After another ugly anti-Semitic incident in LA, the left has few words and no answers

Two people fight on the ground amidst a crowd of protesters

An anti-Israel protester fights outside the Orthodox Jewish synagogue Adas Torah in Los Angeles on June 23. (Photo: David Swanson, AFP/Getty Images)

On Sunday, a violent anti-Semitic mob entered a Los Angeles synagogue and harassed congregants, leaving several injured. However, the response from the media and authorities in Los Angeles was pathetic.

The first protests were organized by Palestinian Youth Movement LA and Code Pink LA, the same coalition that organized the protests on college campuses and in our cities.

Some of the protesters filmed their march through the streets of Los Angeles holding Palestinian and pro-Hamas flags.

They shouted slogans like: “There is only one solution: the Intifada revolution.”

This is how the protest ended on the way to the Adas Torah Synagogue in Pico-Robertson, a district of Los Angeles with many Jewish residents:

It was an ugly scene. However, if you only follow the left-leaning local and national media, you may not know about it. The Los Angeles Times hid this story in its back pages.

The front page of today’s print edition of the LA Times. Notice something missing?

There is also nothing about anti-Semitic violence on pages 2 and 3. There is a short story on their website, half of which was written by the City News Service. pic.twitter.com/CZSLlwziLE

– Jennifer Van Laar (@jenvanlaar) 24 June 2024

Judge for yourself what you think of these videos.

During the entire incident, only one person was reportedly arrested – a man who was allegedly holding a flag with a spike on the end. According to The Jewish Chronicle, police did not release any further information about the person.

I truly believe that there is no question that what happened at the Adas Torah Synagogue was shameful and unacceptable. Protesting is one thing, harassing a synagogue is crossing boundaries. And committing violence is a crime. The question is, what will the authorities do about it?

Here is the statement from Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass.

I would like to point out a few things here.

First, Bass buries the introduction.

The word “anti-Semitism” only appears towards the end of the declaration, and even from the first paragraph it is difficult to tell that the hostility and violence were directed against Jews or who committed them.

Bass condemns the “violence” but says only that it took place in a “place of worship.”

It wasn’t just a house of worship, it was a synagogue. The people in the mob had a target, and the target was Jews.

This is a common linguistic tactic of the left. Whenever a group they don’t care about as much is targeted, or when they are uncomfortable with the ethnic and religious dynamics, they label the incident with general words like “hate” to avoid the issue and expand it to a broader societal problem.

And that is exactly what they tried to do during the congressional hearings on anti-Semitism on college campuses.

Next, Bass said, she will organize more police patrols in front of – again, very generally – “places of worship.”

Unless these so-called houses of worship are synagogues, this is a waste of time and money for the police.

If the mayor had been truly concerned about Jews being victims of violence, she would have dispatched Los Angeles police in large numbers to the synagogue as the incident escalated, rather than letting it spiral out of control for hours before intervening.

The only meaningful part of Bass’s meaningless statement is the line that “those responsible” for anti-Semitism and violence “will be found and held accountable.”

I certainly hope so, but given that only one person was arrested, I cannot assume that this statement is true.

As we have seen in other Democratic cities where Democrats are in the majority, lawbreakers who commit crimes for left-wing causes often escape punishment altogether. They know that those in power will come to their aid.

President Joe Biden gave a slightly better explanation than Bass, at least making clear who was attacked. However, the president offered no suggestions as to what he will do about it.

I am appalled by the scenes outside the Adas Torah Synagogue in Los Angeles. Intimidating Jewish community members is dangerous, unconscionable, anti-Semitic and un-American.

Americans have a right to peaceful protest. But blocking access to a place of worship – and using violence…

– President Biden (@POTUS) 24 June 2024

This was not a protest. This was a violent mob harassing and attacking citizens because of their religion.

The Justice Department under Biden and Attorney General Merrick Garland has put numerous pro-lifers in prison for attempting to block the entrances to abortion clinics. Will the Justice Department take action against the people who blocked the synagogue and incited violence? And what about the other ugly anti-Semitic incidents that seem to be escalating?

So far we haven’t seen anything at all.

If only you could run the FBI and the Justice Department and order them to hunt down every one of these pro-Hamas lunatics.

Just like you did on January 6th for every MAGA hat-wearing grandmother within a mile of the Capitol. https://t.co/VhToiEKH00

— Tom Cotton (@TomCottonAR) 24 June 2024

Biden – or whichever of his advisers was managing his social media accounts at the time – said in 2020 that former President Donald Trump was responsible for any violence he denounced during his presidency.

Will Bass, the President, or any of the other left-leaning institutions do something to put a stop to these incidents, or is winning a few votes in Michigan more important than making sure “Never Again” really means “Never Again”?

I don’t want to be cynical, but given everything that has happened in the last few months, I believe we already have the answer.