Saturday, April 27, 2024

04/27 Links: Hatred of Israel is the great moral disorder of our time; Hamas publishes video of hostages Omri Miran and Keith Siegel; BBC has turned into modern day Joseph Goebbels

From Ian:

Hatred of Israel is the great moral disorder of our time
If I forget thee, O Jerusalem… (Psalm 137)

It is the great moral disorder of our time.

Dear Israel is but a spit of earth on a huge globe. Three years after six million Jews were put to torture, humiliation, whippings, rape, medical experiment, starvation, and vile death, was it not surely time — time for all the nations of the Earth who had reached some moral understanding of life and government — to allow Jewish people time to rest, time to mourn, time to see what and who might be left of them.

To find just one period, just one time, just one place where and when they did not have to start up in the middle of the night when unfamiliar sounds disturbed, did not have to hear demagogues howling at them from street corners, or put up with the trendy, ignorant western pseudo-radicals shouting in bullhorns from library steps. To not see their shops and homes targets of mobs and slanders, their synagogues battered.

A time when they might gather on a bit of land where dogs were not set upon them; where children did not mock them; where passerby thugs did not attack their elders in the street; where Jews unique in their sorrow and pain could meet with some of their tormented doubles, if for nothing else but to share laments and profound griefs, generate solace by shared company and memory.

Ah, Jews. Ah, Israel.

Poor Jews. It was not enough that Europe built a hecatomb of your kind because a madman and his mad country hated you. When you were nearly ripped out of history altogether, your spectacular survival over centuries and millennia genuinely threatened, averted as much by the chances of a war in which one side ignored you while the other industrialized your killing.

A guilty world — no, only a part of what should be a guilty world — offered you a spit of land: dust, bush, waterless (the former B.C. cabinet minister was correct in her description). I believe it’s called a desert.

It was “presented” as the homeland for Jews in 1947. For (wrung with accents of burning pity whenever the word was said in this context) the “survivors.”

This was when “survivors” meant people — men, women, children, infants — who had been rounded up, packed into railway cars, families ripped asunder, thrown into hideous camps with sadistic guards and vicious dogs, worked to death, starved, and for days, weeks or (some few) for years, spat upon, beaten, treated like less than dogs — hollowed out from torture, starvation and hopelessness.

To still be breathing after that! That’s a survivor.

(One of the heresies of our careless times is how we have let moralizing idiots, fat and comfortable woke types, haul out this word — “survivor” — to describe their own ignorant obsessions, their hypertrophic sense of privilege, to claim our attention.)
Arsen Ostrovsky and Amjad Taha: It's Time to Act Against Antisemitic Behavior on Campus
When universities continue to permit anti-Jewish hatred under the guise of anti-Zionism; indulge hate groups such as Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), and cannot even answer whether calling for genocide against Jews is against university policy, what did they think was going to happen?

In a statement ahead of the Jewish holiday of Passover, President Joe Biden said "this blatant antisemitism is reprehensible and dangerous—and it has absolutely no place on college campuses, or anywhere in our country."

Condemnations of the protests and expressions of solidarity with Jewish students are certainly welcome, and in fact necessary, but in the absence of urgent action, they are hollow and meaningless.

