What normalizing antisemitism looks like

Jonathan S. Tobin

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani shakes hands with a Jewish man aboard the subway to Grand Army to sign an executive order establishing the Mayor’s Office of Mass Engagement, Jan. 2, 2026. Credit: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office.

What does it look like when you normalize antisemitism rather than making it something that only exists on the margins of society? In the more than two years since the Hamas-led Palestinian attacks in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, American Jews have seen hatred directed against them steadily portrayed as not just a reasonable argument but the work of idealists who oppose a mythical “genocide” perpetrated by “white” oppressors and their supporters.

We are now at the point where the views of those who feel that one Jewish state on the planet is one too many—while encouraging terrorism and even contemplating the genocide of Israelis—are considered acceptable public discourse. And many non-Jews and even a sizable minority of Jews in New York City think anyone aware of this should just stop complaining about it.

Marginalizing Jewish fears

That’s the only conclusion to be drawn from a new poll of New Yorkers that fully demonstrates that Jews are officially being marginalized while antisemites have moved into the mainstream.

The poll released this week from the liberal Democratic firm Honan Strategy Group paints a stark contrast between the feelings and opinions of much of New York City’s Jews and non-Jews. It shows that a majority of Jewish residents think that the newly inaugurated Mayor Zohran Mamdani is threatening them and enabling those who mean them harm. By contrast, the majority of non-Jews think that Jews are “overreacting” and complaining simply because of “politics.”

That’s a troubling result. Nevertheless, it’s difficult to imagine any responsible pollster even asking such a question, let alone publishing the results if this had been posed to any other minority group.

In 2026, would blacks or Hispanics who believed that they were under attack from a politician who openly favored discrimination against them be polled about whether their fears were overblown or just an example of unfair political attacks? Would those who are not members of those groups be asked to weigh in on whether these minority groups were “overreacting” to what they perceived as racism?

Not likely.

But it’s considered nothing out of the ordinary for a political consulting group that serves a party where antisemitism has become normalized for such a question to be considered a legitimate point of discussion.

The context for this poll is a situation where Jews, who make up only approximately 10% of New York City’s population, are the victims of 57% of all of the reported hate crimes committed in the city. The statistics were announced this week by New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch, along with Mamdani and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul. All three expressed concern as to how Jews are being targeted, with the mayor chiming in to claim that he will “continue to confront hate crimes aggressively and protect every community targeted because of who they are.”

Genocide for some Jews

Left unsaid was the reason why Jews are the focus of so much hate in the city with the largest Jewish population in the world, one that has been a bastion of deep-blue political liberalism. The answer is that many of the incidents stem from the left-wing campaign of delegitimization and demonization against the Jewish community that is championed by Mamdani himself.

The 34-year-old mayor, whose short career has revolved around opposition to the existence of the modern-day State of Israel, hasn’t just refused to condemn the chants calling for terrorism (“Globalize the intifada”) or for genocide against them (“From the river to the sea”) employed by those who target Jews for intimidation and violence on college campuses. He is also an unabashed supporter of BDS—the movement to boycott, sanction and divest from Israel—that is a form of illegal discriminatory commercial conduct against Israelis and American Jews and not, as he claims, political speech.

Mamdani seeks to differentiate his anti-Zionism from supporting actual violence against the intended victims of the threats emanating from the mobs that share his views. Half of the Jews in the world live in Israel. So to say that you can be in favor of genocide against them but want New York’s Jews to be safe—the overwhelming majority who consider the Jewish state important to their identity and faith—isn’t merely disingenuous. It’s a form of gaslighting, albeit one that is increasingly considered normative among liberal elites and in the media, especially in The New York Times and other liberal news outlets.

His decision on day one in office to revoke the executive orders issued by his predecessor after Oct. 7 that were designed to protect Jews, such as recognizing the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance working definition of antisemitism in law, spoke louder than his anodyne though oddly unspecific assurances about Jewish safety, uttered during the hate-crimes presser with Tisch and Hochul. Critics of the definition, like Mamdani, do so because they want to disassociate the term from the way contemporary antisemites, whether on the left or the right, conduct themselves. They seek a definition of antisemitism in which actual acts of Jew-hatred don’t count.

