Two weeks after his client, President Donald Trump, described Jews working in real estate as “brutal killers,” Rudy Giuliani cast blame on New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio for a recent wave of anti-Semitic attacks.
De Blasio blamed hate “emanating from Washington.”
Hate-crime violence is at a 16-year high across the nation, the FBI reported in November. There were 13 suspected anti-Semitic attacks in New York in the last few weeks, including six in New York City last week. On Saturday, five people were injured — two critically — when a man burst into a rabbi’s home in the suburb of Monsey and began slashing at a crowd gathered there for a Hanukkah celebration.
Last week, Giuliani, who was raised a Catholic, claimed to be “more of a Jew” than liberal philanthropist George Soros, who survived the Holocaust. On Sunday, he took to Twitter to blame de Blasio for not doing enough to stop anti-Semitic attacks:
Giuliani also faulted de Blasio for not enforcing a form of law enforcement known as the “Broken Windows” theory, which involves cracking down on minor offenses to set a standard to stave off larger crimes. Critics of this strategy say it results in aggressive over-policing of minority communities.
De Blasio blamed the recent attacks on “an atmosphere of hate that has been developing the last few years. A lot of it is emanating from Washington, and it’s having an effect on all of us.” On Sunday, he announced a series of new measures to protect New Yorkers from such attacks, including stepped-up police patrols in three Brooklyn neighborhoods and school lessons to battle hate.
“People in the community will see our officers present in front of houses of worship and out on the streets. We have to give people a sense of security, and we have to show that this horrible trend we’ve seen over the last weeks will be stopped dead in its tracks,” De Blasio said.
In a tweet, Trump called the Monsey attack “horrific”:
Jewish groups denounced Trump earlier this month for using anti-Semitic tropes. He called some Jews in the real estate industry “brutal killers; not nice people at all.” He told attendees at the Israeli American Council National Summit in Florida: “Some of you I don’t like at all, actually.” He also insisted that Jewish voters nevertheless will vote for him to protect their wealth.
“Donald Trump has tried to stir up hate and division in our country,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said Sunday at a campaign rally in Iowa per The Washington Post. “You can never draw the line straight from one place to another. But he has embraced hatred and unkindness among our people in ways that put Americans at risk.”
