By Bruce S. Ticker
PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania — As Devora Halberstam’s family in New York once again was plagued by Jew-haters, more than 30 years after her 16-year-old son was murdered…
As Gov. Josh Shapiro reopened the Pennsylvania governor’s residence to guests on Sukkah six months after an arsonist tried to burn down the site…
As an Orthodox Jew allegedly was locked in a bus for an hour by a London bus driver who told him, “I don’t like Jewish people…”
And, as a 39-year-old woman was arrested for assaulting an office worker during an anti-Israel rally outside the Oamaru electorate office of a member of New Zealand’s Parliament…
And much more…
It all happened in recent weeks as 20-year-old Tarek Bazrouk got his comeuppance for a series of assaults against supporters of Israel. Or did he?
Bazrouk pleaded guilty to federal hate crime charges last June and on Tuesday (Oct. 28) was sentenced to 17 months in prison for kicking and punching Jews at three demonstrations, according to The New York Post. “I’m a Jew-hater,” he wrote to a friend in May 2024.
“My experiences as a Jew in America have been altered forever because of the actions of this man,” Elisha Baker told the judge. Prosecutors said Bazrouk kicked Baker in the chest on April 15, 2024, as he stood with an Israeli flag and sang a Jewish song near the New York Stock Exchange. “When I looked in his eyes, I saw someone who sought to hurt me and cause me pain just because of who I am.”
Bazrouk, who at the protest wore a green headband usually worn by Hamas members, got off easy last Tuesday. The prosecutors certainly thought so. They recommended at least three years in prison for what they called his “repeated, premeditated assaults on Jewish individuals based on their ethnicity and religion,” and “the ongoing danger he poses to Jews.”
They cited his “deeply seeded anti-Jewish animus revealed by his text messages, such as his missive proclaiming “I’m a Jew hater.”
A 17-month sentence? That’s less than six months for each assault. Other criminals have received steeper sentences for far less.
What struck me is the disparity between Bazrouk’s light sentence and the ongoing harassment and violence against Jews no matter what they have to do with Israel’s response in Gaza after terrorists slaughtered 1,200 Israelis on Oct. 7, 2023, in southern Israel.
Law enforcement authorities have been excessively lax in prosecuting the anti-Israel mob which frequently violates laws when they advocate for the Palestinians.
During this current period:
–There were also reports of planned attacks on synagogues in Alabama.
–A delivery driver in Sydney, Australia, was charged in connection with an incident in which a firearm was pointed from his vehicle at two security guards posted outside Cremorne Synagogue on Oct. 7.
–A Jerusalem tourist, Rami Glikstein, visiting Manhattan was asked by his assailant “what the f-k is your religion?” before grabbing his yarmulke and slugging him in the face.
Antisemites violate the law because they figure they will not be caught or the legal system will deal with them lightly.
Devorah Halberstam lost her 16-year-old son, Ari, in 1994 at the entrance to the Brooklyn Bridge where a gunman fired at a van carrying Ari and other yeshiva students. A creepy bicyclist cruelly reminded her of Ari’s murder two weeks ago when he spit on her grandson’s black hat, part of his Hasidic garb, in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn.
“Antisemitism has not gone away,” she told The New York Daily News. “It means the fight continues.”
Two-hundred miles west, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro reminded us of the trauma his family endured after an arsonist tossed a Molotov cocktail into the state dining room on the first day of Passover last April. The fast-moving fire forced the family and guests to flee from the site. Shapiro told a New York Times reporter that his family discussed whether elected office was worth it. The culprit cited what Shapiro “wants to do to the Palestinian people,” according to authorities.
“What I’ve said is, if I leave because violence pushed us out or scared us, then those who want to perpetuate political violence win,” the governor said when he reopened the dining room in time for Sukkot last month. “I’ve got to stay, and I’ve got to show that we’re not afraid.”
The 38-year-old Cody Balmer, the arsonist, pleaded guilty to attempted murder and other charges and was sentenced to up to 50 years in prison. “It’s especially hard to know that he tried to burn our family to death while we slept,” the governor added.
Across the Atlantic Ocean, David Abraham, 52, was held captive – not in a tunnel or a prison – but in a locked bus…in London on Monday last week…for an hour…by a bus driver who allegedly told him: “No, I am not giving it to you…I don’t want to see a Mossad agent in my face. I don’t like Jewish people.”
Abraham told a London Jewish Chronicle reporter that he boarded the bus and went to tap his bank card on the reader when the card slipped from his hand and fell into the driver’s cabin. The driver expressed his attitude about Jews and refused to return the card. He ignored Abraham’s demands, the other passengers fled and the driver told him, “If you don’t get out, I will lock you in the bus.”
Abraham said he was locked in the bus for an hour before police arrived and retrieved the card. Transport for London suspended the driver and is investigating the incident along with the Metropolitan Police, according to the Chronicle.
“I was very traumatized,” said Abraham. “I’m wondering why he was behaving like this. I did nothing to him.”
On the other side of the world, a 39-year-old woman was charged with common assault of an office worker, who police said was shaken up but not injured. The alleged assailant was participating in a protest outside the Oamari electorate office of Waitaki member of New Zealand Parliament Miles Anderson last Thursday, according to a J-WIRE account.
The group known as Aotearoa for Sanctions was urging MPs to pass legislation that would require New Zealand’s government to “cut all ties with Israel.”
A spokesman for the Israel Institute of New Zealand said, “Calls for sanctions against Israel are increasingly being accompanied by acts of aggression against New Zealanders who have nothing to do with the conflict itself.”
Authorities naturally move with full force on serious crimes, but protesters frequently manage to bypass harsh consequences for misdemeanor-type offenses. If they can get away with blocking traffic or occupying illegal space at a college campus, maybe the more deranged among them will move onto arson and shootings.
*
Bruce S. Ticker is a Philadelphia-based columnist.
Bruce, You Are spot on with your comments. Miles Anderson Is a member of the Coalition conservative Government here in New Zealand. Miles is the national party member for Waitaki electorate which is a rural electorate based around the South Island town of Oamaru. The attacked person was a staff member of parliament working in Miles Office in the town.
The protesters attacked his office because the coalition did not recognise Palestine at the recent UNGA session when Australia, Canada and the Uk did. Foreign Minister and leader of NZ first party Winston Peters house was also attacked with a stone being used to smash a window in his house in Auckland. My Local MP Catherine Webb has protests out side her city office in Hastings City and has done for some months.
Aotearoa (NZ) for Sanctions is just another name for members of the PSNA. The Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa. This outfit is the main front organisation that is pro hamas and Anti Israel organisation. Its leader, professional protester John Minto push’s anti Semitism and anti Israel ideas all the time. All the posters and banners they use are the same that all groups use.
Hostility got very Intense after our vote at the UN recently. It has slackened off a little now. but we tend to follow events in Australia. So it will pick up again.