Friday, April 26, 2024

04/26 Links Pt1: How anti-Semitism became a virtue on American campuses; Meet the new Left, who think Hamas are good and that Swastikas are woke

From Ian:

Josh Hammer: Restore Order and Crush the Campus Jihadist Thugs
n his 1790 letter to the Hebrew Congregation in Newport, Rhode Island, President George Washington reached a stirring conclusion: "May the Children of the Stock of Abraham, who dwell in this land, continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other Inhabitants; while every one shall sit in safety under his own vine and fig tree, and there shall be none to make him afraid."

Washington is rolling in his grave right now at Mount Vernon.

Jews are so "afraid" at Columbia University that an Orthodox campus rabbi recently urged students to "return home as soon as possible." The situation at many purportedly "elite" universities is dire, as jihadist mania supplants Black Lives Matter as the vogue, faux-moral cause rotting the minds of impressionable Gen-Zers.

Hamas' useful campus idiots are, at best, blithering morons. They do not realize that Zionism—the Jewish people's national liberation movement in their ancestral homeland—is the quintessence of the very "anticolonialism" and "indigenous people's rights" they claim to champion. They are clueless about international law and how the doctrine of uti possidetis juris establishes that Israel has the best legal claim to Judea and Samaria (i.e., the "West Bank"). They know nothing about warfighting; John Spencer, head of urban warfare studies at West Point, has demonstrated that Israel's combatant-to-civilian death ratio in Gaza since the war began is "historically low for modern urban warfare."

Why let inconvenient facts get in the way of the thrill one feels for supporting a chic social justice movement ... er, genocidal terrorist organization?

The activism now upending Columbia, Yale, Harvard, and other morally bankrupt institutions is done in explicit support of a U.S. State Department-recognized foreign terrorist organization. Keffiyeh-wearing mini-jihadis at Columbia recently chanted "We are Hamas!" and "Long live Hamas!" Other agitators at Columbia called for Tel Aviv—a liberal secular city that will remain in Israeli hands under any possible future settlement with the Palestinian-Arabs—to be "burned to the ground." At the University of Michigan (where my speech in November was shouted down by a pro-Hamas mob), student Hamasniks distributed a pamphlet that says "Freedom for Palestine means Death to America."

Give them credit for the candor.
Meet the new Left, who think Hamas are good and that Swastikas are woke
It wasn’t long ago when the activist Left had a whole laundry list of systems and impersonal forces that it was battling against: sexism, homophobia, white supremacy, ableism – you name it. The Millenial Left may have nodded along to Bernie Sanders’ old labour-Left leanings. Still, they largely abandoned the class struggle of old for a struggle against boutique oppressions that were contingent but intersecting, hence the rise of so-called “intersectionality.”

That’s the once-trendy academic philosophy that relies on a view of power relations of society, where advantages and disadvantages are filtered primarily through identities: race, gender, and sexual orientation. But intersectionality is old hat. It’s not revolutionary enough anymore now that it’s been mainstreamed and gotten absorbed and institutionalised by the blob of liberal media and corporate institutions – including, believe it or not, the Scottish government.

So, in the wake of the shock of the massive Israel-Hamas war since October 7 and a lack of purpose after the political failures of Left-wing populism – the Western Left has found a way to get its groove back by simplifying yet expanding its moral framework.

Goodbye, intersectionality – hello, “It’s All One Thingism.”

In this nebulous new cosmology, Palestinians – even Hamas themselves – aren’t just engaged in a specific geopolitical fight over territory and resources. No, they’re the tip of the spear of a perceived collective liberation against the West, the Global North, “colonisers,” whatever you want to call the Bad Guys. It’s a magical world in which all politics and world affairs once seen through intersectionality’s colourful prism have been flattened into (somewhat ironically for self-proclaimed atheists) a more Biblical view of the world: black-and-white, good and evil.

“Palestine is every single issue in one issue,” wrote Scarlett Rabe, a singer-songwriter who describes herself as an anti-racist mother and an abolition feminist/womanist, in a viral tweet in February. “It’s reproductive justice. It’s social justice. It’s climate crisis… It’s not just one issue; it’s all the issues in one.”

All One Thingism explains why a group of a few hundred masked protestors who chanted “Death to America” and “Hands off Iran” this week also employed the relatively meaningless slogan “From Chicago to Palestine.” Or that another viral post on Instagram by a person wearing a “Fatties for a Free Palestine” T-shirt insisted that “Palestinian solidarity is not a niche issue. Fat liberation and Palestinian liberation go hand in hand.”
George Soros is paying student radicals who are fueling nationwide explosion of Israel-hating protests
George Soros and his hard-left acolytes are paying agitators who are fueling the explosion of radical anti-Israel protests at colleges across the country.

The protests, which began when students took over Columbia University’s Morningside Heights campus lawn last week, have mushroomed nationwide.

Copycat tent cities have been set up at colleges including Harvard, Yale, Berkeley in California, the Ohio State University and Emory in Georgia — all of them organized by branches of the Soros-funded Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) — and at some, students have clashed with police.

The SJP parent organization has been funded by a network of nonprofits ultimately funded by, among others, Soros, the billionaire left-wing investor.

At three colleges, the protests are being encouraged by paid radicals who are “fellows” of a Soros-funded group called the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR).

USCPR provides up to $7,800 for its community-based fellows and between $2,880 and $3,660 for its campus-based “fellows” in return for spending eight hours a week organizing “campaigns led by Palestinian organizations.”

They are trained to “rise up, to revolution.”

The radical group received at least $300,000 from Soros’ Open Society Foundations since 2017 and also took in $355,000 from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund since 2019.

It has three “fellows” who have been major figures in the nationwide protest movement.