The following, therefore, is a 10-point action plan to restore order and protect Jewish students:
1. These ugly scenes must be labeled not as peaceful protests, but as pro-Hamas demonstrations by antisemites.
2. Universities need to call in the police to remove these rioters and anarchists from their encampments on campuses. If the police won't, then the National Guard should be called in.
3. Leaders must speak to Jewish students who are scared to enter campus, listen to them, and provide all the support they need.
4. Students found in breach of school policy must be punished, including with expulsion, and banning of their registered student organizations, while foreign students found in violation should have their visas revoked and be deported.
5. Lecturers, professors, and staff found taking part should also be disciplined.
6. Do not cancel in-person classes. That would be cowering before the bullies and haters, putting students who want to learn at a disadvantage. If universities and teachers take appropriate disciplinary measures and security precautions, there should be no need to resort to virtual classes.
7. Follow the money to find out who is funding these protests and protesters. Qatar, for example, has poured billions of dollars into Ivy League universities, buying up schools, chairs, and fellowships.
8. Initiate an avalanche of lawsuits and Title VI claims. Jewish students are not powerless and universities that receive federal funding are prohibited under the Civil Rights Act from discriminating against students on the basis of race or national identity, or allowing a hostile environment to form.
9. The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism, the most widely endorsed definition of Jew-hatred in all its manifestations, must be adopted and applied by every university. The IHRA definition has already been adopted by more than 40 countries, thousands of civil society organizations and has received bi-partisan support in the United States.
10. And lastly, Congress must immediately pass legislation rescinding federal funding from any university that does not take satisfactory action against this tidal wave of antisemitism or fails to protect Jewish students from discrimination or harassment.


We are at an inflection point where universities must decide whether they want to remain respected places of higher learning for all or become no-go zones for Jewish students. The decision is theirs.
Andrew Neil: Anti-Semitic campus know-nothings aren't pro-Palestine... they're pro-WAR! And, in their stupidity, they're making the strongest case yet for Israel's survival
Nobody is wondering that now as, even in America, radical Muslim leaders call for the destruction of Israel, backed by students at the nation's most elite universities and therefore those possibly (and frighteningly) running the country in the years to come.

America's Muslim population can only grow while Jews will become an ever smaller percentage of the total population.

Violent Islamism has a strong footing in many Western democracies these days and its influence is likely to grow stronger. Suddenly that Jewish homeland looks more necessary than ever.

This sorry tale still has some way to run. The pro-Hamas protestors have strong allies on the Left of the Democratic Party. They will be out in force come the Democratic convention in Chicago this August.

Chicago, of course, was the scene of the most violent Democratic convention ever in 1968, at the height of the Vietnam War, when Mayor Daley's somewhat robust police force clashed with radical demonstrators trying to disrupt the convention.

I don't say we're in for a repeat as bad as that but it will not be pretty on the streets of the Windy City this summer.

The President, for today's protestors, is 'Genocide Joe'. They will be out to pressure the Democrats into ending their support for Israel the way they wanted the party to end its support for the Vietnam War all these years ago.

Vietnam involved the conscription of hundreds of thousands of young American men to fight a massive war on the other side of the world, which eventually cost over 55,000 American lives. That gave the protests a special edge and relevance. Israel involves none of that, which is why it does not have the same piquancy for most folks.

But pro-Palestinian sentiments are the coming force in the Democratic Party, with all the attendant anti-Semitism we are currently witnessing.

There can be no compromise with such forces, whatever the superficial attractions of winning the youth vote by pandering to know-nothing students. We shall see if Biden is up to the challenge and stands firm in his resolve to support Israel.


Ayaan Hirsi Ali: The West's pathetic appeasement of Islamist extremists: For 33 years, my friend Salman Rushdie has shown incredible bravery. But the denial and delusion of Western apologists has only allowed fundamentalism to flourish
All this has been further fuelled by mass immigration on an unprecedented scale, transforming the demography of European societies and accelerating the Islamification of Britain and the continent.

The impact of this appeasement can be seen in the recent poll by the Henry Jackson anti-extremism think tank which found that 52 per cent of British Muslims want to make it a criminal offence to show an image of the Prophet Mohammed, while a third openly support the introduction of sharia law.

It would have been unthinkable in the Britain of only a few years ago that a teacher in Batley, West Yorkshire, would have to go into hiding in fear of his life because a mob of theocratic fascists objected to his teaching materials for a religious studies lesson, but such sectarianism is now common.

The teacher in question, a well-regarded professional, had discussed with his pupils the appalling Charlie Hebdo massacre in Paris in 2015, when 12 people were shot dead by terrorists after the satirical magazine had published a cartoon of Muhammed.

