A PAC aimed at fighting antisemitism is “strongly urging” President Joe Biden to adopt the widely accepted definition of antisemitism in the face of left-wing progressives who reject the definition, accusing it of overreaching by labeling certain criticisms of Israel as manifestations of Jew-hatred.
In an exclusive statement to Breitbart News on Monday, CASEPAC’s (Combat Anti-Semitism Everywhere) newly-appointed Executive Director Bryan E. Leib called on the president to “move forward with embracing the widely recognized IHRA (International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance) working definition of antisemitism” throughout all U.S. federal government agencies.
The demand comes as the White House is expected to release its national strategy on combating antisemitism later this month.
Citing Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who stated in 2021 that the Biden administration “enthusiastically embraces the IHRA working definition of antisemitism,” Leib called on Biden to “not allow fringe, extremist groups such as JStreet, the New Israel Fund and members of congress such as congresswoman Rashida Tlaib and congresswoman Ilhan Omar to influence his judgment against the overwhelming consensus of the Jewish-American community on this matter.”
He noted that mainstream Jewish groups of all stripes, including both Democrats and Republicans from the Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox denominations, “overwhelmingly support the IHRA working definition of antisemitism as the gold standard for identifying antisemitism in its various contemporary manifestations.”
With CASEPAC “strongly urging” the Biden administration to embrace IHRA, Leib vowed the group will also be “urging the Jewish community in America to demand congressional candidates and members of congress embrace the IHRA working definition of Antisemitism.”
“If the Biden administration does not embrace IHRA, they are sending an alarming message to the Jewish community in America,” he warned, “one that American Jews will not soon forget.”
CASEPAC, the only federal political action committee in the U.S. dedicated exclusively to “combating antisemitism everywhere,” named Leib — a well-known TV commentator and foreign policy expert — head on Thursday.
President Joe Biden signs a delegation of authority in the South Court Auditorium on the White House campus in Washington, Wednesday, March 16, 2022. From left, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Biden, Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks, sand Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
“I am thrilled to join the CASEPAC team to take the fight directly to anyone in federal politics that traffics in any form antisemitism. We will be playing offense, not prevent defense. We will use all resources at our disposal to support incumbents and candidates who join us in fighting back against the dangerous rise of antisemitism. There is no place in American politics for anti-Jewish and anti-Israel rhetoric,” he announced.
The matter comes as over 550 rabbis called for the Biden administration’s anticipated national strategy on combating antisemitism to include what is becoming the standard definition of anti-Jewish hate, as progressive groups reject the definition — claiming it stifles legitimate criticism of Israel.
The IHRA document defines antisemitism as a “certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews.”
“Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities,” it continues.
Among nearly a dozen provided examples of such antisemitism, the document lists applying “double standards” to the Jewish State, and denying the Jewish people the “right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor.”
Though the working definition has been endorsed by past administrations of both parties and President Donald Trump previously signed an executive order instructing the Education Department to consider it when weighing civil rights complaints concerning Jews, progressive groups are opposing it.
A White House official said the current administration’s strategy to fight antisemitism will “address increasing awareness and understanding of both antisemitism and Jewish American heritage, improving safety and security for Jewish communities, reversing the normalization of antisemitism and addressing antisemitic discrimination, and building coalitions across all communities to fight hate.”
On Tuesday, at a White House reception celebrating Jewish American Heritage Month, President Biden called the strategy “the most ambitious, comprehensive effort in our history to combat antisemitism in America.”
The matter comes as the number of recorded antisemitic incidents has reached a record high under President Biden’s administration, despite campaigning on stopping the rise of extremism.
Follow Joshua Klein on Twitter @JoshuaKlein.
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