OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
The FBI is alerting citizens to the possibility of terrorism against the United States on the anniversary of the day Israel wept.
On Monday, it will be exactly one year since Hamas militants fled areas of southern Israel where they had caused horrific deaths and human casualties. Additionally, it has been a year since Israel began its armed assault to overthrow Hamas, which has expanded to include Hezbollah in northern Israel.
To incite violence in the West, foreign terrorist organizations (FTOs) have been making “consistent calls” to their supporters on October 7, according to the FBI in a press release.
“The FBI and DHS assess the one-year anniversary of the October 7, 2023, attacks that initiated the ongoing Israel-HAMAS conflict, as well as any further significant escalations in the conflict, may be a motivating factor for violent extremists and hate crime perpetrators to engage in violence or threaten public safety. Over the past year, we have observed violent extremist activity and hate crimes1 in the United States linked to the conflict,” the press release began.
“Jewish, Muslim, or Arab institutions — including synagogues, mosques/Islamic centers, and community centers — and large public gatherings, such as memorials, vigils, or other lawful demonstrations, present attractive targets for violent attacks or for hoax threats by a variety of threat actors, including violent extremists and hate crime perpetrators. Such actors may view the anniversary as an opportunity to conduct an attack or other high-profile, illegal activity,” it added.
The warning highlighted the threat of what it called “lone attackers to conduct violence in the United States.”
The press release continued, “FTOs and other violent extremists likely will continue to exploit narratives related to the conflict to call for lone attackers to conduct violence in the United States. Online messaging associated with FTOs and other violent extremists highlighting the one-year anniversary of the October 7 attacks could motivate threat actors across ideologies, including those who espouse violent anti-Semitism and Islamophobia, to engage in violence. Individuals inspired by this online messaging could act alone to commit an attack with little to no warning.”
“The FBI defines a hate crime as a crime motivated by bias against race, ethnicity, color, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, or disability. Hate crimes fall within FBI’s legal authorities. Some hate crimes meet the DHS and FBI definition of domestic terrorism but hate crimes can also be committed without the intent required for terrorist acts, as terrorism generally requires a broader intended effect outside the individual victim. Intelligence and analysis may collect and report on hate crimes to the extent that they constitute or inform an understanding of reportable targeted violence,” the release declared.
CNN reports that the police agencies in New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami, and Philadelphia have expanded their patrols.
According to the Anti-Defamation League, the FBI revealed last month that in 2023, it had 1,832 hate crimes against Jews, which was a 63 percent increase from 2022 and the largest number ever documented since data collection began in 1991.
According to the Anti-Defamation League, hate crimes committed against Jews accounted for 58% of all hate crimes in 2023 and 68% of hate crimes in which religion played a role.
“At a time when the Jewish community is still suffering from the sharp rise in antisemitism following Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre in Israel, the record-high number of anti-Jewish hate crime incidents is unfortunately entirely consistent with the Jewish community’s experience and ADL’s tracking,” Jonathan Greenblatt, ADL CEO, said.
“Hate crimes are uniquely harmful, traumatizing both the individual and their community,” Greenblatt added.
In his column in the New York Post, Michael Goodwin described the “explosion of antisemitism in America and Europe” as a result of the Hamas attack, which revealed a dark side to Western civilization.
“Just as Israel was caught off guard by the Hamas terrorists, the outpouring of support for those savages on elite college campuses and the streets of New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Washington, as well as London and Paris has been a rude awakening of its own,” Goodwin explained.
“It’s as if a venomous snake had been in hiding and suddenly found a chance to emerge and strike,” he wrote.
