A raucous crowd of Jew-haters descended on Wall Street in New York City to protest an exhibit about the slaughter of people at the Nova Dance Festival in Israel on October 7, 2023. Some politicians were quick to condemn the vile and vocal antisemitism.
Not so, for members of the alt-left “squad.”
Rep. Mike Lawler (NY-17) had previously attended the exhibit which showed evidence of peaceful music lovers being brutally slaughtered by Palestinian Arab terrorists. At 8:43PM on June 10, the evening of the NYC antisemitic riot, Lawler wrote on X that he was appalled that Jewish Americans were trapped inside the exhibit while an antisemitic mob screamed outside.
A short while later at 10:35PM, Rep. Ritchie Torres (NY-15), joined Lawler in condemning the heinous antisemites who revealed themselves to be “barbaric.”
It took until the following afternoon, on June 11 at 2:41PM, for Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY-14) to condemn the antisemitic rioters.
Only after seeing fellow “squad” member AOC condemn the disgusting antisemitism, did Rep. Jamaal Bowman (NY-16), decide to post something about the vile protestors, at 3:27PM.
Both AOC and Bowman pretended that the “protestors” were really about “peace” and “human dignity” even though the rioters called for another murderous “intifada” and to repeat the atrocities of October 7.
Jihadists in New York City on June 10 with a banner “long live October 7th”
New York City and its suburbs have the greatest number of Jews outside of Israel, in the Jewish diaspora. There are members of Congress in New York who take leadership roles in defending their Jewish constituents, like Reps. Lawler and Torres, and those who protect their attackers, like Reps. AOC and Bowman. The latter practice a jihadi-socialist game called “condemn antisemitism while protecting antisemites,” a dog-whistle to go for the Jews more discreetly.
Politicians and presidents of universities are being graded by their reaction to Hamas’s October 7 massacre in Israel and Israel’s response. The pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian communities are keeping score.
Pro- Israel Statements
There are a number of statements that people expect to see, some of which are considered easy and others which show true pro-Israel bona fides.
Condemn October 7. The Hamas attack which killed over 1,200 people was brutal. Most people expect condemning the attack an easy thing to do because of its scale and brutality.
Harsh adjectives of attack. Calling the attack “barbaric”, a “pogrom”, “pure evil” and similar language is similarly expected as a logical extension of the condemnation.
Calling Hamas is a terrorist group. The United States, Canada, United Kingdom and many other countries officially label Hamas a terrorist group, so calling it as such is also not viewed as a major pronouncement but Zionists expect to hear it specifically mentioned now.
Israel has a right to defend itself. This is a natural right and obligation of countries which are attacked. Stating that Israel has such right would normally be considered redundant but nothing seems to be in the Arab-Israeli conflict.
Call to release hostages. Prioritizing the release of an estimated 240 people who were seized in the October 7 attack is a basic humanitarian call. It is surprisingly absent from many public statements, upsetting many Jews and Zionists.
Bring the perpetrators to justice. A natural biproduct of all of these statements is to hold the murderers and abductors to account.
Pro-Palestinian Actions
Pro-Israeli statements blend into pro-Palestinian statements when addressing Israel’s response to the attack. People who condemn violence might want all attacks to end and can hold both pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian statements concurrently. However, when people demonize Israel and support Hamas, the break in the preference becomes clear.
Call for Humanitarian Pause. Israel’s response to the October 7 attack has killed thousands of people. Calling for humanitarian pauses to allow civilians to leave the area and bring in food and fuel is viewed as natural by many peace activists who want to minimize civilian casualties.
Call for Ceasefire. A ceasefire is viewed as much more extreme than a pause, especially early in the Israeli counter-attack. Pro-Israel people want to see the military capabilities of Hamas destroyed and a premature end to the campaign would give Hamas a huge victory. Pro-Palestinians believe that it is the only way to save thousands of Palestinian lives and are not concerned that Hamas may launch more attacks as they promised to do.
Say the October 7 attack had “context.” Backers of Palestinians do not want the narrative of the story to be that Hamas initiated the fight. While people may or may not acknowledge the brutality of the October 7 massacre, they discuss the blockade of Gaza and other Palestinian grievances to frame the discussion.
Rip down Kidnapped posters. The fate of 240 people ripped from their homes undermines the Palestinian narrative which paints Arabs as the victims.
Calling Hamas a “resistance movement”. Hamas calls itself a “resistance” movement, making it sound like a reactionary force rather than a terrorist group. Palestinian sympathizers use the nomenclature, even after the October 7 attack which killed more Jews in a day than any day since the Holocaust.