Nidaa Lafi, a former president of the University of Texas Students for Justice in Palestine, was seen at an encampment at UT Dallas Wednesday making a speech demanding an end to the war in Gaza.

Lafi, a former legislative intern for the late Democratic Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson, graduated from the school last year with a degree in global business and is now a law student at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.

In January, she was detained for blocking the route of President Biden’s motorcade after he arrived in Dallas for the funeral of Johnson, her former boss.

At Yale, USCPR’s fellow Craig Birckhead-Morton was arrested Monday and charged with first-degree trespassing when SJP’s branch, Yalies4Palestine, occupied the school’s Beinecke Plaza, the Yale Daily News reported.

Birckhead-Morton — also a former intern for a Democrat, Maryland rep John Sarbanes — emerged from custody to address a sit-in blocking traffic in New Haven.

The most high-profile of the fellows is Berkeley’s Malak Afaneh, co-president of the Berkeley Law Students for Justice in Palestine.

She has been a serial speaker at an anti-Israel protest on the campus this week — which came after she first shot to prominence by hijacking a dinner at the law school dean’s home to shout anti-Israel slogans, then accused the dean’s wife of assaulting her when she asked the radical to leave.


How anti-Semitism became a virtue on American campuses
All too often, anti-Semitism seems to go unchallenged by university managers. Late last year, the then presidents of Harvard, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Pennsylvania quibbled over whether ‘calling for the genocide of Jews’ violated institutional codes of conduct during a congressional hearing on campus anti-Semitism. It is unimaginable that any other ethnic group could be discussed in such legalistic terms. The president of Penn quickly resigned and Harvard’s woefully under-qualified president, Claudine Gay, was ousted soon after, following accusations of plagiarism. This sorry episode showed the extent to which casual anti-Semitism has become normalised within elite institutions.

The institutional endorsement of Black Lives Matter – and the hiring of presidents, like Gay, seemingly for their diversity credentials – shows that diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) has become campus orthodoxy. Campus protests that have taken place since 7 October make clear, however, that these supposedly ‘anti-racist’ policies do not extend protection to Jews. It is tempting to cry hypocrisy, but this misses the point. It is not the case that the identity politics that fuels DEI initiatives simply has a blind spot for Jewish people. Far worse, in casting Jews as ‘hyper-white’ and therefore racially privileged, identity politics actually legitimises anti-Jewish bigotry.

Since the start of their education, today’s students have imbibed a crude understanding that people can be sorted into different groups according to skin colour, gender and sexuality, with each group afforded a distinct status as either privileged or oppressed. Critical race theory-inspired exercises designed to get children to ‘check their privilege’ sit alongside history lessons that encourage pupils to dwell only on the shame of erstwhile colonial powers. Rather than considering the gains of the civil-rights era, students are taught to see racial injustice as a never-ending continuum, running from slavery through to Jim Crow laws and ending up with the killing of George Floyd.

Students have been indoctrinated into a view that the world can be divided between oppressors and the oppressed. Those at America’s elite institutions have imbibed this message most successfully of all. These young adults have been taught to loathe their own country and made defensive of their privilege. In this context, aligning with Palestinians and demonstrating hostility to Israel makes perfect sense. It allows students to identify with an oppressed group and distance themselves from their own nation and culture. That such sentiment can so easily tip over into anti-Semitism is unsurprising. Students have been deluded into thinking that the more extreme their demands for the abolition of Israel, and the more vile their targeting of Jews, the better they show their own virtue. Horrendously, anti-Semitism comes to be seen as a morally virtuous position. Indeed, it is more likely to be appeased than challenged by staff.

Anti-Semitic campus protests must be loudly and widely condemned. University managers should not be calling in the cops on peaceful protests, but morally and intellectually challenging their students’ bigotry. They could start by ditching the identitarian DEI agenda that legitimises such vile prejudice.
Spiked Podcast: The Columbia protests and the scourge of elite anti-Semitism
Charlie Peters joins Tom Slater and Fraser Myers to discuss the ‘Gaza solidarity’ encampments springing up on US campuses, the collapse of Scotland’s coalition of crackpots and Joe Lycett’s cancel-culture denialism.


Amid growing campus protests, House to vote on codifying Trump’s antisemitism executive order
The House is scheduled to vote next week on the bipartisan Antisemitism Awareness Act, the latest move by top House lawmakers to respond to growing anti-Israel protests on college campuses over the past week.

The bill would codify the Trump administration’s 2019 executive order instructing the Department of Education to treat antisemitism on college campuses as a violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act and to utilize the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism in assessing cases of antisemitism. The Biden administration has continued to enforce the Trump order.

“The horrific antisemitism we’ve seen at colleges and universities, and the abdication of these campuses to antisemitic radicals, has been painful to witness in real time,” Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY), the bill’s lead House sponsor, said in a statement. “Which is why I’m thrilled to hear that the Antisemitism Awareness Act is coming up for a vote next week. This critical legislation will help put a stop to this once and for all and ensure campuses remain safe for Jewish students,”

A coalition of 31 Jewish groups sent a new letter to House lawmakers on Thursday urging prompt passage of the bill, calling it “more timely and important than ever” as campus incidents have “reached a fever pitch.”

“The current climate certainly reinforces the need for the Department of Education to have clear guidance when investigating instances in which anti-Israel activity may cross a line into antisemitic harassment that creates a hostile environment for Jewish students on campus in violation of federal civil rights laws,” the letter continues.

A variety of Jewish community organizations have been encouraging lawmakers to exclusively back the IHRA definition. But there’s also been growing opposition to the IHRA definition among progressives both on and off Capitol Hill. Some conservative lawmakers might also be inclined to oppose the bill due to concerns around free speech.

