Welcome to this event. Judaism and the trump era. Director forciate the center of jewish civilization. For those of you who do not know much about our center, i can only say that the center is the home for jewish scholarship here at georgetown university, especially pertaining to politics, jewish humanities and the holocaust. 22 faculty,have including our panelist today. Andoximately 100 students, we offer 40 courses per year. The event will be held september rsvp 5 00 p. M. , so please to this event. While you do that, also visit our website. We all look forward to seeing you there. For students who are also with us in this room, if you are interested in learning more or you are interested to become part, please make sure to sign up at our Registration Table at the entrance. Now i would like to introduce our director. Thedoctor has directed organization for 13 years and will be our moderator today. Thank you for coming today and please enjoy this event. Thank you professor summer and to all of you who came out today. I direct the center. Engage the conversation about contemporary american judaism or maybe we should say american judaism that is informative and captivating, to help us achieve that goal, we have three of our faculty members joining us today. To my right, they are the Senior Vice President for defense studies. Welldeserved. , middle east policy from brookings institution. [applause] , monitoringft antisemitism under president barack obama. And they are all members of our faculty. Once our conversation is done, they will be about and giving you notecards. We ask you to familiarize yourself with georgetown universitys freespeech policy. Me checking my phone, i am not checking my stock portfolio. I am receiving messages from staff and expertly managing the event. Off we go. I want to begin by showing the audience one from the previous administration. First is then president barack obama addressing the congregation in washington dc he on may 22, 2015. Obama . Nt to stand up for israel and look out for the rights of the jewish people. The rights of the jewish people compel me to think about a palestinian child who feels trapped without opportunity. That is what Jewish Values teach me. Judeochristian. These things are connected. Now we are going to look at President Trumps word in the aftermath of the horrific shooting on october 27, 2018. Here we go. President from it is an assault on all of us. It is an assault on all of humanity. Call for all of us working together. Was an antisemitic attack at its worst. Antisemitism cannot be ignored, cannot be tolerated, and it cannot be allowed to continue. We cannot allow it to continue. We have trump as he takes on on strength of the alliance march 25, 219. President trump the Unbreakable Alliance between the u. S. And israel has never been stronger. Things andyou hear it has never been stronger. Onlye talk, but it is talk. The American Embassy and probably. Capital of the jewish people has established and they wanted the embassy for many years, for many decades and through many president s. We got it done. Built at a slight costsaving about 1 billion. Ambassador,ank the and jared and everybody who worked so hard together. Thank you very much, ambassador. I was waiting for him to say that. We stand four years away from president obamas speech and nearly three years into President Trumps administration. The current moment confronts the Jewish Community. What, if anything is different about the Community Today in terms of its safety, security or its political allegiances . There was an interesting mix of issues ranging from antisemitism and domestic terrorism to the u. S. Israel relationship. If we are talking about the situation of american jews, what has changed is a welldocumented rise in antisemitic hate crimes, but violent and nonviolent. , that is part of a context in our american discourse that has become more unrestrainedarser, and corrosive of some of the bonds that hold us together as a country. And so, what is happening, that leaves Jewish Americans to feel less secure is something that is happening to all of america. It is a conversation the Jewish Community needs to have, and there are specific things that of our to demand Community Leadership and national leadership, but i think that most institutional responses have done this. We need to look the broader context as well, strengthening our ability as a society to enshrine those values of heart of at the democracy. That is what is allowing antisemitism and a lot of other bigotry. Thank you. What struck me in those videos is that there is an old adage that American Voters can always choose a new president , the opposite of what they just had. Spades. That in styles,ery different different ideologies, different way of speaking to the american people. I come from a partisan background. Think one of the most damaging things we can do is politicize this issue. One of the things that has changed is tremendous politicization of the issue of israel, which i think is damaging. At theust again seeing politicizationis. One of the most Dangerous Things that we can do. It ties our hands find our back. We have this polarization. Also, more importantly what is happening is the polarization of attitude. The strengthening of extremes. There was ave column written about the extreme left. There is this whole controversy over loyalty and disloyalty. Security wise, all you talk about is what kind of security that we have. Miles north ofur the white house. Im not sure armed guards are the answer. People are concerned about somebody walking in and opening fire. We have not seen them. Concern, and even sometimes hysteria is huge and it is getting larger. Hear,ing that you did not i read the full clip because you provide them. One is the unbreakable bond in the u. S. And israel. Cooperation has never been stronger. You heard that from obama. It is one of the few things that they do say to you. Youre not going to hear Different Things from any of us on this. They are the pillars of this conversation. Antisemitism is a scourge. Everythingization of is to our deficit. It has been the enemy in many ways of a clear conversation. We need to be able to have a conversation, a dialogue across different ideologies and religious persuasions, whatever it is, we need to talk about this challenge. The more that we try to use it as a tool that we can hang around the next of our political adversaries, the more it becomes a problem that we neither talked about in an intelligent way, nor Seek Solutions to. The one thing that strikes me is we are sitting in the capital of the u. S. , so it is natural that we talk about our own president and politics, and our own Jewish Community. If you look at jewish communities in the u. S. , they are safer than what we see in fear. , who are living in not the subject of one terrorist attack, but many. Cnn just did a poll. I think it is absolutely illuminating. Thenversation about some of things that the root of this. Antisemitism is terrible. Lot aboutnot talk a from whence it springs. I do not mean to say that it springs from omar or the white supremacist in charlottesville. I mean, where are these feelings coming from . Understand