Politically Motivated Violence Will Destroy Us All

By now, I am sure that everyone knows a great deal about the vicious assault on Paul Pelosi, husband of the House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. We have learned much over the past several days.  We know the extent of the terrible injuries Mr. Pelosi suffered, as well as his tremendous courage as he came face to face with the intruder whose ultimate aim was to maim Ms. Pelosi, the second in line to the presidency. We also learned of the extremist political views espoused by the attacker, and the underground where such beliefs are promoted, and encouraged.  We are outraged, as we should be.

We must not pretend that this was a unique act of politically motivated violence amidst a culture that abhors such behavior.  We don’t have to go back too far in American history to find similar crimes.  Just think about all politically motivated violence that has been has been reported in just the past several months.

Following the FBI raid on former President Donald Trump’s residence at Mar-a-Lago last August, one of his supporters, Ricky Shiffer, tried to breach the FBI’s Cincinnati field office while armed and wearing body armor, sparking an hours-long standoff that ended when he was gunned down after firing at officers.  

In July, Lee Zeldin, the Republican candidate for New York governor, was attacked during a campaign stop near Rochester. At that event, David Jakubonis jumped on stage and lunged toward Mr. Zeldin with knife before being wrestled to the ground by bystanders. 

In the run-up to the elections next Tuesday, many members of Congress have received death threats that have forced them to obtain security details to safeguard their personal safety. According to news reports, a telephone caller “threatened to come to Representative Adam Kinzinger’s house and go after his wife and his newborn baby” and warned “I’m going to come to protest in front of your house this weekend … We know where your family is, and we’re going to get you … We’re going to get your wife, going to get your kids.”

Indeed, the very reporting about these crimes by journalists has also enraged the passions of extremists. A recent article by Darrell West of the Brookings Institute reported that one-quarter of the institute’s scholars have been the object of credible death threats. He and his fellows have had to notify the FBI about threatened violence on several occasions, and at least one of these threats was serious enough that a man was arrested. 

The rise of both threats and actual violence, perpetrated by radicals representing both sides of the political divide confirms the dangerous levels of polarization, extremism, and radicalization that we face in America today. The lack of civility, and the demonization of both differing views and their advocates has reached such a dangerous level that it threatens the safety of elected officials and their families, the functioning of law enforcement, and our society’s ability to address major problems. The attack at the Pelosi home earlier this week, tragic though it was, was just the most recent example of this tragic pattern. 

As you read this Shabbat message today, I feel duty bound to remind you that today is the 27^th anniversary of the assassination of Yitzchak Rabin, murdered by a Jewish extremist opposed to the Oslo Accords and Mr. Rabin’s approach to the peace process.  Yet like the attack at the Pelosi residence, that assassination did not take place in a vacuum. For weeks before his murder, Mr. Rabin had been attacked and vilified by his opponents, even using religious language and metaphors to express their disgust and to justify the violence they threatened to use to stop him. He was called a Nazi, and pictures circulated of him in the cross-hairs of a gun.  His enemies chanted, "Rabin is a murderer" and "Rabin is a traitor” at rallies organized by the Likud party.  And when advised of the growing extremism among his supporters, including a personal warning from then Israeli chief of internal security Carmi Gillon of a plot on Rabin's life, Benjamin Netanyahu declined to moderate the protests' rhetoric. 

The leaders did not speak out forcefully to calm the political climate and root out the extremists within their midst.  As a result, all it took was one young radical with a gun to change Israel forever.

No two nations or political cultures can be compared perfectly, but enough commonalities exist to draw parallels and conclusions. Tolerance of extremism and illegal political activity always leads to violence, even in democracies with a long standing tradition of commitment to the rule of law.

And that is true even in our great nation, where only a few short years ago, this type of violence seemed unimaginable.  Think about that when you vote this Tuesday.