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Daniel Jadue on Supremacism, Nazi Ideology and a ‘Chosen People’
Daniel Jadue, the mayor of the Recoleta district in Santiago, Chile. Photo: courtesy of Chilean Communist Party.
JNS.org – If you thought the sordid row in 2017 over the contention that women who support Israel have no place in the feminist movement was a low point for the far left, you might perhaps want to reconsider that view.
Daniel Jadue is the mayor of the Recoleta district in the Chilean capital of Santiago. A product of Chile’s Palestinian community—numbering 300,000, they compose the largest Palestinian diaspora outside of the Middle East—he was the Chilean Communist Party’s candidate in the 2021 presidential election that was eventually won by another far-left contender with equally extreme anti-Zionist credentials, Gabriel Boric.
Last week, Jadue delivered a speech at an event in Santiago to launch a screed titled “Zionism: The Ideology of Extermination” by a writer named Pablo Jofré, who contributes to HispanTV, the Iranian regime’s Spanish-language broadcaster, and Russia Today, the official broadcaster of Vladimir Putin’s dictatorship. The title of Jofré’s offering is also revealing, in that it conjures unpleasant memories of the stream of books and pamphlets published at the height of the Soviet Union’s antisemitic campaign with such titles as Beware: Zionism!
Jadue’s target on the evening in question wasn’t Zionism or its followers, however. Eschewing the code words of the pro-Hamas left, he spoke unambiguously about Jews. “For me, it is a contradiction to be on the left and assume yourself Jewish, because being Jewish is part of a conception that has to do with a supremacist conception of being part of a chosen people,” he stated. “So if you are already part of a chosen people, you do not believe in the equality of all human beings before anything, right?” He then went on to add the observation, with regard to Zionism, that “we are dealing here with an ideology that is the most Nazi that I have seen in my life.” More Nazi, apparently, than the Nazis themselves.
The reaction to Jadue, at least from Chile’s small Jewish community of 16,000, was swift and harsh. Two veteran members of the Communist Party, both Jews, issued a wounded statement reminding him of the number of struggles and campaigns he had participated in alongside Jewish comrades. “The Communist Party of Chile is proud of having had in its ranks many people of Jewish origin who, in some cases, gave their lives for the noble cause they supported throughout their lives,” they said.
A separate statement signed by more than 200 Jewish leftists accused Jadue of displaying “manifest conceptual ignorance and intellectual poverty” in an attempt “to erase the historical contribution that Jews have made for centuries … in the fight for a more humane, just, and united world.” Asserting that their left-wing stances are anchored in Jewish values, the group also charged that Jadue was legitimizing the wave of antisemitism that has not spared Chile just as it hasn’t spared other countries.
Meanwhile, an opinion piece in the Chilean daily El Mostrador (titled “Comrade Daniel Jadue, Shalom!”) asserted that Jadue’s comments had regurgitated classic antisemitic tropes about Jews. “Jadue does not need to be reminded that there are left-wing Jews. What he seeks, as part of the more traditional antisemitic thinking, is to create a division between ‘good’ Jews and ‘bad’ Jews,” wrote the author of the piece, Professor Daniel Chernilo, who teaches in the government department of the Adolfo Ibáñez University in Santiago. “Both were present in medieval Christianity: while the good decided to convert to Catholicism—out of fear, conviction, or strategy—the latter stubbornly maintained their religious practices.”
Jadue has remained unrepentant, asserting that his invocation of Nazism was not a slight against left-wing Jews, only Zionist ideology as distorted and defamed by his friend Jofré! Anyone familiar with his record will know that this is hardly surprising. In 2020, the Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC) included him on its list of the top 10 antisemites of that year, citing his inflammatory statements against Chile’s Jewish leaders (“agents of Israel”) and provocative comments (“I get along very well with Jews; it’s Zionists I have a problem with”).
Actually, Jadue has a problem with Jews qua Jews, as his comments at the Santiago event made painfully clear. It should also be remembered that in 2021—when Jadue spent much of the year as the Chilean Communist Party’s frontrunning candidate for the presidency before being edged out by Boric—he was the subject of a parliamentary resolution that condemned him as an antisemite. The trigger was the emergence of Jadue’s high school yearbook, which contained an entry, written in a humorous and affectionate style by Jadue’s fellow students, noting his desire to “cleanse the city of Jews” and suggesting that a suitable gift would be “a Jew for him to use as target practice.”
