Thursday, April 25, 2024

04/25 Links Pt2: It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like 1938; Camping Out at Columbia’s Communist Coachella; When Western culture goes mad, it attacks Jews

From Ian:

It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like 1938
If Jews do not feel safe on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, in New York City, in the United States of America, where can they feel safe?

NYC is home to some 1.3 million Jews, the most outside of Israel. Jewish men and women have thrived in The Big Apple for hundreds of years, enjoying religious freedom, prosperity, political power, and the affection and goodwill of millions of their gentile neighbors, colleagues, and loved ones.

Jewish culture is NYC culture. New Yorkers of all stripes schlep packages to the Post Office, kvetch when things go awry, and mock their friends when they act like putzes. Those of us who call NYC home need not be Jewish to speak and act this way. We live in New York. We pick it up.

However, things lately have been far from dancing the Horah.

Protests began after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, massacre against Israel. The Iranian-sponsored terrorist group butchered some 1,200 Israelis and kidnapped 240 hostages from Israel, America, and other nations. These demonstrations have devolved from opposition to Israel’s self-defense against these killers from the Gaza Strip, into support for Hamas, and now open hatred of Jews, per se.

At Columbia University, many pro-Hamas protesters are dressed in the black and white keffiyeh headdresses that are the Brownshirts of the Palestinazis. In recent days, they have waved Hamas flags, yelled Hamas slogans, and intimidated, threatened, and assaulted Jewish students, particularly those who wear yarmulkes and otherwise visually identify themselves as Jews.

Israeli and U.S. flags have been set ablaze.

“We are Hamas!” one protester yelled, just outside the campus gates, while banging a pot against a police barricade.

“You guys are all inbred,” one protester screamed at sophomore Jonathan Lederer and some 20 Jewish students singing songs of peace on campus Saturday, just before the pro-Hamas faction threw water in their faces and hurled projectiles at Lederer’s head and chest.

The anti-Semites also chanted: “We say justice, you say how? Burn Tel Aviv to the ground.” Also: “Hamas, we love you. We support your rockets, too.”

“Go back to Poland!” another pro-Hamas thug screamed at a Jewish student. “We all know how things turned out the last time the Jews were in Poland,” he said on Fox & Friends yesterday morning.

“The environment at Columbia University is absolutely dreadful,” graduate student Xavier Westergaard said Monday on America Reports. Campus police may not do anything “when presented with issues ranging from ‘I’ve just been spat on,’ ‘I’ve just been yelled at,’ ‘I’ve just been kicked.’ People are yelling, ‘Jewish students die,’ ‘Jews go back to Poland.’ This is insane. It feels like anarchy, and we are not being supported by our university.”
Ayaan Hirsi Ali: The Contagion of University Pro-Hamas Protests
The situation unfolding across college campuses in the United States is a complicated one, and bears reflection. I do not propose anything definitive, but I wanted to share a few thoughts.

A Very Brief History of the University:
The first question we must ask is “What are universities even for?” It is not an easy one. They began as institutions to train clerics in theology and philosophy, and evolved gradually into places for training gentleman scholars. Oxford and Cambridge in the 19th century did not live up to the model St. John Henry Newman describes in The Idea of a University, but they did a much better job than we do today. Over time, led by the Germans, universities became multiversities, where scholars ceased to attempt to build a comprehensive view of the world, instead locking themselves in siloed sub-fields.

Restoration, with Ayaan Hirsi Ali is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Next, American universities led the transition away from scholarship and towards professionalization. People started studying “business arts,” as if business were the same sort of activity as the pursuit of truth for its own sake. I have nothing against business. Making a good living for one’s family is noble. But insofar as it is an art, it is a servile one, not a liberal one. Accompanying professionalization was, paradoxically, radicalization. People who wanted to get on with life started studying to be accountants and engineers; radicals took over what remained of the liberal arts. This decay is best chronicled by Allan Bloom in The Closing of the American Mind, a book I encourage you all to read.

Now we are witnessing the completion of the university’s unraveling. We hardly even produce professionals now, but activists who take a few Zoom classes on racialized communism and spend the rest of their time scrolling TikTok and indulging resentment. Middle managers may not be philosophers, but at least they do something useful. A degree in Queer Theory prepares you for no life beyond perpetual adolescent whining. The professors of the 60’s gave up the classics to focus on changing the world. Well, they succeeded. Moral formation has been replaced by sweet, glorious self-pity and the narcissistic pursuit of utopia. Beauty is something to be deconstructed by art and architecture students in ever-uglier buildings. And truth? In their minds, there is no such thing. Only power remains. How terrible it must be to see the whole of existence through culturally Marxist eyes! Terrible, but, at least, cognitively undemanding.

The radical cultural Marxists weakened universities and, by extension, society. They also made it easier for radical Islam to infiltrate universities, filling the moral vacuum the radicals created with their hazy relativism. This unholy combination of radicals and Islamists then preyed on the impressionable elite students entrusted to the universities. Long story short: We have future graduates of Columbia, NYU, Harvard, and beyond bleating Pro-Hamas slogans spoon-fed to them by hardened extremists. Students who fancy themselves freedom fighters shouting “Intifada and martyrdom.” In their obnoxious gullibility they fail to see what those slogans would mean if applied to their young lives. If you’re wondering, look at what happened to the Israeli students at the Nova festival on October 7th. So ignorant and out of touch are these Ivy League scholars that they do not know that the kids dancing at that ill-fated festival were young, liberal peaceniks.
Seth Mandel: Dr. Snowflake and Mr. Intifada
Unhoused, unfed, and even temporarily unschooled, this freedom fighter would have her story told. Except, it wasn’t actually her story. In fact, Isra Omar and her peers were warned explicitly of the consequences of their Hamasville tent city, which they set up the same day Omar’s mother browbeat the president of the university from which Omar was threatened with suspension. It’s just that Omar genuinely could not imagine that she personally would face consequences—as if she were just any other kid. Her mother the congresswoman worked very hard to intimidate Columbia President Minouche Shafik on television before Congress, and yet she was given no special treatment.

Ilhan Omar’s fellow squadnik Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has her back. She worried about “violent” cops at Columbia (of which there have been exactly zero), demanding to know why “counterterror units” were on the scene. That is, she worried that people who pledged their sympathy to a terror organization and then called on that terror organization to come kill Jewish students on campus might be made to feel unsafe by the presence of antiterrorism police.

Back to that hearing: Shafik was asked why Columbia hired as a visiting professor Mohamed Abdou, who was repeatedly, vocally supportive of Hamas and their Oct. 7 slaughter of innocents. Shafik wavered on what Abdou was doing on campus at the moment, but she swore he’d never teach his “Decolonial-Queerness & Abolition” class at Columbia again. (Which didn’t answer the question of why he’d been hired in the first place.) This week while reporting on the protests at Columbia, Free Beacon reporter Jessica Costescu noticed Abdou hanging around the encampment and started filming the scene. She was approached by a student who told her to stop filming for “safety” reasons.

So you see, these students and their congresspersons aren’t heartless monsters. They care deeply—for themselves. They just want to feel safe to threaten some Jewish students and to physically assault others. And of course, if there are Jews who want to join them in pledging fealty to Hamas, they will advocate for their safety too. It’s a big tent city.


Camping Out at Columbia’s Communist Coachella
It’s a Monday afternoon at Columbia University, but hundreds of students are not in class. They’re camped out on a lawn in front of the main library, making friendship bracelets, painting scraps of cardboard, and gossiping about the Zionists on campus.

“What should I do?” a girl with a mullet pops out of a tent to ask her friend. She’s holding a Sharpie in her hand, staring at a blank poster board. “I’m thinking ‘Dykes for Divestment.’ ”

A few steps away, in front of a sign that says “Paint Ur Nails 4 Palestine,” a girl is fanning her freshly polished red toenails. Nearby, a student with Farrah Fawcett’s hairstyle—except purple—is frantically asking other students if they’ve seen her vape. When she finds it buried under a copy of Frantz Fanon’s Black Skin, White Masks and a hoodie, she gasps and clutches it to her heart. No one is paying much attention to a nearby woman with a microphone, desperately trying to rally the crowd.

“Continue to support each other. This is all we have,” she declares. “Onward to liberation.”

There is a brief pause, and then about a dozen students start clapping.

Welcome to the “Gaza Solidarity Encampment,” a sprawling tent city with a first aid center, a counseling tent, a “People’s Library for Liberated Learning,” a writing center, an art corner, a media corner, and a “laundry area” for drying clothes after a rainfall. A student named Ariella, whose entire face is wrapped in a red keffiyeh except for two bright green eyes, tells me “there is a space” for everyone at the camp.

“They say that everybody has a role in the revolution,” they told me (Ariella goes by they/them pronouns). “And so there’s a space for people who like to organize stuff—and that’s me.”


FBI Won’t Say If It’s Investigating Self-Declared ‘Hamas’ Terrorists Protesting At U.S. Universities
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) would not say Tuesday whether it is investigating people identifying themselves as part of a foreign terrorist organization heard chanting “We are Hamas” outside U.S. universities including Columbia.

Video footage shows masked Islamists taunting Jewish students outside of President Barack Obama’s alma mater. One woman shouted at a pro-Israel activist, “We are Hamas” while standing outside Columbia University. “We’re all Hamas.”

Another man who covered his face was seen on video promising more mass slaughter, rape, and kidnapping: “Remember the 7th of October! That will happen not one more time, not five more times, to 10 more times, not 100 more times, not 1,000 more times, but 10,000 times!”

“Never forget the 7th of October,” another unidentifiable man donning the Palestinian flag outside the university screams in a video recording. “Are you ready? Seventh of October is about to be every day. Every day. Seventh of October is going to be every day for you.”

The Federalist asked the FBI whether they would investigate the self-proclaimed terrorists.

“Thank you for your inquiry. However, we decline comment on this matter,” the bureau replied.

The FBI designates Hamas as a terrorist organization.
Michael Oren: FBI must investigate money trail behind campus antisemitic protests
Starting April 17, pro-Palestinian students at Columbia University established the Gaza Solidarity Encampment, launching a campaign demanding that the university divest from Israel. The New York-based Ivy League school joins universities across the United States, such as Emerson, Vanderbilt, Yale, and the University of California, Berkeley that have seen similar protests, along with a rise in reported antisemitic incidents.

