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This past week, Ireceivedan expected fan notefrom the internets neo-Nazis. Now, the alt-right is very familiar with my work.

In fact, during the 2016 election campaign, an Anti-Defamation League study found that I was the second-most abused Jewish journalist on Twitter by its partisans. Yeton Friday,a clip of my appearance on a recent panel at the American Jewish Committees Global Forum was posted and praised by The Daily Stormer, one of white nationalismspremier outlets. Under the headline, Its a Good Thing Most Young Jews Arent Anywhere Near as Self-Aware as Yair Rosenberg, the video received thousands of views.

I raisethis incident not to drive traffic or attention to The Daily Stormer (which is why Imnot linking to them), but because their reaction offers a warning for those who underestimate Americas white nationalists. On the panel they lauded, I explaineda key strategic choice made by the far-right that has enabled them to be more electorally successful than the far-left.Their applause is an admission that should trouble their opponents.

Let me explain.

The AJC exchange in question took place on a panel about the alt-rightfeaturing The Atlantics McKay Coppins, theWashington Posts Jennifer Rubin, and myself. Early on, the moderator asked us to explain how the notoriously anti-Semitic group squares its support for Donald Trump with his pro-Israel posture and Jewish family members. I had actually posed this question to some of my trolls during the election, and relayedthe following response:

In other words, the far-right succeeded in 2016 because it proved far more politically pragmatic than many on the left.The alt-right is not stupid. It didnot think Trump was actually theideal avatar of its preferred policies. It knew he had connections to Jews. But the group recognized that his candidacy offered their bestchance, and so they took itwith relish. Meanwhile, many on the progressive left spent the election campaignand the months after it to this dayfeuding internally over the relative purity of their candidates. A significant number ultimately voted for Jill Stein or not at all.One might mock the alt-rights Pepe the frog memes, but they were far more electorally effective at rallying the faithful than popular progressive hashtags like #BernieorBust or #JillNotHill.

The alt-right knows that their willingness to settle for the real over the ideal gives them an advantage over the left. The Daily Stormer, in its pieceon my remarks, admitted as much: Seriously, we would have a big problem if all young Jewish journalists [read: liberals] were able to reflect like this particular Jew is able to reflect. The alt-right, in other words, is far more self-aware and pragmatic than many give them credit forand than many of their opponents are. Until this changes, they will continue to punch above their weight.

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Yair Rosenberg is a senior writer at Tablet and the editor of the English-language blog of the Israeli National Archives. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook.

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Yair Rosenberg - Tablet Magazine