What does Biden admin mean for antisemitism, Israel, tech industry?

• Published date: 15 June 2021
• Date: 15 June 2021
• Author: YONAH JEREMY BOB
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

The new strategy clearly represents an increased commitment of financial, intelligence and law enforcement resources to counter domestic terror groups, including antisemitic groups and some involved in the January 6 Capitol riots.

Groups like the Anti-Defamation League strongly support the new strategy and heightened government efforts to expand the battle against antisemitism in both the physical and digital worlds.

On the other hand, the Biden administration has delayed decisions on many core issues concerning domestic terrorism, fearing the blowback of criticism for impinging on free speech and other rights.

In fact, many of the practices the Biden administration is still unsure about on handling provocative social media posts, like data mining to profile individuals, are practices which the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) adopted as early as the 2015-2016 Knife Intifada.

In addition, Israel passed a counter-terrorism law in 2016 re-defining as more serious crimes a wide array of actions which support terrorism so as not to allow persons who help form a terror network escape prosecution simply because they did not pull the trigger during a shooting.

The Biden administration is still undecided about whether passing a similar law to define domestic terrorism in broad terms is necessary and worth the risks to Americans' civil liberties.

In a statement, US President Joe Biden said, "Domestic terrorism – driven by hate, bigotry, and other forms of extremism— is a stain on the soul of America. It goes against everything our country strives for and it poses a direct challenge to our national security, democracy, and unity."

Biden stated that the new strategy "lays out a comprehensive approach to protecting our nation from domestic terrorism while safeguarding our bedrock civil rights and civil liberties – values that make us who we are as Americans."

"We have to take both short-term steps to counter the very real threats of today and longer-term measures to diminish the drivers that will contribute to this ongoing challenge to our democracy," said Biden.

Unlike Israel, the US has a constitution, and the constitution places firmer limits on what the state can do, even in the areas of national security.

In contrast, since Israel has no constitution and has been in a state of perpetual conflict with various neighbors, the laws and culture empower the state to take much more drastic measures to fight terror, even impinging...