When the House of Representatives voted 320 to 91 last week in support of the Antisemitism Awareness Act, with only 21 Republicans opposing the bill, the dumbfounded reaction of conservative commentators shows that they didn’t listen carefully to Candace Owens’ recent interview with Rabbi Michael Barclay. The interview precipitated Owens’ divorce from the Daily Wire and unleashed a firestorm on social media. Barclay’s comments, and the online brouhaha that followed, reveal an uncomfortable truth about the conceptualization of antisemitism and its alleged link with Christianity. Getting your head around this is essential for understanding the disastrous bill that just sailed through the lower house.

(For non-Americans, let me explain: the proposed law now heads to the Senate to be voted upon, before it can be signed into law by the President.) Old School Grit: Times... Donnelly, Darrin Best Price: $2.47 Buy New $13.94 (as of 11:43 UTC - Details)

H.R. 6090 seeks to expand the definition of antisemitism in Title VI of the Civil Rights Act to include the working definition created by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) and adopted by the U.S. Department of State. The bill is widely regarded as a response to the intensifying college protests against Israel’s war in Gaza following Hamas’ deadly attack on southern Israel on October 7.

The bill falls short on three fronts. Firstly, outsourcing definitions to third party NGOs for the purposes of investigating civil rights violations is an abrogation of the legislative responsibility vested in the U.S. Congress. Secondly, all but one of the examples of antisemitism provided by the IHRA amount to thought crime or speech-I-don’t-like, thereby imposing Soviet-style speech control.

Yet by far the most problematic aspect of the bill is that it embraces the IHRA’s statement about “classic antisemitism,” which lumps “symbols and images” about “claims of Jews killing Jesus” with “blood libel.” There is no distinction between the historical claims of the New Testament with any other claim about Jews and the death of Christ.

Survival Projects for ... Nash, Johnathan Best Price: $17.99 Buy New $22.17 (as of 01:30 UTC - Details) Ergo, the Bible, the inerrant and divinely inspired word of God, which clearly states in multiple verses throughout the New Testament that Jesus – a Jew – was handed over to the Gentiles by the Jews to be crucified (Jn. 19:6), is easily reduced to an antisemitic trope. St. Peter, a Jew, who on the first Pentecost exhorted the House of Israel to “know most certainly, that God hath made both Lord and Christ, this same Jesus, whom you have crucified (Acts 2:36),” becomes a hateful bigot. The same goes for St. Paul – another Jew! – who says the same thing (I Thess. 2:15).[1] This smear has just been endorsed by Republicans like House Speaker Mike Johnson R-La, Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik R-N.Y., House Majority Leader Steve Scalise R-La, and Jim Jordan R-OH. Every Republican in the states of Arkansas, Alabama, Iowa, Nebraska, Tennessee, and Utah approved this bill.

The objective here is not to prohibit wrongful conduct arising from what some regard as the false claim or myth that the death of Christ occurred at the hands of the Jews; the goal is to censor the very expression of that belief. The Bible – or more specifically, the Christian faith – isn’t collateral damage. It’s the target.

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