According to Bloomberg, the support for Israel shown by many law firms has contributed to rising levels of "Islamophobia." The American Muslim Bar Association and the National Association of Muslim Lawyers have responded by sending letters to the nation's top 100 law firms, urging them to take specific steps to support Palestinian, Arab and Muslim legal professionals.
The letter stated this "uneven" treatment by some firms of a "highly sensitive issue is sadly dehumanizing Palestinian, Arab and Muslim lives."
In early November, more than 200 law firms signed a letter that went to more than 100 law school deans, urging them to take strong stances against antisemitic harassment on their campuses. At least two law firms have rescinded job offers to students over statements blaming Israel for Hamas' attack Oct. 7 attack on the Jewish state.
Newsweek editor and show host Josh Hammer said on American Family Radio Wednesday that this is consistent with President Joe Biden's weakening support for Israel.
"Biden, right out of the gate, was actually pretty good. In fact, the Tuesday after the attack, he gave this very powerful speech …. I've heard from some folks in Israel that Israelis loved this speech so much that they actually used it to try to teach English to elementary school students over there," Hammer told show host Jenna Ellis.
Times have changed. The far left of the Democratic Party has challenged Biden on his response – and his stance has softened.
Could Biden's support for Israel tilt Michigan?
Suddenly a swing state like Michigan, with its many Muslim and Arab-American voters, is in question.
"It has all changed over the past few weeks as now they talk about Islamophobia, I mean, Karine Jean-Pierre [White House press secretary] couldn't even bring herself to forthrightly condemn people who are just disgustingly taking down these posters of the hostages in America's city streets," Hammer said.
The reason for the shift is two-fold, Hammer explained. Part of the problem is the decades-long view of Israel as the "oppressor" and Palestinians as the "oppressed" – a view that ignores data showing Jews in America are far more often the victims of hate crimes than Muslims.
"There's this intersectional 'woke' mentality of oppressed and oppressor classes where they will not let stubborn facts like those FBI crime statistics get in the way of their tidy and convenient narrative," he elaborated.
The other part, according to Hammer, is that an unpopular sitting president seeking reelection can't afford to become even less popular.
"… Joe Biden remains wildly unpopular," he exclaimed. "He trails pretty much all of the Republicans that I've seen right now in most of the polling. He certainly trails former President Donald Trump when it comes to most of the key swing states. He knows that he can't afford to lose much more in the way of Muslim-American support, especially in swing states, like Michigan, for example, where there is a large Arab population," Hammer added.
DEI is an issue Republicans can win with
The organized effort by Muslim attorney groups to ask law firms to provide special workplace treatment is similar to the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion efforts on many college campuses, Hammer said. And he argues it's an issue Republicans can win with as they try to wrestle political momentum away from Democrats.
"Many of the states right now are taking direct legislative action trying to curtail or outright ban DEI from university campuses. That's one of the new frontiers for the culture war, eradicating the DEI from American universities, from American corporate boardrooms – and I think it's a worthy and just battle," he shared.
"DEI is a cancer. Once you actually explain to the American people what DEI entails – how it's this quasi-Marxist mentality that arbitrarily divides America based on characteristics like religion, ethnicity, race, all these traits, and divvies you up based on 'oppressed' and 'oppressor' status – the American people just aren't into it," Hammer said.
