(I posted almost all of this article because it is behind paywall at NYT. Interesting note... there is no advertising on this article in spite of how long it is.)
from the New York Times
The New York Police Department and federal authorities disrupted what officials described as a plot by a member of a pro-Israel terrorist organization to assassinate the leader of one of New York’s most active pro-Palestinian protest groups, according to officials and court papers.
Members of the F.B.I. and the Police Department’s Joint Terrorism Task Force notified the activist, Nerdeen Kiswani, and her lawyer late Thursday that an arrest had been made in connection with an imminent attempt on her life, her lawyer and law enforcement officials said.
The man who was arrested, Alexander Heifler, 26, of Hoboken, N.J., was taken into custody after detectives and federal agents searched his apartment and found eight Molotov cocktails.
A police official said Friday that Mr. Heifler was a member of the JDL 613 Brotherhood, which was inspired by the Jewish Defense League, a pro-Israel group designated by the F.B.I. as a terrorist organization. Representatives of the J.D.L. and its offshoot did not immediately reply to messages seeking comment.
Mr. Heifler was charged Friday morning in a two-count criminal complaint with making and possessing the devices and appeared in federal court in Newark hours later. The complaint did not specify a motive for the planned attack, which was laid out in detail. If convicted, Mr. Heifler could face up to 20 years in prison.
The complaint said the plan had been in the works since at least February, when Mr. Heifler discussed building and using Molotov cocktails for what he described as “self-defense” on a group video call that included an undercover detective.
Prosecutors said in the complaint that Mr. Heifler and the undercover detective met in person the next day and then twice more in the weeks that followed, including on Thursday, when they built the eight Molotov cocktails together in Mr. Heifler’s home. He was arrested shortly thereafter.
Mr. Heifler planned to use the devices to target Ms. Kiswani, 31, the co-founder of the pro-Palestinian group Within Our Lifetime, prosecutors said.
He was ordered held without bail after a brief court appearance in which he told the magistrate judge, Stacey D. Adams, that he understood the charges he faced.
He did not appear to have any family members or friends with him in court and was represented by a federal public defender. He swayed and fidgeted nervously in his chair, wearing a gray sweatshirt and a black yarmulke that slipped occasionally off his head.
The complaint said that “components to make the Molotov cocktails” had been found at Mr. Heifler’s apartment, including a large bottle of Everclear, a liquor with a high alcohol content.
While making the weapons, Mr. Heifler told the undercover detective that he planned to throw some of them at cars and at least one directly into Ms. Kiswani’s home.
Soon after the weapons were made, law enforcement officers executed a federal search warrant at Mr. Heifler’s apartment, which is on a narrow cobblestone street in Hoboken and which he shares with several roommates.
The complaint said Mr. Heifler had originally planned to flee the United States two days after the intended attack, but he told the undercover detective that his travel plans had been pushed to the middle of May. On Friday, Mayor Zohran Mamdani said Mr. Heifler had planned to flee to Israel.
Mr. Heifler attended high school near Princeton, N.J., and studied computer science at Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, graduating in 2022. He was working as a machine learning engineer, according to his LinkedIn profile.
In court, the judge noted that Mr. Heifler’s income was likely too high for him to continue to be represented by a publicly funded federal defender.
A Police Department official said the investigation began in January, when the undercover detective, who is part of the department’s Intelligence Division, first infiltrated a New York and New Jersey-based group chat.
Mr. Mamdani condemned the plan to kill Ms. Kiswani as “a chilling act of political violence” and said it was part of a larger nationwide trend of attacks and threats on pro-Palestinian activists.
“We will not tolerate violent extremism in our city,” he added. “No one should face violence for their political beliefs or their advocacy. I am relieved that Nerdeen is safe.”
The New York police commissioner, Jessica Tisch, issued a statement crediting the work of the undercover detective, first online and then in person, in exposing and thwarting the attack.
“This is exactly how our intelligence and counterterrorism operation is designed to work — a sophisticated apparatus built to detect danger early and prevent violence before it reaches our streets,” she said. The commissioner did not identify the detective.
Gov. Kathy Hochul also praised the police, saying on social media that she was “grateful to law enforcement for swiftly disrupting this abhorrent plot.”
She added: “No one should be targeted or live in fear of violence for expressing their beliefs.”
It is not clear how Mr. Heifler came to be affiliated with the JDL 613 Brotherhood, which was formed in the New York area in late 2024 and describes itself online as a revival of the Jewish Defense League.
The J.D.L. was founded in New York in the 1960s by Meir Kahane, a Brooklyn-born anti-Arab militant who later moved to Israel and founded the Kach party. The party was later outlawed in Israel for inciting racism.
The Jewish Defense League and the Kach party have been connected to several high-profile acts of violence. In 1994, Baruch Goldstein, another Brooklyn-born man and J.D.L. activist who immigrated to Israel, killed 29 people and injured 125 more when he opened fire at a West Bank mosque during Ramadan.
In 2005, J.D.L. members were convicted of a plot to bomb a Los Angeles mosque and an office of Representative Darrell Issa in California.
Within Our Lifetime, the group co-founded by Ms. Kiswani, has organized numerous protests to draw attention to the suffering of Palestinians during Israel’s war in Gaza.
The organization has become known in New York for its at times inflammatory rhetoric and disruptive tactics, including a demonstration that led the Police Department to shut down Grand Central Terminal.
In a statement to The New York Times, Ms. Kiswani said F.B.I. agents had told her on Thursday night that “a plot against my life was ‘about to’ take place.”
She added: “I will have more to say as additional details come to light. I will not stop speaking up for the people of Palestine. Thank you for your support.”
Robert Frazer, the newly appointed U.S. attorney for New Jersey, attended Mr. Heifler’s court hearing and in a statement thanked the office’s law enforcement partners “for this work in identifying and removing this potential threat.”
Ms. Kiswani has drawn the opprobrium of pro-Israel groups for saying she supports the liberation of the Palestinian people “by any means necessary,” including armed resistance. Protesters at events organized by her group sometimes wave the flags of Hamas and Hezbollah.
The group’s tactics and its use of certain slogans have led to accusations that it and its members are antisemitic. Ms. Kiswani has long denied those accusations, and argued that her activism opposes Israel, its policies and its structure as a Jewish state. A common chant at Within Our Lifetime protests is: “Judaism, yes, Zionism no! The state of Israel has got to go!”...
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