Joshua London serves as director of government affairs for the Jewish Institute for National Security of America (JINSA), a non-governmental organization dedicated to promoting the Israeli-American security relationship. London was in Toronto recently as part of a three-person panel sponsored by the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center, to present the “View From Washington” on modern anti-Semitism.
Given the attacks on synagogues in Pittsburgh and Poway, Calif., along with other anti-Semitic incidents, what’s the state of anti-Semitism in the United States today?
Violent anti-Semitism is on the rise. It’s not clear that there is a consistent pattern across the nation in terms of perpetrators. For a long time in the New York City area – Brooklyn, in particular – there has been a history of poor relations between the
African-American community and the religious Jewish community. Based on police reports, most of the violence taking place has been perpetrated by African-
Americans. In some cases, it’s very violent.
The fatal shootings, though, were done by white nationalists. There are differing groups, so it’s not clear that there’s a unifying trend, per se. There is also a rise of general anti-Semitism, of elite opinion that has focused much more on anti-
Israel sentiment, not in terms of straightforward legitimate criticisms of this or that policy, this or that government, but of calumnies and evils perpetrated by the Jewish state. That level of anti-Semitism has some very worrying trends, including in political discourse.
Are the white nationalists lone wolves or do they represent a movement that could be politically influential?
I’d say there are conflicting views. There are some who are trying to point to the general rise of the white supremacists or nationalists, but it’s not clear that there is any cohesive ideology or dogma, or that there’s a group of folks with similar memberships. People try to paint a picture of a sort of KKK-style movement on the rise, and I don’t believe that’s the case. As best I can tell, while there are folks who dip in and out of this type of propaganda, it’s all very marginal in terms of its constituency and its impact on society. It’s very self-
selecting and cauterized. That particular kind of stuff doesn’t bleed into the culture.
You mentioned attacks by African-Americans. Is that something influenced by Louis Farrakhan and his Nation of Islam?
It doesn’t seem to be a Nation of Islam thing. It’s not clear whether there is an ideological or dogmatic component. There is a history of tensions between those communities in Brooklyn. I suspect it has as much to do with general societal breakdown and – particularly in New York – to some of the changes and reversals of public policy about crime and policing.
U.S. President Donald Trump has been accused of promoting intolerance and of being anti-Semitic. What is your view?
In the United States, this is a highly politically charged issue. I probably break from most of my colleagues and the alphabet soup of Jewish groups in that I think it’s fairly ridiculous to assert that President Trump is anti-Semitic or is meaningfully playing with anti-Semitic tropes. Not only does he have a Jewish son-in-law and Jewish grandchildren, these are religious Jews.
He has a long association with religious Jews in business and that bleeds into social interactions, as well. Many of his long-standing friends who happen to be Orthodox Jews have been placed into positions of power.
Another part is Israel. From the domestic sociological perspective, it’s incredible to say that about someone who is hugely supportive of the democratically elected government of Israel, far more so than his immediate predecessor, and any predecessor. Certainly that’s the vantage point of the Israeli government and the Israeli people across the democratic spectrum.
What about the accusation that Trump has encouraged white nationalists so that they feel they can act in a racist way against Jews?
To me, that is utter nonsense. One of the realities of the American political scene is that most of what we used to call mainstream or establishment people – and this is bipartisan – loathe the man and everything they believe he stands for. They are blinded in most respects by their loathing of him.
And most of the media, certainly in the beginning, probably still, decided to actively play a role in that, rather than be proper journalists. They go out of their way to find the elements they can blow up.
Do you think there’s a danger the Democratic party will come to resemble Labour in England under Jeremy Corbyn, where anti-Semitism is accepted in the ranks? Should Jews be worried about that?
Yes and yes. The Democrats have a problem. They are loathe to admit it. More regrettably, they are afraid to deal with it. They won’t address it publicly, but they’re not dealing with it internally, either. I think that they’re unaware of how deep the problem is. Therefore, the party could easily go the Corbyn route. That said, the overwhelming majority of Democrats are not a problem. The overwhelming majority of Democrats are traditionally pro-
Israel, and they almost uniformly dislike the Likud government.
If one of the Democratic presidential candidates wins, will they take the party further away from support for Israel?
They’re very far to the left. And a good illustration of how far things have gone is that, in recent terrorist attacks in Israel, the candidates, almost to a person – at least the ones who matter – came out with varying degrees of statements condemning the Netanyahu administration and promising to increase security assistance to the Palestinians. None of them came out and actually condemned the violence or reached out to the families of those slain. It was all the wrong voice, the wrong message.
The Democrats refuse to recognize they have an image problem and an actual people problem in terms of a handful of members. By not correcting it, it’s a problem that will get worse.
This interview has been edited and condensed for style and clarity.