Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), Co-Chair of the House Task Force for Combating Antisemitism, today issued the following statement on the new national strategy released by the Biden Administration aimed at addressing the surge in antisemitic hate across the United States:

            “There are many good things about the plan—above all I welcome the attention it pays to community/physical security, to the problems of getting better reporting and law enforcement responses to antisemitic violence and harassment, and to Holocaust education.

            “Some of the most vicious and harmful antisemitism is incitement to violence and hatred of Israel. In 2004, Natan Sharansky testified at a hearing I chaired that while Israel should not be above criticism, that anti-Semitism tries to ‘hide behind the veneer of legitimate criticism of Israel.’ Sharansky said that employing the 3D test—demonization, double standards and delegitimization—is useful in exposing antisemitism.

            “When antisemites spew their hatred, one of the principal duties of an elected official is to stand publicly and emphatically with the intended victim.”

            Rep. Smith is the author of the law that created the Office to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism in the US State Department, as well as the law that established ambassadorial-level leadership of the fight against antisemitism abroad.

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