Two-Tier “Justice”: How Letitia James Targets Zionists and Excuses Anti-Israel Extremism

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Two-tier policing reaches America.

On January 13, 2026, New York Attorney General Letitia James announced a settlement with Betar US, a fringe Zionist group, that bans them from operating in New York State. James’s office framed this as a victory against bias-motivated harassment and threats.

But this action raises a question that New York’s Jewish community and civil-rights observers are asking: if the legal tools exist to restrain Betar, why has James refused to apply them equally to anti-Israel extremist groups that have engaged in precisely the kinds of conduct her office censures?

Is there a two-tier policing system that punishes pro-Jewish activism while allowing anti-Israel and anti-Jewish extremists to operate with near-total impunity?

Groups such as Within Our Lifetime, the Palestinian Assembly for Liberation, Columbia University Apartheid Divest, Students for Justice in Palestine chapters, and allied networks have been associated with repeated harassment campaigns, targeting and intimidation outside of synagogues, chants celebrating terrorist violence, physical attacks at protests, and explicit support for the October 7 Hamas massacre.

Some of these organizations have defended individuals convicted of hate crimes against Jewish residents, framing their violence as “activism.” Others have openly chanted “Death to the IDF” and proclaimed support for armed “resistance.” Yet none have faced anything approaching state enforcement, fines, civil restraints, or dissolution efforts from James’s office.

Consider the double standards. Betar’s alleged worst actions involved counter-protest tactics and inflammatory social media posts. The James investigation highlighted not just confrontation but rhetoric she deemed threatening. Yet anti-Israel protesters have freely gathered outside synagogues, heckling worshippers and screaming slogans that intertwine support for designated terrorist organizations with calls for violence against Jewish people and institutions, which the AG has declined to treat as the same civil-rights violation she found Betar guilty of committing.

For example: demonstrators targeted the Park East Synagogue and other Jewish community chanted things like “We support Hamas” and made Jewish spaces targets for ideological protest — and none triggered aggressive enforcement action by the state. Worse still, Jewish people were the victims of a majority of hate crimes in NYC last year and Jewish leaders have repeatedly asked James to investigate these anti-Israel groups under the same bias-intimidation statutes she deployed against Betar, with no apparent legal follow-through.

This is not a fair application of civil-rights law, but a political calculus in which pro-Jewish activism is more legally vulnerable than anti-Israel militancy.

This is what a double standard looks like. A small Zionist group can be pushed out of an entire state for alleged harassment, while anti-Israel activists can shout genocidal slogans outside synagogues without fear of repercussions. Civil-rights protections are selectively enforced, not equally applied, which is a far greater threat to the rule of law and communal security than anything Betar did.

Jews: DEMs have made their priorities clear — and they do not include helping Jewish Americans. It’s time to call these racist hypocrites and false allies out for their racist BS.