President 'Sugarcoats' Terrorism

The following is a letter to the editor that I wrote, which appears in the current edition of The Jewish Week:

President ‘Sugarcoats’ Terrorism

Wed, 02/25/2015

N. Aaron Troodler

The important sentiments expressed by Gary Rosenblatt in his column last week, “First Step To Defeating Terror: Call It What It Is,” were right on the mark. As Jews in the United States, we are privileged to enjoy the religious protections afforded to us by the U.S. Constitution and are fortunate to be able to openly practice our faith without fear of reprisal. That being said, it behooves all of us to recognize that terrorist attacks targeting Jews in Europe are on the rise and the brazen anti-Semitism being exhibited in European countries is becoming rather commonplace.

Although I understand President Obama’s reluctance to impugn the entire Muslim religion, I cannot comprehend how he can in good conscience sugarcoat acts of terror perpetrated by Islamic extremists and downplay the violence that is aimed at Jews solely because they are Jews. When it comes to targeting Jews, there is no degree of randomness, as suggested by President Obama.

If it looks like anti-Semitism and feels like anti-Semitism, we need to readily acknowledge that it is indeed anti-Semitism. We cannot shy away from confronting anti-Semitism whenever and wherever it rears its ugly head and we are certainly not going to win the war against anti-Semitic terror if we cannot even admit that there is a battle that we need to fight.

Teaneck, N.J.

The writer is a publicist for the National Council of Young Israel.