Not condemning October 7 attack. Many people released statements which skip the Hamas attack and only address Israel’s ongoing attack on Gaza. This is appreciated by the Palestinian community as it frames the oppressor and oppressed narrative to their liking. In contrast, it is considered appalling and a red flag to much of humanity as failing to condemn horrific acts like placing a baby in an oven alive, an action of psychopaths.
Call to “Free Palestine from the River to the Sea.” This demand to end Israel as a Jewish State goes beyond the specific war. It marks the war as the beginning of a liberation of land from Jewish control.
Call to “Globalize the Intifada”. This chant has many iterations like “Intifada revolution”. It spells out the desire to ‘Free Palestine’ with violence as well as either attack Zionists everywhere and/or any entity considered a western imperialist power.
Shouts of “Gas the Jews” and other forms of attack. The call for violence against Jews everywhere, not just in Israel, is the extreme end of pro-Hamas statements, shouted at rallies and in social media.
The scorecard shows people’s preferences in the conflict, like U.S. President Joe Biden and Congressman Ritchie Torres on the pro-Israel side, university leaders like Columbia University president Minouche Shafik who say nothing, and United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres, Queen Rania of Jordan and Rep. Rashida Tlaib on the pro-Palestinian side.
Politicians, university presidents and corporate CEOs who all waded into politics in the Russia-Ukraine War and Black Lives Matter incidents, are being pushed to make statements about the 2023 Gaza War, with many angering supporters of each side. Everyone is checking the scorecard to gauge where people’s loyalties lie.
Congressman Mike Lawler (R-NY17) has been very active supporting his constituents, particularly those interested in combatting antisemitism and promoting peace in the Middle East.
Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY17)
It may make him a target of powerful left-wing politicians in New York State.
Lawler: Pro Peace and Bi-Partisan
On June 12, 2023, Lawler took to the House floor to promote a bill he co-sponsored with Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY15). He spoke about H.R.3099 to create a “special envoy for the Abraham Accords in the U.S. Department of State… to coordinate efforts across the United States government to expand and strengthen the Abraham Accords with key allies and strategic partners… making clear that the United States government prioritizes our relationship with Israel and the advancement of peace and prosperity.”
Rep. Torres also took the floor and discussed the bill he co-sponsored and led with the importance of bipartisanship. “I want to thank the gentleman from New York, Mike Lawler, for his legislative partnership and leadership. If there is one cause that should transcend partisanship, it is the cause of peace in the Middle East. Building a bridge between Israel and the Arab world is neither a Democratic value nor a Republican value; it is an American value.”
Lawler concurs, and is proud of his willingness to work with Democrats saying “you need to be able to build relationships within your own conference and across the aisle, especially coming from a district like mine. My objective is to get things done.”
Not everyone agrees.
Rep. Jamaal Bowman, the anti-Israel and Jew-ambivalent congressman whose district sits between Lawler and Torres, voted against the measure. Bowman is among the most partisan members of Congress, almost never voting with Republicans, ranking #396 out of 435 by the Lugar bipartisanship index.
Bowman is the male version of Alexandria Ocasio Cortez (ranked #401 by the Lugar Index), part of the emerging extremist wing taking over the Democratic party. They are the anti-Lawlers, highly partisan and anti-Israel.
Lawler: Fighting Antisemitism
Lawler has been active fighting for peace elsewhere.
On June 1, 2023, he introduced legislation, H.R.3773, to rescind federal funding for colleges that promote antisemitism on their campuses. It was drafted in reaction to the horrible wave of antisemitic incidents taking place on City of New York (CUNY) and State of New York (SUNY) college campuses. Lawler said that “CUNY should be ashamed of itself for allowing insidious anti-semitism to permeate on its campuses, and my bill will ensure they face stiff penalties if they continue to let hate have a home.”
Unfortunately, Jew hatred has been given a home in New York by the growing horde of left-wing radicals.
How sad and frightening that condemning Jew hatred has become a partisan issue.
Lawler: In the Democratic Crosshairs
In the 2022 elections, Lawler defeated Democrat Sean Patrick Maloney, chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. With his powerful position, Maloney poured $6.7 million into his losing campaign to Lawler who barely spent $1.5 million. The loss was a stinging embarrassment for New York Democrats, and helped the Republicans take a majority of the House.
