Josh Block, the CEO of the Israel Project, has been obsessively following every step of the massacre in southern California, stating that it is the work of the so-called Islamic state and using the attacks to put down Islam. Look at Block’s twitter feed. He established at 9:30 last night that it was an Islamist attack and had nothing to do with the workplace:

FLASHBACK Obama: Soldiers shot by FtHood terrorist, Islamist supporter in contact w/ AlQaeda in “workplace violence”

He declared at 1 in the morning last night that ISIS is behind the attacks:

Lesson4 new IS recruits:Don’t attack @ work. No credit or 72 virgins. WH will steal ur glory & give 2 some group called “Workplace Violence”

He explained that ISIS has cells here:

Islamic State ‘Has 300 Recruiters Online In US’ [with a link]

He suggested that the attackers had called out “Allahu Akbar” without evidence:

If past attack on US soldiers by Islamist yelling Allah Akbar were classified by Obama Admin as “workplace violence” what about this?

It turns out he is an expert on the terrorist violence:

Given multiple bombs found @ at least 1 Farook/Malik scene means this could not have been spontaneous workplace violence.

By the way, here is the Israel Project’s description of its mission (emphasis ours):

A one-stop source for detailed and accurate information, TIP provides facts to press, policymakers and the public on issues affecting Israel and the Middle East, the Jewish people and America’s interests in the Middle East.

On his twitter feed, Block has also used the killings to attack the Council on American-Islamic Relations and retweeted a number of tweets aimed at demonizing Islam:

Media still asking/quistioning what ‘sparked’ the #SanBernardino attack. WTF it didn’t ‘spark’ it was clearly planned well ahead of time FFS. Wait, people don’t normally have pipe bombs laying around the house? Another critical fact will be where Farook and Malik trained with their weapons and who (if anyone) advised them. Hello computer forensics. It sounds like they weren’t the typical “spray-and-pray” terrorists. Shot 31 people in about half a minute.

Why the obsession? What on earth does this shooting in California have to do with Israel? Here’s why:

There has been resistance against Israel, some of it violent, for decades by Palestinians. That resistance is due to Israel’s occupation/dispossession of Palestinians. Israel advocates can’t admit that cause, so they need an alternate “narrative.” So they say the resistance is caused by Islamism; Muslims want to take over everything.

Which explains why Josh Block, who is paid to be an advocate for Israel, spends much of his Twitter feed attacking Muslims wherever they are. The more time he spends attacking Muslims, the less his audience can reflect on occupation/dispossession.

We honestly think Block’s frenetic approach is a mistake. There are certainly people who are sympathetic to Israel who will be put off by his Islamophobic message. And P.S.: Even Marco Rubio in his speech to the Republican Jewish Coalition today refused to draw conclusions about the attacks: “We don’t know all the facts yet.”