Category Archives: USA

Black Lives Matter Is Driving Anti-Semitism

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There is a lot of commentary floating in mainstream and social media about Kanye West’s repeated anti-Semitic comments, and whether he represents much of Black America, right-wing America or the Black entertainment industry. Authors pull an example here and there to make generalizations but no one has done a deeper dive into the matter.

Many of the statements being made are true but are far too narrow. Yes, there are many Black entertainers, athletes and politicians who espouse Jew hatred. Blacks are not immune from the scourge, any more than any racial or ethnic group.

The Kanye comments are vile and should be condemned, as are many others like Washington, D.C. Council member Trayon White Sr. (D-Ward 8) who said that the Jews control the weather so they can get rich. However, a more detailed analysis is important to consider if there is an overall trend of Blacks attacking Jews, and to evaluate the underlying reason.

I have analyzed two decades of FBI Hate Crime statistics. To summarize:

  • Black people account for 24% of annual hate crimes on average from 2015 to 2020, for situations where the offender’s race or ethnicity is known. That is up from a 20% annual average from 2004 to 2014. These percentages should be considered against the fact that Blacks account for roughly 13.4% of the population, meaning that they are committing a disproportionately high number of hate crimes.
  • Most Black hate crimes are against the LGBT community. Blacks commit many fewer religion-based crimes.
  • Black anti-religion hate crimes did jump significantly in the 2010-2019 decade compared to the 2000-2009 decade. Black hate crimes against Jews jumped by 60% and against Muslims by 50%. That compared to White anti-Jewish and anti-Muslim crimes declining by 24% and growing by 39%, respectively.
  • Much of the shift away from White hate crimes began in 2015. From 2004 to 2014, Whites committed an annual average of 78% and 85% of total hate crimes and anti-Semitic crimes, respectively. Since 2015, that has dropped to about 67% and 77% on average, respectively. The difference comes from the growth in attacks being made by the Black community (first bullet above) and the Hispanic community, growing from about no hate crimes to roughly 6% and 5% of the total and anti-Jewish crimes, respectively. An undisclosed non-Hispanic ethnic group is accounting for an increasingly very large percentage of hate crimes as well – it is likely that many of these are Muslims, Arabs and people from southeast Asia (Pakistan and Asia) which are normally categorized as Asian in the United Kingdom but not in the U.S..

The year 2015 did not suddenly see a growth of Jewish businessmen, media ownership, landlords or any other perceived anti-Semitic tropes to drive the change in patterns. However, that year witnessed the launch of the Black Lives Matter movement after the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO in August 2014, just as Israel’s Gaza war was concluding.

Beyond the protests against White people generally, Blacks sought allies to their cause and turned to the Hispanic and Muslim communities. Black media personalities like CNN’s Marc Lamont Hill produced a “revolutionary” video in January 2015 in Nazareth, which he falsely said was in “Palestine”, and smeared the Jews in “a land stolen by greed and destroyed by hate… we stand by the people who courageously struggle and resist the occupation… From Ferguson to Palestine, the struggle for freedom continues.” A few years later, Rep. Rashida Tlaib would pick up this theme “From Gaza to Detroit“, that Jews in the U.S. and Israel are racist profiteers hiding “behind the curtain” and making a profit off of Black and Brown bodies.

In March of 2015, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke before a joint session of the U.S. Congress asking them to not proceed with the Iranian nuclear deal which created an existential threat for the Jewish State. Leaders of the Black community considered it a racist affront disrespecting the Black president, Barack Obama, as opposed to a desperate plea. The Black Democratic members of congress boycotted the speech.

With this backdrop, the Black Lives Matter movement drafted a manifesto with the assistance of Nadia Ben-Youssef of Adalah, a group dedicated to fighting Israel. The BLM platform singled out Israel and America’s relationship with the Jewish State as “complicit in the genocide taking place against the Palestinian people…. Israel is an apartheid state…. Palestinians are forced to walk through military checkpoints along the US-funded apartheid wall.”

Progressive politicians argued that the militarization of U.S. police forces occurred because of training exercises with Israel, although the nature of the training and whether it led to the deaths of any Black people had been discounted for any who bothered to read past the headlines. Regardless, the perception that the Jewish State may have been connected to the deaths of Black Americans was often repeated by Blacks, Muslims and anti-Zionist progressives.

The Southern Poverty Law Center assimilated the narrative. Even though Jews suffered more hate crimes per capita than any other group, SPLC highlighted attacks against Blacks and Muslims, and those committed by Whites. Jewish victims were a small footnote.

The BLM narrative continued to churn whereby it was determined that Black people could not even be considered racist as they lacked power, and any actions taken against White people was simply “punching up.” Hate speech and actions by minorities was thereby given a clean bill of health, a double-“O” license for racism. The power afforded by that twisted reasoning became so ingrained, that SPLC openly stated that it objected to FBI’s Hate Crime numbers for Black people, since “Black separatism was born out of valid anger against very real historical and systemic oppression…. Black separatism is a response to white supremacy and white nationalism,” and therefore could not be counted as a hate crime. SPLC contended that the FBI’s calling out Black racism was “used to justify the over-policing and surveillance of communities of color,” and they would therefore not highlight it.

When Jews were killed in Jersey City, NJ, a Black member of the school board said that the Black killers had a point in killing Jews since they were “brutes” aggressively moving into the neighborhood. Black community leaders rushed to her defense when she was lambasted for her anti-Semitism about murdered Jews. SPLC also tried to come to the defense of the Black killers. And then, with the gas-lighting complete, the city’s un-murdered Jews appallingly handed out gifts to the Black residents of the city on Christmas, apologizing if their blood dirtied the local streets.