The Media Line spoke to former Israeli Ambassador to the US and Columbia alumnus Michael Oren, who expressed deep concern over the situation. He described the current campus climate as "intolerable, unacceptable, and exceedingly dangerous," impacting not only Jews but also the broader Western society. Oren traced the origins of these sentiments back to the 1960s youth revolutions.

After their initial failure, he said, these movements embedded themselves in academia, subtly promoting anti-establishment ideologies over decades. “They went back into the campus and spent 50 years instilling their ideas into students and professors to inspire government officials and corporate executives on this particular set of self-declared anti-establishment ideas as trojan horses for antisemitism.”

Anti-war protests of today are actually pro-war
Oren drew parallels between the 1968 anti-war riots and today's campus movements, which he views as pro-war due to their exclusion of Israel.

This shift has notably affected disciplines like American Studies, which have become distinctly anti-American, Oren continued. He also pointed out that even some Jewish academics have joined the anti-Israel chorus, failing to recognize the potential negative consequences for themselves. “They fail to see that this path also ends badly for them.”
NGO Monitor: The NGO Network Orchestrating Antisemitic Incitement on American Campuses
In the wake of October 7, the exponential rise in antisemitic violence, incitement, intimidation, and harassment on and around campuses in the United States is not the product of spontaneous protests of individuals. Rather, they are tightly coordinated and well-funded by a network of radical and often antisemitic non-governmental organizations (NGOs), including Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), Within Our Lifetime, US Campaign for Palestinian Rights, and Samidoun. Under the guise of human rights and justice, these NGOs work to undermine the economic, military and other ties between US and Israel, and to besiege and divide the US Jewish community.

All of these groups have supported and justified the October 7th massacre, as well as other attacks. Many of the NGOs in the network are directly linked to designated Palestinian terror organizations.

A common feature of all these NGOs is non-transparent funding and structure, as documented in detailed NGO Monitor research.

Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) – founded 1993 at UC Berkeley
- SJP in different forms is the campus organization most directly responsible for creating a hostile campus environment saturated with anti-Israel propaganda agendas and events, BDS initiatives, and intimidation. Each SJP chapter claims to operate independently although the evidence demonstrates close coordination and shared resources, apparently coordinated through the amorphous National SJP framework.
- In October 2023, in the aftermath of the brutal Hamas attack, SJP published a statement referring to the violence as a “historic win for the Palestinian resistance.” SJP additionally claimed, “This is what it means to Free Palestine: not just slogans and rallies, but armed confrontation with the oppressors.”
- National SJP and the numerous SJP branches are not registered as 501(c)(3) nonprofits and their structures and operating processes are not transparent. They are not subject to laws requiring financial disclosure. The small amounts distributed by student governments for clubs like SJP do not match the scope of activities.
- SJP founder Hatem Bazian is also the co-founder of American Muslims for Palestine (AMP). According to AMP, “We also work in broad-based coalitions and support campus activism through Students for Justice in Palestine.” Little is known about donors to AJP, which reported $1.7 million in income and $1.2 million in expenses in 2021.
- Non-transparent funding: WESPAC Foundation, a Westchester, New York-based organization registered with the IRS as a 501(c)(3) non-profit, serves as the fiscal sponsor for National SJP.
- For more information on SJP and AMP funding, read NGO Monitor’s report, “Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP): Available Funding and Other Information.”


We took a look at the protests on US campuses... They're not what you think
Let's not sugarcoat it: these protests are not about peace but about spreading anti-Israel and anti-Jewish sentiments. The media's portrayal has often obscured these truths, gaslighting Jewish students and downplaying the violence they face.

When hate speaks loud, we must speak louder.


Antisemitism is everywhere. We tracked it across all 50 states.
In Nevada, there are Jews who have hidden any signs of their faith, painting over the mezuzahs that hang outside their homes. That’s happened in Texas, too, where a Jewish city council member’s home in Dallas was defaced with bright red graffiti. But Jews in South Carolina say Christians in their community will stop them on the streets to offer prayers. Sometimes, they even get a hug. Just for being Jewish.

Antisemitism is on the rise in America. Some places you feel that, Jews across the country say, others places you don’t. States are not a monolith, nor are people. But we set out to answer a question: What does the widely reported surge in antisemitism look like? As we interviewed people, there were things we heard over and over: Jews are frightened. They’re frustrated. And they all worry about it, even if they feel safe in their own communities.

Antisemitism impacts secular Jews and religious ones, children and adults, regular folks and TV stars. "The things that are happening now are the things that happened which led my grandparents to flee eastern Europe," Mayim Bialik says. Here, she is pictured during a recent trip to Israel.

Actress Mayim Bialik says Jews everywhere are having the same surreal conversations.

“I thought about taking my mezuzah down in the weeks and first couple months after Oct. 7, and I don’t think about that anymore, but I do have a pervasive fear that I will be confronted by someone, especially since I am a public face of being Jewish,” says the former “Big Bang Theory” star. “It’s a fear that I think many of us have experienced, even if you’re not a public person.”

Bialik feels a responsibility to speak out: “I never thought that my platform would have to be used to defend the right of Jews to exist.

“I was raised and educated and even studied the Jewish experience in America, and I knew that there was a tremendous amount of antisemitism both covert and overt, but I did not understand the scale,” she says. “I had no idea of the scale.”
Will Jewish Voters Stop Voting For The Democrats Who Want To Kill Them?
Jewish Americans are going to have to make a decision – the famously Democrat-leaning minority has a big problem because many of its fellow Democrats want them dead. That’s not an exaggeration – the chant of the Democrat’s left wing is not, “From the river to the sea, the Chosen People should be happy, safe, and free.” Kind of the exact opposite. These scumbag commies are so promiscuous with lies about the Jewish people like “apartheid” and “genocide” they ought to hand out rhetorical condoms on the many college quads these loathsome heirs of the Nazis have infested.

Yet Jews in America overwhelmingly vote Democrat. You know, this might be a good time to rethink their traditional leftist voting habits, but that conundrum represents a conflict in human nature – the conflict between self-preservation and self-identity. I don’t know which one is going to win out, but I know what’s going to happen if the Hamas-huggers win out.

I’m not in the business of telling any particular ethnic group how to vote, and I don’t think any particular ethnic group should vote in any particular way. The whole idea of ethnic voting is stupid. But other people seem to have other opinions. Some groups vote as a bloc. Black Americans almost always vote Democrat – something like 90%, though this time Donald Trump seems to be earning a better percentage. Similarly, Jewish Americans are famously liberal voters, with the vast majority supporting Democrats in the past. But things have changed. The position of the Democratic Party is aligned with the far left, which pretty much wants to kill all the Jews. And Biden really, really wants to win the states with large number of Muslims like the despicable Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar, whose daughter/niece was recently suspended from the University of College for her hate crimes. The Democrats are not show about excommunicated groups they find to be no longer useful to their goal of attaining power. They famously dumped the white working class in recent decades. Guess we know who’s the next to get the boot.

Now the Democrats are siding with the people who not merely excuse but celebrate the murder of Jews, and who would not hesitate to bring October 7th here. I talk about that in my new book – these Gaza-loving geebos will be eager accomplices to the terrorist attack Biden’s weakness is inviting. Does that assessment sound harsh? Maybe, but it’s entirely true. They know it, we know it, and the only people who don’t know it are the people who don’t want to know it. You cannot look at these braying brown shirts with their stupid headgear and ubiquitous face masks and not see a pack of keffiyeh-clad Khmer Rouge wannabes unless you choose not to.
Biden administration caving to BDS tactics against Israel
Secretary of State Antony Blinken is reportedly considering blacklisting the IDF’s Netzach Yehuda Battalion under the “Leahy Laws,” two statutory provisions that, according to the State Department, prohibit the U.S. government “from using funds for assistance to units of foreign security forces where there is credible information implicating that unit in the commission of gross violations of human rights.”

Extreme political NGOs and rights organizations often falsely accuse Israel of committing human rights abuses. In October 2022, DAWN (Democracy for the Arab World Now) submitted to the State Department a Leahy Law referral against the Netzach Yehuda Battalion for alleged “systematic and widespread abuses.”

The battalion, an exclusively male, ultra-Orthodox battalion that, until late 2022 served in the Jordan Valley and Samaria and today operates in Gaza fighting Hamas terrorists, has faced accusations of abuse, most notably in the case of 78-year-old Palestinian-American Omar As’ad, who in 2022 died after being detained by the battalion.

But many critics see this hostile move as nothing short of preposterous, with the Biden administration hoping to win over anti-Israel voters ahead of the U.S. elections in November by delegitimizing the Jewish state as it fights a crucial war against a genocidal enemy.

Richard Goldberg, a senior adviser at the Washington-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies, specifically blamed U.S. President Joe Biden, telling JNS the president “appears to be ready to cross yet another Rubicon, this time in delegitimizing the military of a close democratic ally by fundamentally questioning its integrity, morality and adherence to the rule of law.”

Goldberg added that the Biden administration is sourcing its information from “radical extremist organizations that work to destroy the State of Israel on a daily basis—some with ties to terrorist organizations.”

According to Goldberg, the ongoing political warfare against Israel “has emboldened Hamas, Hezbollah, and ultimately Iran.

“That Hamas refuses to release any more hostages and that Iran felt so confident in launching 120 ballistic missiles at Israel is a direct result of the Biden administration using BDS delegitimization tactics against a democratic ally,” he said.

In an April 21 post on X, Goldberg called on U.S. senators to “elevate this [the Netzach Yehuda issue] to the President right now before the supplemental has passed the Senate, and get a firm commitment that such a morally bankrupt and irresponsible action will not occur. The House and Senate should ready legislative responses.”

He also accused some employees of the State Department of harboring “virulent anti-Israel sentiment” and said there are “radical anti-Israel activists inside the Biden administration” who have a “long-awaited dream of imposing sanctions on the IDF or its units.”

