Anti-Semitism and violence aren’t just tolerated—they’re increasingly excused and supported.

Photo by Selcuk Acar/Anadolu via Getty Images

“You know why you never see white supremacists marching on the streets of NYC?” a former NYPD Hate Crimes unit boss once asked me. “Because they know they’d get the sh*t kicked out of them.”

Some things New Yorkers won’t tolerate: blatant racism, homophobia, attacks on law enforcement, and stopping at the top of the subway stairs.

Finally, a reason to check your email.

Or so we thought. Unfortunately, the last few years have shown us that antisocial, anti-Semitic, and violent behavior aren’t just tolerated in New York City—they’re excused and increasingly encouraged.

I write these words in the aftermath of 150 rioters trying to storm the barricades outside Park East Synagogue on 67th Street in Manhattan, injuring two cops. The hooligans waved flags representing organizations whose members have American blood on their hands. This time, the excuse for flyingHezbollah flagswas an informational event for New Yorkers considering leaving the city and moving to Israel (totally coincidental, I presume). The rioters chanted their greatest hits—like “NYPD, IDF, KKK you’re all the same!” and “We don’t want no two states, we want all of it!”—andcalled for an “Intifada Revolution.”

Though all these events happened this past Tuesday, I could have written this on any number of mornings: last week, after three Hasidic Jews, whose crime is that they are easily identifiable as Jews, wereattacked in Brooklyn; or on Monday, afterSwastikas and other anti-Semitic graffitiwere discovered yet again in Queens. And that’s just New York. If we include attacks inother places in the United Statesand inSydneyandLondon, well, it’s no wonder Jews feel under assault.

Extremists will always be with us. A few hundred wackos cosplaying intifada aren’t the issue, and I’m thankful to live in a country where we are free to say as we please, no matter how foolish. The danger lies in our tolerance of their actions, which began as a collective shrug and has transformed, in many cases, to full-throated support. The obsession with the dismantling of the Jewish state, the radical chic of our moment, has led our friends and neighbors to excuse this behavior and even to justify it.

As masked men yell about killing Jews, well-meaning, peaceful commentators will assure you that they’re angry only about the settlements question. When rioters attack police officers in an attempt to get close to a house of worship (on behalf of causesour own mayor supports), many of our fellow New Yorkers—influenced by radical education and two-minute Instagram reels that dumb down a complex, decades-long conflict—will confidently tell you that this violence is a natural response to the policies of Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and that anti-Semitism has nothing to do with it.

Source: Drudge Report