DV Journal

Dozens of anti-Israel protesters were arrested in Philadelphia on Monday, part of a global protest movement designed to shut down economic chokepoints in support of the Palestinian cause.

“[Twenty-six] protesters in slow-moving vehicles entered I-95 north near Penns Landing and I-95 South near Allegheny Avenue,” reported the Pennsylvania State Police. “The protest groups slowly proceeded towards Center City, snarling traffic in both directions.”

Police removed all protesters from their vehicles, citing them for disorderly conduct. More than 20 vehicles were towed. Most of the suspects are from the Delaware Valley, but state police said individuals from State College and Pittsburgh took part, as did some people from Pittsford, N.Y.

Another 41 protesters were arrested after they blocked the intersection of Market and Schuylkill near the IRS building in downtown Philadelphia. Helicopter footage showed the demonstrators sat down in crosswalks after walking on the road with signs, banners, and Palestinian flags. Some of the signs said that U.S. tax dollars were “funding genocide,” while another called Israel “the Temporary entity” and “the entity from dust.”

Philadelphia police said the protesters were charged with obstructing the highway.

The global protests were spearheaded by the group A15 Action, which proposed a “multi-city economic blockade” to show solidarity with Palestine.

A15 Action’s main message was to “open up new fronts against the Zionist war machine…[to] end the Zionist project now,” according to a video the group posted on social media.

The plan was to “disrupt global logistical hubs” across the world by targeting infrastructure, including shipping terminals, highways, and bridges. A15 hoped to damage the economy and slow the flow of capital that helps fund military aid to Israel.

“Not another penny, not another dollar, we won’t pay for Pentagon slaughter!” protesters in Philadelphia shouted.

The Maritime Exchange for the Delaware River and Bay warned its members last week that a possible “blockade” by anti-Israel activists could shut down their businesses on Monday. But a Port of Philadelphia spokesperson told DVJournal none of the demonstrations reached its facility.

While the A15 protesters said their primary targets were corporations that they claim help fund the Israeli economy, most of the actions impacted ordinary people.

Some demonstrators stood outside the New York Stock Exchange in Manhattan, while others blocked the Brooklyn Bridge during rush hour. The Golden Gate Bridge was blocked during San Francisco’s morning rush hour, and Interstate 880 was closed for hours in Oakland. In Chicago, 40 protesters blocked entry into an O’Hare Airport terminal before police arrested them.

In Vietnam, protesters targeted products on grocery store shelves, covering some with stickers reading “This Product Supports Genocide” accompanied by an image of the Israel flag covered in blood.

The protests happened two days after Israel was attacked by Iran in one of the largest direct attacks on the Jewish state.

The Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia condemned the demonstrations as antisemitic.

“This protest is yet another example of the danger and fear that the Jewish people continue to endure on a global scale and on our local doorsteps,” a spokesperson told DVJournal.

The Biden administration expressed shock when Israel released proof that members of a UN organization receiving hundreds of millions of U.S. dollars participated in the Oct. 7 attack. But all they had to do was follow Dave McCormick on Twitter.

Back in December, the GOP candidate for the U.S. Senate warned the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) was doing the work of Hamas terrorists.

“UNRWA is currently using U.S. tax dollars to support educating the next generation of terrorists,” McCormick posted. “As a senator, I would vote to end that funding immediately. Bob Casey & Joe Biden made this mess. I’ll help fix it.”

The same when Iranian-backed militants launched a drone attack that killed three U.S. servicemembers and injured dozens more. McCormick has been warning for years that the policy of allowing millions of dollars to flow to Iran’s mullahs would lead to American deaths.

So, how did last weekend’s events happen if the danger was well known? Because of the policy decisions of Democrats like Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden — and backed by Senate Democrats like Pennsylvania’s own Bob Casey Jr.

When Biden took office, one of his first foreign policy moves was restoring taxpayer funding for UNRWA, which President Donald Trump had halted. At the time, critics pointed to evidence UNRWA was working with Hamas and distributing antisemitic propaganda in Gaza.

Biden ignored those reports. But on Jan. 26, he was forced to “temporarily pause additional funding for UNRWA” after evidence emerged that at least 12 UNRWA employees were involved in the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack on Israel.

“U.S. taxpayer dollars helped cover the paychecks for some of the perpetrators of the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust,” said David May with the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. “Support for terrorism among UNRWA employees isn’t a bug; it’s a feature.”

And then there’s Iran.

The drone attack that took American lives last weekend was hardly a surprise. While these were the first U.S. deaths in the region since the conflict began last autumn, American troops in Iraq and Syria have been targeted over 158 times since October, all carried out by groups sponsored by or affiliated with Iran.

And Casey has repeatedly backed Obama and Biden policies allowing cash to flow to Iran’s terror-sponsoring regime.