Goldberg called on committees of jurisdiction to “move expeditiously to demand Secretary Blinken turn over the list of organizations that submitted ‘evidence’ that’s been used as the basis for a potential imposition of sanctions. … All communications on this matter between both State and NSC [the National Security Council] and State and outside groups should be subpoenaed.”
Campus Rioters are not Just Dangerous and Antisemitic. They’re Also Phony.
These protesters are not noble warriors. They are phony rebels. If they really cared about the plight of Palestinians, they wouldn’t have remained silent for decades while Palestinians suffered (and continue to suffer) their worst oppression in places like Jordan and Lebanon. Those “other” Palestinians never mattered, just as the millions of refugees around the world don’t matter, because they have no connection to the world’s ultimate oppressors—white Jews.

No wonder so many of these groups went berserk right after Hamas committed the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. They couldn’t swallow the possibility that big, bad Jews would enter the oppressed class, even for a day or two.

We shouldn’t fall for the trap of “genuine criticism” of Israel. These protests have nothing to do with criticism. No one has ever claimed that Israel is perfect or that it doesn’t make its share of blunders. In fact, you’ll find the biggest demonstrations against the Israeli government in Israel itself. If ever there was a country that didn’t need more piling on, it would be Israel.

The fact that the United Nations condemns Israel more than all other nations combined tells us plenty not about Israel but about the United Nations.

The fact that college rioters are focusing their venom on the world’s most condemned nation tells us plenty not about Israel but about the rioters. It tells us, among other things, that they are not revolutionaries but lame conformists.

As we contain the assault on Jewish students that have turned our campuses into danger zones, anxious Jewish students need not be fooled by the optics of protest. They can gain strength from knowing the true colors of those trying to intimidate them.

The hysterical rioters in their midst are not social justice warriors who want peace in Gaza. They are blowhards pretending to be rebels and picking on the world’s easiest target.
When Western culture goes mad, it attacks Jews
In Pedro Almodovar's film, “La mala educación”, there is an amazing phrase from the protagonist, Ignacio: “I don't believe in anything and therefore I'm not afraid of anything”. Here it is, the new spirit blowing in the West from Columbia University to the Biennale in Venice, one of the world’s most famous artistic festivals which opened this week in Italy.

A progressive, inclusive, anti-colonial Biennale open to the "South of the world", where sexual gender and geographical origin count more than talent.

In a work exhibited in Spain's national pavilion in the Venetian Gardens, Peruvian artist Sandra Gamarra compares the treatment of Palestinian Arabs to discrimination against transgender people. “Transbody is to normative heterosexuality what Palestine is to the West: a colony whose extent and form are perpetuated only through violence,” Gamarra wrote in the work.

Fabulous!

In the work at the Bienniale by the Mexican Frieda Toranzo Jaeger, we see a future characterized by queer freedom, ecologism and "Viva Palestina", between a lesbian scene and a reference to Frida Kahlo.

Meanwhile, the ayatollahs, guests in Venice with an exhibition on the "human race" (brilliant), arrested an artist in Tehran who had dared to make fun of the mullahs, painting them in the form of animals. They also subjected her to a “virginity test”.

Fabulous!

Now we all live in the crazy and demented world of Judith Butler, who calls herself “they” but cannot distinguish a democracy that counts heads (Israel) from a caliphate that cuts them off (Gaza).
Anti-Israel bigots do not own our streets
Many have also started counter-protesting the ‘pro-Palestine’ marches directly. There is a sense that the PSC and Co cannot be allowed to own the streets of the UK’s major cities, from London to Liverpool, every Saturday. Many Jews find these weekly marches, with their often outright displays of anti-Semitism, extremely intimidating. If these protests remain unchallenged, onlookers will simply assume that this bigotry speaks for Britain.

The best example of these counter-protests has come from Iranian dissident Niyak Ghorbani. He has been campaigning against the Islamic Republic of Iran for years, but he has recently focussed his attention on Hamas. He wants to remind people that Israel is a key ally in the fight against tyranny. Unlike many in the West, he knows that Israel is on the front line in the struggle against Islamism.

Niyak’s protest strategy is to attend pro-Palestine rallies, full of marchers calling for an immediate ceasefire, while holding a sign that declares Hamas to be a terrorist organisation. This simple act of truth-telling has been incredibly powerful, provoking anger from protesters who would prefer to ignore the fact Israel is fighting a war against Hamas, not Gazan civilians.

His protests have also confused the police, who have arrested and then ‘de-arrested’ him twice since the beginning of March. Niyak’s bravery and tenacity has provoked national debates about Britain’s two-tier approach to policing and has encouraged others to follow suit.

The number of counter-protests has grown since the middle of March. Some have been large and loud, but others have come from small, brave, vocal and local groups. Many of these counter-protests have also been more focussed. Last week, the campaign group ‘Enough is Enough!’ turned up outside a Barclays branch in London, which was being boycotted by the PCS campaign because it does business with Israel. On this occasion, the counter-protesters actually outnumbered the boycotters.

In the current climate, solidarity with the Jewish community and with Israel, as well as greater opposition to arms embargoes and boycotts, are sorely needed. If you can get to London this Saturday, 27 April, then join us for the next lively counter-protest from midday (further details to follow). If not, then join a counter-protest in your area. If there isn’t one, why not set one up? You won’t regret it.


Aviva Klompas: The True Danger of the Chaos at Columbia and Other Elite Universities
So long as Hamas leaders believe Israel is growing more isolated, they will dig in their heels. We saw that in the days after the Iran attack when the terror group rejected yet another proposal to release hostages in exchange for a temporary ceasefire.

The leaders of Iran, Russia, and China are taking note. Russia continues its war of aggression against Ukraine. China has its eyes set on Taiwan. And for Iran, Israel is just the appetizer: the "Little Satan" to devour on the way to the "Great Satan" of the United States.

Iran has tested American resolve and found it wanting. It has gotten away with directing terror groups throughout the Middle East to expand its influence across the Levant, with disrupting international commerce in the Red Sea, and even with killing three American soldiers in Jordan earlier this year.

It's no wonder Iran thought it could also get away with firing more than 300 drones and missiles at Israel two weeks ago. Thankfully, Israel, the United States, and their allies were able to repel the missile attack.

Instead of saying enough is enough, President Joe Biden advised Israel to "take the win" and made clear the U.S. would not participate in any retaliatory strikes on Iran.

But In the Middle East, reluctance to engage is seen as weakness and serves only to embolden radical Islamists. It's worth remembering that Israel was only able to make peace with Jordan and Egypt a generation ago after defeating those nations in war.

Israel understands that it must sometimes set aside the concerns of its allies to preserve its security. And so it launched a targeted retaliation to send a message that Iran should think twice before considering another attack.

It is a message that Israel should not be alone in sending. So long as the forces of tyranny believe that there are no real consequences to their aggression, they will continue their onward march.

For now, they can sit back and watch their supporters take over campuses.
How Universities Can Take Back the Quad
Just two weeks ago, Berkeley law students turned Dean Erwin Chemerinsky’s dinner for students at his home into a protest. Prior to the event, radical students published a poster featuring a caricature of Chemerinsky holding a bloody fork and knife, which, said Chemerinsky, “invokes the antisemitic trope of blood libel.” Later, a law student hijacked the dinner to make a speech condemning Israel.

On the East Coast, American University has been targeted. On October 19, multiple Jewish students discovered swastikas graffitied on their dorm room doors. In November, a pro-Israel, Jewish student’s piano recital poster was defaced with a swastika and the words “DEATH TO THE ZIONISTS HITLER WAS RIGHT.” And a protest organized by SJP inside a class building on November 9 clearly violated the school’s code of conduct by intentionally interfering with students’ right to study.

On January 25, about a week after a nonprofit filed a federal complaint against the university for a campus climate hostile to Jewish students, American’s president released a new policy effective for the spring semester that included a ban on indoor protests. Daring the university to enforce its new guidelines, SJP conducted an indoor protest on February 8. The university responded on April 8, putting SJP on probation.

Some administrators are imposing more serious consequences. On April 5, Vanderbilt University announced the expulsion of three students, the suspension of another, and disciplinary probations for 22 other students who had protested Vanderbilt’s refusal to divest from Israel by conducting an overnight sit-in that began with a broken window and an assault on a security officer.

Also on April 5, at Pomona College in California, police arrested 20 anti-Israel protesters who stormed the college president’s office and refused to identify themselves.

A university’s code of conduct serves a foundational role in cultivating an ethical campus community and healthy learning environment. Such codes function as a collegiate “rule of law,” governing a democratic microcosm and transitional training ground for adult citizenship in a diverse democracy.

Unfortunately, too many students are either unaware of their university’s code of conduct, or they don’t mind violating it. Administrators can nip this problem in the bud by including questions about freedom of speech, peaceful protest, and respect for the dignity of others in the application process. And when students accept an offer of admission, leaders should then systematically teach students what the university expects of them during the orientation process, requiring admitted students to certify that they have read the code of conduct and commit to abide by it. School pronouncements about fighting antisemitism and publications of disruptive activity policies are helpful. But clear expectations must be supported by visible, swift, and consistent corrective actions.

And for students who don’t take these expectations seriously, there is no substitute for consequences.
This Cornell Student is Fighting Back
Walking to her sorority house one afternoon, Amanda opened up her phone to see a personal Instagram message calling her a Zionist pig and disparaging her as a disgrace to the human race. Laced throughout the message were several expletives.

Amanda couldn’t believe her eyes! Although she doesn’t have definitive proof, she has reason to believe that the post was sourced from a fellow Cornell student. After all, Amanda has become an easy target; she is the Vice President of Chabad, a board member of the Cornellians for Israel and the house manager for her Jewish sorority, Sigma Delta Tau. She also walks around campus with a water bottle with an Israeli flag and wears a dog tag to remember the hostages in Gaza.

With daily rallies led by pro-Palestinian groups getting louder and increasingly more aggressive, being a Jew on campus has become more than uncomfortable. Yet, Amanda, who grew up in New Jersey, always dreamed of attending Cornell and is determined not to back down. Both her siblings graduated from Cornell and she was excited to follow in their footsteps.