For a few days, a wave of outrage swept across the West, epitomised by the slogan Je Suis Charlie but it was a sentimental spasm that soon passed. Nor was the Batley teacher given the backing he deserved from his school, the local council, the police or even his trade union.

The Batley saga epitomises our topsy-turvy times, in which Muslim campaigners simultaneously pose as oppressed victims while stoking a climate of fear and intimidation. In advancing their cause, grievances are listed with a menacing side-order of blackmail.

It takes the guts of someone like Katharine Birbalsingh, the outstanding head of the Michaela school in West London, to stand up to the zealots, as she bravely did recently when she refused to create a special prayer room on the premises because it would shatter the secular ethos that has been essential to the school’s success.

But such toughness is rare. Many civic leaders take the line of least resistance, as occurred in a shameful incident in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, where a 14-year-old autistic boy was hauled before an ugly kangaroo court made up of local Muslim activists to be interrogated about his alleged mishandling of a copy of the Koran.

Incredibly, instead of shutting down this farce, West Yorkshire Police had an officer present to add an official gloss to the proceedings. Depressingly, I fear there will be more of this nonsense when Labour comes to power under Sir Keir Starmer. Throughout Europe, socialists have proved natural allies of the militants, partly because they both subscribe to the narrative of ethnic minority victimhood.

Moreover, Starmer’s party has long been reliant on the electoral support of Muslims, 70 per cent of whom are estimated to vote Labour. So we can expect more grants to Muslim community groups, more special treatment masquerading as positive action, more legislation on ‘Islamophobia’, and more gesture politics like this from the heart of England.

While hundreds of thousands of brave women in Iran protest against the Islamic head-covering, in Labour-run Sandwell in the West Midlands a huge, brutalist sculpture has gone up of a Muslim woman in traditional dress. ‘The strength of the hijab’ is the title of this piece of theocratic propaganda which should have no place in Britain.

Rushdie himself said recently: ‘We live in a moment, I think, at which freedom of expression and freedom to publish has not in my lifetime been under such threat in the countries of the West.’

He is right. It is a profoundly depressing thought that no mainstream publisher would touch The Satanic Verses today.
Could the Columbia Campus wars over Israel now tear British universities apart?
You can see why some students feel that the situation isn’t too far from an incident in which saw three Ivy League presidents tell a congressional inquiry that calls for the genocide of Jewish people wouldn’t necessarily violate each university’s code of conduct but would depend on context.

To many, it feels a stark contrast with prevailing campus culture which sees trigger warnings attached to everything from Shakespeare to discussions about old age. To coin a sadly well-worn phrase: to many students, it feels that Jewish people don’t count.

Dr David Hirsh is a sociologist who has been studying as well as experiencing the new antisemitism for two decades and runs the London Centre for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism. He says we could easily see a Columbia-style situation replicated here in the next few weeks.

“What we are seeing on campuses today is nothing new, but there is just more of it and it feels like it is a discourse which has become completely normalised with more and more sit-ins and ‘occupations’ for Palestine,” he says.

“The genocide allegation posits Jews as the new Nazis and the Nazis were the worst people in the world; this new antisemitism not only allows people to hate the overwhelming majority of Jews, but says they are right to do it.”
Ruthie Blum: Shai Davidai’s war on campus antisemitism
Due to his battle for the past six months against campus antisemitism—unleashed in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 massacre in southern Israel—Columbia University business school assistant professor Shai Davidai has become an Internet sensation.

His impassioned, unscripted speeches on the premises of the Ivy League institution in upper Manhattan have gone viral since they first emerged, less than a week after Hamas terrorists perpetrated the worst atrocities against Jews since the Holocaust. The latest example is a clip of his confrontation on Monday morning with Columbia Chief Operating Officer Cas Holloway, who denied him access to the main campus.

