Leftist Jews side with an ally of mass-murderers
Last year, Mahmoud Khalil gave an interview to a Hamas media operation about his “negotiations” with Columbia University during protesters’ occupation of the campus.
The violent occupation of Columbia by terrorist supporters led to riots, vandalism, assaults, terrorist propaganda and attacks on Jewish students. Instead of taking action, Columbia continued to negotiate with the terrorist supporters at the expense of Jewish students.
Now the United States is done negotiating with terrorists.
“SHALOM, MAHMOUD,” the White House X account declared, carrying this message from President Donald J. Trump:
ICE proudly apprehended and detained Mahmoud Khalil, a Radical Foreign Pro-Hamas Student on the campus of Columbia University. This is the first arrest of many to come.
The Department of Homeland Security stated that the action had been taken against Khalil for having “led activities aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization.”
Khalil, a Syrian national living in New York, is now in immigration detention in Louisiana. The Trump administration revoked his student visa and is seeking to send him back to his homeland.
He had been a leading figure in Columbia’s pro-Hamas riots and encampments. Beyond violently shutting down campuses in support of Islamic terrorists, the group had distributed Hamas flyers and photos of Hamas leaders, and plastered stickers reading, “Death to Amerika.”
Now, Khalil and his supporters are fighting to stay in “Amerika,” claiming that his arrest is illegal. However, the Immigration and Nationality Act clearly states that any alien “endorsing or espousing terrorist activity” is ineligible for a visa and therefore subject to deportation. And all that Khalil’s “green card” means is that he is a “resident alien” who is subject to removal for supporting terrorists.
“This is un-American,” argued Rep. Ilhan Omar. “Anyone celebrating this should be ashamed,” moaned AOC.
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CAIR, whose leader supported the Oct. 7 attacks, warned, “We and other civil rights groups are in communication with Mahmoud’s legal counsel. This fight is just starting.”
The message was retweeted by Rep. Rashida Tlaib, who whined, “Free Mahmoud Khalil.”
But it wasn’t just the radical fringe of the Squad who came to Khalil’s defense.
The social media account of the Senate Judiciary Democrats, under Sen. Dick Durbin, falsely argued: “Mahmoud Khalil exercises his First Amendment rights … but, Donald Trump and Marco Rubio didn’t agree with what he said. This should terrify everyone.”
The White House X account however replied by once again quoting Trump: “This is the first arrest of many.”
Locally, New York State Attorney General Letitia James announced that she was “extremely concerned about the arrest and detention of Mahmoud Khalil, an advocate and legal permanent resident of Palestinian descent.” Mayoral Candidate Brad Lander, an ally of Linda Sarsour, condemned the move as well, arguing that deporting a non-citizen for violating the terms of his visa by breaking the law was somehow a “violation of the First Amendment.”
Jewish leftist groups, especially those that are part of the Soros network, quickly joined the outcry, having remained silent when Jewish students were being terrorized at Columbia.
Bend the Arc: Jewish Action, a far left group chaired by Alex Soros and formerly headed by Stosh Cotler, an anti-Israel activist and former sex club dancer who now serves as a senior adviser, falsely described the Syrian national as “a New Yorker” who was “detained for constitutionally protected speech” and argued that “the White House’s authoritarian actions are being falsely done in our name as Jews.”
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Amy Spitalnick, former press secretary for J Street, who took over and turned the Jewish Council for Public Affairs into an anti-Israel leftist group, attacked the Trump administration for cutting funding to Columbia over its tolerance for the harassment of Jewish students and faculty, and objected that “Khalil has still not been charged.”
Other leftist front groups, including Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, New York Jewish Agenda (co-founded by teachers’ union boss Randi Weingarten, who had previously accused Jews of being oppressors and who had opposed the campaign against Hamas) and the Nexus Project (which accused Jews of “weaponizing antisemitism”) all rallied on behalf of a leading figure in campus hate.
If Not Now and its co-founder Simone Zimmerman described immigration authorities as “the American Gestapo” and Jews fighting antisemitism as “Nazi collaborators” for supporting Jewish students.
The ADL, however, broke from the anti-Israel left by praising Trump’s move, tweeting, “We appreciate the Trump Administration’s broad, bold set of efforts to counter campus antisemitism — and this action further illustrates that resolve by holding alleged perpetrators responsible for their actions.”
None of the justifications for defending Khalil hold the slightest drop of water. Khalil was a visa holder who was made a resident alien under the Biden administration. Aliens, resident or otherwise, are not citizens and can be deported on national security grounds and for other violations.
The same people now clamoring about freedom of speech on college campuses cheered when students were censored for politically incorrect speech. They advocated mass censorship of social media to eliminate “misinformation” about the pandemic, the election and anything else.
They are not defending Mahmoud Khalil because they support free speech, but because they support Islamic terrorism, Hamas and the destruction of America and Israel.
Daniel Greenfield is an Israeli-born journalist. Write: Columnist@TheJewishStar.com
