PGHIMC - Pittsburgh Independent Media Center

Anti-Semitism and Racism Find a Welcome Home in the Democratic Party
by Yassar Datsmibebe Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2003 at 7:25 AM

Is it unreasonable to worry that anti-Semitism may find a place in the Democratic Party? Far from it. Indeed, it already has.

The Democrats, notably including Lieberman, treat Al Sharpton with all the respect a serious presidential candidate is due, despite Sharpton's history of anti-Jewish incitement, which Fred Segel (http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110004192 ) described in a February 2000 article, pegged to a Democratic presidential debate at Harlem's Apollo Theater:

�It would have taken no great effort for the reporters covering the Apollo debate to have walked across 125th Street from the theater to visit Freddy's Fashion Mart, where in 1995 eight people died in a murderous rampage inspired by Mr. Sharpton. . . .

�He turned a landlord-tenant dispute between the Jewish owner of Freddy's and a black subtenant into a theater of hatred. Picketers from Mr. Sharpton's National Action Network, sometimes joined by "the Rev." himself, marched daily outside the store, screaming about "bloodsucking Jews" and "Jew bastards" and threatening to burn the building down.

�After weeks of increasingly violent rhetoric, one of the protesters, Roland Smith, took Mr. Sharpton's words about ousting the "white interloper" to heart. He ran into the store shouting, "It's on!" He shot and wounded three whites and a Pakistani, whom he apparently mistook for a Jew. Then he set the fire, which killed five Hispanics, one Guyanese and one African-American--a security guard whom protesters had taunted as a "cracker lover." Smith then fatally shot himself.

�Eight people died, and so evidently did the conscience of liberal Democrats. It was Al Sharpton who had the honor of asking the first question at last week's debate, held within hailing distance of the Freddy's massacre. �

There is also a strong anti-Semitic presence on the campus left, which groups like the David Project (http://davidproject.org/ ) and CampusTruth (http://www.campustruth.org/ ) have made it their mission to combat. While professors and college activists are a numerically insignificant constituency, they do have an influence in setting the limits of debate.

Those who worry about anti-Semitism should also be concerned with the current mood of the Democratic Party. Not everyone on the Angry Left is anti-Semitic--indeed, some of the Angriest Leftists are Jewish--but a party that stands for nothing other than rage may find it difficult to enforce distinctions between legitimate and illegitimate targets of that rage.

Fortunately, at least one of America's political parties takes a firm stand against anti-Semitism and racism. The Associated Press reports from Bangkok, Thailand:

"President Bush on Monday personally condemned the Malaysian prime minister for his statement that Jews rule the world, pulling Mahathir Mohamad aside at an international economic meeting to tell him the remarks were 'wrong and divisive,' Bush's spokesman said.

White House press secretary Scott McClellan quoted Bush as telling the Malaysian leader, "It stands squarely against what I believe in."

But you just gotta love Reuters, which headlines the story "Bush Tells Mahathir His Jew Remarks Are Wrong." His "Jew remarks"? (http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=564&ncid=564&e=2&u=/nm/20031020/ts_nm/apec_mahathir_dc_2 ). No institutional anti-semitism at one of the world�s largest news reporting agencies, now is there.

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