Yet the problem is bigger than just Jadue himself. The aftermath of the Oct. 7 pogrom in southern Israel carried out by the rapists and murderers of Hamas has bolstered the dehumanization of Jews and Israelis on the far left, a process that was already underway across more than two decades. In this milieu, Jews are seen as “colonists” who have stolen the land of the indigenous Palestinians in the name of a racist, supremacist ideology. Victims of the Hamas atrocities, including the untold number of women who were raped, are dismissed as having fabricated their recollections of what happened. As Chernilo outlined in his opinion piece, more traditional antisemitic tropes are easily imported into such discourse, leaving its audience, and especially its uninitiated members, with the abiding belief that Jews are not so much a people as they are a destructive cabal. “The Jews are our misfortune!” the Nazis used to whine; that slogan now belongs to the far left.
Jadue’s words also tap into an older tradition of Communist antisemitism. Karl Marx, the founder of communism, famously argued in favor of Jewish emancipation on the grounds that this was the equivalent of the “emancipation of society from Judaism.” His argument was that the advent of capitalism had preserved the Jews in an economic role as moneylenders and bankers (“hucksters” was his phrase). Once socialism was installed, he maintained, there would be no need for a separate community identified as “Jews.”
We had, of course, hoped that such noxious ideas had been left behind in the 20th century. In the last three months, they have returned with a vengeance. Right now, Jadue may seem like an extreme example, but he can equally be regarded as an early adopter of an ideology combining antisemitism with a loathing of Zionism that is increasingly prevalent on a political left less and less concerned with being tarred as antisemitic.
The post Daniel Jadue on Supremacism, Nazi Ideology and a ‘Chosen People’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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New York Times Reader Comments Shows a Global Readership Shifting Against Israel
The New York Times building in New York City. Photo: Wikimedia Commons
In March 2022, the New York Times unveiled a global strategy that spoke of targeting “every curious, English-speaking person” and playing “an even bigger role in the lives of tens of millions of people around the world.” It didn’t speak of being a New York or American newspaper.
The paper was following through on an effort it announced in 2016 as “an ambitious plan to expand its international digital audience and increase revenue outside the United States.”
The Times reported then, “Just as The Times pushed beyond its local boundaries to become a national newspaper in the 1990s, the executives said in the memo that they now saw the “opportunity to become an indispensable leader in global news and opinion’ by expanding its presence outside the country’s borders.”
How far has the Times gotten toward achieving its objective of shifting its prototypical customer from a housewife in the Westchester County, New York, suburb of Scarsdale to some college professor in Berlin or bureaucrat in Brussels?
An indication is available in the reader comments on a Times news article headlined “Autopsies of Gaza Medics Killed by Israeli Troops Show Some Were Shot in the Head.”
Many of the Israel-bashing comments on the article come from readers based outside of the United States.
“There appears to be no law at all when it comes to Israel’s prosecution of war. No constraints. No real international pressure to try and contain these all too frequent violations,” writes a Times commenter identified as Richard Smith from Edinburgh, U.K. He called Israel’s behavior “sickening.”
Another Times commenter, Hélène Volat of Paris, writes, “each time I thought of having seen the worst, Israel surprises me.”
Another commenter, “Melan” from Berlin, writes to call for sanctions on Israel similar to those on Russia: “Freeze assets, ban travel, and block arms deals for officials behind the killings.”
A Times commenter Michelle from Montreal writes, “I will never buy anything made in Israel ever again.”
Times commenter “Steve” from Toronto writes, “I really wish the USA would stop supporting this country. Have you no morals?”
Another Times commenter, Denis Coakley from Ireland, contends, “Israel has descended to the level of Hamas… Sadly this is a result of the blank-cheque given to Netanyahu by his fellow tyrant in the White House.”
The Times staff is becoming increasingly international just as its readership is. The bylines on this story include those of Christoph Koettl, a graduate of the University of Vienna, according to his LinkedIn profile, who spent eight years as an employee of or consultant to the anti-Israel advocacy group Amnesty International and its affiliates; and of Bilal Shbair, who previously worked in Gaza as an English teacher for UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East. Reporting was also contributed by “Abubakr Abdelbagi and Naziha Baassiri,” who don’t have biographies available on the New York Times website.
The Times article says the autopsies “were performed by Dr. Ahmad Dhair, the head of the Gazan health ministry’s forensic medicine unit,” without telling readers that the health ministry is controlled by the Hamas terrorist organization, or that Hamas restricts what reporters inside Gaza can report.