The powerful Democratic machine is now intent on taking out this Republican, with millions of dollars in negative ads with fake news about him being deeply unpopular, as well as actions hidden from sight, through the most partisan of actions, the gerrymander.
New York’s new liberal court may soon take the pen and rework district lines to make Lawler vulnerable, as he only won with only a 2,000 vote margin in 2022. Slight alterations to his district lines could make his tenure in congress very short.
Democrats will soon decide whether they care more about power and politics in using gerrymandering to try to oust Rep. Lawler, or working for a future of peace and bipartisanship.
I am not optimistic.
ACTION ITEM
EMAIL GOVERNOR HOCHUL: “Do not gerrymander NY17, Mike Lawler’s district. The courts put forward a fair New York map in 2022 and we do not want to see a bipartisan, pro-peace, fighter against antisemitism be removed from Congress with political trickery.”
Freshman Congressman Ritchie Torres (D-NY) whose South Bronx district is the poorest in the nation, came up to Westchester shortly after a mini-war between Gaza and Israel and a spike in anti-Semitism in June 2021. He spoke passionately to the crowd of 100 about both topics.
Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) talking to a crowd in Westchester
The Afro-Latino gay congressman made clear that he strongly objected to the direction of many progressive politicians in actively defaming Israel, in what he called the terrible “Corbynization of progressive politics,” after the British Labour Party leader who frequently attacked the Jewish State and was often accused of anti-Semitism.
Torres noted that the various smears against Israel are patently untrue. He railed against the charge that Israel is “an apartheid state” where Arabs have more rights than in many neighboring Arab countries. He said the claim that Israel is committing a “genocide” against Arabs is absurd when the Arab population in Israel has skyrocketed. To label Israel with such charges is either a boldface lie or demands new definitions of apartheid and genocide.
He added that the number of United Nations resolutions against Israel “boggles the imagination.” He questioned why there was no B.D.S. (boycott, divestment and sanctions) movement against China, Myanmar, Turkey or Iran for their actual human rights abuses and attacks against minority populations.
Torres said his only conclusion for the double standards and demonization of Israel is gross anti-Semitism. He thought it was horrible and wanted to have absolutely nothing to do with such sentiments. He declared that it was appropriate to claim support of Israel as a liberal priority and wanted to become the “poster child for progressives for Israel.” It was time for “visibly pro-Israel voices to be heard in the public square.”
He then paused for questions from the enthusiastic Orthodox Jewish audience.
When asked about the rise of the anti-Israel voices, Torres discussed two principle sources: education and social media.
Torres pointed out that many schools have been indoctrinating students with anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism. Most people in the United States don’t know about the actual rights of Arabs in Israel, the cleansing of Jews from Arab lands or even much about the Holocaust in Europe.
He called Twitter the “new guillotine.” He claimed that social media poisons the narrative as people with certain agendas feed fanaticism to millions of followers. Torres thought it was hard for the “center” to have a voice in social media as the entire business model rewarded extreme sentiments. He wants to hold those tech-media companies accountable for their spread of hate.
In searching for a new direction, Torres said it was time for progressives to “expand the scope of intersectionality to include Jews.” An average Jew suffers the greatest number of hate crimes in the United States and it was time to include the Jewish community in reciprocal allyship.
Torres recounted how the New York City chapter of the Democratic Socialists for America questionnaire asked that its candidates not visit Israel and to support the B.D.S. movement. He pondered whether some progressives had somehow turned on the Jewish State for having the chutzpah to progress from being victims to being empowered. “Isn’t that our goal?” he asked aloud rhetorically.
The pro-Israel crowd wanted to better understand how this young politician became a self-described “unicorn” as staunchly pro-Israel in an increasingly hostile anti-Israel progressive world. He pointed to his trip to the Jewish State.
He emotionally recalled his trip to both Masada and Yad Vashem, the Holocaust museum. In those two stops he understood both the long history of Jews in the land of Israel and the painful destruction of Jewish communities in Israel and around the world. He connected how people in his district fear gunfire while Israelis fear rocket fire. He internalized how the United States has only two neighbors with which it coexists peacefully, while small Israel has multiple the number of neighbors which are hostile to the country’s basic existence.
Torres concluded that it is important for people to mobilize: to push for changes in education and social media; to build an infrastructure to help get pragmatic pro-Israel politicians elected; and to make sure to vote and get the constructive voices for peace elected.
The attendees were thrilled to take pictures with this “unicorn,” while simultaneously bemoaning that indeed he is unfortunately one-of-a-kind. At least, for the moment.
FirstOneThrough 