Amidst the attacks on Jews, the Democratic Socialists of America called for demonizing Israel and singling it out as a litmus test for endorsement. Not Iran, China, Saudi Arabia or North Korea – but the one liberal and Jewish state in the middle east and north Africa region. The DSA principally endorses non-White and non-Jewish candidates, with the exception of their champion Bernie Sanders, who is completely secular and an anti-Zionist.

So Blacks gather even more allies to the BLM movement. Muslims, progressives and anti-Zionists who all feel victimized by “pushy” White Jews. Validating their victimized status, they can no longer be accused of anti-Semitism or racism, and demand reparations.

This is the storm of Jew hatred that weighs on the Black-Jewish relationship today. The BLM movement and intersectional approach have taken aim at people they perceive as privileged and racist. For them, no group encapsulates having more than their fair share, stealing the fruits of others, than White Jews – both in the U.S. and Israel – in a warped worldview that has infected way too much of the Black community.

Related articles:

Black Antisemitism: The Intersectional Hydra

Under-educated, Liberal, Black Women Know The Least About The Holocaust

Black Hate Crimes of 2018

Don Lemon, Here are Some Uncomfortable Facts about Hate Crimes in America

If a Black Muslim Cop Kills a White Woman, Does it Make a Sound?

David Duke, Ilhan Omar and the Three Lenses of Anti-Semitism

WHY The Progressive Assault on Israel

Bigots In Power, Checked And Unchecked

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The Los Angeles City Council was rocked when a secret recording was released of various Hispanic members of the Council making highly offensive comments about various groups. They ranged from calling the Black child of one of the other council members a monkey, to lambasting ‘Jewish power.’ President Biden and various community members called for their resignations which were tendered in short order.

It is unclear whether the push to expel the bigots was due to the desire to not have racists represent the city, whether there were concerns that such bigots would actively harm groups because of their prejudice or a combination of both.

The motivation for terminating a racist was more clear in 2019, when an Ohio doctor, Lara Kollab, was fired from her position at the Cleveland Clinic after it was revealed that she posted many anti-Semitic tweets for the whole world to see. Beyond the various insults about Jews, she posted that she would “purposely give all the yahood the wrong meds” using the Arabic word for Jews. This was a woman who broadcast that she was in the Jew-killing business.

Anti-Semitic doctor, Lara Kollob and one of her tweets

In 2021, a teaching assistant at Johns Hopkins said that she would lower the grades of pro-Israel students. After the tweet, she polled her followers as to whether marking down Zionists’ grades was a good idea. While the Office of Institutional Equity investigated the TA, Rasha Anaya, it is unclear if there was any action taken against her.

A similar situation occurred at the University of Vermont where a TA publicly taunted Jewish students by asking on social media whether “Is it unethical for me, a TA, to not give zionists credit for participation??? I feel like its good and funny“. The students protested for her censure and removal, but to no avail. The president of the university, Suresh V. Garimella, sent a letter to the school community that there didn’t appear to be evidence of harm, so decided to take no action. The Brandeis Center For Human Rights Under Law and Jewish On Campus, two non-profits issued a strong rebuke to Garimella’s inaction and complacency in the face of blatant anti-Semitism. The Department of Education is now looking into the matter.

Society has clearly taken a range of actions in dealing with bigots in power. While there are laws in place to protect people from unfair bias, they are typically enforced after an incident happens.

Yet in the case of the Los Angeles City Council, the president of the United States got involved even though no action happened or was even threatened. For the Ohio doctor, no one wanted to wait for her to kill a Jew, and it was easier to fire her immediately as the threat of violence is a crime as well.

But what of the Jews on university campuses today? They are publicly threatened by teachers and student groups, and administrations are loathe to take any action under the guise of free speech – even though threatening to lower the grades of Jews is a threat of the powerful over the weak, with serious personal long term consequences, which has nothing to do with free speech.

President Biden has allowed this anti-Semitism on college campuses to flourish, waiting until after midterm elections to decide on applying the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism to Title VI. Such move could protect the Jewish students from both the bigots and complacent university leadership.

There will always be bigots and racists but society has moved to protect the persecuted with a variety of laws. It is time to finally check the anti-Semites as well.

Related articles:

The Right Number of Anti-Semites in Congress

The Spark And The Fuel Of Anti-Semitism Of The Women’s March

The Re-Introduction of the ‘Powerful’ Jew Smear

Letter To Send To Liberal Members of Congress Attacking Yeshiva University

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On September 23, 2022, six liberal members of Congress wrote a letter to Yeshiva University denouncing its decision to not officially recognize a LGBTQ+ club. The letter is full of inaccuracies and fuels anti-religious hatred at a time that anti-Semitic crimes are already at record highs.

Penned by outgoing Congressman Mondaire Jones, and cosigned by Representatives Adriano Espaillat (D-NY), Paul Tonko (D-NY), Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), Jamaal Bowman (D-NY), and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), it contends that Yeshiva University prohibited the formation of a Pride Alliance Club which is completely false. The club already exists. YU just did not give it official recognition as it runs counter to the school’s religious mission.

Below is a letter to send to each of the members of congress, whom you can contact by clicking their names here: Mondaire Jones; Adriano Espaillat; Paul Tonko; Carolyn Maloney; Jamaal Bowman; and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. If you do not live in their districts and cannot email them, you can still call them.

LETTER TO MEMBER OF CONGRESS:

I could not disagree more with your letter to Yeshiva University, both in tone and summary of your impressions on the matter.

1. The school does not discriminate against any student, counter to your claims. There is no team, club, class, event or any activity that is available to some students and not others. It is a disgraceful slur to state that the school does not treat some of its students “as full human beings.”

2. There is already a Pride Alliance at the school. There is membership and events that have been going on for years. The school took no actions to ban the group.