Last year, a resolution expressing support for the IHRA definition and describing anti-Zionism as antisemitism passed by a 311-14 vote, with 92 Democrats voting present and 13 voting against.
Torres, Lawler push for federal antisemitism monitors on college campuses
As encampments of anti-Israel protesters spring up on a growing number of campuses across the country bringing with them instances of antisemitism, Reps. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) and Mike Lawler (R-NY) are threatening to condition federal funding for universities as part of a push for more stringent federal oversight and monitoring of campus antisemitism, Jewish Insider has learned.

The lawmakers plan to introduce the College Oversight and Legal Updates Mandating Bias Investigations and Accountability (COLUMBIA) Act, which would allow the Department of Education to impose a third-party monitor for antisemitic activity on any campus receiving federal funding. Schools that do not adequately cooperate with monitoring could potentially lose their federal funding.

Compliance with such monitoring would, under the proposed legislation, be a condition of receiving continued federal funds; the monitor would release quarterly public reports on the progress that schools have made in addressing antisemitism and providing recommendations to federal, state and local lawmakers and officials.

“As we have seen over the last half a year since October 7, campus antisemitism is at an all-time high, and American universities are not capable of handling it when left to their own devices,” Torres said in a statement, alleging that there are “blatant violation[s]” of Jewish students’ civil rights occurring at colleges across the country “and the federal government cannot allow this to continue unchecked.”

Columbia University, the site of the first encampment, “is not an isolated incident — it is the straw that has broken the camel’s back — and I am prepared to do something about it,” Torres said. “Jewish students have told my office that they feel completely abandoned by their university administrators and they view Congress as the only avenue for accountability and safety.”

The proposed monitors would be appointed by the secretary of education, while expenses for the monitors would be paid by the schools being monitored.
Hamza Howidy: Message From a Gazan to Campus Protesters: You're Hurting the Palestinian Cause
It's unconscionable. But it's not just the antisemitism that has me despairing. It's the hypocrisy. Where were these caring young people when Hamas took over Gaza and slaughtered hundreds of Gazans, or when Hamas held 2 million Gazans captive for more than 17 years? Why didn't they speak out about the fact that Hamas led Gazans into this conflict, which resulted in more than 30,000 dead and 80,000 injured, according to Gazan municipal authorities? Where were they when Hamas's failed missiles claimed the lives of hundreds of Gazans on October 17, or when Hamas murdered young people in order to steal aid and resell it to Gazans at massively inflated prices?

The only conclusion that can be drawn from these demonstrators' silence concerning Hamas' atrocities and their antisemitic chanting is that they are not concerned with protecting Palestinians. They are out in their tents because of a hatred of Jews and Israelis.

As a Gazan and as a Palestinian, I want the protesters and the organizers of these protests to know that their hateful speech harms us. The Jewish person or Israeli you are intimidating during your rally may be the granddaughter of a Holocaust survivor or a family member of an Israeli slain or abducted by Hamas on October 7. These folks would be your partners if the protests were about achieving lasting peace and justice for Palestinians and Israelis.

I do not accept hateful speech or terrorist chants, and all of these foolish dreams about eradicating Israel are disgusting—and will never be achieved. Both of us—Palestinians and Israelis—are here to stay.

But the protesters aren't interested in peace. Some of the groups have been blocking Palestinian peace activists like me—and I am from Gaza, the very place they claim to care about! Instead of blocking peace activists, they should be inviting us to join these protests and guide them in the right direction—a place without hatred with a focus on calling for the release of the hostages who have been held captive by Hamas for more than 210 days.

If the protesters cared about Palestinians, they would have one central demand: Hamas must surrender, because we have all suffered from Hamas and can no longer live under the rule of a terrorist group. Only then can a ceasefire be achieved.
Ben Shapiro: Our Cowardly, Garbage Universities
Protestors take over Columbia University as the administration “negotiates”; the Biden administration has nothing to say about the continuing antisemitic chaos spreading across the country; and Speaker of the House Mike Johnson heads to Columbia to speak out against the radical protestors.




The Commentary Magazine Podcast: Is Hamas Brilliant?
Hosted by Abe Greenwald, Christine Rosen, John Podhoretz & Matthew Continetti
Noam Blum joins the podcast today to discuss the strategy Hamas is pursuing to stave off the Israeli action in Rafah—the use of a hostage video to freeze Israeli society in place and turn the conversation away from victory and toward rescue. What are the consequences?


The Israel Guys: What in the WORLD is Happening at Columbia University?
Universities across the US have turned into pro Hamas encampments, from which students are now negotiating! The US Speaker of the House's attempt to protect Jewish rights seems powerless against the mob.




In Israel, activists from Muslim countries denounce common threat of radical Islam
Before Errachid Montassir’s first visit to Israel in 2022, his family in Morocco tried to dissuade him from making the trip. “You’re going to get killed by the Israelis,” they told him.

Despite the ominous prediction, the 28-year-old ecotourism entrepreneur and climate activist survived his first stay unscathed. Last week, he came again, as part of a delegation from Arab and Muslim countries to promote tolerance in the Middle East through Holocaust education in the shadow of the October 7 massacre by Hamas of 1,200 in Israel’s south and the capture of another 253 individuals who were taken hostage to Gaza.

“The thing that struck me the most was realizing the propaganda and the fake news that the media spread in Muslim countries, that make us think that Israelis are the killers,” Montassir said. “We visited a kibbutz [assaulted by Hamas on October 7] and met with families who witnessed their kids dying in front of them. It shocked me deeply.”

The five-day trip was organized by Sharaka (the Arabic word for “Partnership”), a non-profit founded following the signing of the Abraham Accords in 2020, which promotes people-to-people contacts between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco.

