Monday, April 22, 2024

04/22 Links Pt1: United States of Charlottesville; At Columbia I Am Told: ‘Go Back to Poland’; Fatah: Hamas kills aid workers and steals food for itself

From Ian:

Seth Mandel: United States of Charlottesville
Because this racial hierarchy is fundamental to its proponents’ worldview, opposition to coexistence with Jews is global. The skinheads in Charlottesville weren’t deterred from their version of this ideology just because they live outside of Germany. Similarly, those who chant “Palestine is Arab” subscribe to this racial hierarchy wherever they are. That this chant was delivered outside the White House, for example, is not a protest of Israeli policy but rather a challenge to the foundational ideas and values of the United States.

Although the expression of this worldview isn’t limited to college campuses, those campuses are the main reason we are now witnessing three Charlottesvilles a day. After all, it means students are paying attention in class.

“From the river to the sea, Palestine is Arab” is a direct application of the popular academic theory of the day, “decolonization.” The idea of Jewish self-determination in Israel being a settler-colonialist project might be a flat-earth level of historical crankery, but it is all the rage—and I do mean rage—in the classrooms of our esteemed institutions of higher learning. Teaching young minds that Jews must be supplanted from their homes because they represent a race that belongs elsewhere has a long history of inspiring those students to carry out what they’ve been taught. It is no surprise that Jews at Columbia over the weekend were told to “go back to Poland.” The racial ideology at the heart of decolonization theory demands nothing less. As a now-infamous Twitter/X post, amplified by a writer and editor at the Washington Post among others, asked in celebration of Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre and sexual torture spree: “What did y’all think decolonization meant? vibes? papers? essays? losers.”

And that helps us understand the look of absolute despondency on Columbia President Minouche Shafik’s face throughout her congressional hearing this week. She, and many of her peers at other institutions, are facing two problems. The first is the violence and harassment targeting visibly Jewish students. Contrary to various media figures’ attempts to spin recent events, this is absolutely taking place on campus and these violations absolutely are being committed by students. They are also, however, taking place outside of campus as part of the same demonstrations a few feet away. It’s not either/or. The campus-organized protests are spreading and so is the violence they incite.

The second problem is the ideological fuel for the violence, which is being pumped from the colleges themselves. It is much easier to increase the police presence on campus than it is to change a culture cultivated purposely and with great enthusiasm over the course of decades. These schools are churning out people who have extraordinarily sick and violent beliefs toward Jews. Those sick and violent beliefs earned them good grades at these same schools.

There has not yet been a solution proffered by any of these campus administrators that would fix the broken, anti-Semitic culture of these schools, just as figures throughout history have struggled to convince the sun not to shine.
At Columbia I Am Told: ‘Go Back to Poland’
Since the first protest on Columbia’s campus in support of a “Free Palestine” on October 12, I have committed, along with my twin brother and a number of our friends, to show up at these protests with our Israeli and American flags.

There are often hundreds of people chanting for “intifada” and a handful of us. Suffice it to say, I can think of more pleasant ways to spend a New York City night. We do it for a simple reason: we want to tell Jews at Columbia—and around the world—that we refuse to be bullied off of our own campus.

For nearly seven months, I have been asked the same question by many people in my life: “Do you feel safe on campus as a Jew?” I wear a kippah—I can’t pass. And I have always maintained the importance of standing our ground rather than letting fear drive us away.

Nothing will stanch that pride, but the situation at Columbia has escalated to a point where my physical safety is in danger.

That is not a metaphor, nor an expression of safetyism. On Saturday night, April 20, I was assaulted and harassed repeatedly inside the gates of Columbia University.

For five days now, protesters have been camped out on Columbia’s South Lawn demanding financial divestment from Israel, an academic boycott of Israel, a call for cease-fire, and an end to Columbia’s real estate purchases. Their newest demand is to defund Columbia’s public safety, the only people on campus supposedly tasked with keeping us safe.

On Saturday night, the situation on campus hit a new low. Amid multiple protests both inside and outside of Columbia’s gates, my friends and I decided to show our pride yet again, as we have on so many occasions since Hamas began its war.

For an hour, 20 of us stood on the sundial in the middle of Columbia’s campus with Israeli and American flags and sang peaceful songs such as Matisyahu’s “One Day” and “V’hi She’amda”—a much-needed ode to the hope and perseverance of the Jewish people in the face of enemies who seek our destruction.

Even as we sang lyrics such as “We don’t want to fight no more, there will be no more war,” we were met with hostility. Masked keffiyeh-wearers came to us face-to-face, trying to intimidate us. They chanted, “Fuck Israel, Israel’s a bitch!” We were told, “You guys are all inbred.” They threw water in our faces. These groups are not fairly described as “pro-Palestine.” They are active supporters of Hamas and they say so explicitly: “We say justice, you say how? Burn Tel Aviv to the ground,” one group chanted by the gates of my school. “Hamas, we love you. We support your rockets, too.”
Brendan O'Neill: A howl of rage against civilisation
Indeed, the anti-militarist mask has well and truly come off this movement. The Columbia camp makes clear as day that Israel-haters want more war, not less. ‘Burn Tel Aviv to the ground’, some bigots chanted. ‘Go Hamas, we love you’, said others. Nothing better captures the crisis of Western civilisation than this vision of trust-fund genderfluid blue-haired kids singing the praises of a movement that would hurl them from a top-floor window given half a chance. In one especially nauseating incident, a white girl in a keffiyeh was seen holding a placard with an arrow saying ‘Al-Qassam’s next targets’, referring to the al-Qassam brigades, the military wing of Hamas. The placard’s arrow was pointed towards Jewish students waving the Israel flag. Shorter version: Hamas, kill these people. How swiftly the anti-fascists became fascists.

Media-elite sympathisers with Columbia’s Gaza camp claim these pro-Hamas cries, these demands for the obliteration of Israel and this hanging of target signs around the necks of Jews are rare occurrences in an otherwise peaceful protest. Plus, it’s mostly outsiders doing this stuff, they say. I call bullshit. If you create a space in which anti-Semites feel comfortable, so comfortable that they’re happy to openly glorify Hamas’s cosmic racist violence, then that’s on you.

What’s more, the insistence that it’s ‘only’ a few voices celebrating 7 October, just a handful of agitators who are are cheering the rape, kidnap and murder of Jews, is desperate bordering on sick. That there are any such voices in and around one of the highest seats of learning in modern America should be viewed as unsettling in the extreme. Anyone who cares for the future of academia, and for the future of the West, should be alarmed that at Columbia, the college of Alexander Hamilton, of Amelia Earhart, of Barack Obama, people have been heard saying to Jews: ‘[7 October is] going to be every day for you.’ President Biden is right: this is ‘blatant anti-Semitism’.

We need to be honest about what is happening at Columbia. This is solidarity with a pogrom. It is sympathy for fascism. It is privileged leftists getting a cheap moral kick from a mass act of racist violence against Jews that they catastrophically mistake for a blow against imperialism. It is the Socialism of Fools.

More than that, it is a howl of rage against civilisation. This rancid camp with its flashes of outright Jew hate is not an extension of the anti-war activism of old – it’s an extension of the loathing for civilisation that the young have been inculcated with these past few years. To these protesters, the Jewish State, and Jews themselves, represent Western values and Western modernity, and thus they must be raged against. Israel has become a moral punchbag for the sons and daughters of privilege whose hatred for their own societies has driven them over the cliff edge of reason and decency.

How foolish we were to think that education might deliver the young from the benighted ignorances of the past. For today, it is the most educated, the dwellers of the academy, who have allowed the world’s oldest hatred to wash over them. We can now see the consequences of teaching the young to be wary of Western civilisation and to treat everything ‘Western’ as suspect and wicked. All they’re left with is the lure of barbarism, the demented belief that even savagery can become praiseworthy if its target is ‘the West’. If events at Columbia do not wake us up to the crisis of civilisation, nothing will.


Victor Davis Hanson: War By Affirmative Action?
Why does Biden play Iranian poker with American and Israeli lives?

