S. cities, Jews are now the most-targeted group following a surge of anti-Jewish hate crimes. Here is my message to the Hamas supporters next door: While our community must protect ourselves, we will not be pushed into hiding. Our Jewish identity cannot be defined by antisemitism and our response to it. We are not defined by those who hate and target us. We can find strength and unity in our Jewish community. We are seeing right now how Jews are showing up for one another with planes of supplies and volunteers being sent to Israel to support those on the front lines, to provide shelter and comfort to those who have lost their homes, and to bolster those who have faced unimaginable horror. The writer, a former U.S. congressman from Florida, is the CEO of the American Jewish Committee (AJC).
2024-01-22 00:00:00
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