It’s not surprising to hear of clashes occurring in Jerusalem today after the cease-fire between Israel and Palestine’s Hamas contingent went into play, Morton Klein, president of the Zionist Organization of America, said Friday on Newsmax.
He also spoke out on Newsmax’s “National Report” about the growing incidents of violence against Jews on the streets of major cities in the United States.
“The last time there was an Iran-backed Hamas war against Israel, and there was a cease-fire, they broke the cease-fire 10 times,” Klein said of the situation in Israel and the Gaza Strip. “This is the way they operate, and I’m deeply worried about the cease-fire.”
He added that Israel had been under “enormous pressure” by the United States and other countries to accept a cease-fire, even though 72% of Israelis have said there should not be a cut in hostilities until the military was able to “finish the job” of crippling Hamas.
“My fear is now they’re going to use this simply to replenish their arsenal of rockets,” Klein said. “They did not cripple Hamas. They did damage [them]. There wasn’t time to end it, and I believe there’s going to be continuous violations of the cease-fire.”
The Gaza Strip violence started on May 10, in part with Israeli police raids on the Al-Aqsa mosque, and on Friday, after the cease-fire, skirmishes popped up again after thousands of people gathered for Friday prayers and stayed to demonstrate in a show of support of Gaza, Reuters reports.
Israeli police said the demonstrators were rioting and throwing rocks and gasoline bombs at officers, who responded by firing stun grenades at the demonstrators. Palestinian medics reported about two dozen Palestinians were injured.
Meanwhile, Klein decried the “horrible riots and attacks” in American cities like New York and Los Angeles, where there have been “attacks against innocent Jewish people by mostly Arabs and Muslims, screaming ‘kill the Jews, rape their daughters.'”
“This proves that this issue is not Israeli policies,” Klein said. “The issue is Jew hatred. Hamas’ charter, and people don’t know this, calls for the murder of every Jew in the world and the destruction of Israel.”
The United States should say it will not help restore Palestinian losses until that charter is changed and Hamas stops inciting violence against the Jewish people, Klein added.
He also demanded to know where leaders like New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate leaders Mitch McConnell and Chuck Schumer, and others are when attacks against Jews are taking place on American soil.
“The politicians have said nothing about these attacks on Jews,” Klein said. “Their silence is deafening and frightening. It reminds me of what my parents told me happened to them in Europe before the Holocaust. They were European Jews and there were Jews being attacked in the streets. We’re seeing that now. It is just shocking. “
He added that there has been “appropriate sensitivity” in the United States to hate crimes against Black people, Asians and those of other races, but “when it comes to Jews, for some reason, it’s ignored.”
“The people are not speaking out loud about Jew hatred, attacks on Jews,” Klein said. “This is true on college campuses and throughout the country. We need our Jewish leaders and our rabbis, not politicians, to publicly speak out against this before it gets even worse, but I hear nothing but silence.”
Pelosi and others must also condemn the “radical antisemitic” members of Congress such as Democrat Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Klein said.
“They have not been condemned a single time for their antisemitic and Jew-hating statements and Israel-hating statements,” he said. “It is time to pressure Pelosi and others to condemn the members of their party that have made anti-Israel, antisemitic statements. That hasn’t happened. That’s where the pressure has to be.”
Source: Newmax