That he chose to do so was not an accident. Far from being tangential to his goals for New York, it’s fair to say that the man who founded a chapter of the antisemitic Students for Justice in Palestine at Bowdoin College in Maine more or less got into politics to promote this agenda of Jew-hatred.

As for the poll, it’s important to view the survey data from a source that is aligned with Mamdani with a shovel full of salt. The survey question was clearly designed to help the mayor by not outlining what Jews are complaining about or fully explaining his eliminationist views about Israel. It framed the issue as a choice between validating how Jews “feel” and labeling it as a politicized “overreaction.” In that way, it helped minimize Mamdani’s contempt and depict those who are complaining about it as hysterics or mindless partisans.

Nevertheless, it’s important as an accurate reflection of how liberal opinion leaders—the poll was first leaked to the left-wing Forward newspaper—want to frame the debate about the post-Oct. 7 surge of antisemitism. The goal here is to both minimize a growing surge of Jew-hatred and to essentially exonerate those political players who are stoking it.

Singling out Jews

This has been accomplished by flooding public discourse, in mainstream and left-wing forums, with blood libels about Israel committing “genocide” in Gaza. The Jewish state’s efforts to defend its citizens against Palestinians who engaged in an orgy of murder, rape, torture, kidnapping and wanton destruction are depicted as not merely aggression but part of a racist and settler-colonial effort to harm “people of color” by “white” oppressors. Mamdani and his supporters frame the efforts of Islamist murderers and rapists to eradicate the Jewish state as akin to the struggle for civil rights in the United States. In doing so, they treat all Jews who won’t disavow an essential element of their faith and identity as, like Israelis, racists who deserve to be singled out for violence.

Under the circumstances, it’s hardly surprising that even a skewed poll like that of Honan Strategy would show that 55% of non-Jews would say that Jews are “overreacting” to Mamdani’s antisemitism.

Nor should we be shocked that 47% of Jewish respondents would say that Mamdani’s “criticisms” of Israel are “legitimate policy disagreement,” while only 40% of Jews and 23% of non-Jews say that he has crossed a line and is fueling antisemitism.

Even if we think those numbers are tilted heavily in Mamdani’s favor, they reflect the way many Jews, especially in a city that is a stronghold for the left wing of the Democratic Party, have acted the way many targets of hate have always behaved. Some of this is due to the influence of Marxists like Mamdani, a self-styled Democratic Socialist who spoke of replacing America’s tradition of “rugged individualism” for one of “collectivism” in his inaugural speech. They have traditionally attacked Jewish identity and rights, dating back to the writings of Karl Marx (who was born a Jew but was converted as a child, along with the rest of his assimilated German family) in the 19th century, through the lethal oppression of Jews by the Soviet Union. Moscow also helped foster and promote the libelous campaign now taken up by Mamdani that labels Zionism as a form of racism.

In the last year, incidents of bloody antisemitic terrorism in Boulder, Colo.; Washington, D.C.; Manchester, England; and last month, on Bondi Beach in Australia have demonstrated what happens when governments are indifferent to advocacy for these smears.

Jews internalizing hatred

But the willingness of some Jews to dismiss antisemitism, even after all the horror of the last two years, is also about something else. It’s clear that a minority—albeit a sizable one in places like New York, where so much of the Jewish community leans hard to the left—of the Jews have internalized the animus directed at them and now blame the victims, whether Israelis or Americans, of antisemitism for the behavior of the antisemites.

It is not atypical behavior for victims of discrimination to look inward to find the causes of violence rather than at the perpetrators and ideas that animate them. But it is more likely to happen when mainstream discourse becomes dominated by the Jew-haters. Under those circumstances, it is far easier for those who promote this noxious ideology to get away with pretending to be an advocate for human rights, as Mamdani does, and for the Jewish targets of victimization to be told to pipe down and stop complaining.

