New York City is home to the largest Jewish diaspora. It is also home to some of the worst antisemitism in the world.
According to the ADL, 2022 was the worst reported year of antisemitic attacks since it started tracking incidents in 1979, and New York State and New York City had record breaking numbers of incidents. The NYPD data showed that Jews were the most targeted ethnic group by a wide margin.
The city now has members on the city council (left-wing DSA member Shahana Hanif) who refuse to condemn Jew hatred in the city saying Jews don’t care for anyone but themselves. Two DSA-supported members of congress from the NYC area, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Jamaal Bowman are both openly hostile to the Jewish State, a phenomenon never seen in the metropolitan area’s history.
So it was curious to see how the news reacted to New York City mayor Eric Adams visiting Israel in August 2023.
The Jewish sites zeroed in on the current wave of Jew hatred. The Times of Israel led with the mayor coming to Jerusalem to combat antisemitism. The Algemeiner led with the same, and added a bit about learning about Israeli technology. The Forward also focused on the same issues. The Jerusalem Post captured Adam’s first day of touring discussing his meeting with various faith groups to fight against antisemitism.
The New York Times went in the opposite direction. It made the trip predominantly about Adams seeking reelection and wanting to win over Orthodox Jewish voters in New York. The NYT article didn’t delve into the trip’s focus on antisemitism until the third to last paragraph. Much of the article was about political crises and New Yorkers being unhappy about the direction of the Jewish State “who fear Israel is abandoning its democratic traditions.” When it wrote about the mayor’s visit to an interfaith group it was to “address global problems, such as migrant crises and wars,” not Jew hatred.
While The New York Post also led with a focus on politics, it had a very different narrative than the NYT. It spent time discussing antisemitism towards the top of the article: “Adams spent Monday speaking with Jewish, Muslim, Christian and Druze representatives in Israel, saying now is the time to act on one’s faith, according to the Times of Israel. “What we learn in our churches, synagogues and mosques cannot remain in the sterilized environment of our places of faith,” the mayor said. Hizzoner’s visit also comes as antisemitic violence continues throughout the five boroughs, although hate crimes citywide declined by approximately 8% compared to last year, based on a recent NYPD report.” It tied the meeting with interfaith group to fighting antisemitism, not migrant crises as the Times opted to write.
The exact same story told from three different perspectives: Jewish publications focused on rampant antisemitism in NYC; New York’s right-leaning paper implied a city broadly supporting Israel and worried about antisemitism; and the left-wing Times which conveyed that New Yorkers generally disliking the current Israeli government and not very worried about global or local antisemitism.
The media writes for its audience, and The New York Times’ readers do not like Israel and aren’t very concerned about antisemitism.
Each month, as I turn a new page of the calendar, I consider what needs to be done over the coming weeks. I plan my meetings, insert calls into my Outlook calendar and worry about my schedule.
When it comes to New Years Day, I have a different approach. I map what I want to accomplish in the coming year. I jot a big wish list and hope that my macro goals will be achieved over the course of the coming months.
Conversely, on my birthday I look backwards rather than forward. While I mark a new year of life I reflect upon my past year and where I am. I incorporate decisions that I made and whether those need to be reaffirmed or corrected in the year ahead.
Of course, I try to celebrate each milestone. The birthday, the new year, and yes, even the new month. Each is a cause for celebration in its own way.
The Hebrew month of Elul brings these thoughts together like no other. While it’s not yet the Jewish New Year, the countdown clock commences with its arrival. These days affords us the time to plan for the holidays and to reflect upon our actions as we ready ourselves to celebrate the upcoming month of holy days in Tishrei.
Elul binds the personal and spiritual. It is a month when we truly internalize that the success of our man-made plans and goals will be decided by Gd. We prepare for a month of intense prayers and celebration with mindful contemplation.
Jews normally wish people a “meaningful fast” during solemn fast days but it seems appropriate to wish people “a meaningful month” as we forge our past, present and future together – the very meaning of prayer to Gd.
News departments around the world are at the smallest levels, as the Internet destroyed the business model many years ago. Due to that reality, media outlets use the same source information and then craft it in a manner that fits the biases of its management team and readership.
The range of headlines that can emerge from a single story in a highly charged environment like the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is almost too remarkable to believe. Consider a story from August 17, 2023:
The plain facts are that the Israeli Defense Forces entered Jenin to arrest two people. As they encircled a building to arrest two wanted men, Palestinians fired on the troops who returned fire. A 32-year old Palestinian Arab named Mustafa al-Kastouni died of his wounds. He was a member of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a U.S. designated foreign terrorist organization.