that the curtain of social media is powering people to express thoughts that were once unspoken. Are you in antisemitic an antisemite think those kinds of thoughts . This is a cnn poll. Upn believequarter that jews have too much influence in finance. Interest in conflict around the world. Andmuch influence in media to much influence in politics. This is the last little factoid because this is broken down according to country as well. A third of europeans in the poll said that they knew just a little or nothing about the holocaust. When you go to millennials, whether in the last war in europe, that paltry level of knowledge dropped even further. You. Ank there is a mistake and International Dimension to understanding Political Behavior of jewish america. We will get to those issues momentarily. Let me ask you this. What is the most relevant difference between the obama and trump administration, visavis their policies towards israel. In what ways are there policies similar . We will go in the reverse direction. You have two different administrations and policies. Effort toe growing put in antisemitism put them together. Andut antisemitism antizionism together. Especially for people like us, who are having a serious political conversation, i did beinge antisemitism as part of it. It is this weird notion that they are good. It would have thought that we would ever say israel and saudi arabia in the breath . It is still fascinating. Have becometives increasingly much more proisrael. I do not think that insinuates that democrats are proisrael, but there is a growing contingent of those who have greater concerns about the failure. The reality is that most mainstream people who deal with sharesdle east we all share concerns. Are there differences . Absolutely. There are plenty more. At the end of the day, both what itrations represent think is at the core of an american view. Israel is our ally and the relationship is a vital one not just for them, but for us. A policy difference that we do not know about, under the radar . If that comes up in the flow of your thoughts , tell us. If i can think of a secret approach to the conflict that has not been publicly discussed, i will let you know. Believe me. It would be interesting to discover something new. For both democratic and republican administration, the relationship is a National Security issue. For both parties. Agree that the fundamental policy approach of the u. S. Has been consistent in the sense of a strong u. S. Israel relationship. It brings a lot of benefits to the u. S. The conflict is not just a but destabilizing and unhelpful for a lot of americans in the region. It would be great if we could resolve it. Those have been consistent elements. I do think that there are changes into areas that are shaping the way that we talk about it now. One change is on the ground. The situation and efforts to resolve it. Democratic and republican administrations have had this work as a way of describing how they are trying to fix the issue as a way of shaping american engagement on the conflict. It is mediated by the u. S. With a framework set by subsequent agreements. There are these issues that are yet to be negotiated. That has been the premise until recently. Kerrys effort at the. Nd of the Obama Administration they had to conclude that it was over. Presents a policy program problem. Our approach to resolving the conflict . We have yet to answer that question. Conversation. Ent israelis and palestinians are also arguing. Internally and between themselves. Dynamic situation. U. S. , within the american my colleague have been tracking this for years. This is stuff that has been happening in the American Public that is being reflected in what leaders say and do. Stateans favor two solution. If it is not possible, american two thirds and above would prefer one state with equal rights for everybody. And that is our political culture. Situationlook at the as it exists today, there are differences between left and right. Side of the political spectrum, more ,mericans, younger americans latino and African Americans looking at this conflict through the lens of human rights. Tot makes them sensitive certain israeli policies like the closure on gaza, that acs impinging on human right. That makes them more critical. On the other side of the numbersl spectrum, the demographically are growing in the u. S. And the voting public. Party arepublican those who look at the conflict through the lens of prophetic fulfillment. A certain viewve of the purpose on jews in particular. That is our purpose. It gives you a certain lens that includes the notion that conflict is not necessarily a bad thing because it might be a signal of the end times. They shape peoples political preference. Unusual,think it is given the situation on the change in Public Attitude to see a change in discourse. It has become a political football. I am side. I have been very long. I think we have a problem of interaction between israeli politics where we have israeli attitudes towards the u. S. Have changed as israel has become more selfconfident and ande is a tension between that creates a degree of sometimes resentment. French present their security relationship with u. S. , even though they clung to it. That leads israeli politicians to be a little bit more political about the relationship with u. S. Than they used to be. We are feeding off of each other in a way that i find very unfortunate. Are there differences or similarities that you noticed . It reminds me of the saying that everything has been dead but not everybody has had the chance to say it. I agree. The Security Cooperation is one that isew things common. I do think one of the fundamental differences, that my colleagues touched on but really strength is that in the obama there is this, commitment to a solution. Solution. A cartoon understanding. They are not the basis for that. Sides, the palestinians are not willing to cut a type of deal. It would keep the jewish state. The difference is this strong feeling that israel should be a democracy, as well as a jewish state. Idea, theandon the idea of a two state solution. It creates problems for the American Public for someone like obama who believes that this is a jewish value, but even more so for a vast majority of american jews. Ways. Founded in some they had this idea that it was not dual loyalties to be a zionist. It is very much part of the american dream. Sitting on the hill, a right to the nations, et cetera. How we look at israel as well. You move away from even the it creates allt kinds of problems. Are you saying there is a different conception of the importance of democracy in these administration . One of the things that i have to say is we all want to get into each others head. I had more interaction with him. I do not know exactly. , talking about these things, if you were going for a one state solution, israel either becomes nonjewish or not democratic. Hard to believe that policymakers and the president believes that he wants a state a two state solution. They are not saying they are for it. That leaves real up locations of either a state that is not jewish or is not democratic. Jacques if you speak to faculty members who