The Daily Signal - #328: Does America Have an Anti-Semitism Problem?

Episode Date: October 28, 2018

Almost immediately following the horrific shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue, media figures began claiming there is widespread anti-Semitism among conservatives. This ignoried the pervasive anti-Semitism within the BDS movement and other mainstream liberal groups on college campuses nationwide.Joel Griffith, chair of the Washington, D.C. chapter of Young Jewish Conservatives and research fellow at The Heritage Foundation, joins the podcast to call out the hypocrisy and provide insight on how to stop anti-Semitism in the U.S. Plus: Nancy Pelosi’s daughter, Alexandra Pelosi, is out with a new documentary on fans of President Donald Trump.We also cover these stories:--President Trump will visit Pittsburgh today, along with first lady Melania Trump. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders noted Monday that Trump "is the grandfather of several Jewish grandchildren."--President Trump is deploying some 5,000 troops to the U.S.-Mexico border as the migrant caravan continues to head north.--A third suspicious package was sent to CNN.The Daily Signal podcast is available on Ricochet, iTunes, SoundCloud, Google Play, or Stitcher. All of our podcasts can be found at DailySignal.com/podcasts. If you like what you hear, please leave a review. You can also leave us a message at 202-608-6205 or write us at [e-mail]. Enjoy the show! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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We'd love to talk, business. This is the Daily Signal podcast for Tuesday, October 30th. I'm Kate Trinco. And I'm Daniel Davis. The nation is grieving in the wake of Saturday's deadly shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue. Today, we'll talk to Joel Griffith, a research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, about what happened and how America ought to respond to anti-Semitism. Plus, we'll take a look at a new documentary featuring an East Coast liberal trekking into the heart of Trump country.

But first, we'll cover a few of the top headlines. Well, the gunman who shot up a Pittsburgh synagogue showed up in court on Monday just two days after claiming the lives of 11 people and injuring six others. The man was ordered back in court on Thursday for a preliminary hearing, and federal prosecutors will be seeking the death penalty. Among the victims were a pair of middle-aged brothers, an elderly husband, and a wife and grandmother who was 97. And of course, the president will also be going to Pittsburgh today, along with First Lady Melania Trump. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders noted Monday that Trump, quote, is the grandfather of several Jewish grandchildren, end quote. However, President Trump has also been on Twitter. On Monday, he tweeted, there is great anger in our country, caused in part by inaccurate and even fraudulent reporting of the news.

The fake news media, the true enemy of the people, must stop the open and obvious hostility and report the news accurately and fairly. that will do much to put out the flame of anger and outrage and we will then be able to bring all sides together in peace and harmony. Fake news must end. He tweeted along similar lines on Sunday stating the fake news is doing everything in their power to blame Republicans, conservatives, and me for the division and hatred that has been going on for so long in our country. Actually, it is their fake and dishonest reporting, which is causing problems far greater. than they understand. Well, President Trump is deploying some 5,000 troops to the U.S.-Mexico border as the migrant caravan continues heading north.

Fox News reports that some of the troops will deploy as early as Tuesday. On Saturday, Mexican officials offered some of the migrants' shelter, medical attention, schooling, and jobs, that according to Time magazine. But they declined. Arizona Central reported that a spokesperson for the caravan said, quote, this plan does not truly respond to the causes of Central American Exodus and therefore does not solve the needs from a perspective that respects human rights in a holistic way. We don't want any more prison cities where migrant people are confined without freedom of movement, end quote. Meanwhile, President Trump has remained active on Twitter,

warning the caravan that it will be blocked at the border. He said, quote, many gang members and some very bad people are mixed into the caravan heading to our southern border. Please go back. You will not be admitted into the United States unless you go through the legal process. This is an invasion of our country and our military is waiting for you. A third suspicious package was sent to CNN. The network reported Monday. CNN's Jeff Zucker said in a statement. This morning, another suspicious package addressed to CNN was intercepted at an Atlanta post office. There is no imminent danger to the CNN center. All mail at all CNN domestic bureaus is being screened at off-site facilities as of last Wednesday.

So this package would not have come directly to the CNN Center, even if it hadn't been intercepted first. Our screening process is working and we will keep you updated as we learn more. CNN reported further, quote, the package appears identical to the other packages, authorities say, were sent by pipe bomb suspect, Caesar Sayok, who was arrested on Friday. Well, Brazil elected a new president on Sunday, Gerbossonaro, a right-wing candidate who represents a dramatic break from decades of leftist policy. He ran on a platform of cleaning up corruption, shrinking government, and cracking down on crime, and he won in a landslide, claiming 55% of the electorate.

