In the wake of escalating Muslim violence against Jews all over the country, the Jewish engagement director for Joe Biden’s presidential campaign had some advice. Aaron Keyak tweeted: “It pains me to say this, but if you fear for your life or physical safety take off your kippah and hide your magen david. (Obviously, if you can, ask your rabbi first.)”
Not surprisingly, Keyak had nothing whatsoever to say about the fact that the violence has been perpetrated by supporters of the Palestinian jihad. This was bitterly ironic, as Keyak tweeted last year: “As a Jew in the United States of America, under Trump, I constantly have to look over my shoulder to see how people are looking at my yarmulke. When do I need to cover it up in fear of [sic] my own safety?”
Yet it was not the MAGA-hat-wearing racist thugs of Leftist myth who led Keyak to call on Jews to hide visible evidence of their faith; it was Keyak’s allies on the Left.
In New York City, a Muslim mob screaming “Allahu akbar” attacked a Jewish man in midtown Manhattan. Also in Manhattan, Palestinians threatened violence and screamed anti-Semitic slurs at Jews. One threw a mini-firebomb. Pro-jihad protesters stormed a restaurant and spat on Jewish patrons; one of the thugs threw a bottle. A Muslim, Waseem Awawdeh, was arrested for viciously beating a Jew in Times Square.
In Los Angeles, Palestinian protesters asked people dining at the Sushi Fumi restaurant if they were Jewish, and proceeded to attack them with knives. Elsewhere in Los Angeles, two cars festooned with Palestinian flags chased a Jewish man down a street as he was leaving his synagogue.
In Florida, a van also bearing a Palestinian flag and emblazoned with the slogan “Hitler was Right” drove past a pro-Israel demonstration.
In Skokie, Illinois, a pro-jihad vandal wearing an Arab headdress smashed a synagogue window and left a Palestine flag and a pro-jihad sign inside.
All that was happening as Biden allies accused Israel of war crimes. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-Barfly) tweeted: “The United States should not be rubber-stamping weapons sales to the Israeli government as they deploy our resources to target international media outlets, schools, hospitals, humanitarian missions and civilian sites for bombing.”
AOC’s Jihad Squad colleague Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Mogadishu) tweeted: “The fight for Palestinian liberation is overdue and needed in Congress. If we ever want peace, we must stand against efforts to silence legitimate dissent and accountability for illegal Israeli government actions.” Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Gaza) reminded the world of her Biden connection when she also took to Twitter and wrote: “As a former 2008 Obama/Biden campaign staffer, I can’t be any prouder of those who came together, rooted in human rights and justice, to demand accountability of our own country & the active role we are playing in violating those values by funding the killing of Palestinians.”
As AOC, Omar and Tlaib retailed Palestinian jihad propaganda, Aaron Keyak said nary a word. What could he say? They are the heroes of a large number of the Biden administration’s core supporters. Biden’s Jewish engagement director wasn’t going to go off the reservation and denounce the Squad for their overheated rhetoric and for spreading disinformation about Israel at a time when anti-Semitic violence was becoming a distressingly common feature of life in America’s major cities. That would be his one-way ticket out of any position of influence among Biden’s handlers. So would any call from Keyak to Muslims in America to stop attacking Jews.
So instead, Keyak counseled surrender: Jews should conceal their Jewish identity. It appears that he thinks that it is up to the victims to stop provoking the perpetrators, in line with those who think that women who get raped were asking for it if they were dressed provocatively.
In calling for Jews to hide the fact that they are Jews on the streets of American cities, Keyak is also advocating the submission that Islamic law demands of Jews and other non-Muslims under Islamic hegemony. Islamic law forbids the subjugated People of the Book (Jews, Christians, Zoroastrians) to carry out their religious festivals in public. The dhimmis “are forbidden…to ring church bells or display crosses…recite the Torah or Evangel aloud, or make public display of their funerals or feastdays” (Reliance of the Traveller, o11.5 (6)).Wearing a visible sign of one’s faith would be making a similar public display, and is likewise forbidden. The idea here is that one should hide what is shameful, you see, and the non-Muslim religious faiths are shameful.
Keyak is thus playing into the hands of the Muslims who repeated the “Khaybar, Khaybar” chant in their anti-Israel demonstrations, recalling Muhammad’s massacre of the Jews of the Khaybar oasis in Arabia, and vowing new massacres just like it. He is handing them a victory in their campaign of violent intimidation of Jews and supporters of Israel. This is sure to get him in good with Biden’s handlers, who are quickly showing their true colors regarding Israel. Watch for Keyak to be given a plum position in the corporation.
