David Burck, a Republican challenger to Representative Lois Frankel (D-FL) in the 22nd congressional district, discussed the troubling rise of antisemitism in a podcast appearance.
Appearing on Glen Fetzner's Vision and Voice at the end of February, Burck discussed his candidacy for office and his positions on various issues.
Near the end of the podcast, Fetzner asked Burck about the relationship between Israel and the United States.
"So that kind of pulls a few different ways, right?" Burck answers, "I mean, you have to believe that Israel does have a right to defend itself, right? Fundamentally, Israel is our greatest ally there in the Middle East."
Burck pointed out that not only do Israel and the United States share intelligence, but Israeli biotech is beneficial to the U.S., a fact to which he could personally attest, as an Israeli company supplied his young son with special shoes that corrected a deformity in his foot.
Moreover, Burck said that "from a believer's perspective, I know that if— let's say if Jerusalem was under full Palestinian [Muslim] control, I would not be able to go to where the Last Supper was. I would not be able to go to see any of the sites where Jesus walked."
Where his stance might rankle some voters is when he describes the rise of antisemitism in the United States as "a current of people who are disenfranchised, whether they're chronically online or they feel like they don't have hope, so they look at a group that's very successful, such as Jewish people, and they want to point to them as the Boogeyman," which will be interpreted by many as granting antisemitism merit, or echoing the ongoing marginalizing and antisemitic tropes that have been used against the Jewish community.
Additionally, he described himself as "weary" on legislation to combat hate speech, further saying, "it's not going to be comfortable, and I might get pushback on it."
He's right. Burck will get bipartisan pushback from the likes of Reps. Randy Fine and just about every single Republican lawmaker for saying that he is "weary" about supporting congressional legislation to combat hate speech or antisemitism.
Supporting efforts to combat hate speech is supported throughout the entire Republican caucus in the House of Representatives, and Burck appears to be making the case for being an antisemitism apologist.
Still, Burck was denouncing antisemitism, having said that the best way to combat it is to "come out and support the Jewish community," which he further said "has been nothing but fantastic for me and fantastic for this country."
