Originally published by ABC News.

By Bill Hutchinson

As law enforcement agents investigate Sunday’s fiery attack on a group of pro-Israel demonstrators in Boulder, Colorado, crime data shows the rampage came amid a dramatic increase in antisemitic and Islamophobic hate crimes across the nation, suggesting further that the war between Israel and Hamas terrorists continues to spill into the U.S.

The suspect in the Boulder attack, 45-year-old Mohamed Soliman, allegedly yelled “Free Palestine” while targeting the pro-Israel demonstrators with a “flamethrower” fashioned from a commercial backpack weed sprayer and Molotov cocktails at a pedestrian mall, authorities said.

Soliman entered the United States in August 2022 on a B2 tourist visa, which expired in February 2023, according to Tricia McLaughlin, the assistant secretary for public affairs at the Department of Homeland Security. He filed for asylum in September 2022, McLaughlin said.

Court documents made public in the case allege Soliman, who was born in Egypt and lived in Kuwait for 17 years before moving to Colorado Springs, Colorado, three years ago, “wanted to kill all Zionist people and wish they were all dead.”

While some politicians and pro-Israel activists have used antisemitism as a catchall word for an alleged motive in the attack, the suspect told investigators, “This had nothing to do with the Jewish community and was specific in the Zionist group supporting the killings of people on his land (Palestine),” according to state court documents.

But Ted Deutch, chief executive officer of the American Jewish Committee, noted that the attack came less than two weeks after a gunman shouting “Free Palestine” killed two Israeli embassy staff members outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C.

“These are not isolated incidents,” Deutch told ABC News. “This is a war against people who support Israel, it’s a war against the Jewish people and nobody should tolerate it.”

Deutch added, “We have to acknowledge that the incitement that we’ve seen from the language that’s being used, the lies about genocide, the calls for globalizing the Intifada, resistance by any means necessary, all of this language contributes to an environment in which violence will, and now twice in two weeks, has taken place.”

Amy Spitalnick, CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, told ABC News that while there has been a spike in attacks on the American Jewish community since the Oct. 7, 2023, surprise assault on Israel by Hamas terrorists, antisemitic attacks in the United States have been steadily climbing for the last decade.

“The last few months have put a fine point on the fact that there are those who are using the guise of protesting Israel to target and violently attack Jews,” Spitalnick said.

Spitalnick said the term Zionism is “woefully misunderstood” by the general public.

“What Zionism means to me is generally the belief that Jews should have a homeland somewhere in this part of world where we have deep historical connections. And it actually goes hand-in-hand with the belief in Palestinian self-determination and dignity for me and many others,” she said.

“When the term is used in this pejorative as we have seen it particularly over the last few years, but long before that as well, it effectively says that 80% to 90% of Jews should be discriminated against, or cast out of spaces, or in extreme cases violently targeted as we saw this weekend. That is antisemitism when you’re saying the majority of American Jews are fair game,” Spitalnick added.

She said the majority of American Jews have a relationship with Israel.

“That doesn’t mean that we agree with its government,” Spitalnick said. “In fact, many of us, and many Israelis, don’t agree with the government and don’t necessarily support what’s happening in Gaza right now.”

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