CAIR Thinks Protecting Synagogues Is A Political Stunt And Waste Of Taxpayers Money

Jews have always been the most persecuted group in the United States on a relative basis, with an average Jew multiple times more likely to suffer a hate crime than an Arab or Muslim. The situation has only grown much worse since the genocidal jihadists of Gaza attacked Israel on October 7, 2023.

In addition to the antisemitic violence, Jews have been subject to threats, intimidation and harassment. Whether at schools, synagogues or Jewish community centers, Jews have been confronted by mobs threatening them with genocide and mocking their trauma after the worst murder of Jews since the Holocaust.

On July 15, 2023 these pages suggested new laws be instituted to protect the most beleaguered minority-minority, “Protecting Synagogues Like Abortion Clinics.” The most prominent idea was to enforce FACE which protects religious institutions in the same manner as abortion clinics, banning any protests within 100 feet of the entrance.

Fortunately, the idea was approved in Los Angeles in August. Unfortunately, the Council of American Islamic Relations (CAIR) found the idea of protecting synagogues outrageous.

In a letter to the city on September 16, 2024, CAIR-LA called the “bubble zone” around synagogues an affront to the right to protest, even though the right exists everywhere outside of the 100 foot perimeter. It said the protection of Jews “wastes taxpayer money,” and is meant to “serve a political agenda” of Jews.

In May, CAIR lambasted a bipartisan resolution called the Antisemitism Awareness Act of 2023, which passed the House by a wide margin. The resolution is intended to protect Jews under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which had traditionally only been used for racism. CAIR has pressured the Democratic Senate to not advance the Act to a vote.

CAIR not only wants to destroy the Jewish State, but it wants to block Jews from entering their synagogues and enjoying the free exercise of their protected rights.

The radical Islamist group, whose “leaders often traffic in openly antisemitic and anti-Zionist rhetoric” is smearing Jews as taking unnecessary money from the public because they seek protection from jihadists calling for an Intifada pogrom while they try to enter Jewish houses of worship and Jewish community centers. The Islamic hate group is further attempting to libel Jews as controlling American politicians.

Leaders of CAIR have been publicly calling Jews “enemies” and blessing “mapping projects” highlighting the location of Jewish institutions for a few years. They have now begun taking their vitriol to the entrance of synagogues and the halls of government in a Diaspora Intifada, designed to threaten Jews outside of the Jewish holy land.

Muslims got the world to bless banning Jews from living in their holiest city of Jerusalem, and praying at their holiest location on the Jewish Temple Mount. Blocking Jews’ basic human rights in the diaspora should be relatively easy.

ACTION ITEM

Contact Sen. Chuck Schumer to pass the Antisemitism Awareness Act

Related articles:

Hamas, CAIR, DSA, Within Our Lifetime, SJP Are All Gunning For Jews (May 2024)

Bowman’s Main Speaker Threatens Jews At Jewish Day School (March 2024)

CAIR On October 7 Sadistic Massacre (December 2023)

Know Your Enemies. This Is 1948 Redux (October 2023)

The Center Of Intersectionality Sounds Like Adolf Hitler (July 2023)

The Spark And The Fuel Of Anti-Semitism Of The Women’s March (September 2022)

Biden Enables Anti-Semitism On College Campuses (July 2022)

Attacking Jews & Zionists: Arabs and Muslims (February 2022)

Socialists Employ Arabs’ Four Step Battle Plan (July 2020)

Criticizing Muslim Antisemitism is Not Islamophobia (March 2019)

The Muslim American Community Gameplan For 2024 Presidential Election Is Beyond 2024

The Muslim American community is a rapidly growing segment of the United States. It is projected to surpass the Jewish community by 2040 and be entrenched as the second largest religious group, estimated to become 8.1 million by 2050, according to Pew Research.

Like the Jewish community, a major consideration in the group’s focus is the Middle East. For Muslims, the region holds the major Islamic centers of Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia, while for Jews it is the Jewish holy land of Israel.

