A little-known super PAC called Future Coalition PAC is airing ads highlighting Kamala Harris’s support for Israel, such as it is. "Vice President Harris has chosen a side—the right side," a narrator says. "Harris has made herself clear, she stands with Israel and the Jewish people." Another notes that Harris’s husband, Doug Emhoff, would be "the first Jewish presidential spouse ever"—that Harris and Emhoff are "making history, standing up for what’s right, supporting Israel."
In every way, they echo what Harris and Emhoff have said they stand for. But the New York Times doesn’t like these ads. Neither do they link to them and allow viewers to decide for themselves, but it tells readers they are "antisemitic," "intended to stoke more division," and that they "signal a new level of ugliness in the race."
Oh, we forgot to mention: The ads are airing in the Detroit area. Dearborn, Mich., is an inner-ring suburb of Detroit home to the country’s largest Muslim population, and what the Times report from Katie Glueck doesn’t say is that the 40,000 or so odd Arabs there don’t like Jews.
It’s not that the ads are anti-Semitic, it’s that the voters are. The ads are a bit of political chicanery aimed at turning that bigotry against the Democratic ticket. It’s cynicism, not anti-Semitism.
Speaking of bigotry, the Times profiled Arab-American voters in Dearborn over the summer for a splashy piece about "How Joe Biden Loses Michigan." A video essay asked, "Does President Biden realize how angry some voters in Michigan are—specifically, Arab Americans?"
What the piece didn’t tell readers was what several of the Arab voters profiled in the piece said off camera. Activist Amer Zahr urged Arabs and Muslims to "stop condemning anti-Semitism." The imam of the Islamic Center of Central Detroit said of Israel last year, "may Allah eradicate them from existence." Wissam Charafeddine, an employee of the Dearborn public school system, said on social media that "Israel deserves elimination more than Hamas." And on and on.
What the Times can’t say to its readers is that a key, perhaps the key, Democratic voting bloc is composed of anti-Semitic nuts. The result is misleading coverage that hides the ball and deflects the blame.
This is the weaponization of anti-Semitism, but for once it is not the left that is doing the weaponizing, and it is not the Jews who are the target. We salute the Future Coalition PAC and acquit them of all charges.