McConnell Co-Sponsors Legislation to Fight Uptick in “Despicable” Anti-Semitic Attacks
‘This trash should be the easiest thing in the world for every person in a leadership position to call out. But, perhaps because Israel has become a strangely controversial issue on the far left, the condemnations do not seem to be flowing quite as easily and unequivocally as they should.’
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) delivered the following remarks today on the Senate floor against anti-Semitism:
“The despicable, age-old specter of anti-Semitism continues to rear its head, even here in America.
“Last week, authorities from New York to Los Angeles were investigating assaults on Jewish people. According to press reports, in New York City, one Jewish man was kicked, punched, and sprayed with chemicals by five or six men yelling anti-Semitic things. This happened right in Times Square.
“A synagogue in Arizona was vandalized. So was another in Illinois. A Jewish family visiting South Florida had a car pull up next to them and multiple occupants begin screaming ‘Free Palestine… die, Jew!’ That’s what he got for wearing his yarmulke in public.
“The head of the Anti-Defamation League says, ‘we are tracking acts of harassment, vandalism, and violence as well as a torrent of online abuse… it’s happening around the world.’
“This garbage didn’t begin a few weeks ago. It isn’t a response to geopolitics. This hatred long predates the recent fighting between Israel and Hamas and it hasn’t gone anywhere since the ceasefire.
“This spring, in the shadow of this Capitol building, a U.S. Capitol Police officer was killed in broad daylight by an unbalanced follower of the Nation of Islam, the extremist group led by the anti-Semite Louis Farrakhan.
“This trash should be the easiest thing in the world for every person in a leadership position to call out.
“But, perhaps because Israel has become a strangely controversial issue on the far left, the condemnations do not seem to be flowing quite as easily and unequivocally as they should.
“Yesterday a Democratic Congressman from Minnesota tweeted this: ‘I’ll say the quiet part out loud. It’s time for “progressives” to start condemning anti-Semitism and violent attacks on Jewish people with the same intention and vigor demonstrated in other areas of activism. The silence has been deafening.’ I couldn’t say it better myself.
“Senator Cotton and I are introducing new legislation to fight anti-Semitism. Our bill will support state and local law enforcement and ensure the bigoted thugs who are attacking Jewish Americans face the full force of our justice system.
“I am proud to be co-sponsoring this legislation, though I regret that in the year 2021 it remains necessary. I hope every one of our colleagues joins us.”
Related Issues: Israel
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