Although her siblings had experienced a tinge of antisemitism, she was ready to expose herself to a diverse group of people. “Unless you plan to attend Yeshiva University or Stern College, no matter which college you choose, you are going to encounter antisemitism. It’s an issue that is deeply ingrained in the fabric of the universities across the country.”

Amanda believes that these ideologies are espoused by professors in a systematic manner. Many of the staff employed by Cornell, are indoctrinating students with their own political ideologies.

Professor Russell Rickford spoke at a rally on Oct 15th, just days after the Oct 7th massacre. “He claimed that he was exhilarated and energized by these atrocious and barbaric attacks. He was placed on a leave of absence for a short time but is now back. Today, he is still found marching through classroom halls, leading the students with despicable chants.”

She believes that professors are taking advantage of impressionable students to spread their personal agendas. They are creating ‘indoctrinated robots’ who consist of students from all backgrounds, chanting for the genocide of the Jewish people with “From the River to the Sea!” and “Globalize Intifada!”

Jewish students taking exams hear the chants of pro-Palestinians through the halls, right outside their classroom door. “The Jewish students are irritated and want to be left alone. Ultimately, they sheepishly sink down into their chairs, keep their heads down and do nothing.”
John McWhorter: I'm a Columbia Professor. The Protests on My Campus Are Not Justice.
In the music humanities class I teach at Columbia University, the surrounding noise is infuriated chanting from protesters outside the building, including lusty chanting of "From the river to the sea." I thought about what would have happened if protesters were instead chanting anti-Black slogans. They would have lasted roughly five minutes before masses of students shouted them down and drove them off the campus. Chants like that would have been condemned as a grave rupture of civilized exchange and branded as a form of violence. Why do so many people think that weekslong campus protests against Israel's very existence are nevertheless permissible?

Conversations I have had place these confrontations within a larger battle against power structures - in the form of what they call colonialism and against whiteness. The idea is that Jewish students and faculty are white. Calling all this peaceful stretches the use of the word rather implausibly. It's an odd kind of peace when a local rabbi urges Jewish students to go home as soon as possible, and it starts to feel normal to see posters and clothing portraying Hamas as heroes.

The protesters and their fellow travelers feel that all of this is social justice on the march. They have been told that righteousness means placing the battle against whiteness and its power front and center. What began as intelligent protest has become, in its uncompromising fury and its ceaselessness, a form of abuse.
Bret Stephens: To Be (Visibly) Jewish in the Ivy League
Yale and other universities have been sites of almost continual demonstrations since Hamas massacred and kidnapped Israelis on Oct. 7. Students have a right to express their views. It's fine, too, to be willing to defy campus rules they believe are unjust - provided they are willing to accept the price of their civil disobedience, including arrest, jail time or suspension. But as the experiences of scores of Jewish students on American campuses testify, we are well past this fine stage.

Why do these students regularly chant slogans like "There is only one solution, intifada revolution," which is an incendiary call to violent action against Jews? The sad fact of campus life today is that speech and behavior that would be considered scandalous if aimed at other minorities are treated as understandable or even commendable when directed at Jews.
The goal of the campus Jew-haters: To render Israel indefensible, in both senses of the word
While Jews have been celebrating the first days of Passover, the ancient festival of freedom, antisemites and their useful idiot collaborators on a swelling number of American university campuses have been rallying and issuing murderous threats in a strategic effort to end Jewish freedom, in the here and now, by destroying the world’s only Jewish majority state.

The underlying goal of the encampments and marches at Columbia, Yale, NYU and the other campuses is to render Israel indefensible — in both senses of the word.

The strategy:
First, to misrepresent what Israel has been subjected to and how it has responded since Hamas invaded our country on October 7, slaughtered 1,200 people, abducted 253 hostages, and then hid behind and beneath Gaza’s civilians in a bid to survive and do it all again.

Second, to falsely brand Israel as a brutal and indifferent aggressor, solely responsible for a soaring Gaza death toll that would, in fact, total precisely zero were it not for Hamas’s genocidal ambitions for the Jews and indifference to the lives of Gazan civilians. Pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel protesters gather outside of Columbia University in New York on April 23, 2024. (Charly Triballeau/AFP)

Third, to build pressure for divestment from Israel, for an end to military aid, and ultimately for the severing of Israel’s vital alliance with the United States.

And, finally, to thus deprive Israel of the diplomatic and military means to survive the ongoing effort at its destruction, as effected by Iran and its allies and proxies.

At the root of this strategy is, of course, the oldest of hatreds.

The antisemitism is stirred in this case by Muslim extremists, racists, ignoramuses and self-hating Jews; “inspired” on social media, and partly funded openly and covertly by states seeking Israel’s demise.

And it is being tolerated in an environment that seems to prioritize limitless free speech over the violent consequences of the abuse of that freedom.
'The House That I Live In'*
Before Hitler declared war on the United States in 1941, there were Nazis marching in our streets as Americans.

Today, at college campuses across our nation, there are Americans marching as Nazis and terrorist-supporters, shouting, "We're all Hamas."

Make no mistake about it. When student protestors burn the American flag and chant "Death to America" it has little to do with the Israeli military response to the murderous rampage by Hamas on October 7th and much to do with Iran's grand strategy of bringing death to the "Great Satan" through "useful idiots."

Clearly, the protestors are outraged that Israelis have refused to be the mute, mutilated victims of the last Hamas outrage. After all, violent acts of anti-Semitism and Jew-killing are not supposed to come with a cost to its perpetrators. The "Death to America" crowd must be asking, "When did the Israelis change the rules?"

So these Iranian foot soldiers with student loans have taken to college campuses, where places like Columbia University have been forced to implement virtual learning and Jewish students are warned to stay away for their own safety. Would the universities have responded the same way if the protests had been, say, anti-Black?

There should be little confusion as to what is occurring as police confront and arrest students and their organizers. These are individuals waging a coordinated, lavishly-funded campaign (exact funding has been meticulously researched and published by NGO Monitor) to demonize Jews, Israel, and those who stand against anti-Semitism, and the United States.
Daniel Greenfield: Deport the Hamas occupation of the Ivy League.
We learned that lesson the hard way with the Blind Sheikh and the original World Trade Center bombing along with larger plans to target everything from the Statue of Liberty to bridges and tunnels.

There’s no room for enemy agents in America. The terrorists we harbor will eventually turn on us, whether it’s the Egyptian Islamic Jihad (a Muslim Brotherhood splinter group at the heart of Al Qaeda and its various early attacks in America) or other Islamist operations around the world like the one that led to the Manchester concert bombing in the United Kingdom.

Every non-citizen who publicly supports Islamic terrorist groups should be deported.

Every naturalized citizen that publicly supports Islamic terrorist groups should be denaturalized and then deported.

It’s the plain and simple law. No administration has chosen to enforce it, but that needs to change.

A few arrests followed by desk appearance tickets are not going to make the Hamas occupations of the Ivy League go away.

Start deporting the campus terrorists and suddenly the occupations will go away.
Robert Kraft: Campus leaders must show courage and stop radical professors from poisoning young minds
Over the last several years, starting with the Charlottesville march in 2017, I started to feel a dangerous shift in the country as more and more instances of hate began to rise.

Now we have rampant Jewish hate on college campuses that has been permitted to go largely unchecked.

I started the Foundation to Combat Antisemitism (FCAS) in 2019 for precisely these reasons — to educate young people and appeal to the empathy that I believe all humans are born with.

I felt that it was imperative that we do something to ensure that our country did not start to look like the Germany of the 1940s.

Never could I have imagined that in America, in 2024, that Jewish students would be told by campus administrators to flee their college campus for their own safety.

This is heartbreaking under any circumstance and devastating to know it happened at my alma mater, a school I loved that has given me so much.

My worst fears — what I have spent the last five years fighting against, using FCAS’s blue square, a symbol of standing up to all hate — are being realized and we all need to take action to make it stop.

Unchecked faculties have allowed this hate to grow and fester by using their classrooms for espousing personal views instead of educating.

Their job should not be that of journalists and politicians.

Their job is not to teach students what to think, their job is to teach students how to think.

To that end, the job of administrators is to manage the faculty, not to stand idly by as their campuses are taken over by a minority of students or to compromise with or negotiate with those violating the rules.

The students at our colleges and universities deserve stronger leadership.

Courage to do the right thing, a core attribute of effective leadership, is lacking at the highest level at our nation’s most elite academic institutions.

It is my hope that the governing boards of these institutions prioritize courage to lead and do the right thing when selecting their presidents.


I’ll See Your Charlottesville and Raise You Columbia
No serious person fails to recognize the necessity for Israel to do this. There can be no coexistence between Israel and Hamas, and Israel is not the reason why. Hamas has controlled Gaza for decades, and, in that time, billions of dollars in aid money have poured in, and those resources have been spent on guns, bullets, rockets, and a maze of terror tunnels to facilitate attacks on Israeli civilians.

As for Palestinian civilians, they overwhelmingly support not just Hamas, but the overall mission of killing so many Jews that the rest either leave what is now Israel — so that Arab Muslims can have the region for themselves — or accept dhimmitude — a semi-slavery second-class citizenship status prescribed in Sharia law for non-Muslims.

A while back here at The American Spectator, Dov Fischer correctly noted that, in their attitudes, the “civilians” of Gaza are significantly less blameless than were those of Germany during World War II. No one expressed much approbation then, nor since, over the firebombing of German cities like Dresden as a means of breaking the Germans’ will to continue fighting, and ultimately, German civilians were happy to be conquered by Americans and British — if only because the alternative was to be brutalized and raped by the Soviet troops coming from the other direction.

The Israelis are killing fewer Palestinian civilians as a ratio of the combat fatalities they’re inflicting than we did in World War II, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, or Afghanistan. Some of that is the changing and more surgical nature of war, and some of it is Israel’s attempt not to do exactly what they’re being accused of doing — which is inflicting “genocide” on the Palestinians.

But Joe Biden just told you that he “condemns” you if you recognize the truths outlined above. He says that if you “don’t understand what’s going on with the Palestinians,” that you’re on the same plane with the rioters spouting real “From the river to the sea!” genocidal rhetoric on those campuses and elsewhere.