worked in the previous administration, they speak about what happened behind the scenes. In the Obama Administration with the netanyahu government. I would like to use the word tensile to describe what they tell me what was going on behind the were the scenes. I dont know if anyone here knows the answer, but is there a similarly tensile relationship behind the scenes with the netanyahu government and trump government that we do not know about . Tamara well, full disclosure, i was not an official in the Obama Administration. Although i was not working on the u. S. Israel administration. What i would say is that there are always tensions are a regular feature of the u. S. Israel relationship, where the u. S. And israel dont have their priorities lined up. To my mind as an analyst, i think what is challenging not only for israel, but other American Partners in the region like the saudis, the mri he is, is the lack of clarity in the tribe by ministrations approach on key issues. Take iran as a very clear example. President trump campaigned on getting rid of the jcpoa. Because it was a bad deal, and through intense pressure, he said he could get a new one. Came into office, within a year, repeat he aided the deal, and instituted a very intensive sanctions campaign which has had a real impact on the iranian economy. And then, secretary pompeo laid out the objectives of american policy and it was a laundry list of changes not only on nuclear issues, ballistic missiles, sponsorship of terrorism, but when the Islamic Republic is no longer the Islamic Republic, then we will let up on this Pressure Campaign and will have achieved our goals. That is a pieinthesky objective that i do not think regional partners disagreed with in principle, but i dont think they thought was realistic using that set of means. More recently, the president has said we have no preconditions for talks, all we want is that iran does not go nuclear. I think regional allies are like wait a minute, there is a lot of other stuff going on that the a rainy answer doing that we have a problem with. The tensions arise from inconsistencies in the trump administrations policy. Like i said, i think that is not unique to israel. Another example which again is not unique to israel, with President Trumps announcement last december that he wanted to withdraw troops from syria, he did this in a conversation with the turkish president who has not been a friend to israel, has not been a friend to our other partners in the region, sorry . Or much of a friend to us. But had momentarily persuaded the president that he was going to make it possible for american troops to withdraw from syria. And this was done with no consultation with our partners who are fighting on the ground, no consultation with regional parties who are affected. Those are the kinds of things that create tension. In previous administrations, including the Obama Administration, but certainly not exclusively, you see tensions emerge where the u. S. Wants israel to do something that it does not want to do. Sometimes, that is or when the u. S. Wants to do something that israel doesnt wanted to do. During the reagan administration, he wanted to sell advanced aircraft to the saudis in the Israeli Government did not want that. The Obama Administration, he wanted a settlement freeze and netanyahu did not want that, though he ultimately complied. Jacques do you want to add to anything to that . Danielle we can easily devolve into a conversation about the middle east. Tamara we could be here all day. Danielle we could definitely go all day and it would be very entertaining, so if you have times. Have time. Now. I think these are separate questions. But, perception is a very important part of them. Tammy laid out the facts. I think there is a lot of confusion about President Trumps iran policy. I personally am confused about that. No secret there. I do not think thats what fuels the continuation of some of these troubles. A few different points. During the Obama Administration, the perception in the region, fair or unfair, was president obama was unusually hostile to israel. Now, im not saying he was, im saying that was widely perceived. In particular, it was perceived in places like korea, where the saudis had said to themselves, oh my god, the americans, they love israel. If they are going to treat them so badly, what are they going to do to us . This is going to be terrible. This repeats the cycle. When you have a perception like that that is not entirely factbased, but based on how you believe the world works, you can fit a lot of stuff. You go looking for confirmation buzz basically. You go looking for things that affirm that. The jcpoa, the iran deal went a long way in confirming in the minds of people, not just in jerusalem but in riata and elsewhere, that this was really what was going on. Which fueled this idea that the president was somehow wanting to favor the muslim brotherhood, which was insane. We get from a few factoids to these problems. In talking about this, i fear we send a false signal, because when i think about the Jewish Community in america, i know, because it really bums me out, that the Jewish Community in america is not a one issue community. To the contrary. These issues are not at the top of the list. In fact, National Security, if you poll the Jewish Community in america, their social National Security doesnt necessarily make the top five except in times of extreme after 9 11 or during the conflict between israel and others. We shouldnt have a conversation about the middle east that should a fool people into thinking that this is somehow about the jews. The jews are separate from the israelis in the middle east. As much as President Trump may be confused about this, the reality is that bad is 100 the truth. I would go further and say in europe, we see weirdly parties that and brace antisemitic stereotypes and brace antisemitic stereotypes about still embrace israel. I dont understand how that happened. But this is a phenomenon that you see. Tamara i think it is precisely that interned that instrumentalization. Is tactical. It is tactical. Danielle he may be able to record reconcile this. You may think that israel is a great country but it is my dues i dont really like. This is a common in. I know you laugh, but this is one of the oldest jewish jokes in the book. My grandfather used to say this. How do you define an antisemite . And antisemite is the person who hates all the jews but likes these individuals. And of course i, they do, the person who loves the jew but hates these individuals. [laughter] jacques lets move on to domestic concerns. We can do jewish jokes. We are a very funny unit. The adl has been releasing a steady stream of research indicating a sharp rise. We will put up a graph for you. A sharp rise in antisemitic hate crimes in 2016. From 20162017, the jump was a 56 . One interpretation of the material, the most salient one, has been to connect the spike to the election of donald trump. It should be noted the adl in this report and studies never explicitly drew the connection. Counter opinion suggests the correlation is not causation, it is posted that antisemitic has been present in america