Goldstein: Ökande radikalisering i New York och hela USA | NTD NYHETER

And we're here and we're joined by Brooke Goldstein, Executive Director and Founder of Lawfare Project. Brooke, thank you so much for sitting down with us. Thank you for having me. It's really great. Brooke, since Zoran Mamdani, Mayor-elect in New York City, was elected, a lot of New Yorkers say that the city feels less safe. What do you think is driving this feeling? We have a mobster in office right now. Zoran Mamdani was one of the people who were in the pro-Hamas mobs, and now he's in office. And the unfortunate truth is that all of this radicalization even happened before he was in office. It's happening on our campuses. And I do have to warn, though, because we're so focused on anti-Semitism, we don't have a problem of rising anti-Semitism. We have a problem of rising radicalization in our country. And of course, the Jews are a part of that, but it's anti-American, it's anti-Judeo-Christian values, it's anti-democracy, it's anti-freedom, it's anti-free speech. And so this is something that all Americans should care about. And that's why, for example, it's so disrupted and disturbing that there's such a focus, not just on Jew hatred, but on Israel, because that's not what this is about. That is a great distraction. When we're too focused on Israel or anti-Semitism, we're losing the view of what we're really facing, which is creeping Islamism. And the more we fight amongst ourselves, and the more we talk about Israel-Palestine, the less we're focusing on radical Islam as a threat to the West, to all democracy. So Zoran Mamdani is not just a threat to the Jews, he's a threat to the rule of law in America. I want to get to that, but very quickly, staying in New York, Mayor-elect Mamdani has said he plans to keep Jessica Tish as NYPD Commissioner. Some are saying that could be maybe a check on that spread of radicalization. What are your thoughts on Jessica Tish staying on? I think she's fabulous. I think it's important that she stays on. I don't believe that people should cede the space or leave office. You're going to create a vacuum and who knows what's going to come in. And there has to be a balance to his radicalization. So I just hope they can work together. What's really disappointing, though, was Mamdani's reaction to the pro-Hamas mob that illegally went and harassed people who were trying to attend the synagogue, the Park East Synagogue. What they did is illegal. And then you have Mamdani come out there and gaslight and blame the Jews and say the Jewish presence is illegal. This has nothing to do with Jews and Judea. It has nothing to do with Israel. It has everything to do with the Jewish community as a minority community in America, in New York, deserved of equal protection under the law, deserved to have their civil rights enforced. And of course, the government, the people who are in positions of power, they can't be picking sides like that. They have to enforce the law equally, no matter who is the target or who is the perpetrator. And Brooke, as the director of the Lawfare Project, talk to us about some of the initiatives that you've been working on. And exactly what is Lawfare? How is it used? You mentioned these college campuses. Talk to us about some of the money that's flowing into these groups. All right. Well, first of all, we're extraordinarily concerned. I think all Americans need to be concerned about the fact that Qatar spends at least $1 billion a year funding educational systems in the United States, whether it's universities, colleges, or even K-12. There is no reason why the number one state sponsor of the Hamas terrorist group, a designated terrorist group, is funding the education of American children. And what Lawfare is, is the use of the law as a weapon of war, the manipulation of our legal systems, of our democracy, to silence and punish free speech about our national security threats. And I'm happy to announce that we actually just won a lawsuit. The Council on American Islamic Relations represented a woman who sued our clients for calling out anti-Semitism. And the judge threw the case out, which was a great win for free speech, showing that you can freely exercise and call out anti-Semitism and exercise your First Amendment rights without being targeted. And of course, CARE is a Muslim Brotherhood front organization, an unindicted co-conspirator in a terror financing trial, and recently a designated organization, a designated terrorist organization, both in Texas and in Florida, masquerading as a Muslim civil rights group, but fundraising and filing frivolous lawsuits that are designed to target and attack Americans and our constitutional rights. I want to dig into that, because when it comes to protests, often people think they're very organic, right? And it's a representation of what people think and are feeling in the country. But there seems to be a growing trend of paid protesters. I was talking to Nate Friedman, he's been doing a lot of on-the-ground reporting on that. He was targeted by certain groups. And I know your organization actually tracks how money from non-profits and government programs can end up overseas with extremist groups. Talk to us about how common that problem is. Extraordinarily common, and it's been going on for at least 20 years. And that's actually how I got into lawfare in the first place, because we were representing, before I founded the Lawfare Project, I worked at the Middle East Forum with Daniel Pipes, running a litigation defense fund. And we were defending counter-terrorism experts who were raising awareness about charitable front organizations, who were raising money within the West, and then funneling that money to provide material support to designated terrorist groups. And unfortunately, we still have the same problem. We just released, we had a press release and announced that we have an investigation now that we're funding in Canada into extremist groups that are also using Canada charitable registration status to fundraise. And it's not just donor responsibility, but we're calling for accountability, we're calling for transparency, and we're calling for the government to take a real hard look at who they are offering tax-exempt status to. And look, the only way that terrorism works is because it's well-funded, whether it's funded by state sponsors of terrorism or whether they take advantage of our systems here. And at the very least, we need to make sure that we are not allowing American dollars or Canadian dollars to flow directly to materially support acts of terrorism. To your point of taking advantage of our systems, the term lawfare, how vulnerable is our legal system? From what I understand, a foreign-born national, a foreign national can sue and take to court an American citizen, and we don't know if there are state actors behind them. Well, look, justice is a slow wheel that turns, but we are very blessed to live in a country where we have an impartial judicial system. But the whole thing about lawfare is it harasses people. And even though in the end of the day, you may win the lawsuit, you're still spending in time and money defending yourself. And especially when it comes to defamation lawsuits, if you're speaking publicly about these issues and then you get sued, the first thing your lawyer is going to do is tell you to be quiet until you're finished the litigation. And we've seen that time and time again. We had, for example, a lawsuit a couple of years back before the Boston bombing attack, where I think it was 17 media defendants were sued. I think it was also the New York Times, including my former boss, for calling attention to the fact that Saudi funds were going and funding a mosque, the ISB mosque in Boston, and allegedly radicalizing the mosque goers. Those 17 media defendants were sued by the very mosque that they were trying to raise awareness about. The FBI was not investigating out of fear of being called Islamophobic. And lo and behold, nobody was paying attention. And the Boston bombers who were allegedly radicalized in that very mosque went off and exploded themselves at the marathon. So lawfare is a very real threat. It's a very real tactic that's being used, not just locally, but on the international stage with frivolous war crimes charges against Israeli officials and American officials who are trying to fight on an asymmetric battlefield against terrorists who are using their own children as human shields and then accusing us of war crimes when they benefit from the higher civilian casualties and deaths. So that is the tactic of lawfare. That's what I wrote my first book about. That's what we are set up at the Lawfare Project to fight against. And thank God, we have a group of over a thousand lawyers. We work with over 37 major international law firms, and we've been providing pro bono legal support to the victims of lawfare. Brooke Goldstein, really appreciate you sharing your perspective. Thank you. I appreciate being here. Thank you for having me.