It started with this tweet by Digital Producer at MSNBC – MSNBC Collier Myerson, who ostensibly experienced some disgusting behavior by a Jewish man wearing religious garb, but certainly not acting towards his fellow person the way G-d intends.
https://twitter.com/collier/status/771115716602912768
I assume he did not want to sit next to a woman, but then he should have moved. In any event, his actions caused a Chilul Hashem – desecration of G-d’s name – since it casts shame and brings disrepute to belief in God, the Torah, or the Jewish community.
It also caused something else – this response from MSNBC journalist Christopher Hayes.
So Christopher Hayes saw this tweet from his colleague about a Hasidic Jewish guy, and thought his poor behavior warranted a discussion on boycotting Israel.
Or did he? This is Hayes’ response to criticism he invoked his inner antisemite.
Do we believe him?
On one hand, he is right about Myerson – she is a BDS-hole.
https://twitter.com/collier/status/707331373791510528
https://twitter.com/collier/status/618423776946946048
And there is no evidence Hayes is antisemitic, or even a hater of Israel. While certainly not pro-Israel, he has in the past come across as trying to position himself somewhere in the middle, as this clip shows.
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Misguided and wrong, yes. But certainly does not sound like an outright hater of the Jewish state or of Jewish people.
And back in 2014, he reacted this way to those who were attacking Jews in Paris due to Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza.
Yet Hayes has defended BDS in the past. Like this (inaccurate) tweet from 2013.
And this from the same year:
So given Hayes himself might even support BDS, I am not 100% convinced his tweet was just a joke to his friend Myerson. And neither was she.
https://twitter.com/collier/status/771116679648665600
I am not sure Christopher Hayes is a Jew hater or stupid enough to come out as one. But the nonchalance with which he tweeted what he did – given his, at best, tolerance for, and, at worst, support for, BDS – is very troubling indeed.
