By Joel B. Pollak
Article Source

Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, one of the most powerful labor unions in the country, accused Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) of antisemitism for proposing an amendment targeting “Soros backed prosecutors.”

Rubio was referring to the dozens of prosecutors who have been elected with financial help from left-wing billionaire George Soros and who have pursued a radical “criminal justice reform” agenda that has often seen repeat, violent offenders released.

Soros has acknowledged his own role in defending these prosecutors in a recent Wall Street Journal op-ed, claiming that the fact that black people are more likely to be jailed than white people is itself a reason to be more lenient about urban crime.

Rubio’s amendment was one of several offered by Republicans in the “vote-a-rama” of amendments on the so-called Inflation Reduction Act, which spends on climate change and raises taxes on corporations, while likely having little effect on inflation.

Weingarten tweeted that Rubio’s reference to Soros-backed prosecutors was antisemitic because Soros is a “Hungarian Jew who survived the Holocaust.”

Soros’s experience in the Holocaust has been the subject of some controversy. Nevertheless, the claim that merely attacking Soros is antisemitic has been thoroughly debunked, especially given his support for anti-Israel groups.

Weingarten went even further, claiming that Rubio’s criticism of Soros was antisemitic because it took place on a Jewish fast day:

Tisha B’Av, or the Ninth Day of Av, commemorates the destruction of the two Holy Temples, first by the Babylonians and then by the Romans. It is a fast observed by religious Jews but is not widely known or observed outside the community.

Biblical and historical sources note that the Temples were not destroyed because of “hatred of Jews” in the contemporary sense. Rather, the Jewish Sages cite hatred within the community, and religious and political corruption, as primary causes.

Weingarten did not say whether she was fasting herself.

Rubio enjoys strong support from the pro-Israel community and Jewish Republicans.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) recently suspended a “woke” local district attorney, Andrew Warren of Hillsborough County, for unilaterally refusing to enforce state laws barring transgender surgeries for minors and restrictions on abortion.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.