Antisemitism festers in current US political and social climate, report says

By Kanishka Singh

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The social and political climate in the United States has become fertile ground for antisemitism in recent years, according to a report released on Monday by advocacy group Anti-Defamation League and the Tel Aviv University.

Expressions of hatred against Jews have become “mainstreamed and normalized,” and incidents of violence, vandalism, and harassment of Jews have increased, the report said.

The report linked the rise of antisemitism to trends such as growing populism, political polarization and an increase in hate crimes nationwide.

It said that conspiracy theories and hate that were once relegated to the fringes of the far-right “have seeped into the mainstream of the political right.”

A version of the “great replacement theory” cloaked in “more moderate and not overtly antisemitic language” has broadly spread in segments of the Republican Party, the report said, adding that Fox News host Tucker Carlson also gave voice to the conspiracy theory on his show.

The conspiracy theory fosters the belief that leftist and Jewish elites are engineering the ethnic and cultural replacement of white populations with non-white immigrants. According to this belief, the cabal of political and business elite would be kept in power by the masses of indebted non-whites.

Carlson has denied being antisemitic, and the Republican National Committee passed a resolution earlier this year condemning antisemitism.

The report released Monday also mentions recent events such as former President Donald Trump hosting white supremacist Nick Fuentes at his private club in Florida late last year.

Trump, who is running for president again in 2024, said the encounter with Fuentes happened inadvertently while he was having dinner with Ye, the musician formerly known as Kanye West. Ye was banned from social media last year for antisemitic remarks.

The report also said that the political left wing has pushed antisemitism as well by falsely stating Jews have too much power and wealth to face racism and discrimination.

More than 3,600 antisemitic incidents were recorded in the United States in 2022, more than in any year since the Anti-Defamation League began tracking the issue in 1979.

(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Frank McGurty and Lisa Shumaker)