Richard Mellor
“This is the second violent attack on the U.S. Jewish community in two weeks,” said Anti-Defamation League Chief Executive Jonathan Greenblatt. Wall Street Journal 6-2-25
The statement above is a political statement, it is a conscious effort to inject anti-Semitism in to the issue whether it is justified or not. I unconditionally condemn this act of violence that could have killed or maimed many people regardless of who they were or what they stood for. It does not help the Palestinian struggle for human rights, undermines the Palestinian struggle against the Israeli occupation for self-determination, and the genocide the Zionist regime is waging in order to eliminate Palestinian/Arab life and culture from Israel/Palestine. The perpetrator has also overstayed his tourist visa requirements according to reports in the mass media and that too will be used by the US government to justify the assault on immigrants, blaming them for the crisis of US capitalism domestically.
Given the support, money, weapons and diplomatic cover, the US and the western world is giving the Zionist regime that is openly admitting its intent to ethnic cleanse and commit genocide against Palestinian and Arab people in the region (death to Arabs is a common phrase in Israeli society and from Israeli politicians), I can't say that an act of desperation and revenge against pro-Israel groups surprises me unless the peaceful protests in Colorado are in opposition to the Netanyahu government and its policies. In less violent ways, Israelis have been shunned throughout the world due to the actions of their government. One might wonder how any human being who pays any attention to the world around them could not have the most genuine loathing for Zionism and its adherents. The fact that some don't, reflects the powerful influence of the capitalist media on our thinking.
Zionism, as the slogan goes, is not Judaism. Zionism is a political formation, Judaism is a religion. All Germans were not Nazis and all Jews are not Zionists as we can see from the huge representation of Jews in the Free Palestine movement.
Why a group would openly proclaim support for the Zionist Apartheid state and its racist policies amazes me. Did this group also have signs and placards calling for a ceasefire, and an end to the mass murder of civilians by Israel? Were there signs calling for an end to US backing as well as the call for the release of the Israeli's captured as bargaining chips on October 7th 2022? I do not know. If they did, I would hazard a guess that they might not have found themselves a target in this way.
As of this writing I have not seen any explicit references to Jews or their religion attributed to the attacker. I read that Chuck Schumer immediately commented that the attack was a “Vile anti-Semitic act of terror”. This is because Schumer, like Netanyahu and other Zionists, equate any objection, disagreement with or criticism of Israel as anti-Semitism; laws are being passed that legislates this. He is protecting a racist, Apartheid state with his comments. Doing this undermines the struggle against anti-Semitism, and actually promotes it. Zionism does this because it cannot exist without Anti-Semitism. If there is evidence to show that hatred of Jews was behind the attack then we have to fight that with all our power, but to ignore what is going on in Israel is a gift to the anti-Semites.
Lastly, behind US support for the Genocide is the need to protect its colonial settler state, and the only reliable (up to now fairly stable) ally in the region that US imperialism can rely on to help protect its global geopolitical interests. This became necessary for western capital after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire after World War One. We should not be fooled, especially Jewish workers, by what appears to be a fondness for the Jewish people and their religion. Rabid Anti-Semitism is rampant among the US ruling class and its political establishment, it always has been. The Christian Zionists, that outnumber the Jewish ones, are Anti-Semitic to the core. Remember Charleston and the slogan "Jews will not replace us".
Rosa Luxemburg, the great Polish Marxist herself a Jew, is credited with the statement that the only solution to capitalism’s decaying system is “socialism or barbarism”. Well, in the age of imperialism we have witnessed barbarism in its heyday and are witnessing it in Gaza and occupied Palestine not to mention a looming global environmental catastrophe. We are faced now with “Socialism or annihilation” if the capitalist mode of production is not reduced to the history books.
This is the task that history has set for us. Workers of all Countries Unite.
Thank you to Frank Hammer, for his contribution to this commentary
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