Sunday, April 09, 2023

04/09 Links: How Will Israel Confront the Iranian Regime’s Multi-Front Assault?; Iran plans to attack Israeli-owned vessels to avenge advisers killed in Syria

From Ian:

Cary Nelson: Lara Sheehi’s Joyous Rage: Antisemitic Anti-Zionism, Advocacy Academia and Jewish Students’ Nightmares at GWU
Fathom Editor’s Introductory Note. Sometimes it is hard to know what is the more alarming: the state of the humanities and social sciences in US higher education or the failure of mainstream America, including its foundations and donors, to do anything about it. Perhaps this will wake some people up. Cary Nelson is a former president of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP). His exhaustively detailed case study of the tweeting, teaching and scholarship of GWU’s Lara Sheehi documents the impact of faculty anti-Zionist, and arguably antisemitic, social media, publication, and classroom practice on Jewish and other Zionist students. The issues at stake are relevant to the increasing antisemitic anti-Zionism found at universities worldwide. The astonishing material evidence presented here, plus the fact of documented student complaints, mean the case is exemplary, not least regarding the shameful victim-blaming of the GWU administration and of some professional bodies. Nelson’s argument should be studied throughout Higher Education, and not just in the USA. Finally, perhaps the case forces a question many of us have been avoiding: without fundamental change, is an alternative network of educational institutions now needed? How much longer can academics with intellectual integrity, students with independence and curiosity, parents who care for the quality of their children’s educational experience and donors who do not want their money to be spent on political indoctrination and antisemitic anti-Zionist pedagogy continue to support what many universities are becoming? (Alan Johnson, Editor of Fathom)
And that’s why I open the first class of the first semester reminding my doctoral clinical students that psychology and psychiatry are white supremacist fields that works alongside capitalism to *create* debility and we’re implicated if this is disavowed (4/6/2021, 8:41:34 PM) Lara Sheehi

The militant revolutionary struggle not only disrupts, but also has the potential to overturn coloniality entirely—when the struggle is an individualistic practice, the structure is not disrupted; when it becomes a social program, a militant struggle for a new social order, all forms of oppression are intimately implicated. DISRUPT

Lara Sheehi, ‘Writing on the Wall’ (261)
Even before Lara Sheehi’s Fall 2022 required first-year graduate course in the George Washington University Professional Psychology Program began, some students had a hint of what might be in store for them.[1] They had watched several of the YouTube videos she made with her husband Stephen that summarise their shared goals as professionals and their dedication to unqualified condemnation of the Jewish state. The Sheehis had coauthored a 2022 book, Psychoanalysis Under Occupation: Practicing Resistance in Palestine, and had given a number of recorded interviews summarising and introducing the book upon its publication. The book presents case histories to demonstrate Israel’s destructive impact on Palestinian psychology, mounts a fierce attack on the Jewish state, and urges that psychoanalytic practice worldwide devote itself to political liberation.

For Lara Sheehi, that commitment encompasses not only substantial revisions of psychoanalytic theory but also a revolution in both how therapists are trained and how patients are treated. That is a large step from recognising the distinctive impact of social and political conditions on individual patients’ lives, a responsibility that much therapeutic training now endorses. As she urges in a book review, we must resist ‘the centrifugal force of normativity, of white supremacy, and of liberal humanism that works to shore up the individual at the expense of the collective’ (1392). As she declares in their joint ‘Against Alienation’ interview, you ‘cannot be objective’ as a clinician; you should ‘join the motherfucking struggle.’

Once the course was under way, students also accessed some of Lara Sheehi’s Instagram messages and her numerous tweets (her tag line was @blackflaghag). Uneasiness about the course began to spread. But even the Jewish students maintained an open mind and a positive attitude, hoping that Sheehi’s politics and prejudices would prove irrelevant and that their first experiences of the program would be beneficial. Unfortunately, the very first class session included an unsettling incident. Following widespread practice, the students took turns offering capsule biographies, with Sheehi making brief supportive comments on each. When it came to the student from Israel, she identified her country, and Sheehi responded ‘It’s not your fault you were born in Israel.’ From Sheehi’s perspective, this was both an instinctive rejection of the Jewish state and a humiliating form of kindness: the student would not be held personally responsible for her citizenship.
Elliott Abrams: Israeli sovereignty and American intervention
Finally, it must be said that American intervention has been invited by many Israelis fighting against the judicial reform. They’ve invited it through their rhetoric, by saying that this American friend and ally was on the verge of fascism.

