Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) President Morton A. Klein and ZOA Chairman Mark Levenson, Esq. released the following statement:
Horrifyingly, the race for the presidency seems to be turning into a race to the bottom, to see who can hire the worst antisemitic Israelophobic bigots. It is particularly painful that Jewish Senator Bernie Sanders is (again, as he did in 2016) employing vicious Jew-hater and terrorism promoter Linda Sarsour as a campaign surrogate. Sanders is also using Sarsour in new campaign video ads, touting Sanders’ “transformative” foreign policy for Palestinian-Arab “self-determination” (meaning, usurping land lawfully designated for the Jewish homeland to create an empowered terrorist Iran-Hamas-Fatah Palestinian-Arab state dedicated to Israel’s destruction).
Not to be outdone, Senator from Massachusetts Elizabeth Warren (who hails from the U.S. state with the second highest percentage of Jews) hired vicious Israelophobe and Hamas-lover Max Berger to be her “Director of Progressive Partnerships.” ZOA previously urged Senator Warren to fire Berger. (See “ZOA Urges Sen. Elizabeth Warren: Fire Hamas-Loving, Israel-Hating “IfNotNow” Co-Founder Max Berger,” July 9, 2019.)
ZOA likewise urges Senator Sanders to immediately disassociate himself from vicious Jew-hater Linda Sarsour.
ZOA has frequently catalogued and condemned Sanders-surrogate Linda Sarsour’s repeated, hateful antisemitic, anti-Israel, anti-women, anti-Muslim-reformer statements and Sarsour’s incitement to violence and promotion of anti-Jewish boycotts. Among other things:
- Sarsour tweeted that the Palestinian-Arab terror wars against Jews, the intifadas “are invaluable on many fronts.” Palestinian-Arabs maimed or murdered approximately 12,000 innocent Jews in the first two intifadas.
- Sarsour recently falsely accused pro-Israel American Zionists of marching alongside the Ku Klux Klan.
- Sarsour posted and glorified a photo of an Arab child holding rocks to throw at Israelis as “the definition of courage.”
- Ms. Sarsour aligned herself with, shared a podium with, and extolled convicted terrorist Rasmea Odeh, who murdered two Jewish college students in a 1969 supermarket bombing in Israel and was deported for concealing her terrorist crimes on her U.S. immigration forms. Sarsour gushed that she was “honored and privileged to be here in this space, and honored to be on this stage with Rasmea.”
- Sarsour defamed the Jewish homeland’s right to exist, tweeting that “nothing is creepier than Zionism.” Sarsour also tweeted“[Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu is a waste of a human being.”
- Sarsour attempts to exclude Jews from the women’s movement, asserting that Zionists cannot be feminists.
- Meanwhile, Sarsour viciously attacks genuine feminists such as Brigitte Gabriel, and Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who fight for women’s rights and for ending female genital mutilation in repressive Muslim societies. Sarsour tweeted: “Brigitte Gabriel – Ayaan Hirsi Ali. She’s asking for an a$$ whippin’. I wish I could take away their vaginas – they don’t deserve to be women.”
- Further, Asmi Fathelbab, a woman employee at the Arab American Association of New York (AAANY) headed by Linda Sarsour, described how Sarsour threatened and raged at Ms. Fathelbab, and enabled continued assaults, when Ms. Fathelbab reported being repeatedly sexually assaulted by a male AAANY employee.
- Sarsour praised brutal Iraqi dictator and mass-murderer Saddam Hussein as a “hero” and moaned that“my [Sarsour’s] Arab pride was hurt” when Saddam Hussein was captured. Sarsour especially lauded that Saddam Hussein “supported the struggle against Israel.” (Saddam Hussein shot scud missiles into Israel, killing and injuring innocent Israelis and doing enormous property damage; systematically gave $25,000 checks to families of Palestinian-Arab suicide terrorists’, including the bomber of the Moment Café, who murdered 11 innocent Israelis and injured 51 innocent Israelis; trained Palestinian-Arab terrorists; and operated the terrorist “Palestinian Liberation Front” terror group.)