Evading Responsibility and Pointing Fingers: The Republican Strategy on Antisemitism
Framing Democrats as hostile towards Israel and Jews has become a powerful platform for Republicans, one that has helped them evade dealing with the party’s internal rise in antisemitism. Photo by Darren Halstead.
The recent passivity among Republican Party leadership towards spikes in antisemitism renews the question of whether a “conventional” Republican Party still exists. Besides a few notable exceptions, the majority of Republicans in the Senate and House—most of whom formally endorsed Trump—have made no formal statements condemning recent surges in antisemitic sentiment in the U.S. Republican frontrunners for the 2024 presidential elections, Ron DeSantis and Donald Trump, have both been notably tolerant of recent antisemitism. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis made no formal comment after antisemitic messages in support of Kanye West’s antisemitic tweets flashed outside the TIAA Bank Field stadium in Jacksonville at a game in which the governor attended. Additionally, Trump dined with white supremecist and outspoken Holocaust denier, Nick Fuentes, and Kanye West amidst West’s slew of antisemitic comments.
Turning a blind eye to the antisemitism in their own party, Republican lawmakers invest in creating dangerous narratives that equate critiques of Israel with anti-Jewish sentiment. Indeed, a recent poll illustrates that Republicans and Democrats are splintering in their views towards Israel and Palestine, with 79 percent of Republicans sympathizing more with Israel than Palestinians, compared with 27 percent of Democrats. Framing Democrats as hostile towards Israel and Jews has become a powerful platform for Republicans, one that has helped them evade dealing with the party’s internal rise in antisemitism. Although Republicans are often quick to call Democrats antisemitic, they are silent on the antisemitism festering in their own party. The Republican Party is becoming tolerant of this form of hate, politicizing antisemitism in an effort to garner negative press for Democrats.
These developments should not come as a shock. The Republican Party’s failure to speak out against rising antisemitism can be understood within the context of the oppositional stance the party has historically embodied. Republicans in Congress cemented this oppositional stance in the early days of the Obama presidency, during which they pursued a strategy of “unified opposition” to nearly every liberal agenda item. The logic of oppositional politics and negative polarization, which the Republican Party continues to benefit from, predicts this politicization of antisemitism and shirking of responsibility in favor of rhetoric designed wholly to cast Democratic lawmakers in a negative light.
Evading Responsibility and Pointing Fingers: The Republican Strategy on Antisemitism
Republican lawmakers are creating narratives that falsely equate constructive criticism of Israel with antisemitism, strategically framing progressive lawmakers’ support for Palestinian rights as equivalent to hatred of Jews. This is best exemplified by current House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s attack on Representative Ilhan Omar (D-MN). In 2019, Jewish lawmakers criticized Omar for implying that U.S. support for Israel was mainly an economic calculation. Following these incidents, Omar clarified that her intention was to provide a constructive critique of Israel. Recently, she has argued that “we cannot equate legitimate criticism of the Israeli government, its policy, and its military occupation with antisemitism.”
Omar was criticized again in 2021 by her Jewish colleagues for statements they claimed equated Israel and the United States with Hamas and the Taliban. Following this statement, House minority leader Kevin McCarthy called out Pelosi for tolerating “antisemitism” within the Democratic Party. When the Republicans won the majority in the House, Kevin McCarthy led an effort to oust Ilhan Omar from the House Foreign Affairs Committee, culminating in her removal from the committee on February 2, 2023.
In assessing the Republican Party’s stance on combating antisemitism, it is revealing to compare the time, energy, and focus invested into Omar’s removal on account of her purported antisemitism with the recent silence around growing antisemitism within the Republican Party itself. Rather than developing strategies to tackle growing antisemitic sentiment, Republican lawmakers are politicizing the issue as a way to garner negative attention for Democrats.
Recent Republican Party Silence on AntiSemitism
Days after Trump’s November 2022 dinner party with white supremacist Nick Fuentes and outspoken antisemite rapper Kanye West, PBS conducted interviews with top Republican Party officials to glean the party’s general reaction towards the dinner. PBS interviewed every Republican senator and Republican House leader—57 officials in total—asking them three questions: “Do you think it was appropriate for Trump to meet with Fuentes and Ye? Do you condemn it? Do you call on your party leadership to speak out on it?” 39 lawmakers declined to comment. Some, such as Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), strongly condemned the meeting and antisemitism more generally, whereas many made comments that strategically avoided using the term antisemitism. “If the reports are true and the president didn’t know who he was, whoever let him in the room should be fired,” remarked Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC). Others condemned Fuentes while defending Trump’s identity: “I hope [Trump] will [condemn Nick Fuentes]. Because I know [Trump] is not an antisemite,” commented Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL).