In 2015, he was part of the Democratic minority that saved Obama’s Iran deal. The Obama administration arranged for a plane to secretly deliver $400 million in cash to the Islamist regime.

Casey said at the time that the Iran deal “is the best option available to us” because it “will be in our national security interest.” He added that, while he didn’t trust Iran, he believed the agreement kept Iran from getting a nuclear weapon.

“Implementation of this agreement may be challenging, and we need to be prepared for the possibility that Iran will violate the agreement,” Casey posted on social media.

While Trump pulled the U.S. out of the Iran deal — over Casey’s public objections — Biden took office pledging to return to the Obama-era policy. He has allowed millions in sanctions relief to flow to the Islamic Republic over the past three years, money that made its way to the terrorist group that killed Americans last weekend.

Richard Goldberg, a defense expert and former U.S. National Security Council staffer, recently described the Biden Iran policy this way:

“Biden removed the Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen from the State Department’s list of foreign terrorist organizations, rescinded the American snapback of U.N. sanctions at the Security Council, relaxed sanctions to free up cash for Iran to pay some debts and increase oil exports to China, pulled European allies back from censuring Iran at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna, and allowed Iran’s proxies in Iraq and Syria to attack U.S. forces with near impunity.”

All with Casey’s support.

But rather than slowing the flow of dollars to UNRWA or Iran, Casey has been an advocate. He has also declined to cosponsor the UNRWA Accountability and Transparency Act.

While Casey has remained silent on the UNRWA scandal, Republicans are speaking out.

“Today’s news further underscores that UNRWA is an irredeemable organization that plays a critical role in Hamas’ terrorist infrastructure,” Sen. Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.) said. “Biden should have never reversed the Trump administration’s decision to cut off U.S. support of UNRWA.”

On Sunday, Casey on social media about the deadly Iran-backed attack:

“I’m praying for the families of the U.S. servicemembers killed and for those injured by the attacks in Jordan,” Casey said. “This is a troubling pattern of Iran-backed groups feeling emboldened, and we must hold all of those responsible accountable for attacks on the U.S. and our allies.”

But, Republicans like McCormick ask, will it be enough to finally get Casey to change his policy on Iran?

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Americans were appalled when Hamas seized 240 hostages during its October 7 attack on Israel. Among the hostages were several Americans, and the White House says there are seven Americans — one woman and six men — still unaccounted for.

People old enough to remember the Iranian hostage crisis or the Patty Hearst story know the political kidnapping of Americans is nothing new.

Consider, for a moment, how Washington handled an international hostage crisis in 1904.

Of the many odd people who’ve wandered into American history, Ion Perdicaris was among the strangest. His father immigrated from Greece in the early 1800s and married into a wealthy South Carolina family. Then, he doubled his fortune by investing in gas works up North.

Perdicaris was born into the lap of luxury in 1842. When the Civil War began, he hopped on a ship to Athens, handed over his American passport, and became a Greek citizen, hoping that would spare his family’s Southern property from destruction.

He eventually settled in Tangier, Morocco. There, he built a mansion called the “Place of Nightingales” filled with exotic animals. He studied Moroccan culture (which he loved), partied, wrote books, frequently went to New York on business, and even seduced a married Englishwoman — who left her husband and settled into Perdicaris’ mansion with her four children.

Fast forward to 1904. Morocco was led by a 26-year-old sultan who ruled like a tyrant at the head of a corrupt government. To say Morocco was a mess was putting it mildly. Sensing vulnerability, Britain, France and Germany came sniffing around, hoping to expand their empires. Which is where Mulai Ahmed er Raisuli enters the story.

Raisuli was the 33-year-old leader of a tribal confederacy bent on overthrowing Morocco’s government. Part pirate and thief, part heroic revolutionary, he was a Robin Hood combination of good and bad rolled into one. But on May 18, 1904, he bit off more than he bargained for.

Raisuli’s men kidnapped Perdicaris and his stepson, demanding $70,000 in ransom (about $2.25 million today).

President Teddy Roosevelt went ballistic. How dare a terrorist kidnap and hold a U.S. citizen hostage! (Because Perdicaris was so well-known in New York and the South, it was mistakenly assumed he was a U.S. citizen.)

Teddy dispatched seven battleships with hundreds of Marines. Their mission: If Morocco’s government didn’t end the hostage crisis pronto, the Marines would seize the customs houses, which bankrolled that nation’s economy. If Perdicaris was killed, they were to find, attack and destroy Raisuli’s gang.

As the warships steamed across the Atlantic, someone in the State Department stumbled upon an inconvenient fact: Perdicaris was a Greek citizen, not an American. Never one to let details stand in his way (this was, after all, the president who said, “I took the (Panama) canal zone and let Congress debate”), Teddy charged ahead as planned. Raisuli thought Perdicaris was an American when he seized him; that was good enough for the White House. (In fact, Washington kept Perdicaris’ nationality a secret for 29 years after the kidnapping.)

