US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer warned that rising antisemitism in the US was being fueled by "dog-whistles" at anti-Israel demonstrations throughout the country while Jewish Americans have been "abandoned" by many on the left.
“Jewish Americans feel alone to face all of this — abandoned by too many of our friends and allies in our greatest time of need, as antisemitic hate crimes skyrocket across the country,” Schumer said during a 40-minute address on the Senate floor today (Wednesday).
The New York Senator criticized members of his own Democratic Party and the mainstream media for their responses to the Hamas massacre of over 1,200 people in southern Israel on October 7, the worst massacre committed against the Jewish people since the Nazi Holocaust.
“Can anybody imagine a horrific terrorist attack in another country receiving such a reception?” he asked. adding that history has taught the Jewish people "ultimately, that we are alone.”
“Antisemites are taking advantage of the pro-Palestinian movement to espouse hatred and bigotry toward Jewish people,” Schumer said. “But rather than call out this dangerous behavior for what it is, we see so many of our friends and fellow citizens — particularly young people who yearn for justice — unknowingly aiding and abetting their cause.”
“While many protesters no doubt view their actions as a compassionate expression of solidarity with the Palestinian people, for many Jewish-Americans, we feel in too many instances some of the most extreme rhetoric gives license to darker ideas that have always lurked below the surface of every question involving Jewish people,” he said.
“Antisemites have always trafficked in coded language and action to define Jewish people as unworthy of the rights and privileges afforded to other groups.”
Schumer highlighted the chant, "from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free," a call for the destruction of the State of Israel which has been used and defended by Democratic Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib.
"Can you blame the Jewish people for hearing a violently antisemitic message loud and clear anytime we hear that chant?” he asked. “We shouldn’t accept this sort of language from anybody, any more than we accept other racist dogwhistles like invoking ‘welfare queens’ to criticize safety net programs or calling COVID-19 the ‘Chinese virus’.”
“Can you understand why the Jewish people [feel] isolated when we hear some praise Hamas and chant its vicious slogan? Can you blame us for feeling vulnerable, over 80 years after Hitler wiped out half the Jewish population across the world?
“Jewish Americans were alarmed to see some of our fellow citizens characterize a brutal terrorist attack as justified because of the actions of the Israeli government — a vicious, blood-curdling, premeditated massacre of innocent women, men, children, the elderly,” Schumer said.
“Even worse, in some cases, people even celebrated what happened, describing it as the deserved fate of ‘colonizers’ and calling for ‘glory to the martyrs‘ who carried out these heinous attacks. That happened here in America.
“Many of the people who express these sentiments in America aren’t neo-Nazis or card-carrying Klan members or Islamist extremists. They’re in many cases people that most liberal Jewish Americans felt previously were their ideological fellow travelers. Not long ago, many of us marched together for black and brown lives. We stood against anti-Asian hatred. We protested bigotry against the LGBTQ community. We fought for reproductive justice.”
Schumer recounted his family's history during the Holocaust in explaining why the current outbreak of antisemitism in the US must be fought and condemned.
“Obviously, many of those marching here in the US do not have any evil intent. But when Jewish people hear chants like ‘from the river to the sea’, a founding slogan of Hamas, a terrorist group that is not shy about their goal to eradicate the Jewish people in Israel and around the globe, we are alarmed," he said.
“When we see signs in the crowd that read ‘by any means necessary’ after the most violent attack ever against Israeli civilians, we are appalled at the casual invocation of such savagery. When we see protesters at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade compare the genocide of the Holocaust equivalently to the Israeli army’s action to defeat Hamas in self-defense of their people, we are shocked.
“And when we see many people in news organizations remain neutral about the basic absurdity of these claims and actions, we are deeply disappointed. More than anything, we’re worried — quite naturally, given the twists and turns of history — about where these actions and sentiments could eventually lead.”
“The vitriol against Israel in the wake of October 7, is all too often crossing a line into brazen and widespread antisemitism, the likes of which we haven’t seen for generations in this country — if ever," Schumer declared.
“Which is why we need to name it clearly anytime we see it,” he said, noting several specific examples of antisemitic incidents in the last 53 days. “After October 7, when boycotts were organized against Jewish businesses in Philadelphia that have nothing to do with Israel, that is antisemitism. After October 7, when swastikas appeared on Jewish delis on the Upper East Side, that is antisemitism."
“After October 7, when protesters in California shouted at Jewish Americans, ‘Hitler should have smashed you,’ that is antisemitism. After October 7, when a Jewish US senator was violently threatened for her views on Israel, that is antisemitism. After October 7, when students on college campuses across the country who wear a yarmulke or display a Jewish star are harassed, verbally vilified, pushed, even spat upon, and punched, that is antisemitism.
“After October 7, when an author and a prominent left-wing magazine labeled the pro-Israeli rally in Washington a ‘hate rally’, that is antisemitism. I attended that rally, like tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of others, because I believe there should be a place of refuge for the Jewish people, not because I wish violence on Palestinians or any other people,” he said.
Noting his personal sense of betrayal as a leader of the left, Schumer said: “I’m a progressive; I’ve had lots of good relationships with all the people who are protesting, but I also feel the urgency — the Jewish people are anguished. I had an obligation to many places: to the Jewish people, to my fellow progressives.”
“I had to say it, because I don’t think they (progressive anti-Israel protestors) know it. I don’t think they’re of bad will,” he added.
Schumer said that he hoped his words would reach young progressives, who polls show are far less supportive of Israel than most adults, calling on them to “learn the history of the Jewish people.”
"Those who are inclined to examine the world through the lens of repressors versus the oppressed should take note that the many thousands of years of Jewish history are defined by oppression,” Schumer said.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell praised Schumer's speech as “extraordinary,” and stated that he shares the Majority Leader's "disgust at the alarming rise of antisemitism in America."