A top official at the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said last month that the US government’s Countering Violent Extremism program should investigate young American Jews who enlist in the Israel Defense Forces.

According to a transcript provided to The Algemeiner on Thursday by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), Hussam Ayloush, the executive director of the Greater Los Angeles Chapter of CAIR, said at an April 20 event, “You know how many hundreds of Jewish American kids are recruited to join the Israeli occupation army? Hundreds. Every year. They leave their country, leave America, to go join with an army that is engaged, with no debate, in major violations of human rights, and maybe some would argue, and I’m one of them, war crimes.”

“And yet,” he said, “people in America leave this country and go there. No one has ever established a CVE program to see why would normal Jewish American kids leave their homes and join to be part of an army committing war crimes. Why? But none of that is happening. They go to the American Muslim community.”

The CVE was created under the Obama administration in an attempt to head off acts of terrorism by dealing with the sources of violent extremism and countering the ideologies behind it.

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The Los Angeles Chapter of CAIR told The Algemeiner that it had no comment on Ayloush’s speech.

Rabbi Abraham Cooper — associate dean of the Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center — told The Algemeiner, “CAIR is welcome to characterize the citizen army of the democratic Jewish State of Israel as war criminals. He can do so because he lives in the world’s greatest democracy, the United States of America. But it is nonetheless a lie.”

“There are many young Jewish adults from the US, Canada, Australia, and elsewhere who have volunteered for the Israel Defense Forces,” Cooper continued, “because since May 14, 1948, it has been the first line and only line of defense to protect the citizens of Israel from violent attacks by Arab armies and terrorist groups bent on annihilating every Jew living in the Holy Land. It has succeeded in defeating multiple Arab armies in multiple wars and more recently it has had to deal with suicide terror, missile attacks, and violent ambushes of civilians by Hamas and Hezbollah terrorists, backed by their paymasters in Tehran.”

“In the 21st century, the world’s largest Jewish community resides in the the State of Israel and it is admirable that young people around the world are ready to give up two years of their lives to protect their fellow Jews,” he added.

Regarding Ayloush’s statement that the CVE should get involved in the issue, Cooper asked, “Why aren’t these young people ‘investigated’ upon their return to the US? Simple, there is zero evidence that any of them are motivated by hate of any group, only by love to protect their fellow Jews. They weren’t taught to hate growing up in the US and they weren’t taught to hate Arabs or Muslims in Israel.”

“Perhaps,” Cooper continued, “CAIR should focus on those imams in the US who do hate Jews, whose spew such hate from pulpits in this country and other democracies including England, France, and Germany.”

“The Simon Wiesenthal Center is concerned about Islamaphobia and tracks it as part of our Digital Terrorism and Hate Project,” Cooper pointed out. “We have for 24 years. But statistics do not lie. According to the FBI, the group most targeted for race-based hate are African Americans and the group most targeted by religion-based hate are American Jews.”

“So instead of playing the victimhood card,” he concluded, “try a little love and respect for other Americans who are loyal to their country and proud of their Jewish heritage and values, including being part of a 3,500-year-old love affair between the Jewish people and their ancestral home.”