That was, after all, just how African-Americans who protested against those who promoted segregation and discrimination during the century of Jim Crow racism in the United States. In an era where such vile bigotry was made commonplace, they were also dismissed and told they were overreacting. Now, the very people on the left who falsely analogize that dark period of American history to the Palestinian war on Jewish existence, supported by Marxists and Islamists, are telling Jews to back down in much the same manner.

The only answer to Mamdani and those promoting the idea that those who notice the antisemitism of the left and American Muslims are just partisan hysterics must be the same one given by advocates of civil rights to the racists of America’s past. Those in the media and the political establishment must be told that members of the Jewish community aren’t going to be marginalized by being told to calm down and not believe evidence seen almost daily. Decent Americans of every faith and ethnic background must make it clear that Jews will not be silent or acquiesce to a mayor out for retribution. His actions must be resisted with the same loud and determined protests and political action that Americans have eventually meted out to other types of hate-mongers.

Jonathan S. Tobin is editor-in-chief of the Jewish News Syndicate, a senior contributor for The Federalist, a columnist for Newsweek and a contributor to many other publications. He covers the American political scene, foreign policy, the U.S.-Israel relationship, Middle East diplomacy, the Jewish world and the arts. He hosts the JNS “Think Twice” podcast, both the weekly video program and the “Jonathan Tobin Daily” program, which are available on all major audio platforms and YouTube. Previously, he was executive editor, then senior online editor and chief political blogger, for Commentary magazine. Before that, he was editor-in-chief of The Jewish Exponent in Philadelphia and editor of the Connecticut Jewish Ledger. He has won more than 60 awards for commentary, art criticism and other writing. He appears regularly on television, commenting on politics and foreign policy. Born in New York City, he studied history at Columbia University.

Police Chief in UK Retires After Facing Scrutiny for Banning Israeli Maccabi Tel Aviv Fans From Soccer Match

Shiryn Ghermezian

WMP Chief Constable Craig Guildford speaking before the Home Affairs Committee on Jan. 6, 2026. Photo: Screenshot

Miłość lewicy/progresywnych do irańskich ajatollahów

Paul Finlayson

W zachodniej polityce progresywnej istnieje osobliwa tendencja do doszukiwania się ofiar tam, gdzie ich nie ma. To nie przypadek, lecz instynkt — i obecnie przejawia się w pełni w pobłażliwym traktowaniu Islamskiej Republiki Iranu.

To reżim, który co roku wykonuje setki egzekucji swoich obywateli, więzi tysiące za słowa, ubiór czy sprzeciw, i strzela do protestujących na ulicach, gdy kończy mu się cierpliwość. Ta przemoc nie jest incydentalna — jest systemowa. W ostatnich dniach protesty wywołane załamaniem gospodarczym rozprzestrzeniły się poza Teheran, obejmując prowincjonalne regiony Iranu, w tym zamieszkane przez mniejszości, od dawna zaniedbywane przez klerykalne państwo. Już co najmniej siedem osób zginęło.

To największe protesty od 2022 roku, napędzane nie tylko inflacją, gwałtownym spadkiem wartości riala i jego przyspieszającą deprecjacją, ale także hasłami bezpośrednio wymierzonymi w teokrację. Niedobory chleba są iskrą — czterdzieści pięć lat represji to paliwo.

Iran należy do światowej czołówki pod względem liczby egzekucji w przeliczeniu na mieszkańca. Klerykalne rodziny gromadzą ogromne majątki, podczas gdy zwykli Irańczycy ustawiają się w kolejkach po chleb, leki i wizy wyjazdowe. Wstępne sygnały prezydenta Masouda Pezeshkiana o „dialogu” giną w huku pałek i strzałów — jak zawsze, gdy reżim czuje, że traci kontrolę. Nikt temu nie zaprzecza. To wszystko jest udokumentowane, nagrane i opisane — kiedy w ogóle jest relacjonowane. To, co się dzieje, nie jest po prostu kolejną falą protestów ekonomicznych, lecz dobrze znanym irańskim schematem: finansowy upadek obnaża moralne bankructwo, a reżim odpowiada nie reformą, lecz przemocą.

