“A hatred of Israel is the one thing all anti-Semites have in common… The [shooter] hadn’t cooked up his ugly ideas reading ‘Mein Kampf’ in a cabin in the deep wilderness of Red America, but in a comfortable home in Southern California using the internet. The shooter wasn’t raised under the shadow of a Robert E. Lee statue or a Confederate flag, but in a substantially diverse area in a deeply liberal state… The shooter’s manifesto makes clear that he didn’t kill because of Donald Trump or some alleged dog whistle or a New York Times cartoon or any concerted ideological cause other than racial hatred.”
David Harsanyi, The Federalist

At the same time, “the distance between the offices of The New York Times international edition and the Chabad synagogue in San Diego, which a gunman attacked on Saturday, is growing smaller as the reach of the internet is growing larger…

“Jews have been killed by extremist right wingers and by extremist Muslims, but not by hard left haters, at least not yet. Why focus so much attention on the ‘benign’ anti-Semitism of anti-Israel extremists on the hard left? For one obvious important reason: The violent anti-Semitism of the hard right, as represented by the murders of Jews at prayer in San Diego and Pittsburgh, is universally condemned by all decent people, including conservatives. The ‘benign’ anti-Semitism of the hard left, which often is disguised as anti-Zionism, [gets] a pass from many liberals.”
Alan Dershowitz, The Hill

“Here was an image that, in another age, might have been published in the pages of Der Stürmer. The Jew in the form of a dog. The small but wily Jew leading the dumb and trusting American. The hated Trump being Judaized with a skullcap. The nominal servant acting as the true master. The cartoon checked so many anti-Semitic boxes that the only thing missing was a dollar sign…

“[But] the problem with the cartoon isn’t that its publication was a willful act of anti-Semitism. It wasn’t. The problem is that its publication was an astonishing act of ignorance of anti-Semitism — and that, at a publication that is otherwise hyper-alert to nearly every conceivable expression of prejudice, from mansplaining to racial microaggressions to transphobia.”
Bret Stephens, New York Times

“If the Times management was as horrified by the international edition’s transgression as they should be, they would engage in the same deep repentance — meaning a sincere and articulated apology combined with a commitment to change — that the paper would demand of other publications (particularly conservative) that committed similar wrongdoing… the paper should explain in detail how the cartoon came to be published. It should explain what — if any — disciplinary actions were taken against those that made the decision to print it, and what steps the paper is taking to ensure there are no repeat performances.”
Wesley J. Smith, National Review