The disturbing creep of anti-Semitism

There should be no pretending anymore

HIS name was Patrick Little. I had almost forgotten him. It was just last year when the San Diego man was leading the Republican polls in his effort to unseat Sen. Dianne Feinstein.

He came into the Republican State Convention in San Diego riding on

the momentum of a poll showing him to be the choice of 18 percent of the state’s voters — even though the only public information about him was that he was a 33-year-old Marine veteran from the San Diego area who was born in Maine.

He also came in stomping on and kicking an Israeli flag.

When the Republican Party’s executive director refused to allow him to register, he responded with a video in which he attacked the party as “nothing but Zionist stooges” and kicked an Israeli flag.

He told Newsweek that Adolf Hitler was “the second coming of Christ.”

His platform called for the United States to become “free from Jews,” beginning with the prohibition of Jews serving in government office and foundation fundraising for Holocaust education. He would also change the Constitution to make the United States an “ethnically European nation.”

According to an audit released last week by the Anti-Defamation League, California led the nation in anti-Semitic incidents last year, with a big boost from Little. His robocalls during the campaign accused Sen. Feinstein of being an Israeli citizen and promised that he would “rid America of the traitorous Jews.” Those calls were associated with more than 100 anti-Semitic incidents.

By the time of the election, Little had been endorsed by David Duke, the well-known former Ku Klux Klansman, and denounced by everyone else. In the final tally, his share of the vote dropped to only

1 percent.

Which sounds like the triumph of decency and tolerance until you remember that even after all the attacks on him, 89,867 people voted for him to serve in the U.S. Senate.

That is, 89,867 registered California voters cast their votes against Jews, pure and simple.

It’s not enough to win an election. But it’s more than enough to undermine the fabric of our diverse society. It’s more than enough to inject fear into our lives, and fear is what terrorists thrive on.

As the nation grieved for the synagogue attack in San Diego, the FBI announced it had thwarted a planned terrorist attack in Long Beach, California. According to government affidavits, the would-be bomber considered “various attacks — including targeting Jews, churches and police officers” before settling on

a Saturday rally and three-inch-nails. In a series of online posts, he was hoping to “kick off civil unrest” and seeking retribution for the mosque attacks in New Zealand. Like Little, the Long Beach hater was a veteran, in this case, of the U.S. Army. Was it always this bad?

I grew up in the shadow of the Holocaust. My first-grade Hebrew school teacher had a number on his arm. While many parents resisted, he taught us the poems of the children who were held in the Terezin concentration camp. I grew up in a town where Jewish people were not allowed to live in most of the neighborhoods. I couldn’t play Mary in the school play — a part that otherwise went to the girl with the longest hair (me) — because, as the teacher explained to all of us, it just wouldn’t be right to have a Jewish girl play Mary. When John Kennedy died, my mother’s first words were, “Thank God it wasn’t a Jew.” She meant it.

My children used to laugh when I told that story, or reminded them of the standard my mother’s generation applied to everything: Was it “good for the Jews”? How provincial.

I remind my children of the security guards who were a fixture at the synagogue after 9/11. This has always been a scary world, but for a long time, you could almost pretend that the threats were external, that we Americans had moved forward, that we were united in our condemnation of hate and intolerance.

You can’t pretend anymore.

Susan Estrich is a USC law professor and liberal political activist.

Tom Stiglich Creators Syndicate