3. The existing group asked for official recognition by the school, which the school declined to do – as it does for all groups that run counter to its beliefs as a religious institution. That is not selective discrimination against the LGBT community. It would have rejected a Cheeseburger Club as well. It is outrageous for a member of Congress to suggest, let alone dictate, how and what a religious institution can approve and sanction.

4. The courts sided with the Pride Alliance solely because it does not believe that YU is a religious institution and thinks it a secular one. The fact is that YU is non-binary, being both religious and secular, a situation that does not fall neatly into the legal charter boxes. It is a position that members of the LGBTQ+ community should understand.

5. This case has nothing to do with discrimination but the government’s refusal to recognize the religious character of a leading Jewish modern Orthodox institution. Your letter feeds a false narrative targeting religious Jews as discriminating against LGBT students and fuels anti-Semitic sentiment which is already at terrible levels. In fact, it is the government that has refused to recognize the university’s non-binary status, and now you are attempting to dictate how a religious institution should operate.

I urge you to amend your statement as your actions are impacting the entire modern Orthodox community. Please read the following article for a better understanding of the situation, rather than glossing information from anti-religious media. https://firstonethrough.wordpress.com/2022/10/02/yeshiva-university-and-modern-orthodoxy-are-non-binary/

LETTER MEMBERS OF CONGRESS SENT TO YESHIVA UNIVERSITY

Rabbi Dr. Ari Berman

President

Yeshiva University

500 West 185th Street

New York, NY 10033

Dear Dr. Berman:

Over the past weeks, we have followed the Supreme Court’s rulings affecting LGBTQ+ students at Yeshiva University who wish to form a peer support club, the YU Pride Alliance. Many of these students are our constituents.

We write to express our support for these students and for the rights of all LGBTQ+ students to equal treatment in New York State’s educational institutions. We urge the University to do everything possible to care for its LGBTQ+ students as full human beings in the campus community, including to recognize their student group. 

We understand the LGBTQ+ students at Yeshiva University seek to form a student group that provides a safe space for discussion and connection. Research confirms that LGBTQ+ students face discrimination, isolation, higher rates of mental health issues such as depression and anxiety, and other challenges as they navigate their college years. Gay-straight alliances and student-led clubs that provide safe spaces for LGBTQ+ students to support each other and discuss issues related to sexual orientation and gender identity are critical to student health and success. Other proudly religious universities in New York have navigated this terrain, recognizing LGBTQ+ student groups as a critical resource for their students; it is time for Yeshiva University to do the same.

We are disappointed with the University’s recent decision to suspend all student groups in order to avoid recognizing the YU Pride Alliance. This move pits students against each other and risks further isolating LGBTQ+ students at Yeshiva University. We also believe this action to be in tension with your recent statement that Yeshiva University’s “commitment and love for [its] LGBTQ students are unshakeable.”

As members of Congress representing New York, we believe that the equal treatment of LGBTQ+ students and the provision of safe spaces for their well-being are consistent with established federal public policy. We know our concerns for the well-being of LGBTQ+ students at Yeshiva University are shared by many who care deeply about the institution—Jewish clergy, University faculty, alumni, current students, and local elected officials.

We encourage the University to extend its hand to its LGBTQ+ students, and their allies, who have bravely come forward telling you what they need to flourish as students and community members at Yeshiva University. 

Thank you for your time and consideration.

For The Sins Of 5782…

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… for following directions from Waze with more obedience than any Torah commandments;

… for being upset that we don’t skip enough piyutim and selichot in synagogue;

… for coming to synagogue during the week wearing a Mickey Mouse shirt;

… for completing morning services at home in 360 seconds;

… for re-watching Key & Peele skits on my phone during breaks in davening;

for these sins and thoughts related to prayer services, please pardon us

… for the sin of cursing the gardener and coveting my neighbor’s lawn;

… for using COVID as an excuse for not going to shiva visits;

… for not killing lanterbugs on Shabbos;

… for sincerely asking for forgiveness and begrudgingly giving it;

… for taking the final aluminum tins from Amazing Savings right before the holidays;

… for not speaking up loudly against anti-Semites because they were Jews or from my political party;

… for embracing anti-Semites and their positions in the belief that I will be spared while fellow Jews are carted away;

… for not rallying behind institutions that fired anti-Zionist teachers;

… for not calling out anti-Semitism from other minorities, for fear of being called a racist;

… for not visiting the Temple Mount in Jerusalem;

… for believing that calls for violence are covered under free speech;

… for not doing enough to stop more anti-Semites from becoming members of Congress;

… for not protesting my government’s funding Palestinian agencies that still actively promote terrorism;

… for falsely believing that Tikkun Olam will stop the spread of anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism;

… for screaming at ignoramuses like Whoopi Goldberg rather than educating them;

… for continuing to subscribe to anti-Semitic media which peddles the ‘powerful Jew’ myth;

… for deliberately weakening Jewish institutions with lawsuits and public declarations, rather than finding a way to improve them from within the community;

for these sins and thoughts related to community, please pardon us

… for allowing my children to attend colleges with rampant anti-Semitism;

… for visiting countries on vacation that fund anti-Israel NGOs and condemn Israel at the United Nations;

… for not listening to kids’ recommendation to invest alongside Pelosi, and for listening to them about investing in crypto;

… for calling my uncle a crazy racist and my niece a lazy woke-tard;

… for still not having a proper name for my in-laws, after many years of being married;

… for not calling my parents enough, even when they remind me of that fact constantly;

… for pretending I’m preoccupied when my spouse asks for something I’m not interested in;

… for telling my spouse to change attire; for not listening to spouse’s recommendation on attire; for listening to spouse’s recommendation on dress; for being late to events because of attire;

for these sins and thoughts related to family, please pardon us

… for the arrogance of believing that people read my postings including annoying Wordle scores;

… for believing Shabbos calories don’t count;

… for thinking I’m younger than my age, and not living each day fully;

… for internalizing that living my best life means selfish overindulgence;

… for trying to do too much; for trying to do too little;

… for not spending more time with family, friends, community and You;

for all these things, please pardon us

Related articles:

For the Sins of 5780…

For the Sins of 5777 of…

Beating Bowman

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The final results are now in, and Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY16) won the Democratic primary with a slim 52% majority. It’s an embarrassing showing for an incumbent, who might have lost had he faced a single opponent. The result is actually not surprising, as his district was redrawn just a few months earlier, with many voters unfamiliar with him and many not coming out to vote in the final weeks of summer.