The Sharaka delegation was comprised of 10 members from various countries in the region, with a strong preponderance of Moroccans (seven), but also a high-profile Pakistani journalist, an outspoken Iranian-Danish social activist and a prominent Canadian author with roots in Egypt and Gaza.

The intensive program included a visit to Yad Vashem, a meeting with a Holocaust survivor, lectures on antisemitism and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a visit to the Gaza Envelope and the site of the October 7 Supernova festival massacre, but also a culinary tour of the Mahane Yehuda market in Jerusalem, a visit to Microsoft offices in Herzliya and more.

As part of the program, participants will also visit the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland at a later stage.

On Thursday, the final day of their trip, The Times of Israel spoke with some delegation members who explained what motivated them to visit Israel and what stereotypes were shattered during the experience. Some of the conversations were lightly edited for clarity.

Yasmine Mohammed: Ex-wife of al-Qaeda terrorist
The cohort included Yasmine Mohammed, a prominent advocate for Muslim women’s rights from Vancouver, Canada.

Mohammed was born in Canada to a Gazan father and an Egyptian mother. Her parents divorced shortly after her birth, and she was raised by her mother, a formerly secular woman who became a fundamentalist after her divorce. Mohammed was forced to wear a hijab from age 9.

At 19, her mother married her off to a high-ranking al-Qaeda member, Essam Marzouk, who had received refugee status in Canada. From the very beginning of their marriage, her husband started physically abusing her.

After the birth of her first daughter, Mohammed managed to escape her oppressive home, build a new life and tell her story to the world. She left Islam, and today she runs “Free Hearts, Free Minds,” an NGO offering free psychological support to closeted ex-Muslims.

Last week’s delegation was Mohammed’s first time in Israel. The social activist described the tour as “emotionally exhausting,” both for the Holocaust education component and for the visits to the sites of the October 7 massacre. Tears welled up in her eyes while she recounted the meetings with October 7 survivors.

As someone who has known firsthand and has been very vocal about the dangers of radical Islam, Mohammed hoped that the horrific events of October 7 could be a wakeup call, an invitation to stop “infantilizing” and “underestimating” Islamist terror groups, and pay close heed to their threats.

Mohammed said she had also tried to warn her liberal Israeli friends about the threat of Islamist terror before October 7. “It takes one to know one,” she sighed.

“Because Jewish people have such a deep love for humanity and for progress, they tend to think that all people are like that. And it makes me really sad to have to let them know and understand that that’s not the reality we live in,” Mohammed said. “But October 7 burst that bubble.”

In 2019, Mohammed published a foreshadowing book titled “Unveiled: How Western Liberals Empower Radical Islam.” She said she used to get questions about the meaning of the title, but today that is no longer the case.

“They don’t have to ask me that anymore because they can see how the West has empowered [Islamists] to the point that they’re in the streets yelling ‘Allahu Akbar’ [a cry of celebration] when they found out that Iran was sending UAVs,” she said, referencing the April 13 attack, in which Tehran launched a swarm of around 300 attack drones and missiles from its territory toward the Jewish state.

“I was feeling scared, angry, worried, frustrated, infuriated when nobody could see. Every time I would open my mouth, people would think I was an alarmist,” she said, decrying the fact that critics of radical Islam are often silenced with accusations of Islamophobia.

“I think now it has really been uncovered. Now people are starting to listen,” she added. “I don’t know how long that will last, because people spend not even a fraction of a second acknowledging how Jews have been victimized yet again, and then immediately they move on.”
Blinken says Gaza protests a hallmark of democracy, decries 'silence' on Hamas
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Friday protests at US universities over US-ally Israel's war in Gaza are a hallmark of American democracy, but criticized what he called the "silence" about Palestinian terrorist group Hamas.

Police have clashed with students critical of the war and the Biden administration's support for Israel's war in Gaza, with nearly 550 arrests made over the protests in the last week across major US universities, according to a Reuters tally.

Asked at a press conference in China whether he was taking on board the protesters' message, Blinken said he understood the conflict elicited "strong, passionate feelings" and that the administration was doing it all it could to halt the war.

"In our own country, it's a hallmark of our democracy that our citizens make known their views, their concerns, their anger, at any given time, and I think that reflects the strength of the country, the strength of democracy," Blinken said.
Columbia President Nemat Shafik Accused of Plagiarism
Columbia University President Nemat Shafik has been under fire for over a week since she’s allowed anti-Israel dumbs to set up camp on the lawn, taunt Jewish students, and make the rest of the term hybrid or virtual.

Like what seems every other Ivy League president…Shafik faces allegations of plagiarism.

Shafik got a B.A. in economics and politics from UMASS-Amherst, an M.S. in economics from the London School of Economics, and a PhD in economics from Oxford.


Kassy Akiva: ‘Zionists Don’t Deserve To Live’: Meet The Leader Of Columbia University’s Anti-Israel Encampment
One of the most vocal student activists leading the anti-Israel Gaza Solidarity Encampment at Columbia University, Khymani James, openly stated in an live-stream of an official university inquiry in January that “Zionists don’t deserve to live.”

James, who states in the hearing that he goes by “he/she/they” pronouns, live-streamed his meeting with Columbia’s Center for Student Success and Intervention, where he doubled down on an Instagram post that sparked the report. In the report, which he reads aloud at the start of the meeting, James warned Zionists who may want to “meet up and fight” and that he “fights to kill.”

“Do you see why that’s problematic in any way?” a Columbia employee asked James during the hearing, to which he responded: “No.”

James, a junior and spokesperson of the Columbia University Apartheid Divest group, has been the visible face of the protests that have garnered national attention. He appears to still be a student at the university, and has been one of the key organizers of the encampment. He was one of the students who held a press conference on Wednesday, where he claimed that the school conceded it would not call law enforcement on the encampment.

