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WPCNR PERSPECTIVES 2026. News & Comment By John F. Bailey. February 10, 2026:

 

Reading the findings  discovered in the American Jewish Committee report, State of Antisemitism in America released this morning, is troubling.

 

What is motivating individuals to take persons they do not even know,  single them out to haze or attack them, kill them with what only can be described as thrill attacks for the fun of it with as much reason  as fraternity and sorority hazing which recently have killed persons being hazed.  This rash of unprovoked attacks is a “movement,” a “fad”, a crusade, an  inquisition (a religion motivated policy aimed at acquiring the wealth of citzens  during the Spanish Inquisition.

Whatever motivates these attacks, a President, a politician, self-promoting “influencers,” website-runners today using platforms with  the aim of raising one religion as superior to another and blame those “non-believers” for the failings of others and incite those to disqualify them as real Americans who must go or be deported, or made to feel unwanted, well it is so anti-American Way, it is a failure of conscience. Rather than listening to God is a failure to listen to God.

Whether it is directed at Jewish people, Latinos, immigrants here illegally or otherwise, refugees despised because of their race or origin, it is hate crime.

When will the legal authorities wake up and smell the stench of the people promoting hatred to achieve personal power?

Attacks on persons  because of who they are are crimes. They recall the lynchings, the murders of persons of color in the 1960s the 1920s, the Jim Crow era.

The attacks on Jewish people are attacks on us all. Ambushes. It takes no talent. Just the element of surprise. The attacks no matter whom they are inflicted are terrorism itself and should be prosecuted with heavy penalties.

This morning the American Jewish Committee report concludes  “the rise of Antisemitism is having a profound impact on how American Jews live.”

I would like to amplify and expand that conclusion to remark flat-out that this “rise” has a profound impact on how  ALL AMERICANS live.

To quote the American Jewish Committee report:

 

• More than half (55%) changed their behavior in the past year out of fear of antisemitism, including what to wear, attending events and posting views about Jewish issues online.
• About one in three (31%) say they were the target of antisemitic incidents. Of those, eight in 10 changed their behavior.
• Nine in 10 feel less safe as a Jewish person in the U.S. because of antisemitic incidents in the last 12 months as a result of three major attacks on Jews in the past 12 months – the burning of Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s residence, the firebombing of Jews in Boulder, Colo., marching in support of hostages, and the murders of two Israeli Embassy staffers outside an AJC event in Washington, D.C. 
• Some 73% saw or heard antisemitic content online or on social media or by being personally targeted.
• More than nine in 10 (93%) believe antisemitism is a serious problem in the U.S., and 86% say it’s increased since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel.

Bear with me a moment.

The pain and destruction and death to a Jewish person,  is the same pain, destruction and death inflicted on any victim,

The same irrevocable loss and message to the immigrant mother whose child is wrenched away to be deported; the same searing ripped-away-forever-reality pain a family  anywhere in America has forever when when someone  commits a mass shooting at a neighborhood school, or when a spouse shoots their husband or wife  and kills their children, or law enforcement authorities kill a protestor or a someone’s child or wife because they can if “justified.”

Every American of all ages across this nation now lives with this daily possibility in parking lots at big supermarkets, in restaurants, in bars, at sport events, and on highways when irresponsible drivers play NASCAR ace on the Sprain, I-684, the Taconic, and in college campus demonstrations.

We are all nervous.

We watch for a person to pull a gun.

We scan the interior of a restaurant.

Who is responsible for this fear?

The persons mostly in office who feel the phrase “Our hearts and prayers go out to them for their loss,”   They  just mock the victims’ sorrows.

This phrase which has become a cliché of the rich and powerful and leaderless actually is saying something completely different.

What does it  really mean when people say that?

It means: “Get over it. You were in the wrong place at the wrong time. It couldn’t be helped. You shouldn’t have been there in the first place. If you had not protested, you would not be dead. We need to move on.”

Most of all it means coming from politicians that–

“This is too bad, but we are not going to anything to stop it (so get over it)

I would like to hear one politician (wherever the next hate act against Jews, Latinos, African Americans, poor people, homeless people, illegal immigrants, asylum seekers, muslims, Somolis happens –do something like this:

Introduce legislation to make a hate crime, an killing, a shooting, a hate speech, resulting in deaths (like January 6)  resulting in injury illegal with an automatic jail sentence without parole in effect throughout the town or city where it was committed.

Please, Free Speech that incites and results in violence is a crime by the person who calls for action against another group or party is not allowed.

This is always defended by those who use the “I didn’t mean anyone to do that. I was just supporting the policy….blah blah”

I have been hearing preposterous apologies from politicos saying this “I didn’t  mean that.”

This shows the rather low intellectual caliber of  those who say things like that.

But you see politicians, when you say a threat, You do mean it. You say what you want to do when you say that.

It also deserves a companion report,

The State of  the Campaign Against Equality in America

So I applaud the American Jewish Committee for their report and hope they will expand it to document other groups in the crosshairs of hate in this country and I mean politicians, businesses, Captains of Industry, political groups, activist organizations and what they are saying ripped from the headlines they are quoted on by the dutiful media A dossier of documentation of what the sowers of hate say, who they attack and what they think should be done about it.