ROMEO – Retired Old Men Eating Out. I belong to a group like that. It has morphed into an email conversation about politics, so our breakfasts are benign.
We’ve been talking about anti-Semitism. We disagree about Ilhan Omar. Most of us think she is an anti-Semite and a scourge. Some of us think she spoke awkwardly and, understandably, has little love for Israel.
One of us, not me, did some research. Kudos for that. He wrote:
All anti-Semitism must be condemned, opposed and eradicated. All good people everywhere must join in this effort. We must focus on the root causes of anti-Semitism and allocate necessary resources to attack those root causes. Therefore, it is critical to understand the makeup of current anti-Semitism in the country.
[The Anti-Defamation League] reports that of the 1,879 anti-Semitic acts committed in the United States in 2018, “Right-wing individuals were responsible for 1,328 of those incidents – nearly 71 percent. Left-wing individuals were responsible for none of 2018’s attacks, and Islamist individuals were responsible for four …..”
He adds: “So let’s agree to join forces to attack and condemn anti-Semitism. And let us focus our efforts on the main source of anti-Semitic acts – the right-wing. Some are right-wing extremists, right-wing white supremacists, and white nationalists. But not all. As the report shows, many are ordinary people who do not appear to be affiliated with a group.”
He stresses. I will stress. Not all on the right are anti-Semites. If we are to combat anti-Semitism, we should combat the anti-Semitism that exists. Failure to do that is dangerous.