for centuries. Read arthur millers focus, for example. These were not the creation of the Republican Party for that matter and we should look to social media, economic stagnation, so on and forced and so forth. What do you think is driving the dramatic increase in hate crimes against jews noted by the adl, in particular, are there less obvious factors whose impact we need to think about . Ira, i want to start with you. Ira first, i note the adl numbers. These are actually not hate crime numbers. They are incident numbers. That may seem in the weeds but they are Different Things. For example, we had a young man in 2017 in israel who made 50, 60 calls to jewish institutions. They are all in those numbers. It is not counted as one. It is how adl counts it. The fbi keeps hate crime incidents. And that shows a trend upward. I just mention all this because all of these sets of data points are very useful, but they have their real limitations. For example, if you go back farther enough, you will see higher numbers than we have today. Jacques for hate crimes . Ira for incidents. One of the problems with hate crime data is you do not report it. Alabama never reports any hate crimes. Doubtful there are no hate crimes in alabama. But they just dont. It is dependent on local and state law enforcement. Having said that, there is no question in my mind, i keep something on the moment magazine website, i monitor every week in all of the englishlanguage press around the world, incidents of antisemitism. And you cant, having done this since 2017, you cant help but notice that there is more reporting of it. What else is behind this . I think you have to say, and daniel said it before ash danielle said it before, with all problems of antisemitism here, we are the safest Jewish Community in the world. Again, take israel out of the picture. Israel has its own sets of violence problems. This community, compared to european communities, south american communities, what is left in the middle east, we are much more safer. One of the things i like to look at his violence. What is the level of violence . We have had this past year two attacks on synagogues. This is unprecedented. And we are likely to get more of them. One of the things i think we do not want to get into, because when you are dealing with antisemitism, my most important principle is lets just be brutally honest. Brutally honest means you do not take a political position. You take your politics out of this thing. Im going to take my politics out and say first, most of the incidences have been largely rightwing. Stop. Dont kid yourself that this is just rightwing stuff. Hezbollah and the United States. We are already getting reports from security agencies that hezbollah is planning attacks on jews around the world such as they did in argentina with the bombing, where 80 some people were killed. And i dont know that the violence, although there is no deaths yet, against hasidim is necessarily rightwing. Im doubtful it is. Lets be honest of where things are coming from. Violence is the most levels of violence are relatively low. But it could change. And i think that is something that will have a major impact on the psychology. It already has had an impact of psychology on american jews. If you look at opinion data in the u. S. , still, the pew report they do a thermometer on religious and ethnic groups, what is the most warmest feeling to any religious group in america . Jews. It continues to be. Not by a lot, 1 or 2 over catholics. But that tells you something about what is happening. While we have a breaking of taboos about speaking about antisemitism, in some case, acting on antisemitism, it remains within the same groups that were there 5, 10 years ago. The taboos have broken away. They are correlated with the president ial election of 2016 which is not unusual because antisemitism in europe, it usually tracks with elections. Jacques feelings of warmth aside, the perception and some of the data indicates something has changed. Ira something has changed. Jacques lets get back to the question. What is driving the change . We are all curious. Ira i think the rhetoric in the 2016 campaign is one symptom of it. But we have been going through this. This is going around worldwide. This is not just in the u. S. Some of it, europe had happened before. But we are not immune to it. We had a 2008 downturn, the largest economic recession since the great depression. I dont attribute all they do, but we have a breakdown of trust in western democratic institutions, that is not to similar to what we saw in the 1930s. We have all kinds of dislocation in the society and when you have dislocation in society, usually, jews feel it first. Something is happening, and i think we will get to it later, what might we do about it. But i also dont want anyone to look at one set of numbers and say two, thats it. Its not. You have to look at a whole set of numbers including things like the pew research, you have to look at what kind of incidents are going on, you definitely have to look at violence. The bottom line here is words eventually turn into violence. When you start calling jews cockroaches, as minister farrakhan has done, that eventually has impact if it is not countered strongly. We are not in that era yet. Jacques anything you want to add . Danielle i think ira lays this out in a very fair and balanced way. I think you point at this question of dislocation. Any time there is a serious financial downturn, a much more serious dislocation, akin to the Industrial Resolution that is happening now. The jews get blamed. I would have liked to have thought that in 1945 when we said never again, well, not me, thank god that was the year i was not born in, but when never again was said that in fact this was meant. And of course the answer is in this data. You dont know what happened if you have no sense of history, then the taboo is about these expressions and are not there. You would like to think peoples parents brought them up better. But in fact that is not the case, is it . This is the challenge. How do you educate . How do you make people aware . Not of the very bad, of the worst of the worst, because the worst of the worst, whether we are talking about terrorism, racism, antisemitism, the worst of the worst are in a category of their own. It is those who create room for them in society, those who tolerate them, the ones that enable this to spread. Part of it is we have become extremely loose with these accusations, which is a problem on the others. And there is an incident problem, is it just one guy . Those are bad numbers. On the other hand, too many people are willing to tolerate this. And you are right, it preceded donald trump. Donald trump is a symptom of this larger challenge, whether it is jeremy corbyn, arreola penn. I saw in this good guard of good article about antisemitism. It starts out with the yellow vests holding up signs to call macron a horror of the jews. Im sorry, huh . No, he was a horror of the due jews, jews, simply because he worked for a financial firm. They have all been thrown out. But this is that kind of thing that we need to figure out how to stamp out. Tamara i think that danny put her finger