In the video James posted to social media of his January interaction with school officials, he defends his belief that all Zionists deserve to die.

“I feel very comfortable, very comfortable, calling for those people to die,” James says. “And with that being said, Khymani is signed out.”

In another post on his public social media profile, James stated that he “carry that tool” and that he is “moving like I’m in an open carry state.”

When asked about the seriousness of taking someone’s life, James said that sometimes it is necessary to murder people.

“I think that taking someone’s life in certain case scenarios is necessary and better for the overall world. I personally have never killed anyone,” he said. “Thank the Lord that no one has put me in that position.”

He compared the need to kill Zionists to killing Hitler or Haitian revolutionaries who had to “kill their masters in order to gain their independence.”

“These were masters who were white supremacists. What is a Zionist? A white supremacist. So let’s be very clear here, I’m not saying that I’m going to go out and start killing Zionists. What I am saying is that if an individual who identifies as a Zionist threatens my physical safety in person, i.e., puts their hands on me, I am going to defend myself and in that case scenario, it may come to a point where I don’t know when to stop.”

“I understand what you are saying,” the Columbia employee responds. “What resources do you think you have to make sure that you feel protected as a student here?”

“My hands and my brains are my resources,” James responded, before going on to call the meeting “institutional violence.”

James went on to say that “there should not be Zionists anywhere.”

“People who hold those types of ideologies, the world is better without them. That is what my comment is indicative of, and I will stand with that,” he said.

During a break in the meeting, James looked at his camera and called the meeting “a joke.”

“They definitely were hoping that I was going to walk back the ‘I fight to kill,’” he said, cackling. James said he does “fight to kill” and that is why no one has fought him since middle school.


Top NYPD cop schools AOC after she rants about Columbia campus chaos and ‘violent’ police units
A top NYPD official schooled Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and slammed Columbia University’s “entitled” demonstrators after the congresswoman railed against the school’s decision to call in cops amid ongoing campus chaos.

“Not only did Columbia make the horrific decision to mobilize NYPD on their own students, but the units called in have some of the most violent reputations on the force,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote late Wednesday in response to a video of NYPD Counterterrorism officers outside the Morningside Heights campus.

“NYPD had promised the city they wouldn’t deploy SRG to protests. So why are these counterterror units here?” she asked.

But NYPD Chief of Patrol John Chell was having none of the left-wing Democrat’s critique, and wrote in a reply, “Columbia decided to hold its students accountable to the laws of the school.”

“[The protesters] are seeing the consequences of their actions,” he wrote on X early Thursday.

“Something these kids were most likely never taught. Good SAT scores and self-entitlement do not supersede the law,” Chell said of the student protesters, who have occupied a lawn on campus with a Gaza Solidarity Encampment for over a week.


Ilhan Omar and Daughter Show Face at Columbia Protest
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D., Minn.) and her daughter Isra Hirsi, a Barnard student who was arrested and suspended from Columbia University last week for her role in anti-Israel protests on campus, attended another anti-Israel demonstration at Columbia together on Thursday.

Omar posed for a photograph with her daughter and answered a reporter’s question near the protesters’ encampment in front of Columbia’s Low Memorial Library, according to an X post on Thursday.

The anti-Israel protests at Columbia, which began last Wednesday with hundreds of students establishing an encampment on a campus lawn to demand the university divest from Israel, reached a fever pitch when more than 100 student protesters, including the Minnesota congresswoman’s daughter, were arrested by New York City police and suspended from Columbia.

The crackdown, however, did little to quell the protests. Columbia has since canceled in-person classes for the rest of the spring semester, leading House speaker Mike Johnson (R., La.) and other Republican representatives to call for the resignation of Columbia president Minouche Shafik.

Omar on Monday said the arrested and suspended protesters "were peacefully protesting and have now ignited a nationwide Gaza Solidarity movement. ... This is more than the students hoped for and I am glad to see this type of solidarity."

"But to be clear, this [is] about the genocide in Gaza and the attention has to remain on that," Omar added.


Aussie veteran condemns 'DISGUSTING' anti-Israel protesters
Australian veterans have expressed outrage following attempts by anti-Israel protesters to disrupt and desecrate ANZAC Day commemorations across the country.

Dave Menz, President of the Aussie Veterans Association spoke out against the shocking disrespect shown towards the solemnity of the day by anti-Israel activists who tried to disrupt and desecrate commemorations around the country.

Reflecting on the significance of ANZAC Day, Dave stressed its importance as a day of remembrance and unity for veterans, and a day that should not never be overshadowed by activists seeking to re-write history.

"It's the Veterans Day where we march and we honor our fallen, where we get together with friends and we meet friends we haven't seen for ages. They got 365 days a year. Why would you do it on Anzac Day?" he remarked.

"This is not good for their cause or for them. Totally disrespectful, totally the wrong day."

Dave further commented on the appalling scenes witnessed this year, including one protester dragging the Australian flag along the ground wrapped in a Palestinian flag.

"As a soldier, you're taught the flag is your flag. When you put the flag up the pole, when it comes down the pole. You never let the flag touch the ground. It's a piece of cloth to some people ... To us, it's the chosen flag. It's our flag. And it should not be desecrated in any way whatsoever," he asserted.

Expressing frustration with the lack of government intervention, Dave called for stricter laws against flag desecration.

"Why aren't the government getting in and saying you can have your protest, but this is beyond a joke? It should be a law that you can't burn the flag. There should be a law to say if you desecrate the flag in any way you're going to jail, forget the fine. Put them in jail. That's the easiest way," he urged.

Dave questioned the motives behind the protesters' actions, suggesting a "twisted" logic that views Australian veterans as enemies.


