Two posts from Ilan Goldenberg about antisemitism plus Pro-Palestinian protest chants used to target Jews

29 May 2025

Democrats, Republicans and Double Standards on Israel and Antisemitism - by Ilan Goldenberg

Why do Trump and Republicans always get the benefit of the doubt while Democrats are constantly suspected?

How is it that Democrats are constantly being accused of being weak in their support for Israel and not tough enough on antisemitism, when the objective reality is that they have been so much better than Donald Trump on these issues? This was a deeply frustrating phenomenon that I experienced during the Presidential campaign. Events of the past few months – and especially the past couple of weeks – have only brought this contrast into starker relief.

The Double Standard

In the campaign, I dealt with constant concerns from members of the Jewish community that Kamala Harris had not said enough about her commitment to Israel’s security or sufficiently condemned Hamas for the attacks of October 7th. This despite the fact that I could point them to many many many examples where she had done exactly that.

Meanwhile Donald Trump could say the most outrageous things from calling Hamas and Hezbollah smart and mocking Israel days after October 7th, to calling some of the neo-Nazis who marched at Charlottesville “very fine people,” to having his own Vice President vote against the National Security Supplemental that included billions in support for Israel in the aftermath of October 7.

Entire essay

Wrestling with antisemitism on the Left - by Ilan Goldenberg

How we move forward after the horrific murders of Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky

The murder of Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky this past week was horrifying and heartbreaking. The fact that they were at an event about humanitarian aid and were two idealistic young people with a track record of working towards peace adds a cruel irony to this incident. But sadly given the state of antisemitism in America, the one adjective I cannot use to describe these horrible events is “surprising.” And given the state of antisemitism on the fringes of the far left, it also is not at all surprising that the attacker screamed “free Palestine” after having committed this atrocious act, even if most leaders of the pro-Palestine movement absolutely deplore the attack.

To be clear, there is also plenty of antisemitism on the American far right, and it has a longer history of resulting in terrible violence directed at Jews – most notably the killing of eleven people at the Tree of Life Synagogue in 2018. It is also true that Donald Trump has fed these fires by legitimizing antisemitic right wing extremists. And he is likely to generate further antisemitic backlash on the left by using his supposed fight against antisemitism to launch attacks on academia that are really about his own vendetta against elite research institutions.

All of that is true, but that is not what this post is about and that is not what the events of the past week were about. This post is about the challenges that American Jews face from the left both in the form of violent and extreme antisemitism, but also much more complicated and subtle prejudice and insensitivity that we have dealt with since the October 7th attacks and the start of the war in Gaza, and what we can do about it.

Entire essay

6 Pro-Palestinian protest chants used to target Jews

• Globalize the Intifada

• There is Only One Solution, Intifada Revolution

• Resistance By Any Means Necessary

• From the River to the Sea

• Free Palestine

• Settler Colonialism

Entire essay.

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The index to my prior essays (mostly post 5 November 2024) is here.

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