Beyond the sanctity of the land are co-religionists. There are 1.8 billion Muslims, with 50 Muslim-majority countries, with most being in the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region. This compares to just 15 million Jews globally and a single Jewish country, Israel.

Muslim population for Sunni and Shia (dark green), with Israel a dot in the middle

In 2024, several Muslim countries and territories surrounding Israel are waging a war to destroy the Jewish State, and the United States has backed Israel in defending itself. This Iranian Axis-Israel war is weighing heavily on how Muslim Americans are thinking about the 2024 U.S. presidential elections.

The community has long been outraged by former President Trump’s anti-Islamic comments and angered by his strongly pro-Israel actions during his term from 2017 through 2020. Muslims were upset about his cutting funds to Palestinians, placing sanctions on Iran, and normalizing Israel into the Arab Middle East with the Abraham Accords.

But Muslim Americans are also disgusted with the Biden-Harris administration’s support for Israel fighting against Hamas, Hezbollah, Syria and Iran. They cannot fathom voting for Harris in the upcoming presidential election, even as they view her more favorably than Trump.

Resigned to the fact that both candidates are not anti-Zionist, a significant part of the community has decided to send a message, and hopefully play spoiler in the upcoming presidential election, in the hope of drawing attention to their position to influence future elections.

The Turkish news site Andalu posted a talk featuring Islamic preachers and members of CAIR, the Council of American Islamic Relations. The discussion called for Muslim Americans to vote for third party candidates like Jill Stein and Cornel West. While they have no chance of winning, the aim is to make the two dominant political parties start to cater to their demands, especially in halting support for the Jewish State.

According to polls released by CAIR, the Muslim vote in Michigan and Wisconsin – two important swing states to securing the presidency – should have an enormous turnout for Stein. Their hope is to show the Democratic party that had they changed policy course on Israel, those votes could have been theirs. The Muslim American community would rather lose the election to Trump whom they despise, to influence the future direction of the Democratic Party, which is already infiltrated by members of the “Squad.”

Middle East Eye report on Muslim Americans

Donald Trump may win a larger percentage of the Jewish vote than any Republican nominee over the past cycles which might make him keep pro-Israel positions, but Muslims have a soft back-up hope that Trump will credit the Muslim community for abandoning Harris to help him secure the presidency.

While the vast majority of Americans don’t focus on foreign affairs as the primary concern in elections beyond the border crisis, the Muslim and Jewish communities are putting the Hamas-Israel war at the top of their list, and each group may tip the scales to Donald Trump for very different reasons. Jews will focus on continuing to support Israel in its war against genocidal jihadists, while Muslims will argue that the U.S. should abandon Israel and foreign policy and funding altogether, to let the Iranian axis devour the sole Jewish State.

The Jewish community is taking a very near-term view of the American presidential election, concerned about the terrible spike in antisemitism in the U.S. and the ring of evil attacking Israel right now. The Muslim community is playing the long game, and is willing to simply place a marker on the table in 2024 that they are an emerging force to be reckoned with.

Hassan Abdel Salam who is a professor at the University of Minnesota heads a group called ‘Abandon Harris

Jews are small in number with a single state and are beset by existential fear, so are pushing for immediate action. Meanwhile, the Muslim world has no existential worries, and can focus on the ultimate prize in which their numbers and power overwhelm American Jews, just as they encircle the Jewish State. In the near-term, they will work to infiltrate the educational system and overtake the Democratic Party to breed a new generation of socialist-jihadists who will normalize anti-Zionism and antisemitism.

It’s called the Insidious Jihad in America and is over five years old now. Imagine where the country will be in five more years.

Related articles:

The Future Of The Evil Hamas Regime Under Trump And Harris (September 2024)

Socialist-Jihadi Alliance Attempts To Make Israel A Wedge Issue For Jews (August 2024)

The Anti-Israel And Anti-American Woke Grows (July 2024)

Hamas, CAIR, DSA, Within Our Lifetime, SJP Are All Gunning For Jews (May 2024)

Trump Secures Lowest Tally of Israeli Deaths From Palestinian Terrorism (November 2020)

Trump Reverses the Carter and Obama Anti-Israel UN Resolutions (November 2019)

Rep. Ilhan Omar and The 2001 Durban Racism Conference (March 2019)

The United Nations Welcomes “Peace-Loving” Palestine

In the aftermath of the worst slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust, the United Nations decided that the killers are “peace-loving.”