In his acceptance speech, he said, quote, We cannot continue flirting with socialism, communism, communism, and leftist extremism. We are going to change the destiny of Brazil, end quote. Well, Bolsonaro's victory caps off a roller coaster election season, which included him being stabbed at a political rally. He survived that. The election also put the spotlight on some controversial comments he had made in the past over multiple years, including saying that a Brazilian congresswoman wasn't worthy of raping

because she was very ugly, end quote. He also said back in 1999, quote, elections won't change anything in this country. It will only change on the day that we break out in civil war here and do the job that the military regime didn't do, killing 30,000. If some innocent people die, that's fine. In every war, innocent people die.

End quote. That's just a small taste of some of the comments that were controversial. Well, President Trump called Bolsonaro to congratulate him on the victory and tweeted out, quote, had a very good conversation with the newly elected president of Brazil, Bolsonaro, who won his race by a substantial margin. We agreed that Brazil and the United States will work closely together on trade, military, and everything else. Excellent call. Wish him Congrats. Change may be coming to Germany. Chancellor Angela Merkel, who has been Chancellor

since 2005, won't be running again in 2021. The announcement comes on the heels of a disappointing election result for her party, the Christian Democratic Union, and And she also said she won't be running again to be chairwoman of her party. Quote, as a chairwoman and chancellor, I bear responsibility for everything, for success and for failure. Merkel said Monday, according to the Wall Street Journal, there was a signal that this cannot go on. The image of the government is unacceptable. Well, the British government is spearheading the world's first digital tax. The tax would target revenue generated locally by large tech firms like Google and Facebook.

The U.K. government estimates this would raise up to 400 million pounds of annual revenue, though it wouldn't start until 2020. And next up, we'll talk to Jill Griffith about the shooting at the synagogue in Pittsburgh. Are you looking for quick conservative policy solutions to current issues? Sign up for Heritage's weekly newsletter, The Agenda. Each Tuesday in the Agenda, you will learn what issues Heritage Scholars on Capitol Hill are working on, what position conservatives are taking, and links to our in-depth research. The agenda also provides information on important events happening here at Heritage that you can watch online as well as media interviews from our experts.

Sign up for the agenda on heritage.org today. I just want to kill Jews. Those are the chilling words Robert Bowers alleged to have killed 11 people in a shooting in a synagogue in Pittsburgh this weekend, reportedly told a police officer. Now the community is trying to grapple with what happened, 11 having been killed in the shooting. Rabbi Jeffrey Myers of the Tree of Life synagogue where the shooting occurred spoke to CNN in an interview. Do you blame anyone for what happened there at the Tree of Life beyond the gunman? I don't really foist blame upon any person. Hate does not know religion, race, creed, political party. It's not a political issue in any way, shape, or form.

hate does not know any of those things. It exists in old people. But can hate be cultivated? I mean, what we're struggling with today is maybe hates in all people, maybe it's dormant. What lights the match of hate? I think you're raising one of those great questions that people far smarter than I can answer. But I do recall this. If we look in the Bible after the story of the flood and Noah, God regretfully says to Noah, I have learned that man from his youth is prone to evil, which is, you would think, a horrific thing for God to tell us. The message I get from that is, yes, there is the possibility of hate in all people,

but there's also the possibility of good. And good will always win at over hate if we let it in each of us. And I have seen so much good these past two days, the emails, the texts. When I went home last night, I think I finally cleared out from my phone all my emails. I woke up this morning. I had 399 emails. These are strangers, people I've never met from around the world. Jew, Christian, Muslim, Sikh, every religion.

People just pouring out their hearts in giving support. And it shows me good will always win out over evil. us today to discuss is Joel Griffith, a research fellow in financial regulations at the Heritage Foundation and D.C. Chair of the Young Jewish Conservatives. Joel, before we get into the politicization of this issue, I wanted to ask you about this particular ceremony. This Saturday, when the shooting began, people were gathered for a celebration of a new child. What is that ceremony in the Jewish faith and how would people have been celebrating before this occurred? So eight days after birth, a Jewish boy will undergo a circumcision.

And that is a mark of being Jewish that was first given to who we believe is our, or the father of our people, Abraham, thousands of years ago. You can read that story still today in the Hebrew Bible, and it's still something that has done eight days after birth. Typically, you'll take the child. It can be done at home, but often it'll be done at a synagogue. And right before that ceremony takes place, you'll actually have a naming ceremony, and that's when the Jewish name is given to that child.