In the context of the ferocity of McCarthy’s attack on Rep. Omar, in which he claimed she had a history of “repeated antisemitic remarks,” McCarthy’s reaction to Trump’s meeting with Fuentes and Ye is troubling; it evaded the issue of antisemitism completely. When given the opportunity to comment, McCarthy merely stated that he does not believe “anybody should be spending any time with Nick Fuentes.” Overall, the Republican Party as a whole failed to condemn Trump’s behavior and antisemitism more broadly, opting to minimize its severity and impact.
Trump, the current undisputed Republican frontrunner in the 2024 presidential election, is still a central figure in the party and colors how citizens perceive the Republican agenda. Although the midterms illustrated a distancing from Trump among many Republican politicians, it’s clear that many either still fear condemning his behavior or lack political incentives to condemn hate targeting Jews and minorities.
Indeed, 142 of the House’s 222 Republicans represent districts with low levels of racial and ethnic diversity. This may translate into a willingness among Republican elected officials to dismiss hate that targets minorities. The GOP’s disproportionate reliance on white, blue-collar voters manifests itself in the form of Republican lawmakers who are less likely to frame racism and antisemitism as pressing issues.
A 2021 poll found that over half of registered Republicans and Trump voters believe that minorities are favored in the U.S political system. Republican lawmakers are tapping into this well of resentment, fueling their culture wars and driving the popularity of candidates such as Trump and DeSantis. The silence from Republican lawmakers on rising antisemitism within their party raises the question of whether the party has become a tolerant space for this form of hate that targets racial, ethnic and religious minorities.
The Republican Party’s Oppositional Politics and Antisemitism
Now more than ever it is important to reassess the reality of the Republican Party. Traditionally, the Republican Party was characterized by its valorization of business interests, support for free markets, and championing of so-called family values. Much of the strength of the traditional Republican Party platform was rooted in opposition. Republicans found strength in opposing the New Deal, the Soviet Union, and the concept of the welfare state. This sort of oppositional consciousness is politically powerful as it rallies citizens around a platform cemented in imagined solidarity. This oppositional logic has found renewed strength in the form of negative polarization. Essentially, this refers to a situation in which people support policies and officials, not because they necessarily align with them, but out of disgust with the alternative.
This strategy of negative polarization may be what is leading to the politicization of antisemitism. It seems plausible that the reason so many Republican lawmakers remain silent on issues of antisemitism is because they don’t have a political incentive to condemn this sort of hate. In this sense, the Republican Party’s response to antisemitism is much like their response to other forms of racism: they refuse to treat it as a genuine, systemic issue. This stance is encapsulating in Republicans' treatment of Critical Race Theory in recent months. The politicization of the belief that racism is systematic in the United States is illustrated by conservative activist Christopher Rufo’s assertion that the Republican party has “successfully frozen their brand—critical race theory—into the public conversation and are steadily driving up negative perceptions.” Essentially, it has become politically powerful for Republicans to discount systemic racism in favor of political rhetoric designed to polarize voters and inflame the conservative base.
In mastering the logic of negative polarization, the Republican Party embraces rhetoric that shifts responsibility wholly onto Democrats’ shortcomings and missteps; the Party finds strength, not in constructive policies and innovative visions of the future, but essentially through negative framing of the Democratic Party. Epitomized in McCarthy’s ousting of Ilhan Omar from the House Foreign Affairs Committee, through the politicization of something like antisemitic sentiment, Republicans circumvent responsibility for issues endemic to the party in favor of these performative, highly public attempts to portray Democratic lawmakers in a negative light.
Overall, the Republican Party is less incentivized to deal with internal issues, including this uptake in antisemitism. In a period of tremendously high political polarization in which the Republican Party benefits from negative polarization and culture wars that discount the rights of minorities, Republican lawmakers benefit from turning a blind eye to these internal developments. The Republican silence on antisemitism coincides with the fact that in 2021, the Anti-Defamation League recorded the highest number of antissemitic incidents since the ADL began tracking in 1979. In 2021, the ADL recorded 2717 antisemitic incidents in the US, a 34% increase from the 2026 incidents in 2020.
Politically, Democrats should call out Republican lawmakers for their silence, in an attempt to win over the 26% of American Jews who identify as Republicans. Further, Democrats should call attention to the hypocrisy inherent in Republicans’ stance on antisemitism, clearly articulating that constructive critique of Israel does not equate to antisemitic attitudes. The Republican strategy in dealing with this uptake in antisemitism, much like their treatment of other human rights issues, has been to politicize the issue and cast blame on the Democratic Party. It is imperative that we recognize the threat associated with the Republican strategy of negative polarization and demand policies that treat issues of racism and hatred in a serious and constructive way.
Emily Swan (BC ‘24) is a staff writer for CPR and is studying political science and english.