Did Anti-Semitic BDS Rhetoric Trigger the Synagogue Shooter?

 The anti-Jewish BDS movement 
   (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) 

Did Anti-Semitic BDS Rhetoric Trigger the Synagogue Shooter?

 

BY RICK MORAN OCTOBER 28, 2018

CHAT 251 COMMENTS

(Photo by Erik McGregor/Pacific Press) *** Please Use Credit from Credit Field ***

"Violent rhetoric leads to violent actions" is a meme that's all the rage these days, despite there being little scientific evidence that it's true.  But it appears to be true when applied to the Ogre Trump. Then, every word he utters is an invitation to some disturbed person to open fire.

We've seen this meme applied liberally to explanations for what encouraged Cesar Sayoc to send bombs to all those Democrats. His lawyer even blames Trump for his client's impulse-control problem. Should Trump be blamed for the synagogue massacre also? Many on the left are trying to make the connection, despite the fact that the shooter was virulently anti-Trump

But if Trump is to blame for the attempted bombings,  yesterday's anti-Semitic attack on a synagogue in Pittsburgh could just as easily be blamed on the vicious anti-Jewish rhetoric coming from the left.

We may never know the inner workings of the minds of Sayoc and Robert Bowers, the shooter who killed 11 people at a Pittsburgh synagogue. Their "justification" for their actions are divorced from reality. But if, indeed, there was a "trigger" that sent Sayoc to the post office to mail a dozen bombs to Democrats, the anti-Semite Bowers may very well have been triggered by the rhetoric coming from BDS proponents and other leftists whose anti-Semitism has been widely circulated in American media.

Monica Showalter writing at American Thinker:

The mass murderer who opened fire on a Pittsburgh synogogue was an anti-Semite and a rabid Trump hater. Yet that hasn't stopped the left from trying to pin the massacre on Trump as they pin all calamities. Never mind Trump's kind words. Never mind the strong support of him from Israel. Never mind that his favorite daughter is an Orthodox Jew and his three grandchildren are Jewish as well. The desperate logic of Blaming Trump can be read here, here, and here.

And don't forget this unbelievable (and still unapologized-for) tweet here, cited by Clarice Feldman in her column, not only pinning the evil on Trump but blaming the Jews for the attack as well, an amazing feat of disgustingness from the left:

https://twitter.com/juliaioffe/status/1056219660444676097

The most famous anti-Semite in America is not David Duke or any right-wing nut. It's the nauseating Jew-hater Louis Farrakhan, who is a friend to (Democratic) presidents. The list of anti-Semitic quotes made by the black nationalist "religious leader" is a long and sickening one. Most recently, the good reverend offered the casual observation that he wasn't anti-Jewish, he was "anti-termite."

I don't recall Farrakhan endorsing Trump for president.

Jewish Republicans have pointed out that the Democratic Party from the leadership on down is lousy with Jew haters.

Seven long-serving Democrats have close ties with Louis Farrakhan. Each of them should resign.

They include former Nation of Islam employee, Congressman Keith Ellison, who is Deputy Chair of the DNC. Ellison has tried to excuse his 2013 meeting with Farrakhan, while ignoring his more recent meeting with the NOI leader in Farrakhan’s hotel room, in 2015. At least six other Democrats are known to have embraced Farrakhan. These members of Congress - Maxine Waters, Barbara Lee, Danny Davis, Andre Carson, Gregory Meeks, and Al Green - have all, while in office, sat down with Farrakhan for personal meetings.

There can be no question about how abhorrent it is for these Democrats to be connected to Louis Farrakhan. Farrakhan is first and foremost a preacher of hate. He preaches about Jewish “control” over the government and media and has claimed to have “pulled a cover off of that Satanic Jew,” saying “your time is up, your world is through.” And those were just the comments from last week.

Anti-Semitism is unacceptable. Farrakhan is the moral equivalent of a leader of the KKK. If it was discovered that members of Congress had met with the leader of the KKK, they would need to resign. In this case, for meeting with, and embracing, Louis Farrakhan, nothing short of resignation is acceptable from these seven Democrats.

Liberals will say that Farrakhan and those who tolerate him are old news and not relevant to the neo-Nazis and white supremacists who adore Trump. But the anti-Jewish BDS movement (boycott, divestment, sanctions) aimed at Israel would give someone like Bowers plenty of ammunition to open fire.

One of the most notorious BDS anti-Semites is Linda Sarsour, a Palestinian "activist" who has been called an "anti-Semitic terrorist" for "using feminism as a tool to promote her radicalism." Sarsour has been in the forefront of the resistance against Trump and has advocated for Palstinian statehood at the expense of Israel.

Indeed, the Democratic Socialists of America went even further:

The national convention of the Democratic Socialists of America voted the other day in favor of the boycott-Israel movement, or BDS, and the success of the pro-BDS resolution caused the assembled delegates to break out into a rousing chant of “From the river to the sea/Palestine will be free!”

Should we ask them where Israel might fit on this new map? Never mind.

As a dedicated anti-Semite, there is no doubt Bowers has been continuously exposed to BDS eliminationist  rhetoric about the evil of Israel and the Jews. So why give anti-Semitic liberals a pass on encouraging violence against Jews?

Their rhetoric may be rancid but their intent and motives are pure. So forget about the notion that the left is in the business of inciting disturbed people like Bowers. The rhetoric=action theory just doesn't hold water.

Unless you're Trump.