How Serious is the Marjorie Taylor Greene Threat?

There are many frightening and upsetting aspects to the entire Marjorie Taylor Greene deliberations. American Jews should indeed be upset at the gross timidity of the Republican Party to purge her from its ranks. Congresswoman Greene clearly accepted and undoubtedly still agrees with some of the most fantastic and outlandish allegations ever to be asserted in American history. Her harangues are patent lies and totally lacking any credibility.

Among other things Ms. Greene clearly expressed very serious anti-Semitic troupes. When given a platform to deny and apologize for her past behavior she engaged in complete obfuscation. The evidence of her relationship with QAnon members and their extremist views were ever-present. Marjorie Taylor Greene supported the use of violence to be used against elected public officials. It was the classic hatemongering, however, which she expounded that ought to give all Americans grave concern. The fact that she signaled out Jews as part of her attack was especially alarming to American Jews.

Leaving aside all the cowards in the Republican Party, the fact that two Jewish Republican Members—David Kustoff of Tennessee and Lee Zeldin put their allegiance to their party ahead of their faith was pathetic. Their knowledge of history was severely lacking. Hitler and the “big lie” made no impression on them.

To be clear, there were and are political leaders on the left who also do not like Jews or Israel and have said so. The fact, however, is that the Democratic Party has confronted blatant anti-Semitic and anti-Israel attacks directly. Especially when it concerns U.S. policy towards Israel and the Palestinians, disagreements have been focused on foreign policy. They have not engaged in conspiracy theorizing to establish blame for anything, and the Democratic Party promptly has addressed such incidents when they have occurred.

The Anti-Defamation League and other national Jewish communal organizations have condemned Greene as have many Jewish communal leaders. It would seem, however, that during COVID when temple and synagogue attendance are generally sparse and/or remote, rabbis should be publicly mounting an attack against a political party that is unable to stamp out a blatant anti-Semite.

It would have been appropriate as well if there were rabbis who built coalitions with priests, ministers, and imams and all faith leaders to speak out against the Republican leadership. The general reticence among the clergy is embarrassing—and scary. Jewish leaders especially, should be questioning the sincerity of all their pro-Israel Christian Evangelical friends who apparently are unable to rally to disclaim and protest the outrageous anti-Semitic attacks that have been tolerated by the Republican Party leadership. Many evangelicals may well join together next week to protest the impeachment of Donald Trump and will welcome many of the January 6 insurrectionists back into their ranks, but they are unable to challenge anti-Semitic speech.

The Jewish community needs to ascertain very quickly how deep the anti-Semitic rantings run within many of the right-wing groups and their sympathizers. Conspiracy theories have been the bedrock of much of the history of anti-Semitism and Marjorie Taylor Greene is hardly the only public figure who believes them. Among the millions of hardline Trump supporters in the United States, there are QAnon backers, as well as millions of racists, bigots, and White supremacists. Most of them present very fertile territory for Representative Greene and her ilk who hold public office.

If the Republican Party does not clean up its house quickly the polarization in America which Donald Trump nourished for the past four years will totally capture the Republican Party—if has not done so already. Marjorie Taylor Greene is only one visible manifestation of the species.