On May 10, 2024, the United Nations voted and approved A/ES-10/L.30/Rev.1 which said “that membership in the United Nations is open to all peace-loving States,” and that Palestine fully qualifies. It endorsed Palestine as “peace-loving” despite Hamas committing a brutal slaughter of 1,200 people in Israel on October 7, as codified in its genocidal antisemitic charter which is embraced by Palestinians who elected the terrorist group to 58% of parliament in 2006.

The recorded vote was 143 in favour to 9 against (Argentina, Czech Republic, Hungary, Israel, Federated States of Micronesia, Nauru, Palau, Papua New Guinea, United States), with 25 abstentions.

On September 10, 2024, Palestine took its seat at the General Assembly of the UN’s opening session. Delegates from around the world embraced the Palestinian ambassador Riyad Mansour.

Delegates of member states line up to greet Riyad Mansour, top right, the Palestinian ambassador to the United Nations, as he arrives for the 79th session of the United Nations General Assembly, September 10, 2024 at the United Nations. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

The beheading of people is “peace-loving” if the victims are Jews. The burning of families alive is “peace-loving” if the family are Jews. The sexual abuse of women is “peace-loving” if the women are Jews. The abduction of babies as hostages is “peace-loving” if the infants are Jews.

So says the United Nations, an institution awash in moral rot which should be defunded and closed.

Related articles:

Time To Sentence The United Nations For Involuntary Manslaughter (April 2024)

Fire United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres (January 2024)

Palestinian Poll About October 7 Massacre (November 2023)

United Nations Urges ‘Utmost Restraint’ By Israel In Defending Synagogues On High Holidays (September 2023)

Palestinian Mothers Engage In Grotesque Prostitution Of Their Children (August 2023)

The United Nations’ Sinister Attack On The Jewish State As Part Of Holocaust Event (January 2023)

Enemy Uniforms Are Unwelcome

Imagine an employee of the New York Yankees donning a division rival Boston Red Sox shirt while serving customers at a game. Not only would members of the Yankees be angered but fans coming to the baseball game would be shocked by employees of the organization rooting against the team.

It sounds absurd. The Yankees (or any team faced with a similar situation) would enforce a dress code prohibiting such activity. They would terminate any employee who refuses to abide by the regulation.

Jewish institutions are facing an even worse situation, as employees seek to wear Palestinian kaffiyehs or pins at their place or work, in the middle of the Palestinian Arabs genocidal war against Jews in Israel.

New York City’s 92nd Street Y issued a policy banning patron-facing employees from wearing expressions of “politics or social issues.” According to some reports, a number of employees resigned and one was fired for repeatedly breaking from the policy after wearing Palestinian paraphernalia.

92NY is a “proudly Jewish organization…[which] enthusiastically welcomes and reaches out to people of all ages, races, faiths and backgrounds while embracing Jewish values like learning and self-improvement, the importance of family, the joy of life, and giving back to our wonderfully diverse and growing community, both locally and around the world.” All are welcome to attend their events but must abide by the rules at the Jewish institution.

An employee of the Yankees would not expect to be allowed to wear the jersey of an opposing team while at work. To do so would be a deliberate attempt to antagonize their employer.

Which is precisely the goal of extremists who wish to not only normalize jihadi violence in the shadow of the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, but to mock the victims to their friends and family.

The socialist-jihadi mob is actively provoking Jews and mocking their fear and suffering inside Jewish institutions in the center of the largest diaspora community. The mob does so with the knowledge that far-left allies in the district attorney’s office and Senate will shield them from any ramifications.

