[rad-green] Bernie vs Bloomberg: Prepare for the Trump-fueled Right-wing anti-Semitic Storm

*https://www.haaretz.com/jewish/.premium-bernie-vs-bloomberg-prepare-for-the-right-wing-anti-semitic-storm-1.8526828
<https://www.haaretz.com/jewish/.premium-bernie-vs-bloomberg-prepare-for-the-right-wing-anti-semitic-storm-1.8526828>Haaretz
         Feb 14, 2020 Bernie vs Bloomberg: Prepare for the Trump-fueled
Right-wing anti-Semitic StormIf Sanders or Bloomberg win the nomination,
Trump will drench the 2020 campaign in anti-Semitic slurs, accusations of
disloyalty and Soros conspiracy theories. Be ready to identify and refute
themBy Noah Berlatsky  *
[image: Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., with
his wife Jane O'Meara Sanders, arrives to speak to supporters at a primary
night election rally in Manchester, N.H., Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2020]
*Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., with his
wife Jane O'Meara Sanders, arrives to speak to supporters at an election
rally in Manchester, N.H., Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2020AP Photo/Pablo Martinez
Monsivais*

There has never been a Jewish presidential nominee in the United States.
But that may change this year. Two leading candidates in the Democratic
primaries, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and billionaire former New York
mayor Michael Bloomberg, are Jewish. If either of them win the nomination,
it will be a landmark moment for Jewish people in the United States.

But with Donald Trump as the Republican incumbent, a Jewish nominee will
also almost certainly mean that the 2020 election campaign will be awash in
anti-Semitic tropes, slurs, and conspiracy theories. It's important for the
media and the public to be ready to identify them and refute them. The
nomination of a Jewish candidate can't be allowed to become an occasion for
increased hatred and violence.

It's important to note that Trump will smear other candidates too. In 2016,
he smeared Ted Cruz, a Hispanic candidate, as un-American, falsely
suggesting Cruz's father was involved in the JFK assassination. If out gay
South Bend mayor Pete Buttigieg wins, Trump will no doubt attack him with
homophobia - adding to the puerile, othering name-games he's already
engaged in. If Elizabeth Warren wins, Trump will double down on misogyny.
Trump has been calling her the racist slur "Pocahontas" since at least
2016.

Bigotry has been central to Trump’s presidency, and it will be central to
his reelection campaign. But which bigotry he uses will depend to some
degree on the opponent he faces. Jewish people and their allies need to be
ready to anticipate, and respond, to anti-Semitism.

We can be certain Trump will use anti-Semitism against a Jewish candidate
because he used anti-Semitism even against the non-Jewish Democratic
nominee Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election. Trump's last major campaign
ad linked Clinton to Jewish democratic donor George Soros and Jewish CEO
Lloyd Blankfein. The ad said they were part of a "global power structure"
of "people who don't have your good in mind." The anti-Semitism was so
blatant it barely even counted as a dogwhistle.

Soros is a central figure in far right propaganda, and he's likely to be
mentioned repeatedly in any presidential contest featuring a Jewish
candidate. A billionaire philanthropist and Holocaust survivor, Soros
regularly donates to Democratic causes. This has led to paranoid certainty
on the right that Soros is behind every left protest or movement, and that
he is nefariously attempting to undermine the American (Christian)
character and way of life.

Republican Congressman Matt Gaetz, for example, blamed Soros for protests
against the Brett Kavanaugh appointment and accused him of funding a
migrant "caravan" to storm the U.S. border in time for the 2018 midterms.

Trump speculated that Soros was funding illegal immigration to the United
States. This was the same conspiracy theory that inspired the shooter who
murdered 11 people in a synagogue in Pittsburgh in 2018. Yet, despite
inspiring the worst anti-Semitic mass killing in U.S. history, right-wing
figures like former New York mayor and Trump crony Rudy Giuliani continue
to indulge in these conspiracy theories.

Attacks on Soros conflate anti-Semitic tropes about Jewish financial power
with right-wing anti-leftism. That's a tradition that goes back to Hitler,
who saw Judaism and Marxism as inseparable, and murdered Jewish people
because he considered them to be leftists and leftists because he
considered them to be Jewish.

It might seem like Bloomberg, who is a multi-billionaire, would be more
vulnerable to anti-Semitic attacks on financial elites, while Sanders, who
is a socialist, would be more vulnerable to anti-Semitic attacks on
leftists. But the whole point of Soros conspiracy theories is to erase the
distinction between these targets. To anti-Semites, all Jews are shadowy
wealthy manipulators pushing a left agenda, regardless of their actual
wealth or ideology.

It's also likely that in a general election campaign, both Bloomberg and
Sanders would be accused of being fake Jews who are betraying Israel. Trump
is on record as saying that Jews who are Democrats are "disloyal," because
they do not follow the lead of Israel's right wing government.

The implication for Trump is that American Jews are not real Americans, and
owe their duty first to an Israeli ethnonationalist state which is a junior
partner of the American right. Sanders has been particularly critical of
Israel's treatment of the Palestinians, but any Jewish candidate
criticizing Trump is going to be attacked as a traitor.

They also will almost certainly be accused of anti-Semitism because the
Democratic party is less rabidly anti-Palestinian than the GOP. It is,
after all, a staple of anti-Semitism that bigotry against Jews is caused,
first and foremost, by Jewish people themselves. The right therefore will
use anti-Semitism in the election and then claim it is the Jewish targets
of those smears who are the real anti-Semites.

So, how can people of good will prepare for, and resist, the anti-Semitism
that will be directed against Jewish candidates? First, it's important to
recognize the common tropes and attacks, and to refuse to use them or
broadcast them, even when they are used against candidates you dislike.

Sanders is one of my top choices in the primary, and Bloomberg is, for me,
dead last. But neither of them should be attacked as a fake Jew, or as
un-American. Neither should be smeared as part of a shadowy global
conspiracy. Nor should pundits attack Jewish candidates by calling their
supporters Nazis.

Don't do Trump's dirty work for him.

In the general election, Jewish organizations need to emphasize the
historic importance of a Jewish nominee, and defend Jewish candidates from
anti-Semitism. They need to do this especially if those Jewish candidates
are occasionally critical of Israel, because we need to make it clear that
the right-wing is wrong when it conflates Jewish identity with Israel.

The media, for its part, needs to identify anti-Semitism clearly, both in
articles and headlines. We should no longer be surprised when Trump does,
and says the worst.

If Sanders or Bloomberg win, we should expect him to target Jewish people.
And people of good will, Jewish and otherwise, should be prepared to push
back, against this, and against Trump's other bigotries as well.

*Noah Berlatsky is a freelance writer. He lives in Chicago.Twitter:
@nberlat *

-- 

--- 
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Sid-l" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected].
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/sid-l/CACKppcyk2ujWxGU0Eb07mks%2BUL3zP8LSMqNz%2BbOa%3Dn4Gw%3DeBEg%40mail.gmail.com.

---
To unsubscribe: <mailto:[email protected]>
List help: <https://riseup.net/lists>