Rep. Thomas Massie (R – KY) posted an antisemitic meme on X (formerly Twitter) on Tuesday that pits “American Patriotism” against “Zionism.” The post has garnered significant and well-deserved negative attention and criticism from both sides of the political aisle.
In the meme, rapper Drake, labeled as “Congress These Days,” is shown rejecting “American Patriotism” while embracing “Zionism.” This portrayal by Massie, known for his anti-Israel stance, quickly ignited a firestorm of backlash online, drawing bipartisan criticism.
“Thomas Massie, a House Republican, is pitting American patriotism against Zionism. Most Americans are both pro-America and pro-Israel and see no contradiction between the two,” Rep. Ritchie Torres replied to the post.
“Will Thomas Massie be booted off committees or will he face censure the way that Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib were for their comments about Israel? Or will it be different because Mike Johnson needs Massie’s vote?” asked MSNBC columnist Eric Michael Garcia.
You know who did like the post, though? Stew Peters, a far-right conspiracy theorist and anti-Semite. Peters, who has previously claimed that Israel “is running our country,” endorsed Massie’s meme. Peters has a long history of antisemitic remarks and is friends with neo-Nazi Nick Fuentes.
Joel Pollak, senior editor-at-large at Breitbart News, wrote, “Never go full antisemite.”
Halie Sofier, the head of the Jewish Democratic Council of America, commented, “Last week, Republican @RepThomasMassie was the only member of Congress to vote against a resolution recognizing Israel’s right to exist & condemning Hamas. This week, he’s invoking antisemitic tropes (& Drake) to claim Congress is blinded by support of Israel. Shame on him.”
And White House Deputy Communications Director Herbie Ziskend said, “All Americans – including House GOP leadership – should condemn this virulent Antisemitism from a sitting member of Congress.”
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10 Responses
Even more sickening are virtually all his Republican colleagues who refused to condemn him or twisted themselves into pretzels trying to explain what he “really meant”.
Just not sure. If someone criticizes support for Ukraine, does that mean he hates Ukraine?
Or maybe this is different. Israel was brutally attacked by Muslim extremists who chant “Death to Israel, Death to America”…
I do understand. In the context of everything that’s happening in the world in right here in America, of course it’s totally different…
no comparison to tlaib and omar.
MDshweks:
Last week he was the only member of Congress to vote against a resolution recognizing Israel’s right to exist & condemning Hamas.
I haven’t heard any Congressmen refuse to acknowledge Ukraine’s right to exist. There is a big difference between that, and being against sending U.S. money to another country.
So yeah, he hates Israel.
One Republican anti-Semite, though not good, is better than umpteen Democrat anti-Semites in Congress. Ever since Obama refused to veto that infamous anti-Semitic UN resolution in 2016, I have refused to vote for Democrats and have been voting for Republicans. If the Democrats would lose a few consecutive elections by landslide margins, they might feel compelled to disgorge and disown the anti-Semitic, extreme leftist component of their base and come back to the center.
He’s right and your anti-American
No, he does not hate Israel, nor, as far as I can tell, is he an antisemite.
There is nothing anti-zionist or antisemitic about the meme; it simply points out how many of the same people who reject American patriotism have suddenly discovered patriotism when it comes to Israel. It says nothing about whether such support is justified; it merely points out the incongruity. Of course the correct position is to support both America and Israel, and it’s most likely that Massie does support both.
The exact same sentiment as this meme was already expressed 50 years ago by William F. Buckley, whom nobody would call an antisemite, when he wryly commented that the easiest way to get the left to support the Vietnam war would be for Israel to annex South Vietnam. This was at a time when Democrats all reflexively supported Israel, but many were turning against South Vietnam, because their communist sympathies led them to want it to fall and its people to be massacred and enslaved. This meme expresses the same idea.
And yes, he voted against the resolution because he votes against all such resolutions. He has stated many times that he doesn’t believe Congress ought to be expressing official opinions on matters that aren’t any of its business, supporting this cause and condemning that one. For DontMindMe’s information, he votes against all resolutions supporting the Ukraine, even if they don’t involve money. (He certainly votes against sending the Ukrainians money that we have to borrow from China.) So voting against this one doesn’t tell us anything about how he feels about the underlying issue.
I found his statement about the resolution, which was that his only problem with it was that it equates anti-zionism with antisemitism. Apparently he, along with many people, think one can oppose Israel’s existence without being antisemitic. He — and they — are wrong. But so long as he does in fact support Israel’s existence — and he explicitly said he does — he is not an antisemite. That he doesn’t think the two concepts are linked is simply an error on his part, and people are allowed to be in error.
PS: It is, of course, possible to oppose Israel’s existence without being an antisemite. What is impossible is to support a “Palestinian” state without being an antisemite. I can think of exactly three non-antisemitic grounds on which one can oppose the zionist cause; all three should lead one even more to oppose the “Palestinian” cause.
PPS: Let me remind people that the Satmar Rov once said that a Jew ought to oppose zionism, but a goy must support it. A goy who is against zionism is an antisemite.