Here’s how different media showcased the story online:
“Israeli forces kill Palestinian youth during Jenin raid,” wrote the official Palestinian news media Wafa, describing a 32 year old as a child. He was killed by “Israel forces” making the dynamic a David vs. Goliath scenario.
“Palestinian youth shot dead by zionist forces in Jenin,” read the Turkish ILKHA, repeating the lie that the Palestinian was a child and using inflammatory language that dismisses Israel as a country.
“Martyr, injuries from IOF fire during Jenin raid,” was the headline from Al Mayadeen, a Lebanese-based media group, that opted to sanctify the Palestinian gunman.
“Israel blows up Jenin bakery to assassinate resistance fighter,” was the most inflammatory headline cooked up by an online news site The Cradle, where anyone can contribute.
“Another Israeli raid on occupied West Bank’s Jenin kills one Palestinian,” from The New Arab also added inflammatory language in the headline to make the event part of a broader story of Israelis constantly invading Palestinian territory.
“One fatally shot during Israeli Occupation raid on Jenin,” from Jordan’s RoyaNews did not identify the dead man as a Palestinian Arab which was implied by the Israeli raid.
“Israeli forces kill Palestinian during Jenin raid” was the Middle East Eye headline, giving neither age nor status as to whether the man was armed.
“Israeli forces kill Palestinian during Jenin arrest raid,” from al Quds, an independent Palestinian-British site, was similar.
“Israeli forces fatally shoot Palestinian man in Jenin raid,” from Iranian PressTV also followed the most common fomat.
“Israel forces kill Palestinian in Jenin,” was the short headline from Middle East Monitor, was similar to Middle East Eye but dropped mentioning the raid.
“Israeli raid on Jenin kills Palestinian,” was the curt headline from ArabNews.
“Palestinian Killed in Exchange of Fire With Israeli Military in Jenin, Palestinian Health Ministry Says,” read the left-wing Israeli Haaretz headline, which added that there was an exchange of fire.
“Israeli troops kill a Palestinian militant in a gunbattle outside a West Bank bakery,” wrote ABCNews, in a bizarre highlight of the bakery on the ground floor of the building where the shooting took place.
“Israel raid kills West Bank militant, wounds health worker: Palestinians,” wrote France24, saying that the Palestinian killed was a militant in the West Bank.
“West Bank: a member of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades killed in Jenin,” was the headline from Italy’s AgenziaNova, which uniquely highlighted the terrorist group affiliation of the Palestinian man.
“Palestinian gunman killed, terror cell arrested by Israeli forces in Jenin,” wrote The Times of Israel, marking the incident as between armed groups.
“An Israeli Raid on Jenin, a West Bank Militant Stronghold, Kills 1, Palestinians Say” was the Newsmax headline, which emphasized that Palestinian militants control Jenin.
“Palestinian Terrorist Killed as IDF Engages in Heavy Clashes in Jenin,” was the headline from Hamodia, a Jewish publication, labeling the Palestinian man as a terrorist.
“Clashes erupt in West Bank’s Jenin, one Palestinian terrorist killed,” from Israel’s i24News highlights that a terrorist was killed but doesn’t attribute the source of the fire from Israeli troops.
Such is the biased coverage from pro-Palestinian to pro-Israeli in the Middle East and European media. It demonstrates how news today is a crafted editorial to lead a reader to particular conclusions.
Some additional takeaways from this reporting is that Palestinian news lies openly and Israel’s left-wing Haaretz reporting mirrors that from Arab countries, while the right-wing US site Newsmax aligns its stories with Israeli and Jewish news sites.
Reading a single source of news about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will inevitably leave a reader with a highly skewed view of any story, and if that source is the official news of the Palestinian Authority, with complete fabrications, commonly called #FakeNews.
Martyrs are a core part of the Palestinian Arab psyche which goes to the heart of the ceaseless violence in the region. It may soon go global.
Martyrs as Palestinian “compass”
The Palestinian “martyrs” are held as the morale direction and highest aspiration of Palestinian “resistance” movement for “liberation” of all of the land of Israel.
The Palestinian Youth Movement says that “Our martyrs and prisoners remain our compass,” as it urged the Democratic Socialists of America to join them on their crusade for the destruction of the Jewish State.