He is also disliked by a huge portion of the district.

A lot of money was raised by one of Bowman’s opponents, Vedat Gashi, who came in second with 27% of the vote. Catherine Parker, well known in her local town came in third with 20%, while Mark Jaffe, who had dropped out of the race, gathered 2%.

CandidateVotespercent of votes
Vedat Gashi9,88827%
Jamaal Bowman19,35452%
Catherine Parker7,43920%
Mark Jaffe5822%
irregular330%
Results of August 2022 Democratic Primary for NY District 16 in Lower Westchester

Much of lower Westchester is slightly left-of-center, way to the right of the extreme left-wing views of Bowman. As such, people are beginning to assess how to replace this representative in the next election in two years.

A deeper dive into the numbers yields some clues.

Bowman won a majority of only five of the 12 towns and cities in his district. He managed to secure the overall win because those five municipalities accounted for 64% of the Democratic voter turnout. Greenburgh and Yonkers had 20% and 19% of the votes, respectively, and Bowman took them with 56% and 61% of the vote, respectively. New Rochelle was the third largest municipality with 13% of the primary votes, and Bowman took it with 51% of the votes.

MunicipalGashiBowmanParkerOtherTotalTotal %
Eastchester406794508291,7375%
Greenburgh1,9844,1421,1171527,39520%
Harrison241242223257312%
Mamaroneck5599721,207322,7707%
Pelham240510179119403%
Rye Town385663640391,7275%
Scarsdale988296340181,6424%
Mt Vernon2652,886196203,3679%
New Rochelle1,6122,487731554,88513%
Rye City15222468861,0703%
White Plains1,3471,735692903,86410%
Yonkers1,7094,4039181387,16819%
TOTAL9,88819,3547,43961537,296
August 2022 Democratic Primary Canvass Book

Gashi won Scarsdale with 60% of the votes, but the town only accounted for 4% of the total votes. Parker took her hometown of the City of Rye with 64% of the votes, and also beat the other candidates in Mamaroneck with 44% of the votes, however, those two municipalities only accounted for 10% of the total votes. Factoring the large amount of money raised by Gashi, and Parker having a local base of constituents and being the only woman in the race right after the Supreme Court threw out the constitutional right to abortion, both candidates did much worse than should be expected against such a poor incumbent.

So if the answer is not to back either of these candidates next time, how do moderates beat Bowman in 2024?

1. Back a single candidate, EARLY

Politicians are politicians, so they will always be running for office and fund-raising. If a politician thinks they have some shot at winning and can build political capital, they will enter the race. After all, they are spending other people’s money at the end of the day.

If there are multiple moderates running against Bowman, the split in the vote all but assures Bowman’s victory. In the 2022 race, had Parker not entered the race late as a spoiler, Gashi might have prevailed.

The key is therefore to get centrists out to push local politicians and community leaders to back a single candidate early. With enough endorsements from mayors and local officials from lower Westchester, it could prevent lesser known politicians from entering the fray lest they be tarred as a spoiler, and hand Bowman a victory once again.

2. Get Harrison to register Democratic and vote

As the chart below demonstrates, the average voter turnout in each municipality was 6.4%. Mamaroneck, part of Parker’s County District 7, led with 9.4% voter turnout – but she barely won on her home turf with 44%, compared to 35% Bowman / 20% Gashi. Scarsdale also had a great turnout with 9.2%, with an impassioned Jewish vote backing Gashi where he won with 60% of the vote compared to just 18% for Bowman.

MunicipalityVotesPopulationTurnout
Eastchester1,73733,0335.3%
Greenburgh7,39591,3388.1%
Harrison73128,3632.6%
Mamaroneck2,77029,5639.4%
Pelham94012,4707.5%
Town of Rye1,727
Scarsdale1,64217,8909.2%
Mt Vernon3,36767,6235.0%
New Rochelle4,88579,3676.2%
City of Rye1,07015,7696.8%
White Plains3,86458,1716.6%
Yonkers7,168200,1833.6%
TOTAL37,296633,7706.4%
Voter turnout for August 2022 Democratic Primary

Meanwhile, Harrison had just a 2.6% voter turnout, the worst in the district. With 67% of the town’s voters opting for someone other than Bowman, a concerted effort must be placed to get Harrison voters (really everyone) to register with the Democratic Party and get out to vote during the primaries. Recall that this district is now D+40, meaning Biden beat Trump in the last election by roughly 40 points, so the Democratic primary is the battlefield, not the November election.

3. Support a centrist minority from Greenburgh, Mount Vernon or Yonkers

The Jewish vote stands at roughly 25% of the district, Hispanics at about 28% and Blacks at 21%. As the overall Jewish vote does not vote as a block, chipping away at Bowman’s base in the Black community could be part of a winning strategy.

Bowman won a whopping 86% of the vote in Mount Vernon. It is the fourth largest municipality with a population of 67,000, trailing Yonkers at 200,000, Greenburgh at 91,000 and New Rochelle at 79,000. Backing a Black centrist politician from one of those cities, or a Hispanic woman, could peel away important votes away from Bowman.