Related articles:

Socialist-Jihadi Alliance Attempts To Make Israel A Wedge Issue For Jews (August 2024)

“Context” For Attacking People In The West Regarding Situation In The Middle East (May 2024)

Globalize The Intifada With Socialists (May 2024)

Orthodox Institutions Should Rally To The Westchester Reform Temple (February 2022)

Excerpt of Hamas Charter to Share with Your Elected Officials (May 2021)

The Holocaust Will Not Be Colorized. The Holocaust Will Be Live. (May 2019)

Active and Reactive Provocations: Charlie Hebdo and the Temple Mount (October 2015)

UN Human Rights Chief Wants Hamas To Have Greater Weaponry To Attack Israel

The UN human rights chief, Volker Turk, spoke in Geneva on September 8, 2024 and let it be known that the events of the past year in Israel, Gaza and the West Bank showed that Palestinians need to control their borders to satisfy their “causes.”

The UN human rights chief, Volker Turk

At (14:20) of his talk, Turk said:

We know that wars spill over, and into, future generations, fostering repeated cycles of hatred if their causes remain unaddressed.

Sadly, the war in Gaza is the quintessential example.

Since the horrific 7 October attacks claimed the lives of over 1,200 victims in Israel and injured many others, over 40,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces, several thousand injured, and thousands remain under the rubble in Gaza. Each day, Palestinians struggle to survive. Nearly 1.9 million people have been forcibly displaced across the strip, many multiple times. Eleven months on, 101 Israeli hostages are still held to be in Gaza. While the actual number is likely higher, almost 10,000 Palestinians are held in Israeli prisons or ad hoc military facilities, many arbitrarily, with over 50 people having died due to inhumane conditions and ill-treatment. In the West Bank, deadly and destructive operations, some at a scale not witnessed in the last two decades, are worsening a calamitous situation there, already aggravated by serious settler violence.

Ending that war and averting a full-blown regional conflict is an absolute and urgent priority. Equally, the wider situation of illegality across the occupied Palestinian territory deriving from Israel’s policies and practices, as so clearly spelled out by the International Court of Justice in its Advisory Opinion in July, must be comprehensively addressed.

States must not – cannot – accept blatant disregard for international law, including binding decisions of the Security Council and orders of the International Court of Justice, neither in this nor any other situation.

The head of the UN Human Rights did not ascribe the murder of 1,200 people in Israel and holding of over 100 hostages to Palestinians. He did not state that Palestinians launched the war nor that they executed bound hostages. He used passive language to describe Israeli victims. Yet he did blame Israeli forces and “settler violence” for the deaths of Palestinians.

Turk ascribed the situation of the “repeated cycles of hatred” from the “illegality” of Israel’s policies regarding “Palestinian territory.”

Ignoring Hamas’s genocidal intent of destroying Israel, Palestinians broad support for killing Israeli civilians, and the thousands of Palestinian Arabs committing the largest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust was not an oversight, nor was attributing the “cause” to “Israel’s policies and practices.”

The UN’s agenda is to fully arm an antisemitic Palestinian state next to the only Jewish State.

Gazans have had self-determination and independence since 2005 when Israel uprooted every civilian and military personnel from the area. The Palestinians had elections which brought the terrorist group Hamas to 58% of the parliament in 2006. Gazans used this freedom to build a vast tunnel infrastructure and war machine rather than build an economy, as they do not simply seek self-determination but a destruction of the Jewish State.

Gazans were able to commit a massive heinous butchering of men, women and children in Israel with a blockade surrounding the terrorist enclave. The United Nations turns a blind eye to the savagery as they perceive the Arab assailants as victims.

The UN wants the Israeli blockade of Gaza lifted so Hamas can have a free flow of advanced weaponry from the Islamic Republic of Iran and other terrorist groups. With such armorment, the root “cause” of Palestinian Arabs – the destruction of the Jewish State – may be realized.