Palestinian Media Watch translated the text of a Fatah run summer camp for children saying “They [the Martyrs] are moons, they are stars, they are the elite, and they are the ones who sacrificed their lives. They were and will remain in our memories and in the memory of their children and their grandchildren.”
Martyrs are Palestinian “heroes”
Dalal Mughrabi was a woman who killed 37 people including 12 children. The Palestinian Authority (PA) named public squares and elementary schools after her. She is a featured celebrity in Palestinian society. School children call her the “bride of Jaffa” to this day. Fatah, the political party of PA President Mahmoud Abbas, posted on its Facebook page about Dalal’s terrorist operation and referred to her as a “martyr” four times.
In 2020, the Student Union Council at Palestine Polytechnic University gifted the school with a gate named after Salah Khalaf, the leader of the Black September terror organization who planned the Munich Olympics massacre, in which 11 Israeli athletes were murdered in 1972. According to the Israeli watchdog group Palestinian Media Watch, there are four Palestinian schools named after Salah Khalaf. The PA said he “will always be [our] compass” … “whose death as Martyrs the Fatah Movement and the revolution presented the most spectacular aspects of pride, glory, and loyalty.”
New York City, April 2022
Martyrs are compensated
The Palestinian Authority pays “martyrs,” prisoners and their families according to a schedule of how long they sit in Israeli jails. The more severe the crime, the longer the sentence and larger payments to the martyr’s family. The PA pays these funds to “anyone incarcerated in the occupation’s prisons for his participation in the struggle against the occupation,” which could include Palestinians or Israelis, as long as they do not belong to Hamas. In this way, the PA tries to foment terrorism inside of Israel and take a more commanding role in the terror than its political rival Hamas.
Martyrs are absolved of any crime as “resisting occupation”
The Palestinian Arabs view all of the land “from the River to the Sea” as Arab land, and the State of Israel as a “painful settlement.” They believe that all Arabs in the region are under “occupation” and that they have a right to “resist” by any and all means, including violence. Such are the opinions in Al Jazeera, TRT World and Middle East Eye to name a few.
In summary, Palestinian propaganda states that all of Israel is illegal and violent reaction to that occupation – against civilians and military – is legal and legitimate. It celebrates those who have died fighting against the presence of Jews and encourages its youth to participate in the jihad to rid the land of Jews.
Going global
The BDS movement parrots this Palestinian propaganda. In response to the Democratic Socialists of America calling all Jewish Israelis fair target for attack on June 28, 2023, Rep. Ritchie Torres tweeted “Denying Israelis the status of civilians means declaring them fair game for violence and terror. If a naked justification of terror against Israel is not a sign of a demonic double standard against the Jewish State, I am not sure what would be.”
On July 30, 2023, Abbas spoke in Egypt about taking his war globally. As translated by PMW: “We also will submit lawsuits against the US and Britain for their responsibility for the Balfour Promise and its implementation through the British Mandate for Palestine… One of our most important weapons today is disseminating our Palestinian narrative, which confirms the Palestinian people’s existence on its historical homeland and its consecutive presence on this land for thousands of years. The authentic Palestinian narrative is currently gaining acceptance and sympathy worldwide.Our success in imposing our national narrative on human consciousness is in itself debunking the false Zionist and Israeli claims and narratives, which have strived and still strive to harm the image of our people and its legitimate struggle to restore its national rights.”
The Palestinian Authority is pushing its antisemitic deadly narrative beyond the Middle East that all Zionists are fair game for violent attack. The calls to “Globalize the Intifada,” the BDS’s “Mapping Project” which identifies Jewish institutions, and CAIR’s labeling of Jews as “enemies” are dead canaries in the coal mine. The PA is looking for money – perhaps from the $6 billion that the United States just handed the Islamic Republic of Iran – to expand its Martyrs Fund for anyone who attacks Zionists around the world. Civilized people everywhere must shut down the fictional narrative and the organizations which promote the terror.
By gnawing through a dike, even a rat may drown a nation.
Edmund Burke (1729-1797)
The Democratic Socialists of America is the largest and most powerful organization of the alt-left today. It has over 92,000 members and a chapter in every state, and has been effective in winning elections in liberal regions to enact extremist policies.
Beyond its call for legalizing a populist kleptocracy in a broad redistribution of wealth to “working people”, the group has opted to single out and vilify Israel and its supporters. It is progressively taking steps to call for the outright targeting of Jews for all measures of attack, including violence.