Answer? He envisions war sort of like affirmative action, in which the less accomplished belligerent is allowed all sorts of concessions for the sake of equity.

Israeli and American military capability, and particularly their missile defenses, are seen as unfair, almost like high achievers’ top SAT scores that are seen as unearned and used to privilege some over others and therefore must be countered or dropped.

Given Iran’s and its surrogates’ incompetence, the administration, then, must extend the theocracy some allowances “to level the playing field.” Biden believes in an equality of opportunity in war, when an aggressor does its best to attack or indeed destroy a defender, who in turn does its own best to retaliate and achieve victory.

Instead, the Biden administration sees war leading to equality of result as something to be waged “proportionally,” especially when the power attacked is stronger and Western while the attacking aggressor is weaker and non-Western. The method, then, is to restrain the western power and give repeated chances for the non-western aggressors to catch up.

As a result, the Biden administration’s strategic attitude toward Iran ignores Iranian intent and agendas. So it does not respond fully to its acts of aggression and thereby almost rewards the incompetence of Iran, Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis without consideration of their murderous aims.

Americans are thus baffled that Biden has not responded to some 170 or more attacks on U.S. installations in the Middle East by Iranian-backed terrorists in Yemen, Syria, Iraq, and Lebanon. But in his calculus, Americans “can take the hit” due to their superior defenses—appeasement that only assures more hits.

Thus, other than a few apparently acceptable wounded or dead, there is no need for disproportionate responses to reestablish deterrence and end such opportunistic attacks. Such calculus in the Biden team’s mind would be “over the top,” perhaps “unfair,” or even “medieval.” And yet, it certainly would stop all such aggression quickly and warn aggressors not to touch a single American.

After the successful but mostly demonstrative Israel April 19 retaliatory strike against the Iranian anti-aircraft missile batteries at Isfahan, Biden cautioned Israel “to take the win” and apparently not to rub in the fact of Iranian incompetence, much less stage a follow-up and much greater response.
Gil Troy: Sleepless nights: Israelis' striking resilience as rockets rain above
These doomsday digs soft-pedaled the sobering reality that mullahs 1,862 km. (1,157 miles) away, with no substantive complaints against Israel, so hate Jews that they tried triggering a second Holocaust. These self-appointed guardians of al-Aqsa so hate us that they were ready to level Jerusalem if it would destroy us, too. And these theocratic, terrorist-loving darlings of the illiberal liberals were cheered by the toxic pro-Palestinian hoodlums who hate Israel, Jews, America, and the West.

Our pride in our heroic kids coexists with guilt. We hoped they’d inherit an Abraham Accords Israel of Peace More, making more peace with more neighbors. We wanted to spare them older Israelis’ experience of fighting for their lives while breaking the historic curse of Jews long threatened with extermination. Alas, time’s gone backward; they, we, understand what it is to feel surrounded, threatened, attacked.

Fortunately, it’s brought out their best. You can see in this generation a new Israel aborning: patriotic, gritty, idealistic, altruistic – and united. They’re battle-hardened, not world-weary; fun-loving, not frivolous.

WHILE WE thank US President Joe Biden, America, and the extraordinary coalition of righteous armies against the Iranians, Israelis’ healthy instinct for self-defense contrasts with too many Americans’ newfound defeatism.

Most Israelis seek a counterattack to restore deterrence. This properly punitive strategy reflects traditional military doctrine reinforced by the mullahocracy’s fear of casualties, given Iranians’ growing restlessness.

Alas, too many Americans immediately wondered: Is this enough? Will both sides now be satisfied? They fail to see that appeasing terrorists “for peace” risks more war – apocalyptic jihadists are never satisfied.

While we thank Biden profusely, he should not have neutralized the American threat of counterattack so quickly. The mullahs should spend the next six months at least fearing massive American reprisals. They attacked America’s ally, and the Iranians, Chinese, and Russians must learn that befriending America means much more than it now does.

True, modern Western culture avoids confrontation and abhors sacrifice. My kids and their friends have learned, the hard way, that if you keep tolerating evil, the price you pay when terrorists lash out keeps soaring.


Israelis tell NYT: Original plan was major strike on military targets near Tehran, beyond
Israel’s original retaliatory plan against Iran included a much wider counterstrike on military targets, including near Tehran, The New York Times reported on Monday, citing three Israeli officials.

“Such a broad and damaging attack would have been far harder for Iran to overlook, increasing the chances of a forceful Iranian counterattack,” the paper said.

As has been widely reported, Israel shelved plans for an immediate response to Iran’s unprecedented direct attack on April 13-14 when it became clear that Israel had thwarted most of the Iranian missiles and drones with the help of a US-led coalition, and after a phone call that night between US President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Israel ultimately opted for a less powerful response, carried out overnight Thursday-Friday, amid intensive diplomatic pressure to avoid an escalation of the direct hostilities.

Citing Israeli and Western officials, the Times account also said Israel fired “a small number of missiles” from aircraft stationed several hundred miles west of Iran, and also launched small attack drones, known as quadcopters, “to confuse Iranian air defenses.”

A single missile hit an antiaircraft battery in a strategically important part of central Iran, the report said — previous accounts had indicated this was part of the S-300 air defenses for the Natanz nuclear facility — while another exploded in midair.
Caroline Glick: Israel's Message with Iran Strike: You Can Run, But You Can't Hide
Israel has retaliated with a limited strike against Iran, while it appears that the US is giving the green light for a Rafah operation and Antony Blinken is set to announce sanctions against an entire IDF unit.


Israel and Iran: The Current Escalation and What Comes Next
On April 13, 2024, Iran fired hundreds of missiles and drones directly at Israel. In the ongoing conflict between Israel and Iran, this attack represents a most significant military escalation.

To help make sense of what is happening in the region, Tikvah was joined by Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR)—a member of the Armed Services and Intelligence Committees—as well as Iran expert Ray Takeyh, and former U.S. Special Representative for Iran and Tikvah Chairman Elliott Abrams for a special Zoom briefing.

Senator Cotton, Mr. Takeyh, and Mr. Abrams discussed what led to this point; Iran's willingness to attack Israel directly rather than through its proxies; what this escalation means for the war in Gaza and the situation on Israel's northern border; how the situation affects America's posture in the region and the Biden Administration's Iran policy; and what we can expect to see in the days and weeks ahead.


True Advocacy for Palestinian Rights Means Condemning Iran's Unprovoked Aggression
I am deeply troubled by the reactions of certain anti-Israel groups in the U.S. to the Islamic Republic of Iran's recent attack on Israel. Their exuberant celebrations and justifications for such aggression starkly contradict their professed commitment to peace.

Iran asserts that the attack was an act of "revenge" against Israel for its targeted killing of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Gen. Mohammad Reza Zahedi in Damascus. The truth is that Iran launched this round of violence: Zahedi is known for his involvement in orchestrating the Oct. 7 massacre of more than 1,200 Jews in Israel by Hamas, including 30 Americans.

The applause for Iran's military actions starkly contrasts with the silence over the potential risks such aggression poses to sacred sites like the Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, over which Iranian projectiles flew. Iran supporters celebrated the projectiles endangering Al Aqsa.

True advocacy for Palestinian rights and regional peace involves condemning Iran's unprovoked aggressions and the ugly terrorist groups they inflict on the region, such as Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
Andrew Fox: As a former British soldier, only visiting Israel made me understand the Gaza war
As a former soldier, it was only after I visited Israel myself on a veterans delegation that I was able to truly understand what happened on October 7.

To begin with, Hamas crossed the Gaza border in more than brigade strength: this was no rag-tag rabble. The numbers of trained and organised Hamas fighters were double the number of infantry the British sent to retake the Falklands in 1982.

The attackers had detailed plans. Hamas had conducted reconnaissance of the kibbutzim near the border, possibly through some of the 18,000 Gazans with day work permits to enter Israel. Plans found on dead fighters showed an incredible level of detail. For the Tasha family in Nativ HaAsara, Hamas recorded: “Man, woman, two children. Man has a gun. Dog does not bite.” Hamas first attacked the houses of those Israelis known to be armed.

