Anti-Israel activists blame Israel for Los Angeles wildfires

Code Pink: ‘When US taxes go to burning people alive in Gaza, we can’t be surprised when those fires come home.’

By Vered Weiss, World Israel News

Anti-Israel groups took to social media to blame Israel for Los Angeles wildfires.

The fires have destroyed hundreds of buildings and prompted the evacuation of tens of thousands of California residents.

On Instagram, Code Pink created a tenuous connection between the fires and Israel’s war in Gaza.

Code Pink wrote, “When US taxes go to burning people alive in Gaza, we can’t be surprised when those fires come home.”

The Anti-Zionist group Jewish Voice for Peace wrote, “Instead of putting resources toward making our country livable, our government is putting billions toward Israel’s genocide of Palestinians in Gaza.”

Fatima Mohammed, head of anti-Israel group Within Our Lifetime posted, “The flames of Gaza will not stop there.”

“Dropping hundreds of thousands of bombs on Gaza, turning it into a blazing inferno, has consequences,” she said. “There are climate consequences that will find us all.”

Commentator Mehdi Hasan asserted that aid to Israel was interfering with funding LA’s fire department.

However, Hasan failed to recognize that Israeli military aid is federal and funding for the fire department is from the City of Los Angeles.

Israel defenders were vigorous in their criticism of the accusations from anti-Israel groups.

New York Congressman Ritchie Torres wrote on X, “The nature of Antisemitism is to scapegoat the Jewish People and the Jewish State for everything wrong in the world — no matter how tenuous the causal connection,” he wrote on X.

“The modus operandi of Antisemitism is slanderous scapegoating: when in doubt, blame the Jews,” he added.

Jonathan Greenblatt, head of the Anti-Defamation League, posted on X, “Code Pink’s rabid anti-Zionism and insatiable animosity toward Israel drives them to make an absurd, incomprehensible claim.”

He added, “What does it say about a group that will find a way to use any tragedy to foster incitement and antisemitism?”