Women’s March co-founder Linda Sarsour and Minn. Rep. Ilhan Omar have both expressed blatant anti-Semitism on more than one occasion — even to progressives who generally are sympathetic to the Palestinian cause.

Writing for The New York Times, Michelle Goldberg reminds us that when America was unsettled over a crude mail bomb being found in the mailbox of George Soros, Representative Kevin McCarthy, the California Republican who is now the House minority leader, tweeted, “We cannot allow Soros, Steyer and Bloomberg to buy this election!” Interviewed on CNN about receiving his own mail bomb, Steyer described McCarthy’s tweet as a “straight-up anti-Semitic move.”

There was no self-reflection, then, when Kevin McCarthy became a defender of Jews, threatening to force congressional action against two outspoken new Democratic representatives, Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, for their criticism of Israel. Rather than rise above Kevin McCarthy, Omar found herself in the same sewer, quoting Puff Daddy’s ode to the power of money: “It’s all about the Benjamins, baby.” When an editor at The Forward, a Jewish publication, asked who Omar thinks is paying American politicians to be pro-Israel, she responded, “Aipac!,” meaning the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the United States’ most prominent pro-Israel lobby.

In the aftermath of her Monday afternoon public rebuke by Democratic leadership, the Minnesota representative Omar apologized. Many Democrats challenged her sincerity, but my focus is the same as Goldberg’s: Ilhan Omar damaged her Democratic allies and squandered some of her own hard-won power. In my opinion, she also embarassed her adult constituents, their children and other Somali refugees. I doubt she understands the extent to which she has damaged her power — and women fight very hard for that power in Washington. As we noted yesterday, it’s not the first apology that Rep. Omar has made about her anti-Semitism.

Many of us don’t like Aipac and the emergence of an increasingly powerful — dominant actually — right-wing in Israel. Goldberg writes: “. . . at a moment when activists have finally pried open space in American politics to question our relationship with Israel, it’s particularly incumbent on Israel’s legitimate critics to avoid anything that smacks of anti-Jewish bigotry. And the idea of Jews as global puppet masters, using their financial savvy to make the gentiles do their bidding, clearly does. “

The blatant anti-Semitism of Linda Sarsour and Tamika Mallory of The Women’s March left heads spinning among Jewish and most progressive women during most of 2018. Hammering against all white American women in general, Sarsour and Mallory also condemned any American Jewish woman who wasn’t willing to denounce Israel in support of the Palestinians. To use Goldberg’s words: “that’s a bit rich”, especially by Mallory who refuses to criticize her friend, the ragingl anti-Semite Reverend Louis Farrakhan, who she calls the GOAT.

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Changing social norms are powerful inspirations for misogyny in the far right, new research claims ( Reuters )

Misogyny is a key element of the so-called alt-right movement and there is a strong link between men’s rights activism and white supremacy, a report has found.

The Anti-Defamation League’s report argues hatred of women is a “dangerous and underestimated component of extremism”.

The research – titled 'When Women are the Enemy: The Intersection of Misogyny and White Supremacy' – found the increasingly popular narrative of white men as victims of feminism has been a key driving force behind the misogyny which has become rife in far right movements.

“Misogyny has the potential to act as a gateway into the white supremacist world,” Jessica Reaves, the report’s author who is an expert at the league’s Centre on Extremism, said.

“The hatred and resentment of women voiced by groups like involuntary celibates and men’s rights activists is disturbingly similar to white supremacists’ hatred of minorities. And some white supremacists, especially those on the alt-right, use the same degrading, violent anti-woman rhetoric we hear coming from misogynist groups.”

The Anti-Defamation League – a Jewish NGO based in the US which fights antisemitism and all forms of bigotry -- found a strong connection between men's rights activism and incel (short for "involuntarily celibate") language and the perpetuation of rape culture and violence against women who refuse men their "rightful" sexual experiences.

“When we see the vile hatred that comes out of the white supremacist movement, we immediately and rightly call out this hatred as a dangerous threat. The hateful and sometimes violent rhetoric of misogynist groups should be treated no differently,” Jonathan Greenblatt, the chief executive and national director of the league, said.

“Increasingly, the tropes and themes used by misogynists to describe women and their place in the world are no different than those used by many white supremacists.”

The report marks the first time the Anti-Defamation League has investigated misogyny as a component of extremism.

Reaves told The Independent the link between misogyny and white supremacy was not surprising to her but the organisation thought it was important to open the wider public's eyes to it.

"The inherently anti-woman culture of the alt-right makes it a welcoming space for misogynists who are interested in white supremacist ideology," she said. "There are also factions in the alt-right that are less overt in their expressions of white supremacy – it’s there, but swathed in white polo shirts and khakis, rather than swastikas or Klan hoods. That makes them appealing to misogynists who may just be testing the waters."

Explaining how people on alt right forums perpetuate rape culture, she added: "There’s a profoundly anti-woman undercurrent to many white supremacist/alt right online exchanges, and that can easily veer from disrespect into the full-on promotion of violence, including rape. This is even more evident if you visit incel and MRA boards, where anger towards and hatred of women is the primary focus – and participants celebrate and encourage misogynist violence."