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Notes -
I don't know whether to believe Vivek or the DeSantis stand about the anti-anti-Semitism bill. I trust you guys. Anyone wanna take a crack at it?
The bulk of anti-Israel criticism in American politics has been from the hard left since at least the late 1970s. Most Republicans strongly support Israel and even on the hard right there’s a general ambivalence until you reach the Nick Fuentes tier.
So pro-Israel activists found it very easy to approach red state politicians with the argument that criminalizing “antisemitism” based on a definition under which criticism of Israel‘s existence is antisemitic essentially provided a way of weaponizing ‘hate speech’ against the progressive / leftist college activists they dislike. Meanwhile, the left would be hard pressed to vote against a bill that increases charges against those harassing people because of their faith, especially after the Muslim ban etc etc.
The law is extremely tuned specifically to the above college speech concerns. It makes harassing or ‘intimidating’ someone because of their religious beliefs a third degree felony. Who is showing up and harassing or intimidating attendees to a college talk by another Israeli ex-diplomat about why Palestinians are terrorists? It probably isn’t the local college chapter of the Proud Boys or the local Groyper Association. It’s the Socialist Society, the LGBTQIA2S association, the Students for Justice in Palestine club, Jewish Voice for Peace and the Islamic Students’ Association. Conservatives don’t usually picket talks by people they dislike in any case, and where the far-right criticize Jews, it typically has little to do with either Zionism or their religious practice.
Given the above, it seems pretty easily understandable why DeSantis and others signed these laws. Antisemitism isn’t a high status belief on the right, more incidents like the Charlottesville tiki rally are seen as bad for mainstream conservatives in the US, and getting one over on annoying campus progressive activists is a plus and something DeSantis has already committed himself to through many other actions. Is it constitutional? Probably not, I guess, but I’m no legal scholar.
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