When Davidai arrived to hold a peaceful sit-in and discovered that his ID card had been deactivated, he berated Holloway for preventing Jews from entering an area where pro-Hamas demonstrators were welcome to hold a protest. He then addressed the COO on X.

“Cas, you’re a really great guy,” he wrote. “[But] I am still trying to understand how you could … keep a straight face when you capitulated to the pro-Hamas mob … I think I know how. You were just doing your job. … Look, I get it. You’re scared. You are worried about how the pro-Hamas extremists (and the brainwashed cult they’ve amassed) will react if you try to disperse them. … The problem is that you are not alone. There are thousands of administrators like you all over U.S. campuses who are also scared. … Like you, they are just doing their jobs. And there were millions of Germans like you in the 1930s. Good Germans, upstanding Germans, who were just doing their jobs. Who do you think ran the universities of Berlin and Munich and Heidelberg and Frankfurt in the 1930s? Who helped the Hitler Youth check out books by Jewish authors to burn outside of campus? Administrators. Just like you…”

It takes guts these days for an academic to entertain an independent thought, let alone shout it from the rooftops when his tenure isn’t yet secured. But this is only part of the reason that Davidai’s courage is worthy of note.

More remarkable about his unabashed campaign to defend Jews from Hamas lies is his background. The 40-year-old native Israeli—like his spouse, with whom he moved to the United States in 2010—is on the far-left.
When it comes to Jew hatred, the Liberals are paralyzed
That was at least better than Deputy PM Chrystia Freeland who, when accurately asked by a reporter:

“Over the weekend, protesters in Ottawa were heard chanting among other things ‘long live Oct. 7’ and ‘Oct. 7 is proof that we are almost free’, is this hate speech?”, responded: “I wasn’t in Ottawa over the weekend and I’m not aware of those specific reports and so it would be just wrong of me to comment on something that I am not specifically aware of,” before adding antisemitism and Islamophobia are on the rise.

Later, having seen the video, Freeland said on X: “I can only express shock and disgust at the antisemitism and glorification of terrorism that occurred on Parliament Hill. This hate speech has no place in Canada. None.”

This is a microcosm of how the Liberals are so politically conflicted on the wave of anti-Semitism that has swept across Canada since Oct. 7, that they are incapable of providing the moral leadership necessary to address it.

They know this is the worst outbreak of Jew hatred since the 1930s, but they also know there are far more Muslims in Canada than Jews, whose political support they covet.

So they instinctively equate antisemitism with Islamophobia, instead of dealing with the reality that while both are evil and both have increased since Oct. 7, the unprecedented targeting of Canada’s Jewish community has been different in both kind and degree.

While the Ottawa police service’s hate crimes unit has announced an investigation into comments made at the Ottawa demonstration, the larger issue is that Jew hatred has already been normalized across Canada.

What happened in Ottawa over the weekend is far more than “problematic” in the context of the reality that for months Jewish gathering places have been firebombed, Jewish day schools shot at, Jewish-owned businesses torched and vandalized, Swastikas painted on synagogues and homes, Jewish university students threatened and Jewish communities, described as “Zionist-infested” areas, targeted.

The Liberals know this but they’re politically paralyzed when it comes to countering it.
We are the West’s last generation before the new Dark Age begins
The hypocrisy is unconscionable. The woke ideology is incompatible with the preservation of the West – and yet it is this philosophy that we are allowing universities to indoctrinate our children with.

Wokery has made massive progress in Britain, and there have been some horrible demonstrations of it on UK campuses. With the exception of the excellent University of Buckingham, where pluralism reigns, every other university in the UK employs almost exclusively Left-wing academics, a bias that wasn’t anything like as pronounced even 25 years ago.

We have some safeguards: opposition to critical race theory and gender ideology are protected philosophical beliefs under the Equality Act. The Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act is one of the few genuinely good Tory reforms of the past 14 years. Arif Ahmed, the inaugural director for freedom of speech and academic freedom, has said that calls for genocide, or speech that incites violence, will not be protected “under any circumstances”, but that he will defend genuine plurality of opinion when the new regime begins in August.

