Now even the Biden regime has had enough of CAIR.
Ever since it was founded in 1994, the Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), with considerable help from the establishment media and clueless law enforcement officials, has carefully cultivated an image as a legitimate civil rights advocacy organization. Nowadays, however, masks are slipping all over as open support for Hamas and gleeful antisemitism have become social contagions and are rapidly becoming normalized among leftists.
Accordingly, it was not a massive surprise when CAIR’s cofounder and longtime executive director, the taciturn and stone-faced Nihad Awad, avowed that Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre of 1,200 Israeli civilians made him “happy.” What was surprising was that this proved to be the straw that broke the camel’s back for the Biden regime in its endless courting of support from the sinister organization.
The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) recently published excerpts from Awad’s Nov. 24 speech at the national convention of American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) in Chicago. Awad spun the horrific Oct. 7 massacre as the action of an oppressed people striking back at their oppressor: "The people of Gaza only decided to break the siege, the walls of the concentration camp, on Oct. 7.”
He didn’t bother to explain how the inmates of this alleged “concentration camp” managed to procure the rockets that they had rained down on Israel on so many occasions before Oct. 7. Nor did he mention the fact that not just Israel but Egypt has closed its border with Gaza; might the Gazans themselves bear some of the responsibility for their unpopularity?
Awad went on to cheer the massacre itself: “And yes, I was happy to see people breaking the siege and throwing down the shackles of their own land, and walk free into their land, which they were not allowed to walk in. And yes, the people of Gaza have the right to self-defense, have the right to defend themselves, and yes, Israel, as an occupying power, does not have that right to self-defense.”
This claim that Israel does not have the right to defend itself is a new CAIR talking point; CAIR operative Hussam Ayloush (MEMRI misspells his name as Aylush) said the same thing in a Dec. 1 Friday sermon in Oklahoma City. It’s a specious argument that might impress the ignorant, but it dissolves upon a moment’s thought.
In the first place, Israel is not an occupying power in Gaza (or anywhere else, for that matter). There has not been a single Israeli in Gaza since 2005. And the idea that an occupying power has no right to self-defense is absurd. Did the Allies have no right to self-defense in Germany or Japan after World War II? Occupation is not unjust or immoral in itself, and by every standard of international law, Israel is not illegally occupying the land on which Hamas carried out its massacres on Oct. 7.
Awad was attempting to defend the indefensible, and even his friends in the White House were alarmed. The Biden regime announced Thursday, according to the New York Post, that it had “ended its work with the Council on American-Islamic Relations on crafting a national antisemitism strategy.”
Yes, CAIR was part of the White House’s campaign to combat antisemitism, and that was ridiculous enough in the first place. But now, White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates said of Awad’s cheerleading for Oct. 7: “We condemn these shocking, antisemitic statements in the strongest terms. The horrific, brutal terrorist attacks committed by Hamas on October 7th were, as President Biden said, ‘abhorrent’ and represent ‘unadulterated evil.’” He added that “everyone has a responsibility to call out antisemitism and violence wherever it rears its ugly head.”
Related: Tlaib and CAIR’s Awad Threaten Biden Where It Hurts: No Votes for You Without Ceasefire
The regime is attempting to tread an exceedingly fine line. Awad has previously threatened the Bidenites over their support for Israel. At a rally in early November, he declared, “The language that President Biden and his party understand is the language of votes in the 2023 elections and our message is: No ceasefire, no votes. No votes in Michigan, no votes in Arizona, no votes in Georgia, no votes in Nevada, no votes in Wisconsin, no votes in Pennsylvania. No votes for you anywhere if you don’t call for a ceasefire now."
Biden and his henchmen are trying to keep the Israel-hating far-left happy while not alienating supporters of Israel among their base as well. This was nigh impossible in the first place, and now Awad has made it even harder. Could the leftist/Islamic alliance finally be severed for good? Grab some popcorn and watch.
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