The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is demanding that Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetti apologize for agreeing with the Trump administration’s decision to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem on a recent trip to Israel.
Garcetti, the first Jewish mayor in the history of L.A., said last week, according to the Los Angeles Times: “I support the embassy being here. Israel shouldn’t be the only country in the world that can’t determine where its capital will be.” He added that he disagreed with the way that President Donald Trump had moved the embassy in 2017-2018, saying “there is usually a process to these things rather than what seems like an overnight, one-sided, partisan move.”
In response, CAIR sent a letter to Garcetti on Sunday demanding that he retract his statement and that he apologize.
CAIR also said in a statement in the name of its Los Angeles director, Hussam Ayloush:
It is ironic and embarrassing that Mayor Garcetti is scheduled to host a Ramadan iftar on Monday evening with members of the Muslim community. The mayor spent the last week in Israel cozying up to a right-wing apartheid government and whitewashing its brutal and illegal occupation and gross human rights violations against Palestinians to explore business opportunities and then wants to entertain members of the Muslim community, as if nothing happened.
As mayor of Los Angeles, Mayor Garcetti must represent all Angelenos, not just those who support Israel’s illegal occupation. We call on him to retract his statement of support and to stand against Trump’s reckless decision and hold a meeting with the interfaith community to discuss his statements.
As Breitbart news has noted:
In 2007-8, CAIR was named an unindicted co-conspirator in the terror financing trial of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development. That case, in turn, led the FBI to discontinue its work with the organization. In 2009, a federal judge ruled that the government “produced ample evidence to establish” the ties of CAIR with Hamas, the Palestinian terror organization. The United Arab Emirates labeled CAIR a terrorist organization in 2014 (a decision that the Obama administration opposed).
Hussam Ayloush has a history of radical statements himself. Earlier this month, he compared Israel to Nazi Germany. In 2015, he said U.S. foreign policy was partially to blame for an Islamic terror attack in San Bernardino. CAIR provided assistance to the family of the terrorists after that attack.
CAIR was joined in its condemnation by other left-wing “faith” groups, including Jewish Voice for Peace, which is a radical left-wing group that recently gave a platform at s conference to convicted Palestinian terrorist Rasmea Odeh.
Congress approved the Jerusalem Embassy Act in 1995 by an overwhelming bipartisan vote in both houses. Presidents and presidential candidates from both major political parties have committed to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem. Trump finally did so last May, though no elected Democrats attended the opening or a celebratory party thrown by the Israeli embassy in Washington, DC.
Garcetti is not backing down — at least not yet — but the Los Angeles Times reported Monday that he reiterated his support for a Palestinian capital in Jerusalem, as well as an “independent, fully sovereign Palestinian state.”
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. He is also the co-author of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, which is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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