Not long ago, Snopes, a left-wing “fact-checking” site, finally admitted that Donald Trump had never called the neo-Nazis who marched at the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville in 2017 “very fine people.”
For years, Democrats, including President Joe Biden, have repeated this false claim. Indeed, Biden, who’s been running for the presidency since 1987, ludicrously told the press in 2019 that the events in Charlottesville, and Trump’s alleged reaction, inspired him to run in 2020.
Well, there’s a new Charlottesville every week in America nowadays. They aren’t led by a few hundred Nazi cosplayers but thousands of Islamists and leftist fellow travelers whose goals are supported by numerous administration officials, congressmen and newsrooms.
In the latest Charlottesville, a mob of pro-Hamas goons showed up in front of a synagogue in the heavily Jewish Pico-Robertson neighborhood in Los Angeles. They wore terror apparel, called for violence against Jews, allegedly beat up a Jewish woman and impeded people from worshipping. Unlike in November, when a 69-year-old Los Angeles Jewish man was killed after a pro-Hamas “protester” threw a megaphone at his head, no one died.
If reports are true, the Los Angeles Police Department ensured that pro-Hamas “protestors” were able to encircle the synagogue and kept Jewish worshippers and counter-protestors out. Only one person was arrested, charged with a misdemeanor for allegedly possessing a “spiked flag” — as one does at a peaceful protest. I wonder if it was a Hamas flag or a Hezbollah one?
Many in the media again framed the violence as a clash between anti-Israel and pro-Israel protesters — “Protesters clash outside synagogue in L.A.” or “Fights break out during dueling protests in Pico-Robertson” and so on.
But why do the pro-“Palestine” protestors show up in front of synagogues, Holocaust museums and the performances of Jewish comedians in the first place? Why do they target Jewish students and Jewish businesses?
Pro-Israel protestors don’t show up in front of mosques. Nor do “peace protestors,” who never seem to object to the string of atrocities happening thousands of miles away in the Islamic world — which, unlike most claims regarding Gaza, aren’t concocted.
But back to Biden. His very presidency supposedly hinges on the events of Charlottesville, and yet outside the occasional perfunctory denunciations — where he usually reminds everyone of “Islamophobia” — he does nothing.
“I condemn the antisemitic protests,” Biden told reporters after anti-Jewish demonstrations at Columbia University a few months ago. “I also condemn those who don’t understand what’s going on with the Palestinians.”
Boy, that sounds like the president is saying there are “very fine people” on both sides. Bidens’s odious moral relativism is to compare antisemitic, keffiyeh-wearing terror cheerleaders and those who don’t “understand” — or accept — the rationalization for Hamas’ murder and rape of civilians.
The truth is Biden, who has repeated fake “genocide” casualty numbers to Muslim audiences, is scared to offend the pro-Hamas faction in his party. And it’s not just words. While Biden’s Justice Department is raiding the homes of pro-life protestors who pray in front of abortion mills or trying to throw elderly anti-abortion activists into prison, it does nothing about the systemic, highly funded, violent antisemitic movement that has erupted on campuses.
While Attorney General Merrick Garland likens the actions of parents who are opposed to COVID restrictions and racist curriculums to “domestic terrorism” — there still hasn’t been a single incident to substantiate his action — he doesn’t have the same designation for pro-Hamas rioters who target synagogues and Jewish businesses.
While the Biden administration helps states deal with scary MAGA terrorists who embrace “anti-government or anti-authority violent extremism,” they do nothing about the DAs and AGs who let antisemites funded by Qatar do whatever they like.
Last week, the Manhattan district attorney let dozens of rioters (not protestors) who occupied and trashed Hamilton Hall off without any charges. This week, a Jewish couple was allegedly beaten at a Brooklyn elementary school graduation by an Arabic-speaking family — who taunted them with shouts of “Free Palestine!” “Gaza is Ours!” and “Death to Israel!” I’m sure the perpetrators have nothing to worry about in NYC. They are perched high on the Left’s victim class hierarchy.
It would be nice if there was even a fraction of the anger or coverage of these new Charlottesvilles. But most Democrats aren’t offended by all antisemites. If you insult George Soros, sure, you may be condemned in the pages of The New York Times. If a pro-Hamas mob beats down a Jewish woman, we’re lucky if the paper even reports on the incident.
And every time there is a new Charlottesville, it not only affirms why Israel needs to exist — or that “anti-Zionism” and antisemitism are now indistinguishable — it tells us that Jews can’t rely on the contemporary Left to be on their side.
David Harsanyi is a senior editor at The Federalist. Harsanyi is a nationally syndicated columnist and author of five books — the most recent, “Eurotrash: Why America Must Reject the Failed Ideas of a Dying Continent.”