on it in saying that the guard rails on our political discourse have come off. That is evident in a variety of ways. But if you define your political opponents as enemies, then anything is justifiable in attacking them. So you might weaponize a charge of antisemitism. And thereby, degrade by category and make the campaign against antisemitism harder. At the same time, if you are in a war of all against all with your political enemy, then you are not ever going to criticize anyone on your side, even if they Say Something that should be well beyond the bounds of acceptable political discourse. What we have is its interesting, i was having this debate with my 21yearold last night about these statistics. Does this represent the fact that there are more anti more antisemites, or have there antisemites, or have there always been the same antisemites but now they feel freer to speak and act there antisemitism . I tend to think it is a hunch, that it is more the latter. And i think our broader political discourse and the way it has degraded has created a permissive environment. And the permissive environment, not only deterred people from calling out those in their own camp, but it makes it easier for the real haters to insinuate this content into the political discourse in ways that other people may be uneducated enough to fall prey to. And i think that is what we have seen a lot of. White supremacists inserting photographs, logos, insinuations, labels, into discourse that gets picked up in social media on the right. And i think we have seen some of the same things in the extreme edges of the progressive camp on the left. And, you know, if you didnt get a good course in world history, or if you are not from a marginalized community and therefore have reason to know this history, then you might look at that image or that meme or whatever and not understand what the subtext is there. The subtext is antisemitism. Jacques a couple other things i came in this conversation, we have not talked about social media. If you go to any antisemitism conference, and i used it to two or three a year, and i still try to get to one or so, they will talk about two or three things that have to be done. One is education. What kind of education . No one gets into the weeds of that. The other is social media. We dont know how to deal with it on social media. Some people say it took hundreds of years to deal with the press the printing press. How to counter that type of thing, we didnt know how to deal with Electronic Media for a long time. We dont know how to deal with social media. Theres no question. One of the other things i want to say, i think some people say on the left, antisemitism is like racism and just like islamophobia, et cetera. No, its not. It doesnt mean its worse or better, but each of these things have different manifestations. But they are connected. We talk about the jews often being the first to feel it, not always. In russia, last 300 years, the jews were the first to feel it. Now in russia, the focus is on the new jews. Right now with putin, jews generally have the best situation they have ever been in russia because russia only had jews from 1790s and on. In that period, this is the best. The problem with that is and jews keep leaving the former soviet union. I think one of the things is even when things are good, when other people are being persecuted in largely authoritarian countries, jews leave authoritarian countries. When putin changes his mind, there are no institutions to protect you we do have to look at other rules of bigotry they often have a relationship with antisemitism as well. They do have some commonalities. Islamophobia is a real problem. At the same time, parts of western europe, the worst part of antisemitism which is violence is coming from muslim communities. Very small parts, but it is definitely coming from those communities. How do you deal with that . A marginalized community in many ways, also attacking jews. Jacques ok, this gathering today stems from President Trumps remarks on august when he first, 2019 about jewish disloyalty. Lets watch what has come to be called chopper talk and then we will break down the remark itself. President trump in my opinion, democrats have gone far away from israel. I cannot understand how they can do that. They dont want to fund israel. They want to take away foreign aid to israel. They want to do a lot of bad things to israel. In my opinion, you vote for a democrat, you are being disloyal to jewish people and you are being very disloyal to israel. And only weak people would say anything other than that. Jacques ira, as a student of antisemitism and a person whose Public Service was aimed to eradicate it, can you help why this aside raises concerns among certain sectors of the american Jewish Community . Ira historically, charges of disloyalty are hand and glove with antisemitism. You can go back to the middle ages or earlier periods when jews were always considered the other in society, the other that would poison wells during the black death, the other that would kill christian babies for the blood, when children would be found dead or disappeared. The modern era, in the modern state era, you had napoleon, one of the most famous things to the jewish committee, he said if you want full citizenship, tell us your part of us, that your loyal frenchmen and french women. That was critical and the juice of course said yes, we give up our communal institutions to large degree. We can buy parts and me, but we are french people we just have different religions. That seemed to work. In 1863, one points to the jews as people selling cotton, buying cotton contraband. And bands jews from his whole area of the war in tennessee area. Presently can says no, father abraham comes to the as he said it cut father abraham comes to the aid of the jews. We had that. We have had it throughout American History two. In world war ii, if you look at polling, gallup polling through world war ii and asked people who are the greatest threats to america. And then you asked in 1944 who is the greatest threat, are they german . Are they japanese . No. They are jews. 1944. Already we know jews are being killed in the millions in europe. And is the jews who are considered the disloyal people in america. We go in a less crude ways with people like [walt dimer]. The input question is do they have dual loyalties and no, no it is ok to lobby on foreign policy. But do we have other people who have attacked the israel lobby . Sometimes using the same kind of things. The idea of disloyalty resonates to the heirs. The president , we saw the second day. The first day he did not mention disloyalty to whom. Im guessing he also felt some disloyalty from he does all these things for israel from his perspective. And the jews are thankful. And what is this . No loyalty. Does this make him an antisemite . I think these are questions that are not particularly useful in this thing. If present trump is the problem, and there certainly things he has done that i think do not help the cause in any way. And other times you talked about how much is against antisemitism. That is great. The more he does it the better. But when he says disloyal, we