The U.S. Supreme Court has upheld the redistricting plan California voters approved in  Proposition 50 last November. The measure, backed by Governor Gavin Newsom, has motivated a dozen Democrats to run against Republican Darrell Issa in California’s 48^th district. One of the challengers is a proven loser.

Ammar Campa-Najjar, billed as a “Mexican Palestinian-American progressive,” lost to embattled Republican Duncan Hunter in 2018. In 2020, the Democrat took a more conservative pose but still lost to Republican Darrell Issa. In 2022, Campa-Najjar ran for mayor of Chula Vista, near San Diego, but lost to Republican John McAnn. The three-time loser now bills himself as “U.S. Navy officer, Palestinian-Mexican American, Ammar Campa-Najjar,” proclaiming:

From my time in the Obama Administration, military service, and educating the next generation—I’ve dedicated my life to service. I’m ready to rematch Darrell Issa and complete the mission: Defend democracy, fight for a government that works for working people, and invest in an America that empowers future generations to live, work and retire with dignity.

Sounds good, but there’s a back story people should know. The Palestinian-Mexican American running for Congress is the grandson of Muhammad Yusuf al-Najjar, mastermind of the Black September terrorists who murdered 11 Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics in 1972. In 1973, Israeli commandos killed the Munich mastermind and his son Yasser al-Najjar became a fugitive. Yasser’s son, the Palestinian-Mexican American running for Congress, claims his father “migrated from the Middle East on a student visa” and “met a Mexican-American lady named Abigail and raised a family in San Diego County.” But there’s a problem.

Back in 2003, Linda Gradstein of National Public Radio interviewed “Palestinian peace activist Yasser Najjar” at his office in Gaza, where he served with the Palestinian Authority. Yasser was married with four children but his wife and children were not named. Son Ammar has not documented Yasser’s move to the United States, or the claim that he earned an MBA from San Diego State and started several clothing boutiques. 

“I was born in America, the son of a Mexican mother and Muslim father who migrated from the Middle East to America on a student visa,” Ammar told The Hill in 2017. The former Obama official failed to mention the Munich connection but did say “I grew up in the crosshairs of the Israeli-Palestinian war in Gaza, returning to the U.S. in 2001.” This claim raises another issue.

It’s hard to fathom why anybody would move from San Diego, “America’s finest city,” to Gaza, which is not exactly Palm Springs. Yasser Najjar’s son told the San Diego Union-Tribune he “lived in Gaza from ages 8 to 12.” If he was born in 1989, that would put Ammar’s Gaza stretch from 1997 to 2001. In Gaza he witnessed a “U.S.-funded war” in which “my mom, stepmom, dad and younger brothers hid in the dark corner of a cold kitchen floor as Apache helicopters and F-16s leveled surrounding buildings and carpet-bombed the town for hours.” 

His time in Gaza, he told Rolling Stone, was “a very Obamaesque, Dreams of Your Father, situation.” Ammar said he was able to return because “I had a winning lottery ticket, an American passport, that allowed me to come home to San Diego.”

The utterly unbelievable story failed to elicit curiosity from America’s establishment media. In February 2018 the Israeli publication Haaretz revealed, that “Grandson of Munich Massacre Terrorist Is Running for Congress.” The suddenly exposed candidate told reporters “I hoped this tragedy wouldn’t be politicized,” meaning he hoped it would be kept secret.

As La Prensa San Diego reported, the candidate once went by the name Ammar Yasser Najjar and only changed it to Ammar “Campa-Najjar” when he ran for Congress as a Palestinian-American, and other variations. Rolling Stone billed him as a “rockstar Democratic candidate.” Barack Obama endorsed him and CAIR had his back. After losing the mayor’s race, he duly joined the Navy.

“Only in America can the son of a Mexican woman from the barrio and an Arab man from a conflict zone have the freedom to chart his own course, serve his country, and become a Navy Officer for the greatest military the world has ever known,” the Palestinian-Mexican told People magazine.

Adrian Eng-Gastelum, a campaign strategist for Joe Biden and adviser to Biden’s HHS boss Xavier Becerra, told People that “Ammar’s story encapsulates what it’s like to run for office in America as a young, first-generation person of color.” The journey “from Gaza and the barrio to a congressional candidate smeared by disinformation to a Navy Officer” is all about “resilience in the face of racism and xenophobia that reinforces our shared hope that we can live up to the American Dream.” And so on, checking all the boxes. As it turned out, the Navy was not Ammar’s last port of call.

Last fall, the California Democrat enrolled at Georgetown University to pursue a master’s degree and now claims to be teaching government. Georgetown does not list him as an instructor, teacher or professor, but there’s more to the rockstar Democrat.

As the Times of San Diego noted, Campa Najjar “typically accompanies Rep. Sara Jacobs to Washington when the House of Representatives is in session, returning to San Diego on weekends and when Congress is in recess.” Sara Jacobs, one of the top 15 wealthiest members of Congress, is the granddaughter of self-made billionaire Irwin Jacobs, founder of Qualcomm.  So the San Diego Democrat “from the conflict zone” is all set on the money side.

Like Eve Rand (Shirley MacLaine) in Being There, the Mexican Palestinian-American reveals himself to himself and he’s drenched and purged. Like Ilsa Lund (Ingrid Bergman) in Casablanca, this Democrat will say anything to get that letter of transit to Congress. As June 2 primary approaches, reporters and government officials might tackle some lingering questions.

According to the All4Palestine site, Yasser al-Najjar was appointed ambassador to Norway, Iceland, and Albania before retiring in 2018. The site bears no photo of the Muslim man his son Ammar says came to America on a student visa and married sweet Abigail.

When did the migration take place?  When did the visa expire, and when did Yasser return to Gaza? The family’s trip from San Diego to Gaza and back should yield documentation from the State Department. Did the United States Navy seek any documentation of Ammar’s past? Did someone in the Biden Junta pull strings for him? The people have a right to know if candidates are who they say they are.

The Mexican-Palestinian American serves as a prime example of why, these days, valid identification should be required for candidates and voters alike. And in Campa-Najjar’s case, perhaps even a DNA test. On this front, the Golden State has a problem. In January, the California supreme court struck down the voter ID law of Huntington Beach, in Orange County, which would have gone into effect this year. This ramps up the prospects for voter fraud, already institutionalized in California.

When persons illegally present in the United States get their driver’s licenses, the California DMV automatically registers them to vote. How many illegals voted in elections from 2016 to 2024 has yet to be revealed. As secretary of state in 2016, Alex Padilla refused to cooperate with a federal probe of voter fraud. In 2020 Newsom appointed Padilla to replace Kamala Harris, and the senator nobody voted for now wants to register illegals to vote when the government does their tax returns, free of charge.

With no ID checks in place, countless illegals are sure to vote in the June 2 primary, and the Democrats doubtless have their politiquero squads in place. If anybody thought the Munichian candidate is the favorite, it would be hard to blame them. Californians can also be forgiven for believing that an imported electorate, institutionalized voter fraud, and a one-party state are what Democrats want for the entire nation.