Munitions found afterwards included home-made thermobaric weapons for RPG-7s that were used to burn Israeli civilians’ homes, drones, and suicide vests. Hamas brought comprehensive med packs with them, and very quickly cab ranks of empty vehicles lined up outside homesteads ready to receive hostages.

Moreover, the attack had been preceded by years of deception to persuade Israel that Islamic Jihad, not Hamas, were the threat. As a result Israel had encouraged Qatari money to flow into Gaza in the hope Hamas would focus on development.

The most powerful moment of my trip was a visit to Kibbutz Be’eri, site of some of the worst atrocities. On October 6, it was a village of some 1,200 inhabitants. It is now a ruined shell. Over 130 Israelis were murdered there, with many more taken hostage.

The first thing Hamas fighters did after breaching Be’eri’s gates was to scale buildings and get high off the ground. They placed belt-fed weapons on rooftops and set up anti-armour ambushes ready for a security force response. They next took hostages and moved them to the cab rank and back to Gaza. Hamas and their civilian followers-on then raped, burned, tortured and murdered their way through the kibbutz.


JPost Editorial: Flotilla with humanitarian aid can lead to catastrophe
So what should Israel do? This is an opportunity to internationalize the issue of taking responsibility and caring for Gazans. The burden must not fall on Israel alone. As we learned during the Iran attack last weekend, forging a coalition with the US and regional allies can be extremely effective.

Perhaps a clever way can be found to have international inspectors check the food, medicine, and clothing and even allow the aid to reach needy Gazans under the auspices of the US or Egypt, although past experience indicates that this is doubtful.

A harsh warning must be sent via the Turks that the activists cannot carry arms of any kind, and if there is any show of violence, they will be stopped and arrested.

In 2010, the Mavi Marmara incident dealt a severe blow to Israel-Turkish relations, which have become even more strained since the Hamas attack on October 7.

Despite their claims to the contrary, the IHH and its leader are not pacifists. Yildirim’s organization has links with terrorist groups – including al-Qaeda, the Muslim Brotherhood, ISIS, and PIJ.

Fourteen years ago, Yildirim led the flotilla himself and was arrested by the IDF on board the ship and deported back to Turkey.

Several days after the Hamas attack on October 7, in a public address broadcast on the IHH YouTube channel, the firebrand orator called for a blockade of “the fascist, racist, apartheid American regime,” referring to Israel.

Then, according to MEMRI, as a crowd of his supporters chanted “Allahu Akbar” (God is Great), he declared: “Now, let the TV networks broadcast this: My brothers, are you ready for martyrdom? Are you ready for martyrdom? Are you ready for martyrdom?”

The new flotilla could result in catastrophe. With 133 hostages still being held in Gaza as Israel plans a new operation against Hamas in Rafah; war looming on Israel’s northern front with Hezbollah; and the Houthis in Yemen still presenting a threat to Israeli ships in the Mediterranean – as well as the unprecedented recent escalation with Iran – the flotilla threatens to light a powder keg over Passover. That cannot be allowed.
4 reasons Israel should annex southern Lebanon
Israel did not choose to go to war with Hezbollah. When Hezbollah decided to join Hamas after October 7th in unprovoked attacks against Israel, it created many challenges, but also some unique opportunities for Israel, namely the ability and justification to annex southern Lebanon.

While at first glance this may seem like an outlandish idea, annexation would provide Israel with several worthwhile benefits that deserve consideration.

Regaining Deterrence- Reducing risk of Multi Theatre War
In a normal state of affairs, when one country threatens the sovereignty of another by attacking it- that country itself risks losing its own territory. Unfortunately, Israel’s enemies currently feel that they can fire missiles at Israel with little to no risk to their own sovereignty. This very dangerous and faulty equation is the reason why Israel is currently faced with the possibility of a multifront war.

Countries who attack Israel feel like they don’t have much to lose. If Yemen, Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, or Jordan understood that by attacking Israel they will lose their land, they would be less inclined to do so. By setting a precedent with southern Lebanon, other countries will be deterred from taking risks.

Providing security to residents of Israel’s North
With around 100.000 Israeli residents currently displaced from cities and towns on Israels northern borders, Israel needs to quickly find a way to restore both security and a sense of security that would allow its residents to return to their homes and rebuild their communities. By annexing and populating Southern Lebanon with Israeli citizens and creating a permanent military presence, Israel would be effectively creating a massive buffer zone that would neutralize the threat of Hezbollah tunnels, infiltrations and short-range missiles from Lebanon which in turn would allow residents of Metula and Kiryat Shmona to return home safely.

After Oct 7th, people no longer feel comfortable relying on the good intentions of our neighbors. In order for people to return and rebuild their communities, they need to feel a strong sense of security that only annexation and military presence can provide. The experiment in Gaza has proven once and for all that in the land of Israel, where there is Jewish settlement, there is security. Where there is a lack of settlement, there are hotbeds of terror.

But the question remains, who will go to settle Southern Lebanon?


Hezbollah fires 35 rockets as Passover starts in Israel, IDF strikes back
After the Lebanon-based terror organization fired 35 rockets at Israel's North on Monday, the IDF responded by striking at the sources of the launches, the military said.

The source of the strike was in the area of Arzoun in southern Lebanon.

The Hezbollah launches were identified as crossing into the area of Ein Zeitim in northern Israel. No casualties were reported.

At the time of the launches, rocket sirens sounded in northern Israeli cities, including Safed.

Shortly following the rocket sirens sounded, a slew of possible hostile aircraft intrusion sirens sounded in a number of other northern communities.


Three lightly hurt in Jerusalem car-ramming; 2 suspects captured
Three people were lightly wounded in a car-ramming terror attack at two separate locations in Jerusalem on Monday morning, authorities said. The two alleged perpetrators, Palestinian teenagers, were captured after a brief manhunt.

A makeshift submachine gun found at one scene attested to the deadly turn the attack could have taken had the weapon not apparently jammed.

The Magen David Adom ambulance service said it treated two people who were struck by the same car, first on Tchelet Mordechai Street and the nearby Yirmiyahu Street in the Romema neighborhood. Both were listed in good condition.

A third person was also lightly hurt, police said.

Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem said it was treating a 21-year-old man and a 15-year-old boy for minor injuries.

Police in a statement said the ramming was a terror attack.

Graphic surveillance footage of the incident showed a car plow into two men wearing ultra-Orthodox garb as they stood on a sidewalk, throwing them into the air.

After crashing the car into a parked vehicle, the terror suspects can be seen attempting to open fire on people as they flee.

According to police, two terrorists involved in the attack fled the scene on foot. On their apparent escape route, officers found a makeshift “Carlo” submachine gun, law enforcement officials said.

Police said the gun had seemingly jammed as the terrorists attempted to open fire.


Hamas kills aid workers to manufacture Gaza food crisis, Fatah charges
The Palestinian political faction Fatah charged on air that Hamas had deliberately killed aid workers, stolen aid and manufactured a food crisis in Gaza, according to a Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) investigation published on Sunday.

A Fatah TV anchor reported that Hamas had attacked aid workers, stolen food and water and caused food prices to skyrocket in the Gaza Strip – which PMW said constituted a triple crime.

“Hamas’ persecution of any party who is a source for distributing the [humanitarian] aid or securing it began from the start of the war, as Hamas persecuted well-known figures and teams of volunteers on the ground in mid-October [2023,” the anchor said. ”It attacked them and killed some of them for two reasons: Firstly, preventing any activity by any [other] party in the Gaza Strip; and secondly, ensuring Hamas control over the aid and its storage, which of course leads to these crazy and unreal prices that no one can pay in the shadow of this destruction.

“After the occupation bombed storehouses controlled by Hamas, the accumulation of tons of various food and aid products that Hamas had taken exclusivity over became clear, at a time when the Gaza Strip is suffering from hunger.”

