Valerie Plame had to know what she was tweeting. Plame retweeted a virulently antisemitic article by a well-known bigot, which she characterized as “thoughtful.” Now she’s trying to make excuses, but they don’t wash.

The article itself, by Phillip Giraldi, contains the usual antisemitic tropes: Jews are guilty of dual loyalty; they control politicians, the media, and entertainment; they want the US to fight wars for the country to which they have real allegiance – Israel; they are dangerous to America. Giraldi has been pushing this garbage for years and Plame is one of his fans.

But this particular article goes much further in its neo-Nazi imagery. It advocates that the “The media should be required to label [Jews like Bill Kristol] at the bottom of the television screen whenever they pop up… That would be kind of like a warning label on a bottle of rat poison – translating roughly as ingest even the tiniest little dosage of the nonsense spewed by Bill Kristol at your own peril.”

In other words, Jewish supporters of Israel, like Kristol and me, should have to wear the modern day equivalent of a yellow star before we are allowed to appear on TV and poison real Americans. Nice stuff that Plame was retweeting and characterizing as thoughtful.

This was not the first time Plame retweeted Giraldi’s garbage. In 2014, she retweeted one of his screeds with the following notation: “Well put.” And after tweeting the current antisemitic article she described it as: “Yes, very provocative, but thoughtful. Many neocon hawks ARE Jewish. Ugh.” Nor is this the only time that Plame has retweeted other nonsense from the bigoted platform this piece came from – a platform regarding which she has pleaded ignorance. According to journalist Yashar Ali, Plame has tweeted at least eight other articles from the same website since 2014. Sounds like she is into some strange websites.

I actually read the Philip Giraldi article before I was aware of the Plame tweet. I read it on a neo-Nazi website, where Giraldi’s articles are frequently featured. That’s where Giraldi’s articles belong – on overtly antisemitic neo-Nazi websites. For Plame, a former CIA operative, to claim that she was unaware of the antisemitic content of Giraldi’s article is disingenuous. Plame had to know what she was doing since she was aware of Giraldi’s bigotry. Her apologies ring hollow. Her true feelings were revealed in what she said before she realized that she would be widely condemned for her original retweet.

She must now do more than apologize. She must explain how she came upon the article. Who sent it to her? Does she regularly read bigoted websites? Why is she reading and retweeting a known antisemite? What are her own personal views regarding the content of the Giraldi’s article?

The Plame incident reflects a broader problem about which I have written. There is a growing tolerance for antisemitism. Even when some people themselves do not harbor these feelings, they are willing to support those who do, as long as the antisemites are on their side of the political spectrum. This is an unacceptable approach, especially in the post-Holocaust era. Unfortunately, Valerie Plame is the poster child for this growing tolerance. She must be called out on it, as most others who follow the same path of bigotry.

The problem exists both on the hard Right and the hard Left. Both extremist groups see the world in racial, ethnic and religious terms. Both engage in identity politics: the hard Left gives more weight to the views of certain minorities, while the hard Right gives less weight to the views of these same minorities. Both are equally guilty of reductionism and stereotyping. Neither group is prepared to judge individuals on their individual merits and demerits. Both insist on judging entire groups and on stereotyping.

American Jews – like other Americans – are deeply divided on important issues, such as the Iran deal, the current prospects for peace between the Israelis and Palestinians, and the Trump administration’s foreign policies. To generalize about “Jews” is both factually and morally wrong.

What the hard Right and hard Left share in common is special bigotry toward Jews: the neo-Nazi Right hates the Jewish People, and the hard Left hates the nation-state of the Jewish People and those Jews who support it. Both views are bigoted and must not become acceptable among centrist liberals and conservatives.

Reprinted with author’s permission from The Jerusalem Post