Banning the Jewish State
The official platform of the DSA is anti-Israel. The site notes that the “platform proudly states continued support for and involvement with the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, and efforts to eliminate U.S. military aid to Israel, while resisting the “normalization” of relationships between the Israeli government and other governments.” That any organization can be against coexistence between Israel and its Arab neighbors is despicable and says much about its attitudes more broadly. That it only boycotts Israel and not Iran, North Korea or Saudi Arabia points to a decidedly antisemitic core.
The DSA chapter in New York City asked candidates to pledge to not even visit Israel and see firsthand what is happening, and blindly follow Palestinian propaganda. The questionnaire asked “Do you pledge not to travel to Israel if elected to City Council in solidarity with Palestinians living under occupation? Even though foreign policy falls outside the purview of municipal government, gestures like travel to a country by elected officials from a city the size and prominence of New York still send a powerful message, as would the refusal to participate in them,” acknowledging that the politician’s job as a local elected official had nothing to do with Israel but the group still wanted to broadcast its loathsome opinions. Even left-wing politicians like State Senator Brad Hoylman said the question about Israel was “repugnant.“
Withholding Protection of Jews and Open Season on Jews
In June 2023, DSA tweeted that “in a settler colonial context there are no such things as “civilians”, but disregarding that even, it’s total folly to honestly compare settlers perpetuating pogroms to resistance groups deploying violence to liberate themselves.” Note that the Palestinian narrative considers all of Israel to be a settlement, and thereby calls the presence of any Jew to be a member of the military and fair target for violence. Rep. Ritchie Torres was apoplectic and rebuked the DSA for “declaring them [Jews] fair game for violence and terror.“
Three of the extremist members of the radical anti-Zionist left, Reps. Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar and Jamaal Bowman
In August 2023, the DSA held its convention in Chicago when it considered how far to lean into condemning Jews and the Jewish State and calling for violence on both. It opted to stay more mainstream and remain part of the Democratic Party and criticize Israel, rather than break off into a completely new political party and go full jihadi.
A writer on the World Socialist Web Site wrote that the action was deeply disappointing to many in attendance, in failing to even bring the resolution to the floor. “In rejecting the proposed amendment, the DSA has resolved to support Democratic Party politicians no matter how right-wing they are and has explicitly stated its hostility to socialism. The rejected amendment would have required the DSA hold its members “accountable” if they “vote for measures which expand or strengthen the police,” “vote for any restrictions on the independent action of the working class, such as the right to strike,” or “vote for military budgets, the imperial war machine, or military aid to US client states such as the apartheid state of Israel.””
It is likely that had the group voted on the resolution it would have passed. While an independent DSA party would likely have weakened its position politically around the country, it would have freed it to openly air its antisemitic preferences.
The leaders of the DSA tactically decided to stay within the Democratic Party and advance its anti-Jewish and anti-Zionist narrative inside party ranks. While slower to advance extremist ideas, it positions the group to gain power politically much faster.
The dike that has held back the cesspool of antisemitism is being gnawed at by radical extremists infiltrating politics, and their potential success would drown the largest Jewish community in the diaspora.
Countries around the world have taken different approaches towards sexual prostitution. Some believe that the practice exploits women and ban the practice, while other states feel that people should be entitled to bodily freedom and manage personal affairs in a manner of their choosing.
There is one government that stands apart from all the others:
That allows parents to profit from their children’s bodies
Where the government is the john paying the parents for offering up their children’s bodies
Whose children are trained and armed to slaughter innocent people, often resulting in the child’s own death
That heinous government is the Palestinian Authority (PA), which pays a lifetime of rewards to the families of young terrorists who murder Jews.
The PA has a special mercenary prostitution budget for its “Martyrs’ Fund,” now $300 million per year, or 8% of its annual budget. Disgusted by the practice, a bipartisan group of members of Congress asked Secretary of State Antony Blinken for an update on whether the PA will halt the payments in June. In 2018, PA President Mahmoud Abbas said he would spend the “last penny” of its money for the terrorist fund, spitting in the face of basic human dignity. In 2021, Prime Minister Shtayyeh repeated Abbas’ vow.
Meanwhile, the parents of the young terrorists couldn’t be happier with the death of Jews, the glorification of their dead children in Palestinian society and the lifetime of income that the carnage yields. One terrorist mother pimp said after hearing of the death of one of her children, “By Allah, if all my children and grandchildren are martyred for the sake of Allah, it will make me happy.”