Following the anchor’s comments, footage from an Al-Jazeera interview was played which showed a woman in the enclave complaining that “the aid isn’t reaching all the people” because the aid “is all to their [own] homes. Let Hamas catch me and shoot me and do what they want to me.” The humanitarian crisis in Gaza

Despite a surplus of evidence indicating that Hamas is stealing aid in Gaza, The European Union's foreign policy Chief Josep Borrell claimed last month that the EU's foreign policy Chief Josep Borrell, according to Reuters.

In April, the White House also claimed that Israel had not done enough to ensure that sufficient humanitarian aid was entering Gaza.

Palestinian civilians have complained to the IDF that Hamas stole aid, The Jerusalem Post reported in January, alongside recordings of civilian testimonies.

In one recorded call, a Gazan civilian testified that Hamas murdered his cousin because he tried to seek help from UNRWA. In another conversation, a civilian said he does not leave his home because he fears Hamas will seize it and use the property to fire toward Israel and destroy his house.


PMW: Fatah: Hamas kills aid workers and steals food for itself
In an incredible and rare admission, Fatah has corroborated what Israel has been saying all along: that Hamas is responsible for turmoil connected to distribution of the humanitarian aid sent into Gaza. A Fatah TV anchor reported that throughout the war, Hamas has been committing what is essentially a triple crime—it has attacked and killed aid workers in order to control aid distribution, stolen the food and water for itself, and caused food prices to skyrocket. Fatah-run Awdah TV host: “Hamas’ persecution of any party who is a source for distributing the [humanitarian] aid or securing it began from the start of the war (i.e., 2023 Gaza war), as Hamas persecuted well-known figures and teams of volunteers on the ground in mid-October [2023]. It attacked them and killed some of them for two reasons: Firstly, preventing any activity by any [other] party in the Gaza Strip; and secondly, ensuring Hamas control over the aid and its storage, which of course leads to these crazy and unreal prices that no one can pay in the shadow of this destruction. After the occupation (i.e., Israel) bombed storehouses controlled by Hamas, the accumulation of tons of various food and aid products that Hamas had taken exclusivity over became clear, at a time when the Gaza Strip is suffering from hunger.” Part of an interview on Al-Jazeera TV from the Gaza Strip is shown:
Woman from the Gaza Strip: “The aid isn’t reaching all the people.”
Al-Jazeera TV reporter: “Few things are arriving and they [Hamas] claim they are distributing them.”
Woman: “It is all to their [own] homes. Let Hamas catch me and shoot me and do what they want to me.”
[Fatah Commission of Information and Culture, Facebook page, April 1, 2024]

This is a damning indictment by Fatah, exposing Hamas' heinous actions against humanitarian aid workers and Palestinian civilians in need of food. World powers were quick to decry Israel for an inadvertent tragedy that killed several World Central Kitchen personnel. These same authorities and media outlets must now condemn Hamas with equal vigor for its intentional murder of aid workers. A failure to condemn Hamas for intentional murder by the countries and frameworks who condemned Israel for accidental killing would expose once again a glaring double standard by international bodies, and especially the media, that unfortunately has accompanied this entire war.




Call Me Back PodCast: A lot is happening in the Middle East . . . and nothing at all — with Nadav Eyal
Hosted by Dan Senor As we try to make sense of the past two weeks, consider this:

1. IDF withdraws from most of the Gaza Strip while it now also appears increasingly likely that the IDF will conduct an operation in Rafah.
2. An historic Iranian attack of 300 ballistic missiles, UAVs and cruise missiles, and an historic coalition force that includes Israel, the US, UK, France, Saudi Arabia and Jordan that shot down almost all of the projectiles.
3. A week later, Israel attacks Iran.
4. A widely backed U.N. security council resolution recognizing a Palestinian state, which the US vetoed.

So a lot is happening, but is Israel closer to achieving the war’s objectives?

To help us understand what’s going on, our guest today is NADAV EYAL, who returns to the podcast. He is a columnist for Yediot. Eyal has been covering Middle-Eastern and international politics for the last two decades for Israeli radio, print and television news.


The Commentary Magazine Podcast: The Horrors at Columbia
Hosted by Abe Greenwald, Christine Rosen, John Podhoretz & Matthew Continetti
The refusal both of Columbia University officials and New York City’s mayor to confront and end the siege of the school’s campus and the open threats to Jews is the culmination of 40 years of academic rot, and we describe why. Also: The House passes aid to Israel, Ukraine, Taiwan, and moves to end Chinese Communist control of TikTok. Is this a new path forward or a one-off success for House Speaker Johnson?
Ambitious Crossover Attempt: Episode 114 - Exodus 20:24
Jen and Noam revisit the Iran - Israel conflict now that Israel retaliated by coming thisclose to hitting a nuclear facility in Iran, Ukraine finally getting funding from the US, how stupid the Chaos Caucus looks now that they achieved absolutely nothing, the rapidly escalating antisemitic protest situation at Columbia and who is responsible, and our thoughts on Civil War.

Also, Jen makes the Pesach discovery that matzo sheets can be turned into damn near anything with enough imagination and water.

Ambitious Crossover Attempt has a Twitch channel! Hooray! This means more streaming for us (and you)! We are still figuring out a streaming schedule, but for now, make sure to follow us on Twitter for updates.


Condemn antisemitism without equivocation to Islamophobia
3. Islamophobia is used as a weapon against those who call out antisemitism
Third, accusations of Islamophobia are often used by extremists to whitewash, obfuscate, and distract from dangerous and growing radical movements in the Muslim world.

Following the Charlie Hebdo attacks in 2015, the prime minister of France, Manuel Valls, refused to use the term 'Islamophobia' to describe the phenomenon of anti-Muslim prejudice, because, he said, the accusation of Islamophobia is often used as a weapon by apologists for radical Islamists to silence critics.

Few stand up publicly today against radical Islam and those who do risk being silenced under the label of Islamophobes. The sword of Islamophobia is wielded to deliberately chill discourse and narrow the public marketplace of ideas.

We cannot let accusations of Islamophobia silence us when we confront and defend ourselves against the radical ideologies that exist in the Muslim communities and are now growing in Europe and America. Ideologies that undermine our values and seek to target the Jewish people in Israel and worldwide.

The Muslim Brotherhood, its Palestinian wing—Hamas, and its American wing— CAIR, are designated as terrorist organizations by many countries around the world. Confronting CAIR, whose director said he was “happy to see” Palestinians break out of Gaza on October 7th, is not Islamophobic. Luckily, the White House now agrees.

Confronting Mehdi Hasan, the former MSNBC and Al Jazeera journalist, who pushes conspiracy theories about Israel and defended Rep, Ilhan Omar’s antisemitic comments, is not Islamophobic.

Confronting Rep. Tlaib, who called the 10/7 attack as “resistance”, lies about Israel regularly, and invokes “from the river to the sea”, is not Islamophobic.

And most importantly, calling out the heinous crimes committed by Hamas against Jews is not Islamophobic. As a matter of fact, standing against Hamas – an organization with complete disregard to Christian, Jewish and Muslim lives and freedoms – is neither Islamophobic nor Muslim hate.

These individuals and organizations deserve to be publicly criticized and discredited not because they are Muslim, but because they are guilty of antisemitism and hate.

In the wake of October 7th, it’s time for our leaders and community to recognize that antisemitism and Islamophobia don’t go hand in hand, have nothing in common, and lumping them together leads to more divisiveness and misunderstanding of both communities.

I stand in solidarity with everyone who faces prejudice and discrimination because of their ethnicity or beliefs. Any decent person ought to. That’s why I will continue speaking out against radical Islam and other extremist movements. That’s why I will not stay silent in the face of phony accusations of Islamophobia.


How Met has faced growing criticism over policing of protests
Britain’s streets have become another frontier in the war between Israel and Hamas and often the police are being caught in the crossfire. A series of flashpoints between pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian supporters has seen police forces plunged into complex scenarios and at times drawn criticism for its handling of them.

