"Progressive" Congressional bill to fight antisemitism actually PROTECTS antisemitism ~ Elder Of Ziyon

Thursday, January 15, 2026

"Progressive" Congressional bill to fight antisemitism actually PROTECTS antisemitism

Jamie Beran, the CEO of the far-Left "Bend the Arc: Jewish Action," writes in a blog at Times of Israel:

Finally, A Bill That Will Actually Fight Antisemitism

We cannot dismantle antisemitism without tools that help us take action. And we’re starting the new year with an important new tool in our kit: a proactive, forward-looking plan that will help fight antisemitism — and all forms of bigotry. Right after the horrific attack at Bondi Beach, Australia, four members of Congress, led by Rep. Jerry Nadler, introduced a bill called the Antisemitism Response and Prevention Act (ARPA), legislation that actually takes meaningful steps to fight for Jewish safety and the safety of our democracy.

Other policies attempting to take on antisemitism have fallen short of taking concrete steps to make Jewish people safer. Well-meaning politicians around the country (and too many in the Jewish community) have supported codifying into law the controversial International Holocaust Remembrance Associations’ (IHRA) definition of antisemitism. But this definition comes with examples that conflate criticism of the Israeli government with antisemitism, politicizing the urgent fight against antisemitism (and potentially even fueling it).

Already we can see that Beran is being disingenuous, because IHRA does not come with examples that conflate normal criticism of the Israeli government with antisemitism. It says that calling Israel a racist endeavor or comparing Israel to Nazi Germany is antisemitic. The people against IHRA are supporting those noxious, hateful statements.

But that is only the start of the problems with this bill. It seems to spend more time protecting left-wing antisemitism than protecting Jews. While a few of the ideas it mentions have some merit, like a national database of hate crimes, the bill comes across as more anti-Trump than pro-Jews - the first four paragraphs are against antisemitism, the successive twelve paragraphs are anti-Trump.

So, for example, it says

The Department of Education has launched investigations into approximately 60 institutions of higher education, not primarily to protect Jewish students from discrimination, but to use the false premise of antisemitism accusations as pretext for forcing the elimination of academic programs related to diversity and Middle Eastern studies, threatening to withdraw Federal funding to compel ideological conformity, and undermining the autonomy and academic freedom of such institutions, with common patterns including lack of due process, conflation of criticism of Israeli government policies with antisemitism, and targeting of protected speech and academic inquiry.

If you don't see the relationship between "diversity programs," Middle East Studies departments and antisemitism, you are willfully blind. Framing Jews as evil oppressors is the starting point of these programs, not a conclusion. (The phrase "compel ideological conformity" is particularly absurd - the conformity exists today and that is what this bill supports.)

There's lots more, but I found this section to be most illuminating: "research and experience demonstrat[es] that approaches are most effective when they address antisemitism as connected to other forms of hatred and extremism..."

This means that to fight antisemitism effectively, it has to be part of a larger program targeting Islamophobia, homophobia, transphobia, and who knows what else.

There are no such studies that show that. None. The closest I found was the Facing History & Ourselves program, where students self-reported being more sensitive to antisemitism, but there was no objective survey before and after the program to see if actual attitudes had changed. Maybe it is good, maybe not, but there is no independent research showing that the approach works.

On the contrary, studies have shown (for example) that DEI trainers were far more likely to demonize Israel (96% of Israel-related tweets negative, 65% of China related tweets positive) and multiple college antisemitism surveys show Jewish students are alienated by DEI programs that they felt targeted them as oppressors.

Antisemitism is different from all other bigotries. Treating it as just one of many forms of hate ends up legitimizing it.

The Israel haters are making things up to support their agendas.

Moreover, much of the pro-Hamas rhetoric on campus and elsewhere is romanticized by progressive voices as "resistance." Calls to attack Jews/"Zionists" worldwide like "Globalize the Intifada" and "By Any Means Necessary" are perfectly valid expressions of "criticism of the Israeli government" according to this bill.

But it is even worse. This bill protects explicit support of Hamas terror and rapes as legitimate criticism of Israeli government policies. There is literally nothing in this bill that would limit, in any way, the activities of pro-Hamas terror groups like Samidoun or SJP on campus. On the contrary, it acts as a shield for them.

In fact, astoundingly, while there is plenty of outraged and emotive language in the bill when referring to Trump policies, its only reference to the October 7 murder, rape and kidnapping spree calls it "Hamas attacks on Israel." The bill could have said "horrific" or "murderous" or "terrorist" - and it chose not to in a report supposedly meant to protect Jews.

The ARPA bill would not protect Jews. Instead, it would protect today's most prominent antisemites.