With the warships nearing Morocco, Washington furiously worked behind the scenes for a peaceful resolution. Britain and France pressured the sultan to give in to Raisuli’s demands. It looked like bloodshed would be avoided. But there was a problem.

1904 happened to be a presidential election year. While all this was going on, the Republican National Convention was underway in Chicago. Delegates were ho-hum about Teddy’s re-nomination. (Remember, the country had inherited him after McKinley’s murder three years earlier.) There was little excitement about the coming fall campaign.

Then, eight words changed everything.

After making a big show of flexing America’s military muscle, Teddy feared he would look weak accepting a peaceful settlement. Knowing Morocco’s sultan was about to meet the kidnapper’s demands, Secretary of State John Hay sent a bluntly simple communique to America’s ambassador in Morocco: “This government wants Perdicaris alive or Raisuli dead.”

When the message was read to the convention, the delegates went wild. This was the famous Teddy Roosevelt they knew, the cowboy who had charged up San Juan Hill with guns blazing. Now, he was displaying courage and guts again, standing tall in the face of terrorism. The country rallied behind him as “Perdicaris alive or Raisuli dead” became a national catchphrase.

So when Raisuli, who was very much alive, released Perdicaris unharmed on June 21, the message was clear: Teddy had triumphed over the bad guys. Roosevelt sailed to re-election that November.

It’s easy to dismiss this episode as a comedic farce. No one was harmed, the U.S. wasn’t out anything but the cost of the coal to send its battleships across the Atlantic, the sultan was overthrown four years later, and Perdicaris and Raisuli even became friends during their time together.

But there was a serious side to what history now calls the Perdicaris Incident. When lives are at stake, Americans respond positively when a president displays courage. And while people cheer saber-rattling, they also expect our leaders to seize every opportunity to peacefully end a crisis.

Perhaps most important, nobody messed with Teddy Roosevelt again for the remainder of his presidency.

Washington can learn a lot today from that crisis back in 1904.

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National Republicans are targeting Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey over his votes to prop up the Islamic government of Iran, which is widely believed to be a sponsor of terrorist groups, including Hamas.

“Senate Democrats sent our tax dollars to Iran, which used that money to bankroll terrorist groups like Hamas. As the nation witnesses the unfolding conflict in the Middle East, one thing is certain: these senators can’t be trusted to keep America safe,” said National Republican Senate Campaign spokesman Philip Letsou.

The ad references a 2015 vote cast by Casey to uphold the so-called “Iran Deal” brokered by President Barack Obama that sent billions of dollars to the terror-sponsoring nation. The results of the deal immediately benefited Tehran.

“The Obama administration secretly arranged a plane delivery of $400 million in cash on the same day Iran…formally implemented the nuclear deal,” CNN reported. “The money was flown into Iran on wooden pallets stacked with Swiss francs, euros, and other currencies.”

Casey, who is seeking reelection in 2024, said he has stiffened his stance toward Iran. He touts his reversal of support for President Joe Biden’s allowing $6 billion in funds to be released to Iran. Casey now wants the funding refrozen in light of the Oct. 7 attack on Israel.

“These funds should remain frozen until we can determine whether Iran played a role in the attack and what the appropriate U.S. response should be,” Casey said.

For Republicans, it looks like politics at work, not a policy to contain Iran and its pro-terrorism policies.

Republican Dave McCormick, who is challenging the Pennsylvania Democrat in 2024, said on X, “The United States must work with our allies to use every tool at our disposal to constrain Iran’s ability to support its terrorist proxies.”

On Oct. 9, McCormick wrote a letter to Casey asking him to tell Biden to keep that $6 billion out of the hands of the Iranian regime.

“I call on you to join me in urging President Biden to block Iran’s access to $6 billion in recently unfrozen assets,” McCormick wrote to Casey. “And if President Biden will not do this, I call on you to introduce legislation to put a hold on these funds.”

In the same letter, McCormick asked Casey to help stop the flow of Iranian oil to China and others that provide “a lifeline to the regime,” allowing it to garner billions.

“The administration must fully implement U.S. sanctions on Iran, especially in the energy sector, to force Tehran to make difficult decisions about support to its terrorist proxies,” McCormick wrote.

According to the Republican Jewish Coalition, Casey has a record of being soft on Iran.

That group said Casey “did not support legislation to impose sanctions on Iran and Hamas that would have stopped money from flowing into terrorist coffers. On three occasions in 2015, he voted to approve the Obama administration’s nuclear deal, lifting sanctions on Iran and giving it access to billions of dollars. Some of that money funded Hamas’ training and arming for last month’s attack.

