A delegate to the California Democratic Party posted a tweet equating Israel with Iran while calling for both countries to be “terminated.”
Hussam Ayloush is a senior official on the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and, as a representative of District 60 of California, was a delegate to the 2012 Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina. His Twitter and Facebook pages state that “for over 14 years, I have been a fundraiser and activist for many Democratic Party campaigns. I have also helped register thousands of new voters. I work for a national civil liberties organization (CAIR-CA).”
Ayloush posted a tweet on Saturday in reaction to a statement by Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani in which he called Israel a “cancerous tumor in the region.” Ayloush tweeted in response that both Israel and Iran were “murderous regimes” that need to be “terminated.”
Iran's regime calling Israel a "cancerous tumor" is like the pot calling the kettle black.
All the people of that region will be better off once both murderous regimes are terminated. https://t.co/3z1yQAGckv— Hussam Ayloush (@HussamA) November 25, 2018
Ayloush’s tweet is still online, indicating that Twitter does not consider it to be in violation of their guideline prohibiting “dehumanizing speech.”
The Investigative Project on Terrorism reported the story, noting that Ayloush has a record of anti-Semitic statements that fall outside accepted standards. Frequently referring to Israelis as “Zionazis,” he wrote in an official CAIR email in 2002, “Indeed, the Zionazis are a bunch of nice people; just like their Nazi brethren! It is just that the world keeps making up lies about them! It is so unfair.”
In accordance with the U.S. State Department’s definition of anti-Semitism established in 2010, “[d]rawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis” and “denying Israel the right to exist” constitute anti-Semitism.
Ayloush has also justified the actions of American Muslims joining the so-called Islamic State (ISIS) by comparing it to Jewish Americans who join the IDF.
“You know, you don’t hear about countering violent extremism to deal with the thousands of Jewish-American kids who join the Israeli army killing the people of Gaza,” Ayloush said in a speech at at the Islamic Center of Orange County in 2015, one day after the Charlie Hebdo terrorist attacks in Paris. “When was the last time the DHS – the Dept. of Homeland Security – or the FBI approached the Jewish community to ask them to deal with this trend? Actually, there are many more Jewish Americans who have joined the Israeli army than there are Muslim Americans who join ISIS.”
Ironically, Ayloush posted another tweet on Tuesday calling for unity in fighting hate.
OPINION EXCHANGE | Rep.-elect Ilhan Omar: Let us stand together as Americans in rejecting hate https://t.co/UnVuXJ4com
— Hussam Ayloush (@HussamA) November 28, 2018
