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1. Terror Hits Again
Ten days after the May 21 shooting outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, DC, which killed two staffers of the Israeli embassy, terror struck again, this time in Boulder, CO, at a weekly rally calling for the release of hostages held in Gaza by Hamas.
Sixteen participants were injured in the June 1 firebomb attack, one of them hospitalized in critical condition.
As was the case with the DC shooter, here too the suspected terrorist made no secret of his reasons and motivation. Mohamed Sabry Soliman, a 45-year-old Egyptian national, repeatedly shouted out calls to “end Zionists” and to free Palestine. He told investigators he had specifically targeted the group of “Zionists,” which he knew met every week and was made up primarily of members of the Boulder Jewish community.
As the initial shock of these attacks made way for deliberate considerations of the way forward, a very general plan of action became clear. The effort to combat the now-apparent threat to Jewish Americans and to supporters of Israel consists of several elements. Key to them is a call for extra vigilance, in line with the unusual public statement issued by the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security warning of an “elevated threat” to Jewish and Israeli Americans. In practice, this call has been translated into a significant increase in security personnel at Jewish and pro-Israel events and to a reconsideration and postponement of rallies and public Jewish events. (The Israeli American Council, for example, put all of its public events on hold until the security situation becomes clearer.)
In addition, the Jewish community has doubled its advocacy work for increasing funding for the Nonprofit Security Grants Program, the main governmental vehicle for funding protection of Jewish institutions.
Perhaps more important was renewing the focus on the danger posed by antisemitic rhetoric and by unsubstantiated claims relating to Israel’s actions in Gaza as a potential driver of extremism, which could lead deranged individuals to seek out Jews and Israeli-Americans for harm.
These actions probably have done little to assuage concerns within the community, but as seen in the fact that many pro-Israel rallies are still taking place, they did send a signal that these threats are being taken seriously and addressed to the best of the community’s ability.
2. Trump’s Response, and Why the Jewish Community Doesn’t Like It
The government’s response, on the other hand, took a totally different direction.
The fact that Soliman was a foreign national whose tourist visa had expired, and therefore lacks legal immigration status, seemed to fit well with the administration’s agenda.
“He came in through Biden’s ridiculous Open Border Policy, which has hurt our Country so badly. He must go out under ‘TRUMP’ Policy. Acts of Terrorism will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the Law. This is yet another example of why we must keep our Borders SECURE, and deport Illegal, Anti-American Radicals from our Homeland,” Trump posted on Truth Social following the attack.
Soon after, the president announced a sweeping travel ban, effectively barring citizens of 12 countries from entering the United States and posing limitations on those coming from another seven countries. The Boulder attack, Trump explained, “underscored the extreme dangers posed to our country by the entry of foreign nationals who are not properly vetted, as well as those who come here as temporary visitors and overstay their visas. We don’t want them.”
Interestingly, Trump did not include Egypt, the Colorado attacker’s homeland, on his list of nations whose citizens are banned from entering the United States, later explaining that he targeted only countries that are not “under control.” The White House did not provide any reason for tying the travel ban to the attack by an Egyptian national but then refraining from imposing restrictions on travelers from Egypt.
For the Jewish community, the travel ban was yet another reminder of how legitimate concerns of Jewish Americans facing real-life threats can be harnessed to advance the administration’s political agenda. First it was the Trump administration’s crackdown on elite universities that at its peak led to withholding billions of dollars in research grants under the guise of fighting college antisemitism. Now it is a broad travel ban, allegedly, in part,a result of a terror attack against Jewish Americans.
“Don’t use antisemitism as an excuse to introduce controversial policies. We’re not here to be used by anybody,” Ron Halber, head of the Washington Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington, told The Washington Post. “It can whip up antisemitism.”
A similar sentiment was expressed by local Boulder Jewish leaders and by the Reform Movement, as well as by most liberal-leaning Jewish groups. Even the American Jewish Committee, known for its cautious approach to politically disputed issues, expressed its reservations over Trump’s travel ban. “While we are deeply distressed by the rise in violent antisemitic attacks in the United States, and while we appreciate that the administration is trying to mobilize as many levers as it can to counter it, we are concerned that the broad proclamation issued June 4 seeks to address this alarming issue in a way that lacks a clear connection to the underlying problem and will have an adverse impact on other longstanding immigration and refugee policies,” the group said in a statement.
