Photo Credit: Reuters
Congresswoman Sara Jacobs, representing the 51st District in San Diego, has the awkward distinction as both the youngest Jewish member of Congress, and the newest member of the anti-Israel progressive wing of the Democratic Party known as “The Squad.” Jacobs has consistently argued for a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war, which most experts see as allowing Hamas to reorganize, resupply from Iran, and attack Israel again.
By contrast, her Republican opponent this November, El Cajon Mayor Bill Wells, has unconditionally supported Israel after the Hamas terrorist attacks of October 7, 2023. On that day, in the deadliest attack on Jews since the Holocaust, Hamas slaughtered 1,200 Israelis, wounded another 3,400, and took 251 men, women, and children hostage. After 10 months of conflict in Gaza, 100 Israeli and 8 American hostages remain in captivity, presumably to be used at some point as human bargaining chips for some abject sleazy horse-trade.
As Benjamin Kerstein from The Jewish Voice has noted, “Democrats are now trapped in a state of more or less total schizophrenia, torn between an increasingly violent antisemitic wing and the squishy liberals unwilling to stand up to it.” Neither the Democrats nor Representative Jacobs have “moved to investigate or prosecute antisemitic hate groups like CAIR, Students for Justice in Palestine, and numerous others.” Sara Jacobs is the only member of the San Diego delegation to vote against a resolution condemning the “from the river to the sea” chant as antisemitic.
Besides the unmitigated war crimes of October 7, Israeli civilians have had to endure the indiscriminate launching of Qassam, Katyushka, and ballistic missile rockets from Hamas in Gaza since March 5, 2002. The first two rockets landed in the southern Israeli City of Sderot, less than a mile from Gaza, where, after continued attacks, the mayor installed a “Red Dawn” early warning system that gave his citizens 15-30 seconds to duck and cover or enter bomb shelters placed near playgrounds. Also deployed in Ashkelon, this system featured a recorded female voice that intoned the Hebrew words Tzeva Adom (Code Red) across loudspeakers four times, with the process repeating itself until all rockets landed and the system detected no further launches. By late 2005, any visitor to the mayor’s office could see a dud Qassam rocket–that had landed in his back yard—on a table propped up against a wall with pictures of 35 of Sderot’s children killed by the missiles.
By October 7, 2023, some 18 years later, Israel had installed a more sophisticated Iron Dome system, with four different layers of protection. The system uses interceptors to shoot down incoming missiles and drones, not only from Gaza but also from Hamas’s allies, Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen. 5,000 missiles launched from Gaza on October 7– with another 7,000 launched since that day. Hamas terrorists invaded Sderot (along with 25 other locations), massacred 50 civilians and 20 police officers. In addition, the Iron Dome, with the help of the US, Great Britain, France, and Arab allies, also thwarted 97% of the 300 rockets and drones launched by Iran against Israel on April 13, 2024. In fact, because the Iron Dome works so well, Hamas, in frustration, sent its suicide squads across the Gazan border to kill and capture Israeli citizens. The surprise attack made their murderous intent crystal clear, one that their own charter declares: Hamas and their allies (Hezbollah, the Syrians, the Houthis and Iran) have no intention of ever recognizing Israel’s right to exist. They want to violently erase Israel off the map.
After October 7, the Israeli government, acting in what is sees as an existential crisis, decided to move accordingly. Their goals: eliminate Hamas as a governing and military force in Gaza and retrieve all the hostages. Israel will not agree to a cease-fire until these conditions are met because any such dela invites more attacks and more dead Israelis. Yet some in the US Congress, including the Squad and Sarah Jacobs, point to Israeli atrocities and mounting Palestinian civilian casualties in Gaza as a moral tragedy requiring humanitarian aid and an immediate cease fire.
Terrorists, including Hamas, use asymmetric warfare which rejects the laws of war embodied in the Geneva Conventions of 1947. “Resistance,” under the Geneva conventions, cannot include taking hostages, using civilians as human shields, or the storing of war materiel in or under schools, hospitals and mosques. These are considered war crimes under international law. Moreover, for over 22 years, Hamas has committed a war crime every time they have launched a rocket at an Israeli city. They often fire the missiles from sites near hospitals, schools, and mosques so that any Israeli retaliation plays into their Israelis-the-aggressors narrative.
Hamas, however, creates and embraces collateral damage as a political tool to fuel anti-Israeli propaganda. Funding of “pro-Palestinian” (read anti-Israel) protests at US and European campuses comes in large part from outside the United States. Qatar and Saudi Arabia top the list. American Universities do not wish to report how much money comes from where or how they spend it, even though US Law requires it. Moreover, a large percentage of paid protestors at not even among the student body. In front of a joint address to Congress, Prime Minister Netanyahu labeled the critics of war in Gaza as “Iran’s useful idiots.”
Sara Jacobs and the Squad chose to boycott Netanyahu’s speech. In article explaining her rationale, the Congresswoman acknowledged her Jewish roots, but stated, “my faith is not a shield or an excuse for destruction.” As a liberal Jew, Jacobs argued that “There is no military solution to this conflict…Israel can effectively counter the of Hamas only by first addressing the core grievances…the lack of a Palestinian state and Palestinians’ right to self-determination.”
Yet how can Hamas, which calls for erasing Israel off the map, accept any two-state solution? Likewise, since 2006, when Hamas gained control of Gaza politically, then forcibly exiled the Palestinian Authority to the West Bank, any discussion of a two-state solution fell on deaf ears for both Palestinians and Israelis. Why, because Hamas is a proxy for Iran, not a legitimate representative of the Palestinian People. And more to the point, Hamas denies one of the two proposed states the right to exist. After October 7, Israel stopped defending its right to exist, it started enforcing it.
The Squad’s views on Israel have become both dangerous and reckless: their anti-Israel sentiments unfairly target Israel while downplaying the complexities of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The rhetoric that Jacobs now seems to endorse mirrors that of Reps. Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez—voices that have repeatedly pushed anti-Israel policies under the guise of advocacy for Palestinian rights. It is not inherently wrong to criticize any government, including Israel’s, for its policies. However, Jacobs’ shift indicates a growing alignment with a wing of the Democratic Party that too often singles out Israel for condemnation. Where is the discussion of Iran, its proxies, or the seven-front war that Israel must fight on to preserve its country? (Hamas in Gaza, West Bank, Lebanon (Hezbollah), Syria, Paramilitaries in Iraq, Houthis in Yemen, and the ultimate puppet master, Iran).
As this indicates, the most concerning aspect of Jacobs’ alignment with The Squad is its potential consequences for U.S. foreign policy. The United States has long stood as an ally to Israel, supporting the only democratic state in the Middle East in its right to defend itself against existential threats. Ultimately, such empty rhetoric only contributes to the erosion of Israel’s security and emboldens those who seek its destruction.
Furthermore, Jacobs’ alignment has alienated many American voters both outside and inside her Congressional district who see Israel as a vital ally of the United States. Given that importance, voters in the 51st District of California must look to Mayor Bill Wells to replace Sara Jacobs this November 5.