Exclusive: Notes From Princeton Activists Show Coordination Between Campus Radicals and Outside Groups Aimed at Outfoxing University Administrators
Organizers of the Columbia University encampment advised activists at Princeton on how to take over their own campus, giving them tips on disrupting university operations and stressing that there is "safety in numbers," according to documents obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.

The tips were dispensed last week during a meeting between Aditi Rao, a Ph.D. student at Princeton who has defended calls for intifada, and members of Columbia's encampment. Rao relayed the advice to her fellow Princeton activists in a strategy session last Saturday, notes from which were obtained by the Free Beacon.

The Columbia organizers had spent weeks hashing out a plan to kneecap the university's core functions and put administrators in an impossible position. If activists at Princeton wanted to pull off a similar coup, there were some things they should know.

Pick a site "that is public and that [the] University needs," Columbia's organizers advised, noting that they had targeted the quad where commencement takes place. "Don't pick the site of historic occupations," such as libraries or the president's office, since the university will simply move its operations to a "different building."

Finding the right target could take time, the organizers said. At Columbia, they were "planning for over a month."

The meeting notes, which have not been previously reported, are part of a tranche of documents that detail how a highly organized group of activists—including dozens of faculty—planned to paralyze Princeton by copying the Columbia playbook. Key to their strategy was the anticipated fecklessness of administrators, who at Columbia have refused to enforce their own deadlines to clear the encampment and, in past protests, would reinstate students within days of suspending them.

"Columbia thinks they will get suspensions cleared," notes from the meeting read.


Israeli university presidents condemn violent, anti-Semitic campus protests in the US
The Israel Association of University Heads (VERA) issued on Friday a denunciation of violent demonstrations and antisemitism on American campuses.

We, the presidents of the research universities in Israel, express our deep concern over the recent surge of severe violence, antisemitism, and anti-Israel sentiment across numerous leading universities in the US. These disturbing events are often organized and supported by Palestinian groups, including those recognized as terrorist organizations.

This troubling development has led to a climate where Israeli and Jewish students and faculty members feel compelled to hide their identities or avoid campuses altogether for fear of physical harm.”

The professors acknowledged “the efforts of our counterparts at these institutions to address these issues. We understand the complexity and challenges involved in managing incited and hateful groups, recognizing that extreme situations may require measures beyond the conventional tools available to university administrations.”

They added that while freedom of expression and the right to demonstrate are vital to the health of any democracy and are especially crucial in academic settings and that they continued to uphold the importance of these freedoms, particularly in these challenging times, “these freedoms do not include the right to engage in violence, make threats against communities, or call for the destruction of the State of Israel.” Voicing support to the Jewish diaspora

They voiced their support to the Jewish and Israeli students and faculty facing these difficult circumstances. “We will do our best to assist those of them who wish to join Israeli universities and find a welcoming academic and personal home,” they concluded.

The statement was signed by Prof. Arie Zaban, president of Bar-Ilan University who is VERA’s chairman; Prof. Daniel Chamovitz, president of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev; Prof. Alon Chen, president of the Weizmann Institute of Science; Prof. Asher Cohen, president of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem; Prof. Leo Corry, president of the Open University; Prof. Ehud Grossman, president of Ariel University Prof. Ariel Porat, president of Tel Aviv University; Prof. Ron Robin, president of the University of Haifa; and Prof. Uri Sivan, president of the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology.


State of Tel Aviv: Professor Shai Davidai: The Reluctant Activist Waking Up America - Part 1
On April 5th State of Tel Aviv spoke at length with Columbia University Professor Shai Davidai about his overnight evolution from low-key academic to high profile activist. The catalyst? The October 7th Hamas massacre in southern Israel which galvanized extreme Islamist sympathizers and hard left “progressives.” Literally overnight, Jews and Israel were vilified on campuses, in media, in massive street protests throughout North America and Europe. Davidai was horrified by what he saw happening on the Columbia University campus and began to speak out and speak up. In this episode we go back to October 7th and get into the university administration’s abdication of responsibility to its community and why and how Shai Davidai became the reluctant activist with a national profile. We also dive into the very dramatic events that have occurred on Columbia’s campus since October 7th, climaxing in anarchy this past week.


NYPD hunts for hateful suspects in attacks on victims holding Israeli flags, including one outside Columbia
The NYPD is on the hunt for several hateful suspects who targeted victims holding Israeli flags in Manhattan this month, including a disturbing attack outside Columbia University where a man was pelted in the face with a rock, cops and sources said.

The most recent attack took place near the Ivy League school’s Morningside Heights campus just before 10 p.m. Saturday, the same night three students were arrested and another taken away on a stretcher amid fiery anti-Israel protests.

A 22-year-old man was near Amsterdam Avenue and West 116th Street with an Israeli flag in hand when another man ran up to him and snatched it, police and sources said.

The victim tried to follow the stranger into a crowd, but was pelted in the face with a rock by another man, the NYPD said.

A third stranger “then grabbed the flag and set it on fire,” police said.

The brutal attack came exactly two weeks after a similar incident was reported in Midtown.

A 19-year-old woman was standing outside 39 West 34th Street around 5 p.m. April 12 when two strangers approached her and forcibly took her Israeli flag, police sources said.

The assailants — a woman and man both wearing headdresses — fled on foot eastbound on West 34 Street.

Both attacks are being investigated by the NYPD’s Hate Crime Task Force.

Police said there is no indication that either incident is related or that the five suspects were working in tandem.


Andy Ngo: Don’t buy the left’s gaslighting — ‘outside agitators’ aren’t behind campus antisemitism
Far-left and pro-Palestine extremists mobilized at Columbia University last week for an occupation that’s shut down campus.

Promoters of revolutionary “direct action” chanted explicitly in support of Hamas and urged the Palestinian Islamist terror group to “Burn Tel Aviv to the ground.”

