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American Jews and BLM: Antisemitism Must Sharpen Focus on Jewish Alliances
A poster from a protest in London linking Black Lives Matter movement to the situation facing the Palestinians. Photo: Apartheid Off Campus via Facebook.
Speaking in somber, contemplative tones, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) recently delivered a 40-minute floor speech on the current rise of antisemitism in the United States. “Not long ago, many of us marched together for black and brown lives,” Schumer said nostalgically, “out of the recognition that injustice against one oppressed group is injustice against all. But apparently, in the eyes of some, that principle does not extend to the Jewish people.”
Schumer’s invocation of the Black-Jewish solidarity that characterized both the civil rights movement of the 1960s and the post-George Floyd racial upheaval of 2020 hearkened back to the American tradition of coalition-building around shared civic values.
It also summoned the doctrine of intersectionality, which holds that minority categories are interconnected and that systems of oppression overlap. This feeling of empathy for African-Americans was on full display in the Jewish community when more than 600 Jewish organizations hastened to sign a letter contained in an August 2020 New York Times ad in support of Black Lives Matter (BLM).
“The Black Lives Matter movement is the current day Civil Rights movement in this country, and it is our best chance at equity and justice,” the letter read. “By supporting this movement, we can build a country that fulfills the promise of freedom, unity, and safety for all of us, no exceptions.”
But despite the rosy optimism of the Jewish organizational letter, there have indeed been exceptions to the promise of safety for all groups — namely, the American Jewish community, represented by the more than 600 organizations that signed the ad.
Antisemitism is exploding on university campuses and in urban centers in the wake of the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel and the subsequent Israeli defensive military operation. And the response from BLM chapters? Support for the terrorists.
The BLM D.C. chapter accused Israel of apartheid, while casting doubt on the veracity of Hamas atrocities. The Chicago chapter posted an image of a terrorist paragliding into Israel to attack civilians, along with the caption, “I stand with Palestine.” And the BLM Grassroots division justified the Hamas attack as a response to “75 years of settler colonialism and apartheid.”
A BLM Phoenix social media account declared that Hamas terrorists were “freedom fighters.” A BLM Detroit account bizarrely demeaned Israeli hostages by asserting, “The few Israeli ‘hostages’ are in fact Israeli soldiers and Israeli army generals who are responsible for keeping Palestinians hostage in the world’s largest open air prison.”
American Jews often have actively worked to support the plight of an African-American community that suffered centuries of slavery and segregation and still struggles for equality today. The awareness of this history may have caused Jews to sometimes temper their responses to antisemitism, out of a deferential sense that there may be worse injustices that merit greater attention and outrage.
But the current explosion of antisemitism in the United States begs the question of why the world’s oldest and most persistent social illness merits less opprobrium than offenses against other marginalized groups. Moreover, it prompts one to ask why other communities that have felt the sting of bigotry themselves resist the obligation to defend Jews against the greatest of all hatreds.
Some of this undoubtedly is due to the lingering conception of Jews as a white, privileged group undeserving of victim status, even following the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, in which white supremacists carried tiki torches and chanted, “Jews will not replace us.”
Another contributor is the revisionist history of Israel as a white, colonial settler project whose central aim is to displace an indigenous people, notwithstanding the fact that the Jews originated in the Land of Israel and that many of them subsequently lived in Arab and Muslim countries from which they were forced out in the 20th century. Furthermore, more than 50% of Israeli Jews would be considered BIPOC in America today.
But the eagerness of Jews to find common cause with other oppressed minorities, and to gain acceptance from such groups, has led to costly mistakes. Jewish organizations that signed the 2020 pro-BLM New York Times ad prioritized racial justice in the wake of the George Floyd killing. But it is possible to commit oneself to racial justice and the principle that Black lives matter without issuing a full-throated endorsement of a movement that never has confronted the antisemitism in its own ranks.
The experience of the 2020 BLM endorsement and the disappointment that followed it suggest that Jewish groups should cultivate allies that will reciprocate the respect Jews have shown for the civil rights of others. The Jewish community should demand that activists and organizations that profess to support civil and human rights reject not only terrorist groups such as Hamas, but the extreme ideologies that paint Jews as colonial occupiers deserving to be extirpated from their homeland.
