Attorney General William Barr on Monday talked about the dangers of allowing anti-Semitism to flourish. Barr's remarks were made during a Department of Justice's summit designed to condemn anti-Semitism.
"The most ancient and stubborn form of racism throughout Western history has been anti-Semitism. Hostility or prejudice against the Jewish people has manifested itself in the organized violence of pogroms, expulsions, and massacres. Within living memory, these genocidal acts reached the unimaginable scale and evil of the Holocaust," Barr said.
“In the United States today, we do not see state-organized violence, but increasingly we are seeing hate-inspired violence against the Jewish community perpetrated by individuals and groups," Barr said, referencing the shootings at various synagogues across the country.
Barr explained why it's important to protect the Jewish people from persecution, even if the government struggles to address the issue.
“Hate crimes and civil rights prosecutions are important tools, but they cannot solve the problem on their own,” Barr explained. “Hearts and minds must be changed, but that is not always the task to which the government is particularly well-suited. We have a legal obligation to respect the free speech rights of even despicable speakers and our harshest critics. But lines can be drawn by our society, sometimes easily and sometimes not so easily, between that commitment and repudiation of anti-Semitism.”
The Attorney General compared anti-Semitism to various types of cancers.
“I think of the various forms of anti-Semitism as very much like different kinds of cancer,” Barr said. "A healthy body with a strong immune system can have success in preventing cancer from emerging or spreading. But if the immune system weakens, cancer can emerge. Some might be localized, but others can rapidly metastasize and become systemic. Just like a physical body, a body politic must have an immune system that resists anti-Semitism and other forms of racial hatred.”
Barr is right. We need to do everything in our power to protect the Jewish people. The atrocities that took place during the Holocaust should never happen again. The fact that our country is struggling with condemning anti-Semitism, out of fear of being called racist or xenophobic, is preposterous. How far do we have to go before we draw a line in the sand and say enough is enough? How many Jews have to die at the hands of anti-Semites before we decide to say we stand strongly with the Jewish people?
This really isn't as controversial as the left makes it out to be. No one deserves religious persecution. No one deserves to face slander and mass shootings because they're practicing their faith in their house of worship. If this was happening to any other religious group, the LBGT community or race, the left would be up in arms. But because it's happening to Jews it's like it's no big deal.
Remember: those who forget history are doomed to repeat it. And that would be a disgrace.
At @TheJusticeDept anti-Semitism summit this morning, AG Barr says that the US govt "will not tolerate" bigoted attacks against Jewish people and groups and compared anti-Semitism to a "cancer" on American society. pic.twitter.com/cMefiOc8me
— Nate Madden (@NateOnTheHill) July 15, 2019