The Republican Party for years has been known as the party of law and order and staunch supporters of law enforcement. They always attacked the Democratic Party as being soft on crime and more interested in protecting the rights of the defendants and being haters of law enforcement.
However, there have been cracks in that message. It first started when the Trumpians began going after the FBI when they were investigating Trump’s henchman. It reached a deluge with some Trump supporters attacking the Capitol on January 6 and its aftermath. Some on the Right have downplayed what happened and have made the defendants heroes or political prisoners. In contrast, those on the Left made the police officers heroes and want the insurrectionists to be charged to the full extent of the law and face high sentences. This same dichotomy continued concerning the trial of Kyle Rittenhouse. Those on the Left wanted him convicted while those on the Right wanted him acquitted. At first glance, it is hard to understand why there is a switching of positions. They both seem to be hypocrites.
In fact, there is a consistency with both sides’ positions. It depends on who the defendant is. If the defendant is a person who is a member of my group or has the same ideas of my group, then we must defend him. On the other hand, when the defendant is from an opposing group, we support those who are investigating or prosecuting him.
Some in the Jewish community are no different. Kudos to Sergey Kadinsky for authoring the article “Swastikas and Stars Among Anti-Vaxxers at Bronx Protest” in last week’s paper. Unfortunately, the story received little coverage in the other Jewish papers. I can guarantee that if it happened at a Black Lives Matter rally, the papers would have had it on the front page. Likewise, my fellow columnists who never miss an opportunity to attack the Democratic Party would have made this incident the feature of their column.
Sergey put it this way: “As one of two Jewish Republicans in Congress, Zeldin is in a unique position to call out antisemitic tropes in his party. Doing so would give his condemnations of Reps. Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib more weight, but as long as he is silent on Nazi imagery among his party supporters, Zeldin’s condemnations of antisemitism among Leftist lawmakers can be cynically viewed as partisan rather than sincere.”
The latest statement coming from the Trumpian crowd was from Michael (let’s declare martial law) Flynn on November 13. After mentioning Mathew in the New Testament, he stated, “If we are going to have one nation under G-d, which we must, we have to have one religion. One nation under G-d, and one religion under G-d.” He was speaking at the Cornerstone Church during a rally in Texas for ReAwaken America, a Christian-themed speaking tour backed by the Christian news network America Faith.
He was clearly speaking about the one religion being the Christian religion. If Omar or Tlaib said we should have one religion in America, the Muslim religion, the Jewish papers and Jewish officials on the Right would have had a meltdown. Yet, where is the outrage here? Two hours after the comments were reported, Josh Mandel, a Jew, Ohio's treasurer and a Republican U.S. Senate candidate, tweeted, "We stand with General Flynn." There was condemnation by Jewish organizations such as the ADL, AJC, and ZOA. Where was a response from CVS (Coalition for Jewish Values) on Flynn’s statement or the Swastikas at the rally?
This is another chance for the Trumpians and Republicans to speak out about the antisemitism among their own. Their silence is deafening.
Warren S. Hecht is a local attorney. He can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
