Anti-Semitic incidents rise by 86 percent in U.S.

OPINION:

It’s not a good time to be a Jew in America, it seems. Between 2016 and the first quarter of 2017, the number of anti-Semitic incidents in the country rose by 86 percent.

The Anti-Defamation League reported the statistic Monday, saying the number of instances of vandalism, harassment and assaults of Jewish properties and people came in at 541 in the first three months of 2017. That’s in comparison to 1,266 incidents reported in the ADL’s 2016 report. If trends continue, 2017 will see more than 2,000 anti-Semitic incidents, study authors reported.

But it’s the nation’s schools that are most troubling.

The number of anti-Semitic incidents on college campuses didn’t rise over the past year. But at elementary, middle and high schools across America, such incidents hiked by 106 percent.

“We are very concerned the next generation is internalizing messages of intolerance and bigotry,” said Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of ADL.

While ADL drew a link between a reported rise in anti-Semitic instances in November and December to the election of President Donald Trump — citing, for instance, one bit of graffiti in Denver that read, “Kill the Jews, Vote Trump” — the group rather missed the mark in identifying all the possible sources for Jew hate.

“These incidents need to be seen in the context of a general resurgence of white supremacist activity in the United States,” said Oren Segal, director of the ADL Center on Extremism, in UPI.

Maybe. But not all. How about recognition for another group of people — a group that’s been steadily making its way in U.S. society in recent years, by immigration hook or refugee hook — that by and large shares this common cause: to decimate Israel and the Jewish race?

I’m talking about extremist Muslims, of course — you know, the kind Barack Obama, while president, denied existed, all the while opening the border doors to their entrance.

It’s quite possible at least one or two — or quite a few more — of these acts of anti-Semitism seen in America in recent times is due to Islam hatred of Jewish people, yes? Yes, yes, quite possible.

Yet ADL skips this point?

Here’s a clue why: “ADL plays a leading role in exposing and combating anti-Muslim bigotry,” the group wrote, on its website.

And then this, same site: “The threat of the infiltration of sharia, or Islamic law, into the American court system is one of the more pernicious conspiracy theories to gain traction in our country in recent years. The notion that Islam is insidiously making inroads in the United States through the application of religious law is seeping into the mainstream … [and] ADL’s work on countering anti-Muslim bigotry has extended to actively oppose anti-sharia laws introduced around the country.”

ADL may track and oppose instances of anti-Semitism. But it also wages politically correct battles on behalf of Islam — PC-fights that oddly position it in conflict with Jewish security and freedoms.

Remember: One can’t win a war if one won’t first name the enemy.