Chronicle poll results: Antisemitism following the ceasefire

Last week, the Chronicle asked its readers in an online poll the following question: “Do you believe antisemitism in the U.S. will decrease following the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas?” Of the 329 people who responded, 2% said, “yes, significantly”; 13% said, “yes, somewhat”; 53% said, “no change”; 28% said, “no, it will increase”; and 4% said they were unsure. Comments were submitted by 86 people. A few follow.

The lack of reaction and support from the “pro-Palestinian” camp for the ceasefire is deafening. The violence and killings that Hamas is perpetrating against other Gazans is not being condemned. All of this shows that this is very much a Jew-hating phenomenon.

The ceasefire has already been broken, and we have a president whose hateful actions and language has brought hatred out into the open and an acceptable form of behavior.

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I was happy about the peace agreement and President Donald Trump’s hard work. Also, I’m worried that Hamas will still attack and kill Israelis.

I hope so, but the minute Israel revolts against aggression, we become the enemy again.

People who have blamed Israel for their antisemitism needed a reason to hate us. They will just find another reason. If there isn’t one, they will create one. We are and will remain their emotional scapegoat.

It may increase or existing antisemitism will continue to be normalized and expressed. Things are not looking good.

If it holds, and begins the process of long-term negotiation and change, then I think it will impact the level of antisemitism. If not, I don’t see much change in that regard.

A ceasefire agreement made with a terror organization isn’t worth the paper that Trump signed. There is still too much acrimony, there is too much division and there is way too much propaganda. Many right-wingers want Israel so they have somewhere to send us; others want to appease the 18% of our country who religiously believe Jews have to live there. The left-wingers will hate us even more because they believe what they read. And we (Jews, Americans, Israelis) are not doing a good enough job of defusing the situation, much less getting actual facts out there.

Yes, IF the ceasefire holds, and IF some kind of more permanent peace that’s reasonably just for Palestinians follows. The Palestinian situation is a main driver of much (not all, of course) recent antisemitism. Successfully resolve the issue and the rationale/ justification for that breed of antisemitism goes away.

The ceasefire will likely have little or no effect on the most dangerous form of antisemitism: white supremacy.

Once the remaining 13 souls are returned, the sympathy will end, and the new pictures of Gaza will only increase the antisemitic social media. Unless Israel spends more on fighting Facebook and Twitter we will never win the war.

The trend is growing. Just look at NYC’s mayoral contest.

In the last 10 years, antisemitism has flared when the Israel-Palestine conflict flared. So it will settle down for now. Still, we see in the ADL stats that the 10-year progression has been steadily up. Antisemites from both left and right continue to feel emboldened, in part by the political climate. PJC