Do you remember when two Jewish diners were allegedly attacked because of their religion at a sushi restaurant in LA? This was May 2021, during Israel’s bombing of Gaza. The May 2021 attack on Gaza killed 256 Palestinians, including 66 children.
This is how the Los Angeles district attorney described the charges: “On May 18, the two defendants were allegedly part of a caravan who were driving in the 300 block of N. La Cienega Boulevard. The defendants are accused of approaching two men outside of a restaurant and attacking them because of their religion… Xavier Pabon and Samer Jayylusi were each charged in case BA499005 with two felony counts of assault by means of force likely to cause great bodily injury. The criminal complaint also includes a hate crime allegation.”
“Last night, members of a caravan of pro-Palestinian protesters targeted innocent Jewish diners in a vicious attack while they were sitting outside a sushi restaurant, and a separate attempt was made by two drivers to run over a Jewish man who had to flee for his life,” claimed Councilman Paul Korez. Both incidents were captured on video. These were anti-Semitic hate crimes that are unconscionable.”
“We as a city condemn last night’s organized, anti-Semitic attack,” tweeted LA Mayor Eric Garcetti. “Jewish Angelenos, like all residents, should always feel safe in our city.”
Pabon and Jayylusi pleaded no contest and were recently sentenced. What was the punishment? They have to complete 80 hours of counseling on cultural sensitivity and an eight-hour program at the Museum of Tolerance (MOT). So, what happened to the hate crime charges?
Rob Eshman is a senior contributing editor at the The Forward, hardly a website that would ever be mistaken for pro-Palestinian. He spoke to the attorneys and read the court transcripts. He concluded that the narrative put forward by the diners, politicians, and the media did not reflect what actually happened.
“What we all thought had happened was not what it seemed,” he writes. “. . . And we American Jews need a better way of understanding what antisemitism is, and isn’t.”
In court, the antisemitism allegations completely fell apart. One of the witnesses, Matthew Haverin, claimed that the men had asked the diners if they were Jewish before attacking them. Under questioning he retracted the statement. Haverin also admitted people that diners had thrown bottles and plates at the protestors and yelled, “F— you!” at them.
It turns out that Mher Hagopian, a wedding photographer who was dining outside with some Jewish friends, ran to confront the protestors, grabbed a metal stanchion, and tried to hit Jayylusi with it. The video (which supposedly implicated the two protesters) confirmed this.
Hagopian then punched Jayylusi despite the fact his back was turned. Jayylusi turned around to pry the stanchion away and hit Hagopian back. Jayylusi’s attorney argued that once Hagopian tried to attack this simply became a street brawl. It certainly wasn’t some sort of premeditated attack and the instigator had not been Jayylusi.
The legal argument launched against the defendants by deputy district attorney Paul Kim was as ridiculous as it was terrifying. He argued that Jayylusi and Pabon were clearly “interested in a confrontation” because they had “taken sides in a long-standing ethnic divide between Palestinians and the Israelis.”
In other words, if you publicly protest Israeli aggression you can’t complain if someone tries to attack you with a metal stanchion.
Hagopian was welcomed as a guest of honor at a gala thrown by the pro-Israel group StandWithUs. There he was presented with a “Guardian of Israel” award and given a standing ovation for “protecting Jewish diners from a physical attack.”
Are groups like StandWithUs apologizing for pushing a narrative that turned out to be completely inaccurate? On the contrary. They’re angry about the punishment being too light. StandWithUs CEO and Co-Founder Roz Rothstein descended into fantasy while decrying the sentence. “We are pleased that the perpetrators will receive counseling and two years of probation, and will spend time at MOT,” he said. “However, they should also have been sentenced to serve time in prison for their violent attack against the first Jew (or supporter of Israel) they could find as they roamed the streets looking to vent their frustration against Israel for defending itself from Hamas rocket terrorism. Anyone who perpetrates violence against others because of their national or religious identities, as these thugs did, are dangerous to civil society and should spend time in prison.”
Stop Antisemitism’s Liora Rez called the protesters “monsters.” She told Fox News Digital that she “furious” at the judge’s decision. “What the heck does a Holocaust museum have to do with this?,” she asked.
Rez accidentally brings up a good point. What does the Holocaust museum have to do with this? The trial established that the protesters never asked any of the diners if they were Jewish or referenced their religion. None of the people who originally came forward as victims or witnesses to the incident showed up in court. The DA failed to produce any evidence proving the protesters were antisemitic. In fact, Eshman reports that the defense proved the opposite. “Xavier has always shown my family and I respect, he knows we are Jewish,” Moshe Levkowitz, an 87 year-old longtime friend of the Pabon family, wrote to the judge.
