White House announces effort to counter Islamophobia as antisemitism rises

War is raging in Israel and Kamala Harris is holding down the home front with the same political aplomb she handled the border crisis — that is to say, poorly. With thousands of lives lost in Israel and an increasing number of antisemitic attacks in the US, Harris is proud to announce the White House’s new program to target… Islamophobia.  

“Taking on hate is a national priority. Today, @POTUS and I are announcing the country’s first National Strategy to Counter Islamophobia. This action is the latest step forward in our work to combat a surge of hate in America,” Harris shared in a post on X Wednesday evening.  

Harris further explained in a video that she and President Biden have a duty to protect Americans from all forms of hate since harm against any citizen is harm against us all.   

“For years Muslims in America and those perceived to be Muslim have endured a disproportionate number of hate fueled attacks,” she said. “As a result of the Hamas terrorist attack in Israel and the humanitarian crisis in Gaza we have seen an uptick in anti-Palestinian, anti-Arab, antisemitic and Islamophobic incidents across America,” in part referencing the brutal slaying of a six-year-old Palestinian American boy in Chicago last month.   

While Cockburn condemns all forms of violence, the slew of pro-Hamas protests across college campuses and increased threats to Jewish students makes him wonder if Harris is aware of how tone-deaf her announcement comes across. Given her cackle though, he wonders if the vice president has any concept of tone.  

The announcement was released just a day after the arrest of a twenty-one-year-old self-identified “Hamas fighter” in New York State who threatened to kill and rape Jewish students at Cornell University. Just last week, Jewish students were locked inside a library at New York City’s Cooper Union as pro-Palestinians protests banged on doors and windows. 

On Tuesday, FBI director Christopher Wray told senators that antisemitism is reaching historic levels in the US following the war in Israel. Despite accounting for just 2.4 percent of the population, Jewish Americans are the victims of about 60 percent of religious hate crimes, Wray said during a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs hearing. “The reality is that the Jewish community is uniquely targeted by pretty much every terrorist organization across the spectrum,” he said.  

Ironically, it is not just supporters of Israel that are skeptical of the new plan. The announcement was also released one day after a poll from the Arab American Institution showed that Arab American support for Biden plummeted to just 17 percent after backing Israel against Hamas. In fact, 40 percent said they would vote for Donald Trump in the upcoming election.  

The White House was originally expected to announce its plan last week when Biden met with Muslim leaders but delayed over concerns about Biden’s credibility with Muslim Americans, according to three people familiar with the matter.