Palestinian society is systemically and deeply deformed as evidenced by Arab terrorists’ mothers pimping their children to commit violent jihad, funded by the global sponsors of the Palestinian Authority.
No weapon formed against you shall succeed, And every tongue that contends with you at law you shall defeat. Such is the lot of the servants of GOD’s servants, Such their triumph through Me —declares GOD.
– Isaiah 54:17
The Jewish people are under attack, an unfortunately common dynamic in their history. Isaiah (8th century BCE) wrote about it as did many other Jewish prophets, and their common call was for Jews to focus on self-reflection, improve upon their actions and turn towards Gd. The physical battle will ultimately be secured by Gd if Jews adhere to the commandments.
But the war of words is one in which Jews need to take on themselves. In Chapter 54 of Isaiah, the prophet made it clear, saying that if enemies use language to attack Jews, Jews should fight against them.
In the United States today, there are many raging antisemites who have been given platforms to air their putrid rantings.
Rep. Rashia Tlaib (D-MI) is an American Arab who addressed the vehemently anti-Israel Democratic Socialists of America in August 2021 and told them that Jews exploit working class people from Gaza to Detroit, concealed behind the curtain, in order to make money.
Columbia University professor Joseph Massad tells his students that Jews have no history in the land of Israel, and that they have faked their heritage in usurping “Palestinian Hebrews” who are the real people of the Bible to whom Gd gave the land.
Princeton University has a book on its reading list that claims Israel maims Arabs in order to harvest their organs, in a twist to outrageous Jewish blood libels.
The list of antisemitic slander goes well beyond members of Congress and college campuses.
The United Nations has declared that any Jew living east of the 1949 Armistice Lines – lines specifically negotiated between Israel and Jordan to not be construed as a border – do so illegally, even in the Old City of Jerusalem, which even the U.N. had conceived of as an international city for everyone to live in under the 1947 Partition Plan.
That same global body and much of the world have said that Jews cannot pray at their holiest location on the Jewish Temple Mount, with some validating their reasoning by falsely stating that Jews never had a temple at the location.
United Nations map which falsely shows the Temple Mount as only a holy place for Muslims
Politicians around the world claim that the Jewish State is practicing ethnic cleansing in the holy land, even though the number of non-Jews in the region has grown faster than Jews since Israel’s creation. The anti-Zionists shout that Israel is an apartheid state, even though it is the most liberal democratic country for 1,000 miles in any direction.
Jews are discriminated against on college campuses, denied internships and scholarships because they are Sabbath observant or viewed as too White to be a minority. They have to hide their kippahs and signs of being Jewish lest they get berated by professors and fellow students with false charges of being homophobic, insular and enjoy seeing Arab babies killed for fun.
Some Jews have opted to say nothing in response to the hail of lies. Cowering behind the recognition that most people listen to idiots and cannot be swayed, they hope for the moment of hatred to pass and do not confront the slander in fear of fanning the flames.
As discussed in “Organized and Disorganized Antisemitism“, hiding is not the appropriate response. Organizations and platforms like the United Nations, Democratic Socialists of America and Nation of Islam should be fought, boycotted and sued as aggressively as possible to remove their power and influence. Conversely, individuals should be swarmed and educated to get to know and appreciate Jews around the world.
The Jewish prophets warn us to not let antisemitic slander pass without confrontation. Today, that includes calling our members of congress and chancellors of universities to stop advancing Jew hatred, suing colleges which discriminate, and registering as Democrats and voting in the Democratic primary to kick antisemitic DSA members out of Congress.
James Zogby, President of the Arab American Institute was invited to speak to the United Nations Security Council on June 27, 2023 about the “situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question”, to make a case against Israel and defend Palestinian Arabs. The UNSC did not invite a comparable person to make the case against the Palestinian Authority and defend Israel, yet another demonstration of the entrenched bias against the Jewish State.
Zogby was given the floor for some time when he said the following:
“Given that traumatic nightmare visited upon millions of Palestinians for the past 56 years, is it any wonder that a recent poll shows a majority of Palestinians rejecting moderate leadership, despairing of peaceful change and now favouring armed struggle? That tragic deformity in Palestinian political culture is the result of the continued brutality of the occupation. It is also important to see the impact the harshness the occupation is having on the Arab world. While polls we conducted four years ago found a large majority in most Arab countries favouring exploring peace with Israel, saying that it might temper Israel’s behaviour and stop the violence, more recent polling suggests the hope has decidedly diminished.”