“Mr. Casey did not support the Palestinian International Terrorism Support Prevention Act of 2021, which would have imposed sanctions on Hamas. That bill would have denied terrorist groups access to loans or credit guaranteed by American financial institutions and penalized foreign countries that gave money to Hamas.

“In 2019, Mr. Casey criticized Israel for barring Reps. Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib from visiting. In addition, Mr. Casey failed to support the Combating BDS Acts of 2021 and 2023. These bills would have allowed state and local governments to divest from entities that support the boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement. The movement seeks to delegitimize Israel and destroy it through economic and diplomatic means,” the coalition said.

For Maryam Vafa, silence isn’t an option – it is a death sentence for her Iranian brothers and sisters.

The Wayne businesswoman recently visited shops in her community to post signs proclaiming, “Women, Life, Freedom,” a popular rallying cry among Iranian demonstrators furious over the death of Mahsa Amini.

The 22-year-old died two months ago in custody after being detained by the country’s morality police in Tehran for allegedly not properly wearing her hijab. The stark red signs that Vafa put up at local businesses are jarring reminders of life under the vicious rule of a religious authority run by supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

They show Amini’s life in split-screen fashion, depicting happier times with her posing amid a picturesque backdrop and then with tubes running down her throat after she was beaten into a coma.

Signs in Wayne shop windows

While the woman’s family blames Iran’s government for her death, the regime insists she died of heart failure in what many Iranians here and in their homeland view as a coverup.

A video clip taken by Vafa’s daughter shows people warmly embracing the businesswoman, who has encouraged Americans to remain the “voice” for the Iranian people as they struggle to overthrow a thuggish regime that cracks down on dissenters.

And people are heeding the call as protests have popped up across the country, including a recent candlelight vigil in Washington D.C.

“We want [President Joe] Biden to hear us; stop negotiating with Iran. They’re a terrorist regime,” Vafa said. “They’re very brutal, and the news is barely coming out.”

Protestors have been killed and at least 1,000 people were charged for being involved in demonstrations in Tehran, according to media reports.

As many as 14,000 were said to have been arrested throughout the country, including journalists, activists, lawyers, and even prominent entertainers like rap artist Toomaj Salehi, who faces accusations of crimes that result in his execution, according to CNN.

Following Amini’s death, the U.S. sanctioned leaders of the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence and Security, the Army’s Ground Forces, and the Basij Resistance Forces.

A protest in Philadelphia for Iranian women’s rights

“These officials oversee organizations that routinely employ violence to suppress peaceful protesters and members of Iranian civil society, political dissidents, women’s rights activists, and members of the Iranian Baha’i community,” the Treasury  Department said in a news release.

Prominent Iranian-American figures and celebrities have used their platforms to show solidarity, including actor Taraneh Alidoosti, who posted a picture of herself without the hijab, CNN reported.

The uprising has brought renewed focus to the country’s morality police, which rules through fear and violence.

They seize women off the streets and take them to so-called “re-education centers” for lessons about modesty, a practice Iranian women have dealt with for decades.

Vafa said women there have no rights. They can’t sing and dance or hold their partners’ hands in public. Men control virtually all decisions.

“This sounds like science fiction. They can basically do whatever they want with you,” she said.

Shirin Behzadi, an Iranian-American businesswoman, told DVJournal she experienced that brutality firsthand when she was 15 years old.

She was with a friend when machine-gun-toting soldiers stopped, separated, and questioned the girls before placing them in a Jeep blindfolded. They were driven to a secluded spot, stripped-searched in a basement, and held for hours, under false pretenses, before being let go in the middle of the night.

“I don’t even remember how I got home,” Behzadi said.

She recalled other instances when friends and family were jailed, tortured, or killed for having books about freedom and speaking against the regime.

One of her cousins was publicly executed. His body was never recovered from a mass grave after being sentenced to death in a “sham” trial for denouncing the government.

“They hung him from a crane in the courtyard,” Behzadi said, adding relatives only learned of the tragedy from one of his brothers who was detained alongside him. “This government is really fearful of people seeing these images. The Iranian people have reached a point where they’re like, ‘Bring it.’”

Vafa participated in protests in Philadelphia and was working to raise money for a billboard sign similar to one in Times Square honoring the courage of Iranian women in their resistance to the regime.

Both women agree that little, sustained acts of advocacy are important to keep pressure on the Iranian regime.

“As a human being, you cannot lose hope. You cannot live without hope,” Vafa said.

Behzadi said she hopes to see the day when the regime is no longer in power.

“Freedom is very fragile. Once you have a criminal organization in charge, they can quickly unwind any inklings of freedom,” she said. “No matter what, the Islamic Republic of Iran has dug its grave. Whether they go into it in the next day or the next year, we’ll see.”

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