Jewish groups are denouncing CNN for “whitewashing” left-wing antisemitism in the news network’s latest special, according to the Daily Caller.
In “CNN Special Report: Rising Hate: Antisemitism in America,” correspondent Dana Bash said, “Experts across the board caution antisemitism is growing on the left, but it is not equivalent to hate from the right.”
Among those interviewed in the special was progressive Rabbi Jill Jacobs, who said she is concerned about antisemitism on the right.
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“On the left it is more in the discourse,” she claimed.
Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said in the special: “So, on the extreme right, they are the tornado that will tear apart your house and kill everyone inside in an instant. The far left is like climate change, slowly but surely, the temperature is rising. Some people deny it, then some people say we can adapt to it, but suddenly it reaches the point, the temperatures become so inhospitable that people can no longer live there.”
Bash, in a tweet, leading up to the special, which aired on Sunday, said, “Much of the hateful and violent antisemitic incidents come from far-right groups. But there is troubling discourse emerging from the left, too. The issue is complicated and nuanced. It’s something I explore in my special…”
In press releases, the Jewish Leadership Project and the Coalition for Jewish values accused CNN of “whitewashing” left-wing antisemitism.
“Attacks on Jews are increasingly coming from the left and they don’t want to admit it,” a spokesperson for the Jewish Leadership Project said. “They rightfully cite white supremacists, but when it comes to black supremacists, left-wing anti-Zionists, radicals and Islamists … it’s complicated and nuanced.”
Morton Klein, president of the Zionist Organization of America, told the Daily Caller: “On campuses, almost all of the vicious Jew hatred threats and attacks, even physical attacks, are by the left. It is not White Supremacists on campuses.
“They’re afraid of attacking the left-wing antisemites.”
CNN did not respond to a request for comment by the Daily Caller.