4. Build a loud Orthodox Jewish voting block

The Orthodox community coalesced late in the 2022 campaign around Gashi. He won 60% of Scarsdale, 35% of White Plains and 33% of New Rochelle – the towns where he secured the highest percentage of votes were those with the greatest number of Orthodox Jews. The community should continue to build upon that political momentum and become a reliable block to bring the district more towards the center.

The community should also become more active locally. For example, it should lead the charge in getting Westchester County to adopt the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism. Leaving local politics and organizations to progressives, mainstreams some extremists’ opinions and fractures society. That historic approach brought anti-Israel speakers to local synagogues where local rabbis serve on boards of directors of far left-wing groups. The intersectional bonds the progressive Jewish community leaders are cementing with anti-Semites and anti-Zionists should be denounced by members of the synagogues and the local community.

In addition to bringing the non-Orthodox Jewish community towards the center, Westchester’s Orthodox community should build relationships with the local Hispanic, Asian and religious Christian community which sends their children to parochial schools. They are more conservative than the Black and liberal non-Orthodox communities, and can expand the sphere of influence in local elections.

Here are just a few actions for the people of lower Westchester to retire Jamaal Bowman, the extremist congressman who now mis-represents them.

Related articles:

Jamaal Bowman Disgustingly Compares Israeli Actions in Jerusalem To A ‘Military Coup’, ‘Ethnic Cleansing’ And A “Genocide”

Westchester’s Pro-Israel Community Is Livid With J Street

You Must Register To Vote

J Street Proves Again It’s Progressive, Not Pro-Israel

Orthodox Institutions Should Rally To The Westchester Reform Temple

On 9/11, Commit To Blocking Iran and Saudi Arabia From Ever Possessing Weapons Of Mass Destruction

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The horrific terrorist attacks conducted against Americans on September 11, 2001 was not only the worst loss of life in a coordinated attack by foreign enemies, it changed the vector of American and world history.

On the 21st anniversary of the attacks, the United States posted comments by President Biden about “Patriot Day” at various embassies around the world. In the Middle East and North Africa, the American embassies took very different approaches.

The US embassies in Israel, Egypt and Yemen were unique in posting Biden’s remarks about the 9/11 terrorism. The embassies in other countries which are considered US allies, such as Jordan which receives $1.45 billion in annual aid from the U.S., Qatar, which houses the largest US military presence in the region, and Saudi Arabia, where President Biden just visited to increase its oil exports, all opted to remain silent on the solemn day.

What do these three countries have in common?

Israel has been fighting the scourge of Palestinian Islamic radical terrorism for decades. Egypt and Yemen are fighting terrorist forces backed by the Islamic Republic of Iran. Many of the other regional Muslim-majority countries back those terrorist groups like Hamas, or have other US-designated terrorist groups operating openly in their borders, including Turkey, Lebanon and Qatar.

As we remember the victims of the 9/11 attacks, we must also remember the state sponsors of terrorism – Iran and Saudi Arabia in particular – and make sure that they never have access to weapons of mass destruction.

Related articles:

Paying to Murder Jews: From Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Iran to the Palestinian Authority

Will Biden Enable Hamas’s Sponsors of Iran, Qatar and Turkey

Some Global Supporters of the P5+1 Iran Deal

If Biden Is Half Right, Is He All Wrong?

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President Joe Biden called the United States to order this week in asking all Americans to tune into a prime time address staged outside Independence Hall in Philadelphia. It was an address he believed was of the utmost importance: to save democracy.

That is indeed a most important subject. Biden was right to call out “extremists” (which he mentioned six times, and political “violence” (ten times) as real risks which threaten our society. It is a principle beyond partisanship.

Alas, Biden destroyed his 3,000-word speech by only calling out extremists to the right of him, and not to the left.

He tried to coin a phrase “MAGA Republicans” (used 13 times) to describe the extremists who follow former President Donald Trump who wrongfully tried to overturn the results of the 2020 elections. He said those people “do not respect the Constitution. They do not believe in the rule of law. They do not recognize the will of the people…. and they fanned the flames of political violence that are a threat to our personal rights, to the pursuit of justice, to the rule of law, to the very soul of this country.” He made clear that they are a “threat” (used nine times) to the fabric of the United States.

Biden pretended that the extremists exist on only one side of the political spectrum. He ignored the raucous left that burned the streets of America and assaulted our persons and property:

The extremists to the left include anti-Semites like Rep. Rashida Tlaib and Rep. Ilhan Omar. Instead of lambasting their disgraceful incitement against Jews, Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi rewarded Omar with passing an act denouncing Islamophobia.

The far-left extremists are inciting hatred against the police, capitalism and Jews. They are attempting to brand all White people as racists and teach such in elementary schools. They are inciting riots and anti-Semitic attacks. But Biden won’t call it out.

President Biden calling “MAGA Republicans” a threat to democracy. He did not utter a word about radical left-wing extremists

The call to dismantle America is only part of the attack on democracy. The Obama/Biden administration gave the Islamic Republic of Iran, the leading state sponsor of terrorism, a legal pathway to nuclear weapons. Biden/Harris are working on the same, threatening All democracies around the world.

In addition to being silent on the the radical left, Biden stretched the meaning of the radical right. He said that people who were not in favor of Democrats demand for abortion until the moment of birth are threats to democracy. Does he know that over 70% of Americans are against abortions in the third trimester?

Biden said that people who were not in favor of gay marriage were extremists. Did he forget that it was illegal in the US until a few years ago? There are over 70 countries were BEING gay (let alone legalizing gay marriage) is illegal. Was his address meant to antagonize half of the world?