Zogby lies that Palestinian Arabs have changed their views and rejected moderate leadership and turned to violently fighting Israel in several regards.
“Moderate leadership”
The Palestinian Authority president is Mahmoud Abbas.
He wrote his doctoral thesis on Holocaust denial
He actively pays and prioritizes the payment of monies to terrorists who kill Israelis
He jails Arabs who sell homes to Jews
He has demanded a new country to be devoid of Jews
He’s viewed as wildly corrupt by Palestinians
He’s refused to hold elections, as he knows he would get trounced, so has remained in power since 2005, 18 years on, even though he was elected to a four year term
The Palestinian parliament is controlled by Hamas, with 58% of the seats since 2006.
It is a U.S. foreign terrorist organization, and many other countries consider it a terrorist group
It has the most antisemitic founding charter of any ever written in the world – including Nazi Germany – blending a mix of the forgery Protocols of the Elders of Zion (from which it quotes) and Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf
It has fired tens of thousands of rockets into Israel
It is committed to the destruction of the Jewish State
It is devoted to covering the entire region with Islamic religious law
In what world do the Palestinians have a “moderate leadership?” Palestinians elected and are governed by corrupt, antisemitic, genocidal jihadists.
Palestinians elected and are governed by corrupt, antisemitic, genocidal jihadists.
Palestinians have always preferred violence to peace.
Rejected the 1947 U.N. Partition Plan and opted to enlist the surrounding Arab states to destroy Israel
Attempted to destroy Israel again in 1967
Attempted to destroy Israel again during the holiest day in Judaism, Yom Kippur, in 1973
After Israel handed several cities to the Palestinian Authority and tried to make peace as part of the Oslo Accords, Palestinians opted to embark on a multi-year wave of horrific terrorism from 2000 to 2004, which only abated after Israel erected a security barrier and with the death of Yasser Arafat
After Israel withdrew from Gaza, Palestinians let the enclave be governed by the political-terrorist group Hamas which has launched repeated wars from the area
Gazans have always preferred violence to peace in every poll since 2001 (see chart below), while the sentiment of West Bank Arabs has changed over time.
Data from PCPSR polls shows the majority of Gazans always in favor of killing Jewish civilians inside of Israel, and West Bank Arabs generally moving away from such sentiment from 2008 to 2014 and again from 2017 to 2021.
That does not represent a society “despairing of peaceful change” but of a barbaric cult.
The 2011 Massacre of the Fogel Family in Itamar
It was briefly satisfying to hear a leading Arab voice acknowledge at the United Nations that there is a current “deformity in Palestinian political culture” but unfortunately the toxicity goes well beyond politics and a moment in time.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) is not just a favorite of the alt-left; she is the cash register.
In the 2022 election cycle, AOC raised and spent way more than any other candidate running for congress from New York State, a whopping $9.9 million. As the incumbent, she had no primary challenger and easily defeated her Republican challenger in a deeply blue district.
So AOC spends her time and resources to back other far left-wing colleagues in other districts to further empower her and spread her radical policies in districts which do have such values.
She has started in NY District 16, where fellow extremist Jamaal Bowman has a tenuous seat in lower Westchester County, having been bumped out of the Bronx in redistricting last year. She has started with tweets this week to raise money for the unpopular Bowman.
The ad is a long string of lies and misdirection.
AIPAC. Why start an ad against a bipartisan pro-Israel group? Because the essence of what AOC and Bowman represent is hyper-partisan anti-Israel legislation.
Establishment executive. Bowman is the multi-term incumbent! He’s the powerful member of congress whom AOC is trying to reframe as the underdog fighting the “establishment.” It’s code for a race war, where the “establishment executive” is a White man trying to take on a Black man.
Brother in The Bronx. District 16 is 97% comprised of lower Westchester. There is only a small nub of the district in the Bronx. Both AOC and Bowman are wildly out-of-touch with the values of lower Westchester County.
Funneling dark money. It is AOC who is the big megaphone and cash register coming from outside District 16, not AIPAC. AIPAC has many enthusiastic backers in the district.
Target… working class candidates of color. AOC has gone full race war. She accuses the pro-Israel organization of being racist when they are nothing of the sort. AIPAC and its sister group, Democratic Majority for Israel (DMFI) are anti-Bowman because he stands against Israel not because of his race. Both groups support Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY15) in the neighboring district who is Black, Hispanic and gay. They supported Mondaire Jones who used to represent NY16, who is also Black and gay. They did so because of their pro-Israel records. Vilifying them as racist is not just slander but highlights AOC’s racism against a White person having the temerity to challenge a powerful Black incumbent.