Unforgivable. And from an American president. For the sole purpose of pandering to the vote of sniveling, overprotected, indoctrinated little monsters on college campuses and the Arab vote in Michigan.

It’s a damned shame we don’t have an honest media in this country. If we had one, they would eviscerate Biden infinitely worse than what Trump received after Charlottesville.
‘For the first time people were truly afraid’: Antisemitism hits boiling point at Columbia U
Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), the No. 3 House Republican who questioned Shafik during last week’s congressional hearing, called on Columbia to fire the current president and board in a statement.

“While Columbia’s failed leadership spent hundreds of hours preparing for this week’s Congressional hearing, it clearly was an attempt to cover up for their abject failure to enforce their own campus rules and protect Jewish students on campus,” Stefanik said. “Over the past few months and especially the last 24 hours, Columbia’s leadership has clearly lost control of its campus putting Jewish students’ safety at risk. It is crystal clear that Columbia University – previously a beacon of academic excellence founded by Alexander Hamilton – needs new leadership.”

“President Shafik must immediately resign,” Stefanik continued. “And the Columbia Board must appoint a President who will protect Jewish students and enforce school policies.”

Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) announced on Sunday that he would “be coming to Columbia University to walk with the Jewish students” in the wake of the protests.

“If the University won’t protect them, Congress will!” Moskowitz wrote on X.

Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) used his condemnation to call on Congress to pass his legislation with Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) combating antisemitism on college campuses.

“I never imagined seeing this in America. @Columbia’s cowering to antisemitic hate has let terrorist sympathizers take over campus & threaten Jewish students,” Scott wrote on X. “We must pass @SenatorTimScott & my Stop Antisemitism on College Campuses Act & pull all federal funds from Columbia NOW.”

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), wrote on the platform that, “Hamas & Iran want Jews to feel unsafe everywhere. ‘Til now they couldn’t reach U.S. Jews. Thanks to pro-Hamas campus rioters & feckless administrators, threats to Jews only grow. Incitement is not free speech. College leaders must stop enabling terror & keep Jewish students safe.”

Even Israeli President Isaac Herzog weighed in on the exploding antisemitism at Columbia University and other elite college campuses.

“Firm and strong action must be taken to prevent antisemitism on campus. American academia must wake up to the threat, a clear and present danger to academic freedom and to the very lives of Jews on campus,” Herzog said.
JPost Editorial: Anti-Israel groups on campus must be threatened with their academic standing
The Jerusalem Post sees the rampant hate and calls for violence on campuses worldwide, and most prominently at Columbia University, as an extreme escalation that puts not only Israelis but all Jews in danger. We therefore say that clearing the yard is not enough. Removing the encampment will only encourage these hateful groups to grow louder and potentially take aggressive measures to get their way. What they must actually be threatened with is their academic standing at the university.

How can it be that an Israeli professor was seemingly suspended over complaints that no one has heard or seen publicly, while the anti-Israel students calling for the genocide of Jews are treated exactly the same? Their academic success must depend on their seeing Jews as human beings – otherwise, they should not pass, and they should not receive degrees.

One of these things is not like the other, and it is Shafik and Columbia’s responsibility to handle the issue accordingly. Otherwise, they are telling the Jews on campus: We don’t care in the same way about you.
The masks have come off at Columbia: Students turning on Jewish peers
These Columbia protests had nothing to do with Palestinian liberation and everything to do with harassing Jewish people and calling for the elimination of the Jewish state.

The school has completely lost control. Columbia is unable to deal with aggressive and racist students who disobey the law and are ready to use violence to push their political agenda. For whatever reason, the school can no longer protect Jewish students.

The terrible incidents at Columbia are one of many issues that have come about in the last week. The US has listed over 40 schools that are under investigation for antisemitism. Ohio State University allowed a pro-Hamas rally on their campus where protesters chanted, “The Zionists have got to go.”

No campus police or administrative staff were present, while Jewish students were being subjected to this. At Loyola University, law students disrupted a speaking event with an IDF soldier. The protesters harassed Jews and shouted, “Get the f*** out of here, all you ugly ass little Jewish people,” and raised their red-stained hands.
GOP Delegation Arrives at Columbia To Call for Shafik's Resignation
A group of Republican lawmakers, led by House Speaker Mike Johnson (La.), descended on Columbia University on Wednesday and called for school president Minouche Shafik's resignation.

Their remarks, delivered at a press conference on the steps of Columbia's Low Library, elicited near-constant jeers from the student protesters, many of whom have also been demanding Shafik's head.

Johnson, who was joined by fellow Republican representatives Virginia Foxx (N.C.), Anthony D'Esposito (N.Y.), Mike Lawler (N.Y.), and Nicole Malliotakis (N.Y.), admonished Shafik for allowing "hatred and anti-Semitism to flourish" at the Ivy League institution. He also called for the arrest of the unauthorized student protesters who have occupied the school's south lawn since last Wednesday, when Shafik testified before a House panel on the exclusion of anti-Semitism on the Manhattan campus.

"We just can't allow this kind of hatred and anti-Semitism to flourish on our campuses, and it must be stopped in its tracks," Johnson said. "Those who are perpetrating this violence should be arrested."

"I am here joining my colleagues and calling on President Shafik to resign if she cannot immediately bring order to this chaos," the speaker said.

Johnson told the Washington Free Beacon that if Shafik fails to take immediate action, Columbia's board must find a leader who will.

"This is a dangerous situation, and we met with Jewish students today who are in legitimate fear of their physical safety," Johnson said in an interview following the press conference. "They can't attend classes, they can't study for their finals—it's already stressful enough, right?"

"A university administrator has one first and basic responsibility, and that is the safety and security of their students," he went on. "If they cannot maintain that, they need to find somebody who can."

Foxx, who chairs the House committee that is investigating Columbia, said she has uncovered "key failures in the administration's response to anti-Semitic attacks and displays embroiling this campus."

She told the Free Beacon that Shafik must implement "some kind of penalty" if unauthorized protesters do not leave the encampment voluntarily and that there should be no limit on the number of students arrested or suspended.
WATCH: House Republicans Slam Anti-Semitic Protesters on Columbia's Campus
House speaker Mike Johnson (R., La.) and other Republican representatives traveled to Columbia University on Wednesday to denounce the rampant displays of anti-Semitism on the campus.

"A growing number of students have chanted in support of terrorists," Johnson said in an address facing the student protest encampment on the campus lawn. The House speaker said that "no American should have to live under those kinds of threats."

Rep. Mike Lawler (R., N.Y.) called for the resignation of Columbia University president Minouche Shafik, saying "she has lost control" of the institution and "has no intention of getting the university under control."

Shafik has faced backlash since her congressional testimony last week for falling short in combating anti-Semitism at the university. The same day she testified, Columbia students established the protest encampment, which has been the scene of anti-Semitic chants and occasional violence.


Arrested Elbit Protester Posts Messages Calling Israelis ‘Pigs;’ Celebrates Oct. 7 Attack
One of the progressive activists awaiting trial for last November’s attack on an Israeli-owned business in Merrimack is now on social media praising Hamas’ Oct. 7 terror attack and posting messages calling Israelis “the scum of nations and pigs of the Earth.”

She’s also celebrating the violent protests on college campuses, urging “Two, three, many Columbias.”

Calla Walsh, a 19-year-old progressive activist from Massachusetts, has been described by The New York Times as “representative of an influential new force in Democratic politics.” In New Hampshire, she’s referred to as a “defendant” after a grand jury brought back charges of riot, burglary, and conspiracy to commit criminal mischief over her actions in a protest at the Elbit Systems facility.

Walsh and her fellow Palestine Action US activists broke windows, spattered paint, and ignited an incendiary device on the roof of the building, which an Israeli company owns.

With anti-Israel and openly antisemitic protests breaking out on the campuses of Columbia, MIT, Yale, and other Ivy League colleges, Walsh has joined in. And she’s made it clear she supports the goals of Hamas and other Islamists.

On X, Walsh posted a photo of what she calls the “liberated zone at Columbia,” featuring a “message to the scum of nations and pigs of the Earth: Paradise lies in the shadow of swords.”

The quote, Walsh notes, is from The Lion’s Den, which is a Palestinian resistance group made up of members of militant organizations like Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

“Children of Zion, wait for us inside your homes, in the settlements, and deep within the entity,” the Lion’s Den statement says, invoking “the truth of Allah Almighty.”

Walsh also posted a quote from Hamas spokesperson Abu Ubaida. “The enemy, whose pride we crushed in 60 minutes on Oct. 7th, could not achieve anything in 200 days.”

Walsh declined to respond to multiple requests for comment.


Herd mentality Anti-Israel protesters at NYU admit they have no idea what they’re protesting: ‘I wish I was more educated’
Two Columbia University students who rushed to join NYU’s violent anti-Israel rally are going viral after admitting they had no idea what the protest was about — and wished they were “more educated.”

The unidentified students rattled off their clueless rationale on the steps of the NYU campus in downtown Manhattan as a slew of NYPD cops clad in riot gear stood in the background, as seen in footage viewed more than 3 million times since being shared by former Mayor Rudy Giuliani late Wednesday.

“I think the main goal is just showing our support for Palestine and demanding that NYU stop … I honestly don’t know all of what NYU is doing,” one admitted when asked about the protest’s purpose.


Harvard’s anti-Israel protest tent camp thwarted by 2 a.m. lawn sprinklers
Harvard University’s anti-Israel tent encampment was temporarily thwarted overnight — by a slew of sprinklers that flooded protesters’ tents – as demonstrations rocked other campuses across the country.

Dozens of sleeping protesters who were trying to catch some shuteye were disturbed when the sprinklers suddenly turned on in the middle of the Ivy League’s Cambridge campus.

“As protesters spend their first night in the Harvard Yard encampment, the biggest threat to their stay has not come from administrators or Harvard University police officers, but the Yard’s sprinklers,” the Harvard Crimson student-led paper said early Thursday.

The first sprinkler switched on just outside the encampment in Harvard Yard at about 2:30 a.m. as temperatures dipped to 36 degrees.