The Forward might be the only website to actually delve into the facts of this case, but Eshman’s conclusions are one of the most disturbing parts of the story.
At the end of the piece he writes that there was an uptick of antisemitic attacks around the time of this incident so its understandable if people jumped to conclusions. “That explains the intense coverage this incident got, the desire to see someone punished, and the understandable fear created by a viral video of a fighting between Jews and Palestinians and their supporters,” he reasons. He then notes that the protesters were attacked first, but ended up getting charged for the violence while the perpetrators walked away scot-free.
He then asserts that this is actually good because it might deter people from protesting Israeli policy in the future. “It’s hard to say it’s a bad thing, given a 2,000-year history of antisemitism, when the fingertips of power tip the scales of justice toward the Jewish community,” he writes. “Maybe the punishment in itself will deter future anti-Israel caravans from rolling across LA.”
The narrative around this incident might have been nonsense, but the danger of equating anti-Zionism with antisemitism is real and this case showcases why.
AIPAC and J Street
AIPAC loves to tweet about J Street. Every day they attack the liberal organization on Twitter, usually sharing quotes from some of the Democrats they support in an attempt to prove that they aren’t a friend of Israel.
This week the lobbying group fired off one of its usual strikes. This one targeted J Street’s support for Summer Lee, the congresswoman representing Pennsylvania’s 12th district. AIPAC spent over $4 million trying to prevent Lee from reaching office.
“Summer Lee boycotted Israel’s president, calls to condition lifesaving security aid, and aligns with Israel’s loudest critics,” wrote whoever does AIPAC’s social media. “Now J Street is hosting fundraisers for her as ‘a champion of J Street’s core values.’ J Street is many things, but it’s not pro-Israel.”
J Street is quite obviously pro-Israel. Their website makes no attempts to conceal this fact. “We believe in the Zionist ideal on which Israel was founded—that of a Jewish homeland where Jews can always go to be secure,” declares the group. “We hope that Israel will live up to and represent the core Jewish values of justice, equality and democracy.”
The J Street website also touts its support for Israel’s actions in Gaza: “We support Israel’s right to defend itself militarily and believe that maintaining Israel’s qualitative military advantage in the region is one essential element of a strategy to keep Israel secure for the long term..We believe that Israel’s military actions in Gaza have been both understandable and justifiable. No country can be expected to absorb thousands of rockets without the right to respond militarily.”
However, J Street is certainly not completely aligned with AIPAC when it comes to Israel. AIPAC demands unfettered and enthusiastic support for the country, while J Street openly criticizes its government, opposes the occupation, and even expresses some support for conditioning military aid. These politics often lead the organization to back candidates who advocate for Palestinian rights. As a liberal Zionist group, that advocacy has to stay within certain parameters, of course. You might recall that J Street backed Rashida Tlaib’s first run for Congress but rescinded its endorsement after learning that she supports the BDS movement.
AIPAC has way more money than J Street, but their anxiety about the group has little to do with resources. They know that more and more Democratic voters are sympathizing with the Palestinian cause, and they know that Israel is becoming increasingly difficult to defend to anyone who’s even slightly progressive. The concern is that J Street could serve as a gateway drug. People begin thinking a little critically about Israel, and who knows what’s liable to happen next? A late-night internet deep dive on the Nakba, an Edward Said book checked out from the library, a Google search to see where your congress member falls on the issue, an understanding of how AIPAC actually operates. Things could spin out of control quickly.
That Summer Lee tweet is notable because she refused to be smeared and immediately pushed back on AIPAC in a thread:
This is a right-wing bully group that supports actual insurrection, white supremacists. But they spent 4 million calling me a Trump supporter bc they can only win w/lies They spend even more money insisting that anyone who doesnt agree w their extreme right-wing views is a bigot.
Their obsession w/me is alarming. They know that as a working class Black woman, I didn’t run to be the face of the Israel or Palestine issue one way or another But I did run to be a champion for poor, working class &esp Black ppl who have nvr had representation in my district.
And that’s the real reason they target and abuse me. Because the truth is they’re just an extremely wealthy white org that operates like so many others: they hate progressive, Black, and poor folks fighting for themselves, who they can’t control.
