Analysis

‘If I Were A Jew’: Google’s Diversity Head Compared Jews To Nazis In 2007 Blog Post

   DailyWire.com
BERLIN, GERMANY - MAY 31: The Google logo is seen on a yamulke hanging at the Jewish Museum as part of the exhibition 'The Whole Truth: Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Jews' on May 31, 2013 in Berlin, Germany.
Adam Berry/Getty Images

Kamau Bobb, according to his website, is the “Global Lead for Diversity Strategy and Research at Google.” Among several listed areas of focus, Bobb refers to an interest in “the structural conditions that influence contemporary American life.”

Unfortunately, part of this “contemporary American life” appears to include rampant and unapologetic anti-Semitism.

As reported by The Daily Wire, Bobb wrote a blog post in 2007 in which he stated Jews have an “insatiable appetite for war and killing,” adding that Israel had an “insatiable appetite for vengeful violence.”

The post, titled “If I Were A Jew,” was still available on his website as of Wednesday morning.

“If I were a  Jew today, my sensibilities would be tormented.  I would find it increasingly difficult to reconcile the long cycles of oppression that Jewish people have endured and the insatiable appetite for vengeful violence that Israel, my homeland, has now acquired,” Bobb began. 

Throughout the post, Bobb compared Kristallnacht to the actions of the Israeli military in Lebanon and Gaza. “I don’t know how I would reconcile that identity with the behavior of fundamentalist Jewish extremists or of Israel as a nation,” he wrote, before adding, “It would be unconscionable to me to watch Israeli tanks donning the Star of David rumbling through Ramallah destroying buildings and breaking the glass.”

He then proceeded to dilute — as a hypothetical Jew — the Jewish claim to the land of Israel.

“My faith would lead me to believe that Israel is the homeland of my people,” Bobb said. “My intellect would convince me that it cannot be that simple,” he continued, before arguably justifying the terrorist actions of anti-Israel Islamic groups.

“The faith and reason of the Palestinians or of Muslims cannot simply be baseless.  I would have to believe that the degree of animus, vengeance and violence that they now carry is not rooted in their identity, but rather in their experience; in the sordid nation shuffling and rebuilding that took place after World War II.  It must be rooted in their hurt, in their sense of displacement, abandonment and hopelessness,” he added.

“My reflections on Kristallnacht would lead me to feel that these are precisely the human sentiments that I as Jew would understand; that I ought to understand and feel compelled to help alleviate.  It cannot be that the sum total of a history of suffering and slaughter places such a premium on my identity that I would be willing to damn others in defense of it,” Bobb concluded. “If I were a Jew I would be concerned about my insatiable appetite for war and killing in defense of myself.  Self defense is undoubtedly an instinct, but I would be afraid of my increasing insensitivity to the suffering others.  My greatest torment would be that I’ve misinterpreted the identity offered  by my history and transposed spiritual and human compassion with self righteous impunity.”

According to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, examples of anti-Semitism include “Accusing Jews as a people of being responsible for real or imagined wrongdoing committed by a single Jewish person or group, or even for acts committed by non-Jews,” “Holding Jews collectively responsible for actions of the state of Israel,” and “Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis.” Bobb is guilty of all three.

Accusing Jews as a people of being responsible for real or imagined wrongdoing committed by a single Jewish person or group, or even for acts committed by non-Jews

Bobb argued that Jews should “find it increasingly difficult to reconcile the long cycles of oppression that Jewish people have endured and the insatiable appetite for vengeful violence that Israel,” their “homeland,” has “now acquired.” This directly implies that Jews should feel responsible for the actions of Israel — which Bobb assumes to be abhorrent, with no mention of the terrorist acts committed against Israel — simply because of their shared religion.

Holding Jews collectively responsible for actions of the state of Israel

In a similar fashion, by arguing that Jews should be sympathetic and compassionate for the so-called “victims” of Israel’s actions, and expecting their “greatest torment [to] be that [they’ve] misinterpreted the identity offered by [their] history and transposed spiritual and human compassion with self righteous impunity,” Bobb is effectively blaming Jews for the actions of Israel.

Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis

This example of anti-Semitism is perhaps the most egregiously obvious, given that Bobb draws a parallel between Kristallnacht — while writing on the anniversary of the 1938 pogrom committed throughout Nazi Germany, no less — and “Israeli tanks donning the Star of David rumbling through Ramallah destroying buildings and breaking the glass.”

***

On November 30, 2007, Kamau Bobb was an outspoken and virulent anti-Semite. As of June 2, 2021, he is Google’s head of diversity.

Yet again, Jews don’t count when it comes to “diversity,” it seems.

Ian Haworth is an Editor and Writer for The Daily Wire. Follow him on Twitter at @ighaworth.

The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

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