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Senator Cruz Warns About Rising Antisemitism on the Right

"But the danger that I want to highlight to you tonight is not antisemitism on the left. It is antisemitism on the right."

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On October 19, Senator Ted Cruz spoke at the 45th Annual Night to Honor Israel.

The Wall Street Journal published an excerpt of his remarks:

There is a danger that is very real, and we've talked about antisemitism. Listen, about a decade ago, antisemitism began rising on the left, and the Democrat Party did nothing. And in the decade that followed, it has consumed the Democrat Party. I do not believe this is exaggeration to say there is a real and meaningful pro-Hamas contingent of the Democrat Party in Washington, and the remainder of the Democrats are terrified of the pro-Hamas contingent. We know that.

But the danger that I want to highlight to you tonight is not antisemitism on the left. It is antisemitism on the right. And I'm here to tell you in the last six months, I have seen antisemitism rising on the right in a way I have never seen it in my entire life. Listen, CUFI [Christians United for Israel] is extraordinary. The work that CUFI does is desperately, desperately needed. But I'm here to tell you the church is asleep right now.

If I pick up my phone and send out a tweet, if I say good morning, within minutes, I will have hundreds of blatantly antisemitic responses. When Prime Minister Netanyahu was here a few months ago, I sat down with him for a couple of hours. I raised this issue with him, and his first reaction was he said: Well, that's Qatar. That's Iran. They're paying for it. It's astroturf. And I said, Mr. Prime Minister, yes, but no. Yes, Qatar and Iran are clearly paying for it, and there are bots and they are putting real money behind it. But I am telling you, this is real. It is organic. These are real human beings and it is spreading. In the last year, we had three prominent voices on the right, publicly muse: Gosh, maybe Hitler wasn't that bad a guy after all. Yes he was—he was the embodiment of evil.

And I asked Prime Minister Netanyahu, I said, imagine how different American political history would've been if Rush Limbaugh had been an antisemite instead of a philosemite. We would have a fundamentally different country if Rush Limbaugh had spent years spreading poison. I want to tell especially folks that are no longer teenagers or in your 20s, this poison of antisemitism on the right, it is spreading with young people. It is gaining traction. Part of it is philosophical. There's an isolationism. So they will argue, what business do we have supporting Israel? Why should America support Israel? It's their problem. Let them deal with it.

And let me give you an answer as someone elected to represent 31 million Texans and fight every day for your jobs, your freedom, and your safety and security, the United States supports Israel not because we are helping out a down-on-his-luck neighbor. We're not engaged in a charity act. The United States supports Israel because it is unequivocally in the national security interest of the United States to support Israel.

Cruz is correct. Antisemitism is the world's oldest virus, and plagues all sides of the political spectrum.

Earlier this year, I was invited to speak at NatCon 5, the conference for National Conservatism. I'll admit, I approached this invitation with some hesitation. I was familiar with the growing antisemitism among some national conservatives. But I was also put at ease by the fact that so many Orthodox Jews are leaders within the movement, including Yoram Hazony, Josh Hammer, and others. I ultimately agreed to participate on a panel about the courts with two other well-known Jews, Ron Coleman and Ted Frank. I told myself that the best way to fight antisemitism on the right was to speak at this conference as a proud Jew. It is better that I be present, than absent.

When I arrived at the conference, I was struck by how many Orthodox Jewish men and women I saw. It was extremely impressive. I was quickly added to a Whatsapp group to organize times for prayers. There was Kosher food served at every meal. A Rabbi gave an invocation. Another Rabbi gave a fascinating lecture over kosher burgers on the Torah. I don't think I had ever been to a legal conference with such a visible presence of observant Jews.

Yet, at the same time, there was a tension. Yoram Hazony made a controversial statement during his opening remarks. The key line was:

"Nobody ever said that to be a good natcon you have to love Israel. Nobody ever said that to be a good natcon you have to love Jews. Go take a look at our statement of principles. It's not a requirement."

I was shocked when I heard this message. Here we had an Orthodox Jew, and a leader of a bourgeoning movement, announcing that you do not have to love Jews to be a member. Presumably, you can also hate Jews, and still be a member.

Yet, Hazony still acknowledged the growing antisemitism within this movement:

I have been pretty amazed by the depth of the slander of Jews as a people that there has been online in the last year in a half. The left is long gone down a rabbit hole of hating Jews. I didn't think it would happen on the right. We now have quite a few people on the right who in the last three years have a made a really interesting transition. These are people that I used to used to admire a great deal who have this transition. They used to think that Jews and Christians should be aligned to save America. Now they think that saying good things about the Muslim Brotherhood and Islam and the Quran, that's where they are going. They think Jews are a big problem.

You can watch the full remarks, starting around the nineteen minute mark.

So here is the tension. I think most Christians on the right are steadfast defenders of Israel, and philosemites. Donald Trump is the most pro-Israel president in history.  But there is a growing movement of some Christians that are overtly antisemitic.

I think we should all heed Senator Cruz's remarks.