When President Isaac Herzog proposed a compromise, Ehud Barak infamously tweeted the old photo of Hitler and Neville Chamberlain with Herzog’s face substituted for Chamberlain’s. Ehud Olmert and a thousand other commentators used the word “coup” while yet more spoke of a “blitzkrieg.” Opposition leader Yair Lapid spoke of a “journey towards destroying Israeli democracy.” All of them spoke in English to U.S. audiences, and in the demonstrations in Israel many signs were in English as well—all to appeal for the intervention of American Jews and the United States government. In private, numerous Israeli leaders and commentators explicitly asked for American intervention, arguing that Israelis had reached a dead end and had to be saved from themselves. Such conversations, and the picture of an Israel about to collapse into a dark tyranny, no doubt had their effect on Biden and his administration.

And those invitations fell on fertile American ground for all the reasons mentioned previously. Take for example the words of Rabbi Eric Yoffie, long-time leader of the Reform movement. Writing in Haaretz on March 2, he said “I have never once lobbied against an Israeli government. But Netanyahu’s judicial coup, his offensive against democracy, must be stopped. That means U.S. Jews must do the unthinkable, and urge a strong American hand with Israel.”

This is a dangerous precedent. When Clinton intervened (twice) in Israeli elections he tried to hide his actions; he knew they were indefensible if exposed. Now there’s a new model that justifies and indeed idealizes foreign interference—demanding that the United States intervene in domestic matters in Israel in a way that never happens with respect to any other democracy.

Those on the left—whether Israelis opposing the judicial reforms or Americans wanting to throw Washington’s weight around because their side didn’t win Israel’s most recent elections—should realize first that two can play the same game. It isn’t hard to imagine a conservative Republican president in the United States and a left-of-center prime minister in Israel serving at the same time. Will conservative Americans henceforth demand intervention in Knesset votes, or in Israeli elections, because some proposed policies are strongly opposed on the right?

Judicial reform is about the most “domestic” or “internal” issue one can imagine. If outside interference is legitimate on that issue, are there any issues where foreign intervention, whether by diaspora communities or foreign governments, should be considered illegitimate?

As Israel approaches its 75th birthday in just a few weeks, one must wonder what those who cultivate American interference think of the Zionist project. Are Israelis to be “masters of their own fate” (in Ben Gurion’s words) except when election losers can coax the United States government to jump into the fray? Is Israel to have a kind of compromised sovereignty that is subject to American whims?

The current struggle over judicial reform has many aspects. The decision of those who oppose reform to invite, indeed to plead for, American intervention in this complex and fateful internal contest damages Israeli sovereignty and self-government. One can only hope that when the dust has settled, Israelis will—whatever their views on the Supreme Court—come to agree that the appeal to foreign intervention over the Jewish State’s internal political structures was a damaging mistake and a dangerous precedent.
Elliott Abrams: Progress and Pain in the Promised Land
As Israel reaches its 75th anniversary on May 14, a spate of books is appearing to celebrate—or at least commemorate—the occasion. Daniel Gordis, a professor and prolific author born and raised in the United States, made aliyah to Israel in 1998 and has been teaching and writing there ever since. His new book Impossible Takes Longer asks how Israel is doing: "Has Israel fulfilled its founders’ dreams?"

Pretty well, Gordis answers in a well-written and thoughtful examination of the challenges Israel has overcome and those it still faces. One way of measuring is the simple concept of happiness: How do Israelis feel? The "World Happiness Report," which rates every country, finds that Israel comes in 4th out of 146 countries, behind a few northern Europeans but ahead of Australia, Canada, Sweden, Switzerland—and the United States. And Israel now has the highest birth rate of any OECD country, another measure of its people’s confidence in their society and its future.

But the goal of Zionism wasn’t happiness; it was survival. Israel’s Declaration of Independence states that it is "the natural right of the Jewish people to be masters of their own fate, like all other nations, in their own sovereign state." As Gordis writes, "we begin with an extraordinary fact—extraordinary in part because it now seems entirely natural—that the Jewish people can defend itself." This is a complete inversion of the historic reality Jews had faced for 2,000 years. As Gordis says, "Power has done what it was meant to do: Jews are no longer victims on call."

Beyond survival, the list of Israeli achievements is long, and Gordis takes us through it. The revival of Hebrew is itself a sort of miracle. Turning a poor foreign aid recipient into the "start-up nation" has spawned innumerable articles and books, and Israelis now enjoy European levels of GDP per capita. Maintaining democracy through a series of brutal wars is remarkable enough, but as Gordis writes, the Israeli case is unique—Golda Meir was the only founder of Israel who had grown up in a democratic country.