Related articles:

Time To Sentence The United Nations For Involuntary Manslaughter (April 2024)

Fire United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres (January 2024)

United Nations Declares Jews May Not Judge (November 2023)

The United Nations Fails Own Resolution To Combat Terrorism (October 2023)

Abbas Pays Tribute To Murderers Of Jews Before The United Nations General Assembly, To Applause (September 2023)

Amid The Terror, The United Nations Elevates Hamas (April 2022)

Why Blockade Gaza (November 2021)

To Serve Jews, United Nations Style (February 2020)

The United Nations Tackles Fake News Instead of Fake Rights (May 2019)

The United Nations Can Hear the Songs of Gazans, but Cannot See Their Rockets (December 2017)

The United Nations’ Incitement to Violence (August 2017)

UN’s Confusion on the Legality of Israel’s Blockade of Gaza (July 2015)

Revisionist Anti-Israel History At UN Security Council

If there is one subject and one region of the planet that everyone likes to opine on, it is the State of Israel. Even countries thousands of miles away with no Jews take the microphone at the United Nations and tell their version of history: how Israel is a vicious force intent on taking over the Middle East.

On September 4, 2024, Guyana’s (population of roughly 800,000 in South America) representative to the United Nations spoke to the UN Security Council about the Palestinian-Israeli war. At (1:24:45), she made the following observation:

“Mr. President, it is worth reminding that the situation in Palestine today did not begin on 7 October, 2023. We must cast our minds back to 1948, because it was in that year that Israel first violently rejected the two-state solution. Since then, the violent rejection has continued, manifest in cycles of war and ever expanding settlement activities inter alia. What we have seen since the 7th of October, are the symptoms of this rejection of the two-state solution.”

The most powerful committee at the United Nations listened to a small South American country fictionalize history and invert reality: that it was the Zionists who rejected the two-state solution, not the Arab world; that it was the nascent state of Israel that launched the 1948 war, not five Arab armies; that it is the Jewish State that rejects two states leading to the October 7 massacre, not the antisemitic jihadi terrorist group Hamas which has sworn to destroy every inch of the Jewish State.

Representative of Guyana addressing the UN Security Council on September 4, 2024

The United Nations is systemically anti-Israel and antisemitic, and member states freely falsify history to defend their attacks against the Jewish State. In a world of “my truths,” instead of facts, how can a small minority group withstand the onslaught of unmoored lies?

ACTION ITEM

Write the office of the Prime Minister of Guyana at opm@opm.gov.gy and of foreign affairs at minfor@guyana.net.gy and tell them that the country’s representative at the United Nations lied repeatedly before the Security Council and inverted facts that it is the Arab world which has rejected the Jewish State, not as she presented history.

Related articles:

UN Secretary General Accuses Israel Of “Islamophobia War” (March 2024)

Israel And Jews Everywhere Must Be Protected As An Ethnic, Religious And Linguistic Minority (September 2022)

Bad Education: Al Jazeera (September 2020)

The Palestinian’s Three Denials (January 2017)

The Legal Israeli Settlements (December 2014)

Rethinking Jewish and Israeli Charities

The antisemitic and anti-Israel dynamics have become so intolerable over the past months, that many people are rethinking their voting priorities to put Jewish issues before every other matter. Alan Dershowitz speaks for many when he says that he is forgoing every non-Jewish charity now and only giving to Jewish causes.

But there is a need to rethink the Jewish charities also. Some have become toxic to Israel and the Jewish people.

Let’s start with B’Tselem, the organization that claims to work on behalf of human rights.

On September 4, 2024, B’Tselem Executive Director Yuli Novak’s addressed the United Nations Security Council, the most senior committee in the global body that has the power to pass international laws. In her prepared remarks, she lambasted Israel repeatedly calling it a vicious state of racism, apartheid, ethnic cleansing and violence.

Some select comments include:

  • “Since Israel was founded, the guiding logic of its regime has been to promote Jewish supremacy
  • “the Israeli government does not want to return the hostages in a deal, but to continue the war indefinitely.”
  • “The current government’s guidelines state that: “The Jewish people have an exclusive and unquestionable right to all parts of the Land of Israel.””
  • “it [the Israeli government] is waging war on the entire Palestinian people – committing war crimes almost daily.”
  • “Settlers are attacking Palestinians and carrying out pogroms in broad daylight, with support from the government.”
  • “Palestinian citizens of Israel [aka Israeli Arabs] are suffering an almost total suppression for their freedom of expression and freedom of protest”
  • “[Israeli] violence is possible because Israel has enjoyed impunity for decades”
  • “It is time for the Council to address the opinion of the International Court of Justice on the illegality of Israel’s entire occupation and settlement project.”
  • “Every day the Council does not act on the court’s call to end the occupation and apartheid, is another day you are abandoning us – the people suffering and dying needlessly under this cruel and unjust regime.”
B’Tselem Executive Director Yuli Novak’s addressed the United Nations Security Council

