Patty Murray's Ofice Doesn't Care About Anti-Semitism

This article first appeared in New English Review.

It seems the confirmation process for Ken Marcus to become  Assistant Secretary of Education for Civil Rights has taken an ugly turn. World Israel News is reporting that during a meeting held in November between Jake Cornett, a senior policy adviser to Patty Murray (D-WA), and Sarah Stern, president of the Endowment for Middle East Truth, who was lobbying for support for Marcus’ confirmation, Cornett reportedly said this:

“We care about transgenders, we care about blacks, we care about Hispanics, we care about gays, we care about lesbians, we care about the disabled. We don’t care about anti-Semitism in this office,” 

Coincidentally, on Thursday, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee considering Marcus’ nomination, on which Murray is the ranking Democrat, voted along strict party lines (12-11) to move the nomination forward. All Democrats voted against his nomination.

Full disclosure: I know Marcus personally and have participated with him in a couple of events concerning anti-semitism. I wrote to every senator on the committee in support of his nomination.

The above statement, if accurate, reveals a couple of truths. First, among those who are activists in civil rights issues, anti-semitism is very low on the ladder. For one thing, Jews are perceived as being “privileged” and also as being white. Thus, they are not considered as being as “vulnerable” as other minority groups. The Holocaust and current world events, especially in Europe, belies any thought that Jews are not vulnerable. (They are also not uniformly white.)

This is the battle that our forces have been fighting when we see anti-semitism being played out on college campuses. It truly seems that the administrators and the public don’t give a hoot about it.

Secondly, the Democrats, for the most part, are on the side of the Palestinians as opposed to Israel. Marcus’s nomination has been fiercely opposed by the pro-Palestinian lobby in the US. They charge that his work as head of the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under  Law, which has worked to combat anti-semitism on college campuses, means he would not be fair to Muslims and pro-Palestinian supporters. That is an unfair accusation. I am confident that Marcus would be fair to any group.

The above quote by a top member of Senator Murray’s office and the party line vote on Marcus’ confirmation pretty much confirms to me what I have believed all along about the Democratic party.  To be fair, Senator Charles Schumer is a supporter of Israel, and Rep. Brad Sherman, a Democrat from California, has spoken out about campus anti-semitism. I consider them a minority, however.

The left is constantly screaming about hate (including anti-semitism) coming from the right. With some exceptions, it is an unfair charge. Thursday’s vote on Marcus indicates that the Democrats are in the pocket of the anti-Israel lobby. While being anti-Israel does not always mean one is anti-semitic, it is high time we start examining anti-semitism coming from the left.