US envoy Lipstadt: Antisemitism won’t disappear, but we have the power to address it
In an op-ed published Wednesday for Passover, US President Joe Biden laid out his administration’s approach to combating antisemitism.

“Under my presidency, we continue to condemn antisemitism at every turn. Failure to call out hate is complicity. Silence is complicity. And we will not be silent,” he wrote on CNN’s website.

Biden touted his decision to appoint Holocaust scholar Deborah Lipstadt as the first ambassador-level special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism; the visits by Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff — the first Jewish spouse of a US president or vice president — to Poland and Germany to promote Holocaust awareness; the convening of a White House summit on hate-fueled violence; the crafting of an inter-agency strategy for combating antisemitism slated to be released later this year; and the hosting of White House events that reinforce Jewish culture as essential to the American story.

Nonetheless, antisemitic attacks in the United States are as prevalent as ever.

An Anti-Defamation League report released last month found that a record 3,697 incidents were reported in the US last year. The figure averages out to 10 incidents per day and represents a 36 percent jump from the record high in 2021. The 2022 tally was the highest since the ADL started keeping records in 1979.

In an interview with The Times of Israel, Lipstadt lamented the number of reported incidents targeting Jews while suggesting the success of the administration’s efforts to combat antisemitism shouldn’t necessarily be gauged by them.

Instead, she pointed to her efforts to get governments abroad to take the issue seriously, while conceding that success on this front won’t solve antisemitism.
Anti-Israel, anti-Jewish sentiments link as anti-Zionism
What did the ADL survey say?
In terms of specific attitudes, the survey found that 51% of Americans agreed with at least one negative statement regarding Israel and its supporters, including 18% who stated they were uncomfortable spending time with a person who supports Israel; that 39% of Americans believe that Jews are more loyal to Israel than to America; and that 23% believe that Israel can get away with anything because its supporters control the media.

THESE FINDINGS challenge claims by the anti-Israel and anti-Zionist movements that deny the overlap between anti-Jewish and anti-Israel positions. In recent years, we have witnessed attempts by the movement to Boycott, Divest and Sanction Israel (BDS), whose founding principles call for the return of all Palestinian refugees to Israel, thus eliminating its Jewish character, to falsely claim their movement has nothing to do with Jews and is only focused on Israel.

There were several significant instances in recent years, on both the Left and Right, where Zionists were portrayed as having a nefarious agenda. These include comments by CAIR (Council on American-Islamic Relations) San Francisco Executive Director Zahra Billoo calling on Muslims to “pay attention” to “Zionist synagogues” and several pro-Israel Jewish organizations, the ejection of Jews carrying a rainbow flag with the Star of David from the Chicago Dyke March, and comments by Rick Wiles on TruNews about “Zionists” controlling the media and US government.

These examples highlight anti-Zionism as a category of prejudice in which anti-Jewish and anti-Israel sentiments tend to converge. Given that most Jews worldwide view themselves as having a connection to Israel, it is clear that vilification of Zionism often entails a broader animus toward Jews.

All of this reinforces the need for countries and entities to adopt the IHRA working definition of antisemitism, which rightly points to the potential overlap between anti-Jewish and anti-Israel sentiments, as a guidance tool in helping to understand the various manifestations of antisemitism, including through attacks on Israel’s legitimacy.

Looking ahead, future studies and policies must focus on highlighting the linkage between anti-Israel and anti-Jewish tropes. Doing so will allow us to push back more effectively on efforts by antisemites to attack Jews under the guise of criticizing Israel.
US intel says Mossad heads stirred anti-overhaul protests; PMO: ‘Completely false’
Senior Mossad officials encouraged spy agency members and citizens to protest the government’s judicial overhaul plans, US media reported on Saturday, but the accuracy of the leaked intelligence documents cited by the outlets has been denied by the spy agency and questioned by experts.

The Prime Minister’s Office later issued a statement on behalf of the Mossad, denying the reports as “completely false and absurd.”

The leadership of the spy agency “advocated for Mossad officials and Israeli citizens to protest the new Israeli Government’s proposed judicial reforms, including several explicit calls to action that decried the Israeli Government, according to signals intelligence,” The New York Times and The Washington Post reported, citing a Pentagon document dated March 1.

