The flood of local headlines since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel has shown, yet again, how conflict in the Middle East can play out as a proxy war in Southern California.
This time, though, the tone of the argument sounds more dangerous.
Consider:
“L.A.’s Jews are buying guns, some for first time.”
“Muslim Americans facing new wave of bullying”
“Death threats, gag orders and outrage: Israel-Hamas War sparks conflict in Manhattan Beach.”
In some ways, it’s a replay of tension that played out locally when shooting wars erupted between Israel and Hamas forces in Gaza in 2014 and 2021. During those periods, the squabbles in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties mostly happened on college campuses or online. And while the anger was white hot, those disputes remained wars of words (mostly), with threats and name-calling substituting (mostly) for bloodshed.
Now, some suggest violence might be closer.
Locals with relatives in Israel and Gaza and other parts of the Middle East say the anger that’s risen locally since Oct. 7 is less about short-term right and wrong than it is about long-term survival.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if somebody gets killed,” said Jamar, a student at Long Beach State who said he supports “justice for Palestinian people, and for everybody else” and doesn’t want to disclose his last name because he fears for his family’s safety.
“I’m not in favor of (violence). Please make that clear,” Jamar said.
“But people aren’t just angry. It’s bigger than that. It’s existential.”
Or, Eran, the adult leader of a Jewish student group at UC Riverside put it:
“I’m not a fearful person. Probably the highest emotion I have right now is frustration, if that’s an emotion.
“But from the perspective of a 19-year-old, who might not understand what their actions might lead to, the things people are saying now – and the lack of meaningful dialogue – is concerning to me in a way that’s not just about frustration.
“If I were 19 years old right now, I’d be afraid.”
Threats, similar words
It’s not just theoretical, and it’s not just local.
Antisemitic and anti-Muslim threats around the country have prompted a wave of calls to law enforcement agencies. That, in turn, has caught the attention of agencies that handle national security threats.
A recent directive from the Department of Homeland Security included:
“As the Israel-Hamas conflict continues, we have seen an increase in reports of threats against Jewish, Muslim, and Arab communities and institutions. Lone offenders, motivated by a range of violent ideologies, pose the most likely threat. We urge the public to stay vigilant.”
On Thursday, Nov. 2, Cornell University in upstate New York called off classes after an anonymous online poster wrote they were “gonna shoot up” the Jewish Living Center on campus, an idea that elicited supportive messages from users with online handles such as “jew evil” and “kill jews.” Similar threats had been made earlier against the Jewish student center at Columbia University.
On the same day that Cornell called off classes, the Council on American Islamic Relations in Anaheim issued a report the group leaders said detailed a surge of Islamophobic incidents and threats directed against children in Southern California.
And while hate crimes have been rising all year in Los Angeles County, the LAPD tracked a jump in the two weeks following Oct. 7, with reports of 49 hate crimes during that period directed at Jews or Muslims. That was 14 more such incidents than during the same two-week stretch of 2022.
For some people caught up in the maelstrom – including refugees from people who arrived in Southern California in recent years after fleeing years of shooting wars in their home countries – the rhetoric and rising anger looks familiar.
“In Syria, the killers don’t announce themselves. So I don’t think that’s happening yet,” said Ahmed Bilal, an engineer whose family left Syria in 2017 and wound up in Buena Park.
“But the things I’ve been hearing in the past few weeks, it sounds a lot like the arguments we escaped from,” he added. “It’s not encouraging.”
Since Oct. 7, several Southern California campuses – UC Riverside, UC Irvine, UCLA and Cal State Long Beach, among others – have seen heated, not violent, discourse.
People connected to all sides of those debates suggest the end result has been frustration, not two-way dialogue. And their complaints about “the other side” aren’t just similar; they’re almost identical, down to the word.
“We’re not listening to each other,” said Omar Aziz, who directs the Middle Eastern Student Center at UC Riverside, which provides support to about 2,000 students.
“We’re open to talking, but nobody is listening,” said Eran, leader of the Hillel Center at UC Riverside, which supports about 500 Jewish students with faith services, food, socializing and, this month, safety. (Eran, like Jamal, said he doesn’t want his last name used for safety reasons.)
They even use similar language when describing what they’d like to see for the people they support in the Middle East.
“What is wanted is freedom for Palestinians; to live without occupation, to have the freedom to live their lives, with the dignity they deserve as human beings,” Aziz said.
“What people want in Israel is to live free of violence and threats,” said Eran. “As all human beings do.”
Beyond fighting
Not every debate since Oct. 7 has turned ugly. And some locals are trying to find new ways of framing ancient ideas.
Tamar Shinar, an Israeli-born associate professor who teaches computer graphics and scientific computing at UC Riverside, said arguments about the current conflict shouldn’t use terms like “Jews” and “Muslims.” Instead, she suggests, people should be viewed by their goals, and that those goals can include people from any religion or nation.
“The sides of this conflict, in my view, are those who favor peaceful coexistence versus those who are not interested in that,” Shinar said.
Shinar, 46, has lived in the United States most of her life and lived through previous waves of heated debate during Middle East conflicts. The post-Oct. 7 episode, she fears, is potentially more violent and more enduring.
“If you break this down by age group, you’ll see support for Israel decreases among young people and that’s a concern. That’s why college campuses are really the flashpoints for these debates,” she said.
“And while I think there’s a flareup every time there’s a war, this one is motivating people much more than any of the past ones.
“From Israel’s perspective, (the attack of Oct. 7) was a watershed event. And it’ll lead to a reconfiguration of the Middle East.”
Or of Fullerton.
Scott Spitzer, an associate professor of political science at Cal State Fullerton, has taught a course on the politics of the Arab-Israeli conflict for five years.
Spitzer, who is Jewish, said his goal is to make the class as objective as possible, bringing in all perspectives – from Israeli and Palestinian to different world powers – into the discourse, and discussing facts that invite students to make interpretations for themselves.
His students are from different backgrounds, including Jews, Asian and Latino Americans; and people from the Middle East, including Palestine. Keeping the dialogue open and unburdened by historic grievances is Spitzer’s biggest goal.
“We need to have real conversations, not yelling at each other. Neither side is ‘right’ – both sides are right,” Spitzer said. “And there’s more to it than that.”
On Oct. 23, Spitzer took part in an academic panel hosted by Cal State Fullerton’s College of Humanities and Social Sciences, where he opened the discussion talking about the political, historical and social context of the conflict, including the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.
“I want students to understand the complexities and the widespread disagreements among the chief protagonists in this intense 100-plus-years conflict. The current situation is not just about war and death and destruction, which I am horrified by, but it’s also about change,” Spitzer said at the event.
“We’re in the middle of changes in the Middle East that are going to be incredibly long-lasting and affect your generation and generations thereafter.”
Ella Ben Hagai, an associate professor of psychology, also talked about the importance of holding different perspectives on the conflict, and even finding empathy on both sides.
But the panel – and a candlelight peace vigil to honor the lives lost in the Israel-Hamas war that followed – was met with some criticism from Jews, Palestinians and allies.
Spitzer said that, in the more than 15 years he’s been teaching at Cal State Fullerton, he has never seen a demonstration this charged, or campus tensions as “emotionally powerful.”
“It all feels very close to home; it’s very scary,” he said. “I think that everybody, especially those with connections to Gaza and to Israel, are feeling so much pain, even from 8,000 miles away. It still feels like these are our brothers, sisters, cousins; people we’ve never met.
“It feels personal.”
