Nearly two weeks ago, Orthodox Jewish leaders in Queens held a tribute breakfast to thank local elected officials for supporting Israel and the Jewish community in a time when their offices have been facing relentless picketing, phone calls, and letters discrediting Israel’s war against Hamas. As they have stood with our community, we have a long history in which Jewish leaders and activists marched for civil rights and against xenophobia. It was our sense of justice that does not expect reciprocation and appreciates it as anti-Semitic incidents have increased following the October 7 attack by Hamas on Israel.

But what happens when an outspoken ally of Israel issues remarks hurtful towards another minority group?

“Have you ever been a member of the Chinese Communist Party?” Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas asked TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew at a Senate hearing last week concerning social media and its potential harm to children.

“Senator, I’m Singaporean. No.”

“Have you ever been associated or affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party?” the lawmaker asked again.

“No, Senator. Again, I’m Singaporean.”

TikTok has long been associated with China as it is operated by the Chinese firm ByteDance, and all companies based in that communist country have a connection to the government and its ruling party. With over 150 million users in America, lawmakers fear that the Chinese government is using the app to collect user data and influence public opinion.

Cotton then pressed Chew for his views on China, its human rights record, and other questions unrelated to online security concerning children. His Asian-American colleagues regarded his line of questions as racist and called him out for it.

“Democrats and Republicans alike have many legitimate concerns about social media platforms and the companies behind them. There are real issues with these platforms and the unchecked growth of tech corporations, and I know those on both sides of the aisle are dedicated to finding solutions,” Rep. Grace Meng wrote in a statement. “What is not a legitimate concern, however, is the national origin and ethnicity of a company’s executive.” Three out of four Singaporeans are ethnically Chinese, most of their families having lived in the wealthy city-nation for generations with little connection to China.

“If he had done his research, he would know that Mr. Chew is from Singapore, that Singapore is a country separate from China, and that neither Singapore nor China allow dual citizenship,” Meng noted. She called his interrogation of Chew as “thoughtless and derogatory,” adding that Cotton did not ask the same questions from other tech CEOs, such as Elon Musk of X, formerly Twitter.

Cotton’s repeated questions about communist party membership were described by the Washington Post as “McCarthy-esque,” referencing Sen. Joe McCarthy of Wisconsin, who led charges against suspected communists in a series of hearings between 1950 and 1954. His tactics ruined reputations and destroyed careers of individuals whose political views happened to be too liberal in comparison to McCarthy but certainly not communist.

“Senator. You’ve done enough,” Army attorney Joseph Welch famously said at a hearing on June 9, 1954. “Have you no sense of decency, Sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?”

His colleagues also had enough of McCarthy by that point. They censured him by a vote of 67 to 22 with all Democrats and half of his fellow Republicans in the affirmative. His popularity then took a nosedive, and he died three years later after several hospital visits for alcohol abuse.

Unfortunately, in 2024, the former president who spoke of Covid-19 as the “Wuhan Virus” and “Kung Flu” is leading in the polls within his party, and condemnation of Sen. Cotton comes only from the other side of the aisle.

Selective outrage against racism is not solely a Republican problem. Among Democrats, there are lawmakers on its left wing who accuse Israel of genocide, intentionally targeting civilians in Gaza, poisoning its water supply, refusing to provide humanitarian assistance, cutting off its electricity and Internet service. Most of the votes in favor of censuring Reps. Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar have come from Republicans.

To their credit, Rep. Meng and her southern Queens colleague, Rep. Greg Meeks, have spoken firmly against such accusations. In their own words, they have done it on call-in radio shows, at press conferences, and interviews. Not all politicians have the moral clarity to directly address hecklers and protesters.

When anti-Semitism is addressed in conservative media, the poor choice of words raises more attention than the points made in the article. “Welcome to Dearborn, America’s Jihad Capital,” was the title of a Wall Street Journal opinion piece on February 2, with the sub-headline reading, “Imams and politicians, in the Michigan city, side with Hamas against Israel, and Iran against the US.”

The Detroit suburb has the distinction of being an Arab majority city, comprising more than two-thirds of its public-school student body.

“In response to an Islamophobic, Anti-Arab, and blatantly racist opinion piece published by the Wall Street Journal today, we have increased the presence of law enforcement throughout Dearborn. Dearborn Police continue to monitor social media for threats,” Mayor Abdullah Hammoud said on Saturday. “This is more than irresponsible journalism. Publishing such inflammatory writing puts our residents at increased risk for harm.”

Steven Stalinsky’s piece highlighted examples of anti-Semitism in Dearborn but its title ended up turning perpetrators into perceived victims. He noted that in the aftermath of the October 7 attack, imams in that city praised the massacre as a “miracle” with calls for intifada from “the river to the sea,” condolences for the martyrs killed in combat, and a memorial service held for Iranian terrorist commander Qassem Soleimani. Unfortunately, on social media, the headline receives more clicks than the article, which is hidden behind a paywall and unlikely to be read by non-subscribers.

The deep-rooted anti-Semitism among community leaders in Dearborn is as concerning as ties between media corporations and China, but when more attention is given to inflammatory headlines and questions of ethnicity, the arguments are lost in the torrent of condemnations. It is easy for Tlaib, who represents Dearborn, to say that she is being attacked for her ethnicity and religion, rather than for her views. Likewise, Cotton’s probe of TikTok is lost because all attention has shifted towards his inappropriate questioning of Shou Zi Chew.

When we point out expressions of anti-Semitism, we should avoid making generalizations about ethnicity, race, or religion. Since the October 7 attack, a seven-year-old Palestinian Arab boy was fatally stabbed in Illinois, and three college students in Vermont were shot while wearing the keffiyeh. In both incidents, the perpetrators were not Jewish and Jewish community leaders spoke out against these Islamophobic incidents without compromising their support for Israel and its war against Hamas.

The support that our community receives from elected officials and ethnic community leaders comes from our moral clarity. We have the high ground; and to keep it, we should remind our conservative allies that their words matter in the court of public opinion.