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Is RFK, Jr. an antisemite?

Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. delivers a foreign policy speech at St. Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire, June 20, 2023. (Photo: REUTERS/Brian Snyder)

Los Angeles Times columnist, Michael Hiltzik ends his article entitled, “RFK’s COVID claims mired in antisemitic conspiracy," by writing, “Who was listening to him, even before this?”

Here’s the answer: “A lot of us were.” RFK, Jr. attempted to be one of the voices of sanity and truth, during a time when little was known about a virus, to which governmental authorities were overstepping their bounds, by purporting to know more than many physicians who were issuing warnings of danger from an insufficiently untested, experimental vaccine.  

Kennedy’s non-profit organization, The Children’s Health Defense, was founded in 2011 and became the source of well-documented research and information, which was ultimately labeled as misinformation, throughout the COVID years by many social media outlets. Yet some of the brightest medical minds weighed in on his platform, while simultaneously holding big pharma companies, such as Pfizer and Moderna, accountable for making every effort to hide crucial findings behind heavily redacted documents, as well as their refusal to inform the public about crucial safety data for at least 75 years.

Having been forced to endure years of agenda-driven propaganda, from governmental agencies and cowardly doctors, who were either afraid to speak out or just too lazy to ask essential questions, necessitated many of us to look for alternative information. Once found, that information very systematically confirmed what we had all suspected – that the so-called vaccine had not undergone sufficient human testing nor was anyone able to predict long-term effects of multiple vaccine shots, only months apart.

Kennedy was credible because he had previously vaccinated his own children and was not hesitant in stating that he believed in the overall efficacy of vaccinations. The fact that he paid a very heavy price for refusing to go with the flow also added to his credibility. His own family disavowed what he was saying and painted him as the proverbial black sheep of the family, ashamed by his association with them.  

Now, as he makes a bid to run for U.S. president, RFK, Jr., is probably the most despised man and the worst nightmare of the Democratic party because his voice has hit a nerve with so many who believe that he is speaking for them as he continues to substantiate, through some of the best qualified medical doctors and scientists, all of the doubts for which we now have proven justification in many cases. Ironically, his efforts must have been terribly effective or no one would be using the nuclear option of labeling him a racist and an antisemite, two accusations which are sure to immediately cancel anyone, even before determining if they are warranted indictments.

As one cardiologist stated: “Kennedy is leading ‘a propaganda movement’ and ‘absolutely a racist operation’ that is particularly dangerous to the Black community. He’s really the ringleader of the misinformation campaign.” (How a Kennedy built an anti-vaccine juggernaut amid Covid-10, APnews.com, 12/15/21)

It was just a few days ago that Kennedy appeared before the U.S. Congress at a hearing designed to address charges of censorship. Hardly able to refute claims of spewing antisemitism, he was silenced at every turn, barely able to explain that his facts came from someone else’s study he was citing. In the end, Kennedy made it clear that the censorship hearing, itself, was being censored in order to prevent any plausible explanation he might try to render in his defense.

It didn’t matter that he pointed out how he had devoted his life to the same party which was now doing their best to cut him off at the knees. The Kennedy name apparently is no longer sacrosanct to them. While he claimed that there are documents that “show the racial or ethnic differential and impact the vaccines had on individuals, Hiltzik claims that no such evidence exists. Of course, by limiting someone’s ability to speak, we may never know which papers RFK, Jr. was trying to cite or even if he may have misunderstood them.

But given his impressive credentials, and undeniable bravery in coming forward at great personal cost, we probably do owe him the right to be fully heard as it relates to the ethnic claim of how Jews and Chinese are less vulnerable to what he alleges to be a potentially dangerous inoculation.

One thing is for sure, though! RFK, Jr. has made many enemies in high places. The chances of his being allowed to be the Democratic nominee are zero, given that he is an independent thinker who is not for hire by an agenda-driven political machine. But what we do know about the Kennedys, love them or hate them, is that they have always been synonymous with championing the rights of blacks, Jews and other ethnic minorities, throughout their careers. It was, after all, through Ted Kennedy’s efforts, again, love him or hate him, that Russian Jews were able to leave and immigrate to Israel as well as the U.S. 

Taking up the cause for Jews, is somewhat of a departure from Joe Kennedy, Sr., the patriarch of the family, who had been accused of not doing more to stop the Holocaust in his capacity as then U.S. Ambassador to the UK. In fact, it had been said that he had the clout to influence the bombing of the train tracks to Auschwitz but chose not to use his influence. I remember, as a child, hearing that it was that singular act, which brought a curse upon his family as we saw tragedy after tragedy befall them.

Nonetheless, most anyone over age 50 associates the Kennedy name with fighting against antisemitism and racial prejudice of any kind, which makes these claims sound so almost absurd and possibly nothing more than an attempt to libel a man who is no longer in sync with the Democratic party.

Although I’ve never been a great fan of the Kennedys, it seems to me that he will not get a fair shake unless newspapers, like the Jerusalem Post, which have allowed serious accusations to be printed about him, are also willing to provide him ample space to answer those charges. In his defense, when recently appearing on Fox’s Hannity, who inquired about this claim of antisemitism, RFK, Jr. stated that he was merely citing a study funded by NIH which indicated that certain ethnicities were more prone to susceptibility, as in many illnesses, while others were less affected. He further stated that he never suggested that someone purposely designed Covid to preserve certain races. 

This is why it’s so important to allow both sides of a matter to be heard. Such was the position of King Solomon’s position who said, “The one who pleads his case first will seem right until his opponent comes forth to examine him.” (Proverbs 18:17)

Passing judgment on an individual should only be done after hearing their side of a story. In this case, RFK, Jr. has repeatedly stated that nothing in his life has borne witness to his being an antisemite, which includes citing a well-documented study.  

In the end, it’s up to everyone to make up their own mind if he’s being honest or disingenuous, but allowing him to speak would be the best way to figure that out!    

Read more: ANTI SEMITISM

A former Jerusalem elementary and middle-school principal and the granddaughter of European Jews who arrived in the US before the Holocaust. Making Aliyah in 1993, she is retired and now lives in the center of the country with her husband.

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