Since October 7, on average there has been a pro-Palestinian protest in London every two weekends in what has been the biggest continuing drain on police resources since before the 2012 Olympic Games, costing tens of millions of pounds.

Rather than ban the protests, the Met has sought to place conditions on them and attempt to police them to the letter of the law. In doing so it has faced accusations of not taking a strong enough stance on antisemitism. Below are some examples:

October 14
At the first major pro-Palestinian demonstration protesters were heard making the controversial chant “from the river to the sea”, with MPs claiming that officers were “too slow” to crack down on intimidating behaviour.

Three women were later convicted of terrorism offences after handing themselves in to police when photographs went viral of them displaying “paraglider” images.

October 21
At a Hizb ut-Tahrir rally, which was separate from a much larger pro-Palestinian rally, chants of “jihad” were heard.

Sir Mark Rowley, the Met’s commissioner, hit back at criticism for not making arrests, saying that the police cannot enforce “taste and decency”.

He suggested that there were holes in the law that needed plugging allowing agitators to spread toxic messages. Downing Street said that police already had “extensive powers” to take action against demonstrators who chanted about “jihad”.
Met chief apologises in person to community leaders over ‘openly Jewish’ remark
Jewish leaders have praised the Metropolitan Police for making “positive steps” over their regulation of anti-Israel protests but called for greater action to limit the impact of marches on the community.

A meeting between the force and Jewish groups was held on this morning amid the fallout over the treatment of a man who was described by a police officer as “openly Jewish”, threatened with arrest and prevented from crossing a road during a Palestine rally earlier this month.

Gideon Falter, who leads the Campaign Against Antisemitism, was filmed in a tense standoff with an officer while wearing a kippah and carrying a tallit bag in central London on 13 April. He said he had been attending synagogue prior to the altercation.

The Met has since apologised twice after Falter was told his presence at the march was causing a "breach of the peace".

In a statement released today ahead of Pesach, the Community Security Trust said Jewish leaders had since met with Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley and other senior officers to discuss community concerns.

After repeating the apologies made regarding Falter, Met representatives agreed to consult more closely with Jewish community representatives and senior Jewish police officers, to ensure, “greater cultural sensitivity in future communications relating to the Jewish community.”

The CST said: "All the organisations present expressed their appreciation for how much the police have done since October 7 to support the Jewish community; however, all stressed that when a mistake is made it needs to be admitted, rectified and learnt from so it is not repeated.

“We will continue our dialogue with police later this week to press our concerns regarding the cumulative impact of the repeated anti-Israel protests in terms of disruption and intimidation of the Jewish community.”

The Jewish groups present, which included the Board of Deputies, the London Jewish Forum, the CST and the Union of Jewish Students, urged the police and government to limit the number and scale of anti-Israel protests.
Meet Gideon Falter, the man fighting on the frontline against antisemitism in the UK
Gideon Falter, director of the Campaign Against Antisemitism, is suddenly and quite literally on the frontline of the fight against a rising tide of antisemitism in England.

Following the October 7 Hamas-led massacre — which saw 1,200 people in southern Israel butchered by terrorists and 253 abducted to the Gaza Strip — and the ensuing war with Hamas in Gaza, antisemitism has surged in Britain to unprecedented levels.

Near-weekly anti-Israel demonstrations have been marked by calls for a global intifada, the glorification of Hamas, and comparisons between Israel and the Nazis. Nine in 10 British Jews, polls show, feel unsafe visiting central London during the protests and nearly half are considering leaving the country.

Falter experienced this antisemitic surge first-hand when, after attending synagogue on Saturday, April 13, he wandered with friends through central London wearing his kippa, the traditional Jewish skullcap. He was stopped by a police officer who warned him that, because of an anti-Israel protest, he could prompt a “reaction.” A video released by the Campaign Against Antisemitism, or CAA, shows the officer telling Falter he was “quite openly Jewish” due to his head covering.

“This is a pro-Palestinian march. I’m not accusing you of anything, but I am worried about the reaction to your presence,” the officer stated. Later in the video, a second officer told Falter that if he did not agree to be escorted from the area, he would be arrested.

On Sunday, Britain’s Sky News published a lengthy 13-minute video and transcript of Falter’s altercation with the police officer, which painted a somewhat more nuanced picture than the much-reported soundbites. In the video, the officer offers to escort Falter “to the Israeli flags over there.” He adds, “I am telling you that I will help you by escorting you over there, and that way you will be completely safe just as we promised, so we are keeping our word.”

In response to the initial CAA video, London’s Metropolitan Police initially apologized for the “openly Jewish” remark, but in the same statement criticized pro-Israel individuals for being “provocative.” Following a further torrent of criticism, the police on Friday deleted the earlier statement from its X account and issued a new one, in which the force apologized for the wording of some of the previous apology and clarified that “being Jewish is not a provocation.”


Israel Advocacy Movement: UK Police enforce no go zone
Footage from the al-Quds protest in London 2024




Hate crime hoaxer cries victim again in second fire-bombing incident
Hash Tayeh, known for his anti-Israel activism and previous false accusations of hate crimes, has once again claimed victimhood after an alleged fire-bombing incident at his home.

Tayeh took to Instagram to share footage of the 'terror' attack and demanded his followers 'amplify' his calls for justice.

The vocal Palestinian-Australian, who previously falsely accused the local Jewish community of arson on his Burgertory restaurant, has again stirred division with his latest claims.

Despite previous accusations being debunked, Tayeh insists on 'amplifying his demand for justice' and calls for a police investigation into the incident at his home.

Tayeh's history of deceptive narratives has sparked outrage and led to dangerous consequences, including violent protests and harassment of innocent individuals.

Following his false claim of a hate crime in the wake of anti-Israel activism, a young Jewish man faced harassment and even attempted suicide due to relentless online attacks.

Police were forced to deploy pepper spray and evacuated a synagogue after 100 protesters gathered in a park across the road during Shabbat prayers on the 85th anniversary of Kristallnacht.

A Go Fund Me campaign raised almost $65,000 to 'Rebuild Burgetory' falsely claiming that 'Hash Tayeh an Australian-Palestinian has been subjected to a hate crime'.
As a Palestinian, I deplore what is happening at Columbia and other campuses – and what Hamas has done to us
“A message to the scum of nations and pigs of the Earth. Paradise lies in the shadow of swords. Glory to he who makes the occupier taste bitterness”, the tattered brown cardboard sign read in peculiarly pretentious and melodramatic language, attached with a wedge of black duct tape to a nondescript tent.

“Let it be known”, the woman in the brown keffiyeh spoke into the microphone with a coiled passion, her voice inflected with an American accent. “It was the Al-Aqsa flood (of October 7) that put the global intifada back on the table again. And it is the sacrificial spirit of the Palestinian freedom fighters that will guide every struggle on every corner of the Earth to victory. How far are we willing to go in losing all of the trappings of a respectable life, the material spoils that we have been taught to value as individuals?”

This is the kind of message that as a Palestinian, I have heard a lot over the years from a range of voices on my own side of the conflict. A message of unrestrained militancy, a threat to the world, a warning, an omen of violence. The language of Hamas, the language of al-muqawama (the resistance), the language of war.

But this is not Gaza, nor Yemen, nor Tehran. These are not the militant words of some radical imam amid the dust clouds of Arabia, or the war-torn Mediterranean landscape of Gaza. These are signs posted and words spoken at Columbia University’s Gaza solidarity encampment, in New York, the city with the largest Jewish population in the world - a city populated by 1.6 million Jews as compared to second-place Jerusalem’s 546,000 Jews. If these students wished to emulate their heroes of the Al-Aqsa Flood and attack or kidnap Jews, they would have plenty to choose from.