93 arrested on USC campus; students detained at University of Texas in latest clash between cops, anti-Israel protesters
Police peacefully arrested 93 student protesters at the University of Southern California on Wednesday, hours after police at a Texas university aggressively detained dozens in the latest clashes between law enforcement and those protesting the Israel-Hamas war on campuses nationwide.

While tensions rose between police and protesters at USC earlier in the day, in the evening a few dozen demonstrators standing in a circle with locked arms were detained one by one without incident.

Police officers encircled the dwindling group, which sat in defiance of an earlier warning to disperse or be arrested.

Beyond the police line, hundreds of onlookers watched as helicopters buzzed overhead. The school closed the campus.

While universities struggling to defuse unrest have quickly turned to law enforcement, the arrests in California were in sharp contrast to the chaos that ensued just hours earlier at the University of Texas at Austin.


Society of Authors ‘hijacked by extremists’ after Gaza motion omits Hamas
The Society of Authors (SoA) has been “hijacked by extremists”, Jewish writers have said, after members tabled a vote on a motion on Gaza that did not mention Hamas, the hostages or the slaughter of Israelis.

The Jewish intellectuals also voiced fears that if the resolution is passed, the next step may be a boycott of “Zionists” themselves.

The motion on Gaza focuses on the number of Palestinians killed, parrots Hamas figures about dead journalists and demands the SoA call for an “immediate and permanent ceasefire”.

The committee of the SoA – Britain’s oldest literary trade union with 12,000 members – opposes the motion, telling the JC: “It is outside the SoA’s remit. The value of the SoA is in the services it provides for members. Our expertise lies in small print: vetting contracts, lobbying government, giving grants and prizes.”

Victoria Selman, a thriller writer, said the resolution was “not the first time we’ve seen this agenda hijack British publishing. It feels like a campaign of stealth against Jewish authors. They can use the term Zionists but they mean Jewish. It’s very uncomfortable.”

“We’re scared of being boycotted,” writer Hilary Freeman added. Another said: “All it takes is one editor who decides not to renew my contract.”
Enough of Nicholas Kristof’s anti-Semitic slobbery, New York Times. Fire the jerk!
The New York Times has a useful feature that tells how long it will take to read a given piece; a typical op-ed takes about 5 minutes of a reader’s time.

But on occasion, op-eds run longer. Nicholas Kristof’s recent cry of his bleeding, afflicted heart, “What Happened to the Joe Biden I Knew?” requires a greater commitment from a reader — 16 minutes, or three times the average.

This is because Mr. Kristof talks of many things to prove his thesis that Biden’s support of Israel’s war effort must end — he talks of the goodness of Biden’s heart and of the badness of Netanyahu’s; he quotes from former ambassadors, advisors, and analysts, as well as from some currently-serving senators; he invokes the history of Vietnam protests and of political disasters they brought upon the Democrats, and warns of potential repeat in 2024; he cites European politicians who see Israel’s war on Hamas as equivalent to Russia’s war on Ukraine. And of course, Mr. Kristof quotes statistics about the terrible, blood-thirsty Israelis (“53 percent of Israeli Jews favor … an all-out attack on Hezbollah;” “more than two-thirds of Jewish Israelis oppose allowing humanitarian aid into Gaza”).

Yet, amidst so many words spent on expressing the sympathy for the poor, much-suffering (and innocent — of course they are innocent, for can the burning hate of Israel and Jews be a sin when it is such a natural emotion, as Mr. Kristof undoubtedly knows from looking in the mirror — can a genuine “progressive” be without it?) Gaza Palestinians whom, in the midst of war on Hamas with whom those innocents heartily sympathize, and whom they faithfully support by acting as human shields — yet whom the cruel Israelis routinely forget to treat to coffee, buns and butter in the morning, to whom they neglect to send a sandwich at lunchtime, and whom they fail to provide a three-course-dinner served on the best china at night, and for whom Mr. Kristof sheds so many impassioned tears, Mr. Kristof forgets to mention one word. This word is — “hostages.”

I kid you not. I excuse you for not believing me, so check it yourself. The text is huge, yet the test is simple: press Ctrl+F to invoke the search function, and put in the word “hostage” into the little search window that will appear above or below Mr. Kristof’s opus, and type in the word “hostage” — and you will see the number of occurrences of that word: “0/0”. Bizarre as it will sound to anyone who ever heard of the Gaza war, the word just isn’t there.

Given its key importance in what’s going on in Gaza, the natural question become, “why is it missing”?

I have a theory. If Mr. Kristof used that word, it would have ruined his entire argument, by giving a simple and natural (rather than malignantly scary) explanation for Israeli attitudes that manifest themselves in Netanyahu’s policies — and for that matter, in Biden’s. A word of truth — “it’s about the hostages” — would wreck Mr. Kristof’s carefully-constructed 16 minutes of lies.
Reviewing three BBC reports about a terror attack
Between April 13th and April 16th the BBC News website published three reports about the disappearance of a 14-year-old Israeli boy on April 12th, the discovery of his body the following day and related violent incidents.

Article 1: 13/4/24 “West Bank: Palestinian man killed after Israeli boy goes missing” by Laurence Peter and Lipika Pelham.

Article 2: 13/4/24 “West Bank: Body of Israeli shepherd, 14 found in West Bank” by Thomas Mackintosh.

Article 3: 16/4/24 “Deadly West Bank settler attacks on Palestinians follow Israeli boy’s killing” by Hugo Bachega (with Alaa Daraghme and Narinder Kalsi).

One notable feature of those three BBC reports is the lack of consistency in presentation of the name of the Israeli boy. In the first article he is named both as Benjamin Ahimeir and Benjamin Achimeir, in the second as Benjamin Achimeir and in the third report his name is presented as Binyamin Ahimeir.
Government-Funded Hot Docs Releases Absurd Press Statement On Gaza Which Never Mentions Hamas Once, Falsely Claims Israel Holding Palestinian Hostages
The popular Hot Docs documentary film festival, which is funded by the City of Toronto and Province of Ontario, released a press statement on April 19 politicizing its upcoming event by formally taking a position on the war between Israel and Hamas.

The statement’s stated goal is to “creat[e] vibrant spaces where … critical exchange of ideas and perspectives can thrive” and to ensure that “understanding and empathy can flourish” as the event seeks to “bring our community together at a time of dire conflict.”

Unfortunately, the statement achieved the exact opposite result, as it engaged in a shocking display of flagrant bias and absurd ignorance of basic facts.

To start, the statement only explicitly referred to “Gaza” and “the Palestinian people” as those with whom it is expressed sympathy for. It made no direct mention of Israel, Hamas or its October 7 massacres of 1,200 innocents in Israel, or the massive Iranian missile attack against the Jewish state, which took place less than a week before the statement was published.

Hot Docs cannot be taken seriously by claiming that they “stand…for the human rights of all peoples to be respected,” while simultaneously being unable or unwilling to utter the word Israel or Hamas, the genocidal Islamic terrorist group responsible for the current war.

In addition to the 1,200 innocent people massacred in Israel on October 7 and the 253 others taken hostage by Hamas, hundreds of thousands of Israelis have been displaced from their homes and as many as half a million are suffering from new cases of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

On October 7, Hamas gunned down nearly 400 innocent civilians — both Israelis and other foreign nationals — while attending a music festival, a celebration of the arts not unlike what Hot Docs purports to be about. Why are these innocent people unworthy of any mention? Do these Jewish lives not matter? And why would anyone trust the sincerity of a statement that seeks to erase their memory from existence?

The authors of the statement also appear grossly misinformed about basic facts.


White House visitor logs contradict Biden spokesman's vow to ban DC official who praised notorious antisemite
A Washington, D.C., official has visited the White House twice since a spokesperson for President Biden said she wouldn't be invited back after she praised noted antisemite Louis Farrakhan, Fox News Digital has learned.

Cora Masters Barry, who was appointed CEO of the city's Recreation Wish List Committee, delivered remarks in mid-2022 praising Farrakhan as a "friend" and "member of the family," adding, "I love you more than words will ever say."

Shortly after her comments, White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates condemned Farrakhan and said Barry would not ever be invited back to the White House.

"The president has unequivocally condemned Louis Farrakhan and the hate he represents for decades and co-sponsored bipartisan legislation doing so," Bates told Fox News Digital. "He also denounces any praise of Louis Farrakhan or his repugnant, antisemitic values, including in this case."

However, according to a Fox News Digital review of visitor logs, Barry returned to the White House in June 2023 and again in December 2023.
AOC and fellow House Democrat disagree over support of Israel after ‘shameful’ comment on Bernie Sanders
Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) clashed over the latter’s “shameful” comment on Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT).

Moskowitz has emerged as a prominent defender of Israel and has criticized many on the Left over their response to the war in Gaza. On Wednesday, he criticized Sanders for allegedly not properly condemning antisemitism, a remark that drew the ire of Ocasio-Cortez. Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Jared Moskowitz.

“Sen. Sanders’ family was killed in the Holocaust,” she wrote in response to Moskowitz. “He dedicates his every moment to realizing tikkun olam. His commitment to protecting innocents in Gaza stems FROM his Jewish values. He and many other Jewish leaders deserve better than to be treated this way. This is shameful.”

“Tikkun olam” is Hebrew for “repairing the world.”

Responding to Ocasio-Cortez, Moskowitz said his family was also killed in the Holocaust and that it would be better if they settled their differences in person.

“My family was also killed in the Holocaust,” he said in response to her condemnation. “In Germany and in Poland. My grandmother was in the kinder-transport. They also instilled values in me. It’s why I voted for aid to Israel and for aid to Gaza. We see each other at work, we are both better than doing this here.”

“Is that what this is?” Ocasio-Cortez responded alongside a screenshot of Moskowitz having liked comedian Michael Rapaport’s post reading, “What’s the Hebrew translation for F*** Off Lady?” He appears to have since unliked the post.

Moskowitz’s comment that triggered the exchange was him quoting a statement from Sanders condemning the failure to adopt Sanders’s amendment preventing the issuance of “offensive” military aid to Israel.
Censured Rashida Tlaib transforms into fundraising force amid Israel-Hamas war
Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) raked in $1.9 million in her first fundraising quarter of 2024, raising a total of $6.45 million this cycle following her criticism of Israel’s handling of the war against Hamas and her censure by the House last year.

