You’ll never believe who Joe Biden invited to shape his so-called “Combatting Anti-Semitism Strategy”…then again, you probably will

The Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) blasted President Joe Biden’s new U.S. National Strategy to Counter Anti-Semitism strategy on Thursday, as it emerged that it was crafted with help from designated terrorist group CAIR (Council on American Islamic Relations), one of the most anti-Semitic, Hamas-linked, Muslim Brotherhood front groups in America.

Breitbart The United States has recently experienced an alarming increase in anti-Semitic incidents, among other acts of hatred. American Jews account for 2.4% of the U.S. population, but they are the victims of 63% of reported religiously motivated hate crimes, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

The Biden strategy excludes extreme criticism of Israel from the definition of anti-Semitism, rejecting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition that was adopted by President Donald Trump in 2019.

Democrat Alan Dershowitz said Trump’s executive order, which also extended civil rights protections to Jews on college campuses, was “one of the most important events in the 2,000-year battle against anti-Semitism.”

President Trump will sign an executive order defining Judaism as a nationality, not just a religion, thus bolstering the Education Department’s efforts to stamp out “Boycott Israel” movements on college campuses https://t.co/0avw7eseMc

— NYT Politics (@nytpolitics) December 10, 2019

As Breitbart News reported at the time:

Trump’s executive order would adopt the definition of antisemitism suggested by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA). It states: “Anti-Semitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.”

The State Department has already adopted that definition of antisemitism. And there is bipartisan support in Congress for legislation to adopt that definition of antisemitism as well, Kampeas notes.

CAIR has frequently used antisemitic rhetoric, blurring the boundary between criticism of Israel or “Zionism” and outright attacks on Jews and Judaism. For example, as Breitbart News reported in December 2021:

The executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) in the San Francisco Bay Area called to “know your enemies” as she blasted Jewish organizations, “Zionist” synagogues, and Hillel campus groups who she accused of betrayal and supporting human rights violations.

Here’s CAIR Director Zahra Billoo calling 2 state solution laughable; US Jewish orgs that support Israel the enemy; Jews who support Israel fascist; & calls on Muslims to oppose any Jew who supports 🇮🇱 pic.twitter.com/g1IuxF51xh It was at AMP’s 2018 conference that Zahra Billoo, CAIR’s San Francisco chapter leader, said that “I am not going to legitimize a country that I don’t believe has a right to exist.”

Billoo’s blind hatred for anyone who supports Israel prompted her to reject overtures from and shun what she described as “polite Zionists” even on issues on which they might work together. She warned that any groups supporting Zionism “are not your friends.”

CAIR listed as partner org in Biden National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism

Heres CAIR Director Zahra Billoo calling 2 state solution laughable; US Jewish orgs that support Israel the enemy; Jews who support Israel fascist; & calls on Muslims to oppose any Jew who supports 🇮🇱 pic.twitter.com/g1IuxF51xh

— Ari Ingel (@OGAride) May 25, 2023

Billoo also repeated the antisemitic smear that police exchange programs in Israel lead to American police violence against black people.

This is a lie. No tactical training is involved in any police exchange program in Israel, an IPT investigation found. Critics have failed to produce any whistleblower to support their claims. Even the anti-Israel group Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), one of the principal messengers behind that false “deadly exchange” narrative now acknowledgesthat “[s]uggesting that Israel is the start or source of American police violence or racism … furthers an antisemitic ideology.”

Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank asked that simple question last week after the normally publicity-mad Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) told him it had nothing to say about a Boston BDS organization’s promotion of a “mapping project” that has been condemned as anti-Semitic and possible incitement to violence.

The interactive map posted online earlier this month “mapped” the addresses of dozens of Jewish institutions and organizations in Massachusetts. Its stated goal was “to reveal the local entities and networks that enact devastation, so we can dismantle them. Every entity has an address, every network can be disrupted.”