Yet this isn’t enough. In 1581, Oxford University decided that no student would be allowed to matriculate unless they swore oaths to the Queen and the Church of England. It took until the 1871 Universities Tests Act to liberate Catholics, Jews and others to study, graduate and work at Oxford, Cambridge and Durham.

In 2024, Left-wing ideology is the new secular religion. Do we need another Universities Test Act? How do we drastically increase the percentage of non-Left-wing academics? Is the answer to launch new non-woke institutions, like the University of Austin? Or to terminate all subsidies on non-scientific subjects that are more prone to politicisation? In the US, the Ivy League will be hit by multi-billion dollar lawsuits for discrimination. Some are targeting their huge endowments, arguing that this is the time for a new Dissolution of the Monasteries.

Whichever way we go, we cannot grant the Left a permanent monopoly on universities. The West has no future if our youth are taught to hate our civilisation.
An open letter to the Columbia University Gaza war protesters from a pro-Palestinian activist in Israel
As a graduate of Columbia College (Class of 1991) and a peace activist who lives in Israel, I am watching videos and reports from my alma mater’s campus and wondering what I would have done if I were a student there now.

I am an activist and have been all my life. I believe strongly in the ability of grassroots movements and peaceful protest to change the world.

When I first moved to Israel, my activism was focused on feminism and religious pluralism. Today, however, I strongly believe the most pressing issue in Israel-Palestine today is solving the conflict.

Since well before the current extremist right-wing Israeli government was elected, I have been demonstrating against the occupation (later also the Nation-State Law declaring Israel officially a Jewish state) and working for Jewish-Palestinian partnership within Israel’s borders. My debut novel, “Hope Valley,” is about the friendship between a Palestinian Israeli woman and a Jewish Israeli woman in the Galilee.

I am a very active member of Standing Together, a movement of Palestinian-Israelis and Jewish-Israelis working in complete partnership towards an end to the occupation, Palestinian self-determination and a more equal, just and peaceful society within Israel. I am involved in a variety of groups and organizations committed to a vision of peace, justice and equality for all people on the land from the “River to the Sea.”

I remain active in these groups even after Hamas’ brutal attack on Oct. 7. I am even out on the streets now calling for a mutual ceasefire and a return of all the hostages (many of whom it seems are tragically no longer alive), as well as for the resignation of government officials and early elections.

And so, if I were studying at Columbia today, I would ask myself: Should I join your protests? After all, I, too, am pro-Palestinian.

But I am also pro-Jew.

And when you chant, “There is only one solution, intifada revolution!” and “From the Sea to the River, Palestine will live forever!” you are not calling, as I and my Palestinian-Israeli friends are, for peace, justice and equality for all humans within those borders. You are calling for the violent destruction of the country where we live, and the murder of its citizens — including the Palestinian ones. As we saw on Oct. 7, Hamas has no more sympathy for other-than-Jewish Israelis — not even for Muslim ones — than it does for Jewish Israelis.
UNRWA and neutrality: It couldn’t be further from the truth
This past week, Israelis and Jews worldwide have been absorbed in contemplating how to celebrate Passover, which typically rejoices in the freeing of Jews from the shackles of slavery in ancient Egypt.

In dire reality, 133 hostages taken from Israel remain in the shackles of Hamas for over 200 days.

Also during this holiday period, an Independent Review Group on UNRWA, appointed by United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in early February 2024, submitted a 54-page report with its findings.

Assessing UNRWA's adherence to neutrality
The review group was tasked with assessing UNRWA’s adherence to principles of neutrality. Led by former French foreign minister Catherine Colonna, it commissioned three organizations (from Sweden, Denmark, and Norway) to extensively analyze the UN agency.

The report’s research methodology was comprised of field visits to UNRWA headquarters and interviews with more than 200 people from 47 countries and organizations.

