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It doesn't matter that the actual murderer was a Trump-hater as well as a Jew-hater; it's still somehow all Trump's fault. This might come as a shock for many on the left, but Trump didn't invent anti-Semitism in this country nor did he promote the increase of it.
Gunmen opened fire at the North Valley Jewish Community Center in Los Angeles in 1999, at the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle in 2006, at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington in 2009, and at the Jewish Community Center in Overland Park, Kansas, in 2014, all long before President Trump came along.
And by the way, President Trump is the most pro Israeli president since Harry Truman, and he's the only president with a Jewish child and Jewish grandchildren. Secondly, Jewish hatred has been on the increase across the world (including the US) for at least the last 15 to 20 years or more.
The other thing we've been told, is the massacre is yet another example of the hate and intolerance in American society as a whole. We've all got to tone down the rhetoric, they say, we must all take a deep breath and be more courteous to each other; be more respectful.
While being civil and respectful in our speech and actions is, generally speaking, a good idea, it has nothing to do with what happened at that synagogue in Pittsburg. People weren't murdered because of Donald Trump, they weren't murdered because of the coarsening of society, they were murdered because they were Jews. Period.
Hatred of Jews -- anti-Semitism -- has plagued the world for more than 2,000 years. The recent rise of anti-Semitic acts is scary and abhorrent. The thinking has been that Jewish hatred comes from the far right skin-heads and neo-Nazis, it certainly does, but the fact is that the biggest increase in anti-Semitism in the last 10 or so years has come from the left.
College campuses in the U.S. are a breeding ground for anti-Israeli and anti-Jewish sentiment. Jewish students on some campuses are routinely confronted by anti-Semitic hostility, especially if they are vocally pro-Israeli or wear yarmulkes.
Violence targeting Jews and Jewish institutions continues around the world. Denial and minimization of the Holocaust, along with other forms of hatred against Jews, is now widespread on the Internet in multiple languages. German Nazis wiped out over 6 million Jews in the last century, but this generation's threat of Jewish annihilation comes from Israel's Iranian and Arab enemies.
As an editorial in the Wall Street Journal noted, "This irrational hatred is one of humanity's oldest — Jews are killed simply because they are Jews." Robert Bowers, the evil monster who murdered 11 human beings on that fateful Sabbath Saturday was not making a political statement, he was an anti-Semite who wanted to kill Jews, as many as he could. "All Jews must die," he yelled as he mowed down the innocent and unsuspecting members of the synagogue.
Blaming political opponents for the murderous acts of racists, anti-Semites, or the mentally disturbed might seem to some as the right thing to do so close to an important election, but it's irresponsible and dangerous. Trump is no more to blame for the synagogue shooting than Bernie Sanders was to blame for the shooting last year of Steve Scalise and other Republicans who were gunned down by a left-wing zealot.
Robert Bowers is to blame for the people he killed in the synagogue. He alone, no one else. Anti-Semitism needs to be addressed and stamped out whenever it rears its head. It has no place in America.
But it seems that too many people don't want to acknowledge the real problem. It isn't Donald Trump. Anti-Semitism is the culprit.
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JWR contributor Greg Crosby, former creative head for Walt Disney publications, has written thousands of comics, hundreds of children's books, dozens of essays, and a letter to his congressman. He's been a JWR contributor since 1999.