Hatred against Jews is too often discarded as an almost archaic form of racism. The horrific massacre at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life Synagogue last Saturday, in which 11 innocent lives were cut short, is a tragic reminder that anti-Semitism is, alas, alive and well within the United States.
As someone whose life was touched by the nation of Israel, the Tree of Life shooting cuts through my heart like a knife. As a girl growing up in Southern Lebanon, I was often taught that the only time we would have peace in the Middle East was when all the Jews were killed and driven into the sea.
I’ll never forget what I learned when I visited an Israeli hospital as a young girl. I was worried sick about the injuries my mother sustained when a mortar shell launched by Islamic terrorists hit our bomb shelter.
As I looked around the hospital, I witnessed Jewish doctors actually treating terrorists that probably would’ve cut their throats had they not needed their help.
To hate anyone for their religious beliefs or where they were born is truly barbaric.
The Israeli physicians and nurses treated everyone according to their injuries, not their religion. Had my mother been a Jew in an Arab hospital, she would’ve been thrown out to die rather than saved. It was in this moment that I realized how appalling anti-Semitism can be. Then and there, I realized that to hate anyone for their religious beliefs or where they were born is truly barbaric.
The same hatred that led Hitler to commit unthinkable genocide against innocent Jews still persists throughout the world — and tragically, here in the United States as well. Remarkably, anti-Semitism seems to be one of the only forms of hatred and bigotry that is still tolerated by the mainstream media. It’s almost as if this hatred is seen as an ancient and ridiculous myth by the press.
In the most egregious circumstances, the mainstream press is actually the one propagating it.
But of course, in response to the deadliest anti-Semitic shooting in American history, the media blame President Donald Trump. He’s been one of the most pro-Israel presidents in American history. He moved the U.S Embassy to Jerusalem despite media backlash; he also happens to have a Jewish grandchild born to a Jewish son-in-law working in his administration.
Just when you think the media can’t go any lower both morally and intellectually, they manage to top themselves. Not only is President Trump the most pro-Israel President in history, but the evil shooter who committed the massacre was vehemently anti-Trump.
The reasons an anti-Semitic shooter would have hatred toward this president are endless, because in addition to his heroic embassy move, President Trump cut off aid to terrorists of the Palestinian Authority and has fought to dismantle the Obama administration’s Israeli death sentence that was the Iran deal with all his might.
President Trump never hosted Islamic front groups at his doorstep or referred to anti-Semitic attacks as “random,” as former President Barack Obama did of a Kosher deli.
President Trump never appeared onstage with Louis Farrakhan, as Bill Clinton recently did, nor did he have an anti-Semite with terrorist ties like Linda Sarsour introduce him at a rally — as Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) recently did.
Why? Because this president doesn’t aid and abet anti-Semitism the way the Democrat party seems to do.
Related: Hatred ‘Will Not Have a Place Anywhere’: Pittsburgh Officials Reveal Massacre Details
Anti-Semitism shouldn’t have to be a Right or Left issue — it should be a human issue, period.
Unfortunately, even things such as this have become politicized.
The civilized world must band together in solidarity to ensure that people of all faiths can live in peace and harmony and that Jews are never persecuted and victimized by barbaric, murderous ideologies ever again. To allow anti-Semitism to continue to exist unchecked in the 21st century destroys a piece of everyone’s humanity.
There is simply no room for such hatred in the world.
See this video of President Trump paying his respects in Pittsburgh:
Brigitte Gabriel is a New York Times best-selling author, terrorism expert and founder of ACT for America. Her new book, “RISE: In Defense of Judeo-Christian Values and Freedom,” was released September 11 of this year.
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