Vince Sarmiento, a left-wing member of the Orange County Board of Supervisors, is getting blowback from OC’s Jewish community over his call for ending all US military to Israel – torching him for “peddling Hamas propaganda.”
The Orange County Board of Supervisors oversees state-funded assistance programs, public health programs, operates landfills and the county parks and libraries systems, and appropriates funding for the Sheriff’s and District Attorney’s departments.
It has no jurisdiction over US foreign and defense policy.
Nonetheless, Sarmiento – who is widely believed to harbor congressional aspirations – felt it necessary to weigh in on the matter. He issued a statement accusing Israel of the indiscriminate slaughter of Gazans and calling for “complete ban on military aid” to the Jewish State.“The indiscriminate killing of civilians by Israel’s military, the continued starvation, ethnic cleansing and genocide being perpetrated upon the Palestinian people, especially children, is outrageous and should shock the conscience of all who care to pay attention,” declared Sarmiento.
Sarmiento’s statement is in line with numerous calls by the terrorist group Hamas for an end to U.S. military aid to Israel, which is fighting to annihilate Hamas.
Sarmiento makes no mention of Hamas, their oppression of Gazans, their use of Gazan civilians – including children – as human shields. Sarmiento does not call on Hamas to cease waging war on Israel, nor does he call on the Islamic Republic of Iran to cease military aid and support for Hamas. He did not call on Hamas to release the hostages they have been holding in inhumane conditions since their perpetration of the October 7 massacre of more than 1,200 Israeli and other civilians. No call on Hamas to stop stealing humanitarian aid, intended for Gazans, to supply its fighters, instead.
His focus is exclusively on Israel’s military campaign to destroy Hamas and prevent a repeat of the October 7 massacre.
The day before Sarmiento issued his anti-Israel statement, Hamas released a video of hostage Evyatar David being forced to dig his own grave in one of the terrorist group’s tunnels.
Sarmiento’s anti-Israel stance elicited strong responses from the Jewish community, branding him a dupe who is regurgitating Hamas talking points.
“The U.S. and Israel are like-minded allies that share democratic values that terrorists like Hamas want to destroy. Cutting off military aid to Israel would only embolden the enemies of peace, including Iran and its proxies Hamas, the Houthis and Hezbollah—terror groups that openly seek the destruction of both Israel and the West,” said Roz Rothstein, co-founder and CEO StandWithUs (SWU), an international nonpartisan education organization that supports Israel and fights antisemitism.
“Israel makes unprecedented efforts to minimize civilian harm while defending itself against terrorists who deliberately use civilians as shields. The charges made by county supervisor Vicente Sarmiento against Israel of “starvation, ethnic cleansing, and genocide” are dangerous and false rhetoric that delegitimize Israel’s right to defend its people and ignores the reality that Hamas diverts aid, hides in civilian areas, and bears responsibility for the ongoing war and the suffering of Palestinians,” Rothstein continued.
“While people on both sides are clearly suffering during this war, Supervisor Sarmiento should call for every hostage kidnapped from Israel to be returned, and for Hamas to drop their weapons so there can finally be peace,” Rothstein said.
“Supervisor Sarmiento was elected to serve the people of Orange County—not to fan the flames of international conflict with reckless, false accusations,” Jewish community activist Karen Jaffe posted on the Orange County Jews Facebook group.
“His public support for debunked Hamas talking points—including fabricated claims of genocide, ethnic cleansing, and starvation—shows a shocking disregard for truth and a dangerous willingness to exploit human suffering for political gain,” wrote Jaffe.
Jaffe and other Orange County Jewish activists have been circulating an online letter that can be sent to Sarmiento, condemning his remarks for their “disregard for verifiable facts on the ground” and references to starvation, ethnic cleansing, and genocide that ”mirror Hamas propaganda narratives that have been widely discredited.”
Some excerpts from the letter to Sarmiento:
“We ask, where is your moral outrage when it comes to the humanitarian disasters in Sudan or Yemen? Does the suffering of non-Palestinians not rise to your standard for advocacy, or is this a case of selective humanitarianism?”
“Israel has provided aid to Gaza even while under constant attack, yet we’ve heard no recognition of this. Meanwhile, critical bottlenecks in aid delivery—such as the UN’s refusal to work with the [Gaza Humanitarian Foundation]. Hamas itself has exacerbated this crisis by discouraging civilians from accepting Israeli aid and provoking violence near distribution points.”
“We urge you to represent all of your constituents—Jewish and non-Jewish alike—by speaking out against extremism in all its forms. Will you have the courage to condemn Hamas and challenge the UN’s obstructionism? Or will you allow yourself to remain captive to a media narrative that obscures rather than clarifies this deeply complex tragedy?”
“With attacks and bias against Jews already at record levels, having a local elected official opine on a crisis thousands of miles away, which they don’t really have any local ability to influence, only serves to fan the flames and stoke more hatred,” commented Ilana Meirovitch, CEO of the Jewish Community Action Network.
“While Sarmiento and others may say that they’re only offering criticism of Israel, the reality is that Jews find themselves held collectively accountable for the actions of the Israeli government, whether its kids being harassed at schools, or people physically attacked on the street. Any local elected official who cares for the safety of all of their constituents should not add fuel to that fire,” Meirovitch continued.
“Why is it that some feel compelled to attack the one and only Jewish state that is defending itself against annihilation. Have they made the same statements when the Druze in Syria were being slaughtered, or when Ukraine has been repeatedly attacked? Again, pandering to what some may consider the hip thing to say is not what leaders should be doing.,” said Meirovitch.
The war in Gaza began with Hamas’ surprise attack on Israeli towns, villages – even an outdoor music festival. Hamas fighters deliberately targeted defenseless civilians – men, women, children, old people – for murder. The killing was conducted up close and personal, and often broadcast over social media. Hundreds of hostages were abducted and then held in Hamas’ network of tunnels to be used as bargaining chips against the expected Israeli retaliation.
Claims of genocide by anti-Israel activists and have not been backed up with verifiable evidence. According to data and intelligence, the bulk of civilian casualties in Gaza have occurred during urban combat operations, building clearance, or when civilians entered forbidden zones, rather than as a result of deliberate targeting of civilians by Israeli forces.
Even the Hamas-controlled Gaza Ministry of Health admits that a majority of Gazan casualties have been military-age males – who make up only 29% of the general population of the Gaza Strip.
Civilian casualties are inevitable in war. But contrary to Sarmiento’s claims, the Israeli Defense Force has gone out of its way to avoid inflicting civilian casualties in densely populated Gaza. Hamas, on the other hand, hides among the civilians and builds military facilities underneath civilian buildings such as hospitals. Hamas does this deliberately with two tactics in mind: one is the hope such proximity will deter the Israelis. The other is the intent to exploit the deaths of their own citizens to influence public opinion in the United States and Europe. And in the case of Supervisor Sarmiento, Hamas has succeeded.
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