The memo cited by the reports is unclear on how the Mossad leaders advocated for protest but said the efforts began during February. The information was labeled “FISA,” indicating that its collection required approval from a federal judge, as mandated by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

The use of signals intelligence — the interception of communications for information gathering — would mean the United States obtained its information through an act of espionage against its closest Middle East ally.

The Prime Minister’s Office issued a statement on Sunday that strenuously denied the reports.

“The publication in the American press is completely false and absurd,” the statement read.
Pentagon leak: Mossad encouraged anti-government protests



JCPA: How Will Israel Confront the Iranian Regime’s Multi-Front Assault?
The Israeli Response
Senior political officials in Jerusalem say that the Israeli military response to the rocket attacks from Gaza and southern Lebanon was careful and measured in a way that would not lead to an all-out war on several fronts. Israel does not seek such a war at the current time.

The Resistance Axis’ unification of fronts implemented by Iran is dangerous for Israel, and it needs to find the right way and timing to deal with it. In the most recent fighting, Israel lost the initiative and the ability to surprise. It had to respond to the enemies’ aggression in a way that would not lead to further escalation.

The primary consideration of the political echelon was to quietly pass the current period until after Passover, the month of Ramadan, and Israel Independence Day celebrations without unnecessary escalation. Israel’s leaders will avoid being dragged by the provocations of Hamas and Hizbullah.

A senior security official says that the Axis of Resistance led by Iran is utterly wrong in its assessment of the situation regarding Israel’s national strength. The state of Lebanon is in danger of disintegration and not Israel. Despite Hizbullah’s large arsenal of weapons, a strong military strike by Israel on Hizbullah and Lebanon’s civilian infrastructure will lead to its collapse.

Israel is now preparing for a military attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities and will not allow it to obtain nuclear weapons. Israel has the power to achieve this goal.

The last word has not yet been said, and Israel is now reorganizing to thwart Iran’s phased plan.
Iran plans to attack Israeli-owned vessels to avenge advisers killed in Syria — NYT
Iran is preparing to attack Israeli-owned trading vessels to avenge two Revolutionary Guards advisors killed in alleged Israeli airstrikes in Syria last month, The New York Times reported on Saturday.

The IRGC’s Aerospace Force is gearing up to launch drone attacks on ships sailing through the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Sea, according to the report, which cited two anonymous senior Western intelligence officials.

An Iranian political strategist linked to the IRGC told the newspaper the planned attacks were in retaliation for the strikes in Syria.

The report came as the US military announced it had dispatched the USS Florida, a nuclear-powered guided-missile submarine to the Middle East to “help ensure regional maritime security and stability.” The show of force comes amid heightened tensions with Iran, which continues to harass shipping and attack oil tankers in the area, including several owned by Israelis.

Washington usually does not disclose the locations of its submarines while they are at sea.

“It is capable of carrying up to 154 Tomahawk land-attack cruise missiles and is deployed to US 5th Fleet to help ensure regional maritime security and stability,” fleet spokesperson Commander Timothy Hawkins said in a statement.

Tomahawk cruise missiles launched from ships or submarines can hit targets up to 2,500 kilometers (1,500 miles away).
FDD: Syrian Rocket Salvo Widens Assault on Israel
Latest Developments
At least six rockets were launched from Syria at the Golan Heights in the early hours of Sunday, opening a new front against Israel in an Iranian-orchestrated escalation of hostilities. The attack set off sirens and sent residents to shelters in the communities of Natur and Avnei Eitan, but caused no casualties. The Israeli military shot down at least one rocket.

In retaliation, Israel carried out UAV and artillery strikes against the rocket launchers. Fighter jets struck Syrian military targets including radars, artillery positions, and a 4th Division compound. Explosions were reported near the capital Damascus.

Briefing U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin hours earlier, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant noted Iran’s role in fomenting attacks on Israel from the Gaza Strip and Lebanon, and described Syria as another link in this proxy war. He further said Iran was encouraging terrorism within Israel and against Israelis abroad.