have the benjamins with congresswoman omar. Lets stick on trump. Well get to that in a moment. We are eliding some issues. Danielle, what did you think . I wish could say i still listened in a critical fashion to donald trump. I heard about on twitter. I it was followed by some weird tweets about being the king of the jews. It was awful. I hesitate to impute anything to donald trump other than ignorance in this instance. There is a history, long history violate out of loyalty and disloyalty tropes which you lightly noted. We heard in the reference to the benjamins. I do not think that was what he was talking about anymore than i think that that is what he was talking about when he embraced the slogan America First. Which also was, by the way, antisemitic. You know, look, these always devolve into conversations in which people are not psychiatrists engage in pop psychology. And pop psychiatry. I have no idea what donald trump is thinking. I am persuaded after several years of immersion in trump world here in washington, that he does not think about these things the way that any normal person does. He is not informed by history. He does nothing about father coughlin or Charles Lindbergh peered even after being told, he think to himself, i will redefine this. Not that i cannot possibly have any hint of America First ism in my history, no, you will now associate this with me and of course im awesome so course that is great. [laughter] again, that is pop psychology. That is not to negate. That is not to diminish the meaning of words even when they are stupid. Because i think they were stupid. But at their base, unfortunately, i think theyre much more rooted in, howdy said ignorance than in anything else. Alright, we are going to get to tamaras response. Tamara ira gave you a sense of the legacy of this loyalty disloyalty issue through the history of jews, particularly in western societies and the enlightenment. Thats important. But there is Something Different about the United States. And there is Something Different about the liberal democracy that was established in the United States that is different for jews. And that is what i think people feel may be threatened in this moment. Statements like this make them feel concerned that it may be threatened. And i want to explain why. When napoleon said that, the emancipation, that was conditional citizenship. Ok . That was you can be a jew at home and a man in the street on frenchmen the street. You do not get to be jewish in the street. You do not get to bring your jewish identity into the public square. Ok . The United States is the first place in modern jewish history, or jews were able to have been able to create a vibrant communal life for themselves and be full participants in society and politics. Not just as individuals, but as jews. That is precious. And that is not because of Something Special about american jews, that is Something Special about america. About the nature of this pluralistic liberal democracy. And in that context it is particularly concerning when we hear charges of dual loyalty, no matter where they come from. And it is why. And yes, i think we need to think about this not just in terms of jewish livelihood, but in terms of the health of our liberal democracy. Because that is what is at stake. I agree with you. United states is different in many ways. But mainly or mostly different since the last half of the 20 century. Tamara it is a long effort, and here we are. Ira and we have washington talking about the jews after the torah synagogue. And we give no loyalty to bigotry. And we have a long history. We also have a history of jews feeling and remembering their history and remembering the antisemites. I just read this great piece by a letter from secretary hay in the roosevelt administration. And hey had been lincolns private secretary. They were worried about their fellow jews in russia and being killed in pograms. And hay was not much of an antisemite. But he wrote, the poor jews they think we are all bully boys. We did not have that sense. Even teddy roosevelt, suppose a great friend of the jews. There were not Jewish Americans. You came to america and youre part of the melting pot. Your melted and youre just americans. You are not Jewish Americans. When he came to politics, he knew he had to go into Jewish Assembly districts and talk about jewish issues. It is qualitatively different than europe ever was. And today is different than europe. But we should always remember. This is part of our historical memory. Not just a memory of fear. Or memory of everything has been great. But that things could change. Not just on antisemitism, as you said, and are very liberal democracy, we are very tied as a Jewish Community to this pluralistic liberal democracy. If we lose it, the golden medina , we are going to lose as well. Another major issue. Insistent as i possibly can. I respect what you say. I understand that it is troubling to hear the president Say Something even when they come from a place of stupidity rather than a place of hate, nonetheless i do fill being in the political, sort of bustle every day, that a lot of the expressions of hysteria about the plight of the jews as well as the plight of women as well as the plight of premuch every other group, are at risk because of donald trump is wrapped up in the hyperpartisan, the politicization of everything. Tamara clearly, no matter where it comes from. Danielle i understand, and i understand that you are giving jacques a good segue into what i hope will be our next question. But this is really based in antipathy toward this president. Some of which he has earned, not entirely all of it. I will put on the table. You have made very passionate arguments against the politicization. We are not in the east village. I will push the three of you on this a little bit. Im not sure how we get outside of politicization. Trumps remarks were made in the context of this with the congress of men known as the squad. Israele harsh critics of and the pemex had cash of israel. Lets talk about that for a moment. Hardestion for you is a one. Justified . K they are equivalent should be drawn and associated with the right. Do see it coming from the left. Lesser or equal, greater dangers to american jews. Who would like to have the first crack at it . I dowill start by saying not think that equal, lesser or greater is the issue. We have been describing an environment that is degrading. It is bad for the jews and bad for american democracy. Anything that contributes to that makes it worse. Lesser, greater, give me a break. You have to allocate resources. About stress. That is about violence. I am going to answer your question. I know a little bit about identity politics on the left. Antisemitism on the left . There always has been, just like there has always been antisemitism on the right. Left, and within the making their passionate arguments, sometimes ignorantly and sometimes knowingly, going onto antisemitic rhetoric, ideas, programs . Absolutely. Same. F them on the sure. Antisemitism is antisemitism. Now, you said the president s ongoing feud with the squad. This takes me back to the disloyalty comment as well. This is not a feud. This