December 8, 2019

(JTA) — A newly hired staff member on Bernie Sander’s 2020 presidential campaign left his job after reports surfaced about past anti-Semitic and homophobic tweets.

Darius Khalil Gordon announced on Wednesday that he had joined the Sanders campaign team as deputy director of constituency organizing. The following day, the conservative news website the Washington Free Beacon reported that Gordon had posted anti-Semitic and homophobic tweets from 2010 to 2012.

Gordon has since deleted his Twitter account.

The Sanders campaign told CNN on Friday that Gordon was “no longer with the campaign.”

A tweet from Sept. 22, 2010 preserved in a screenshot read: “Working hard so one day I can make that Jew Money.”

The Republican Jewish Coalition in a statement issued on Friday afternoon called on the Sanders campaign to fire Gordon.

(JTA) — A military student from Saudi Arabia who killed three people during a shooting attack at a Navy flight school in Florida appeared to have posted a message slamming the United States for supporting Israel.

The gunman in the Friday attack at the Naval Air Station Pensacola was identified as Ahmed Mohammed al-Shamrani, 21, a second lieutenant in the Saudi air force who was a student naval flight officer. His training with the U.S. military began in August 2017, and he was scheduled to finish in August 2020.

Shamrani hosted a dinner party earlier in the week where he and three other students watched videos of mass shootings, The Associated Press reported on Saturday, citing an unnamed U.S. official.

One of the three students who attended the party filmed the shooting from outside the classroom building where the shooting took place, the AP reported. Two other Saudi students reportedly watched the shooting from a nearby car.

A Twitter account bearing Shamrani’s name tweeted a message shortly before the shooting calling the U.S. a “nation of evil” for supporting Israel, according to SITE intelligence group, which tracks extremist activity, the Daily Beast reported. Another tweet reportedly quoted former al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.

Fellow Saudi students at the base who were close to the shooter are cooperating with investigators, said Rachel Rojas, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Jacksonville office and lead investigator on the case, on Sunday, Reuters reported. The FBI is investigating the attack on the assumption that it was terror-related.

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Three rockets were fired at southern Israel from Gaza.

Two of the rockets fired on Saturday night at the southern Israeli city of Sderot were shot down by the Iron Dome missile defense system. There were no reports of injury or damage.

The Israel Defense Forces launched retaliatory airstrikes on military targets of the Hamas terror organization, which controls Gaza, the IDF said in a statement.

Among the targets were a Hamas naval base, as well as weapons warehouses and watchtowers, according to the IDF. Two Palestinians were moderately injured in the airstrikes, the Palestinian WAFA news agency reported.

No Palestinian terror organization claimed responsibility for the attack, but Israel holds Hamas responsible for any attacks emanating from Gaza.

The rocket fire came a day after the renewal of weekly Palestinian protests on the Gaza border with Israel. Some 4,000 Palestinians took part in the Friday protests with some throwing rocks and explosives at the Israeli troops. The troops responded with anti-riot measures including tear gas and some live fire.