Black lives will always matter, and the cause of racial equality must always be a priority for Jews and other Americans. But combating antisemitism and acknowledging Israel’s obligation to defend itself must never again take a back seat in the search for democratic allies.
Rabbi Eric Fusfield is B’nai B’rith International’s Director of Legislative Affairs and Deputy Director of its International Center for Human Rights and Public Policy.
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Israel Intercepts Missile Launched From Yemen, Houthis Claim Responsibility
A Houthi fighter mans a machine gun mounted on a truck during a parade for people who attended Houthi military training as part of a mobilization campaign, in Sanaa, Yemen, Dec. 18, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah
Israel‘s military said on Friday it had intercepted a missile launched from Yemen towards Israeli territory, an attack for which Yemen‘s Houthi forces claimed responsibility.
The incident came days after Oman said it mediated a ceasefire deal between the US and the Houthis, with the Yemeni rebel group saying the accord did not include close US ally Israel.
The Iran-backed militia, an internationally designated terrorist organization, claimed responsibility for Friday’s attack, saying it fired a ballistic missile towards Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv, according to the group’s military spokesperson Yahya Saree.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said after the military reported the missile launch that Israel would respond forcefully in Yemen and “wherever necessary,” describing the Houthi missiles as “Iranian.”
President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that the US would stop bombing the Houthis in Yemen as the group had agreed to stop attacking US ships.
But the Houthis have continued to fire missiles and drones towards Israel, most of which the Israeli military says it has intercepted, without casualties or serious damage occurring.
The Houthis have attacked numerous vessels in the Red Sea, disrupting global trade, in a campaign that they say is aimed at showing solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza. Israel has been fighting a war in Gaza since a deadly raid by Palestinian terrorist group Hamas into southern Israel in October 2023.
The Houthis are part of Iran’s so-called “Axis of Resistance” against Israeli and US interests in the Middle East, a group also including Hamas and Lebanon’s Hezbollah.
Israel has weakened those groups by assassinating top leaders and destroying military infrastructure since the Gaza war began, though Houthi capabilities appear largely intact.
The post Israel Intercepts Missile Launched From Yemen, Houthis Claim Responsibility first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Israel Won’t Be Involved in New Gaza Aid Plan, Only in Security, US Envoy Says
US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee looks on during the day he visits the Western Wall, Judaism’s holiest prayer site, in Jerusalem’s Old City, April 18, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
A US-backed mechanism for getting aid into Gaza should take effect soon, Washington’s envoy to Israel said on Friday ahead of President Donald Trump’s visit to the Middle East, without detailing how this would work with no ceasefire in place.
Israel has been enforcing a months-long blockade on aid to Gaza while vowing to expand its military campaign against the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, which has ruled the enclave since 2007. Experts and Israeli officials have long said that Hamas steals much of the aid to fuel its terrorist operations and sells some of the remainder to Gaza’s civilian population at an increased price. Jerusalem has also said that aid distribution cannot be left to international organizations, which it accuses of allowing Hamas to seize supplies intended for the civilian population.
US Ambassador Mike Huckabee said several partners had already committed to taking part in the new aid arrangement, which would be handled by private companies, but declined to name them, saying details would be released in the coming days.
“There has been a good initial response,” the former Republican governor told reporters at the embassy in Jerusalem.
“There are nonprofit organizations that will be a part of the leadership,” he said, adding that other organizations and governments would also need to be involved, though not Israel.
Tikva Forum, a hawkish Israeli group representing some relatives of hostages held in Gaza, criticized the announcement, saying aid deliveries should be conditional on Hamas releasing the 59 captives in Gaza.
Hamas senior official Basem Naim said the plan was close to “the Israeli vision of militarizing aid” and said it would fail, at the same time warning local parties against “becoming tools in the Zionist occupation’s schemes.”
Trump, who seeks a landmark deal that would see Israel and Saudi Arabia establish diplomatic relations, will visit Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates next week.
Trump had teased a major announcement ahead of the trip. It was unclear if that was what Huckabee announced on Friday.