Expert Analysis
“With Iran-backed Hezbollah having sat out the exchange of fire between Israel and Lebanon, it appears that Iran is currently banking on Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad as its fighting proxies. They have smaller footprints in Lebanon and Syria, and their headquarters and leaders in the Gaza Strip are presumed to enjoy a degree of immunity given Israel’s reluctance to tip that territory into another full-blown conflict. But the daily attacks on Israel from multiple staging grounds is a sampling of the far more frequent and lethal provocations that can be expected should Iran go nuclear.” — Mark Dubowitz, FDD CEO

“The IDF strike on the 4th Division compound is a shot across the Assad regime’s bow. This division is an elite Syrian military outfit whose roles include safeguarding the regime. Israel is signaling to Damascus that while it may not have been directly involved in the rockets launched against the Golan, it bears overall responsibility and risks destabilization if the situation escalates further.” — Joe Truzman, Research Analyst at FDD’s Long War Journal
Israel hits Syrian military targets after six missiles fired at Golan Heights
The Israel Defense Forces on Sunday struck targets in Syria in response to six rockets fired towards the Golan Heights overnight, the military said in a statement.

Among the targets of the Israeli strikes were a military compound of the Fourth Division of the Syrian Armed Forces, military radar systems and artillery posts used by the Syrian Armed Forces, according to the IDF.

The strikes came after Israel earlier destroyed the launchers responsible for attacks via an unmanned aerial vehicle.


Chief Rabbi: ‘No words can describe depth of sadness’ over Israel sisters murder
Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis has paid tribute to British-Israeli sisters Maya and Rina Dee tweeting: “No words can describe the depth of our shock and sadness at the heart-breaking news of their murder by terrorists.”

He also noted their mother Rebbetzen Lucy, remains in “critical condition” in hospital following Friday’s shooting in the West Bank, and described both her and her husband Rabbi Leo Dee as “my dear colleagues.”

Rabbi Mirvis added:”They were much loved in the Hendon and Radlett communities in the UK as well as in Israel, and well beyond.

“We pray for a refuah shelema for Rebbetzen Lucy and also for those injured in the terrorist attack yesterday on the promenade in Tel Aviv.” Undated handout photo issued by the Office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Rina and Maya Zakharan (left to right not given), the two British-Israeli sisters who were killed in a gun attack in the occupied West Bank. The sisters were shot dead in an attack on their car near an Israeli settlement in the West Bank on Friday. Issue date: Saturday April 8, 2023.

It emerged that Rabbi Dee heard news of the attack before realising his own family had been involved.

Speaking to the BBC, he described his daughters as “beautiful and wonderful” and said he hadn’t been able to sleep since their deaths.

“Every time, I had nightmares and woke up,” he said, “but the reality was worse than the nightmare, so I went back to sleep. That’s how it went.”

The family live in the West Bank settlement Efrat, its mayor has said.

The sisters’ funeral will be held on Sunday.

In a statement following the shooting the Board of Deputies said:”We are deeply shocked and saddened at the murder by Palestinian terrorists of Maia and Rina Dee, the daughters of Rabbi Leo and Lucy Dee formerly of Radlett United Synagogue.

“We wish Lucy Refuah Shlemah and long life to the family as they cope with this devastating news.”


Jewish worshippers visit Temple Mount amid tensions from different fronts

Thousands attend Priestly Blessing at Western Wall amid high tensions



Autopsy confirms Italian killed in Tel Aviv car-ramming wasn’t shot
Alessandro Parini, the Italian tourist killed in Friday’s Tel Aviv car-ramming, was not found to have sustained any gunshot wounds, the Institute of Forensic Medicine confirmed on Sunday, while police sources reportedly confirmed that the incident was a terror attack.

Despite earlier reports in the Italian media claiming a bullet had been found during a CT scan of Parini’s body, the Institute of Forensic Medicine ruled out the possibility, confirming that the force of the impact had killed the tourist.

A police officer and municipal inspectors who were near the scene of the alleged attack when the car overturned had initially claimed they saw the driver, Yousef Abu Jaber, “reach [for] a rifle-like object that was with him,” leading to initial suspicions that he had rammed Parini before proceeding to shoot him.

The Magen David Adom ambulance service also initially indicated that the victim had suffered gunshot wounds, before retracting the statement. The only person shot at the scene of the attack was Abu Jaber, according to medics and police.

Law enforcement sources later told Hebrew-language media that the object was a toy gun. However, they have not distributed any images of the purported replica weapon.

The alleged attacker, Abu Jaber, 45, was an Israeli citizen, father of six, and resident of Kafr Qassem, east of Tel Aviv. He had no known prior security offenses.


In Easter speech, Pope expresses ‘deep concern’ over Israeli-Palestinian violence
Pope Francis underlined his “deep concern” over a flare-up in tensions between Israel and Palestinians, as he led Easter Mass on Sunday.

He said the renewed violence “threatens the desired climate of trust and mutual respect needed to resume dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians.”

