During an interview with CNN, Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington CEO Ron Halber said the fatal shooting of two Israeli Embassy staffers on Wednesday “is just an indication of what happens when you’re constantly barraged in the media with antisemitic and anti-Israel rhetoric, and it ends up self-radicalizing people,” and won’t be the last incident of its kind “because people are getting a constant dose of anti-Israel garbage and antisemitism” like false accusations Israel is engaging in ethnic cleansing. He also called for large funding from the government so Jewish institutions can pay for armed security.
Halber said, “This is just an indication of what happens when you’re constantly barraged in the media with antisemitic and anti-Israel rhetoric, and it ends up self-radicalizing people, and they think they can commit acts of violence. And, unfortunately, we’ve seen these acts of violence manifesting and growing in the United States. And, unfortunately, I don’t know if this is going to be the last one.”
He added, “No, it’s not going to be the last time it’s going to happen because people are getting a constant dose of anti-Israel garbage and antisemitism. And what happens is it builds up in people who have a tendency to become self-radicalized, and then they want to take matters into their own hands.”
Halber further stated that “government, at the federal, state, and local level, has made money available for capital improvements. But that’s not enough. The money needs to start coming, in large amounts, so that Jewish institutions can start hiring and using this money to help pay for security folks, armed security folks, to provide at all of our institutions, and anything less is unacceptable.”
He concluded, “[Y]ou can criticize Israel, like we can criticize our own government for issues. But when you start using terms and flipping it around, like Israel is committing ethnic cleansing, which is absolutely outrageous and unsubstantiated, all it does is fuel radicalism. So, that type of language has to be condemned and rejected in American society by our leaders.”
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