Yesterday during an interview on MSNBC, Ron Dermer, the Israeli Ambassador to the United States, placed the blame for the attack on both white supremacists and the “radical left,” which is clearly code for BDS activists.

Dermer said:

“One of the big forces in college campuses today is anti-Semitism. And those anti-Semites are usually not neo-Nazis, on college campuses. They’re coming from the radical left. We have to stand against anti-Semitism whether it comes from the right or whether it comes from the left.”

This is a disgusting lie. But it is part and parcel with the recent push by the Israeli government and its supporters in the West to redefine the meaning of antisemitism to include criticism of Israel.

When faced the most blatant example of antisemitic violence imaginable, Dermer can’t bring himself to criticize the actual accomplices who made this violence possible. Donald Trump, who declared himself a “nationalist” earlier in the week, and the forces of white supremacy in this country have created the atmosphere where this type of violence is possible, even predictable. Yet during the MSNBC interview Dermer said Trump is to be praised for his statements on antisemitism, in no large part because the Trump administration has been a strong supporter of the rightwing Netanyahu government that Dermer represents.

This is where Israel finds itself in 2018. The same “nationalist” voices attacking George Soros and the “globalists” are also some of Israel’s greatest supporters in the U.S.

But it’s not just the Israeli government looking to use Pittsburgh.

Writing in the New York Times ADL head Jonathan Greenblatt did the same thing, equating the ideology behind the deadly attack on the 11 American Jews who were killed while praying with criticism of the state of Israel.

The both sidesism in this Greenblatt piece is a disgrace. Head of @ADL_National can't even bring himself to name the Republican party as the chief American exporters of anti-Semitic incitement. pic.twitter.com/gFvJr26Vv0 — immortan joe biden (@benjycannon) October 28, 2018

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach did the same yesterday:

Statement by Rabbi Shmuley Boteach on the Jewish Mass Murder in Pittsburgh pic.twitter.com/yIS4AjRs7i — Rabbi Shmuley (@RabbiShmuley) October 28, 2018

Same with the Israel Project’s Josh Block:

In light of today’s shooting in Pittsburgh, re-upping this thread. It is important to talk about how growing anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism are creating a toxic brew coming from both the fringe right & left. https://t.co/wABZqWSm8O — Josh Block (@JoshBlockDC) October 27, 2018

The murderous rampage at the Tree of Life synagogue had absolutely nothing to do with the struggle for Palestinian rights. And anyone who is telling you there is is shamelessly trying to use the murder of 11 innocent people to further their own racist agenda to dehumanize Palestinians and justify their ongoing oppression by the state of Israel.