FBI to Jews: You Can’t Say We Didn’t Warn You

On Friday, the FBI and Department of Homeland Security issued a public warning to Jewish and Israeli communities, stating there are “potential public safety concerns related to ongoing threats to Jewish and Israeli communities,” on the heels of the recent attacks in Washington, DC and Boulder, Colorado. What is disturbing in the language of the statement, is not just that it normalizes any “justification” of an attack, but that there is also no promise to stop these attacks before they happen. What’s found is only a message that if they do happen, it’s not the government’s fault. This wasn’t a pledge to protect Jewish Americans, or a firm standing with the community, but rather a kind of liability shield and a shift of blame for deadly attacks. The messaging is clear: if you are outwardly Jewish or pro-Israel and something happens, you were warned.

A Warning Without a Plan

The FBI didn’t announce a wave of new policies directed to security deployments, surveillance operations, or preventative screening initiatives. It only urged Jewish communities to be “vigilant” and report suspicious behavior. In other words, they said “We won’t be there to stop the attack, but we’ll answer your 911 call after it happens.” This essentially tells the Jews, “It’s in your hands to stop it.” While on the surface it seems that the government is just not doing enough and we need to step up our advocacy, there is real reasoning for the lack of guaranteed preemptive action. Despite all of the government and FBI’s intelligence tools, resources, and technology, it can only go so far in thwarting attacks before they happen. Because the same foundational laws that make America the “land of the free” also tie the hands of those who protect it.

What the FBI Can and Can’t Do

The FBI’s official mission statement is simple: “To protect the American people and uphold the Constitution of the United States.” “To protect the American people” does include American Jews of course. However the second part, to “uphold the Constitution,” isn’t just symbolic. It is a form of limitation for law enforcement especially when it comes to preventing crimes that haven’t happened yet. The First Amendment protects speech, even for people who say antisemitic things, as long as they don’t explicitly threaten violence. The Fourth Amendment protects Americans from unreasonable search and seizure, meaning the FBI can’t monitor private messages or movements without an official warrant. The Fourteenth Amendment grants equal protection, so the FBI can’t monitor specific groups just because they’re politically or religiously controversial. All of these limitations mean that protecting Jewish lives before an attack would likely require granting the government powers that the Constitution doesn’t permit, or that the American public would not accept.

Americans Don’t Like Preemptive Government Action, Even to Stop Hate

This is not a new concept and skepticism. Every time the government tried to act preemptively in the name of security, the American people pushed back hard. After 9/11, the Patriot Act led to mass surveillance of Muslim communities and online data collection but also sparked many lawsuits and backlash over racial profiling and human rights’ violations. In 2013, Edward Snowden revealed that the NSA was collecting phone and internet data from millions of Americans. The feeling of the government constantly spying on everyone caused a public outrage so severe that Congress eventually rolled back the program. Now imagine the narrative comes out that the government is spying on people for the sake of protecting Jews, even in the name of “preventing antisemitic attacks.” Would the result be more safety, or more fuel for conspiracy theories that the Jews control the government?

Protecting Jews Could Mean Tracking Jews

If the FBI tracks antisemites like white supremacists, radicalized Islamists, and campus extremists, they will inevitably start monitoring Jewish communities too. According to the FBI in their strategy of preventative crime, to stop an attacker, you need to know their target. To secure a building, you need to know who and how many people will be there, what events are going on, and what time there are daily gatherings. You must also know the types of people and groups that support Israel and Judaism which can draw a potential attacker, thus creating a government database of synagogues, schools, places of gathering, groups and even individuals who are outspoken on Israel. This idea seems eerily familiar to Jews, and the potential harm if that list leaks or ends up in the hands of a future administration that is less accommodating than the current one is too troubling to imagine. 

The Warning We Can’t Ignore

In its guide on how to prevent antisemitism, one step the American Jewish Committee (AJC) lists are, “Government, educational institutions, companies, and civil society can all craft policies and/or establish official structures to prevent and address antisemitic hate…” But are there really preventative surveillance policies that would be truly beneficial to implement? The government is left with a paradox, in that it has the power and tools to find attackers before they strike, but the process of doing so could step on the freedoms, rights, and liberties it’s supposed to protect. Many tools that on the surface can be used to protect Jews could just as easily turn against them. Jews must prepare to protect themselves and their communities in an effective way, above simply calling out hate and spreading awareness. In the short run, this means building reliable and strong security. But in the long run? I’ll be honest, I don’t know. That uncertainty is one of the reasons I chose to move to Israel. But for those still in America, the time has come to ask the real and uncomfortable questions about how to truly save the country from widespread antisemitism before it grows into something neither our generation nor our children will be able to contain, while the government’s only answer remains is: “You can’t say we didn’t warn you.”