During an interview with Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism Amb. Deborah Lipstadt on Monday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports,” host and NBC News Chief Washington Correspondent and Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent Andrea Mitchell responded to Lipstadt talking about the surge in global antisemitism by stating that “One thing that occurs is that there was so much sympathy for Israel after October 7. It turned rather quickly. And my feeling, anecdotally, is it really turned after the bombing of the refugee camp.”
Mitchell began the interview by stating, “This is a tough time.”
Lipstadt responded, “It’s a very tough time. When I first came into office, it was busy. There was a rise, there was a surge in antisemitism already then, but now we’re seeing a tsunami. And it’s — you’ve mentioned two instances here in the United States, but it’s across the world. I’ve been, since October 7, in Italy, France, Germany, Canada, and now in Israel, but in all those European countries and in Canada, people are afraid. A mother in France said to me, I took my child out of the general school — the public schools as we would call it — because he was being subjected to taunts and calls, etc. But, now, Hamas — the day of supposed terror that Hamas [threatened], I sent him to a Jewish school. I don’t know if he’s safe there. I don’t know what to do. And it was very poignant, very poignant.”
Mitchell then said, “One thing that occurs is that there was so much sympathy for Israel after October 7. It turned rather quickly. And my feeling, anecdotally, is it really turned after the bombing of the refugee camp.”
Lipstadt then cut in to add, “And the hospital.”
Mitchell continued, “And the hospital. And the siege created problems with the U.N. The U.N. is always difficult for Israel, there’s no question about that. But is there any way that they could further ameliorate the humanitarian crisis, which is what the administration is pressing them to do?”
Lipstadt responded, “I can’t speak to that specifically. But I do know that the antisemitism that has emerged in coordination or at the same time simultaneously with this, in small ways and in large — there was a thing just this weekend that British Airways is pulling a sitcom that was scheduled to go onto internal entertainment…so it sounds like a sitcom, a ‘Seinfeld’ kind of sitcom from a British-based studio, because it doesn’t want to take sides. So, what’s — and the Philadelphia, a very — a good restaurant, with an Israeli theme, gets bombarded and people are protesting.”
Mitchell then cut in to remark that the restaurant was “singled out, just because it was owned by an Israeli.”
Lipstadt added, “And the attack that you mentioned in the opening — the attack on synagogues, and the — even if they were not real attacks, my synagogue in Atlanta felt it, other synagogues felt it, people are afraid to go. They’re cleared out in the middle of services. Irrespective of how you feel about the Middle East and what your position is on Gaza, on the West Bank, on two states, the antisemitism is always wrong.”
Lipstadt continued, “And, on top of that, what we saw — and I met with some of the people who have family, who’ve experienced this, or are treating people who have experienced this, the gender-based violence against women, against Israeli women, not all of them Jew[s], most of them Jews, but not all of them Jews, has just been horrific.”
Mitchell then added, “And the failure of the international community to recognize that until, finally, last week.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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