Amid already rising tensions, on Wednesday, Israeli police entered the prayer hall of Al-Aqsa mosque, Islam’s third-holiest site, in a pre-dawn operation aimed at dislodging “law-breaking youths and masked agitators” they said had barricaded themselves inside.

The next day, more than 30 rockets were fired from Lebanese soil into Israel, which the Israeli army blamed on Palestinian groups, saying it was most likely Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip. Rockets were also fired from the coastal enclave.

Israel then struck Gaza and southern Lebanon, targeting “terror infrastructures” that it said belonged to Hamas.

On Friday, two separate attacks left an Italian tourist and two British-Israeli sisters dead, and several injured, in Tel Aviv and the West Bank.

On Sunday, rockets were fired from Syria toward Israel, prompting retaliatory artillery strikes.


BBC erases Hamas incitement from report on Temple Mount incident
Incitement from Hamas and its supporters increased as the Jewish holiday of Pessah approached, often using the excuse of planned actions by members of a small fringe group of Jewish extremists seeking to perform a Passover sacrifice. The Israeli police issued restraining orders against members of that group and as in previous years, related arrests were made.

BBC audiences had not previously been made aware of any of that relevant background information when, on the night of April 4th – 5th, a group of Palestinians barricaded themselves (and others) inside Al Aqsa mosque and the police had to evacuate them.

On the morning of April 5th the BBC News website published a report originally headlined “Jerusalem: Clashes erupt at contested holy site” and later retitled “Jerusalem: Clashes erupt at al-Aqsa mosque”. The current version of that report is credited to David Gritten & Yaroslav Lukov and its headline has been changed to “Al-Aqsa mosque: Violence as Israeli police raid Jerusalem holy site”.

“There have been violent scenes as Israeli police raided the al-Aqsa mosque in occupied East Jerusalem, saying “agitators” had barricaded themselves and worshippers inside.

Palestinians said stun grenades and rubber bullets were used in the pre-dawn raid and that 50 people were hurt.

Police said stones were thrown and fireworks fired at them in the mosque.

Militants in the Gaza Strip later fired rockets at Israel and its military carried out air strikes in response.

The latest violence comes just ahead of an overlap between the Islamic holy month of Ramadan and the Jewish Passover holiday.”

Nowhere in that report are readers informed of the fact that Muslims had already been marking Ramadan at the same site for two weeks and the agreement with the Waqf regarding overnight stays is not mentioned. The BBC’s reporting completely erases weeks of Hamas incitement from the picture but does promote a quote from that terrorist organisation (along with quotes from the Waqf, the Palestinian Authority and a UN envoy).

“The leader of the Palestinian Islamist militant group Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, called the incident “an unprecedented crime” and warned Israel that there would be “consequences”.”

The BBC’s report includes the following graphic:




Palestinian terror group Lion’s Den claims it executed an Israeli spy in Nablus
The Palestinian terror group Lions’ Den announced Sunday the extrajudicial killing of a “traitor” in the West Bank who had allegedly collaborated with Israel.

The group, based in the northern city of Nablus, said the “traitor” had been “liquidated,” in a Telegram post that gave no further details of their identity or activities.

The Independent Commission for Human Rights, a Palestinian public body, also said a man who had been “accused of spying for the Israeli occupation” had been killed on Saturday evening.

A security source in Nablus, who requested anonymity due to sensitivities surrounding the case, told AFP that the man was shot dead in the city’s Old City.

The source identified the person killed as the same man who appeared in a video circulating on social media, which AFP was not able to verify, confessing to spying on the terrorist group for Israel.

In the video circulating, the man — named as 23-year-old Zoheir Khalil Ghalith — can be heard claiming that the Shin Bet had a video of him engaged in sexual relations with another man, which they used to blackmail him into cooperating with them.


Iranian police install cameras to identify women violating strict dress code
Iranian police have installed cameras in public places to identify women violating the Islamic Republic’s strict dress code, authorities said Saturday, according to the Reuters news agency.

The Islamic dress code, in place since the 1979 revolution, considers Islamic veiling or hijab, obligatory for any female above 13 in Iran and says they should cover themselves from head to toe while disavowing any figure-hugging dress.

Iranian police said the cameras would be used to identify unveiled women in public places and thoroughfares and later penalize them. Violators will receive “warning text messages as to the consequences,” said a statement carried by the Iranian judiciary’s Mizan news agency.