Over the weekend, a group of pro-Israel counterprotesters were met by a keffiyeh-wearing woman who held up a sign and arrow declaring: “Al-Qasam’s next targets.”

Al-Qassam Brigades is the Hamas military wing that led the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks in Israel.

Occupations have spread to dozens of higher-educational institutions across North America, becoming violent — and more organized.

In response to the bad PR, left-wing politicians are gaslighting us.

“Throughout history, protests were co-opted and made to look bad so police and public leaders would shut them down,” Rep. Ilhan Omar tweeted.

Her daughter, a communist activist, was arrested at Columbia last week.

New York City Councilman Chi Ossé wrote: “I unequivocally condemn the vile antisemitic incidents from OUTSIDE perpetrators we’ve seen in the area.”

Blaming outsiders was a left-wing tactic when the 2020 George Floyd riots burned down neighborhoods and killed people.

But those weren’t and aren’t outsiders.

These are people on their side, in their movement, with similar goals.

People set up a makeshift memorial for the Jewish hostages taken by Hamas on October 7, 2023 at Columbia University as students maintain an ongoing pro-Palestinian encampment on their campus on April 23, 2024 in New York City.

From the immediate hours after Oct. 7, Nazi imagery, leftist justifications and Islamic extremism have been at protests’ forefront.


Columbia Lets 48-Hour Deadline Slide With No Action Against Student Protesters
Students prepared for another wave of arrests Tuesday night, pledging to "defend the encampment" and "rally" for their "comrades." But those arrests never came, with Shafik pushing back a midnight deadline to clear the encampment—first to 8 a.m., then to 48 hours.

Late Thursday night, Shafik issued the statement saying the negotiations between the university and the student protesters "have shown progress" and are ongoing. Columbia University did not respond to a request for comment.

The students are also targeting the school through Palestine Legal, a nonprofit that represents students who "stand for justice in Palestine." The group announced a civil rights complaint against the New York Police Department over the arrest of more than 100 students, who were also suspended by the university. The group is representing four Columbia students and the school's Students for Justice in Palestine chapter.

"Today, Palestine Legal filed a civil rights complaint with the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights," the group said in a Thursday statement, "demanding an investigation into Columbia University's discriminatory treatment of Palestinian students and their allies, including by inviting NYPD officers in riot gear … to arrest over a hundred students peacefully protesting Israel's genocide last week."

Protests held near the entrance to Columbia's campus have turned violent. Last week, Arab-Israeli journalist Yoseph Haddad was pushed, punched in the face, and told to kill himself during an encounter with people he called "pro-terrorist protesters'' positioned near the Columbia gates. Haddad was scheduled to speak on campus that night but was forced to cancel the event.

Within the campus gates, meanwhile, a group of Jewish students was targeted by student protesters over the weekend. The group went out on campus Saturday night with an Israeli flag, which was stolen. Pro-Hamas agitators later attempted to burn it. The group was assaulted, splashed with water, and followed by protesters, according to one of the students.

At a press conference led by student protesters Thursday afternoon, organizers said they "will remain in this encampment until we achieve all of our demands," which are for Columbia "to divest, disclose, and amnesty for all" students and faculty disciplined. The students have also scheduled another presser for 2:30 p.m. Friday.
Columbia Student Protesters Urge Reporters To Leave Campus, Schedule Presser for 12 Hours After Expiration of School's Negotiation Deadline
As the "Gaza Solidarity" tent encampment at Columbia University lives on for a ninth day, student organizers spoke to reporters Thursday afternoon, urging them to leave campus before nightfall. They also scheduled another presser for Friday afternoon—roughly 12 hours after the school's apparent deadline to vacate the encampment expires.

Sueda Polat, a Columbia graduate student who is negotiating with the school on behalf of student group Columbia University Apartheid Divest, said those negotiations "have resumed as of earlier this morning" and are "currently ongoing." She was followed by undergraduate student Khymani James, a protest leader and CUAD spokesman, who urged reporters to leave campus by 4 p.m. and scheduled another press conference for 2:30 p.m. tomorrow.

James's announcement suggests student protesters expect to remain in their encampment for another 24 hours—despite a fast-approaching deadline from university president Minouche Shafik to clear the area.

Late Tuesday night, Shafik issued a statement setting a "deadline of midnight tonight to reach agreement" or clear the encampment. After protesters pledged to resist, university officials released a 3 a.m. statement saying they would "continue conversations for the next 48 hours."

That means the deadline should have expired between midnight and 3 a.m. early Friday morning, roughly 12 hours prior to the student protesters' next press conference. Still, student protesters seemed unconcerned by the looming deadline, with student leader Mahmoud Khalil, an international student, saying the protesters "will remain in this encampment until we achieve all of our demands."
The Columbia protester diet: Anti-Israel students munch on Pret sandwiches, pricey nuts and sip Dunkin’
Bellies are full, but the tantrums continue.

The anti-Israel Columbia University students hunkering down on the Ivy League’s West Lawn received a hefty food delivery Wednesday — as they show no signs of abandoning their makeshift tent city.

Fruits, nuts, granola bars and overpriced sandwiches were being handed out like candy to the protesters, who were given a 48-hour extension to camp out on the grounds before the administration warned it would clear them out.

The evening meal marked one week of the group’s headlining-making demonstration as similar ones have spread like wildfire to other elite campuses across the country.

The anti-Israel protesters — more than 100 of whom were cuffed by the NYPD last week — had their choice of an array of nuts, including a $17 jar of Good and Gather’s Sea Salt Roasted Mixed Nuts.

Cheaper options like Blue Diamond almonds and Planters cashews were also laid out for the students, who are used to shelling out $86,097 in tuition each year.

