August 20, 2024
The American Mideast Coalition for Democracy strongly condemns the use of photos depicting civilian casualties in Gaza to provoke feelings of hatred toward Israel and Jews.
“For months social media has been flooded with these images, some real and some fabricated, to provoke hatred of Israel and antisemitism more widely,” said AMCD co-chair Tom Harb. “Most of this is pure propaganda, and as such is unconscionable.”
“This is a naked effort to save Hamas from its inevitable destruction at the hands of the Israeli Defense Force,” added AMCD co-chair John Hajjar. “Young people demonstrating for Hamas, are joining with a movement that would destroy civilization and kill every one of those non-Muslim demonstrators the minute it had the capability to do so. Their naivete is breathtaking.”
Why not come together and form effective campaigns for safe zones and evacuations of civilians—solutions that actually would save people’s lives?
Gazelle Sharmahd
“The UN Security Council (UNSC) has the authority to establish safe zones or humanitarian corridors under Chapter VII of the UN Charter, which allows for the use of force to maintain or restore international peace and security,” began AMCD senior advisor, Dr. Walid Phares. “For such measures to be implemented, a resolution must be passed by the UNSC. That is not the message or solution being pushed for by all those supposedly outraged at the death of civilians, nor has the UNSC taken this action on its own.”
“Why not come together and form effective campaigns for safe zones and evacuations of civilians—solutions that actually would save people’s lives?” said Gazelle Sharmahd, daughter of German-American Journalist Jimmy Sharmahd, who was kidnapped to Iran and is being held hostage since 2020. “It truly does seem that, just like the terror regimes themselves, these posts and protests are simply being used to promote or advance the ‘virtue signaler’ who is intent on stirring up hate (not compassion).”
Antisemitism is spreading like wildfire among our college-age youth. We’ve seen this scenario play out many times in the past and it does not end well, neither for the Jews in our midst, nor for the society which tolerates such high levels of open antisemitism.
Phares and Sharmahd co-host a new podcast-series called War&Freedom:Insight Talks on YouTube ( new episode 5 https://youtu.be/XgKluf-bh8A) and propose policies and interventions to save civilians in Gaza without shielding jihadist forces like Hamas in the process, which they share with the public on their #EducateAmerica platforms on social media.