While much of the public discourse vis-à-vis the report centers on Israel’s failure to equip the review group with evidence regarding the involvement of UNRWA employees with Hamas, which Israel publicly denies, perpetuating this conversation misses the very important claims made by the report regarding UNRWA’s neutrality – or lack thereof.

The review group outlines no fewer than 50 policy recommendations that UNRWA should implement to strengthen its neutrality. The mere number is enough to signal that there is much work to be done on UNRWA’s end.
Protesters block Ayalon Highway, demanding elections and hostage deal
Thousands gathered across the country to protest for the release of hostages in Gaza and for the declaration of elections on Saturday night. In Tel Aviv, protesters blocked the Ayalon Highway and seven protesters were arrested.

Demonstrators gathered in Jerusalem and on Kaplan Street in Tel Aviv. Demonstrators also gathered in Haifa as well as other parts of the country.

Protesters carried posters of hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin, calling for his immediate release. Earlier this week, a video was released by Hamas showing Hersh alive.

While at Begin Gate, Stav Arnon, from the women's protest for the return of the hostages, condemned the government for prioritizing the war over the release of their family members.

Kaplan Street in Tel Aviv filled with tens of thousands of protestors calling for elections now and the release of the hostages. (credit: @sha_b_p)

She especially called out Ministers Benny Gantz and Gadi Eisenkot, "The responsibility is in your hands. Get out of this damned government immediately! You normalize the abnormal. You said you were there to return the captives, but you didn't live up to your promise, the hostages are still there. The time has come - choose which side you are on."


Israel warns Hamas: Accept hostage deal, or we’ll enter Rafah
Israel warned Hamas it will carry out a major military operation unless the terror group accepts a deal on the table for the release of some, but not all, of the remaining 133 hostages.

“If there is a deal, we will suspend the operation,” Israel’s Foreign Minister Israel Katz told Channel 12 as the IDF continued its preparations for the operation and Egypt renewed its push to secure a hostage deal after weeks in which it seemed that such efforts had hit a dead end.

“The release of the hostages is a deep priority for us,” Katz stressed. He spoke after an Egyptian delegation was in Israel on Friday for talks with Israel on the possibility of a new deal.

“If there is an option to make a deal, we will do it,” he said, although he stressed that this would not impact the overall goal of the war, which was to destroy Hamas.

Hamas considers Israel's official response
Hamas said it had received on Saturday Israel's official response to its latest ceasefire proposal and will study it before submitting its reply, the group's deputy Gaza chief said in a statement.

"Hamas has received today the official response of the Zionist occupation to the proposal presented to the Egyptian and the Qatari mediators on April 13," Khalil Al-Hayya, who is currently based in Qatar, said in a statement published by the group.

At issue has been the potential of the release of some 20 to 40 of the hostage — women, the elderly, and the informed — in exchange for a pause to the war, which in the past has been described as lasting six weeks. Israel would also be expected to release Palestinian security prisoners and terrorists held in its jails.

Hamas has insisted that it wants a permanent end to the war. Mediators have looked to move the issue forward without immediately addressing that point, as Israel has insisted that Hamas can no longer remain in Gaza and it must complete its military operation to destroy it.


UK Looking to Deploy British Soldiers to Deliver Aid to Gaza via Biden’s Floating Pier, BBC Reports
The United Kingdom is considering deploying British troops to deliver aid to the Gaza Strip following the construction of an offshore floating pier by the United States military, the BBC has claimed.

A report from Britain’s public broadcaster, citing unnamed government sources, the UK is making plans to send soldiers to drive aid trucks from the soon-to-be-completed pier to a floating causeway to the shores of Gaza.

While the BBC noted that no final decision had been made, with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak yet to give his approval, the report came after a senior military official from the United States said that there would be no American “boots on the ground” and that a so far unnamed third-party country will supply the manpower to drive the trucks and deliver the aid.