The statement said the move was aimed at “preventing resistance against the hijab law,” adding that such resistance tarnishes the country’s spiritual image and spreads insecurity, according to Reuters.

There has been an increasing number of women refusing to wear the mandatory hijab or headscarf, following the death in custody of Iranian Kurd Mahsa Amini in September 2022. Her death sparked months of protests after the 22-year-old was detained for an alleged breach of the strict dress code.

Hundreds of people were killed, including dozens of security personnel, and thousands were arrested in connection with what Iranian officials described as “riots” fomented by Israel and the West.


How CUNY became America’s most anti-Semitic university
The “cleansing” of Jewish students and lecturers from German universities from 1933 to 1935 was one of the Nazis’ first goals met.

Ninety years later, in the metropolis with the world’s largest Jewish population, the City University of New York has successfully completed a yearslong initiative to expunge all Jews from its senior leadership.

Spring will see the exit of the last two remaining Jews on the school’s 80-member senior-leadership team, in a city whose population is about 20% Jewish.

It will be the first time since its 1961 founding that CUNY’s senior leadership will be Jew-free or Judenrein, for those who fear the horrors of history repeating itself.

This is just one of many systemic initiatives designed to expel the Jewish presence at CUNY.

The once-vibrant recruitment of students at New York City’s Jewish schools has all but ceased at most campuses, and there is now abundant evidence demonstrating it’s more difficult than ever for a Jewish professor to attain a CUNY faculty position.

But what bodes even worse for the city’s Jewish students and academic leaders is that CUNY seems hell-bent on replacing its Jews with anti-Semites.

Three of CUNY’s most powerful leaders have documented ties or allegiances to the Hamas-connected Council on American-Islamic Relations and the boycott, divestment, sanctions movement.

Chancellor Felix Matos Rodriguez in 2021 hired Saly Abd Alla as the university’s chief diversity officer, overseeing 25 campuses and 230,000+ students.

Abd Alla was a director at CAIR Minnesota, which pushed the BDS movement under her watch.

In what The Post’s Melissa Klein referred to as “a master class in ‘gaslighting,’” the chancellor saw fit to have Abd Alla investigate anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism claims and oversee initiatives combating anti-Semitism at the university.
HRC Campus Media Fellow Published In The Quid Novi, The McGill Law Student Paper
As antisemitism continues to rise, we have begun to realise that our campus is not immune. During the month of March alone, we witnessed the harm that can be done to Jewish students. While legitimate criticism of the State of Israel is fair game, some events have become a means to demonise the state and spread hatred against Jewish communities. For example, at a pro-Palestine protest on March 24, students were heard chanting “there is only one solution, intifada revolution”. For many Jews and Israelis, the Intifada (uprising in Arabic) is a painful reminder of multiple waves of violent attacks against Israeli civilians. To be clear, we are not talking about attacks against the Israeli military, but about innocent civilians, regular people going about their daily life until they are on a bus that explodes, or stabbed without warning, or run over by automobiles. Scores of Jews have died in this manner, and countless more injured. This is what is being called for as the “only solution”. Calls for violence against civilians such as this are unacceptable and cannot be tolerated on campus.

Furthermore, it has come to our attention recently that a Jewish student was rebuffed when trying to publish an opinion piece in the McGill Tribune. The piece was entitled “Queer McGill is not a safe space for Jews” and described how Queer McGill told her to censor her views about Zionism. A copy of the op-ed can be found via the QR code below and we strongly encourage you all to have a look.

In response to the submission of this article, the opinion editors, Chloé Kichenane and Kareem Abuali, stated that the “article doesn’t align with our values as a paper. We’re not going to be able to publish it.”

The values that were referred to are part of a policy of anti-Zionism, including arguing that Zionism is a “settler-colonial ideology”. This too constitutes the perpetuation of an antisemitic trope against the Jewish people, namely that we are not indigenous to the Land of Israel (and thus “settler-colonialists.”) To be clear, Zionism is a movement dating back thousands of years, calling for the re-establishment of a Jewish national home in our ancestral, indigenous homeland. This belief does not mean that other people, notably Palestinians, could not live in peace and harmony together with Jews, as many Arab-Israelis do every single day. Being anti-Zionist means that the Tribune does not believe Jews deserve the same rights as other indigenous peoples. Furthermore, the habit of singling out Israel for exclusion from public spheres perpetuates an antisemitic double-standard, which holds Jews to an unfair higher standard that other groups are not asked to abide by.

