Hoaxers are sending SWAT teams to terrorize Jewish organizations in Arizona: report

Jewish organizations in Arizona are being terrorized in "swatting" attacks, reported the Arizona Mirror on Thursday.

"The Arizona chapter of the Anti-Defamation League confirmed to the Arizona Mirror that three Jewish institutions in the Grand Canyon State were targeted starting in mid-July by a network of online perpetrators who have been targeting Jewish, Black and Sikh places of worship across the country," reported Jerod MacDonald-Evoy. "The New York Times reported earlier this month that 26 such swatting calls have been made in 12 states. The Mirror is the first to report some of those calls targeted Arizona congregations."

"Swatting" is an attack in which a hoaxer calls in a bomb threat, mass shooting threat, or some other high-level mass casualty incident to the address of a target, sending heavily armed SWAT officers guns blazing. These attacks can be life threatening, as police can start shooting in the initial confusion. SWAT raids that end up in the wrong place can cause devastating damage, and the experience is terrifying for victims.

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Such tactics have been frequently used against all manner of targets. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) was swatted last year, and according to her, she immediately grabbed her gun at the disturbance, which can be extremely dangerous.

Anti-Semitic incidents have skyrocketed in Arizona in recent years. According to the report, 53 such incidents occurred in the state 2022 — slightly down from the 56 incidents that took place in 2021, but nearly double the 23 incidents in 2020.

This comes after Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ), one of the state's most outspoken right-wing members of Congress, came under fire earlier this year for sharing content from a website that calls Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler a "man of valor." It also comes as far-right activists have pushed anti-Semitic conspiracy theories about George Soros, the liberal billionaire philanthropist and Holocaust survivor — and amid the rise of QAnon, a Nazi-adjacent cult that believes America is controlled by pedophilic cannibal Satanists and is rife with anti-Semitic tropes.