J.J. Sefton touched upon this topic in his excellent Morning ReportTM this morning, and while I agree in part that the conflation of American anti-Semitism vis-a-vis Kanye West’s relationship with Donald Trump is arrant nonsense, there is a kernel of a difficult and hidden truth to it.
No…not the idea that Donald Trump is a crypto-Jew-Hater. That is so ridiculous on the face of it that it should be refuted with one of my favorite responses: “You can’t possibly be that fvcking stupid!” Donald Trump did more for American Jews by improving the economy than any president since Ronald Reagan. And despite the vicious bias of the media, he was a tremendously inclusive president.
Look at his remarks after the Tree Of Life Synagogue shooting! He spoke about the evil of anti-Semitism and the hatred of religion, the need for an armed response at all houses of worship (not just Jewish), and he carefully did not marginalize the majority of Americans who own firearms by criticizing the weapon used.
He also did more for the ancestral homeland of the Jews — Israel — than any president in American history. Anyone with more than two functioning neurons can see the sea change in the Arab world as a result of the Abraham Accords, as nation after nation opens diplomatic, cultural and economic ties with Israel. Ironically it is very possibly the beginning of a political and diplomatic distancing between America and Israel, since Israel can no longer count on America to be its ally against Islamic fundamentalism and Iranian insanity.
No…the point with which I disagree with Sefton is that Kanye West is actually an important voice in anti-Semitism in America. Yes, West is a barely literate, ignorant fool who is almost certainly mentally ill, but his anti-Semitism is real, and most of all he has a bully pulpit from which to preach it. The secret that no progressive Jew wants to admit much less speak aloud, is that there is rampant anti-Semitism in much of black America, and it is being fomented from the pulpits and by the rappers and the revolving door of the prison system where young black men are inculcated with the lunacy of Nation of Islam drivel and similar black Muslim and black nationalist nonsense.
And of course the left gobbles it up, because of its own virulent anti-Semitism and its awareness that driving the wedge deeper and deeper between American Jewry and American blacks will create the conditions for more social upheaval and strife, which is their stock in trade.
So Kanye West is a real threat, but not as a confidante and friend of Donald Trump (as Sefton corectly points out), but as a mouthpiece from which the traditional black anti-Semitism of the last 80 years is spouted.
There is one point that may put me in the monitory here, but I do not think that West should be muzzled. His speech is dangerous and destructive, and reaches the ears of angry, ignorant young black men who will lash out at the nearest convenient target. Just look at the anti-Semitic attacks in NYC for confirmation. But it is speech that should be protected. As Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis said, “Sunshine is the best disinfectant.”
Our job is to refute the arguments of the anti-Semites in the public square…forcefully and intelligently. But let us not forget that our last resort is the 2nd Amendment, because the founders knew quite well that the right to our self defense from these sort of malign ideas is absolute, and can be defended in ways other than in the public square.
