A TAMPA CITY COUNCILMAN STANDS WITH ISRAEL

Here is one elected official who has their head screwed on right. Luis Viera is a popular member of the Tampa City Council, a Democrat, and a supporter of Israel and a defender of American Jews. On the morning of October 8, Luis visited local Jewish schools to make sure they had adequate police protection. Luis is a mensch in every sense of the word. Tampa Councilman Luis Viera. (Courtesy of Tampa Bay Times.)

“The antisemitism we have seen since this day has incensed me. While most Americans — including most Democrats — have moral clarity on Oct. 7, some in the progressive movement dissent. On Oct. 8, some voices deemed the Hamas attack as justified because of Israeli government policies. In too many cities and college communities, people ripped down posters showing Jews kidnapped by Hamas. Voices that rightfully once said “listen to women” ignore narratives of Israeli women raped by Hamas. O ften, attacks are met by moral relativism — as recently evidenced by elite university presidents refusing to state that a call for genocide of Jews violates university codes of contact.

Silence in the face of injustice was complicity then and it remains complicity after Oct. 7. Hate has no home here. But since Oct. 7, antisemitic hate has had one hell of a home here.

We live in times of, on the right, normalization of authoritarianism and attacks on civic institutions unseen in generations. And on the left, Oct. 7 has revealed a crisis in a response by some in the movement to the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust. The response to this day dilutes the kind of response Americans of goodwill and across the mainstream political spectrum need to preserve democracy in dark times. Unity does not require unanimity — but it does require a refusal to normalize hate.”

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL OP ED IN THE TAMPA BAY TIMES

Originally published at https://stephenshaiken.substack.com.