Attacks on Muslims and Jews are treated very differently.
On Nov 5, Paul Kessler, a 69-year-old Jewish man, was killed at a pro-Israel rally in California.
A pro-Hamas protester had previously displayed a gun to intimidate the pro-Israel ralliers. While Kessler lay bleeding on the ground, the Muslim protesters chanted, “Hitler should’ve smashed you ” and threats of violence from Hamas. The media reported none of this, instead it described the killing of Kessler as an accident. Once the killer was arrested, CNN did not interview Paul’s friends, but quoted claims that his Muslim assailant was really a “man of peace.”
Few local officials, no state officials and certainly no one in the Biden administration said a word.
On November 25, three Arab Muslim men were shot in Burlington, VT, during a confrontation with Jason James Eaton, a mentally unstable Biden supporter described as “the hippie guy.”
Even though Eaton had denounced “Amerika” as “imperialist and corrupt,” was not Jewish, had no apparent interest in Middle East politics or Israel, politicians and the media without a single shred of evidence claimed that the wounded Muslim men who identified as ‘Palestinian’ had been targeted because of Israel’s campaign against Hamas and an imaginary ‘Islamophobia’.
Paul Kessler’s killer was not arrested at the scene and not arrested at all until ten days later. Bail was initially set for him at $1 million, which was cut to $50,000, and he’s out on the street.
Eaton was arrested by agents of the ATF, a federal agency, and is being held without bail. The FBI and “several other federal, state, and local agencies” are investigating the shooting of the three Muslim men. No such investigation was tracked for Kessler’s death in California.
While Biden did not comment on the killing of Paul Kessler, Biden issued a statement about the wounding of the Muslim men, declaring that, “there is absolutely no place for violence or hate in America” implying without evidence that there had been some hateful motive in the altercation.
Kamala Harris, who had made no statement about Paul Kessler’s killing, even though it took place in her home state, claimed that “far too many people live with the fear that they could be targeted and attacked based on their beliefs or who they are.”
Governor Phil Scott, Senator Peter Welch, Senator Bernie Sanders, and numerous other public officials also issued statements. So did multiple senators who aren’t even from Vermont.
Sen. Welch condemned “hate and Islamophobia” and claimed that the “conflict in the Middle East have brought an alarming spike in Islamophobic incidents across the United States.”
The same media outlets which had minimized or ignored Paul Kessler’s death launched a full-court press promotional campaign for the Burlington shootings. NBC News deployed a ‘liveblog’ site to cover a few seconds of violence that quickly ended with Eaton’s arrest. NBC showed a photo of one of the Muslim men, who is 20 years old, as an 11-year-old boy.
NBC News provided a platform for the Muslim men and their Islamic allies to blame Israel for the shooting and promote the terrorist cause. This was not a privilege provided to the dozen black people shot in Chicago around the same time.
Brown University President Christina H. Paxson claimed, falsely and without evidence, that the shooting was “latest evidence of anti-Arab and anti-Palestinian discrimination and hate spiraling across this country and around the world”. Despite that she was booed off the stage at a ‘vigil’ for not agreeing to boycott the Jewish State. Then a professor read a letter from the injured Muslim man claiming falsely that Israel would have shot him and left him to die.
The vast difference between how Paul Kessler’s killing and the wounding of the Muslim men were treated is a microcosm of the political bias and media narratives. The media rushed to cover the Burlington shootings, but rushed to cover up Paul Kessler’s death. Politicians issued statements about what happened to the Muslim men, but not about what happened to Paul.
The attack on Paul was indisputably motivated by hatred for Jews. It came in the context of support for the mass murder of Jews and chants about Hitler. Yet the media has refused to discuss any of that. It has however covered non-stop an altercation in which the motive is unclear as if it were demonstrably occasioned by hostility to Arabs, Muslims or “Palestinians.”
This is not anecdotal: it’s part of an ugly pattern of political and media double standards.
Since the Hamas massacres of Oct 7, there has been a 400% increase in antisemitic incidents and on campuses, 73% of Jewish and 44% of non-Jewish students described witnessing antisemitism. But those are just statistics. What does it look like on the ground?
On the eve of the anniversary of Kristallnacht, the Museum of Tolerance screened footage of the Hamas atrocities, and was descended upon by a pro-terrorist mob that justified the violence. Members of the Jewish community were assaulted by the pro-Hamas mob. Neither the media nor local officials condemned one of the most brazen antisemitic campaigns in American history.
Mayor Karen Bass reposted a media report misleadingly describing a scene in which “two groups outside LA’s Museum of Tolerance” clashed and condemned “unacceptable violence” rather than the equivalent of the KKK showing up in a black neighborhood. No public officials to my knowledge issued a statement condemning an attack on a Holocaust museum on the anniversary of Kristalnacht. Some of those officials, including DA George Gascon, list endorsements from the hate groups behind the attack. Some of the leftists responsible have since targeted another Holocaust museum in the Los Angeles area with pro-terrorist rallies.
In another part of Los Angeles, Daniel Garcia, a leftist activist, broke into the home of a Jewish family and threatened to kill them, “because you are Jewish… Israel kill people.” As he was being arrested, he went on shouting, “Free Palestine” and “Brown Lives Matter”.
Despite his long history of leftist activism, which included working as a field organizer on the Bernie Sanders campaign and serving on the boards of multiple leftist groups, the official word was that he was suffering from mental illness. And that it was not a political act.
In reality, Garcia had a long history of posting anti-Israel material on social media. After being released, he went on posting it including videos from terrorists attacking Israel. His social media, with its BDS videos, Islamic propaganda, Norman Finkelstein clips and all the rest of it is easily publicly accessible. No one in the media has bothered to report on it. And it will stay that way.
The Left has not even broken ties with Garcia in the aftermath of his attack on a Jewish family.
Attacks on Jews and Muslims are treated very differently for political reasons. Unless the attacks on Jews are carried out by far-right perpetrators, they are ignored and buried. When they are carried out by Muslims or anti-Israel leftists, they’re covered up, not reported on.
A Muslim can kill a Jewish man in broad daylight and the media will try to minimize it. Leftists and Muslims can attack a Holocaust museum on the anniversary of one of the most infamous dates in the Holocaust, and politicians and the media will call it a “both sides” problem. And a Leftist calling for the murder of Jews and ‘free Palestine” can invade a Jewish family’s home and it will strictly be a local crime story. But when there is any incident involving Muslims, it automatically becomes front page news regardless of how little evidence there is to it.
Anything that bolsters the ‘Islamophobia’ narrative and the claim that Muslims are the victims is always in demand.
On Oct 23, Hesham A. Ayyad claimed that a driver hit him with a car while shouting, “kill all Palestinians,”and “long live Israel.” CAIR demanded that the police and the FBI “collect all the information they need to charge this individual with a hate crime.” Vox quickly picked it up. So did other media outlets. Police however found he had actually been beaten up by his brother.
Vox has yet to correct its story which still lists it among other “Islamophobic” crimes caused by Israel’s war against Hamas.
Why did Paul Kessler’s killer think he could get away with it? And why have there been so many open attacks on Jews, especially on college campuses, in the past month? Because politicians and the media have shown that some lives matter more than others. Jewish lives don’t matter.
Only Muslim lives do.
AUTHOR
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EDITORS NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission. ©All right reserved.
