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The Media Played Right Along with Jamaal Bowman’s Antisemitism
Jamaal Bowman speaks at a watch party as he takes an early lead in the democratic primary for New York’s 16th Congressional District in Yonkers, New York, U.S., June 23, 2020. Photo: REUTERS/Lucas Jackson
It’s hard pretending you aren’t antisemitic — and it’s even harder when you try to blame American supporters of the Jewish State for meddling in US elections.
Arrogantly accusing Jewish Americans of corruption for exercising their constitutional right to vote and petition government reeks of antisemitism. Naturally, it’s the exact thing that you would expect a member of Congress representing one of the most Jewish Congressional districts in the country to avoid.
But far-left “Squad” member Jamaal Bowman (D) is unashamed, as he made this narrative part of his re-election bid for NY-16. (He lost the primary election on Tuesday).
From Ilhan Omar (D-MN), to Alexandria Ocasio Cortez (D-NY), to Bernie Sanders (I-VT), and on, many of his left-wing colleagues have been furthering this narrative all over their X accounts.
People everywhere need to understand how disgusting and abnormal it is for special interests to dump nearly $15 million to unseat a member of Congress in a primary.
This is corruption. It is a core threat to American democracy. It also fuels Trump.
Support Jamaal Bowman. https://t.co/HAWJjKICr7
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) June 16, 2024
And the mainstream media is playing along.
Media Claims “Israel” Is Top Reason for Progressive Pummeling
The media is largely backing up the far-left’s narrative, covering this election as if the central issue is Israel.
According to polling done by Emerson College, Americans prioritize domestic policies such as the economy and housing affordability by far. Policy on Israel does not even rank in the top six.
This attempt to single out Zionist Americans (both Jewish and non-Jewish) who believe that a strong US-Israel bond is in the US’ best interest, is antisemitic.
The Anti-Defamation League says antisemitism “sometimes targets Jews not as individuals but as a collective — whether that’s Jewish organizations, movements like Zionism or the Jewish State of Israel.”
One example is The Guardian’s “Pro-Israel US groups plan $100m effort to unseat progressives over Gaza”, which claims that Israel is a top issue in the primaries, and supports placing blame on pro-Israel groups’ funding:
Progressive leaders have made clear that they will not go down without a fierce fight, and outrage over the war in Gaza, which has killed more than 33,000 Palestinians, has rallied supporters to push back against pro-Israel lobbying groups. The unexpected strength of the “uncommitted” primary campaign in states such as Michigan and Minnesota has underscored that Gaza is weighing heavily on the minds of progressive voters this election cycle, and their mobilization could complicate campaign efforts by groups like Aipac.
The Washington Post reported that despite the heavy media emphasis on Michigan and Minnesota, uncommitted votes in 2024 were “proportionally” less than in 2012.
The media have covered these progressive claims as though they are gospel, with no regard for factual evidence. The agenda was set and they’ve just been playing along. That’s not responsible journalism.
Politico’s “Jamaal Bowman’s challenger is the Cher of suburban New York” has also described county executive George Latimer (D)’s policies on Israel and his financial backers as advantageous over the incumbent Bowman.
The bitter Democratic primary between Bowman and Latimer — one of the country’s most competitive this cycle — will test the influence of a movement politician pushing ultra-progressive national policies against a longtime local leader leveraging both his AIPAC support and his considerable community connections.
Two Democrats are pitted against each other in a narrative only one of them asked for. It’s obvious why.
There’s More to It Than the “Benjamins”
While donations and ads are a big part of any election, they are not the end-all-be-all. Another indicator is whether a candidate has good policies that voters align with.
The economy, crime, and immigration are the top three major policies that voters are paying attention to, according to Emerson. One of Bowman’s campaign promises is to lower crime, but since he’s been in office, voters may know what to expect from him.
The poll recorded that 55% of the voters believe crime has not improved in the last year, and 28% say crime has increased. Only 17% of voters say crime has gone down.
The majority (64%) of district voters also favor President Joe Biden’s executive order for border control at the US-Mexico border, whereas Bowman is vehemently against it. The number of voters who align with him is only 23%, according to Emerson reports.
Voters in Bowman’s districts seem to be fed up, and it could be because he isn’t focusing on the issues that matter. Instead, he, along with the media, led a smear campaign about Israel policies and “big money,” while millennials can’t afford to own anything. He promised to take care of his district, but the results don’t seem to have been fruitful enough in his last term.