When Dems were fighting to keep the majority last yr, AIPAC called around to my then future colleagues to demand they not help to their “enemy” These folk looked at a Blk woman, in a state that’s nvr had 1, fighting for racial justice, workers rights + clean air as their enemy
To point out the obvious power dynamic gets us labeled antisemitic. It makes us targets of dangerous and incredibly disingenuous attacks. It chills speech. Meanwhile their insurrectionist friends continue to harm Black, Jewish +marginalized communities IRL w/their endorsement.
Lee’s point about AIPAC labeling politicians antisemitic to chill speech is an important one. Insofar as Democrats even criticize AIPAC it’s usually about the amount of money they spend on our elections and less about the group’s actual agenda. Perhaps the Lee thread suggests this is shifting a little.
Odds & Ends
???? Washington Post and MSNBC voices say ‘Apartheid’ (and J Street inches closer)
???? Israel’s new entry procedures for Palestinian Americans are meaningless if the occupation remains
???? AIPAC looking to target Omar, Bowman, and other progressives in Democratic Party primaries
???????? Angela Davis among 250 figures supporting Dominican book fair boycott
???????? From the Times of Israel:
A US public relations firm suggested it might “activate or mobilize” connections in the US Jewish community to improve the image of oil magnate Sultan al-Jaber, the controversial pick to lead this year’s United Nations COP28 climate conference in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
According to a federal disclosure filing with the US Justice Department dated April 8, the First International Resources public relations firm, headed by political strategist Zev Furst, has been employed by Abu Dhabi’s renewable energy company, Masdar.
Furst, a former director of the Anti-Defamation League in Israel, serves as chairman of the board at Cadogan Petroleum PLC and chairman of the International Board of the Peres Center for Peace in Jaffa.
???????? Yonatan Touval on Twitter:
MINI-SCOOP: “As #Netanyahu sends his top confidant Ron Dermer to #DC for talks on a #Saudi mega-deal, an Israeli source tells me that Team Netanyahu is proceeding under the assumption that a key incentive for the Biden admin in achieving Saudi-Israeli normalization as part of U.S. strategic deal w/ Riyadh is in swaying (so-called) pro-Israel Republicans on Hill. If Biden can show Reps that his deal w/ #Riyadh wins #Israel peace with #KSA, the thinking goes, they might soften their opposition if and when elements of such a deal are brought before Congress.
????️ Former Treasury Secretary Jack Lew is the leading candidate to become the new ambassador to Israel.
???????? At Axios Barak Ravid reports that Joint Chiefs of Staff chair Gen. Mark Milley will travel to Israel next week amid growing concerns that Netanyahu’s judicial reforms will impact the Israeli military.
“Thousands of Israeli reservists have suspended their service over their opposition to the right-wing government’s weakening of the country’s Supreme Court,” writes Ravid. “Milley’s visit will enable the Biden administration to assess first-hand how deep the crisis inside the IDF goes, and whether it could have any implications for U.S. forces in the Middle East.”
This is the kind of stuff that actually prompts The White House to take action on Israel.
???? Here’s something. GOP presidential contender Vivek Ramaswamy says the Middle East normalization deals are working great for Israel and the United States so this means the U.S. government can cut off military aid after 2028. Here’s his logic:
“I actually do think our relationship with Israel has advanced American interests. I come out on the side of that. Here’s what I want to see happen though. I want to negotiate – I’m a dealmaker, okay? I want to negotiate now Abraham Accords 2.0: get Saudi, Oman, Qatar, Indonesia in there. Get Israel on its own two feet. And I believe in standing by commitments that we’ve already made.
“So our commitments have, I think, $38 billion in aid, military support, etc. going in through 2028. I want to get Israel to the place where it is negotiated back into the infrastructure of the rest of the Middle East. We should not be worried about holding one nation or one region hostage over one particular question relating to Palestine.
This makes virtually no sense, but it’s interesting that a GOP candidate is actually talking about the issue. We will see if Israel comes up during next week’s debate.
????️ On the newest episode of the Mondoweiss podcast, I spoke with author and Georgetown adjunct professor Josh Ruebner about the recent calls to cut off U.S. military aid and Ahmad Daraldik, a Palestinian Florida State University student who launched a civil rights complaint against the school after he became the target of a smear campaign.
???? The U.S. Embassy’s American Citizen Services (ACS) Unit held a virtual town hall regarding the new entry procedures for U.S. citizens, including those registered as residents of the West Bank or Gaza. What a joke this thing was. Concerned individuals sent in more than 200 questions, but the whole thing lasted less than 15 minutes. They also repeatedly referred to Israeli checkpoints as “pedestrian crossings.”
Stay safe out there,
Michael
False flag.