Sandwiches at the UK-brand convenience bakery Pret-A-Manger were neatly lined up along the table. A simple veggie sandwich would cost only $8, but those with any meat between the bread slices cost anywhere between $10 and $14, or even $16 for a salmon option.

The famished freedom fighters were also treated to $15 Kind granola bars and $10 rotisserie chickens, as well as Trader Joe’s peanut butter cups, croissants, muffins and more.

Radical anti-Israel protesters at Yale University were spotted munching fresh sushi Monday while supposedly engaged in a weeklong hunger strike at the elite Ivy League campus.

To keep caffeinated for their around-the-clock antics, protesters opted for the relatively cheap choice of Dunkin’ Donuts coffee. And for a sugar boost, a box of donuts was theirs for the taking.

They even munched on several bags of coconut macaroons from Strait’s — which bills the cookies as “Kosher for Passover and all year round.”

Who or what organization is behind the food delivery is a mystery, though Columbia’s administration restricted access to the campus to only “Columbia ID holders” and credentialed press members.

With their bellies full, the protesters showed no signs of abandoning their encampment, especially following embattled Columbia University president Minouche Shafik’s announcement that they could stay on the grounds for another 48 hours.

Shafik – who previously vowed to crack down on the protests and antisemitism on campus – initially set a midnight deadline on Wednesday for them to reach an agreement to clear out.


NYU Encampment Organizers Encourage Protesters To Join Pro-Hamas ‘Resistance Network’
Anti-Israel protest organizers at New York University encouraged their followers to get "plugged into" a Telegram channel that routinely promotes Hamas and other terrorist organizations.

A Telegram chat channel created by NYU protest organizers referred their followers to the "Resistance News Network," an account which advertised communications from Hamas’s commander in chief Mohammed Deif, who advertised the Oct. 7 massacres in Israel, and encouraged people to take up arms.

"Eyes on Gaza, eyes on Rafah, eyes on students everywhere. Make sure you’re plugged into Resistance News Network," the NYU Encampment Updates account wrote, linking to the channel. The organizers’ promotion of the radical channel was first observed by Jewish Insider and confirmed by the Washington Free Beacon.

The Resistance News Network has a pinned post at the top of their feed that features a video announcing the Al-Aqsa Flood which resulted in 1,200 Israelis dead and hundreds held hostage.

"BREAKING: The commander-in-chief of the Martyr Izz El-Din Al-Qassam Brigades, Mohammed Deif, announces the Al-Aqsa Flood battle in a historic speech: ‘They attacked the stationed worshippers and desecrated Al-Aqsa, and we have previously warned them,’" the account wrote.

The Telegram channel’s "posts include the explicit promotion of U.S. State Department-designated foreign terrorist organizations (FTOs), often providing English translations of communiques and propaganda from groups such as Hamas and its Al Qassam Brigades, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), Ansar Allah (the Houthis), Palestine Islamic Jihad (PIJ), Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades and Hezbollah," the Anti-Defamation League notes.

This comes as anti-Semitic tent encampments have sprung up on college campuses around the nation, beginning with Columbia University.


Horror as GWU protester carries sign with Nazi ‘final solution’ call for extermination of Jews
A despicable anti-Israeli protester has sparked horror after being photographed at George Washington University with a sign calling for the “final solution,” the Nazi plan to exterminate all Jews.

The unidentified man was seen mingling among students on the Washington, DC, campus carrying a huge Palestinian flag — and the sign with the expression Adolf Hitler used to sum up his plan for the “annihilation of the Jews.”

The image quickly sparked outrage from many shocked at a term used during the Holocaust.

“The parallels between this movement and actual Nazism is real and scary,” one X user wrote.

Another posted: “Just pure hatred.”

“Not a peaceful protest at all,” a third person wrote.

The image emerged as hundreds of anti-Israel protesters on Thursday occupied the campus at George Washington University, one of many schools swamped by such action.

The school said Friday that the remaining protesters “and any who attempt to join them are trespassing on private property and violating university regulations.”


University of Washington pro-Palestine group cancels planned encampment for being too white
Pro-Palestinian students at the University of Washington announced their plans to postpone what was supposed to be Thursday's Gaza solidarity encampment because too many white students were involved.

The group in the Pacific Northwest had been criticized for failing to include enough Muslim and Arab students in the planning of the encampment.

The disruptive demonstration was scheduled to go up Thursday morning at the Seattle university, where the administration told members of the Jewish community that they did not plan to intervene unless 'the event escalates and threatens life safety,' according to My Northwest.

Without a significant threat from those at the head of the institution, students opted to delay the protest in order to 'make sure this encampment is a better reflection of the UW community, and having even greater unity with Muslim, Palestinian and Arab students.'

'We want to be part of a much larger coalition of groups and make no mistake, WE WILL HAVE A UW ENCAMPMENT! We want to make sure everyone’s voice is included and this action is as safe, secure, and strong as possible, a post to the school's Progressive Student Union's Instagram read.

Commenters claiming to be students harshly criticized the PSU for its failure to effectively organize the protest and recruit enough Muslim and Arab students into the the effort occurring in the notoriously white and liberal Seattle area.

'I really hope you make sure to take proper security precautions this time and learn what operational security means. Without prioritizing security for all the students involved, the action is hollow and reckless,' wrote one user.

'These issues are happening repeatedly and reflect badly on you. Please do better and actually get security training and have procedures.'

'What about all the people who want this to happen ASAP. Announcing this and then pulling it back is irresponsible. You’ve put people in danger who decide to show up because they didn’t see this slide,' wrote user Bailee McCauley, who apparently remained in favor of moving forward with protest plans, while others advocated for the event's total cancelation.

'Please listen to the Palestinian, Arab and Muslim students criticizing this event and cancel it,' wrote a user named Sofie.




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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 over 19 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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