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8

August 3 • 2017

jn

commentary

W

hen the new administration took office on Jan. 20,
2017, it failed to appoint a special envoy to head the
Office to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism. Even
after an 86 percent increase in anti-Semitic incidents in the first
quarter of 2017 with over 145 bomb threats to Jewish institu-
tions and multiple Jewish cemetery desecrations, the position
astonishingly remained unfilled. As of July 1, 2017, the Office to
Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism is officially closed, ensur-
ing that no one within the administration of President Donald
Trump is specifically working on combating anti-Semitism.
“The State Department’s closing the office is both short-
sighted and ill-timed. Anti-Semitism remains a grim reality in
today’s world and must be vigorously addressed,” said Jewish
War Veterans National Commander COL Carl Singer. “I’m quite
frankly surprised given the positive actions by Ambassador
Nikki Haley in fighting anti-Semitism at the United Nations, one
finds the State Department’s actions baffling. I find myself ask-
ing if the ghost of John Foster Dulles is in the room.”
After the Global Anti-Semitism Act of 2004 was signed into
effect by President George W. Bush, the Office to Monitor and
Combat Anti-Semitism has laid out a working definition of
anti-Semitism as well as kept a tally of anti-Semitic incidents
throughout the globe. This is particularly important because
the new definition of anti-Semitism includes anti-Zionist activi-
ties that have crossed the line into anti-Semitism, which we all
sadly know far too well can and does happen.
This year, a German court ruled that a 2014 bombing of a
German synagogue was not anti-Semitic, but rather, it was anti-
Zionist — even though the synagogue was targeted specifically
because it was a Jewish institution and not an Israeli consulate.
Because of the definition set by the special envoy to the Office
to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism, this kind of attack
would be considered a hate crime in the United States, not a
simple act of arson, and it would be prosecuted to the fullest
extent of the law.
When questioned in June about the special envoy position,
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was non-committal about
appointing an envoy, and he insinuated that having a special
envoy was counterproductive to fighting anti-Semitism. He
explained that people who are responsible for implementing
U.S. policy would somehow decide it was not their responsibil-
ity to fight anti-Semitism because someone else is already doing
it — fighting anti-Semitism is everyone’s responsibility.
After the office was closed on the first, Shoshana Simones, a
29-year-old Make-A-Wish “wish manager,” pulled into her home
after her Fourth of July vacation with her husband and young
daughter in the car to see a swastika and the word “Jew” spray-
painted in black on her home. These types of incidents will
continue to persist until this administration decides to make
fighting anti-Semitism a priority.
Jewish War Veterans of the U.S.A. urges the administration
and Secretary Tillerson to immediately appoint a special envoy
of the Office to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism and have a
working staff actively combating anti-Semitism.
As the philosopher Edmund Burke said, “The only thing
necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do noth-
ing,” and good men are indeed doing nothing right now. JWV is
committed to fighting this evil as we have always done. We ask
people to write and call their representatives and senators, urg-
ing them to tell the administration to appoint a special envoy.
If you need help finding your representatives, c ontact JWV
National Headquarters at (202) 265-6280. •

