PITTSBURGH – Steel City has an aspiring Hamas terrorist in its midst – and he likes it Team Democrats.
The FBI and Pittsburgh police on Wednesday arrested two Pittsburgh residents on hate crime charges for allegedly defacing or damaging Jewish buildings in July.
Shockingly, one of these individuals, Mohamad Hamad, who identified himself as a “Hamas operative,” purchased and tested explosive materials for a future fireball and was a member of the Pennsylvania Air National Guard stationed near Pittsburgh International Airport , according to the criminal complaint.
A photo that the FBI says self-proclaimed “Hamas operative” Mohamad Hamad took of himself. United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania
The American and Lebanese dual nationals have also donated to Squad Democrats who have called Israel’s yearslong war in Gaza a genocide and pushed for a US arms embargo on the Jewish state as it battles Iran and its terrorist allies.
Talya Lubit, charged as Hamad’s Jewish accomplice in spraying pro-Hamas graffiti on a synagogue and Jewish community center, calling Jews “enemies,” calling for the provincial government to pass a controversial ceasefire resolution against Israel approved. and joined a letter calling Pittsburgh’s own Anti-Israel Squad member, Rep. Summer Lee, defended, who last month blamed Israel for the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attack on its first anniversary.
“In Pittsburgh, we have seen an infiltration of the Democratic Party by anti-Israel extremists who regularly target the Jewish community,” Jeremy Kazzaz, executive director of the nonprofit Beacon Coalition, which combats anti-Semitism in the political sphere, told The Mail.
The chilling allegations come after three students at the Jewish University of Pittsburgh were attacked last semester, and 62% of Jews nationwide are concerned about anti-Semitism in the Democratic Party.
“Imagine the terror they would see if they had cameras. Hamas operatives ripping off their flags in a white suburb,” Hamad, from Coraopolis to northwest Pittsburgh, told a person known to the FBI via Signal.
The encrypted messaging app is similar to Telegram, through which Hamas members shared first-person videos of the October 7 attack, in which more than 2,000 armed terrorists invaded southern Israel and killed and kidnapped more than 1,400 people.
Hamad used Signal to share his wish to die as a martyr for Islam.
Hamad purchased explosive materials and planned a future fireball. United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania
He sent a likely photo of himself wearing a green headband with the Hamas logo and a black sweatshirt with the text “RESPECT EXISTENCE OR EXPECT RESISTANCE” and sent the message: “My heart longs to be with my brothers abroad.” ‘
Emails show he purchased two pounds of Indian Black aluminum powder and two pounds of potassium perchlorate, used to form explosives.
And reports show that Hamad made plans to light a “large grenade” on July 6 as a practice run for a future explosion and enjoyed a video shared the next day of “what appears to be the detonation of an explosive device and associated fireball,” FBI Special Agent Brian Collins reported.
After reading the indictment, Kazzaz feared that Hamad was planning to attack the Jewish community in Pittsburgh.
Hamad reported that he wanted to travel abroad and die as a martyr for Islam. United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania
Hamad also sent a message to Lubit, a Jewish activist living in Pittsburgh’s Oakland neighborhood, about spraying graffiti on Jewish buildings the days before red spray paint splashed the Chabad synagogue on Squirrel Hill on July 29 with the words “Jews 4 Palestine” and an inverted triangle. a symbol Hamas has used to mark Israeli targets in Gaza.
A synagogue in Pittsburgh was spray-painted on July 29. United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania
The Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh was also spray-painted with the words “Founds genocide Jews, hate Zionists.”
The Jewish Federation was destroyed on July 29. United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania
Lubit appears to have had difficulty reconciling her Jewishness with her anti-Israel activism.
Talya Lubit (back) is accused of destroying Jewish buildings. Adona Verma/Facebook
“I literally feel like I’m starting to see Jews as my enemies,” the recent graduate of Dickinson College in central Pennsylvania messaged Hamad the night before the vandalism, also sending an image of the Israeli flag in a group chat with a Nazi swastika in the center. under the alias “Warsaw,” the complaint alleges.
The FBI believes Talya Lubit sent messages under the alias “Warsaw.” United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania
“Every day I think, ‘I don’t want to be Jewish anymore,’” she told Hamad, saying this went against “being anti-oppression.”
Kazzaz said the worldview divided between oppressors and oppressed “led to a radicalization of two people from very different backgrounds” to not only destroy Jewish buildings, but also for Hamad to “purchase explosive materials, try to build bombs and to aspire to martyrdom.”
And Kazzaz argued that Democratic elected officials have fueled the danger with anti-Israel and anti-Semitic rhetoric.
“The way Summer Lee views the world and has used her pulpit has legitimized these extremists,” Kazzaz said of the freshman congresswoman who has called Israel’s war for survival a “genocide‘ and advocates resistance.
Representative Summer Lee accuses Israel of genocide. Getty Images for court accountability
“That allows them to perversely justify acts of terror against random, innocent people,” he said.
“Jews are always seen as the oppressor in this binary situation.”
Both Hamad and Lubit are associated with anti-Israel politics and Squad members in the Democratic Party.
Hamad donated $10 to Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar in November 2023, after she called for an Israeli ceasefire on the day Hamas attacked the Jewish state on October 7.
Rep. Ilhan Omar called for an Israeli ceasefire on the day Hamas massacred the Jewish state. AFP/Getty images
Hamad also sent $5 to Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib in April, after Congress censured the Palestinian-American congresswoman in November 2023 for defending Hamas’s attack on Israel’s “apartheid government” as “resistance.”
Lubit was one of more than 1,000 people in the Jewish community who signed a letter Defending Leewho called for a ceasefire eleven days after the October 7 massacre, after some forty Jewish leaders implored Lee to show solidarity with Israel.
“If this is a war, it didn’t start on October 7,” Lubit said in March to argue for a provincial council resolution calling for a ceasefire in Israel, foreshadowing Lee’s statement, Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey and Allegheny County Executive Sara. Innamorato blames Israel for the October 7 massacre.
“This is the dangerous situation that many of us in this situation have tried to convey to elected officials and our neighbors, that the use of violent rhetoric, the misuse of language and the reliance on age-old anti-Semitic tropes makes us and our community less safe.” , Kazzaz said.
Rep. Rashida Tlaib accuses Israel of genocide. AFP via Getty Images
He accused Democrats of favoring pro-Palestinian voters to win elections because they had amplified these anti-Israel voices in the party.
Although Senator Bob Casey condemned Lee’s statement blaming Israel for the deadliest day since the Holocaust, the Pennsylvania Democrat continues to support Lee, leading many Jewish Democrats consider voting for his Republican opponent Dave McCormick.
“When (Democrats) put party before country, they sweep these dangers under the rug. And these arrests are a reflection of that,” Kazzaz said.
“Jewish hatred can actually turn into really dangerous situations and violence.”