I think the sign speaks for itself.
LOS ANGELES (JTA) — Police in California are investigating as hate crimes the posting of anti-Israel and pro-Hamas placards at two synagogues.
Three letter-sized, hand-written signs were discovered Tuesday at Beth Jacob, an Orthodox congregation in Irvine, Calif. One poster proclaimed, “Gaza– The New Shoah” and a second read, “Hamas Recognizes Israeli Genocide.”
Similar posters were found on the same day at the nearby Reform Congregation Shir Ha-Ma’alot.
Kevin O’Grady, Orange County regional director for the Anti-Defamation League, condemned the “targeting of temples to express anger toward Israeli action in Gaza.”
Hat tip on photo to KOG at the ADL and on Police action to: Orange County Independent Task Force on anti-Semitism
TS
1/4/2009
A hate crime? Are we really that thin-skinned?
Rabbi Yonah
1/4/2009
It’s not us – it is the law.
Joel
1/4/2009
It’s not a matter of being thin-skinned. Words of hate generally turn into actions of hate as the words become more popular.
Case in point:
I have a friend that dated a Syrian girl from his freshman year in high school to his sophomore year in college. He became heavily involved in “Freeing Palestine” from the hands of the Israelis. He used to say, “I love the Jews, I hate the Israeli government,” but now has nothing good to say about the Jewish people in general (which has caused me to cut off my friendship with him). He even came out at one point saying such actions are justifiable.
When people speak out against a Jewish nation in this manner, Jews should worry because such words will generally lead to actions.
DK
1/5/2009
Hate Crimes laws are really stupid. But you know what else is stupid? Mainstream Jewish policy insisting that mass immigration of Muslims to the U.S. is a proper policy.
I would ask that you Zionists rethink your naivety, and come around to recognizing that mass immigration to the U.S. from the likes of Pakistan, Jordan, Palestine, etc., is really a foolish one for the mainstream Jewish community to continue to espouse.
xisnotx
1/5/2009
DK, you’re kevin macdonald’s alter-ego
DK
1/5/2009
xisnotx,
No, that’s silly. Am I fabricating the problems of Paris and Amsterdam? Is that a demon of my hateful imagination that only I can see?
DK
1/5/2009
youtube.com/wa...
WEVS1
1/6/2009
I hope they catch the idiots who did this but I do not support hate crimes laws. As Jonathan Rauch notes:
jonathanrauch....
Consider two crimes. In each, I am beaten brutally; in each, my jaw is smashed and my skull is split in just the same way. However, in the first crime my assailant calls me an “asshole”; in the second he calls me a “queer.”
In most states, in many localities, and, as of September 1994, in federal cases, these two crimes are treated differently: the crime motivated by bias–or deemed to be so motivated by prosecutors and juries–gets a stiffer punishment. “Longer prison terms for bigots,” shrilled Brooklyn Democratic Congressman Charles Schumer, who introduced the federal hate-crimes legislation, and those are what the law now provides.
Evidence that the assailant holds prejudiced beliefs, even if he doesn’t actually express them while committing an offense, can serve to elevate the crime. Defendants in hate-crimes cases may be grilled on how many black friends they have and whether they have told racist jokes.
To increase a prison sentence only because of the defendant’s “prejudice” (as gauged by prosecutor and jury) is, of course, to try minds and punish beliefs. Purists say, Well, they are dangerous minds and poisonous beliefs.