A jednak w zachodnich stolicach i miasteczkach akademickich reżim został starannie opakowany na nowo — jako niezrozumiana ofiara „zachodniej agresji”. Nie naród irański — kobiety zrywające hidżaby, studenci skandujący przeciwko Najwyższemu Przywódcy, robotnicy strajkujący mimo pewności aresztu — lecz sam reżim. „Iran” traktowany jest tak, jakby był tożsamy z jego władcami, podczas gdy ludzie bici, więzieni i mordowani są wymazywani z obrazu.

Widziałem tę przewrotność na własne oczy, gdy mój własny związek zawodowy, CUPE, ogłosił akcję, którą określił jako „proirańską”. Niezależnie od intencji, język tej deklaracji idealnie współgrał z interesami ajatollahów, a nie ich ofiar. To była solidarność bez dysydentów, współczucie bez refleksji i polityka uprawiana wyłącznie na poziomie sloganów.

Błąd moralny nie jest tu subtelny. Oburzenie dawkuje się według ideologii, a tyrania zostaje przebaczona, o ile tylko obraża właściwych wrogów. Nie naród irański. Reżim.

To nie jest pomyłka. To odruch.

Iranem rządzi dziś gerontokratyczna kasta kleryków, która przez 45 lat tłumiła sprzeciw, kontrolowała kobiece ciała, wieszała homoseksualistów, eksportowała terror za pomocą proxy i doprowadziła kraj do moralnego i ekonomicznego upadku. Tysiące Irańczyków siedzi w więzieniach za słowa. Setki zostały zabite od czasu rozpoczęcia powstania „Kobieta, Życie, Wolność”, zapoczątkowanego śmiercią młodej kobiety, która nie dość starannie nosiła hidżab — Mahsy Amini. To nie są sporne fakty. To życiorys reżimu.

A jednak w Londynie, Toronto, Nowym Jorku czy Paryżu odbywają się wiece progresywnej lewicy, potępiające „zachodnią agresję wobec Iranu”, ostrzegające przed eskalacją i żądające zniesienia sankcji — przy jednoczesnym zdumiewającym przemilczeniu. Slogany mówią wszystko: „Ręce precz od Iranu”, „Przestańcie bombardować Iran”. Rzadko „Precz z ajatollahami”. Rzadko „Wolność dla Irańczyków”.

To rozróżnienie nie jest semantyczne. Jest moralne.

Sprzeciw wobec wojny to uzasadnione stanowisko. Pobłażanie tyranii — już nie. To, czego jesteśmy świadkami, to najstarszy i najbardziej kompromitujący nawyk lewicy: mylenie antyzachodniości z powagą moralną. Jeśli reżim definiuje się jako przeciwnik Ameryki lub Izraela, otrzymuje warunkowe rozgrzeszenie moralne — bez względu na to, jak barbarzyńskie są jego rządy.

To ta sama choroba intelektualna, która kiedyś romantyzowała Castro, usprawiedliwiała Mao, racjonalizowała Pol Pota, a dziś — bez cienia ironii — broni Hamasu. Wróg mojego wroga staje się moim przyjacielem, nawet jeśli ten „przyjaciel” rządzi pejczem, szubienicą i celą więzienną.

Ostatnie niepokoje w Iranie obnażyły tę patologię z brutalną jasnością. Irańsko-brytyjski komentator Mahyar Tousi trafnie zauważył, że znaczna część zachodnich mediów błędnie przedstawia obecne niepokoje jako serię odosobnionych „protestów ekonomicznych”. To unikanie prawdy. Upadek riala mógł być iskrą, ale grona gniewu dojrzewają od dekad. To, co się dzieje, to ogólnonarodowy bunt przeciwko samej Islamskiej Republice.

