Jewish Man Allegedly Shot Two Israelis He Thought Were Palestinian in Confused Hate Crime Where Both Victim and Culprit Blamed Arabs
The shooting only underscores the vastly different ways US institutions have responded to reports of antisemitism versus anti-Palestinian or anti-Arab hate.
“israel live 🇮🇱Death to Arabs 🙏”
This is what an Israeli tourist reportedly posted on social media after being shot in Miami last weekend. The man said he and his father “went through a murder attempt against anti-Semitic background.”
The problem? The alleged shooter, Mordechai Brafman, is a Jewish man who thought he was shooting two Palestinians.
In essence, a man pulled up to another car, got out, and unloaded 17 bullets to try to kill two strangers because he thought they were Palestinian. The victims then blamed Arabs.
Surveillance video shows the shooter making a sudden U-turn and driving back to where the victims' car was before firing his gun. Police reportedly wrote in the arrest report that Brafman told them that he “saw two Palestinians and shot and killed both.” (Both victims survived.) Brafman’s attorney said his client was "experiencing a severe mental health emergency” at the time.
It’s clearly a hate crime, but how exactly does it get classified? Anti-Arab or anti-Palestinian (which it was)? Or, antisemitic, as the victims themselves described the attack? After all, antisemitism, like Islamophobia, is wrong and rooted in the same instincts bringing us all down.
So what to do about violence against Jews, if it was motivated by hate towards Palestinians? What to do about violence towards Jews, if the perpetrator’s motive is inconvenient?
Such is the conundrum for groups like the Anti-Defamation League, which has not hesitated to assail college students for protesting the Israeli government (and demanding politicians do the same) but has thus far said nothing about the horrific shooting of the two Jewish people in Miami.
Indeed, the shooting only underscores the vastly different ways US institutions have responded to reports of antisemitism versus anti-Palestinian or anti-Arab hate.
Take, for example, how the media, from the “left” to the right, has compared anti-war and pro-Palestine student protesters – many of whom are Jewish – to literal Nazis. The pattern has fueled a media atmosphere that’s led to an entire political party calling to deport students who have protested the war (so much for free speech, right JD Vance?)
All the while, there has been an accompanying wave of targeted violence against Arabs, Palestinians, and their supporters – with no even remotely proportional concern from the media and politicians.