Since Oct. 7, perpetrators of antisemitic attacks in US increasingly cite Israel's war in Gaza

Boston Globe

a day ago

In 2024, 58 percent of antisemitic incidents 'contained elements related to Israel or Zionism,' according to the Anti-Defamation League's annual antisemitism report released this year. That has risen since the group began tracking the data with a new definition two years ago.
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'For antisemites, the Israel issue has been a convenient tactic to pile onto the Jewish community,' said Oren Segal, ADL's senior vice president of counterextremism and intelligence. Some people intentionally conflate being Jewish with support for the Israeli government, he said.
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The overlap is complicating life for many US Jews and Jewish organizations living with increasing antisemitism and the deep divisions sparked by the war in Gaza.
'People like me made arguments for years about how you should be able to criticize Israel and not be seen as antisemitic. Now that's collapsed, and attacks on Zionism now target Jews. They see no difference, and so here we are,' said Joel Rubin, a deputy assistant secretary of state under former president Barack Obama who also served as Jewish outreach adviser to the 2020 presidential campaign of Senator Bernie Sanders, a Vermont Independent.
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Since Israel's post-Oct. 7 war in Gaza began, polls have shown that more Americans have negative views about Israel, and support for the Palestinian solidarity movement has grown stronger.
With antisemitic incidents at historic levels, some American Jews say they feel like a political football, and that it can be agonizing at times
to tell the difference between prejudice and criticism of the Israeli government.
Jews in the United States 'have a real psychological challenge in this moment,' said Dove Kent, US senior director of the Diaspora Alliance, a progressive group that works to fight the weaponization of antisemitism.
'Whenever there is an increase in Israeli lethal action, there is an increase in antisemitism directed at Jews. But Jews don't cause antisemitism,' she said.
'Conversations about if and when these attacks [in the United States] are antisemitic are only useful to the degree they help us understand how to stop them,' she said. 'Otherwise it's almost just an exercise -- a thing that has the potential to grab people's attention and cause fractures among people who are otherwise completely aligned that we need to stop these attacks.'
This trend has become more apparent after a recent series of antisemitic events. In April, the residence of Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, who is Jewish, was set on fire by a man who allegedly blamed him for Middle East violence against Palestinians. A month later, two Israeli Embassy employees were fatally shot as they left a reception at a Jewish museum in Washington, D.C., by a man who yelled 'Free, free Palestine.' And Sunday, Mohamed Sabry Soliman, 45, allegedly used a flamethrower to attack a Jewish event in Colorado.
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All three incidents reflect rising antisemitism, but
they also have a common feature: The alleged perpetrators cited their objections to Israel's war in Gaza as part of their motives, say hate crime experts.
Soliman 'said this had nothing to do with the Jewish community and was specific [to] the Zionist group,' according to Boulder police.
While the war in Gaza has fueled criticism of Israel from some on the left,
even among some politically left-leaning Jews, many US Jews have also said the administration of President Trump shares some
blame for a more hostile
climate. During his last presidential campaign, Trump said Jewish voters would be to blame if he lost -- despite being only 2 percent of the population. Multiple Jewish leaders have been critical of Trump and some administration officials for using antisemitism as a rationale for deporting immigrants and eliminating some diversity initiatives, stoking backlash.
'Since Trump came in they are weaponizing Jewish fear to advance a very specific agenda,' said Kevin Rachlin, Washington director of the Nexus Project, which advocates against antisemitism and for free speech.
'What will you do to protect us?' he said. 'Shutting down and defunding schools, deporting people? That doesn't protect Jews.'
Harrison Fields, principal deputy press secretary at the White House, wrote that the president 'received unprecedented support from the Jewish community in his historic reelection, and this support continues to grow as he combats the left's rampant anti-Semitism is exposed daily. The Trump administration is the most pro-Israel and pro-Jewish in our nation's history, and the President's record stands as a testament to this commitment.'
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US Jews are wary equally of both
conservatives and liberals, according to a 2024 survey by the American Jewish Committee. Asked 'how much of an antisemitic threat' the 'extreme political right' and the 'extreme political left' represents, the numbers were almost the same: 55 percent said the far right is a very serious or moderate threat, and 57 percent said that of the far left.
Jews outside of Israel have long been attacked by people trying to change Mideast policy, Rachlin said. But
those attacks have
taken on a new dimension in recent years, he said.
What's changed is the very high death toll in Israel and Gaza, the growth among young Americans -- compared with older ones -- in sympathy for the Palestinian cause, and, Rachlin said, the internet.
'We see everything that's happening. Nothing is hidden, and no amount of spin can turn away video. You can see bad actors in both camps.'