Protestujący skandują hasła przeciwko Najwyższemu Przywódcy Alemu Chameneiemu. Zrywają symbole reżimu. Nie krzyczą „Śmierć Ameryce”. Krzyczą „Śmierć dyktatorowi”.

Link do oryginału: https://substack.com/home/post/p-183302653

Freedom to Offend, 7 stycznia 2026

Chikli urges Australia to confront radical Islam

JNS Staff

A tribute at Bondi Pavilion for the victims of the Dec. 14 terrorist attack during a Chanukah celebration at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Dec. 16, 2025. Credit: Sardaka via Wikimedia Commons.

Amichai Chikli, Israel’s minister of Diaspora affairs and combating antisemitism, has written a sharply worded letter to Australian Cabinet Minister Tony Burke, warning that Canberra’s failure to explicitly name radical Islam as the ideological driver behind the recent Bondi Beach terrorist attack is undermining efforts to confront the threat.

Burke serves in several post simultaneously, including as minister for home affairs, minister for immigration, citizenship and multicultural affairs, and minister for cyber security.

In the Dec. 31 letter sent following his visit to Australia after the deadly attack on the first night of Chanukah, Chikli said the Jewish community expects decisive action from the Australian government and offered Israeli assistance in training security personnel.

“The Jewish community expects the Australian government to ensure its safety, just as it does for every Australian citizen,” Chikli wrote. 

The Israeli minister traveled to Australia in the immediate aftermath of the Bondi Beach attack to stand in solidarity with the Jewish community. During his visit, he attended funerals of some of the 15 slain, visited some of the 39 wounded in hospitals and met with grieving families and community leaders. He also brought an Israeli delegation of trauma and resilience experts to provide professional support.

Chikli was hosted at a solidarity event at Chabad Bondi by the Australian Jewish Association, alongside former Australian Prime Ministers Tony Abbott and Scott Morrison.

In his letter, Chikli stressed that rhetoric surrounding Israel and the Palestinians has real-world consequences.

“When crowds are permitted to chant slogans such as ‘from the river to the sea’ and ‘globalise the intifada,’ the consequences should not be dismissed as abstract or rhetorical,” he wrote. “The attack at Bondi Beach was precisely that—a globalization of the intifada, with deadly devastating consequences.”

Chikli argued that while gun control measures are important, they do not address the root cause of the violence.

“Guns do not act independently—it is the perpetrators, driven by a dangerous and violent ideology, who must be directly confronted,” he wrote, identifying radical Islamist extremism as the core threat facing the Jewish community and Australian society at large.

Referring to Burke’s previous correspondence to him, Chikli said that broadly condemning extremism and antisemitism without naming radical Islam as the driving ideology behind the attack weakens the response. He added that the failure of Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Foreign Minister Penny Wong to clearly identify the source of the violence “undermines the ability to confront it.”

“The first step in fighting terrorism and antisemitism is precise diagnosis —not merely focusing on the weapons used, but on the extremist ideology responsible for the violence,” Chikli wrote.

The minister emphasized Israel’s readiness to assist Australia, citing the Jewish state’s extensive experience in combating terrorism and antisemitism.

“Israel stands ready and willing to assist Australia at this critical juncture,” he said, offering to host and train senior police officers and security personnel in Israel and share best practices in counter-terrorism.

“I look forward to meaningful cooperation on this vital issue,” Chikli concluded.

Argentine Doctor Suspended After Threatening to Cut Jewish Throats

David Swindle

Dr. Miqueas Martinez Secchi. Photo: Screenshot

A doctor in Argentina has been suspended from his job at a hospital in Buenos Aires after posting antisemitic messages on social media that included explicit calls for violence against Jews.

The suspension of Miqueas Martinez Secchi, a resident physician specializing in intensive care at José de San Martín Hospital in La Plata, marks yet another example of rising antisemitism in health-care settings across the West.