is a fight that the president picked. He is using this for political purposes. He spoke about disloyalty to the jews, i do not think he was talking to me. I thought he was talking to evangelical glitters. He instrumentalized this issue for political purposes. As well. The left like describing that as a feud. I think he is pulling out new members of congress and holding them up as if they were the face of the entire Democratic Party. To be able to say confidently about the Republican Party that some of the rhetoric that i hear does not represent the entire Republican Party, but Ayanna Pressley is not a freshman. Thank you. Four freshman members of theress did not represent entire Democratic Party. Think that there is diversity in the Democratic Party in israel, as there is diversity in the Republican Party. That, you can have a debate within the Democratic Party come within the Republican Party and across the two parties about israel and you can do it without indulging in antisemitism. That is what we need to be demanding of everybody. Those of us on the left side of the political spectrum need to demand it and call it out when we see it. Do in thisd to environment, i tried to lift up the people who are doing that. People tofavorite upweet, in terms of holding substantive conversation and calling out antisemitism is set mandel. He is a conservative writer who writes for the examiner he edits. Thingsi disagree on many , but on this we are 100 into. Have worked very hard and diligently as a foreignpolicy person on the democratic side of the spectrum to cultivate my own party a substantive, meaningful and thebout israel israeli and Palestinian Conflict that does not involve indulge in antisemitism or any other form of bigotry and ignorance. We need to have a conversation about it. , but there is going to be this kind of politically motivated dust in the air. For every election cycle. Who care aboute pushing antisemitism to the job is not to fixate. Our job is to try to get it out of the air. I agree wholeheartedly that donald trump has instrumentalized these four women, democratic representatives because it serves him well. To paint them as the face of the Democratic Party. Struggle that democratic leadership has had to try to asdemn it, he has amplified a sign. There is a drift in the Democratic Party. There is one in the Republican Party. Both are drifting in directions that are unsavory to a lot of us. Find theot going to people who are going to try to. Efend one side it has become the favorite phrase of d. C. And i do not buy it. I think those women are antisemites and enablers. I do. Ande are antisemites enablers in the Republican Party. In charlottesville, you saw People Holding up signs and chanting against the jews. That was a disgrace and the president s failure to call them out immediately is his shame and failure. I will say that there are plenty. F people i agree with you 100 . Our job is to call people out when we see them, but much more, to elevate the who are above this, who are better than this. There are still so many people in washington, and politics and in the states who are good people, who get into this dirty business. That is what politics has become. We may not agree about what but theyd things are, are thinking about it. It is absolutely something that we should support in this democracy. One more tiny thing. You mentioned set mandel. I want many of you to look at his twitter feed this morning because they are, you see the ultimate in the abuse of the label of antisemitism. You will be very interested to see, turning it upside down. These are labels that we should be very careful with. We should call it out and absolutely elevate people. One of the reasons some of us react, which is more important i know it is not you, but i see in the political system, everybody is saying it is on the other side, not on my side. You have people saying, antisemitism or antiracism. Ok. He has no power. I can talk about the right as well, but is on both antisemitism, the other thing about calling it out and saying it is a left or right problem. Instead of appointing at it lets call it outward is. But it morphs. It depends on time and place. Any given time and any given place, the problems change. Five years ago, i wouldve told you there was no big the best place in europe to be a jew is the u. K. Not anymore. And in corbyn and the labour party is this classic case of a cartoonish view of the middle ast. You are either with us, and your against colonialism and racism and that means palestinians and anybody woke and on the left. And if you are against us and means in some ways you are either zionist or at least limit the zionists or accept them are jews that do not condemn zionism. This is a cartoon. This is not reality. When people in the labour partyand theres a great piece called institutional ntisemitismby johnson, guy named johnson under pages where he calls the stuff out and people on the left and the labour party are taking kind of david duke type of racism, actual david duke cartoons or quotes, and retweeting them. They are retweeting and this is a left of the Democratic Party. And the repel kids only have to look at hungary or poland and they can take and the republicans only have to look at hungary or poland and they can take a lesson themselves. It cannot come here . It cant come here. At any time and place it can come here. At any time and place you to nalyze it. In hungary, its not muslims, there no muslim antisemites, it is all about the right. In france it is three or four types of antisemitism. Today it is the level of violence among a very small number of muslims. But theres been no islands on the right. But just two or three weeks ago, the French Security forces broke up a ring of extreme rightists who are going to attack jewish institutions. It can change. So be brutally honest about what is happening and where. And we do not have to politicize it. Theres no reason to politicize it. It was not politicize for many years. Chiron is not one of my favorite characters. But at the end of his career he pulled out from gaza. He said in israel we have no leaders anymore. The next generation are all politicians. You cannot be a politician on antisemitism. Im not going to accept it. Too bad. You do not use it. And do not tell me that your against antisemitism at, fighting antisemitism and you only talk about it on your own side. I saw with mike coley matt brooks at a president s Conference Meeting the other day. He said we have to call out everywhere it is. No we dont. Sometimes you do not use the term antisemitism you do not have to use it every time. You can criticize it without sing the term. Youre overusing it. Then you have to ice said you have to call out . Holly, your new senator from issouri. He is using the term cosmopolitan. He is using the term cosmopolitan. And because apollo has all kinds of antisemitic overtones. And cosmopolitan has all kinds of auntie medic over terms. And he said im not going to call out josh hawley on using it. If we are going to defeat antisemitism it will be essential that we are better than that. Jacques so we cannot get to our questions. I would like our panelists to wrap up in 30 or 45 