Tlaib, the only Palestinian American serving in Congress, is the 12th highest fundraiser in the House, coming in right behind notoriously strong fundraiser and fellow Squad member, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and ahead of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA). Until the Israel-Hamas war, Tlaib was not known for her fundraising prowess, unlike those in House leadership positions.

The congresswoman ended the first quarter with $5.2 million on hand and successfully managed to stave off any serious primary challenge for her Democratic 12th Congressional District. According to campaign finance records, the majority of her individual contributions this cycle are coming from donations in California, followed by Michigan and Texas. The highest contributions are coming in from a political action committee formed by Ocasio-Cortez to promote progressive candidates, Demand Justice PAC, an influential group focused on court reform, a variety of unions, and Arab American groups.

Her campaign finance reports with the Federal Election Commission show she had her strongest fundraising quarter at the end of 2023 when she raised $3.7 million in the months after Hamas’s deadly attack in southern Israel on Oct. 7. Tlaib’s campaign cash flow has also skyrocketed since the House censured her last November over her pro-Palestinian comments concerning the conflict in Israel and for her defense of the phrase “From the river to the sea” that many see as an antisemitic call for Israel’s destruction.

The Michigan congresswoman unsuccessfully launched an eleventh-hour attempt last week to add an amendment to a foreign aid bill that would restrict all military aid to Israel from the legislation until there is a “lasting ceasefire,” a release of Palestinian prisoners in Israel and Israeli hostages in Gaza, and a “credible diplomatic process.”
Jamaal Bowman Says AIPAC Only Calls Him Anti-Semitic Because It Can't Use 'the N-Word'
Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D., N.Y.) told constituents Monday that the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) only labels him anti-Semitic because the committee isn't allowed to call him "the N-word."

Bowman on Monday attended a virtual town hall alongside Reps. Ilhan Omar (D., Minn.) and Pramila Jayapal (D., Wash.) and with Our Revolution, a progressive organizing group launched by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.). Bowman criticized AIPAC for backing his primary challenger, Westchester County executive George Latimer, and asserted that the pro-Israel group is only labeling him anti-Semitic because it can't "get away with" calling him a racial slur.

"That is why AIPAC's coming after us, coming after us with hate, coming after us with bullying, and intimidation, and fear. You should see what they're doing in my district," Bowman said. "Lie after lie after lie about my record. Lie after lie calling me anti-Semitic, calling me anti-Biden, saying I'm not a real Democrat, using all kinds of dog whistles."

Bowman concluded, "They don't like my style, I'm a little too radical, I'm a member of the 'Squad.' They want to call me the N-word, but they know they can't get away with that, so they say everything else."

The congressman also said that the United States functions under "plantation capitalism" and a "caste system" that keeps minorities like him from serving in Congress.

"We have the military industrial complex and warmongerers [sic] aligning themselves with special interests [and] racist, MAGA, election-denying Republicans to get the first black man out of this seat," Bowman said.


Tower Hamlets removes pro-Palestinian Murals
Tower Hamlets has removed the pro-Palestinian murals that had been painted in various locations around the borough, following a letter from UK Lawyers for Israel pointing out that they are illegal.

- A mural of Hind Osama Al-Khoudary, a journalist, that had already been badly defaced, was removed from Buxton Street
- Another of Doaah Albaz, a journalist, has been removed from the Mile End skate park
- Two murals in Watney Street have been removed
- Two murals painted on shop shutters in Hanbury Street have been shared with the Anti-Social Behaviour Team

UKLFI pointed out to Tower Hamlets that the murals breached the Town and Country Planning (Control of Advertisements ) (England) Regulations 2007 (“the Regulations”) which prohibit the display of advertisements without consent of the planning authority, unless they fall within certain exceptions in the Regulations. However, the murals advertised the Palestinian cause and did not fall within any of the exceptions.

Whoever paints the murals commits a criminal offence contrary to section 224(3) of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990. The owner of the property is also committing a criminal offence under section 224(4)-(6) of that Act unless it was painted without the owner’s knowledge and the owner has taken all reasonable steps to remove it.

UKLFI also explained that Councils are legally required to have due regard to the need to foster good relations between different religious and ethnic communities. The murals do not foster good relations between different communities and have proved divisive in the locations where they have been painted. Many have already been defaced.


Islamophobia czar Amira Elghawaby is unfit for office
Elghawaby and her ilk seem genuinely confused by all the fuss about the hateful words being publicly uttered by Israel’s detractors here in North America, what with all the “maiming” and “orphaning” going on halfway across the world.

Understanding this mindset is critical to understanding why the anti-Israel crowd is increasingly taking to saying the quiet part out loud. Their words, no matter how heinous, are, in their unshakable view, far outweighed by Israel’s deeds. What’s the harm, then, in coming out and saying exactly what they mean?

There is, unfortunately, little that can be done to reverse this toxic mentality, particularly with popular social media apps like TikTok feeding youngsters and other impressionable users nonstop anti-Israel content for the past six months. One thing that the proponents of sanity can do, however, is remove people who show obvious signs of this toxic affliction from positions of influence.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, for example, can take an important step toward restoring Canada’s sanity by relieving the self-evidently unfit Amira Elghawaby from her post as Islamophobia czar.

It may already be too late to rid Columbia and other elite universities of this antisemitic mind virus. Such institutions were, after all, incubators of this sentiment well before Oct. 7.

Myopic university administrators have, accordingly, passed up chance after chance to exercise leadership in combating antisemitism on campus over the past six months. It’s likely now on major donors to cast their verdicts on the hostile atmospheres that are taking root at these institutions.

One thing that’s certain is that we cannot, as a society, allow these open exhibitions of hatred to become the new normal.
Australian Police Arrest Seven Alleged Teen Extremists Linked to Bishop Stabbing
Australian police arrested seven teenagers accused of following a violent extremist ideology in raids across Sydney on Wednesday to protect the community from a potential attack, officials said.

The seven, aged 15 to 17, were part of a network that included a 16-year-old boy accused of the stabbing of a bishop in a Sydney church on April 15, police said.

Five other teenagers were still being questioned late Wednesday by the Joint Counter-Terrorism Team, which includes federal and state police as well as the Australian Security Intelligence Organization, the nation´s main domestic spy agency, and the New South Wales Crime Commission, which specializes in extremists and organized crime.

More than 400 police officers executed 13 search warrants at properties across southwest Sydney because the suspects were considered an immediate threat, New South Wales Police Deputy Commissioner David Hudson said.

“We will allege that these individuals adhered to a religiously motivated, violent extremist ideology,” Hudson told reporters.

“It was considered that the group … posed an unacceptable risk and threat to the people of New South Wales, and our current purely investigative strategies could not adequately ensure public safety,” Hudson added.

Australian Federal Police Deputy Commissioner Krissy Barrett said investigators found no evidence of specific targets or timing of an intended “violent act.”

She said the police operation was not linked to Anzac Day on Thursday, a public holiday when Australians remember their war dead.

It has been a potential target of extremists in the past.
Influential former IS supporter Wassim Fayad drawn into probe of alleged Sydney teen terror network
An influential former Islamic State supporter who was released from a supervision order last year was questioned in Wednesday's police raids on an alleged terrorism network involving a group of Sydney boys.

Excerpts from a police warrant seen by ABC Investigations show self-styled preacher Wassim Fayad, 56, was among two men and 12 boys targeted in the raids across south-west Sydney, as part of an investigation triggered by the stabbing of a bishop last week.

Five boys, aged 14 to 17, faced a children's court on Thursday charged with a range of offences, including conspiring to prepare or plan for a terrorist act.

Fayad spent seven years in jail until 2020 after being convicted of a failed ATM ram raid, the whipping of a Muslim convert and being an accessory to an attempted shooting murder at a gay sex club.

While in jail, police alleged Fayad was a member of an Islamic State terrorism cell that was plotting attacks in Sydney.

Once released, the Supreme Court placed him on a two-year extended supervision order in 2021, finding he was a high risk of recruiting younger or vulnerable people to commit a terrorism offence.

But a judge last year refused to extend that order, ruling the state of NSW had not proved he posed "an unacceptable risk of committing a serious terrorism offence if not kept under supervision".


MEMRI: Dari-Language Report In Afghan Media Accuses Human Rights Experts Of Complicity With Israel: 'The Islamic Ummah Is Angry About The Ongoing Oppression In Gaza, And Any Movement Aimed At Supporting The Oppressed Is Liked By The Islamic World'

MEMRI: Senior Saudi Journalist Tariq Al-Homayed: The Iran-Backed Militias Are A Threat To Every Arab Country; We Must Formulate An Arab-American-European Plan To Deal With This

Argentina asks Interpol to arrest Iranian minister over AMIA attack
Argentina has asked Interpol to arrest Iranian Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi due to his alleged role in the 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish community center in Buenos Aires that killed 85 people and wounded more than 300 others.

Argentina previously accused Vahidi, a former senior official in the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, of being one of the masterminds of the terrorist attack, and sought his extradition.

Earlier this month, the Court of Cassation in Buenos Aires issued a ruling blaming Iran for bombing the Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina on July 18, 1994, using its terrorist proxy Hezbollah.

In February, Argentine President Javier Milei arrived in Israel for a wartime visit, reiterating his pledge to move his nation’s embassy to Jerusalem and opening a new chapter in bilateral relations.

The three-day solidarity trip, one of his first tours abroad since taking office two months ago, signaled a major shift in Argentina’s foreign policy towards the United States and Israel after decades of backing Arab countries.

Milei has said that he would work to designate Hamas as a terrorist organization, noting that Argentines were among the 1,200 people taken hostage by Hamas on Oct. 7.

In March, the Jewish state and people worldwide marked the 32nd anniversary of the Iranian-sponsored Hezbollah bombing of the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires.


Peru detains Iranian, two others over plot to kill Israelis
A Peruvian judge on Tuesday ordered 18 months of preventative detention for an Iranian and two Peruvians over an alleged plot to kill two Israelis in the South American country, according to the Associated Press.