“Instead of performing circumcision, their carotid artery and main artery should be cut from side to side,” Secchi wrote in one post.

The medical professional’s antisemitic online activity was exposed by journalist and commentator Dani Lerer, who posted the graphic messages on the social media platform X.

The posts prompted widespread outrage, leading Secchi to delete his social media account — but not before other users were able to save screenshots.

Buenos Aires Province Health Minister Nicolás Kreplak released a statement responding to the incident.

“Any aggressive message or one showing a lack of respect for human life is incompatible with health care practice and particularly with medicine. They are fundamental values of training as a health professional,” he posted on X. “Health is one of the essential assets of society, and it is indispensable to be firm against any act of discrimination and racism. As is public knowledge.”

Kreplak then referenced Secchi and noted he is under investigation.

“Due to this message, consistent with other previous behaviors that now acquire relevance, the resident doctor at Hospital San Martín de La Plata who made those public statements is suspended and in an administrative and judicial investigation process, in order to conduct an evaluation under an ethical, technical, and professional committee that will determine whether it is appropriate or not for them to resume their training process,” the minister said.

The incident in Argentina continues an alarming pattern of rampant antisemitism in health care across the Western world which has left Jewish communities feeling unsafe and marginalized.

In November, for example, a Jewish columnist from Amsterdam said she was denied medical care by a nurse who refused to remove a pro-Palestinian pin shaped like a fist.

Elsewhere in the Netherlands, local police opened an investigation into Batisma Chayat Sa’id, a nurse who allegedly stated she would administer lethal injections to Israeli patients.

In Italy, two medical workers filmed themselves at their workplace discarding medicine produced by the Israeli company Teva Pharmaceuticals in protest of the Jewish state and the war in Gaza.

In Belgium, a local hospital suspended a physician after discovering antisemitic content on his social media, including a cartoon showing babies being decapitated by the tip of a Star of David and an AI-generated image depicting Hasidic Jews as vampires poised to devour a sleeping baby.

The same doctor came under fire after he recently diagnosed a nine-year-old patient by listing “Jewish (Israeli)” as one of her medical problems on his report.

Several such incidents have occurred in the United Kingdom, where British Prime Minister Keir Starmer unveiled a new plan in October to address what he described as “just too many examples, clear examples, of antisemitism that have not been dealt with adequately or effectively” in the country’s National Health Service (NHS).

One notable case drawing attention involved Dr. Rahmeh Aladwan, a trainee trauma and orthopedic surgeon, who police arrested on Oct. 21, charging her with four offenses related to malicious communications and inciting racial hatred. In November, she was suspended from practicing medicine in the UK over social media posts denigrating Jews and celebrating Hamas’s terrorism.

That same month, UK Health Secretary Wes Streeting called it “chilling” that some members of the Jewish community fear discrimination within the NHS, amid reports of widespread antisemitism in Britain’s health-care system.

Incidents in the UK included a Jewish family fearing their London doctor’s antisemitism influenced their disabled son’s treatment. The North London hospital suspended the physician who was under investigation for publicly claiming that all Jews have “feelings of supremacy” and downplaying antisemitism.

In Australia, two nurses filmed themselves bragging online about refusing to treat Israelis, making throat-slitting gestures, and boasting of killing Jews. Both lost their licenses and now face criminal charges.

A US-born Jewish woman who moved from Israel to Australia six years ago told The Algemeiner last year that she no longer feels safe in hospitals given the atmosphere of heightened antisemitism.

“In the past year alone, my little boy has witnessed many hostile protests where ‘anti-Zionists’ have actually come into the Jewish community without permits to intimidate us. Time and time again, instead of [authorities] dispersing and arresting anyone in the crowd for screaming racial slurs and threats, Jews are asked to evacuate and told if they don’t run away, they are inciting violence,” the woman said.

“Now they actually brag online about killing Israeli patients,” she continued, referring to the case in Australia. “I don’t know how safe I would feel giving birth at that hospital.”