We unequivocally condemn the Tribune’s actions as they stifle debate and free expression on our campus. Opinion pieces should be just that: opinions. Jewish students must be able to have a voice on campus, and a student newspaper should not be censoring students simply because they do not agree with their political views.

Antisemitism continues to grow stronger both in society and on campus. We must all take a stand and support the Jewish community in our fight against antisemitism.
Comedian Russell Peters Tells CTV’s Sandie Rinaldo That “Jews Run Hollywood”
In November 2022, stand-up comedian Dave Chappelle presented a controversial monologue during a taping of Saturday Night Live (SNL) where he addressed contemporary issues, including Kanye West’s recent outbursts of antisemitism. During his routine, Chappelle said that it was “not a crazy thing to think” that Jews run the Hollywood film industry. He also said that “it’s a lot of Jews. Like a lot” in Hollywood.

Following his monologue, both Chappelle and SNL were criticized by Jewish organizations, and were accused of helping to “normalize” and “popularize antisemitism” with his statement that the Hollywood film industry was run by Jews.

More recently, Canadian-born comedian Russell Peters added his views during an interview with Sandie Rinaldo on the CTV program W5, broadcast on March 25, 2023.

During his interview, Peters described Chappelle’s monologue as “fantastic,” saying that he “articulated exactly what people are afraid to say.”

Peters added that in his opinion, “to say the Jews run Hollywood isn’t a bad thing….I wouldn’t want anyone else to run it.”

While Peters expressed his view that the trope of Jews controlling Hollywood is positive, he’s also perhaps inadvertently helping to perpetuate the antisemitic conspiracy of Jews controlling levers of power, including banking infrastructure, media outlets, and more.


Finland to become first foreign buyer of Israel’s David’s Sling aerial defense system
Finland is set to become the first foreign purchaser of Israel’s David’s Sling air defense system, the country’s defense minister announced on April 5.

The deal is worth some $347 million, and includes further options worth $237 million, according to a statement from the Finnish Defense Ministry.

The announcement came one day after the Nordic nation became the 31st member state of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

David’s Sling, developed by Rafael Advanced Defensive Systems together with U.S. defense giant Raytheon, is designed to intercept ballistic missiles, UAVs, enemy planes and other aerial threats.

“This acquisition will create a new capability for the Finnish Defence Forces to intercept targets at high altitude. At the same time we are continuing the ambitious and long-term development of Finland’s defence capability in a new security environment,” said Finland’s Defense Minister Antti Kaikkonen.

According to a statement from Israel’s Defense Ministry, because the project was developed together with the United States, the export deal must get final approval from the U.S. government.

“The Finnish government’s decision to acquire the David’s Sling system reflects the strong defense ties between our countries, as well as the cutting edge capabilities of Israel’s defense industries,” said Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant in a statement released on April 6.
Last surviving Nuremberg trial prosecutor dies at 103
Benjamin Ferencz, the last surviving prosecutor from the Nuremberg trials, passed away Friday at 103.

According to The New York Times, Ferencz died at an assisted living facility in Boynton Beach, Florida.

A Harvard-educated New York lawyer, Ferencz was only 27 when he secured the convictions of German officers in 1947 at Nuremberg, where prominent Nazi representatives from the political, military and economic spheres were put on trial.

Ferencz was put in charge of the Einsatzgruppen case, in which 22 Nazis, including six generals, organized and directed roving SS extermination squads, who killed one million people.

“All the defendants were convicted of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Fourteen were sentenced to death and two to life in prison. Only four executions were ultimately carried out, however, which was typical of the Nuremberg trials: convictions, heavy sentences and later commutations. Analysts said leniency arose because the new realities of the Cold War with the Soviet Union meant that the Western powers needed Germany politically,” the Times reported.

Ferencz, who served as a Jewish soldier in Europe and as a war-crimes investigator at Buchenwald, Mauthausen and Dachau, fought after the war for the restitution of property seized by the Nazis, according to the report.

The U.S. Holocaust Museum posted to Twitter, “Today the world lost a leader in the quest for justice for victims of genocide and related crimes. We mourn the death of Ben Ferencz—the last Nuremberg war crimes prosecutor. At age 27, with no prior trial experience, he secured guilty verdicts against 22 Nazis.”

An Army corporal, Ferencz was sent to liberated concentration camps by Gen. George S. Patton because he had researched war crimes for a professor. He became the youngest prosecutor at Nuremberg.

Ferencz would go on to author nine books and numerous articles. He spoke French, Spanish, German, Hungarian and Yiddish.




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