Not only is Bowman vehemently anti-Israel, but he also seems to be denying his antisemitism. From his request for a past picture with a rabbi to prove he “is friends with Jewish people” being rejected, to making the claim that Jewish people purposely live in “segregated communities,” his views have become clear to his constituents (or his former constituents, after Tuesday’s election).
So it’s safe to assume that pro-Israel and Republican “big money” wasn’t the determining factor on June 25, at least not in this New York district. Just the candidates’ policies … which include a touch of internalized antisemitism. This begs the question: why distort Israel into a central narrative, when it isn’t? Leave the Jews alone, and just focus on the economy.
The author is a contributor to HonestReporting, a Jerusalem-based media watchdog with a focus on antisemitism and anti-Israel bias — where a version of this article first appeared.
The post The Media Played Right Along with Jamaal Bowman’s Antisemitism first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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A pro-Israel rally at the University of Toronto was headlined by Columbia University professor Shai Davidai
Around 200 people gathered for a pro-Israel demonstration at University of Toronto’s downtown campus at King’s College Circle—which was the site of one of Canada’s largest pro-Palestinian encampments during May […]
The post A pro-Israel rally at the University of Toronto was headlined by Columbia University professor Shai Davidai appeared first on The Canadian Jewish News.
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‘Not Welcome’: New Pro-Hamas Campaign Aims to Abolish Hillel Campus Chapters
A statue of George Washington tied with a Palestinian flag and a keffiyeh inside a pro-Hamas encampment is pictured at George Washington University in Washington, DC, US, May 2, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Craig Hudson
The campus group National Students for Justice in Palestine (NSJP) is waging a campaign to gut Jewish life in academia, calling for the abolition of Hillel International campus chapters, the largest collegiate organization for Jewish students in the world.
“Over the past several decades, Hillel has monopolized for Jewish campus life into a pipeline for pro-Israel indoctrination, genocide-apologia, and material support to the Zionist project and its crimes,” a social media account operating the campaign, titled #DropHillel, said in a manifesto published last week. “Across the country, Hillel chapters have invited Israeli soldiers to their campuses; promoted propaganda trips such as birthright; and organized charity drives for the Israeli military.”
It continued, “Such actions reveal Hillel’s ideological and material investment in Zionism, despite the organization’s facade as being simply a ‘Jewish cultural space.’”
DropHillel claims to be “Jewish-led,” although only a small minority of Jews oppose Zionism, and the group has been linked to and promoted by Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapters.
Hillel International has provided Jewish students a home away from home during the academic year. However, NSJP says it wants to “weaken” it and “dismantle oppression.”
The idea has already been picked up by pro-Hamas student groups at one college, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, according to The Daily Tar Heel, the school’s official student newspaper. On Oct. 9, it reported, a member of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) unveiled the idea for “no more Hillel” during a rally which, among other things, demanded removing Israel from UNC’s study abroad program and adopting the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement. Addressing the comments to the paper days later, SJP, which has been linked to Islamist terrorist organizations, proclaimed that shuttering Hillel is a coveted goal of the anti-Zionist movement.
“Zionism is a racist supremacist ideology advocating for the creation and sustenance of an ethnostate through the expulsion and annihilation of native people,” the group told the paper. “Therefore, any group that advocates for a supremacist ideology — be it the KKK, the Proud Boys, Hillel, or Heels for Israel — should not be welcome on campus.”
The #DropHillel campaign came amid an unprecedented surge in anti-Israel incidents on college campuses, which, according to a report published last month by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), have reached crisis levels.
Revealing a “staggering” 477 percent increase in anti-Zionist activity involving assault, vandalism, and other phenomena, the report — titled “Anti-Israel Activism on US Campuses, 2023-2024” — painted a bleak picture of America’s higher education system poisoned by political extremism and hate.
“As the year progressed, Jewish students and Jewish groups on campus came under unrelenting scrutiny for any association, actual or perceived, with Israel or Zionism,” the report said. “This often led to the harassment of Jewish members of campus communities and vandalism of Jewish institutions. In some cases, it led to assault. These developments were underpinned by a steady stream of rhetoric from anti-Israel activists expressing explicit support for US-designated terrorists organizations, such as Hamas, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and others.”
