Mher Hagopian - honored by jews for beating anti-war protester with metal pole

[yankeedoodle]

During Israhell's slaughter of Palestinians in May 2021, a group of people conducted a pro-Palestinian protest in Los Angeles, and Mher Hagopian attacked one of the protesters with a metal stanchion, and was honored for doing so by the jews in Los Angeles, who identify Hagopian as being an Armenian-Lebanese Christian. 

Hagopian obviously works for the jews, and I'm sure the jews have apologized to him for slaughtering Armenians and Lebanese and Christians.   

StandWithUs Gala Attracts 400+ Israel Supporters
https://www.sdjewishworld.com/2021/12/07/standwithus-gala-attracts-400-israel-supporters/

Roz introduced a special surprise guest: Armenian-Lebanese Christian Mher Hagopian who stood up and fought against assailants that attacked Jews dining at a sushi restaurant in Los Angeles this year. She presented him with the "Guardian of Israel" award, and the audience gave him an emotional standing ovation.

Two pro-Palestine protesters were accused of attacking diners in LA for being Jewish, but that's not what happened
https://mondoweiss.net/2023/08/the-shift-two-pro-palestine-protesters-were-accused-of-attacking-diners-in-la-for-being-jewish-but-thats-not-what-happened/

Do you remember when two Jewish diners were allegedly attacked because of their religion at a sushi restaurant in LA? This was May 2021, during Israel's bombing of Gaza. The May 2021 attack on Gaza killed 256 Palestinians, including 66 children.

This is how the Los Angeles district attorney described the charges: "On May 18, the two defendants were allegedly part of a caravan who were driving in the 300 block of N. La Cienega Boulevard. The defendants are accused of approaching two men outside of a restaurant and attacking them because of their religion... Xavier Pabon and Samer Jayylusi were each charged in case BA499005 with two felony counts of assault by means of force likely to cause great bodily injury. The criminal complaint also includes a hate crime allegation."

"Last night, members of a caravan of pro-Palestinian protesters targeted innocent Jewish diners in a vicious attack while they were sitting outside a sushi restaurant, and a separate attempt was made by two drivers to run over a Jewish man who had to flee for his life," claimed Councilman Paul Korez. Both incidents were captured on video. These were anti-Semitic hate crimes that are unconscionable."

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"We as a city condemn last night's organized, anti-Semitic attack," tweeted LA Mayor Eric Garcetti. "Jewish Angelenos, like all residents, should always feel safe in our city."

Pabon and Jayylusi pleaded no contest and were recently sentenced. What was the punishment? They have to complete 80 hours of counseling on cultural sensitivity and an eight-hour program at the Museum of Tolerance (MOT). So, what happened to the hate crime charges?

Rob Eshman is a senior contributing editor at the The Forward, hardly a website that would ever be mistaken for pro-Palestinian. He spoke to the attorneys and read the court transcripts. He concluded that the narrative put forward by the diners, politicians, and the media did not reflect what actually happened.

"What we all thought had happened was not what it seemed," he writes. ". . . And we American Jews need a better way of understanding what antisemitism is, and isn't."

In court, the antisemitism allegations completely fell apart. One of the witnesses, Matthew Haverin, claimed that the men had asked the diners if they were Jewish before attacking them. Under questioning he retracted the statement. Haverin also admitted people that diners had thrown bottles and plates at the protestors and yelled, "F— you!" at them.

It turns out that Mher Hagopian, a wedding photographer who was dining outside with some Jewish friends, ran to confront the protestors, grabbed a metal stanchion, and tried to hit Jayylusi with it. The video (which supposedly implicated the two protesters) confirmed this.

Hagopian then punched Jayylusi despite the fact his back was turned. Jayylusi turned around to pry the stanchion away and hit Hagopian back. Jayylusi's attorney argued that once Hagopian tried to attack this simply became a street brawl. It certainly wasn't some sort of premeditated attack and the instigator had not been Jayylusi.

The legal argument launched against the defendants by deputy district attorney Paul Kim was as ridiculous as it was terrifying. He argued that Jayylusi and Pabon were clearly "interested in a confrontation" because they had "taken sides in a long-standing ethnic divide between Palestinians and the Israelis."

In other words, if you publicly protest Israeli aggression you can't complain if someone tries to attack you with a metal stanchion.

Hagopian was welcomed as a guest of honor at a gala thrown by the pro-Israel group StandWithUs. There he was presented with a "Guardian of Israel" award and given a standing ovation for "protecting Jewish diners from a physical attack."

Are groups like StandWithUs apologizing for pushing a narrative that turned out to be completely inaccurate? On the contrary. They're angry about the punishment being too light. StandWithUs CEO and Co-Founder Roz Rothstein descended into fantasy while decrying the sentence. "We are pleased that the perpetrators will receive counseling and two years of probation, and will spend time at MOT," he said. "However, they should also have been sentenced to serve time in prison for their violent attack against the first Jew (or supporter of Israel) they could find as they roamed the streets looking to vent their frustration against Israel for defending itself from Hamas rocket terrorism. Anyone who perpetrates violence against others because of their national or religious identities, as these thugs did, are dangerous to civil society and should spend time in prison."

Stop Antisemitism's Liora Rez called the protesters "monsters." She told Fox News Digital that she "furious" at the judge's decision. "What the heck does a Holocaust museum have to do with this?," she asked.

Rez accidentally brings up a good point. What does the Holocaust museum have to do with this? The trial established that the protesters never asked any of the diners if they were Jewish or referenced their religion. None of the people who originally came forward as victims or witnesses to the incident showed up in court. The DA failed to produce any evidence proving the protesters were antisemitic. In fact, Eshman reports that the defense proved the opposite. "Xavier has always shown my family and I respect, he knows we are Jewish," Moshe Levkowitz, an 87 year-old longtime friend of the Pabon family, wrote to the judge.

The Forward might be the only website to actually delve into the facts of this case, but Eshman's conclusions are one of the most disturbing parts of the story.

At the end of the piece he writes that there was an uptick of antisemitic attacks around the time of this incident so its understandable if people jumped to conclusions. "That explains the intense coverage this incident got, the desire to see someone punished, and the understandable fear created by a viral video of a fighting between Jews and Palestinians and their supporters," he reasons. He then notes that the protesters were attacked first, but ended up getting charged for the violence while the perpetrators walked away scot-free.

He then asserts that this is actually good because it might deter people from protesting Israeli policy in the future. "It's hard to say it's a bad thing, given a 2,000-year history of antisemitism, when the fingertips of power tip the scales of justice toward the Jewish community," he writes. "Maybe the punishment in itself will deter future anti-Israel caravans from rolling across LA."

The narrative around this incident might have been nonsense, but the danger of equating anti-Zionism with antisemitism is real and this case showcases why.