It is said in football that the best defense is a good offense. With that truism in mind, Dr. Charles Jacobs, my mentor who introduced me to the world of Jewish activism, has founded the African-Jewish Alliance, bringing together two demographics who are both victims of Islamic genocide – real genocide, not the fantasy perpetrated by the Islamists and their Western Leftist supporters.
What we faced last October 7 – wanton murder, mayhem, torture, and abduction – is the daily fare of black Africans, especially Christians, in eleven countries: Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Darfur, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Libya, Mali, Mozambique, Niger, Somalia, Sudan, and most of all Nigeria. The only difference is the response of the so-called civilized world. While increasing numbers of Americans, Canadians, and Europeans, especially on college and university campuses, faculty and students alike, vocally applaud genocide against Jews and appear to be eager to finish the job Hitler started, G-d-forbid, the reaction to the African slaughter is virtual indifference.
No United Nations resolutions are passed condemning Al-Shabaab, Boko Haram, Islamic State, and other such groups. Pope Leftist, who accuses Israel of cruelty to Palestinian Arab children in the name of self-defense, remains silent regarding the African Holocaust. The U.S. State Department, which opposed the re-creation of the State of Israel and has never changed its mind in over 75 years, apart from the occasional Secretary of State, spares no effort in pressuring Israel to cease fire and let Hamas and Hezbollah reconstitute themselves, while making no such effort against the Islamist terrorists. The Western pseudo-intellectuals who caterwaul about the evils of slavery, which was abolished in our civilization over 150 years ago, and cry out for trillions of dollars in reparations for Blacks whether or not they are actually the descendants of slaves, turn a blind eye to the continuing Arab enslavement of Black Africans. So, too, do all too many Christians.
In view of all these considerations, Dr. Jacobs is urging his Jewish Leadership Project, an offshoot of Americans for Peace and Tolerance, to help and promote the efforts of the African Jewish Alliance, whose member groups include:
- The American Anti-Slavery Group
- American Veterans of Igbo Descent
- The Damanga Coalition for Freedom and Democracy (Darfur)
- Simon Deng, former jihad slave from South Sudan
- The Institute for Black Solidarity with Israel (IBSI) and Pastor Dumasani Washington
- The International Committee on Nigeria (ICON) and Stephen Enada
- The LEAH Foundation
The fledgling alliance hit the ground running, holding a conference on June 25-26 in Washington, D.C. to brief journalists and congressional staffers about terrorism and slavery in Black Africa. Details about the conference can be found at: https://africanjewishalliance.substack.com/p/aja-conference-breaks-ground-in-raising.
The bottom line, as Dr. Jacobs explained in a Zoom meeting of the Jewish Leadership Project on December 22, is that Jews need to stop being on the defensive and instead go on the offensive, putting our enemies on the defensive. Combatting false accusations against Jews and Israel is not a winning strategy. As he and Ben Poser have written: “Responding to defamatory claims against Israel with myth-busters about the conflict remains the semi-official Jewish method of response to anti-Israel slander. It has always failed, as new lies just keep coming – first, the Jews stole the land, they defeated Arab armies only because America helped them, then they stole water, and now they commit genocide. Opposing misinformation alone has failed spectacularly; just look at what’s happening on college campuses and in city streets. Yet even today, the pro-Israel pamphlets distributed to Jewish students on campus follow the prescription: ‘Countering the Lies.’
“This strategy fails because it is exclusively defensive. While refuting lies is a necessity, it is only a first step. As in war, the best defense is a strong offense. The Arab world has more to answer for regarding every charge thrown at Israel: conquest, imperialism, subjugation of minorities, and the flagrant abuse of basic human rights. The myth-busting strategy never calls out the liars and never turns the charges back against them. Instead, it locks Israel’s defenders in the dock as the accused and has them spending time trying to refute one libel after another. [CBS news anchor Tony] Dokoupil’s interventions, while good and well-delivered, cannot prevail against a torrent of lies.”
Dr. Jacobs’ approach is based on four key concepts delineated in an email to supporters:
- “The slaughter and enslavement of Jews and blacks are morally, even logistically, fungible. What happened to Jews on October 7, 2023, is happening to Africans almost daily. Jihadists storm African villages, kill and torture innocents, [and] rape and then kidnap women and girls in nine African countries.
- “Hundreds of thousands of Africans live in the U.S. Their families back home are being massacred and enslaved by African versions of Hamas. Nigerians, South Sudanese, Darfuris, and Igbos living here have joined with us to form the African Jewish Alliance.
- “While Muslims are murdering and raping blacks in Africa, leftists and Muslims in the West are shamefully covering it up in order to focus on Israel.
- “Close to 20% of American blacks voted for Donald Trump because they learned they were being lied to about immigration, inflation, and white racism. That Muslims and the left are natural allies of blacks is just one more big lie.”
This promises to be an uphill fight. Because of the doctrine of intersectionality, antisemitic and anti-Israel opinions can be found among numerous demographics. Nevertheless, they can be answered, as Dr. Jacobs and Ben Poser outlined in a recent article. Addressing Ta-Nehisi Coates, they wrote:
Nearly a third of a million black slaves are in Muslim hands today. You cannot be blind to the parallel atrocities committed by jihadists in Nigeria and the jihadist rapes, murders, and abductions of young Jewish women on Oct. 7. Muslim jihadists have been massacring blacks for 1,400 years – including the descendants of the ancient Nubians, from whose language your own name is borrowed. Where is your outrage? Who better than you should lead an effort to emancipate them from servitude and stop the murders?
The same approach can be applied to a variety of our foes on the left.
To women’s rights groups: “Women in Israel have full rights, but in the Muslim world, they are oppressed. How can you keep silent about crimes against women in Muslim societies while you attack the one country in the Middle East where women are liberated?”
To LGBQT groups: “LGBTQ individuals live freely in Israel. In the Muslim world, they are persecuted, tortured and executed. Why are you silent about their plight in Muslim countries? They will never forgive you.”
To Democrats: “All Muslim countries are ruled by dictators and autocrats whose rule is enforced by brute power. In what democratic universe do activists remain silent about regimes that jail journalists, murder opponents and have no genuine elections?”
To Black Lives Matter and other black groups: “You see Muslims in America’s ‘intersectional’ allies because they are, like you, minorities here. But why extend your alliance to their brethren in Africa who are not minorities but the oppressors of minorities and who murder and enslave blacks in Africa? Have you asked Muslims here for their help in liberating Muslim-held slaves in Africa? Where are your public protests against Boko Haram in Nigeria and the Rapid Support Forces in Sudan?”
In terms of action, the Alliance has hired a social media manager to reach young people, gained support from members of the Chicago City Council for a resolution condemning jihad, and is gearing up to train Jewish Leadership Project teams to inform local Jewish leadership about the African-Jewish Alliance. And the American Jewish Committee chapter in Newton, Massachusetts has finally decided to confront the Marxist-dominated Massachusetts Teachers Association for incorporating anti-Israel, antisemitic propaganda materials in school curricula.
The battle has been joined. Anyone who would like to help can begin by navigating to africanjewishalliance.org. As the famous quotation erroneously attributed to Edmund Burke goes: “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” Put another way, I conclude with a challenge to the self-professed “anti-racists” (who are also anti-Zionist antisemites): The Islamic extremists you champion have black people’s blood on their hands. If you remain silent, so do you.
