Israel and Hamas war reveals ugly antisemitism in America. It's scary to see.

On Tuesday, 900 Metro Detroit residents flew on chartered planes to participate in the March for Israel at the nation’s capital. All they wanted to do was show their support for Israel and call for the release of the more than 200 hostages held by the terrorist group Hamas.

They also wanted to stand against the rise in antisemitism and incidents of violence against Jews since Hamas attacked Israel and slaughtered more than 1,200 people on Oct. 7. Nearly 300,000 people from around the country showed up Tuesday to support Israel.

That message is desperately needed. Case in point: Many in the group from Michigan didn’t get any farther than the tarmac of the airport outside Washington ... because of antisemitism.

The buses arranged by the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit to take the group from Dulles International Airport to the National Mall didn’t show up. Why? Because once the drivers found out who they were picking up, they called in “sick.”

You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to figure out what happened.

“This was a peaceful march, with nothing negative or violent, just an attempt to share our values and viewpoint in a normal American way,” Mark Miller, senior rabbi at Temple Beth El in Bloomfield Township, told the Detroit Free Press. “And we were prevented from doing that by people who harbor hatred of us.”

Antisemitism on campus: Jewish Cornell students are afraid. So much for college diversity, equity and inclusion.

Not an isolated incident

It would be bad enough if this were an isolated incident. But it’s not. It’s part of a much bigger trend that must have been brewing for a long time.

Earlier this month, a Jewish-owned New York City coffee shop nearly had to shut its doors after most of its baristas quit because of the business’ support of Israel. It was heartening, however, to see the Jewish community’s response. Many volunteered to work shifts and others stood in line around the block to buy something.

Last month, an ice cream shop owned by a Jewish woman was vandalized in San Francisco. The perpetrators broke out the store’s front windows and left pro-Palestinian and antisemitic graffiti.

Since Hamas attacked and killed innocent civilians last month, the impulse at colleges (including top ones like Harvard and Cornell) was for students and professors to blame Israel. Jewish students at many U.S. universities don’t feel safe.

Harvard loses its way: Harvard for Hamas? Something is very twisted on America's university campuses

Our society constantly pits one group against another, whether it’s dealing with race, sex or gender. It’s a big part of what conservatives mean when they talk about “woke” ideology in classrooms and workplaces.

In this worldview, there is always an oppressor – and those they are purportedly oppressing. Today’s young people have bought into the argument that Israelis are the oppressors – the “colonizers” of Gaza and the Palestinians who live there.

In a culture where discrimination is supposedly taboo and diversity, equity and inclusion is echoed everywhere, it’s startling how easily people justify their open discrimination against Jews.

Antisemitism is on the rise

Last month, FBI Director Christopher Wray told senators that antisemitism is reaching “historic levels” in America after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel, and that Jewish Americans are now much more likely to be the target of religious-based hate crimes.

Jewish students are being vilified. When will our allies stand up to antisemitism?

Similarly, Anti-Defamation League Director and CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said recently that there has been a 388% increase in antisemitic incidents in America since last month.

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U.S. Muslims also have reported a sharp increase in threats and bias. The Council on American-Islamic Relations reported receiving more than three times as many complaints about bias and requests for help from Muslim Americans from Oct. 7 to Nov. 4 than during a normal month.

Even a member of Congress recently got in trouble for antisemitic remarks. Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib, who is Palestinian American, earned a rare censure from her colleagues, including fellow Democrats, for repeating a slogan that is a “rallying cry for the destruction of the State of Israel and genocide of the Jewish people.”

It’s alarming to see this kind of antisemitism on display so broadly in this country. It must be called out for what it is.

Ingrid Jacques is a columnist at USA TODAY. Contact her at [email protected] or on X, formerly Twitter: @Ingrid_Jacques

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Antisemitism surges in US. Why can't we do better as a nation?