Having maxed out of anti-Israel readers on university campuses that provide enterprise-wide Times access to students, faculty, and staff, the Times is now trying to increase its revenues by chasing anti-Israel readers all the way to Europe and Canada. As a business growth strategy it may make some sense. The tradeoff, though, is turning the newspaper’s comments section into an anti-Israel sewer, and also allowing the news section of the paper to be used as a platform for stories that seem calculated to fuel anti-Israel animus. That comes at some cost to whatever is left of the Times’s fading credibility with whatever readers remain from the days when the Times was a New York newspaper, or a proudly American one.
Ira Stoll was managing editor of The Forward and North American editor of The Jerusalem Post. His media critique, a regular Algemeiner feature, can be found here.
The post New York Times Reader Comments Shows a Global Readership Shifting Against Israel first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Not Just Hamas: PA Religious Leaders Agree That Islam Prohibits Israel’s Existence
Palestinians walk at the compound that houses Al-Aqsa Mosque, known to Muslims as Noble Sanctuary and to Jews as Temple Mount, in Jerusalem’s Old City May 21, 2021. Photo: REUTERS/Ammar Awad
One mistake made by world leaders and even many Israeli leaders, is to see the Palestinian Authority (PA) as a secular Muslim leadership that rejects religious war for Allah — as opposed to Hamas. But this is a fundamental misreading of Palestinians and the conflict.
Fundamentally, the Palestinian Authority’s political leaders, like Hamas’ leaders, and like most of the Palestinian population, are religious Muslims first and Palestinians second.
The message of all PA religious leaders — some appointed by Mahmoud Abbas himself — is to deny Israel’s right to exist on religious Islamic grounds.
According to PA belief, Islamic law states that land that was once under Muslim rule must be liberated from the infidels as a mandatory religious obligation. Since the land of Israel was under Muslim Ottoman rule for four centuries, the PA is prohibited from making a permanent treaty with Israel that it intends to keep.
PA Shari’ah Judge Nasser Al-Qirem explained this “fact” to worshippers at a mosque in Ramallah during a Friday sermon that was broadcast by official PA TV:
PA Shari’ah Judge Nasser Al-Qirem: “The Shari’ah legal law of this land, for anyone who doesn’t know, is that it is a waqf land … from its [Mediterranean] Sea to its [Jordan] River, this is its Shari’ah law, from its sea to its river.
The laws of this waqf determine that its status cannot be changed, not by sale and not by purchase, not by collateral and not by exchange… not by addition and not by subtraction… As for the [end] date of this waqf: It is forever and ever, and for all eternity, until Allah inherits the earth and those on it.” [emphasis added]
[Official PA TV, Feb. 14, 2025]
Following other PA religious leaders, Al-Qirem taught listeners that “Palestine” — including all of the State of Israel — is a waqf. A waqf is an inalienable religious endowment in Islamic law.
Palestinians define all of Israel as waqf, and thereby Israel exists on Islamic holy land. Palestinian leaders have explained that under Islamic law Muslims are commanded to free the waqf from non-Muslims.