Biden was correct that calls for violence are completely unacceptable; people who try to rip at our common bonds that make us all Americans are threats to society. That he could only call out the alt-right while ignoring the alt-left was not just a missed opportunity to bring America to the center by clipping the fringes, but a frightening warning sign that the power of progressive extremists has already inserted itself deeply into the administration.

Related articles:

Democrats Give Platforms to Their Extremists

Islamic and Alt-Left Extremists Declare that Normalization With Zionists Is Against Sharia Law

#NeverGillibrand #NeverSanders #NeverHarris #NeverDeBlasio

Bernie Sanders’ Antisemitic and Anti-Zionist Friends

The Democratic Socialists Tell Lies and Half Truths About Lobbyists

Anti-Semites Don’t Ride In Cattle Cars

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Nablus

The young Arab men got into their car. The backseat had machine guns and bottles prepared with Molotov cocktails. They checked their watches and called friends that they were on their way to meet them at the designated spot on the highway.

Their colleagues got to the designated spot on dirt bikes. It was a favorite way of riding around the Judean Desert and this was a relatively cool morning which made for a pleasant ride. They arrived at the perch early and prepared for the attack.

The hill afforded them a nice view of the Israeli cars coming and going on a road they demanded be Jew-free. The Muslim Arabs considered the vehicles as daggers in the heart of a land they considered purely Arab, and they were mujahideen fighting for the liberation of their country from imperialist European colonial settlers.

Their fellow jihadists phoned that they were approaching the site for the attack. It was important to concentrate their efforts, as the Zionist Occupation Forces would swarm shortly after their actions.

The stationary Arab men began to pelt the cars carrying Jews with rocks. They watched as the rocks popped against the roofs and smash into pieces on the road. Cars behind them and in the opposite direction began swerving and accelerating away from the rockstorm. Soon the Jews would call in the location of the attack. They had no more than five minutes to kill as many Jewish settlers as possible.

While the barrage was underway, the Arabs in the car gathered their weapons. The passenger in the front seat took the machine gun while the driver grabbed a pistol. As their adrenaline caught up with the speed of the car, they saw a large bus coming in the opposite direction. A ripe big bus full of Jews.

They opened fire together. They chanted “Allahu Akbar” as they shot up the bus. At least a dozen hits they estimated as they zipped past. The driver shouted that he hit the bus driver, and sure enough, his jihadist passenger spun his head around to watch the bus crash into a hill on the side of the road. The Arabs cheered and sped away.

The scene of a shooting attack on an Israeli bus in the Jordan Valley, on September 4, 2022. (photo: Israeli Bus Drivers Union)

The Bronx

The Black Congressman was annoyed but not too worried. His district had been redrawn in the latest census, leaving him without much of his base in the Bronx and handing him a bunch of wealthy White suburbanites in Westchester County. Could his Socialist message still prevail amongst one of the most Jewish districts in the country?

He decided to change nothing. His staff was 100 percent made up of Black women, unique amongst all politicians. He wasn’t going to pivot to adding a White Jew to the team at this point. Maybe he’d meet with a local Jewish politician who was peeved at being ignored during the entirety of his first term. But he only would do it at the request of a local Black leader who swore that he was the right kind of Jew.

He stood on the subway platform to greet his people. It didn’t matter that he would only gather about 3,000 votes from the nub of New York City left in his district. He was delivering a message: he was a man of the people. Let the other candidates stand on the fancy Metro North train platforms in Westchester pandering the rich for votes. There were working class people in those towns too and his message would attract their votes as well.

Confident in his approach, he told his staffers that they should not respond to the invitation by the American Jewish Congress to hear from the congressional candidates. Let the two White people split the protest vote. It assured him of an easy path to victory.

He flew down to Washington, D.C. to confer with members of the “Squad”, fellow left-wing extremists making headway in the Democratic Party. Yes, he would co-sponsor a resolution calling the founding of the Jewish State of Israel, a “Nakba“, meaning a catastrophe. Yes, he would pull his support from the Abraham Accords, which advanced peace between Israel and four Muslim countries.

The Jews are now a loud annoying part of his district but ultimately an unimportant minority. He will make that abundantly clear to them as he votes against their wishes over his next term, letting everyone know that the “Jewish Lobby” is dead.

Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) hugging fellow anti-Israel Squad member Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Charlottesville

The White supremacists walked the streets with torches in hand. “Jews will not replace us!” they chanted, as several sported a Nazi salute. They called out the handful of Jews who were using their Jewish power to import non-Whites onto the White shores of America.

Their actions drew the national attention they sought. While they were few in number, they wanted to galvanize support against Jews and immigrants. Against racial preferences. Against giveaways to minorities that kept holding Whites back. They saw Donald Trump as the most vocal non-politically correct politician that ever held office, and they were going to embrace this man who coveted love and loyalty more than anything else.

This spark would catch fire.

White supremacists from around the country boarded their pickup trucks, now with flags perched high. They despised the woke culture finding its way into every facet of the Christian nation they loved. And the Jews. The Jews were abetting all of it.

Several hundred white nationalists and white supremacists carrying torches march in a parade at the University of Virginia. (Evelyn Hockstein for The Washington Post)

The Spouses, Kapos And Abettors

Not every Jew was hauled to their deaths in cattle cars during the European Holocaust. Some Jews remained in major Nazi-controlled cities, even Berlin.

While the Nazis were hell-bent on eradicating the untermenschen Jews, some Juden had all but abandoned their people and faith, and had married proper German women. The Aryans loved their Jewish spouses, for whatever reason. The Nazis reluctantly concluded that they could not haul the Jewish spouses off to concentration camps for extermination, while these Aryan brides had brothers and fathers fighting for the Nazi cause. They allowed some of the sub-humans to remain.

