What's With the Rise of Anti-Semitism Lately?

It seems that lately, anti-Semitism has been on the rise lately.

First, there were the anti-Semitic comments by narcissistic rapper Kanye West. There was backlash, and West lost a lot of business connections. In fact, he claimed to have lost over $2 billion in a single day following widespread condemnation of his anti-Semitic tweets.

Boo hoo. 

Then, NBA star Kyrie Irving followed suits with controversial tweets of his own, promoting a movie that espouses anti-Semitic views, and which also seems to deny the Holocaust.

Much like with Kanye West, there was widespread condemnation. But Irving did not apologize.

The Brooklyn Nets and Irving both announced that they would be giving over $500,000 each to Jewish charities. Yet, there was still no apology from Irving. Also when questioned, Irving refused to actually talk about his own beliefs regarding Jews.

Finally last night, to their credit, the Nets suspended Irving. 

Now, finally, he apologized.

Yeah, now that his bread and butter is threatened, and his very privileged lifestyle is suddenly threatened, it has finally dawned on him that his actions have consequences, and that he might be held accountable. Frankly, that feels like it tarnishes the legitimacy of his apology. It makes the apology feel like it only came when the Nets and/or the NBA finally pulled the trigger and took action that will impact Irving's livelihood. In other words, it feels less than truly heartfelt and sincere. 

Frankly, it seems too little, and much too late, as far as I am concerned. It should not take a week or so for him to apologize for such idiotic actions that have only contributed to the rising tide of hatred and prejudice in the United States. It felt a bit reminiscent of former President Trump having such a hard time to finally condemn Nazis and white supremacists in the aftermath of the so-called 'Unite the Right' Rally" in Charlottesville, when we saw outright Nazi flags and torchlight processions and clearly anti-Semitic chants of "Jews will not replace us!" being yelled by neo-Nazis and other white supremacist groups. 

So what gives?  

I don't have an answer here, and am more outright asking. This is stuff that I had assumed - wrongly, apparently - that we were past. It seems that since the political rise of Trump, we have seen a massive spike in outright, and all too visible, hatred and racism and general xenophobia. Frankly, it seems rather stunning to me, and more than a little alarming.

Frankly, it is yet another indication - as if we needed any more such signs - that this country is heading in exactly the wrong direction. 

Kyrie Irving apologizes amid Twitter controversy and suspension by Brooklyn Nets over‘failure to disavow antisemitism’  by Ben Morse, David Close and Jill Martin, CNN , Fri November 4, 2022:

https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/03/sport/kyrie-irving-brooklyn-nets-antisemitism-donation-spt-intl/index.html