Similarly, PA Supreme Shari’ah Judge Mahmoud Al-Habbash, who is also PA leader Abbas’ Advisor on Religious Affairs and Islamic Relations, has taught that the Western Wall is exclusively Islamic — according to Allah -– and that Muslims are obligated to fight anyone who challenges this right:
Al-Habbash: “Islam is truth that is indivisible… The rights are indivisible – Give me 60% or 70% of my rights, and tell me: ‘That’s it, that’s yours, take it.’ Perhaps temporarily, yes. [But] strategically, no! … Our rights are non-negotiable. They want to negotiate over Jerusalem and the Al-Aqsa Mosque – then by Allah, it is better [to be dead] in the belly of the earth than to be on its surface…
There is no negotiation on one millimeter of the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque, including the Al-Buraq Wall [i.e., the Western Wall of the Temple Mount[, which is an exclusive permanent Islamic waqf according to Allah’s decree… This is our right, and whoever fights us over our right is an oppressor, and it is a duty to resist the oppressors.” [emphasis added]
[Official PA TV, Jan. 20, 2023]
Repeating that Jews have no rights on Temple Mount, Al-Habbash encouraged the “Islamic nation” to “liberate Al-Aqsa with all means,” saying it was their “duty” because it is a waqf:
Al-Habbash: “The Al-Aqsa Mosque is a pure Islamic right. It is an exclusive Islamic waqf for Muslims (i.e., an inalienable religious endowment), and it is an exclusive right of the Muslims… At the UN podium, [PA] President Mahmoud Abbas spoke explicitly about the Muslims’ legal claim to the Al-Aqsa Mosque and [said] that non-Muslims have no right to it… [Israel] knows that it has no right to the Al-Aqsa Mosque and that the Jews have no right to the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque. But they are only fanning the fire of hostility and the fire of religious war…
The duty lies on the Islamic nation and the Arabs in general, with the governments, regimes, states, bodies, religious and popular sources of authority and [all] the peoples, to participate in defending the noble Al-Aqsa Mosque, starting with coming to it… and ending with liberating the Al-Aqsa Mosque by all possible means (i.e., including terror).” [emphasis added]
[Mahmoud Al-Habbash, Facebook page, Oct. 1, 2024]
Already a decade ago, Palestinian Media Watch exposed that Al-Habbash considers all of Israel a waqf:
Al-Habbash: “The entire land of Palestine is [Islamic] waqf and is blessed land … It is prohibited to sell, bestow ownership or facilitate the occupation of even a millimeter of it.”
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Oct. 22, 2014]
The author is the founder and director of Palestinian Media Watch.
The post Not Just Hamas: PA Religious Leaders Agree That Islam Prohibits Israel’s Existence first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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This Jewish Rapper Should Be Praised for His Passover Pride
Rapper Kosha Dillz, dressed as Moses, leading a Passover seder at Coachella in 2022. Photo: @chrism_arts.
Antisemites in America — and especially in New York — are trying to make Jews feel fearful of going about their regular activities. One infamous video that went viral had anti-Israel protestors screaming that Zionists should get off the subway.
Jewish rapper Rami Matan Even-Esh — known as Kosha Dillz — decided to have a Subway Seder despite some negative comments he got last year when he did it. Dillz has visited Israel and performed for released hostages and families of hostages, as well as wounded soldiers.
“I love doing the Subway Seder because it was a breath of fresh air and some people joined in who weren’t having their own Seders,” Dillz told me in an interview.
He said his group did it on the Q train at Union Square in Manhattan at about 6 o’clock on Friday.
“People are glued to the Internet waiting for bad news, so it was nice to do something like this,” he said, adding that he dressed as Moses. “There were Black and Hispanic community members who asked what we were doing and they were receptive that we were taking pride.”
Dillz showed the Jewish pride that we all should, and he was unbowed by the threats he faced. He said showing Jewish pride and fearlessness is important in the wake of rising antisemitism.
“Last year, someone gave me the middle finger,” he said. “This year, we had no problems. Though, of course, online people will do their thing, and someone commented that we were colonizing the train. You have to laugh at them.”
Despite the Passover seder being mentioned prominently in the Christian Bible, Dillz said that many people asked him what Passover was and were unfamiliar with the holiday. He also rapped as part of the event.
“We gave the people dinner and a show,” he said, adding that there was both matzah and gefilte fish. “I think there were some worried about safety but we didn’t have one negative comment at all.”
Dillz, who will soon be releasing a documentary called Bring The Family Home about his trips to Israel since October 7 said the Israeli hostages often get forgotten in discussions, and he hopes they will somehow be returned.
Dillz, who has been a cast member of Wild ‘N Out and performs both music and comedy, said whenever possible, people should look at the bright side of things.
“I think as Jews, when we embrace our culture, we show that we are united and we’re not gonna run away in fear as our enemies might like,” he said.
Dillz, who made a music video against Kanye West when he went on an antisemitic rant, said that there should have been more outrage over the arson attack against Jewish Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro’s residence on Passover.
The rapper has taken to the streets recently not only to rap, but also to ask questions of people at anti-Israel rallies, where he calmly asks their opinions, often revealing that they have little knowledge of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Dillz said that he is genuinely curious to know what they think, but at times people responded by showing ignorance and at other times, they would simply respond with chants designed to intimidate.
As for his Subway Seder, covered by Fox 5 New York, he said it was a success.
“It was really great we could do this,” he said. “When we show our positivity and joy, it’s something that I think is really powerful.”
The author is a writer based in New York.
The post This Jewish Rapper Should Be Praised for His Passover Pride first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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