The interfaith couples were relieved, and paid back their masters with silence, as Jews from around Europe were carted off for liquidation.

Monument in Berlin, Germany for the German women who fought to save their Jewish husbands from death in the Nazi concentration camps. (photo: FirstOneThrough)

Some Jews who were hauled off in cattle cars to the camps managed to survive by working with Nazi overlords. These Kapos served as stand-in guards, working with the Nazis to hustle fellow Jews off the trains, into lines and into the showers. Heinrich Himmler, the Reichsführer of the SS, praised the Kapos as it saved critical German manpower during the war-effort, and helped divide the Jews amongst themselves. The irony was sweet poetry to the Nazis: Jews implementing the Final Solution upon themselves.

Jewish Head Kapo serving in the concentration camp of Salaspils in Latvia. (Photo courtesy Bundesarchiv)

Today, Jews continue to divide themselves. Some cling to jihadists. Some to anti-Semitic woke politicians. Some to bold racists, who nevertheless embrace common positions.

And the Jews know the history. They can see the highway to hell mapped by the terrorists on the ridge, the woke politicians standing on the platform, and the racists shouting from trucks.

And they have made up their minds. They are marrying these new Germanic lovers who will surely save them while fellow Jews are carted off. For them, “Ich bin ein Berliner” is a renewed slogan to be aired openly and publicly that they are not untermenschen. That’s those other Jews.

Some may look and others will turn away, but all will cleave to their Brides of Absolution while the anti-Semites send Jews off in cattle cars once again.

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The March of Silent Feet

Jamaal Bowman Disgustingly Compares Israeli Actions in Jerusalem To A ‘Military Coup’, ‘Ethnic Cleansing’ And A “Genocide”

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There are no people as persecuted as the Jews. Subject to pogroms, ethnic cleansing, blood libels and genocides throughout history and around the world, they have been the victims of the powerful and of the weak.

Rep. Jamaal Bowman represents New York State’s 16th Congressional District which covers lower Westchester County, just north of New York City. It is estimated to be over 20% Jewish and has one of the largest Jewish populations in the United States.

From his powerful podium, Bowman deliberately insults Jewish history and incites hatred for the Jewish State.

On May 11, 2021, while Israeli courts were attempting to handle a property dispute of an Arab family squatting (not paying rent to the Jewish landlords) in a Jerusalem apartment, and suppressing a violent Arab mob who objected to Jews being allowed onto their holiest site of the Temple Mount, Bowman published a particularly noxious anti-Semitic and anti-Israel statement. It opened:

“There’s so much we’re dealing with within our own borders that it’s often difficult for Americans to turn our attention to the problems of people overseas, but it’s hard at this moment not to be struck by the extent of suffering around the world. Whether it’s the infringement of human and civil rights of Palestinians living in Sheikh Jarrah, the violence against those praying in the Al-Aqsa mosque during the holy month of Ramadan in East Jerusalem, police violence against Colombians, a military coup in Myanmar, an ignored genocide in Ethiopia, or the ethnic cleansing of the Uyghurs in China, my heart is breaking for people around the world experiencing oppression and hurt.”

Bowman started with events in Israel – twice. He only referenced the perceived wrongs against Arabs, not the violent Arab attacks against Jews exercising their basic human rights to pray with dignity at their holiest location.

He then compared those relatively minor events to vicious global activities.

  • In Colombia, police attacked and killed peaceful demonstrators protesting income inequality
  • In Myanmar, the military essentially took over the entire government and arrested public officials
  • In Ethiopia, an estimated 500,000 people were killed
  • In China, hundreds of thousands of Uyghurs were imprisoned and shipped to “re-education camps”

How are any of these horrible actions against hundreds of thousands of peaceful civilians remotely close to Israel protecting Jews who want to visit the Temple Mount? Bowman deliberately abused language to stir up anger and violence against the Jewish State. Which is exactly what happened over the next days, with Jews around the world being attacked.

Further, to use words like “genocide” and “ethnic cleansing” against the Jewish State, when Jews just suffered a true genocide in Europe, and ethnic cleansing in Israel at the hands of the Jordanian and Egyptian army who expelled all of the Jews from Judea and Samaria and the eastern part of Jerusalem, is to spit in the faces of actual victims.

Jamaal Bowman standing in the center of the alt-left “Squad”, with Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar on the left, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Cori Bush and Ayanna Pressley to the right

Jamaal Bowman helped inflame violence against Jews around the world with malicious smears against Israel. He is unfit to serve in congress.

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Westchester’s Pro-Israel Community Is Livid With J Street

Westchester’s Pro-Israel Community Is Livid With J Street

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On August 2nd, shortly after J Street-endorsed candidate Rep. Andy Levin (D-MI) lost in the Democratic primary, J Street lambasted AIPAC and Democratic Majority For Israel for supporting Rep. Haley Stevens. The progressive group took particular aim at the two groups’ “aggressive outside spending…[which] is harmful to American foreign policy, to the Democratic Party and ultimately to the State of Israel. (J Street’s emphasis)

It was obvious sour grapes coming from a group that had endorsed and funded a campaign just like AIPAC and DMFI, but lost.

Not three weeks later, J Street has entered the race of New York’s 16th Congressional District, in lower Westchester County. And in a very hypocritical and disgusting fashion.

Neither the bipartisan group AIPAC nor the centrist Democratic DMFI spent one dollar on the NY-16 race. Neither group even endorsed any of the three candidates running. While both groups strongly dislike the anti-Israel Rep. Jamaal Bowman who is the incumbent, they have refrained from engaging in the race as the odds of defeating him are low, so have opted to focus elsewhere.

J Street endorsed Bowman early but did not put in any money into the race. Until now.

