Two Israeli American men were brutally attacked outside a San Jose, California, restaurant on Sunday. The victims were waiting for a table and speaking to each other in Hebrew when three young men approached and began punching them repeatedly, knocking one of them unconscious. During the assault, the assailants were reportedly heard shouting, “Don’t mess with Iran” and “f*** the Jews,” according to the Times of Israel.
The victims were transported to a local hospital and later released.
NBC Bay Area reported that police are investigating the attack as a possible hate crime. Possible?
The victims, who wish to remain anonymous, spoke to ABC 7 News. One said, “Every punch connected directly to where they wanted, to the head directly. It was on purpose to hit and make maximum damage.”
The other man told ABC, “One of the witnesses said that, they heard them saying, ‘don’t mess with Iran’, which we don’t know why. We don’t have any problem with them. But, I heard at the beginning of the fight, something with, ‘F the Jews’.”
“This kind of violence [is] not supposed to happen in the middle of the day on a Sunday – with kids and elderly people, and everybody’s walking around,” he added.
According to ABC, one of the victims “was knocked out cold and required stitches. The other was badly cut and bruised.”
ABC noted this was not the first time they had encountered one of the victims. It turns out that last August, his business was vandalized with graffiti of swastikas and hateful language.
A witness told the San Francisco Chronicle that he “was a short distance away when he noticed the attack, and that nobody stepped in to stop it.” [This article is behind a paywall.]
Several social media users made similar observations.
In between his own attacks on Israel and his efforts to revoke President Trump’s authority to fight the war in Iran, Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) managed to condemn the attack in a statement on X.
Critics were quick to point out his Grand Canyon-sized hypocrisy.
Just two days earlier, Khanna was condemning Israel. He wrote, “When Israel kills women and children, silence from many of our elected leaders. When they start a war, still silence. But when they go after the oil economy, now that crosses the red line.”
As of 10 a.m. on Wednesday, there were no reports of arrests in this case.
According to the Times of Israel, attacks against Israeli Americans have “surged” since the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran began 11 days ago.
Elizabeth writes commentary for Legal Insurrection and The Washington Examiner. She is an academy fellow at The Heritage Foundation. Please follow Elizabeth on X or LinkedIn.
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