Peruvian police and prosecutors said that the Iranian, Majid Azizi, could be a member of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' Quds Force, which conducts Tehran's overseas terror operations.

On March 15, the Israeli embassy in Lima thanked local authorities for arresting Azizi and "having dismantled an Iranian attack that was directed against an Israeli citizen.”

According to prosecutors, Azizi contacted Peruvians Walter Loja and Ángelo Trucios last month to plan the killing of Israeli Shachar Malka.

Malka's social media identify him as a tour guide and healer using traditional plants in Cusco, the ancient capital of the Incas. The other Israeli target reportedly was Gilad Duchovny, who opened a cafe in Cusco in 2006.

Police found information about Malka and Duchovny in Azizi’s Lima house. According to the judge, the plot “has been established with a high degree of plausibility.”

“We had to act quickly, because today [Azizi] was set to return to Iran after forming a terrorist cell to wipe out an Israeli national,” Gen. Oscar Arriola, chief of Peruvian police, said in a press conference last month. He added that Azizi has been living in Peru since 1997 and holds Peruvian nationality by marriage.

Iran and its proxy Hezbollah have been operating in South America for decades. Hezbollah bombed the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires in 1992, killing 22 people and wounding 242. Two years later, the Iran-backed terrorist group was responsible for the bombing of the Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina (AMIA) Jewish cultural center, which left 85 people dead and close to 300 wounded.
In unprecedented move, EU votes in favour of resolution against Iran
In an unprecedented vote, the European Parliament passed a resolution against the Islamic Republic of Iran on Thursday.

The resolution condemned Iran for its attack on Israel and reinforced the European commitment to the security of the State of Israel.

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz praised the European Parliament for its vote in favor of a resolution. It follows last Monday's decision by the European Union to sanction Iran in order to curtail missile and drone production.

"Another Israeli political success and another blow to Iran," Katz said. "We are tightening the chokehold around the neck of the Iranian octopus. The world understands that Iran needs to be stopped now before it is too late."

The resolution passed by a large majority of 357 for and 20 against.

The main points of the declaratory decision
The EU calls to put in place the following measures: To include the Iranian Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) in the list of terrorist organizations; to expand sanctions on Iran, including on the regime's oil and banking; to acknowledge Iran's non-compliance with the nuclear agreement and give them an ultimatum to comply with the agreement of Resolution 2231 of the Security Council; to recognize Iran's role in destabilizing the Middle East, including support for Hamas; and to call for the implementation of Resolution 1701 in Lebanon (cessation of hostilities by Hezbollah and their retreat above the Litani River).

This decision clearly demonstrates the European position towards Iran and, by proxy, shows its support for Israel.


Amid Criticism Over Iran Ties, Crisis Group Hires Lobby Firm
The International Crisis Group has retained Mercury Public Affairs to lobby on its behalf, according to filings alerting the US Justice Department.

The registration, filed on March 7, 2024, marks the first time the think-tank has reported lobbying activities in Washington since the first quarter of 2015.

The move follows just months after an extensive investigation by Iran International revealed that the Crisis Group signed an undisclosed deal with the Iranian government in 2016.

Another Iran International expose, published in September 2023, Based on thousands of emails from Iranian diplomats, showed that three current and former Crisis Group members were part of the Iran Experts Initiative (IEI), established by the Iranian foreign ministry in 2014 to extend Tehran's soft power.

This network was active while the Crisis Group was attempting to shape US policy on Iran during and after the negotiations for the 2015 nuclear deal that the Obama administration negotiated with Tehran.

The Crisis Group did not answer specific questions on whether the move to hire Mercury was made in direct response to Iran International’s reporting.

“To help achieve our mandate, we have partnered with Mercury to assist Members of Congress from all political parties who want to meet with our analysts who work in conflict zones across the globe,” the Crisis Group’s Elissa Jobson told Iran International in an email statement.


Maine man gets prison sentence for tweeting threat to kill Jews
U.S. District Judge Jon D. Levy sentenced a man from the state of Maine who circulated an online plan to shoot Jews on the second day of Rosh Hashanah.

Brian Dennison, 27, received 12 months and one day in prison on April 18, followed by three years of supervised release following a guilty verdict in December. Dennison had written on Twitter: “I’m going to kill jews with my ar15 tomorrow” in September 2021.

Law enforcement found 1,700 rounds of an AR-15 rifle and proof of his hatred of Jews after an initial search of Dennison’s residence, and later, the AR-15 and more ammo hidden in the woods behind his home.

“Such repugnant threats have no place in any society. I commend the FBI for its excellent investigative work in this case,” said Darcie McElwee, U.S. Attorney for the District of Maine. “Under the First Amendment, you have a right to believe hateful things, and to express those hateful beliefs in lawful ways. But when your speech constitutes a true threat to kill or injure others, you will be held accountable.”

Jodi Cohen, the Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Boston Division, praised the Maine Joint Terrorism Task Force for “its rapid response to Brian Dennison’s threat to commit mass murder with an assault rifle, born out of his long-standing hatred for Jewish people.”
Houston man sentenced to 27 months for antisemitic death threats
A 41-year-old Houston man was sentenced to 27 months in prison for threatening to kill Jews.

“Jeremy Joseph sent hateful, violent and antisemitic death threats over email to two former co-workers. Joseph made these threats as part of a broader scheme in which Joseph threatened dozens of victims, many of whom were Jewish or were perceived to be Jewish,” stated Damian Williams, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York.

“This prosecution and today’s sentence make clear that this office will not tolerate crimes of hate and will continue to seek justice for the victims of these offensive and harmful acts,” Williams stated.

Joseph, who will have three years of supervised release after his prison term, emailed “terrifying death threats” to two former colleagues, with whom he worked over a decade prior, from about December 2022 to January 2023, per the U.S. Justice Department.

“The emails detailed how Joseph planned to murder his victims and included photographs of pipe bombs, ammunition and a firearm,” it stated. “The emails also included personal information about the victims and their families.”

Joseph also sent threats to other people he knew, as well as “politicians, judges and prosecutors,” per the Justice Department. “The targets of his threats spanned multiple countries and U.S. states. In these communications, Joseph consistently used violent, threatening language that targeted Jewish people.”
France: Man Suspected of Abducting, Raping Jewish Woman ‘to Avenge Palestine’
A man in a suburb of Paris is suspected of abducting and raping a Jewish woman, French media reported on Tuesday. The suspect reportedly said his acts represented a “vengeance for Palestine.”

The suspect is a resident of Gennevilliers, one of the immigrant-heavy suburbs of Paris. It is understood he was charged with kidnapping, false imprisonment, rape and making death threats.

French media reported the suspect sent the victim’s mother messages saying he was going to “prostitute” her daughter. The police reportedly were able to geo-locate the victim’s phone and end her ordeal after several days.


Is antisemitism in France worse than in America?
A Jewish French woman was allegedly kidnapped and raped, with her attacker saying he was doing it to "avenge Palestine". Meanwhile, the head of the far-left LFI party has been summoned by police over her pro-Hamas comments.

Our guests weigh in on the toxic climate towards Jews in France, and how it compares to the situation in the United States.


US chip giant Nvidia snaps up Israeli AI workload management startup
US gaming and computer graphics giant Nvidia announced on Wednesday that it is buying Run:ai, an Israeli startup that has built software to help developers and businesses manage complex AI workloads and computing resources on a single platform.

The financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed, but the value is said to be between $600 million to $700 million, according to reports in the Hebrew press. The deal is estimated to be Nvidia’s biggest acquisition in Israel since the US chipmaker bought Mellanox Technologies Ltd. in 2020 for $6.9 billion.

Run:ai’s employees are set to join Nvidia’s growing operations in Israel, where the chipmaker employs about 4,000 workers in seven R&D centers, including Yokne’am, Mellanox’s headquarters, Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Ra’anana, and Beersheba in the south.

The Tel Aviv-based startup was founded in 2018 by Omri Geller, CEO, and Ronen Dar, CTO, who met as postgraduate students at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering at Tel Aviv University, taught by Professor Meir Feder, who together sought to build a foundational layer for running any AI workload.
10 must-see ancient treasures at the Israel Museum
Nestled in the heart of Jerusalem, the Israel Museum stands as a beacon of cultural heritage, housing some of the most significant ancient treasures that shed light on millennia of human history.

Among its vast collection are artifacts that stand out for their historical, archeological and cultural significance. Preserving and showcasing these ancient treasures not only enriches our understanding of the past but also serves as a testament to the enduring legacy of human civilization.

If you’re planning a trip to the museum, make sure you check out these 10 items recommended by the staff.

1. Second Temple-era stone container
Dating back to the days of the Second Temple, approximately 516 BCE – 70 CE, a rare multi-compartment stone container has recently been unveiled to the public. Discovered during excavations in the City of David within Jerusalem Walls National Park, this unique box provides a glimpse into ancient storage practices and possibly endured events like the Great Jewish Revolt against the Romans that began in 66 CE. The box was burned, likely in the destruction of Jerusalem in the year 70.

2. The Dead Sea Scrolls
Perhaps the most renowned of all discoveries on display, the Dead Sea Scrolls offer invaluable insights into ancient Jewish life and thought. Dating from the third century BCE to the first century CE, these manuscripts, found in caves near Khirbet Qumran, are a treasure trove for scholars studying Judaism, Christianity and the Hellenistic-Roman era. They’re housed in their own building on the museum’s grounds.

3. History’s earliest ancient figurine
A 233,000-year-old figurine of a woman, from Berekhat Ram in the Golan Heights, represents humanity’s earliest known artistic expression. Carved from volcanic material, this tiny artifact showcases the ingenuity and creativity of ancient artists.
Howard Jacobson delivers the inaugural Robert Fine Memorial Lecture





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This blog may be a labor of love for me, but it takes a lot of effort, time and money. For 20 years and 40,000 articles I have been providing accurate, original news that would have remained unnoticed. I've written hundreds of scoops and sometimes my reporting ends up making a real difference. I appreciate any donations you can give to keep this blog going.

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