Specifically, Jewish activists’ concerns can be grouped into two issues: the fear that broad travel bans will eventually harm the community’s interest in seeing America open its doors to refugees and migrants, some of them Jewish, who are fleeing danger and hardship. The other has to do with the concern that by tying the travel ban to a specific event aimed at the Jewish community, American Jews will now be seen as the reason that citizens of Sudan or Cuba, of Equatorial Guinea or Myanmar are now seeing their dream of starting a new and safe life in America all but dashed.
3. It’s the Left’s Fault, It’s the Media’s Fault
Soliman, according to the FBI, acted alone and was not connected to any terror organization or other extreme individuals.
But this hasn’t stopped some politicians from drawing imaginary lines between his violent actions to comments and actions made by groups they dislike.
Most noticeable was Mike Huckabee, the U.S. ambassador to Israel, who was quick to blame the international media for contributing to the Boulder attack, because of their reporting about Israel’s responsibility for an incident of shooting at Gazans gathering to receive food packages at the U.S.-Israeli humanitarian relief stations. “The only source for these misleading, exaggerated, and utterly fabricated stories came from Hamas sources, which are designed to fan the flames of antisemitic hate that is arguably contributing to violence against Jews in the United States,” Huckabee said in a statement a day after the attack.
In Israel, several right-wing columnists and pundits put the blame on Yair Golan, leader of the opposition party known as The Democrats, who recently accused Israel of killing civilians and babies in Gaza. “Yair Golan, the Colorado attack is also on you,” posted Noam Fathi, a popular conservative commentator, on X.
And just to set the record straight–according to the FBI review presented to the Colorado court, Soliman had planned his attacks against pro-Israel Jewish Americans more than a year ago and had been working on it for months, way before Golan made his comments on Gaza, and before international news outlets pointed to Israel as responsible for the killing of Palestinians seeking humanitarian help.
4. Trump’s White House Joins Hasbara Efforts
The question of responsibility for the killing of Palestinians at the Gaza food distribution center also reached the White House press briefing room. And while the Israeli PR machine seemed slow and hesitant in countering claims that the IDF was to blame, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt came out swinging. When asked about the issue, Leavitt zeroed in on the BBC’s reporting and pulled out a printout she had prepared of the British public broadcaster’s headlines of their Israel-Gaza war coverage. “Unlike some in the media, we don’t take the word of Hamas with total truth. We like to look into it when they speak, unlike the BBC,” Leavitt said at the press briefing. “And then, oh wait, they had to correct and take down their entire story, saying we reviewed the footage and couldn’t find any evidence of anything.”
The BBC rejected Leavitt’s claim and said it stands behind its reporting and that the news story was updated as more information about the incident came in.
5. Big Beautiful Bill Has Jewish Philanthropists Worried
The ugly Trump-Elon Musk divorce has the entire world following, anxiously waiting to see what the next outrageous claim from either of them will look like. Meanwhile, their swipes have distracted from the reason the dispute originated between the leader of the free world and the richest man on the planet: Trump’s “big and beautiful” budget reconciliation bill making its way through Congress. Musk argued that the legislation, which among other things would extend the 2017 tax cuts, (primarily benefitting the very rich), would increase America’s deficit and be detrimental to the economy.
But within the Jewish world, activists are poring over the bill’s details to see how it will impact the Jewish community’s priorities. Some effects are obvious–cutting healthcare benefits runs counter to the priorities of most Jewish social services and advocacy organizations. But there are also more specific reasons for concern, key among them is a tax policy change that will impact major Jewish charities. According to eJewishPhilanthropy, the bill currently includes provisions that would raise the excise tax for foundations, making large philanthropic funders pay up to 5 percent extra in taxes. “For a foundation that’s giving out $200 million a year and has a core strategy, if you take 5 percent out of it, that’s a lot of money. It may mean somebody at the end of the day might not get funded,” nonprofit consultant Avrum Lapin told eJP.
The fight, however, is not over yet, and major Jewish foundations are actively lobbying senators to make changes in the OBBB (One Big Beautiful Bill Act) before it reaches a final vote.
Top image: President Donald Trump (Credit: Gage Skidmore (CC BY-SA 2.0)).