Anticipation has been building about a new aid plan for Gaza, which has been devastated amid the Israel-Hamas war, a conflict that has displaced most of the enclave’s 2.3 million population.
“It will not be perfect, especially in the early days,” Huckabee said. “It is a logistical challenge to make this work.”
European leaders and aid groups have criticized a plan by Israel, which has prevented aid from entering Gaza since resuming military operations in March and ending a two-month ceasefire, for private companies to take over humanitarian distributions in the enclave.
Israel has accused agencies including the United Nations of allowing aid to fall into the hands of Hamas, which it has said is seizing supplies intended for civilians and given them to its own forces or selling them to raise funds. Hamas denies this.
CRITICISM OF AID PLANS
“The Israelis are going to be involved in providing necessary military security because it is a war zone, but they will not be involved in the distribution of the food or even bringing the food into Gaza,” Huckabee told a press conference.
Asked whether the supply of aid hinged on a ceasefire being restored, Huckabee said: “The humanitarian aid will not depend on anything other than our ability to get the food into Gaza.”
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) on Friday criticized emerging plans to take over distribution of aid in Gaza floated by both Israel and the United States, saying this would increase suffering for children and families.
A proposal is circulating among the aid community for a Gaza Humanitarian Foundation that would distribute food from four “Secure Distribution Sites,” resembling plans announced by Israel earlier this week, but drew criticism that it would effectively worsen displacement among the Gaza population.
Huckabee said there would be an “initial number” of distribution centers that could feed “perhaps over a million people” before being scaled up to ultimately reach two million.
“Private security” would be responsible for the safety of workers getting into the distribution centers and in the distribution of the food itself, Huckabee said, declining to comment on rules of engagement for security personnel.
“Everything would be done in accordance with international law,” he said.
Mediation efforts by the United States, Qatar, and Egypt have not been successful in implementing a second phase of the ceasefire. Israel demands the total disarmament of Hamas, which the Islamist group rejects.
Hamas has said it is willing to free all remaining hostages seized by its terrorists in attacks on communities in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and agree to a permanent ceasefire if Israel pulls out completely from Gaza.
Hamas’s attacks on Oct. 7, 2023, killed 1,200 people and 251 were taken hostage back to Gaza. Israel responded with a military campaign aimed at freeing the hostages and destroying Hamas.
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What’s Next for Canadian Jews After the Recent Election
New Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney meets with Donald Trump in the White House on May 6, 2025. Photo: Wiki Commons.
The final votes were still being tallied when the questions started coming from friends and family in Israel and the United States: when are you leaving?
For many Jewish Canadians, last week’s federal election presented an opportunity to end the mealy-mouthed equivocation of the governing Liberals on antisemitism at home and Israel’s right to re-establish its security in the wake of the October 7 terrorist attacks.
Instead, they got another Liberal minority government, with Mark Carney as prime minister, but the same cast of characters around him.
Justin Trudeau’s government managed to commit numerous gaffes where the Jewish community was concerned, including feting a Waffen SS veteran in parliament. When a firestorm of antisemitic vandalism, arson and intimidation erupted after October 7, Trudeau usually made sure his outrage came with a side of caution against Islamophobia and all forms of hate.
On Israel, the Liberals displayed a moral equivalence that was a mix of outright credulity and cynical opportunism, most notoriously when multiple members of Trudeau’s cabinet, including the minister of innovation, science and industry, Francois-Phillipe Champagne and foreign affairs minister Melanie Joly parroted a Hamas Ministry of Health claim that the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital was bombed by the Israelis.
When the allegation turned out to be false, the government offered a late night Page Z15 style press release that was notable for how perfunctory it was. Trudeau’s government was also perceived as hostile to Jewish charities, or at least those with ties to Israel. It stripped both the Jewish National Fund and the Ne’eman Foundation of their charitable status.
Carney is not Trudeau. But he sent mixed signals to the Jewish community during the campaign.
On the one hand, he appointed Marco Mendicino, a former member of parliament and strong ally of both Israel and the Toronto Jewish community, as his chief of staff. However, he also retained many of Trudeau’s key lieutenants, including foreign minister Joly.