And usually people outside the family, they won't even know what that name is going to be until that moment. Naming that child is considered of utmost important. One Jewish organization, Habad, describes it as the glimmer of divine inspiration that occurs when you give the child that name. It's all important. It is celebratory. Usually there's family there, friends there.

In this situation, there are quite a few utterly people there, and that's normal. You want people and friends from all generations there to celebrate that moment. And then typically, after that name is given, if it's on Shabbat at the synagogue, the father will be called up to read part of the Torah, part of the first five books of the Bible. It's a very special ceremony. Sounds beautiful. Joel, how does this event factor into the Jewish experience in America? I know that synagogues have been targeted around the world by anti-Semitic people and in America as well,

but I can't remember something as horrific as this in my lifetime in my memory, but how does this factor into the Jewish experience in this country? I think fortunately for the Jewish people being in this nation has been unparalleled in modern times for the ability to live a Jewish life, to follow your Jewish beliefs, and that's something that all religious faiths have shared here. And this really is, from what I understand, the most tragic event that's happened at a Jewish place of worship in this country. And that's certainly an aberration from the norm in a place where we have nothing but utmost. freedom to live our lives and follow our conscience and follow our religious faith.

And, you know, one of the things I mentioned, of course, this became political so quickly. And unfortunately, that seems to be a pattern in our country these days with Twitter and all. You know, the tragedy happens. And right away people are trying to, you know, figure out the blame, et cetera. How did you feel watching this? Having family and having a younger brother and sister-in-law who just had a shot of their own, it's particularly sad and tragic to think that at a moment of such celebration, such evil could occur.

And I think for all of us, when we enter into a place of worship or a place where we gather with our friends and family to celebrate meaningful events or just to go closer to them, you expect that those places, particularly a place where you go to honor tradition or to worship God, you expect that that place is one of comfort. and peace and learning where you can take a moment and disconnect from the rest of the world and for a moment just have that peace of loving and of being with those that you care about. You should never have to have that fear walking into a place such as that. And how did you feel we, I think, briefly discussed before the recording how, you know,

there was a group in Pittsburgh that said, I believe, blame President Trump or said he shouldn't ever attend the synagogue. How did you feel about stuff like that? Well, I saw the headline, the one I read, I believe, was on the hill and it said, Jewish leaders tell Trump he's not welcome. And it struck me, number one, as odd that at a moment of tragedy, there'd be any group of people that would be so crassly political. But I decided, I wanted to go ahead and actually read this piece. And it turns out it's not what it appeared. There weren't this large group of Jewish leaders in Pittsburgh telling the president within a president. States, he's not welcome or suggesting that he's in some way racist or anti-Semitic.

It was a group of 12 people that signed the letter from a very radical organization called Bending the Ark. This organization has advocated for quasi-socialist policies. They're not known for being particularly friendly to Israel. It does so happen that there's a leftist activist son, I believe he's on the board. One of Jero's sons is actually on the board. And so I was not surprised at that point to see them. going into an extremely political route.

The fact is, when it comes to President Trump, regardless of whether or not you voted for him in the last election, there is no doubt that when it comes to Israel, he's been quite possibly the most pro-Israel president that we've ever had, and he's been aligned with the Jewish people. He has a Jewish daughter, an observant Jewish daughter and in-laws, and he's surrounded himself with advisors, some of whom not only are Jewish, but are actually. religiously observant Jews. And if you look at how he is interacted with Israel, and if you go to Israel on the ground, and I've been there in the past few months, talking to people on the street, talking to my friends,

talking to people in public policy positions, and they are overjoyed at the way in which our relationship with Israel has been strengthened over the past two years. And one of the ways in which the administration has been a positive, positive force Israel is really so clearly drawing the lines between good and evil and recognizing that there are certain political institutions that we've worked with in the past, such as the Palestinian Liberation Organization, and finally come into grips at the fact that not only where they found it on a terrorist belief system, if you look at their founding charter, too often

they continue to either explicitly or oftentimes behind the scenes support and fund terrorist activities. And we've at last begun to say so long as that behavior continues, we are going to begin removing funding for those government institutions that are run by the Palestinian Authority. Well, you talk about folks in Israel who feel that way. In the Jewish community in America, I know it can be kind of a diverse community, But are those feelings also reflected there that the support for Israel is welcome? Well, two things. Politically domestic policy, there's no doubt from public polling or just from personal experience. The Jewish community is more to the left than the rest of the population.