Misleading attack ads. Bowman has a long history of terrible policies, votes and actions in office, all public. Airing his record is a public service (short recap below) and not at all misleading.
Undermine democracy. AOC is using her big name, reach and bags of money to back a candidate in a different district to undermine the will of the people in the district. Who is undermining democracy?
Contribute $5. This is a way of making the movement seem like a working-class, grass roots initiative when it is nothing of the sort. AOC is the money king, deceiving people as she buys another seat in congress to cement her power.
The New York State Independent Redistricting Commission is chaired by Ken Jenkins, a Democrat who lives in NY16. He has been given the green light by the courts to redraw district lines and may do so to put Bowman back in the Bronx where his voice is more in tune with the local choir, and out of lower Westchester which despises his policies.
The essence of AOC and Jamaal Bowman is hyper-partisan, left-wing anti-Israel policies, and they are embarking on a vicious race war to tear down a peaceful multi-ethnic community to maintain their grips on power and money.
A short recap of why Bowman is out of touch with Westchester voters:
Supports “Defund the police”
Supports “Abolishing ICE”
Supports Critical Race Theory in schools
Supports a broad redistribution of wealth, including payments to Black people for historic slavery
Supports packing the Supreme Court
Supports abandoning the electoral college
Lies to constituents about backing the Infrastructure bill
Lies to constituents about mainly taking small donations
Lies to constituents that he brings money into the district when almost all of it went to New York City
Hypocrite attacking fellow Democrats for not backing Infrastructure bill and then he voted against it
Anti-charter schools
Anti-capitalism
Called for taxing unrealized capital gains
Anti- Abraham Accords extending peace in the Middle East
Boycotted liberal Israeli president speech to Congress
Penned resolution to call founding of Israel a “catastrophe”
Blamed USA for the problems in Central America
Strange coziness with the government of China
Backed by extremist alt-left and anti-Israel groups
One of the least partisan members of congress
Contempt for moderate voters
Perpetual race baiter
ACTION ITEM
Email Ken Jenkins at kjenkins@westchestercountyny.gov or call (914) 995-2909 “NY16 does not want Jamaal Bowman as its congressman. Riverdale didn’t want him two years ago either. Do not protect him in redistricting.”
New York State’s 16th Congressional District is made up of lower Westchester County and a small nub of the Bronx
By tracking current manifestations of heinous antisemitism around the world, one can find trendlines and commonalities. Consider some of today’s worst offenses.
Robert Bowers killed eleven Jewish worshipers in a Pittsburgh synagogue in 2018, in the deadliest anti-Semitic attack on U.S. soil. He had come to believe a conspiracy theory that Jews are bringing in foreigners to replace White people in the country.
According to the ADL (anti-defamation league), 2022 had the most antisemitic incidents over the past decades, totaling 3,697, a 32% rise from the prior year. According to Statistica, that represents a CAGR (compounded annual growth rate) of over 19% since 2013 when there were 751 incidents.
In Europe, 2009 was the worst year for antisemitic incidents with 1,118, which dropped to 371 in 2020.
In regards to violent antisemitic attacks, the United Kingdom had a far greater total than any other country, with 173 in 2021. That compares to 28 in the United States according to Statistica. When normalizing for the Jewish population in each country, Austria was actually the worst country with 7.8 violent attacks per 100,000 Jews. While Austria killed or purged almost all of its Jews in World War II, many Eastern European Jews have settled in and around Vienna over the recent decades.
The single most deadly attack against Jews was the bombing of the Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, Argentina which killed 85 people and wounded over 300 in July 1994. The Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah together with Iranian support conducted the attack.
The ADL did a global survey of antisemitism in 2014 which it has periodically updated for certain regions. Muslim countries were by far the most anti-Jewish, with almost every Arab in the West Bank and Gaza harboring antisemitic attitudes. Consider that Muslim antisemitic countries have NO JEWS living in their borders and haven’t had any for decades.
Antisemitism is not just about statistics. There are many laws, policies and people which are clearly antisemitic.
The most blatant antisemitic policy is barring Jews from praying at their holiest site on the Jewish Temple Mount in Jerusalem. The United Nations and almost every country supports the disgraceful policy, calling it the “status quo”, as if that defends the blatantly anti-Jewish action.
