IN RESPONSE: Not supporting anti-semitic ranting

Posted on by Editor
EDITOR’S NOTE: When I received Judi’s email, I was immediately taken aback, and thought, oh my goodness – no, of course not – the Pioneer would never support antisemitic language! And then I realized that I didn’t have the view that Judi does.  Chuck McLaughlin has written a wide range of op/eds and stories, his memoirs here in the Pioneer.  Most recently a series about his views regarding the genocide happening in Gaza (the cause of all the protests happening now on college campuses across the U.S.)  Then I asked assistant editor Cara Mico (who’s in the San Francisco Bay area) if she’d gone by any of the college campuses where the protests were happening, and she quickly replied, “Oh god no! I’m Jewish, it would be like going into the lion’s den, people that hate me…” Oh wow! I knew she was Jewish, but of course, the protestors have declared Jews as the enemy. I’m not Jewish. I can’t even begin to fathom the feeling, how the “blame the Jews” rhetoric is reverberating. Thank you Judi and Cara for helping me to sharpen my lens, to see how much words matter. 
Laura, how shocking!
I hope you’re not supporting antisemitic ranting in your newsletter.

Chuck McLaughlin is clearly stating his “opinion” as if it’s the truth. It’s an OP/ED. Does he like to spread hate propaganda? Do you know if he does? Is he antisemitic or just woke? I have found that a contingency of woke folk use fascist tactics to achieve progressive goals, and it’s nothing to take pride in. Referring to Jews who fight for and protect Israel as Zionists, is another way to spread antisemitism with a word change here and there to make it seem like it’s not really about all Jews, just the bad ones.

The Jews have fought for their lives and been the inhabitants of Israel for 3,000 years. They’ve been enslaved, imprisoned (for their own good), robbed, murdered, beaten, starved, gassed, and made into lampshades, and it’s not close to stopping.

Nearly every Arab nation wants to see the end of Israel (obviously not just them) and of the Jews. “From the river to the sea” is no joke and Jews aren’t lemmings. Hamas is entirely against a two-state system of government in Israel and always has been. It wants the death of Israel and the end of Judaism. Hamas bombed Israel on the Jewish sabbath and took hostages. Why does no one mention those hostages, instead preferring to bring more negative attention to the situation, by kinda’ changing the subject?

Things won’t change in Israel until those hostages are restored to their families. In the current political environment violence and drama, publishing more Jewish, more Israeli hate rhetoric might draw interest, but is it responsible? NEVER AGAIN.
The writer (Chuck) may not view himself as antisemitic, but so many prejudiced people simply can’t see how they play into the hands of haters with their own version of the same. The writer is obviously entitled to think and believe as he chooses, we all are, but posting clearly anti-Jew rhetoric is not okay. This conspiracy theory, good Jew/bad Jew commentary is just more of the same, and especially in this time of publicly acceptable antisemitic blabbering. This cretin inspired “Jews did it”, “blame the Zionists”, “blame Israel” view is ingrained in this society, a throwback to blaming the Jews for Jesus’ demise, and it’s time it stopped. Jesus was a Jew, born in Nazareth and would disapprove the denigration of his Jewish family, throughout time, seeing it for exactly what it is.

Sincerely,

Judi Berman-Yamada