Two hate crimes made news in New York City last week. The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) chose to condemn only one.
Why? Both involved premeditated, unprovoked attacks on people based on their identities. Victims in both cases required hospitalization. What distinction could have made one worthy of condemnation and one worthy of silence?
If you follow CAIR even casually, you already know.
The victims CAIR opted to keep mum about are pro-Israel Jews. The attacker is a radical Palestinian activist careless enough to put his plans in writing and his motive on video.
Saadah Masoud will spend 18 months in prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit hate crimes. On at least three separate occasions, Masoud – a founding member of the anti-Israel group "Within Our Lifetime" – specifically sought out and attacked Jews.
"Within Our Lifetime" is so-named because its members believe "that we will achieve Palestinian liberation within our lifetime." The group's leader, Nerdeen Kiswani, has told supporters not to "act like Israel has a right to exist, or [that] negotiations can be made with this colonial entity.
Prosecutors obtained group chat transcripts from May 20, 2021 in which Masoud and his friends plotted to attack a pro-Israel rally. Masoud endorsed a friend's instruction: "Remember, don't chant out jews, it's the Zionists."
At the rally, Masoud and his friends "forgot" what they discussed.
They confronted a man wearing a Star of David necklace, and Masoud "shouted, in substance and in part, 'Are you a fucking Jew?'" the government's sentencing memorandum said. Masoud then sucker punched the man in the face.
Less than two weeks later, Masoud and a friend drove past the Brooklyn home of a pro-Israel political activist they had seen at another rally. "We know where you live, we'll get you," Masoud told him. Masoud's friend then punched the man in the face.
Two months later, Masoud made it clear he sought violence with Jews.
"There's no talking to them. There's no fighting with love, fighting with peace," he said in a video posted by Canary Mission. "Because at the end of the day, sometimes people learn with a punch in their mouth."
Some would argue that this meets a definition of terrorism: If you don't change your mind or stop supporting your cause, we're going to hurt you. But CAIR, a self-anointed civil rights organization, said nothing about the violent incidents, Masoud's arrest, or his sentencing.