The most antisemitic international law was passed in December 2016, UN Security Council Resolution 2334 which declared it illegal for Jews to live east of the 1949 Armistice Lines, including in the eastern part of Jerusalem and the Old City. While the resolution mentions ‘Israel’, the term ‘settlers’ and ‘settlements’ has been used exclusively for Jews (whether or not Israeli) and excludes Israeli Arabs. Banning Jews from living somewhere – let alone in their holiest city and in the center of the Jewish holy land – is disgustingly antisemitic.
College campuses routinely engage in antisemitism, calling Israel a ‘colonial entity,’ which negates the thousands of years of Jewish history in the land. Negating a people’s heritage so routinely is outrageously antisemitic.
One college professor did more than deny Jewish history. Joseph Massad of Columbia University audaciously declared that the Jews in the Bible are actually ‘Palestinian Hebrews!’ Cultural and historical appropriation at its most egregious. Massad is Jordanian and claims Palestinian as his nationality.
If it sounds too crazy that a New York City Ivy League school should have an insane antisemitic teacher espousing such views, consider that the AMCHA Initiative found that Harvard University had the most antisemitic incidents of all US campuses in the 2021-2022 academic year, a total of 25, nearly double the number of the second place school.
The most antisemitic member of congress today is also a Palestinian-American like Columbia’s Massad, Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI). She told an audience of alt-left socialists in 2021 that Jews hide in the shadows controlling people for profit, from ‘Gaza to Detroit.’
By far the most antisemitic governmental charter is the Hamas Charter of 1988, belonging to the popular terrorist group which has 58% of the seats in the Palestinian Authority’s parliament. In addition to saying that Jews extort people (article 20), that they were behind the global wars (articles 22 and 32) and destroy societies and values (article 28), it states “Our struggle against the Jews is very great and very serious” (preamble) and calls for Moslems to kill Jews and destroy the Jewish State (opening, articles 7, 31, 32, 33 and 34).
The Simon Wiesenthal Center ranked the top ten worst antisemitic incidents of 2022 and gave top scores to the major influencers who fan the flames of hatred. It highlighted Kanye West’s bilestorm against Jews in which he said that Jews control Black people, aren’t even real Jews, and that he wants to kill them. After spewing so much hate, former President Donald Trump hosted him at his house together with Nick Fuentes, another raging antisemite.
To counterbalance this negativity, a March 2023 Pew Research poll found that most US adults had a favorable opinion of Jews, whether or not they knew someone personally.
There are a few take-aways from this collection of anti-Semitic incidents and people.
You don’t need to live near Jews or know any to be filled with antisemitism. Ayaan Hirsi Ali pointed this out in a Wall Street Journal editorial in July 2019, that she grew up in Somalia and was essentially breast-fed Jew-hatred even though she never met a Jew. Almost all of the leading antisemitic countries have no Jews but an ingrained culture of Jew hatred.
Violence against Jews necessitates their presence, so while Muslim Jew-free countries are the most antisemitic, the highest frequency of violent attacks happens where Jews have a long history of persecution and have recently started to move to again (Austria #1, Germany #3).
Universities – not just including, but especially prestigious schools – are normalizing antisemitism and ushering in violence against Jews. It is being accomplished through a combination of billions of dollars of Middle East money funneled into the schools and a twisted view of Jews and the Jewish State being elite racists who must be fought aggressively in the name of intersectionality.
Influencers are increasingly vocal about their antisemitism and comfortable with their antisemitic friends. Politicians like Donald Trump, Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar and Marjorie Taylor Greene, as well as supermodel Bella Hadid and basketball star Kyrie Irving talk directly to millions of social media “followers” about Jewish conspiracies. Their followers listen to the nonsense, which ignites more Jew hatred and violence.
Palestinians’ perception of themselves as victims of Jews weaponized their antisemitism. Time has embedded the notion and has continued to transform their Jew-hatred in various toxic ways. People and governments sympathetic to their situation have given their noxious antisemitism absolution, spreading the vile propaganda far-and-wide.
The common theme is that Jew hatred is taught – in communities and schools and from influencers – and the number of dangerous teachers and the size of the global student body are rapidly growing. Whether via the passive vile drip or in the active embrace of the jaundiced narratives for those with whom people feel charged emotional connection, antisemitism is becoming pervasive once again. And as the cancerous worldview spreads, antisemitic policies and laws get mainstreamed and enacted.
In this world so distrustful of information, lesson plans are built on emotions, and nothing rings the register and feels so familiar as the touchstone of Jew bashing.
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