This was not a protest speech on an Israeli street corner but a damning indictment of Israel by an Israeli directed to the center of power which can impose tremendous damage on the Jewish State with a specific request to harm Israel. The smears of “Jewish Supremacy,” “apartheid,” “pogroms” and “war crimes” will be echoed on college campuses with a finger pointed to this very speech as defense.

B’Tselem is backed by a number of charities, some of which are nominally Jewish. They include the Moriah Fund, The New Israel Fund (NIF) and George Soros’s Open Society.

The Moriah Fund helps fund the anti-Israel Ford Foundation and antisemitic Tides Foundation. According to Influence Watch, “between 1999 and 2018, Moriah Fund has granted $45,718,829 to New Israel Fund,” and supports the BDS (Boycott, Divest and Sanction) campaigns against Israel.

According to Influence Watch, NIF gives money to several anti-Israel groups including Adalah and Human Rights Defenders Fund, whose leaders have called Israel “racist,” “murderous,” and an “apartheid state.”

NGO Monitor lists various charities funded by Open Society which include IfNotNow and Jewish Voice for Peace, rabidly anti-Israel organizations whose members are harassing college students everywhere, as well as other rabidly anti-Zionist groups.

It is not enough to prioritize Jewish and Israeli causes right now: it is important to stop the funding of Jewish groups which are doing their utmost to vilify and destroy the Jewish State and Jewish communities everywhere.

ACTION ITEM

Contact Jewish foundations like UJA and donor advised funds to block donations to B’Tselem, New Israel Fund, IfNotNow and JVP, as well as other toxic antisemitic and anti-Zionist charities.

Related articles:

The Anti-Israel And Anti-American Woke Grows (July 2024)

“I Think We Need To Have A Real Conversation About Woke Antisemitism” (July 2024)

IfNotNow Is Racist, Blind And Lost (July 2024)

J Street Pushes US To Stop Protecting Israel At The United Nations (December 2023)

J Street Signals “Open Warfare” On Jewish And Pro-Israel Communities, Urging The United States To Take Action AGAINST Israel (December 2022)

J Street’s Ben Ami Smears Moderate Jews As Racists (July 2022)

Students For Justice in Palestine Says J Street Is The Gateway For Jewish Anti-Zionists (March 2022)

Jewish Voice for Peace Ignores Dead Jews (December 2020)

JVP and J Street Attack Foreign Affairs Committee (November 2020)

Iran’s New Favorite Jewish Scholars (December 2017)

Unity – not Unanimity – in the Pro-Israel Tent (November 2017)

Students for Justice in Palestine’s Dick Pics (May 2017)

The Evil Architects at J Street Take a Bow (January 2017)

The Future Of The Evil Hamas Regime Under Trump And Harris

The Palestinian political-terrorist group continued its vile and evil actions in shooting and killing six hostages it had held for the last eleven months. The civilians lives were worthless, as were the thousands that the group has killed over the decades.

Vice President Kamala Harris issued a press release, as one of the hostages was an American citizen, and his parents had just spoken at the Democratic National Convention. Harris called Hamas “an evil terrorist organization… whose “depravity is evident and horrifying.”

VP Harris press release about the murder of six Israeli hostages by Hamas, on August 31, 2024

Harris noted that Hamas is a threat to Israelis, Americans and even Palestinians, but she did not offer a plan of action, other than that the “threat” of Hamas “must be eliminated.”

By way of comparison, Senator Tom Cotton was more clear, that not just the “threat” of Hamas must be eliminated, but the “terrorist group must be destroyed.”