The report added that 10 campuses accounted for 16 percent of all incidents tracked by ADL researchers, with Columbia University and the University of Michigan combining for 90 anti-Israel incidents — 52 and 38, respectively. Harvard University, the University of California – Los Angeles, Rutgers University New Brunswick, Stanford University, Cornell University, and others filled out the rest of the top 10. Violence, it continued, was most common at universities in the state of California, where anti-Zionist activists punched a Jewish student for filming him at a protest.
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
The post ‘Not Welcome’: New Pro-Hamas Campaign Aims to Abolish Hillel Campus Chapters first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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‘Muslim for Trump’ Launches Initiatives in Key Battleground States, Says Candidate Will Bring ‘Peace’ to Gaza
Former US President Donald Trump is seen at a campaign event in South Carolina. Photo: Reuters/Sam Wolfe
The “Muslims for Trump” organization has officially launched initiatives to help elect Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump to the White House, arguing that he would be more likely to end the war in Gaza than Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris.
In a statement released on Monday, the group said it will focus on recruiting Muslim voters in key battleground states such as Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Georgia, and North Carolina. The organization both praised Trump for his supposed “peace-focused” approach to ending the war in Gaza and condemned Harris for helping facilitate a so-called “genocide.”
“After meeting with President Trump, it was clear to me he is the right leader for Muslims to get behind,” Rabiul Chowdhury, co-founder of Muslims for Trump and former co-chair of the “Abandon Harris Movement,” said in a statement.
Chowdhury added that during his discussions with Trump, the former president vowed to “ending the escalation of wars and bringing peace to war-torn regions.” In contrast to Trump’s promise to stop the “bloodshed” in Gaza, he claimed, Harris has “recklessly pushed us toward World War III.”
Chowdhury, a self-described “peace advocate,” urged the Muslim community not to fall victim to supposed “misinformation” campaigns by the media and Democrats that paint the former president as hostile to immigrants. He claimed that the former president’s focus is on “ending war, not dividing families through false immigration claims.”
Samra Luqman, chair of the Michigan chapter of Muslims for Trump, underscored the need to punish the Biden administration for what he described as supporting a “genocide” in Gaza.
“The goal of this election is to hold the Biden administration accountable for a genocide. No amount of fear mongering or scare tactics will persuade my community into forgiving the mutilation, live-burning, and genocide of over 200,000 people,” he said.
According to data produced by the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry, roughly 40,000 people have died in Gaza since the war began last October. Israel has said that its forces have killed about 20,000 Hamas terrorists during its military campaign.
Israel says it has gone to unprecedented lengths to try and avoid civilian casualties, noting its efforts to evacuate areas before it targets them and to warn residents of impending military operations with leaflets, text messages, and other forms of communication.
On the organization Muslims for Trump’s official website, it claims that the Abraham Accords, a series of historic, Trump administration-brokered normalization agreements between Israel and several countries in the Arab world, helped stabilize the Middle East. It also says that had Trump not lost the 2020 presidential race, the so-called “genocide” could have been prevented.
“Under Trump’s leadership, the Abraham Accords were brokered, fostering peaceful relations between Israel and several Arab countries. Supporters might argue that Trump’s diplomacy prioritized peace and stability in the Middle East, reducing the likelihood of large-scale conflicts like genocide,” the group wrote.
Over the course of his campaign, Trump has repeatedly touted his support for the Jewish state during his singular term in office. Trump has boasted about his administration’s work in fostering the Abraham Accords, promising to resume efforts to strengthen them if he were to win November’s US presidential election.
Harsh US sanctions levied on Iran under Trump crippled the Iranian economy and led its foreign exchange reserves to plummet. Trump and his Republican supporters in the US Congress have criticized the Biden administration for renewing billions of dollars in US sanctions waivers, which had the effect of unlocking frozen funds and allowing the country to access previously inaccessible hard currency.
Trump also recognized Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights, a strategic region on Israel’s northern border previously controlled by Syria, and also moved the US embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, recognizing the city as the Jewish state’s capital.
Despite Harris’s repeated efforts to woo Muslim voters, polling data indicates that the demographic has made a dramatic swing away from the Democratic Party. Polling data from the Arab American Institute reveals that Trump slightly edges Harris among Muslim voters by a margin of 42 to 41 percent. A report from the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) shows that Green Party candidate Jill Stein leads Harris and Trump with Muslim voters in the key swing states of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Arizona.
The post ‘Muslim for Trump’ Launches Initiatives in Key Battleground States, Says Candidate Will Bring ‘Peace’ to Gaza first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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