“Jews, Jews”, the hordes of American students chanted, “go back to Poland”. Many of these students might identify as left-wing and anti-racist, but the only recent historical parallel to this uncloaked antisemitism were the naked chants of “Jews will not replace us” spewed by the so-called alt-right, the incels, groypers, and neo-Nazis in Charlottesville in 2017.
Biden denounces ‘blatant antisemitism’ at Columbia University as Jewish students urged to leave campus
Tensions at Columbia University in New York City have reached boiling point, with a rabbi connected to the Ivy League institution advising Jewish students to leave campus for their own safety and Joe Biden publicly denouncing the “harassment and calls for violence against Jews” at the US college as “blatant antisemitism”.

Rabbi Elie Buechler, of the university’s Orthodox Union Jewish Learning Initiative on Campus, sent a WhatsApp message to a group of 300 Jewish students “strongly” recommending they go home “as soon as possible” and that they stay there until the risk posed on campus has been reduced.

Referencing the increasingly fiery anti-Israel protests that have swept the campus, Buechler warned recent events at the university “have made it clear that Columbia University’s Public Safety [service] and the NYPD cannot guarantee Jewish students’ safety”.

The rabbi said: “It deeply pains me to say that I would strongly recommend you return home as soon as possible and remain home until the reality in and around campus has dramatically improved.”

His message came as tensions at the university – which had been rising since Hamas’s terror attack on Israel on October 7 – sharply escalated after officials at Columbia, including the university’s president, Dr Minouche Shafik, testified before Congress about antisemitism on campus. Following their appearance before Congress on Wednesday, the intensity of the protests on and around the insititution’s grounds has exploded, with numerous videos documenting the heated demonstrations shared online over the weekend.

In one video, a man can be seen shouting at two Jewish students: “Never forget the seventh of October”. Another man, whose face is covered in a keffiyeh and sunglasses yells: “That will happen not one more time, not five more times, not ten more times, not 100 more times, not 1,000 more times, but 10,000 times!” This is greeted with cheers from the surrounding demonstrators.

A separate video taken outside the university’s campus on Saturday night showed a group of pro-Palestinian demonstrators chanting: “Go back to Poland.”

Meanwhile, in another video Jewish students appear to be surrounded by demonstrators at the university, and one of the mob can be heard saying: “We have Zionists at the entrance to our encampment.”


Hochul condemns Jew-hatred at Columbia
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul condemned antisemitism threats against Jewish students and glorifying the Oct. 7 atrocities in a social media post on Sunday evening.

“The First Amendment protects the right to protest, but students also have a right to learn in an environment free from harassment or violence,” the New York Democrat wrote. “At Columbia, or on any campus, threatening Jewish students with violence or glorifying the terror of Oct. 7 is antisemitism.”

The governor’s comments came after a weekend in which anti-Israel activists encamped on the Columbia University campus and at other educational institutions, intimidating and sometimes attacking Jewish students, praising Palestinian violence and calling for the severing of ties with Israel.
Robert Kraft: No support for Columbia ‘until corrective action is taken’
Robert Kraft, the billionaire philanthropist and New England Patriots owner, no longer recognizes his alma mater, Columbia University, which has been the site of antisemitic student protests, including violent ones, in recent days.

“I am deeply saddened at the virulent hate that continues to grow on campus and throughout our country,” stated Kraft, founder of the Foundation to Combat Antisemitism.

The Jewish businessman got his start at Columbia, where he earned a full academic scholarship. “For that, I have been tremendously grateful,” he stated. “However, the school I love so much—the one that welcomed me and provided me with so much opportunity—is no longer an institution I recognize.”

“I am no longer confident that Columbia can protect its students and staff and I am not comfortable supporting the university until corrective action is taken,” Kraft added.

“It is my hope that Columbia and its leadership will stand up to this hate by ending these protests immediately and will work to earn back the respect and trust of the many of us who have lost faith in the institution,” he added.

“It is my hope that in this difficult time, the Kraft Center at Columbia will serve as a source of security and safety for all Jewish students and faculty on campus who want to gather peacefully to practice their religion, to be together and to be welcomed,” Kraft said.


Pro-terror rhetoric rises as anti-Israel activists think they’re winning
The anti-Israel activists smelled blood in the water on April 15 as organizations like WOL and American Muslims for Palestine blockaded bridges, roads, airports, and businesses in an effort to cause economic damage to Western states.

As their confidence grew, they shouted “Death to America” while burning US flags and, with Hamas headbands and Hezbollah flags, showed open support for terrorist organizations.

Anti-Israel activists feel like they are defeating the administration and the New York Police Department when maintaining their encampment.

Moreover, they believe, perhaps rightly so, that they can replicate the encampment of universities across the United States and force institutions to adopt boycott, divestment, and sanctions policies.

“Who runs Columbia?” the activists chanted during a livestream on social media on Saturday. “The students run Columbia!”

During the protests, they confirmed what was meant by chants like “Globalize the intifada,” with a protest leader giving a speech on Saturday night explaining that “it was the Al-Aqsa Flood that put the global intifada back on the table again.”

Initial calls for a ceasefire were a ploy
Calls for a ceasefire were revealed to be merely a ploy as activists urged Hamas to fire rockets at Tel Aviv.

They showed that they fully supported the actions of October 7, warning that the “7th of October is going to be every day for you.”

As they chanted “Jews” and told them to “go back to Poland” and sang in Arabic that “from river to river, Palestine is Arab,” it became painfully obvious that they wanted to ethnically cleanse or genocide Jews in the Levant.

As events continue to unfold in Columbia and other universities and anti-Israel activists get drunk on victory, they will no doubt continue to reveal even more about their true intentions.

After October 7, they put the mask back on, and they will try to do so again after this wave of chaos.

It is necessary to share what they truly think and desire as broadly as possible so that, no matter what, everyone will know the ugliness behind the mask.
Columbia University Campus Unravels in Face of Escalating Anti-Semitic, Eliminationist Protests
Rep. Virginia Foxx (R., N.C.), the head of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, also sent Shafik a letter Sunday calling the situation on campus "unacceptable." She called on Shafik to expel anti-Semitic protesters.

"The students, faculty, and staff responsible for this mayhem, including members of the groups Students for Justice in Palestine, Jewish Voice for Peace, Columbia University Apartheid Divest, and Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine, repeatedly and flagrantly have violated multiple University rules, and in many cases, federal law," Foxx wrote. "The University must decisively hold them accountable in a manner commensurate with the severity of their offenses, including expulsion and termination of employment."

A Columbia University spokeswoman told the Washington Free Beacon that the school is "providing additional support and resources" to ensure safety but did not elaborate further.

"Columbia students have the right to protest, but they are not allowed to disrupt campus life or harass and intimidate fellow students and members of our community," the spokeswoman said. "We are acting on concerns we are hearing from our Jewish students and are providing additional support and resources to ensure that our community remains safe."

As of Sunday, anti-Semitic protesters have reoccupied the school’s lawn and set up a new tent encampment. Students set up a similar encampment on Wednesday, the day of Shafik's testimony, but scores of participants were arrested the following day. Video captured Sunday morning also shows students leading chants for the destruction of Israel.
Columbia Moves All Classes Online Amid Campus Chaos
Columbia University moved all Monday classes online as the week-long Jewish holiday of Passover begins amid widespread anti-Semitic protests on campus.

"To deescalate the rancor and give us all a chance to consider next steps, I am announcing that all classes will be held virtually on Monday," Columbia president Minouche Shafik said in a Monday statement to the campus community.

"Over the past days, there have been too many examples of intimidating and harassing behavior on our campus," Shafik said of the chaotic anti-Israel protests, sometimes featuring violence and anti-Semitic rhetoric, that have engulfed the university since Wednesday. "Antisemitic language, like any other language that is used to hurt and frighten people, is unacceptable and appropriate action will be taken."

The chaos unfolded Wednesday morning when protesters established an encampment on Columbia’s main lawn, with students shouting anti-Semitic slogans and demanding the university divest from Israel. After the student protesters ignored repeated orders to leave, New York City police on Thursday arrested some protesters, including Isra Hirsi, the daughter of "Squad" member Rep. Ilhan Omar (D., Minn.).

The demonstrations continued despite police interventions, resulting in the arrest of more than 100 Columbia students by the weekend. Columbia said it has suspended all of the arrested students.