Sen. Tom Cotton post after the murder of six Israeli hostages by Hamas

Former President Obama ran his administration’s fight against terror in a particularly segmented manner, placing the “evil ideology” of jihadi groups into four buckets: evil to destroy (like ISIS); evil to condemn (like Boko Haram); evil to tolerate (like Syria); and evil to ignore (like Hamas). He would only activate American arms when American lives were at stake in the first category, while providing support in fighting evil globally in the second category. Regarding Syria and evil to tolerate, he offered little more than empty words. For evil like Hamas, he ignored it as something Israel turned into a phony boogeyman.

Obama’s successor, President Trump, collapsed those four categories into “radical Islamic terrorism,” which was a problem for everyone to be fought globally. He prioritized fighting ISIS and al Qaeda but viewed all of the sister jihadi groups through a similar lens.

President Biden condemned the Hamas October 7 massacre as “an act of sheer evil” and later added that the group should be eliminated. His Attorney General Merrick Garland announced terrorism charges against the leaders of Hamas on September 3, 2024, something that had been filed in February. It is unclear what is particularly special about unsealing the complaint at this time – Israel already killed a number of the senior Hamas leaders on the list. Is the US going to take direct action against Hamas? Will it use its pull with Qatar to extradite Khaled Mashal? Or will the world see the U.S. as a paper tiger, a distracted and divided once-upon-a-time military power?

Harris, now in the position of Democratic nominee for president, is crafting her own language about evil, that it should be deprived of the capability of being a “threat” but not necessarily “destroyed” as Biden and other politicians have advocated.

Harris’s softer position is being provided cover by J Street, the left-wing pro-Palestinian marketed as pro-Israel group. In response to the assassination of the six Israeli hostages, J Street called for Biden to assert “maximum pressure on [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu,” rather than providing Israel full capabilities of finishing the evil group.

J Street press release after Hamas’s killing of six hostages calling for US to withhold arms and funding to Israel if Netanyahu doesn’t accept a ceasefire deal

Many Democratic members of Congress will likely push a President Harris to not only let Hamas survive but to withhold critical arms to Israel, even as it fights Hezbollah, Iran and the Houthis. A Harris administration with someone like Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) as Secretary of State, would likely condition military aid to Israel.

Harris and Trump agree that Hamas is an evil terrorist organization but it would appear that only a Trump Administration would push to destroy the group, while Harris might work to simply remove the terrorist group from power.

Related articles:

Hamas’ War Is A Radical Religious Jihadi War Of Annihilation (August 2024)

NY Times Lies That Gazans Hate Hamas (June 2024)

The Hamas – Gazans Partnership (May 2024)

Stop Genocide. Destroy Hamas (May 2024)

UNRWA Is Hamas’s Iron Dome (February 2024)

Hamas Joins The Pantheon Of Antisemitic Evil Alongside Nazis, ISIS And Amalek (January 2024)

Hamas Is The Very Definition Of A Genocidal Group (November 2023)

Congressional Socialists Won’t Support Israel After Hamas Massacre (October 2023)

The Scale And Barbarity Of The Hamas Massacre (October 2023)

Excerpt of Hamas Charter to Share with Your Elected Officials (May 2021)

Lebanon-Israel War Narrative

The war between Israel and Iran’s proxies is taking place in the media as much as the battlefield. Just review how Israel and Hezbollah published reports of the battle on August 25, 2024.

Israel claims to have thwarted Hezbollah’s attack with preemptive strikes at missile launching sites in Southern Lebanon.

Jerusalem Post headline on August 25, 2024

The Jerusalem Post called Hezbollah’s attack a “failure” and that Israel foiled the attack.

Readers in Lebanon got a very different message from Al-Manar, the Hezbollah media outlet.

Al-Manar online, August 25, 2024

Hezbollah claimed that it’s “military operation has been completed successfully” and that Israel’s claims about a preemptive attack are false [Hezbollah doesn’t recognize Israel and calls it “Zionist”].

It added that Hezbollah’s “offensive drones… crossed the Lebanese-Palestinian border towards intended targets” was successful. [Note again that Hezbollah considers Israel to be occupied Palestine.]

