In a discussion with left-wing activist Nomiki Konst, Linda Sarsour has solidified her antisemitic credentials.
It starts with a question about “Netanyahu’s right-wing AIPAC” – which is itself untrue. Sarsour responds with a claim that “new groups have emerged as a front for AIPAC, like the Democratic Majority for Israel (DMFI) and others that are trying to rebrand themselves as Democrats who are progressive on other issues except for this issue of Israel-Palestine and we’re onto them.” This is a lie too, with DMFI President and CEO Mark Mellman retorting with “These fact-free allegations from Sarsour are outrageous lies, but they are far less important than the vile antisemitic statements for which she is infamous.”
Then Konst asks a question dripping in antisemitism, and Sarsour responds with some more of her own.
Konst’s reference to a “powerful arm of right-wing AIPAC interests in this country, globally” is an antisemitic dog whistle. She might as well have had this graphic appear behind her as she spoke.
This “powerful arm” are the same people who “attacked Jeremy Corbyn”; we all know Corbyn was justifiably attacked for very real antisemitism within his party, yet Konst is implying it was just the result of a smear campaign, much like the one to which Sarsour has been subjected. She is dismissing the existence of real Jew hatred.
Then there’s her claim that this is not coming from “normal Jewish Americans”, implying Zionist Jews are somehow not normal Jews.
Of course, Sarsour has no problem with the antisemitism of the question, and proceeds to once again claim that “right-wing Zionists” are aligned with “White nationalists,” a vile slur against proud Jews. It is not unlike the smear of other Jew-haters who compare Israel to Nazi Germany, against the IHRA’s working definition of antisemitism.
I like the response of Rabbi Abraham Cooper of the Simon Wiesenthal Center Rabbi Abraham Cooper:
“I am always amazed by the level of chutzpah when anti-Semites want to tell the Jewish community what constitutes an anti-Semite and anti-Semitism. Hypocrite Sarsour says that right wing Zionists hate her but she is the self anointed gatekeeper who bars left wing Zionists from the Women’s movement.”
Seeing these two non-Jewish people define who are the good Jews, while engaging in antisemitic tropes and smears, is really a sight to behold.
And calling them out for it does not make a person Islamophobic or part of a global Jewish conspiracy to smear people just for being “pro-Palestine.”