FBI director Christopher Wray on Wednesday said his agency would be on alert for anti-Semitic hate crimes ahead of Passover, a Jewish holiday that runs this year from April 22 to April 30.

"Today, we at the bureau remain particularly concerned that lone actors could target large gatherings, high-profile events, or symbolic or religious locations for violence—particularly a concern, of course, as we look to the start of Passover on Monday evening," Wray said at an event hosted by Jewish security organization Secure Community Network.


Calls for a double Holocaust at Columbia U
For the last six months, we have been gaslit and told that ‘From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free’ is not antisemitic or genocidal but merely a call for peace and freedom.

We have been told that these constant displays of hate are merely exercises of free speech against Israel and any criticism of them is an attempt to silence critics of Israel.

This is even as antisemitic incidents rose over 300%, as security around Jewish institutions had to be increased, and as police in London warned a visibly Jewish man that his very existence was triggering to the anti-Israel mob.

A rabbi at Columbia has warned Jewish students to go home and stay off campus for their own safety, and before that, Jewish students were already requesting permission to learn remotely rather than risk violence from those who so openly wish to murder them.

And still there are those who defend those who call to murder Jews in New York City as mere critics of Israel, who decry any attempt to combat this naked hatred as the silencing of legitimate criticism.

Those who constantly defame Israel with the charge of “genocide” have nothing but good things to say about those who openly call for the murder of literally millions of Jews, of twice as many Jews as the Nazis succeeded in killing. Because that is the point of the genocide accusation in the first place, to keep Israel from being able to defend itself against a real genocide and leave Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah, and their Iranian masters free to murder every last Jewish person in the State of Israel.

Calling for 10,000 October 7s or the murder of Jewish students should cross a line that makes everyone step back and truly take stock of what is happening. There has already been violence, such as the Jewish student reporter who was stabbed in the eye by an anti-Israel demonstrator with a flag.

There is a famous sketch by the British comedy show That Mitchell and Webb Look in which two Nazi soldiers notice the skulls on their caps and ask, “are we the baddies?”

If the useful idiots who have joined the antisemitic chorus supporting Hamas’s genocidal war to wipe out the Jewish people would ever have a moment of self-reflection and realize just how evil the people they have joined forces with are, this is a question they would ask themselves.

“Are we the baddies?” If you’re on the side of someone who calls for 10,000 October 7s, if you’re on the side of someone who carries a sign pointing at Jewish students and calling on Hamas to murder them, then yes, you are.

And at this point, more than six months after it became clear who the modern day Nazis are and with such open calls for an updated Holocaust, you don’t deserve the benefit of the doubt.


Eric Holder Says Columbia’s Campus Agitators Have 'Legitimate Concerns.' His Law Firm, Covington & Burling, Said Their Behavior ‘Would Not Be Tolerated.’
Former attorney general Eric Holder rallied behind Columbia University’s student protesters on Thursday as the New York Police Department swooped in and tried to clear the campus green of disruptive protesters acting in violation of university policy.

Holder, a Columbia College and Columbia Law School graduate, said in a tweet on Thursday that campus "unrest" is fueled by "legitimate concerns about Gaza" and described congressional hearings about the explosion of campus anti-Semitism in the wake of Oct. 7 as "irresponsible-unproductive-witch hunt-political hearings."

Holder’s defense of the Columbia protesters, who were violating of university policy and shouting anti-Semitic slogans including "Globalize the intifada" and "NYPD, KKK, IDF, you're all the same," does not square with his law firm Covington & Burling's decision late last year to sign a letter, along with dozens of white shoe firms, expressing zero-tolerance for the disruptive, anti-Semitic protests taking place on college and law school campuses across the country.

"As employers who recruit from each of your law schools, we look to you to ensure your students who hope to join our firms after graduation are prepared to be an active part of workplace communities that have zero tolerance policies for any form of discrimination or harassment, much less the kind that has been taking place on some law school campuses," the letter stated.

Chants calling for "the death of Jews and the elimination of the state of Israel," Covington and other firms said, are "anti-Semitic activities" that "would not be tolerated at any of our firms."

A team of Covington lawyers led by partner Dana Remus also represented Columbia and helped prepare Columbia president Minouche Shafik for her appearance before a House panel last week, according to a source familiar with the situation.
Columbia’s most outspoken critic of anti-Israel protesters, Prof. Shai Davidai, refused entry to campus for pro-Jewish rally
A Columbia University professor who has been a vocal critic of the administration’s response to the ongoing anti-Israel student protests was barred from campus after he tried to lead a pro-Jewish rally at the Ivy League college.

Israel-born Shai Davidai, an assistant professor at Columbia Business School and an outspoken supporter of the Jewish state, said that when he swiped his key card at the school’s Morningside Heights campus, it read “deactivated.”

“They are not letting me on main campus,” he told a crowd of pro-Israel rallies at the school’s gate.

He said administrators told him they banned him for campus because they could not ensure his safety.

Many of the demonstrators who arrived to show solidarity with Columbia’s Jewish community were also turned away at the gates of the Ivy Leave school — though some with active Columbia IDs were allowed in.

Hundreds of anti-Israel protesters — all of whom also had to swipe their Columbia ID cards to get in — are camped out on the campus.

They have been filmed making actively pro-Hamas and antisemitic statements — including one alleged student who held a sign suggesting pro-Israel demonstrators should be the next target of Hamas terrorists.

The growing chaos at the university has only increased calls for university President Minouche Shafik to resign over her handling of the situation.

Just a day after House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik demanded Shafik retire, the rest of New York’s Republican delegation signed a letter calling on the embattled school president to step down.


Columbia cancels in-person classes to ‘reset’ as anti-Israel protests raise tensions
Columbia University canceled all in-person classes Monday ahead of the start of Passover as anti-Israel protests continue on campus — flaring tensions and stoking safety concerns at the prestigious school.

Embattled President Minouche Shafik, who has vowed to crack down on antisemitism, told students in an email that was also shared to the Ivy League college’s website that they “need a reset” as the heated demonstrations enter the sixth day.

“I am deeply saddened by what is happening on our campus. Our bonds as a community have been severely tested in ways that will take a great deal of time and effort to reaffirm,” Shafik wrote.

“Students across an array of communities have conveyed fears for their safety and we have announced additional actions we are taking to address security concerns.”

Those fears, expressed by many Jewish students, were addressed Sunday by a prominent rabbi at the prestigious school, who urged Columbia and Barnard students to go home — and stay there until conflicts on campus dissipate.

Passover, a major Jewish holiday, begins Monday evening.

Shafik said tensions across campus have been “exploited and amplified by individuals who are not affiliated with Columbia who have come to campus to pursue their own agendas.”

“I understand that many are experiencing deep moral distress and want Columbia to help alleviate this by taking action. We should be having serious conversations about how Columbia can contribute,” Shafik said.

Shafik acknowledged there will be many opinions on how the university can do this, but noted they could not “have one group dictate terms and attempt to disrupt important milestones like graduation to advance their point of view.”
Ilhan Omar’s daughter, Isra Hirsi, says she’s homeless, cries poverty after suspension from $90K-per-year college over anti-Israel protests
The privileged daughter of Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar amazingly claims she’s homeless and can’t get food after being kicked out of her prestigious $90,000-per-year Barnard College dorm following her arrest at last week’s anti-Israel protests on Columbia University’s campus.

Isra Hirsi, 21, and a handful of other Barnard students were slapped with suspensions after they were among the more than 100 protestors cuffed and hauled away for refusing to clear out from a tent encampment on the Ivy League school’s campus last Thursday.

“I was a little bit frantic, like, where am I going to sleep? Where am I gonna go?” she whined to Teen Vogue after learning she’d been evicted from campus housing and banned from using the dining hall.

“And also all of my s–t is thrown in a random lot. It’s pretty horrible,” said the disgraced student still supported by her Democratic “squad” member mom, who said she is ” enormously proud” of her daughter.

