In a recent interview following the Al-Qaeda-linked bombings in Uganda, President Barack Obama damned Al Qaeda for racism against black Africans, saying, ‘What you’ve seen in some of the statements that have been made by these terrorist organizations is that they do not regard African life as valuable in and of itself.’ Explaining the president’s comment, an administration official said Mr. Obama ‘references the fact that both U.S. intelligence and past al Qaeda actions make clear that al Qaeda — and the groups like al Shabaab that they inspire — do not value African life. The actions of al Qaeda and the groups that it has inspired show a willingness to sacrifice innocent African life to reach their targets … U.S. intelligence has indicated that al Qaeda leadership specifically targets and recruits black Africans to become suicide bombers because they believe that poor economic and social conditions make them more susceptible to recruitment than Arabs … Al Qaeda recruits have said that al Qaeda is racist against black members from West Africa because they are only used in lower level operations … In short … al Qaeda is a racist organization that treats black Africans like cannon fodder and does not value human life’ (Jake Tapper, ‘President Obama, White House: Al Qaeda Is Racist,’ ABC News, July 13, 2010).

Yet ignored by President Obama all this time are al Qaeda’s obscene and vicious anti-Jewish statements and numerous attacks deliberately targeting Jews. This record, which includes such things as Bin Laden saying explicitly that ‘the war is between us and the Jews who are enemies of Allah’ and similar statements by other al Qaeda leaders has never prompted President Obama to condemn al-Qaeda in similar terms to those he used in reference to its attack on black Africans.

Some Al Qaeda attacks specifically targeting Jews:

·        February 2008: Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, an Al Qaeda-affiliated terrorist group based in North Africa, claimed responsibility for an attack on the Israeli Embassy in Mauritania that wounded three bystanders. 

·        January 2006: Al Qaeda in Iraq claimed responsibility for a rocket attack in northern Israel in December 2005 in an audio statement attributed to the group’s leader, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. 

·        November 2005: Claiming responsibility for the bombing of hotels in Amman, stated that it had carried out these attacks because the Amman hotels are a ‘backyard garden for…Jews and crusaders.’

·        November 2003: Al Qaeda bombed two synagogues in Istanbul, Turkey, killing 25 people and injuring more than 300 others. 

·        May 2003: Al Qaeda attacks five targets in Casablanca, Morocco, killing 45 people and wounding more than 100 more. Four of the five targets are Jewish, including a Jewish social club and restaurant, a Jewish cemetery, a Jewish-owned Italian restaurant, and a hotel frequented by Israelis.

·        November 2002: Al Qaeda claimed responsibility for an attempt to shoot down with a missile an Israeli civilian airliner and for the bombing of an Israeli-owned resort in Mombassa, Kenya, that killed 13 people. It also claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing terror attack upon a synagogue in Tunisia that killed 19 people.

Al Qaeda statements about Jews:

·        January 2009: Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden called for holy war against Israel, urging the ‘Muslim nation’ to defeat the ‘Zionist entity’ and assured the Palestinians that Al Qaeda’s ‘fate is tied to yours in fighting the crusader-Zionist coalition, in fighting until victory or martyrdom.’ 

·        January 2009: Ayman al-Zawahiri called in January 2009 to ‘strike the interests of the enemies of Islam – namely, the Christians and the Jews.’

·        May 2008: Bin Laden called for attacks on Israel, Jews and American targets in an audio statement entitled, ‘The Causes of Conflict on the 60th Anniversary of the State of Israeli Occupation.’

·        April 2008: Zawahiri threatened Israel and Jewish interests in an audio message, endorsing ‘every operation against Jewish interests’ and promised to ‘strive as much as we can to deal blows to the Jews inside Israel and outside it, with Allah’s help and guidance.’ 

·        February 2008: following an Al Qaeda attack on the Israeli embassy in Mauritania, Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb issued a statement saying, ‘This attack comes at a time when the bastard Jews are tormenting our brothers in Palestine with an unjustified siege.’

·        December 2007: Bin Laden declared that ‘We will not recognize a state for the Jews, not even one inch of the land of Palestine… Our jihad is to liberate Palestine – the whole of Palestine, from the river to the sea if Allah wills it… Blood for blood, destruction for destruction.’ 

·        January 2006: Following al Qaeda rocket attacks upon Israel from Lebanon, al Qaeda’s  Abu Musab al-Zarqawi said that his group fired rockets ‘at the grandchildren of monkeys and pigs’ in the Israeli town of Kiryat Shimona and that the attack was ‘only the start of a blessed in-depth strike against the Zionist enemy.’  

·        July 2002: Sulayman Abu-Ghayth, Al Qaeda spokesman, said ‘the struggle is between us and the Americans, the Jews and the apostates, and that it is a struggle between truth and falsehood and between good and evil … As long as America stands together with the Jews and Christians and in their trenches and opposes the Muslims, then – with the permission of Allah – may He be praised and exalted – we will continue to hit America until it gets up and leaves these trenches, so that the confrontation can be between us and the Jews who are enemies of Allah – may He be praised and exalted.’

·        May 2002: Bin Laden declare that ‘The war is between us and the Jews. Any country that steps into the same trench as the Jews has only herself to blame.’

ZOA National President Morton A. Klein said, “It is clear from President Obama’s reaction to the terrorist bombings in Uganda that he is rightly and understandably angered by al-Qaeda’s terrorist assaults upon and treatment of black Africans; but we are perplexed that he has not responded to terrorist attacks on Jews and myriad, obscene al Qaeda statements about Jews.

President Obama has said nothing about Bin Laden’s saying, ‘the war is between us and the Jews’: his deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri endorsing ‘every operation against Jewish interests’; slain al-Qaeda leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi describing Jews as ‘the grandchildren of monkeys and pigs’; al-Qaeda’s Sulayman Abu-Ghayth seeing the conflict as one ‘between us and the Jews who are enemies of Allah’ and al-Qaeda speaking of ‘bastard Jews.’

“Why has President Obama only, albeit properly condemned al-Qaeda’s racism against Blacks, but has remained silent about al-Qaeda’s horrific racism and hatred toward Jews.”