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In this past year, antisemitism has skyrocketed on the streets and at schools, yet little legislation has been passed to combat it. Certainly, none has come out of Washington.
By ZACH SAGE FOX NOVEMBER 27, 2024 21:57
Highly familiar with the industry. Fox at the Streamy awards.
(photo credit: Courtesy)
It’s a tough Thanksgiving to be thankful as a Jew in America... yet I actually am.
In this past year, antisemitism has skyrocketed on the streets and at schools, yet little legislation has been passed to combat it. Certainly, none has come out of Washington. In this new Congress, however, that very well may change. I’m an independent voter who often splits his ticket and is willing to praise either party for pushing a good idea or critique bad ones.
Yet, it’s clear that Chuck Schumer, as head of a Democrat Senate, had little appetite to fight the Jew hate coming disproportionately from his own party. It's ironic since he’s the highest-ranking Jew in Capitol Hill history. Then again, Jews are known for having differing opinions. I mean, the most famous one ever started his own religion... but I digress.
Although this is an opinion article, sadly, that last statement about the Senate is a fact. The Republican-controlled House passed a historic bill called the Antisemitism Awareness Act, often referred to as the "anti-Zionism is antisemitism" bill, last spring, aimed at finally ripping the mask off Jew-haters. In this case, their Kafias and N-95 masks. These are people using a phony disdain for the single Jewish state as a cover-up for hating the Jewish people at large.
It came after weeks of college antisemitism hearings, one where my own viral report, “Gaza Graduation,” was played as a testimony for three of the university presidents on trial. However, months after that, the Senate has refused to touch the bill. A shameful state of affairs since I actually think Biden might have signed it.
What the split US government did get right this past year, though, was the TikTok ban. It was a rare display of bipartisanship passed by a divided D.C., and I nearly teared up when I read the headlines. As someone who has spent the last year interviewing Gen Zers about the war in Israel, it quickly became clear the common denominator of their empty rage was coming from the CCP-controlled app, now in well over half their hands.
TikTok's role in spreading anti-Israel sentiment
Personally, I had built up an impressive following there with over a million fans after COVID by posting videos with my dog and interviewing people about mental health and hot topics on the street. The second I started posting about Israel, however, my views immediately plummeted.
It wasn’t the content, though—it was the platform. The evidence was clear, as the same videos I began making to fight antisemitism and anti-Zionism were getting tens of millions of views on every other social media platform, All owned by American companies and where my following was minuscule in comparison. Since October 7, 2023, however, I haven’t had a video break more than a few thousand views on TikTok.
Not one. China is helping its anti-West allies, like Iran, brainwash our country’s youngest minds to hate Israel and America at large. It’s doing this intentionally, and our government waited way too long to fight back. Interestingly, it was actually Trump who first proposed the ban during the 2020 election, and it may have been his smartest pitch to the country yet. Unfortunately, he has since waffled on his original stance for reasons that aren’t quite clear, except that Biden is the one who signed it.
Oy.
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This app needs to be banned or sold to an American company like yesterday, and today I am thankful that clock is finally TikToking down. By January 19th, 2025, coincidentally, or perhaps intentionally, Biden’s last day in office, the one-year deadline will be hit, and our youth will be free from what has been the largest-scale misinformation campaign in media history. One that purposefully makes Osama Bin Laden’s “Letter to America” go viral while suppressing Israeli voices standing up for the only democracy in the Middle East.
One that helps “Gays for Gaza” climb the algorithms while suppressing the truth that they’d be thrown off a roof in Gaza. And yes, even one that lets Hamas terrorists raise money on TikTok-live while letting Holocaust denialism flourish like wildfire — as I saw in my newest viral video, where I brought a Holocaust survivor to confront Gen Z Holocaust deniers on the streets of NYC.
According to The Economist, one in five young Americans now thinks the Holocaust didn’t happen. It would be more shocking to me, but then again, I’ve spent a lot of time on TikTok.
So whether you’re reading this from the States or Israel, Jews and our democratic allies around the world should be thankful now that the most hateful app in history will finally be banned from millions of young Americans or divested from China.
The only caveat is that President-elect Trump said on the 2024 campaign trail he may now try to reverse it. Will he? Can he? Only time will tell. But I’m trying to be thankful that if he does, his new oh-so-pro-Israel cabinet will push back. His choice of State Secretary, Marco Rubio, pushed for the ban vehemently. His future UN Ambassador, Elise Stefanik, also gave it her rubber stamp and has arguably been the fiercest fighter against college antisemitism in the country.
And his pick for Ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, has called TikTok a major national security risk and tool for the Chinese Communist Party to spy on young Americans. There are many other apps Trump can use to do his signature T-Rex arm dance, but only one is being used to intentionally destroy our country from the inside. Turning our most vulnerable young minds into terrorist-loving, Jew-hating loons not dissimilar from modern-day Nazi Youths.
I’m thankful I was able to build a following on TikTok, but I’d be more thankful if it is taken out of China’s control so we can stop GenZ from becoming Gen-Zombies. Ones who are called to love Jihad and hate Jews. If that means losing it entirely, so be it. And if anyone who is reading this knows the 47th president, please show him my many videos exposing TikTok’s CCP-mind-control on college students and remind him it was his idea to ban the app in the first place.
Trump loves being told he was right, and on this issue, he was... even before native Influencers like myself could see it. I’m trying to be thankful that Mr. Trump will keep the ban in place and inspire the rest of The West to follow America’s brave course of action.
English (US) ·