When Thomas Mulcair, the former leader of the socialist New Democratic Party, accused Joly of taking an anti-Israel position for electoral gain, Joly remarked: “Thomas, have you seen the demographics of my riding?”
On a state visit last year, Joly and fellow Liberal MP Ya’ara Sacks, who is a dual Israeli Canadian citizen, posed for a cringe-worthy photo op in which they held hands with Palestinian dictator Mahmoud Abbas.
Sacks fought a bruising campaign against Roman Baber in a riding in which close to 15% of the population is Jewish. At one point, she distributed a leaflet with a swastika on it, implying that Baber, who is a descendant of Jewish Holocaust victims, had some connection to Nazism due to his opposition to COVID restrictions and support for the Freedom Convoy protests in 2022.
Baber defeated Sacks in the election.
Liberal incumbent Adam van Koeverden was videotaped stumping for votes with the men of a local mosque, while a female Liberal colleague was speaking to the “sisters” downstairs. Van Koeverden pledged his support in ending the “genocide” in Gaza and for “Palestinian sovereignty.”
Somehow the Israeli hostages languishing under horrifying conditions and the recent arson and vandalism attacks on synagogues, Jewish day schools, and Jewish-owned business in Toronto and Montreal must have slipped his mind.
Van Koeverden retained his seat by a handy margin.
Last year, longtime Liberal MP Rob Oliphant was recorded by a constituent complaining about his government’s decision to pause funding to UNRWA over the UN agency’s ties to terrorism. Oliphant was so upset that he considered quitting over the decision. In the end, the Trudeau Liberals reinstated the UNRWA funding and never did miss a payment.
Oliphant retained his seat with more than 60% of the vote.
Although the overwhelming majority of Canada’s arms sales go to the United States and Saudi Arabia, under Trudeau’s leadership, the Liberals imposed an arms embargo on Israel and took the unusual step of cancelling a contract with an American defense contractor because Quebec-made ammunition was going to find its way to Israel.
At a campaign event, a heckler asked Carney about the “genocide” in Gaza, to which he responded: “I’m aware. That’s why we have an arms embargo.”
When called out on the statement, Carney implausibly claimed that he somehow didn’t hear the word “genocide” in the question.
Of the 28 Liberal candidates who signed the “Palestine Pledge” — which called for an arms embargo on Israel and unilateral recognition of a state of Palestine — 18 won re-election. They will now make their case for a more aggressive anti-Israel foreign policy to the other 151 Liberal caucus members.
There was, however, some cause for optimism.
Former Green Party MP Jenica Atwin, who the Liberals welcomed to their party in 2021 after her attacks on her former party’s leader Annamie Paul, a Black Jewish woman who refused to demonize Israel, didn’t run for re-election.
And Majid Jowhari, who was alleged to be an agent of the Iranian regime (claims he denied), lost his seat.
Party discipline is strictly imposed in Canada’s parliamentary system. But even assuming Carney does intend to be more supportive of Canadian Jews and respectful of the security needs of a democratic Israeli ally than his predecessor ever was, like Trudeau, he has a parliamentary minority.
The Conservatives are his only serious competition, and their leader, Pierre Poilievre, has been an unapologetic supporter of Israel and Canada’s Jewish community. Poilievre lost his seat and will be out of parliament in the near term, but he will run in a by-election in a friendlier riding.
It’s possible Carney will make common cause with the Conservatives on Israel and the Jews, but given the views of many members of his caucus and the need to distinguish himself from his main rival, it’s more likely that he’ll continue to rely on the support of the NDP, with whom Trudeau held power for two years via a supply and confidence agreement. The other alternative is to look to the separatist Bloc Quebecois.
Neither of the two is a reliable friend of Canadian Jews, but the NDP, who were reduced to seven seats (out of a total of 343 in parliament), is particularly awful. Their relationship with the Jewish community has deteriorated to the point that, when B’nai Brith sent out questions to each party in advance of the election, the NDP didn’t bother to respond.
The October 7 attacks made emigration a frequent topic of conversation among Canadian Jews. It remains to be seen whether last week’s election result will stop that conversation or accelerate it.
The post What’s Next for Canadian Jews After the Recent Election first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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