Antisemitism "has been normalized," in the nation's universities and some cases, the halls of Congress, leading to the massive growth of antisemitic actions in the United States and around the world, even before the Hamas massacre in Israel earlier this month, Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt told Newsmax on Wednesday.
"Prior to the Hamas massacre in Israel, we saw antisemitic incidents reach an all-time high in this country," Greenblatt told "The Record With Greta Van Susteren." "We've been tracking the data for almost 45 years, and 2022 was the worst year we had ever seen. The numbers in 2022 were more than 500% greater than a decade earlier."
But now, the data the organization is seeing shows "a 400% increase on top of those already elevated levels," he added.
"We're living through historic times, and it's the wrong kind of history," Greenblatt said, adding that now, when there are "Pro-Hamas demonstrations marching down Main Street, no one should be surprised when Jewish people are being assaulted in New York, in D.C., in Detroit, and Indianapolis, all over the country."
Antisemitism is also being used by "radicals on the left," including by some members of Congress and in the nation's universities, according to Greenblatt.
"It's like a staple at universities where they spout anti-Zionist hate. And to be clear, Greta, anti-Zionism is antisemitism," Greenblatt said. "We also have white supremacists and far-right extremists who make wild claims about Jews wanting to replace us or you know that Jews are somehow trying to change the country."
And when those factors are taken together, "these extremes have now come into the mainstream, and they set the table for what's happening today," said Greenblatt, pointing to a pro-Palestinian vigil Tuesday at George Washington University, where messages were projected on the outside wall of the campus library in Washington, D.C.
"Some lunatic put on the wall of the library, with lights, a sign that said 'Glory to the martyrs,' glorifying, dignifying the barbarians who butchered and beheaded babies just a few weeks ago. It was disgusting," Greenblatt said.
The "real question," he said, is why university leaders "lack the moral clarity on Jew hatred that they have for every other person."
"Why is it when Jewish people, when women are raped, they call that 'resistance?'" Greenblatt said. "They call that resistance when babies are burned alive in their cribs. They call that decolonization. The sickness here, the rot here is so deep. We really need a wholesale cleansing in order to fix what's wrong [with] these institutions. But it's not even just a few institutions."
Still, the problem existed even back in the 1930s during the rise of German Nazism and Adolph Hitler, said Greenblatt.
"Let's be honest," he said. "In the 1930s, there were many institutions that were pro-Third Reich in the United States. In 1939, after Kristallnacht, after the Nuremberg laws, there was a rally in Madison Square Garden, 20,000 people came out to praise Hitler and the Third Reich."
Moving forward to today, "the moral weakness of these university leaders, of these activists. It is like celebrating what the Nazis did 70, 80-some odd years ago," Greenblatt said. "It's scary that history repeats itself. But I will tell you this: This is not a partisan issue, on the right and the left. It's a human issue."
He also spoke out about Congress members who push an anti-Israel agenda, singling out Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., who is a Palestinian-American.
"[She] clearly has an agenda," Greenblatt said. "It's not an agenda that's grounded In truth. It's certainly not an agenda that's grounded in the United States. She is giving cover to some of the worst elements when she is still on her Twitter feed, at least as of earlier this afternoon, where still has a tweet about Israel intentionally bombing the [Gaza] hospital, a claim that was never right in the first place. It was Islamic jihad."
Tlaib joined eight other House Democrats to vote against a resolution Wednesday to back Israel and condemn the Hamas attacks, The Hill reported.
Earlier this year, Tlaib denounced a House resolution to support Israel, calling the nation "an apartheid state" during a floor speech. She also faced backlash after the Hamas attacks, demanding that aid to Israel stop, and insisting that "as long as our country provides billions in unconditional funding to support the apartheid government, this heartbreaking cycle of violence will continue."
Other Democrats voting against the pro-Israel resolution were: Reps. Cori Bush, D-Mo.; Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y.; Andre Carson, D-Ind.; Al Green, D-Texas; Summer Lee, D-Pa.; Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.; Ilhan Omar, D-Minn.; and Delia Ramirez, D-Ill.
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