Anti-Semitism is back in the news, thanks to our Somali-American Congresswoman, Ms. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota. For argument’s sake, let’s assume for a moment that there are Jewish people who are making trouble, or fitting some negative narrative. For example, I had a really stingy and strong-armed landlord when I lived in Newark, and he totally fit the stereotype of a NY-NJ Orthodox Jewish slumlord. Would that justify anti Semitism?

The answer is no, and here’s why. I’m going to approach this matter from a purely humanitarian perspective.

Even if some people who belong to ANY ethnic group are making trouble, or fitting some negative narrative, it's completely and totally unacceptable and apolitic to blame THE ENTIRE PEOPLE. To blame all of them, and then to hate all of them, because of the actions of a few. That’s true for Jews, for Blacks, for immigrant groups, and even for foreign nationals accused of terrorism and hating America. It’s true across the board. If a few Irishmen are indeed drunk, is it fair to denigrate them all as a bunch of damn and useless drunken Irishmen? Of course not.

That is why anti-Semitism is wrong. It's not because the Israeli political figures in Israel have never made a mistake. I would never take that position. Otzma Yehudit is an anti-Arab political party in Israel, which allegedly has ties to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Their party platform calls for outlawing sexual intercourse or marriage between Jews and Arabs. I have no problem criticizing that.

We are conservatives. We have to ask ourselves: “Do we believe in the principles of personal responsibility, or do we believe in politically correct speech codes and identity politics.” It’s that simple. People are responsible for their own personal behavior. They are not responsible for the behavior of others of their race, religion, or ethnicity. That is a core conservative perspective. And if everyone thought that way, there would be no racism and no prejudice. There would be no anti-Semitism, and millions of people would not have been slaughtered in the Holocaust.

The best way to address Ms. Omar’s controversial and anti-Semitic statements is simply to cite the principles of personal responsibility, and explain conservative values. If Ms. Omar were a conservative, she would not have made those anti-Semitic statements. She would have understood that groups (including Jews) are not collectively responsible for the bad behavior of a few; and instead each individual is personally responsible for what they say or do.

This means that the U.S. Congress should NOT pass a Resolution condemning anti-Semitism, either with or without citing her by name.

This blogger has taken a strong position against identity politics and speech codes. We’ve said that these are classic tactics of the Far Left, straight from the playbook of Saul Alinsky. He was Jewish, by the way. We want politics to be open and honest, and free from all the hate mongering. At the top of our website home page, its says prominently: “End the Political Hate Game of Left Versus Right”.

We find it disturbing that conservatives are embracing these tactics of speech codes and identity politics on the matter of Ms. Omar.

You couldn't criticize a hair on Barack Obama's head, or a dot on his birth certificate, without being labeled a racist. That was a Speech Code. Speech Codes are all over college campuses on gender-neutral and LGBTQ matters, and against any form of conservative speech. We've been denouncing it. They have a chilling effect on Freedom of Speech, and they stifle open and honest discussion.

Speech codes fuel the vicious cycle of identity politics. But now the Right wants to embrace the same tactic, that someone cannot say a word against Israel or a Jew without being branded an anti-Semite. It’s all way too politically correct.

Neither anti-Semitism nor politically correct speech codes are acceptable. We cannot go down the road of embracing the very brand of identity politics that we abhor.