Al-Manar website

The US-designated terrorist group listed various military targets in Israel, which were the focus of the operation.

Al-Manar website lists solely military targets in Israel, in the hope of minimizing Israeli attacks on civilian locations

People in the radical Islamic and anti-Zionist world were told of Hezbollah striking at the Zionist entity in revenge of the assassination of a jihadi leader, complete with a narrative that dismissed any legitimacy of the Jewish State. Zionists were told of the tremendous intelligence of its military, which foiled a potential deadly attack.

Both Hezbollah and Israel had experienced terrible failures of their defensive forces, and each is now fighting a war of propaganda as much as missiles to reclaim the trust of their respective populaces.

Talking About The Gaza War At Work

Many Jews have found it difficult to be at work since October 7. Some have been alarmed by the lack of empathy for the Jewish community after the Hamas massacre. Others are distraught over comments that Israel is committing a genocide in Gaza. Sometimes the comments come from peers and other times from people who are senior or clients.

The workplace is not like other forums. A person’s livelihood is at stake, and the office is where people work together for long stretches of time. It is a very different dynamic than passing a masked protestor on the street.

How does a person handle anti-Israel vitriol from a colleague on social media like LinkedIn? Is it different if they post something on X or Facebook?

Here are some suggested guidelines:

  • It is always safe to stick with facts
  • Opinions are best shared in reaction to something at work; in personal settings, proactive is fine
  • Emotions are fine to share, as appropriate for that work environment, with an emphasis on humility
  • Do not troll people on social media. Use your own platform to make your feelings known
  • Use professional work media like LinkedIn for work related matters unless you are so senior that you believe your Israel advocacy can influence people
  • You can share your pro-Israel positions in a permanent passive manner by posting your role on Zionist groups like StandWithUs or post pictures of you in Israel
  • If you feel close enough to a colleague at work and their views are within the framework of honest disagreement, ask if they are open to discussing the topic
  • Should someone in your office cross the line into intimidation, harassment or discrimination, bring it up with human resources immediately, whether the person is junior or senior to you
  • If a client crosses the line, bring the matter up internally, asking the firm to terminate the engagement or reassign the client to a different colleague

Crossing the line into intimidation, harassment or discrimination should always be called out regardless of a person’s seniority, and whether internal or external to an organization. It must never be allowed to be normalized.

Honest ignorance is still ignorance. Consider whether the person stating lies is open to learning facts and try to engage respectfully. If the person is irate and will not be swayed, there is no point in engaging directly; you could talk to others who may have witnessed the spectacle.

If you are unfamiliar with facts as you hear arguments, admit as much that you need to do more research.  It’s an opportunity to learn more from respected sources and not take someone’s emotional outburst as gospel.

People often react to difficult situations with a desire to either fight or flee. In a business environment, take a breath and be more tactical.

Pirkei Avot 2:16 says:

הוּא הָיָה אוֹמֵר, לֹא עָלֶיךָ הַמְּלָאכָה לִגְמֹר, וְלֹא אַתָּה בֶן חוֹרִין לִבָּטֵל מִמֶּנָּה. אִם לָמַדְתָּ תוֹרָה הַרְבֵּה, נוֹתְנִים לְךָ שָׂכָר הַרְבֵּה. וְנֶאֱמָן הוּא בַעַל מְלַאכְתְּךָ שֶׁיְּשַׁלֵּם לְךָ שְׂכַר פְּעֻלָּתֶךָ. וְדַע מַתַּן שְׂכָרָן שֶׁל צַדִּיקִים לֶעָתִיד לָבֹא:

He [Rabbi Tarfon] used to say: It is not your duty to finish the work, but neither are you at liberty to neglect it; If you have studied much Torah, you shall be given much reward. Faithful is your employer to pay you the reward of your labor; And know that the grant of reward unto the righteous is in the age to come.

We have obligations at work, and we have obligations as Jews at work. It includes providing for our families and workers, as well as infusing the environment with Jewish values, but neither should fully supplant the other. Should that happen, it is not really a place of business where a Jew should be present.

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