PITTSBURGH — There’s an would-be Hamas terrorist in the middle of the Steel City — and he likes it too Staff Democrats.

The FBI and Pittsburgh police arrested two Pittsburgh-area residents on hate crime charges Wednesday for allegedly damaging or defacing Jewish buildings in July.

Surprisingly, one of these individuals, Mohammed Hamad, a self-described “Hamas agent” who purchased and tested explosive materials for a future fireball, was a member of the Pennsylvania Air National Guard stationed near Pittsburgh International Airport. criminal complaint.

The dual US and Lebanese citizen also donated to the Squad Democrats, who have called Israel’s year-long war in Gaza a genocide and are pushing for a US arms embargo on the Jewish state, which is fighting Iran and its terrorist proxies.

Talya Lubit, accused of being Hamad’s Jewish accomplice in spraying pro-Hamas graffiti at a synagogue and Jewish community center, called Jews “the enemy” and defended the district council’s passage of a controversial ceasefire against Israel. and joined a letter last month defending Pittsburgh’s anti-Israel Squad member Rep. Summer Lee, who blamed Israel for the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack on its first anniversary.

“In Pittsburgh, we have seen the Democratic Party infiltrated by anti-Israel extremists who frequently target the Jewish community,” Jeremy Kazzaz, executive director of the Beacon Coalition, a nonprofit that combats antisemitism in the political sphere, told The Post.

The frightening accusations come after three students at the Jewish University of Pittsburgh were attacked last semester, leaving 62% of Jews nationwide concerned. Antisemitism in the Democratic Party.

“Imagine the horror they would have seen if they had had cameras. “Hamas agent is tearing down flags in white suburbia,” Hamad of Coraopolis, northwest of Pittsburgh, told a person known to the FBI via Signal.

The encrypted messaging app is similar to Telegram, where Hamas members shared first-person videos of the October 7 attack, in which more than 2,000 armed terrorists invaded southern Israel and killed and kidnapped more than 1,400 people.

Hamad used Signal to share his desire to become a martyr for Islam.

He posted a possible photo of himself wearing a green headband with the Hamas logo and a black sweatshirt with the words “WE EXPECT RESPECT OR RESISTANCE FOR EXISTENCE” and the message: “My heart longs to be with my brothers abroad.”

Emails show he purchased two kilos of Indian Black aluminum powder and two kilos of potassium perchlorate, which is used to create explosives.

The messages show Hamad planning to light a “large projectile” on July 6 as a drill for a future explosion, and the next day enjoying FBI Exclusive Video of “what appears to be the detonation of an explosive device and a corresponding fireball.” Agent Brian Collins reported.

After reading the criminal complaint, Kazzaz feared Hamad was plotting to attack Pittsburgh’s Jewish community.

Hamad also texted Lubit, a Jewish activist who lives in Pittsburgh’s Oakland neighborhood, about spraying graffiti on Jewish buildings in the days before the synagogue at Squirrel Hill Chabad was splashed with red spray paint with the words “Jews 4 Palestine” and an inverted triangle on July 29. A symbol used by Hamas to mark Israeli targets in Gaza.

The Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh was also sprayed with the words “funding genocide against Jews, I hate Zionists.”

Lubit appears to have tried to reconcile his Judaism with his anti-Israel activism.

The recent graduate of Dickinson College in central Pennsylvania texted Hamad the night before the vandalism, saying, “I can feel like I’m literally starting to see the Jews as my enemies,” and also sent a picture of an Israeli flag with a Nazi swastika in the middle to the group chat. The complaint alleges that it was made under the pseudonym “Warsaw”.

“Every day I think, ‘I don’t want to be Jewish anymore,'” she told Hamad, realizing that this contradicted “being anti-oppression.”

Kazzaz said that the worldview divided between oppressors and oppressed “led to the radicalization of two people with very different backgrounds”, not only destroying Jewish buildings, but also leading Hamad to “procure explosives, attempt to make a bomb, aspire to martyrdom” .

Kazzaz argued that Democratic elected officials are fueling the danger with anti-Israel and anti-Semitic rhetoric.

“Summer Lee’s perspective on the world and the way she used her bully pulpit legitimized these extremists,” Kazzaz said of the freshman congresswoman who called Israel’s fight for survival “a war.”genocide” and advocates resistance.

“This allows them to perversely justify acts of terrorism against random, innocent people,” he said.

“Jews are always seen as oppressors in this duo.”

Both Hamad and Lubit are affiliated with anti-Israel politics and members of the Squad in the Democratic Party.

Hamad donated $10 to Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar, who called for a ceasefire with Israel in November 2023, the day Hamas attacked the Jewish state.

Hamad also sent $5. Michigan Representative Rashida Tlaib In April, it was reported that Congress would condemn the Palestinian American congressman in November 2023 to describe Hamas’ attack on Israel’s “apartheid government.”resistance.”

Lubit was among multiple people in the Jewish community who signed a letter defending LeeHe called for a ceasefire 11 days after the October 7 massacre, after about 40 Jewish leaders implored Lee to show solidarity with Israel.

“If this is a war, it didn’t start on October 7,” Lubit said in a statement in defense of a county council resolution calling for a ceasefire in Israel in March, foreshadowing a statement by Lee, Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey, and Allegheny County Executive Sara. Innamorato holds Israel responsible for the October 7 massacre.

“This is the dangerous situation that many of us in this situation are trying to convey to our elected officials and neighbors; The use of violent rhetoric, misuse of language, and reliance on age-old antisemitic tropes makes us and our nation less safe as a society,” Kazzaz said.

He accused Democrats, who have amplified anti-Israeli voices in the party, of pandering to pro-Palestinian voters to win elections.

Although Sen. Bob Casey condemned Lee’s statement blaming Israel for the deadliest day since the Holocaust, the Pennsylvania Democrat continues to support Lee, leading many Jewish Democrats to support Israel. He’s considering voting for his Republican rival Dave McCormick.

“(Democrats) are sweeping these dangers under the carpet as they put party before country. “These arrests are a reflection of that,” Kazzaz said.

“Jewish hatred can actually escalate into dangerous situations and violence.”