And that turns up in numerous public polling. But the parts of the Jewish community, and this is a large segment that are aligned with Israel and want to see that nation succeed and see our alliance. succeed and that recognize Israel as a beacon of freedom and a beacon of democracy in the mid-east. Those folks, whether the Republican or Democrat, are also, I believe, very thankful for what's been done in the past few years. There's been overwhelming praise, for instance, of moving the embassy to Jerusalem. There's been overwhelming support for the bipartisan resolution that was signed into law, the Taylor Force Act that begins to defund the Palestinian Authority

if they continue to support terrorism. And if you go to a conference such as APEC, that is not an organization that's just filled with Republicans. In fact, I'm pretty sure I'm having attended several years. It's overwhelmingly democratic. But if you look at the support and conversations there, and also if you look at the expression of enthusiasm for speakers such as Nikki Haley and Vice President Mike Pence

that come in to talk about how we're making progress with our relationship with Israel. and if you look at just the wild enthusiasm for that, I think there is great thankfulness on the part of the Jewish community in the United States, whether the Republican or Democrat, on those particular policy matters. So it seems like often we hear about college campuses and concerns about whether essentially they're fomenting at times anti-Semitism. A couple months ago, there was a big news story. I want to say it was a Michigan's college that was involved where a student wanted to,

travel abroad, I believe, for a program and ask the professor to write a letter when the professor found out that he wanted to go to Israel. He was like, no, I'm not going to do this. Do you think college campuses are maybe contributing to a problem in this country? Well, there is no doubt that anti-Semitism very thinly disguised as anti-Zionism is pervasive across the country. There are thousands of instances that have been documented, both by Anti-Defamation League, but also the Israel and Campus Coalition and other entities that track these occurrences. Now, I'll say fortunately, over the last year, we've been pushing back, and we've actually seen a sizable decline in the number of activities in the past year

as pro-Israeli activities have stepped up. But on hundreds of college campuses, there are still organizations, the most prominent one is the Students for Justice in Palestine. It's Orwellian named. The Students for Justice in Palestine, if you look at who's actually funded them, in the past and who they're tied in with, their parent organization is the American Muslims for Palestine. People that are with them have been associated with the Holy Land Foundation.

If you look back a few years ago, if you remember, there was a big case that worked this way through the courts in which Holy Land Foundation was convicted. 108 counts of fumbling money to Hamas to the tune of $12 million. So these are bad actors in this particular organization, and students that are associated with them have engaged in hundreds, hundreds of instances of intimidating students based on them being Jewish or based on their support of Israel. There's a long list of documented evidence of that.

And does the BDS movement specifically figure into this? Well, a big part of what these organizations do and not just limited to students for justice in Palestine, but other entities that try to appear as less extreme. It's called boycott investment and sanction. And this movement wants, it's very, simply put in the name. They want us to boycott Israel. They want investment funds and then college endowments to divest from Israel. And ultimately, they want the United States government and other governments to officially sanction the state of Israel. And if you look at the founder,

the finder's a gentleman loosely speaking by the name of Omar Barguti. He was the main instigator of this movement well over a decade ago. He runs a website called Electronic Intifada. He once said he was being very, very honest here. The two-state solution for the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is really dead, good riddance. Someone has to issue an official death certificate before the rotting corpse is given a proper burial. And now when he's saying this, he's not just saying he doesn't want two separate states. He's saying he wants the so-called Zionist enterprise to be finished. No existence of a Jewish state for the Jewish people.

He's been very open in what he believes. and other entities now have run with that. And you see even some religious organizations that now have tried to further that and they've infiltrated numerous mainstream religious organizations, sadly. Well, thank you so much for joining us, Dole, and discussing this? Well, thank you for having me.

Do you have an opinion that you'd like to share? I'm Rob Blewey, editor-in-chief of The Daily Signal, and I'm inviting you to share your thoughts with us. Leave us a voicemail at 202-608-6205. or email us at Letters at DailySignal.com. Yours could be featured on the Daily Signal podcast. I may live in liberal America, but I know that this is not the only America.

What we rarely see on TV is people having genuine conversations with people who they don't agree with. So I'm bursting out of my own bubble to meet people in communities across this country where the big issues have erupted to see what we can learn from listening to our fellow Americans.