Wealthy and Poor Voters Split

After witnessing the near loss of another anti-Israel incumbent member of “the Squad”, Ilhan Omar (D-MN) on August 9th, J Street became nervous. Omar won her Democratic primary by 2,400 votes out of 110,000 cast. Omar won the poorer, densely populated city area of Minneapolis but lost the wealthy suburbs. If AIPAC and DMFI had put resources into the race, Omar would likely have been defeated.

There are potential lessons for the NY-16 race, where Omar’s close colleague Bowman is the far-left incumbent.

J Street endorsed Bowman in January 2022 when NY-16 included a large section of the Bronx section of New York City. In May, the district was redrawn, removing almost the entirety of the Bronx which had been in the district, and replacing it with wealthier suburbs of lower Westchester. This dynamic could theoretically swap the rank-and-file reliable liberal voters of the Bronx with more moderate ones, threatening a far-left incumbent like Bowman.

A review of the 2020 presidential voting offers some color on how the new NY-16 towns of Westchester (many of which were in NY-17 previously), vote compared to the sections of the Bronx (now in NY-15) which were replaced.

Candidateold ny16 bronxold ny17 westchesterdifference
Buttigieg0.6%1.3%0.7%
Kloubachar0.5%0.6%0.1%
Biden75.7%69.3%-6.4%
Gabbard0.3%0.3%0.0%
Sanders11.7%10.8%-0.8%
Bloomberg2.7%1.4%-1.3%
Steyer0.1%0.1%0.0%
Bennet0.3%0.1%-0.2%
Warren3.0%4.0%1.0%
Yang0.8%0.9%0.0%
Patrick0.1%0.1%0.0%
Blank4.2%11.1%6.9%
Void0.0%0.0%0.0%
Voting in 2020 Democratic Presidential Primary from New York State Board of Elections June 23, 2020

There are a couple of takeaways from the voting patterns of the poorer sections of the Bronx which were removed from NY-16 relative to the wealthier sections of Westchester which were added. The biggest one is that Westchester was much more content to put in “protest” votes in leaving the choice blank (+6.9%), rather than follow the front-runner, Joe Biden (-6.4%).

The second is that the wealthier towns of Westchester, a county which is roughly 20% Jewish, did not rally to Michael Bloomberg. This observation should be discounted by the Bronx having him as mayor for three terms while Westchester did not.

Lastly, Westchester and the Bronx voted in a similar pattern for the far-left. While Westchester backed Warren more than the Bronx did (+1.0%), the Bronx voted in a similar percentage favoring Bernie Sanders (-0.8%).

The political strategists at J Street know these things: that Westchester is just as likely to vote liberal BUT is also likely to stay away and not support the frontrunner incumbent, especially in an off-cycle end of summer primary. The lower voter turnout and Westchester’s challenge to the frontrunner could spell the end of Bowman’s political career.

Westchester Jewish Community Rallying For Vedat Gashi

There are specific reasons for Bowman to be concerned beyond macro trend lines, which brought J Street into the action.

Bowman’s positions are very unpopular in lower Westchester. Those include:

  • Call to “Defund the police”
  • “Abolish ICE”, the immigration and customs enforcement department, and a call for “open borders”
  • Push for teaching “Critical Race Theory” in schools
  • Voting against the Infrastructure Bill, and then lying to constituents that he supported it
  • Sponsoring a bill that called the founding of Israel a catastrophe
  • Not signing a bipartisan letter to fight anti-Semitism on campuses
  • Not supporting the Abraham Accords which set peace and normalization agreements between Israel and four Muslim countries
  • His vote to condition aid to Israel, in contrast to President Biden’s pledge not to do so
  • Bowman’s being one of the least bipartisan members of congress, going into a session that will likely see a split in Democratic and Republican control

The vast majority of the Westchester Jewish community is against these policies. Further, reading of Bowman’s tight relationship with the noxiously anti-Israel group IfNotNow where he said “I couldn’t be more grateful that IfNotNow Movement has had my back in Congress this year and I know that our partnership is just beginning,” made people search for an alternative.

J Street wasn’t initially concerned by the anger of the Jewish community, as there were three candidates running against Bowman. His victory was a near certainty as people were likely to split the vote. With AIPAC and DMFI concluding the same and staying out of the race, J Street opted to place its money bets on other races.

However, over the last few weeks, Jewish grass roots efforts led to coalescing behind Vedat Gashi, a secular Muslim immigrant from Kosovo. The Jewish community was pulled in by his powerful story, his pledge for “commonsense” policies which would NOT defund the police, which would support investments in infrastructure and would support Israel. Gashi lawn signs began dotting the suburban landscape. The easy Bowman victory was now hotly contested.

So J Street came in to fight the local Jews.

J Street Pours Money Into Campaign Against The Local Jewish Community

With primaries scheduled for August 23rd, J Street announced on August 17 that it would pour $200,000 into the races of Rep. Jerry Nadler and Rep. Jamaal Bowman. The hypocrisy of funding Bowman in a race without any PAC involvement after slamming “aggressive outside spending” is just the beginning.

J Street’s flood of money in the final days of the race is not only going against the desires of the local Jewish community; it is trying to get the non-Jewish community out to vote. Its press release states that its “Bowman ad running across streaming platforms including ESPN, Vevo, MLB, NBC, CBS, ABC and BET.” BET is predominantly watched by the non-Jewish African-American community.

The Westchester Jewish community is rightfully outraged.

J Street is attempting to undermine the local Jewish community’s desire for a moderate pro-Israel candidate to represent them in congress, by spending tons of money to get the non-Jewish community to vote for a far-left anti-Israel candidate. It’s appalling, and the ramifications will likely last well beyond this immediate election.

Member of the far-left anti-Israel “Squad”, Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MN), Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY)(Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

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