seconds. And we will begin with tomorrow. Tamara . , i do not have a neat summation. I will tell you what i have been trying to do in the midst of this difficult environment. Number one, be clear careful, precise. In my own beliefs, in my own nderstandings. Number two, try not to ascribe motives. Now there are people who engage in a bad pattern of ehavior. Entity certain point you say, well if they are not interested in changing, then i can infer something about their intent. But do not jump to ascribe motives. And number three, lift up the kind of political conversations that we want more of. K . I think part of what has been so difficult about our democratic conversation in the last years is that we had this assumption from economics that good money drives out bad money. Well it turns out that in politics that is not true. Good discourse does not drive out bad discourse if you just leave it to the market. Especially in the social media market. It is the polarized it is the extreme, it is the triggering labels. The outrageous, the charges and he smears. Those of the things that crowd out a good democratic onversation. So if we want a good democratic conversation, we have to lift that up. We have to amplify it. And we have to do more of it ourselves. And there is a way to both name, call out if you like that term, marginalize, bigotry and things that go against our democratic printable. And to have a civil conversation. In fact, doing the one is necessary i would say for doing the other. And that is the best that we can do in this moment, i think. We are deeply divided country, and we will stay deeply divided country. But we do not have to be ugly bout it. And we each have a role in stopping that. Acques ira . Ira i do not have a summary but i bought one further point. There is no Silver Bullet answer here for how to fight desperate we need bipartisanship. I can tell you. For how to fight this. I can tell you we need bipartisanship. There is social ostracism. The fight about bigotry start to the grassroots. We have the strongest Civil Society in the world. That Civil Society is capable of ostracizing the haters and the bigots. Ill give you a classic example 20 years going on 10. In billings, montana. A young jewish kid had a menorah in his window. White nationalists were growing in that area. Omeone threw a center block to the window. The Community Came together spontaneously. Local politicians, ngos, hurches et cetera. There were in the local paper a printout of a menorah. People put that menorah in their windows. Thousands and thousands. And there were marches of people olding menorahs. The message was, this kid and his family and the Jewish Community is part of our community. Whoever threw that brick is not. We do not want you. Youre not part of us. And if we find out who you are youre going to make your life miserable. Thats is a very powerful tool. We do it sometimes in the United States. We do not do it enough. It was never happens in europe. That social ostracism, if we can build that muscle and Civil Society, and hopefully we can have political leaders who are lso responsible. And to attack antisemitism not as a partisan tool, but where they see it, that is part of the way we fix this. Danielle i do not have a good summing up. We have talked at your expense this afternoon. I think we are at real risk when our Civil Society that you rightly talk about, becomes part of the problem and not part of the solution. There has been a real effort to do that. I think about the womens march. Why does a march about women have to be suddenly imbued with hatred toward the jews. Similarly, on the right, people hold their woke or unwelcome attitudes up as a shield to guard against accusations that hey might be somehow haters of some kind or another. That is something i think we need to be very vigilant about. I will digress for a second. And end with what i hope is an mportant lesson. This summer im reading a book territorial expansion necessary, or it was the role of the church suddenly became about the ews. So that where it had been a minority view, and became a strain of social thought. It became part of what everybody was thinking. And while they did not to sincerely admit it, it spread through their diaries and their letters. We must do something, we must deal with these enemies who have een dehumanized. The polls, the jews, the easterners. Dehumanizing your enemy is where this problem starts. It makes it easier. There are always as i said before and i think you both set as well, theyre always going to be bad guys. Who think bad things, who hate black people who hate jews, who hate women, who ate muslims. Whatever it is. There will always be those guide is that people. It is our job to ensure that those threads do not spread throughout society. That we do not create room for them in any way. Fear that we, that we have. That those guardrails are down. That we have created room for this. And we need to squish it back together again. We need to put those guardrails where they are. And where they belong. That i think is one of the most important lessons for all of s. Jacques now if i can answer my first question what is different from five years ago. We do not have the two gentlemen from the department of Public Safety in the back. I think we should all them for protecting us. And if you are to ask me i would say that is one of the biggest differences in American Public discourses, the now we have security guards when we speak. I want to thank of three distinguished panelists, ira orman. [applause] amara cofman wittes. [applause] and the inevitable inimitable danielle pletka. Jacques thank you for coming to the cjc and we will see you in a few weeks when dennis ross speaks about his new book. Thank you. [applause] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions Copyright National able satellite corp. 2019] cspans washington journal with news that impacts you. More on aby more the return of congress. Watch washington journal live at 7 00 eastern this morning. Be sure to connect with us during the program that he questions and starting this morning with our new texting feature. Heres a look at our live coverage. Former Homeland Security security. The hearing takes place at the national 11 Memorial Museum just ahead of the terrorist attacks. And the u. S. House returns from the august recess gathering in at a discussion on the survey. Of a and the rney General Senate frurns the august recess at 3 00 p. M. To continue work on the president s executive mom nations including allowing them. Kelly craft to represent the u. S. On cspan 3, at 5 30 p. M. Policy experts analyze the u. S. Population and what they mean for americas future. Thats hosted by the American Enterprise institute. President trump holds a Campaign Rally in fayetteville, north carolina. Watch live coverage at 7 00 p. M. Eastern on cspan2. Online at c 1357b. Org. Yes. On the cspan. Org. Watch our live coverage for the 9 11 memorial plaza. The moment of silence. The reading of the names and the ringing of the bell. A replaying ceremony at the 911 memorial. On cspan, cspan 3. And online at cspan. Org. Or listen on the cspan free span radio app. A conversation now on how antisemitism and