OpEd: Congresswoman Jacobs and Councilman Elo-Rivera Feed Antisemitism

By Liat Cohen-Reeis

SAN DIEGO — If Sara Jacobs and Sean Elo-Rivera had a baby, it would be born fluent in the language of progressive morality, raised to believe that ethical leadership means declaring “compassion for both sides” while materially undermining one. Both Jacobs and Elo-Rivera identify as Jewish and publicly denounce antisemitism. Yet, their political platforms consistently amplify narratives that erode Israel’s legitimacy and weaken Jewish safety worldwide.

Elo-Rivera’s recent op-ed is a masterclass in selective empathy. He briefly acknowledges the horror of October 7, the largest massacre of Jews in a single day since the Holocaust, only to pivot quickly to accusing Israel of genocide. This framing doesn’t reflect moral balance; it reflects a dangerous distortion. It tells the Jewish story just long enough to legitimize a narrative that aligns with those who deny Jewish self-determination.

Most Jews want to see Palestinians free from Hamas. Compassion for innocent lives is not the issue; Jewish history demands it. The issue is using Jewish identity to launder accusations against Israel that ignore context, complexity, and the existential threats Jews face. When elected officials do this, they don’t just “criticize Netanyahu,” they embolden movements that view the very existence of a Jewish state as a crime.

Sara Jacobs has taken this further. She co-sponsored the Block the Bomb Act, voted against H.R. 8369, signed a letter urging President Biden to pause arms shipments to Israel, refused to support Israel against South Africa at the ICJ, opposed the Antisemitism Awareness Act, and voted against a resolution labeling “From the river to the sea” (a slogan that calls to wipe out the Jewish state) as antisemitic. Elo-Rivera, though lacking a geopolitical background, echoed similar sentiments in his op-ed by holding Israel solely responsible for suffering in Gaza while ignoring Hamas’s role.

Neither offers a viable path for Israeli survival in a region where its destruction is the stated goal of multiple governments and terror groups. Their calls for ceasefires lack any demand for Hamas to disarm, release hostages, or abandon its genocidal charter. This isn’t policy- it’s propaganda dressed in moral language.

Jacobs and Elo-Rivera do not speak for the Jewish community. The Jewish community knows the facts. Take, for example, the New York Times’s widely circulated image of a gaunt 18-month-old child, claimed to be starving due to the war. The paper later corrected the story, admitting the child had cerebral palsy and hypoxaemia. Humanitarian aid sits untouched in Gaza as the UN delayed distribution. Hamas diverts resources to terror tunnels instead of civilian infrastructure, while using civilians as human shields and repeatedly giving inaccurate death toll counts. Al Jazeera journalists who are targeted hold our hostages captive and often torture them.

Jacobs and Elo-Rivera, in their public roles, dangerously misinform the public. They radicalize discourse against the very community they claim to represent. By parroting Hamas propaganda, they bring antisemitism to San Diego and beyond. The Jewish community I represent rejects their rhetoric entirely.

As the Director of the Antisemitism Task Force at StandWithUs, an international organization combating antisemitism for over two decades, I can attest: we know what antisemitism looks like. Jacobs and Elo-Rivera continue to feed it. Their actions push blood libel and terrorist propaganda. As an Israeli Jew, I do not consider them allies, nor does the large Jewish community I represent.

So yes, if Jacobs and Elo-Rivera had a child, it might grow up photogenic, earnest, and fluent in progressive language. But unless we confront the difference between facts and political agendas that harm Jews, that child, like its hypothetical parents, will inherit a legacy not of protecting the Jewish people, but of dismantling the security they need to survive.

Picture Jacobs and Elo-Rivera as a couple sipping a fine Napa Cabernet by a fireplace, lamenting the suffering in Gaza “caused by Netanyahu”. Maybe, after finishing the bottle, they’d realize: all Hamas had to do was not start a war that killed more Jews in a single day since the Holocaust, and release the hostages they took for this war to end, so that Israelis and Palestinians can resume normal lives. If they had that epiphany, just before conceiving their hypothetical child, after knocking out that expensive bottle, maybe that child would grow up to be a Jew who actually stands with the Jewish community.
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In addition to directing the Antisemitism Task Force, Liat Cohen-Reeis serves as Vice President JNF-USA, San Diego;  Chair, Women for Israel; and Founder, Christian and Jewish Alliance.