The left's All Lives Matter moment


A free daily digest of the biggest news stories of the day - and the best features from our website
Thank you for signing up to TheWeek. You will receive a verification email shortly.
There was a problem. Please refresh the page and try again.
The latest round of violence in the Middle East came home to the United States in the form of a chilling wave of attacks on American Jews. The savage beating of a yarmulke-wearing man in Times Square, the startling assault on Jewish diners at a sushi restaurant in West Hollywood, like similar events reported in London and Brussels, saw people who purported to be protesting the Israeli military campaign in Gaza attack their own countrymen simply for being Jews.
The response by progressive politicians was swift, if not exactly sure. "I strongly condemn the rise in anti-Semitism and Islamophobia we're seeing across the country," Rep. Ayanna Pressley, a Massachusetts Democrat, said on Twitter. "The work of dismantling antisemitism, anti-Blackness, Islamophobia, anti-Palestinian racism, and every other form of hate is OUR work," tweeted Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.). "Here at home, we must forcefully condemn anti-Semitic and Islamophobic attacks," echoed Julian Castro, the former secretary of housing and urban development.
What these reactions had in common was that they paired condemnations of antisemitism with denunciations of bigotry against Muslims, or in Bush's case a litany of other evils. But what about antisemitism, full stop? In a column, The New York Times' Michelle Goldberg acknowledged that the recent spate of alleged hate crimes is "first and foremost, a catastrophe for Jewish people in the United States" but worried it "also threatens to undermine progress that's been made in getting American politicians to take Palestinian rights more seriously."
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
This is reminiscent of the predominantly (though not exclusively) conservative tendency to push back against the phrase "Black Lives Matter" with the assertion that "All Lives Matter." The assertion is true, and it's equally true that anti-Muslim hatred is no more morally justified than hatred of Jews.
But a progressive might respond it's the worth of Black lives that is specifically at issue when a police officer kneels on George Floyd's neck as he gasps for breath. When a man is beaten in the streets of America for wearing a yarmulke, Jewish lives rather than generic anti-hate slogans need to be affirmed.
There are prudential reasons for wanting people tempted to do terrible things for what they believe to be a good cause to hear themselves represented in these messages, which may partially explain the progressive reticence to single out antisemitism. Yet there are principled reasons to call hatred of Jewish people by its name without qualification or even the appearance of equivocation.
Continue reading for free
We hope you're enjoying The Week's refreshingly open-minded journalism.
Subscribed to The Week? Register your account with the same email as your subscription.
Sign up to our 10 Things You Need to Know Today newsletter
A free daily digest of the biggest news stories of the day - and the best features from our website
W. James Antle III is the politics editor of the Washington Examiner, the former editor of The American Conservative, and author of Devouring Freedom: Can Big Government Ever Be Stopped?.
-
Rebuilding Ukraine: What would it take?
In Depth Russia continues to raze large sections of Ukraine, but that gives Kyiv a unique opening to build a better country — if somebody is willing to pay
By Peter Weber Published
-
Is Sen. Bob Menendez's refusal to resign intransigence or smart politics?
Today's Big Question The indicted New Jersey Democrat is standing firm amidst calls to step down
By Rafi Schwartz Published
-
Is it time the world re-evaluated the rules on migration?
Today's Big Question Home Secretary Suella Braverman questions whether 1951 UN Refugee Convention is 'fit for our modern age'
By The Week Staff Published
-
A Ukraine election in 2024: how it would work
The Explainer Zelenskyy hints that country is ready for March polls but logistical, security and democratic obstacles remain
By Harriet Marsden Published
-
How Ukraine's claimed kill of Russia's top Black Sea Fleet admiral could affect the war
Speed Read Ukraine says it killed Russian Adm. Viktor Sokolov and 33 other senior commanders in an audacious and expertly timed strike in Crimea
By Peter Weber Published
-
Sen. Bob Menendez charged with federal corruption, bribery
The longtime New Jersey Democrat finds himself in another round of legal peril
By Rafi Schwartz Published
-
The Senate's nixed dress code isn't short of mixed reactions
Why Everyone's Talking About Conservatives are taking issue with the axing of a longstanding Senate tradition
By Justin Klawans Published
-
Azerbaijan attacks disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region, breaking cease-fire
The 'local anti-terrorist' strikes in the ethnic Armenian enclave threaten to reignite a war with implications for Russia, Turkey and the West
By Peter Weber Published