JTA — As news broke over the weekend of an arson attack that heavily damaged the only synagogue in Jackson, Mississippi, a few prominent individuals connected the culprit to anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian activism.

“This is a major tragedy. But it’s more than that,” Deborah Lipstadt, formerly the US State Department’s special envoy to combat antisemitism, wrote on the social network X. “It’s an arson attack and another step in the globalization of the intifada.”

Later, upon learning that the arsonist appeared to have been motivated by a strain of antisemitism associated with the far right, not the anti-Israel movement, she walked back her comments — to a degree. But Lipstadt’s initial comments about the arsonist’s motives reflect a larger sense of disorientation among diaspora Jews as they face increased levels of antisemitism from across the spectrum of left-wing, right-wing, and Islamist extremism.

Jewish activists and communities have been engaged in fierce debate over which corner poses the greatest threat, and reports of new incidents are often met with immediate speculation over the attacker’s motivations. Lipstadt, an Emory University professor who had served in the State Department under US president Joe Biden, has herself criticized the politicization of antisemitism charges. “When you only see it on the other side of the political transom,” she told the Los Angeles Times in 2024, “I have to ask: Are you interested in fighting antisemitism, or was your main objective to beat up on your enemies?”

“Globalize the Intifada” is a term commonly used in left-wing, anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian protests. Most of the perpetrators of the large-scale antisemitic attacks in the diaspora since the October 7, 2023, Hamas massacre in Israel — including in Washington, DC; Boulder, Colorado; Bondi Beach, Australia; and the arson attack on Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro’s home — have made their anti-Israel and/or Islamist affiliations public.

But when the identity of the Jackson arsonist was revealed, and the suspect appeared in court, his comments and social media presence betrayed no obvious link to the anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian........

© The Times of Israel