After demented driver Asghar Ali allegedly attempted to mow down Orthodox students and a rabbi outside a Brooklyn yeshiva this week, cops were quick to say that there was no nexus of terror.
But the disturbing caught-on-camera video captured Ali revving his engine and mounting the curb as he tried to run down the Jewish men while screaming, “I’m gonna kill all the Jews” in a terrifying antisemitic attack.
Even if Ali is a lone madman, his act is clearly fueled by the rank antisemitism and anti-Jewish climate splashing into the open at pro-Palestinian protests, online and in the media.
As Mayor Adams recently fumed, New York has “normalized” a horrific hatred toward Jews, as has much of the rest of the world.
NYPD data show antisemitic attacks have soared since Hamas’ Oct. 7 terror attack on Israel — and anti-Jewish hate crimes in the Big Apple nearly doubled in this year’s first quarter.
Just this week, prosecutors indicted Skiboky Stora on hate-crime charges involving what they describe as “anti-female, anti-white and antisemitic attacks” in Chelsea from September to March.
In one instance, Stora allegedly stalked a couple and told them to “die, Jews, die” after they photographed him tearing down posters of Israeli hostages held by Hamas.
Ali, Stora and the thousands of anti-Israel protesters, many violent, are succeeding in terrorizing Jews in Gotham, a city with a biggest Jewish population in the city.
Indeed, Jews have been subjected to the most vile remarks and even violence on college campuses from Columbia to UCLA and on the streets.
They’ve seen the world single out Israel for reprobation while closing its eyes to nations committing real crimes — simply because Israel is the Jewish homeland.
Law-enforcement and other officials looking at Ali’s attack mustn’t dismiss it as a merely the act of a lone lunatic. The case signals a putrid turn for the city that must be halted, pronto.
As Adams said, such a climate would never be tolerated if, say, blacks were the target.
It mustn’t be allowed to stand when Jews are in the crosshairs either.