“I have like four shirts, two pairs of pants,” Hirsi complained. “I don’t know when I can go home, and I don’t know if I ever will be able to.”

Hirsi, who is a member of the anti-Israel student group Apartheid Divest, had already received notice of her suspension early Thursday — hours before the NYPD was called in to arrest protestors and help dismantle the anti-Israel protest encampment.

Barnard administrators had initially started warning their students late Wednesday that they risked being suspended if they didn’t clear out.

When Hirsi sought help from Barnard administration after being cut loose from jail on Thursday, she whined that she’d heard crickets.


No 'class' Privileged Columbia protester who ‘killed’ elderly couple in crash should be in jail, not on campus, furious family says
An ultra-privileged protester who was busted at a Columbia University anti-Israel encampment on Thursday should be in jail — not at an elite college — says the niece of the elderly Vermont couple who were killed in a crash she allegedly caused.

As a teenager, Isabel Jennifer Seward, 20, crossed the double line and collided head-on with Chet and Connie Hawkins on Sept. 8, 2020, according to police reports.

“The only reason she wasn’t charged with murder is because she has a rich daddy,” Eve Taylor, 49, claimed.

Seward, the daughter of high-ranking UPS executive William J. Seward, was 16 at the time and comes from a well-heeled family.

When she was detained by the NYPD at Columbia on Thursday, she listed her home address as a $2.2 million mansion in a tony section of northeast Atlanta.

Following the 2020 crash, Seward pleaded no contest to a civil traffic ticket and was issued a $220 fine — which her mother paid, according to the Rutland Herald.


NYC Mayor on Columbia protests: 'We will not be a city of lawlessness'
New York City Mayor Eric Adams said he is “horrified and disgusted” with the antisemitism being spewed at and around Columbia University’s campus, according to a statement from the mayor’s office on Sunday night.

Adams said he condemns the hate speech heard during the protests such as a woman who yelled ‘We are Hamas’ and another woman who held a sign with an arrow pointing to Jewish students stating ‘Al-Qasam’s Next Targets.’

Adams said supporting an organization that threatens to kill Jews is “sickening and despicable.”

“As I have repeatedly said, hate has no place in our city, and I have instructed the NYPD to investigate any violation of law that is reported,” Adams said. “Rest assured, the NYPD will not hesitate to arrest anyone who is found to be breaking the law.”

Adams said New York City will not be a city of lawlessness, and those professional agitators seeking to seize the ongoing conflict in the Middle East to sow chaos and division in our city will not succeed.

The mayor noted, however, that he wanted to be “abundantly clear” that Columbia is a private institution on private property and the NYPD cannot have a presence on campus unless requested by senior university officials.

The NYPD has an increased presence of officers situated around the campus to protect students and all New Yorkers, Adams said, adding that police are ready to respond if Columbia makes another request for their presence on campus when officers successfully cleared protest encampments on Columbia’s South Lawn without any injuries.

Adams said he urges Columbia senior administration officials to improve and maintain open lines of communication with the NYPD.


I Was Stabbed in the Eye at Yale
I was stabbed in the eye last night on Yale University’s campus because I am a Jew.

I wish I could say I was surprised, but since October 7, Yale has refused to take action against students glorifying violence, chanting “resistance is justified,” “celebrat[ing] the resistance’s success,” and fundraising for “Palestinian anarchist fighters” on the frontlines of the “resistance.” In more recent days, the school has allowed students to run roughshod over their most basic policies against postering, time and place restrictions, disorderly conduct, respect for university property, and the rights of others, not to mention stalking and harassment.

Yesterday, I paid the price for their inaction.

This latest round of anti-Israel demonstrations at Yale began April 10 when a group of a dozen Yale students threatened to go on a hunger strike if, by the end of the week, the university did not divest from weapons manufacturers “contributing to Israel’s assault on Palestine.” The strikers’ letter, posted around campus, claimed “our existence in this University and this country are ones defined by necropolitics,” seeming to invoke a blood libel about Jewish power.

The hunger strike began April 13, when students set up a tent encampment outside of Yale’s Sterling Library and later that week moved locations to Beinecke Plaza, which is at the center of campus and is home to Yale’s World War II memorial. At the time, my friends and I had thought that this was nothing more than a tactic to intimidate prospective and admitted Jewish students, who were on campus visiting that week: a sign next to the encampment read “Ask your tour guide about Yale’s investment in genocide.”

By April 15, the hunger strikers were joined by a new anti-Israel campus group called “Occupy Beinecke.” Occupy Beinecke erected a wall on Beinecke Plaza, and covered the Plaza with dozens of large posters, including a memorial (where students drop off flowers) for Walid Daqqa, who commanded the terrorist group the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and was imprisoned for the kidnapping, mutilation, and murder of 19-year-old Israeli Moshe Tamam.
At Yale, Anti-Israel Protesters Injure Jewish Student and Tear Down American Flag From War Memorial As Administrators Stand By
Pro-Palestinian protesters at Yale University this weekend occupied a World War II memorial, tore down an American flag that flew there, and sent a Jewish student to the hospital as administrators stood by and refused to break up the protest, which violated several university rules.

The protest on Beinecke Plaza—a quad in the center of campus dedicated to Yale students who fought in WWII—focused on the university’s investments in military contractors and included graduate students participating in a "hunger strike," now in its second week.

The investments comprise a tiny share of Yale’s $40.7 billion endowment: The school holds just $21,000 worth of stock in military contractors.

Those minuscule holdings triggered an uprising on Friday as students occupied the plaza and camped out overnight, in violation of university policies. The students tore down an American flag flying at the memorial, according to the Yale Daily News, but were not ejected from the quad despite threats of disciplinary action from administrators.

The encampment continued throughout the weekend. By Saturday evening, a Jewish student had been injured by a flag-wielding protester with no end to the chaos in sight.

Yale police were waiting to take action, an officer told a Jewish student on Saturday, until the administration gave them the green light to disperse the protest, according to a recording of the phone call between the officer and the student reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon. The university declined to say when, or whether, it would give that order.

The inaction comes as pro-Palestinian students—often with the support of faculty—have occupied school buildings and commandeered public spaces on campuses across the country. Tensions reached a new high this week after Columbia University arrested 100 students camped out in the middle of campus. The arrests attracted hundreds of additional protesters, both from Columbia and outside of it, who have told Jewish students to "go back to Poland" and called on Hamas to kill pro-Israel counterprotesters.
Police storm Yale University’s campus with riot gear, 47 arrested as hundreds stage anti-Israel protest
Police clad in riot gear swarmed Yale University’s Connecticut campus early Monday and arrested dozens of students who refused to clear out from an anti-Israel protest encampment.

At least 47 protesters were cuffed and hauled away from the Ivy League’s New Haven campus on shuttle buses, a university spokesperson confirmed to The Post.

They were slapped with trespassing summons — and will be referred for Yale disciplinary action, which may include suspensions, the rep added.

The mass arrests came after footage posted online showed cops arriving at the Ivy League school and blocking off entrances to a plaza, where roughly 200 protesters had been gathered.

Cops repeatedly warned protesters they risked being arrested if they didn’t clear out, the Yale spokesperson said.

As police descended on the campus, a group of defiant students had locked arms around a flagpole and were singing “We shall not be moved” — as officers could be seen checking the dozens of tents erected in the plaza, according to a video posted on X.

While the arrests were underway, others could be heard taunting the Yale Police Depatment (YPD), “YPD or KKK, IDF they’re all the same” and chanting, “Arab blood is not cheap, for the martyrs we will speak,” according to the Yale Daily News.

Cops had cleared the plaza and encampment of student protesters by about 8 a.m.

“Today, members of Yale’s police department isolated the area and asked protestors to show identification; some left voluntarily. When others did not comply after multiple requests, the Yale Police Department issued summonses to 47 students,” the spokesperson said.

“The university made the decision to arrest those individuals who would not leave the Plaza with the safety and security of the entire Yale community in mind and to allow access to university facilities by all members of our community.”




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