Just in the last few months, attacks against both Jews and non-Jews have occurred in the name of supporting Palestinian liberation and resistance. Most recently, a gunman targeted a small Seventh Day Adventist school in Oroville, California, and critically wounded two kindergartners. The man has a history of mental illness and wrote about his plan to carry out "counter-measures" in response to U.S. involvement in Middle East conflicts. More specifically, he intended to carry out "child executions" in order to respond to "America's involvement with Genocide and Oppression of Palestinians along with the attacks towards Yemen."
Although this horrific act of violence towards children was an isolated incident perpetrated by a mentally ill gunman, the justification for such violence is sadly not unfamiliar. Similar grievances, such as that the U.S. supports Israeli genocide against Palestinians, is a well-worn trope from what has been dubbed the Islamo-leftist alliance. Adam Milstein, a Los Angeles-based venture philanthropist and American of Israeli descent, has been writing tirelessly about the dangers of this unholy alliance. In a June 2024 article for Jewish Policy Center, he wrote:
The confluence of radical Islamic ideologies and extreme leftist orthodoxy, often referred to as the "Islamo-leftist alliance," represents a paradoxical yet potent coalition united by a shared animosity toward Israel, Jews, and the values underpinning Western democracy. Part of this alliance, the Palestinian wing of the global Muslim Brotherhood, murdered 1,300 Israelis on October 7. Since then, American leftists wear keffiyehs, set up encampments across American universities, and openly endorse the murder of Jews.
Milstein is the co-founder of the Adam and Gila Milstein Family Foundation, a nonprofit he founded with his wife in 2000 that supports an ecosystem of organizations dedicated to strengthening American values, supporting the U.S.-Israel alliance, and combating hatred and bigotry in all forms. Thanks to his tireless work, Milstein is no stranger to the ways in which perceptions of the Middle East conflict mutate from so-called anti-Zionism to antisemitism as well as anti-Americanism and anti-Western sentiments. The Oroville shooter's instinct to place blame on the U.S. as a whole for perceived injustices against the alleged oppressed Palestinian people illustrates this perfectly.
Milstein argues that "[a]lthough Jews are a major target of these Islamo-Leftist groups, their ultimate target has always been America and Western civilization." Tragically, in the Oroville shooter's case, violence against young children at a Christian religious school was the "counter-measure" he felt was necessary. Even more tragically, violence against innocents is often justified by the Islamo-leftist alliance in the name of liberation, as evidenced by the myriad occurrences of progressives supporting the brutal murder of 1,200 Israeli civilians on October 7.
Antisemitism and anti-Israel hate is not exclusive to the Islamo-leftist alliance. Milstein has also sounded the alarm on white supremacist groups and Black Supremacist groups like the Nation of Islam, run by notorious antisemite Louis Farrakhan. Milstein explains that "[f]or decades, Farrakhan has spewed hateful venom at Jews, alleging that the Jewish people were responsible for the slave trade and that they conspire to control the government, the media and Hollywood, as well as various black individuals and organizations." Farrakhan also frequently denies the Jewish claim to the land of Israel, "arguing that 'Judaism is nothing more than a 'deceptive lie' and a 'theological error' promoted by Jews to further their 'control' over America's government and economy.'"
A like-minded group, the Black Hebrew Israelites (BHI), "claim that they are the descendants of the Israelites of the Old Testament and are the true Jewish people", while the members of the Jewish-American community are fake Jews. Milstein details several violent incidents perpetrated by BHI adherents:
In December 2019, two heavily armed BHI-connected individuals murdered three people at a kosher supermarket in Jersey City, New Jersey. That same month, only weeks later, a BHI-inspired individual attacked a Hanukkah gathering in Monsey, New York with a large knife, killing 72-year-old Rabbi Josef Neumann.
But this violence was not limited to Jews. In December 2021, "BHI-inspired Darrell Brooks rammed his SUV into a Christmas parade in Waukesha, Wisconsin, killing six and injuring over 60." Milstein has consistently warned that "such antisemitism is not just a danger to American Jews, but to all Americans" as it threatens our freedoms of speech and religion as well as democracy itself. "It is a harbinger of violence and extremism that will affect all Americans."
Violence against Jews has escalated around the world since the October 7 attack. One major recent example was the coordinated attacks by Middle Eastern migrants on Israeli soccer fans in Amsterdam on November 7, 2024. Milstein described this as a "full on pogrom" on X, and lamented how "[u]nbelievable [it is] that less than 100 years since the Holocaust this is the reality in Europe." Less than a month later, on December 6, masked terrorists set fire to a synagogue in Melbourne, Australia, which injured one congregant and caused significant property damage. Though few details are known about the terrorists' motives, it may come to light that they share the same hostilities to Israel and Jews that many radicals, like the Islamo-leftist alliance, harbor.
As Milstein teaches us, violence that starts with the Jews never ends with the Jews. Fighting antisemitism "is not merely a battle for the survival of the Jewish people or the security of Israel; it is a fight for the very soul of Western civilization." If Americans of all races and religions want to ensure their families' and communities' safety, it means standing up against the dangerous rhetoric we've seen festering on both the right and the left which demonizes Israel, the U.S. and Western values, and which oftentimes leads to real world violence.
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