The Biden White House boasted Thursday about its new anti-Semitism strategy, claiming it is the first such strategy adopted by any White House. But the document excludes extreme criticism of Israel as antisemitism. The Biden strategy also lumps anti-Semitism in together with Islamophobia, which fails to acknowledge the fact that the two are fundamentally different, and that antisemitism is frequently motivated by Islamic extremism.

Critics noted that CAIR was involved in the drafting of the document, as the White House acknowledged.

I stopped reading Biden’s #Antisemitism plan when I saw @CAIRNational listed as a partner…

CAIR is an outspoken supporter of the BDS movement, and they have a track record of terrorizing Jewish students on college campuses.

Any comments @StateSEAS? pic.twitter.com/XNsIL5ZYtr

— Bryan E. Leib (@BryanLeibFL) May 25, 2023

RJC CEO Matt Brooks issued a strong blasted Biden’s anti-Semitism strategy, noting it was a step backward:

Joe Biden had a chance to take a strong stand against antisemitism and he blew it.

The IHRA definition of anti-Semitism is the definition endorsed by every mainstream Jewish organization. Biden’s own Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism has urged other countries to “embrace” it as an “integral” tool against the rising tide of Jew-hatred. The IHRA definition is indispensable because it recognizes that criticism of Israel is antisemitic when it delegitimizes, demonizes, or applies double standards to Israel.

After initial reports that its new strategy would enshrine the IHRA definition, the Biden administration came under heavy pressure from the anti-Israel left, forcing a delay in the roll-out. Now, the White House is attempting a last-minute straddle – undermining the IHRA definition by promoting alongside it an alternative definition that says applying double standards and singling out the Jewish state for criticism is not antisemitic.

This decision seriously weakens the White House strategy. It is yet another instance of Biden caving to the anti-Israel radicals who constitute a growing Democratic constituency at both the elected and grassroots levels. It’s clear that only a Republican president will fully embrace the IHRA definition and put the full force of the federal government behind the fight against antisemitism in all its forms.

CAIR’s Executive Director Nihad Awad even considers all of Israel to be “occupied.” Nor surprising when you understand the reason CAIR was created in the first place. 

IPT Nihad Awad normally presents himself as mild mannered and measured. But his true radicalism was exposed when he called Tel Aviv “occupied” and prayed for it to be freed. It is Israel’s most populous city, the place where Israel declared its independence. Awad’s reference to an “occupied” Tel Aviv revealed that he does not accept Israel’s right to exist.

“We have to fight. We have to take the fight to the other side. Moving the [U.S.] embassy, our embassy, from Tel Aviv which is occupied, to a city [Jerusalem] that’s supposed to be protected under international law, to move that embassy we should not accept that as a de facto,” Awad said. “We have to pressure the administration to take our embassy back to Tel Aviv. And inshallah [God willing], it will be free later.”

Denying Jews the right to self-determination, which Awad did, meets the definition of antisemitism accepted by the U.S. State Department in 2016. In calling Tel Aviv “occupied,” Awad uttered a truth that American Islamists

Awad was among 25 members of what federal prosecutors described as “Hamas’ support network in the United States” who met over a 1993 weekend conference in Philadelphia to strategize ways to “derail” the American-led Oslo Accords. “We’ve always demanded the 1948 territories,” meaning all of Israel, said Omar Ahmad, Awad’s co-founder at CAIR.

Biden considers himself a great friend of Jews and Israel, yet has hired a multitude of anti-Israel, pro-“Palestinian” Muslims in his administration.

One of the people, Reema Dodin is one of two deputy directors the legislative affairs team. She is not only a “Palestinian”-American, but has joined BDS protests and seems to support suicide bombings.

Then there is Maher Bitar, appointed senior director for intelligence programs at the National Security Council. As a student at Georgetown University, Bitar was a leader of the anti-Semitic, Muslim Brotherhood aligned Students for Justice in Palestine. As an SJP leader, he organized a so-called “boycott, divestment, and sanctions” campaign against Israel and its supporters on his campus. What’s more,  Bitar was the head of a panel at a BDS conference where participants discussed how to indoctrinate Christians to believe that Israel has no right to exist.