Christine Flowers: Meet two sides of the antisemitic coin, left and right

I’ve received a few letters from readers over the past few weeks asking me why I keep writing about antisemitism. One was a simple question, with no negative intent. The others run the gamut between “stop carrying water for the Jews” to “anti-Zionism isn’t Jew hatred so stop it” to “you’re a two-note moron: abortion and the Jews.”

That’s not surprising, and I don’t take it as an insult since it means that people are doing what I always hope they’ll do: read my opinions. But I have to admit, I’d love to write about something else, like the Philadelphia Flower Show, or my hatred of daylight saving time, or the Oscars.

But like Michael Corleone in that horrific third installment of “The Godfather,” just when I think I’m out of it, they pull me back in.

This time it was primarily the wife of New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani who did the heavy lifting, or pulling, as it were. Rama Duwaji, who identifies as an artist and is Syrian-American, has been exposed as a Jew-hater of the highest order, having liked dozens of posts that celebrated the mass murder perpetrated by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023.

Duwaji, who has been featured on a number of magazine covers since her move to Gracie Mansion, has had a relatively undistinguished professional career, which is probably why her husband called her a “private citizen.” She is so private, hardly anyone outside of New York knows who she is.

But the Gaza Groupies, the sick cheerleaders of a death cult, know her well. She has thrown emotional support to their cause, celebrating the rape and murder of women and children with a flick of her New York finger.

I criticized her on X in a post that got almost 20,000 likes, so it wasn’t an entirely bad week. She is, as Maya Angelou said, telling us who she is, and millions of us believe her. And her hubby is quite wrong to give her a pass on her Jew hatred. She may be an insignificant artiste-wannabe, but no “private” citizen gets to live rent free at the public’s expense. With Mrs. Mamdani in residence, it should be called Disgracie Mansion.

And of course, she refuses to apologize.

Another woman who refuses to say she’s sorry is Megyn Kelly. Many readers would be shocked at my comparing Catholic “conservative” podcaster Megyn with Rama Dujawi. It’s true there are significant differences. The former Fox News superstar is arguably intelligent whereas Zohran’s little strudel doesn’t give off smart vibes. Megyn is accomplished, has several degrees and doesn’t mistake crayon posters for art. But they have this in common: They both refuse to apologize for their despicable treatment of the country’s Jewish population.

Rama is the more obvious one, as noted above, joyously celebrating the 21st century Holocaust of October 7th. There is no mistaking her political and moral views on the topic.

Megyn, because she’s smarter, is more subtle. She does not openly spout antisemitic rhetoric and has a paper trail of saying the right things about her Jewish friends (most of them now former) in the pod sphere. But she refuses to condemn raging Jew-haters like Candace Owens and Tucker Carlson, cozies up to people who platform antisemites like Piers Morgan and mocks the very legitimate concerns of more authentic commentators like Ben Shapiro and her once ride-or-die Dave Rubin. Even Sean Hannity, who is no one’s idea of a liberal, and some of her erstwhile podcast guests like Bethany Mandel have jumped off of the Kelly express, wondering what happened to her.

And when people point it out, begging her to come to her senses she doubles down by saying she’d rather die than condemn Candace, the woman who has compared Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Satan.

Rama and Megyn are opposite sides of the same coin. Mrs. Mamdani represents the absolute worst of the pro-Hamas left, trying to cloak their embrace of terrorism and hatred of Jews behind a facade of human rights. Rama cares deeply about Gazan babies who are victims of their parents’ tragic political choices but has no concern for murdered Israeli toddlers whose only crime was being born Jewish.

Megyn is the much prettier but equally lethal face of right-wing antisemitism, a philosophy that hides its bigotry behind what it pretends is legitimate criticism of Israel or America First isolationism.

This country should shun both of them, and the movements they represent.

This column was originally published in the Delco Times.

Christine Flowers can be reached at cflowers1961@gmail.com.