Well, that was the voice of Alexandra Pelosi, the daughter of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. She's made a new documentary soon to air on HBO called Outside the Bubble, on the Road with Alexandra Pelosi. Now, as the trailer made clear, Pelosi, like her mother, is a liberal Democrat, but she seems really interested in learning about the other side of the political divide. New York Times recently put out a profile of Pelosi that depicted a different kind of elite Democrat. Yes, she lives on the East Coast, but she also watches Fox News while shunning outlets like CNN and MSNBC. The reason? She says she doesn't want her kids to be pod people. She's also

expressed optimism about our country's political divide. In her words, quote, I just don't know that we're as filled with hate as cable news leads us to believe. It's hard to hate up close. The HBO documentary is getting lots of hype. Kate, what do you think of the idea of this documentary? And are you going to be watching? That's the more serious question. I plan to eventually watch it. I don't think. I don't know when it will be. But, you know, honestly, I'm very skeptical as to the execution of it, although I'm not familiar with Alexander Pelosi's earlier work. So it's really just based on the fact that her mom is Nancy Pelosi. But I'll see. But I do agree with her that it is really, really important to have face-to-face

conversations. And I think facilitating that is something that we should think about. And I think part of the problem that cable news is so addictive is it's really almost like a team sport. Like it's like, oh, they made a point and they made a point. You've got professionals who are like sort of the best word smiths and the best arguers. And so it's all very finessed. Whereas, you know, you and your neighbor talking, people are probably going to fumble a little and, you know, it gets confusing. But I 100% agree that ultimately. we need to talk to each other. Yeah, and she makes an interesting point in that New York Times piece.

She said that too much money was being made off of our political divide, that it was a profit business for a lot of big companies that wanted to kind of stir up more division than there actually existed, which I thought was an interesting point. But you said you were skeptical about some aspect of the execution of the documentary. Oh, I just think that, like, you can go around the country and you can talk to people, and depending on what you choose to show or not show, depends on how fair it is. Totally. Bill Maher did, I think he did a similar kind of thing,

but it was really unfair to the people he was. You know, he tried to kind of find people that he thought were going, he could make them look bad, and he wasn't picking, you know, people that would challenge him as much. Right. And you can also, I mean, you can, look, at the Daily Signal, we face this issue as does any news outlet? You don't, you use so little. of the material you gather for any given story.

And, you know, it's really hard sometimes to figure out what do I choose, what is a true representation while, you know, you might keep out a couple of cooks or something. But, you know, at the same time, yeah, you could just show the cooks or I don't know. This might end up being a wonderful documentary that really shows, you know, the heart of what Trump's America is like, or it might end up being an unfair hit job or somewhere in the middle. Well, I'm see. I'm certainly hoping that it'll be something all Americans could appreciate. Okay, that's very optimistic.

Hey, hoping. Hoping. Hope is a virtue, Kate. But we'll see. I mean, yeah, it could be, it's HBO and it's being promoted by the New York Times. So we'll wait and see. But I definitely will have to watch. And I think, you know, it might be an interesting thing to have someone on the right do the opposite. Heck, maybe even Fox News.

Like, go to a bunch of Manhattan liberals and talk. to them. Wasn't that like Waters World, remember, on Bill O'Reilly? I'm not super familiar with it, but wasn't it like on the streets? It was. It was made of the streets. Which we do on the streets. Which, you know, I think they're great, but I think he would go to like really liberal places. Yeah, no, and we've done some of that, but I think it'd be interesting if someone who could get access, you know, maybe to not just people rushing to work or something. Well, but I don't know. I mean, I guess what rallies would you go to? Someone, you know what? Someone should do the Clinton book tour. Someone should interview

people who go to the Clinton and Michelle Obama's book tour, which is like selling out stadiums and talk to those people. That would be really interesting, I think. And I would be very curious if there's a disconnect between what voters think and what the people they are voting for or admire, I guess, in the Clinton and Michelle Obama's cases, thanks. Yeah. It's funny when you have some of these, like campus reform does some of these, like, man on the street or man on campus, I guess. And students will say, yeah, I believe in, like, socialism and all this stuff. And they don't, it's so frustrating because he'll poke some holes and show that they really don't have any reason for saying it. And it's just so frustrating because

you think, oh man, if I could just talk to these people for five minutes, they might change their mind. And yet they're voting based on these, you know. Well, but of course, you know, young. I mean, there's that old saying like, oh gosh, I'm going to totally butcher this, but you don't have a heart if you're conservative at 20 and you don't have a head if you're liberal at 30 or something. So 40, whatever. What are we doing? We're young and we're conservative. Well. We're breaking stereotypes.

I guess so. All right. We're going to leave it there, but thanks so much for listening to The Daily Signal podcast. Brought to you from the Robert H. Bruce Radio Studio at the Heritage Foundation. Please be sure to subscribe on iTunes, Google Play, or SoundCloud, and please leave us a review or rating on iTunes to give us the me feedback. We'll see you again tomorrow. You've been listening to the Daily Signal podcast, executive produced by Kate Trinko and Daniel Davis.

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