As you probably know by now, one woman and three others were injured yesterday on the last day of Passover during a shooting at the Chabad Way synagogue in Poway, California, a suburb of San Diego.
A 19-year old white male suspect was taken into custody. Before the shooting, he posted racist and anti-Semitic views online The shooter also claimed responsibility for an arson at a mosque last month in Escondido, another San Diego suburb. Apparently, the shooter was inspired both by the Christchurch mosque shootings and the Pittsburgh synagogue shootings. Yesterday's shooting took place on the six month anniversary of the Tree of Life massacre.
It is tempting for some to blame President Trump for this mess. After all it was only yesterday he defended his infamous "very fine people on both sides" comment following Charlottesville. It's very clear that the only people "on the other side" were white supremacists who very much hate Jews.
But the Poway shooter clearly stated he did not support Trump because of his support for Israel. It is also a matter of public record the perpetrator in the Tree of Life massacre thought Trump was "a globalist" controlled by Jews.
While there has been a rise in anti-Semitism since Trump took office the evidence does not support a causal relationship. Most of that increase can be attributed to incidents on college campuses and schools. Some of this revolves around the BDS Movement whose activities go well beyond vilifying Israel. The BDS movement has also deliberately targeted Jewish groups and Jewish students for harassment.
Of course, we cannot ignore white supremacists who have caused the loss of life at two synagogues in the past six months. While President Trump's defense of his remarks following Charlottesville are unhelpful, it would be irresponsible to put the bloodshed at Pittsburgh and now Poway at his doorstep.
No comments:
Post a Comment