“We have a third party who will be driving the trucks down the pier,” the U.S. military official said. “Just a point of emphasis, there will be no US military boots on the ground. So, a third party is driving those trucks.”

The UK has already been deeply involved in the project, with the Royal Navy providing a ship that will help house American military personnel working on the construction of the pier and the UK Hydrographic Office giving analysis of the Gaza shoreline to help plan its construction.

Additionally, British military officials have also been tasked with assisting in the screening of aid packages in Florida and Cyprus before them being sent to Gaza.

Although the floating pier is yet to be completed, the Biden administration is hoping that the Joint Logistics Over-the-Shore (JLOTS) operation will begin delivering aid to the region as soon as early May, with up to 150 trucks per day coming via the sea route. This is on top of the 220 trucks full of aid being delivered daily by land into Gaza.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has vowed to provide “security and logistics support for the JLOTS initiative… to enhance the entry of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip”.

However, with British troops potentially manning the frontline of the effort, they may be more susceptible to attacks from the Islamist Hamas terrorists that control the area.
The Israel Guys: HAMAS Attacks U.S. Pier Building Effort in GAZA, and Tragic Attack in ISRAEL
Hamas attacks the site where US troops are building a pier to bring humanitarian aid into Gaza, we’ll get into the details and implications on that. Also an 18 year old girl was seriously wounded after a stabbing attack in Ramle, and we get into a miraculous escape in Jerusalem from earlier on this week.




What I learned about keeping a clean home from the Hamas massacre ruins
In the aftermath of the Oct. 7 devastation, there lies a profound lesson about the essence of home and the resilience of its inhabitants. My recent trip to Kfar Aza, a small community in southern Israel, revealed the aftermath of the destruction and the deeply personal stories embedded within the remnants of shattered homes. Amid the rubble, I found a poignant revelation about the balance between infusing one’s home with personality while keeping clutter at bay.

Kfar Aza, like many nearby areas, has faced numerous challenges due to its location near unstable borders. What struck me most during my visit wasn’t just the physical damage but the poignant reminders of lives shattered seen in the personal items strewn amid the ruins. Walking through the streets, I noticed belongings like toys, photos, and books, each telling a story of the lives once lived there.

Despite the destruction, there was a strong sense of humanity, resilience, and hope amid the chaos. In those moments, I couldn’t help but reflect on the concept of home and what truly makes a meaningful one.

What makes a home meaningful
Our homes are more than just structures; they are reflections of our identities, storehouses of our memories, and expressions of our personalities. Yet, there is a delicate balance between infusing our spaces with character and succumbing to the tyranny of clutter. Despite the conflict’s toll, each home I visited in Kfar Aza carried a distinct sense of authenticity and individuality. Each carefully selected item spoke volumes about the people who once lived there, serving as a reminder that our living spaces should reflect our essence rather than being cluttered with needless belongings.

In today’s world, where consumerism often guides our decisions and clutter threatens to engulf our living spaces, we are bombarded with messages encouraging us to acquire more, upgrade constantly, and keep up with ever-changing trends. However, amid this barrage of information, we risk losing sight of what truly matters – the essence of what makes a house a home.

A home should be filled with personality, not with material abundance. It should be a space curated intentionally, where each item serves a purpose and carries meaning. It’s about surrounding ourselves with things that bring us joy, inspire us, and reflect our values and experiences.

Leaving Kfar Aza, touched by the strength of its residents and the stories in its wreckage, I gained a deeper respect for the importance of home. It’s where we find comfort in life’s challenges, where our true selves are safe, and where our impact lasts even after we’re gone.


Hamas publishes video of hostages Omri Miran and Keith Siegel
Hamas published on Saturday a video of the hostages Keith Siegel (64) and Omri Miran (47).

The two hostages say the video was filmed two days ago. They also talk about not being able to celebrate Passover this year.

They also say that they saw the demonstrations in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem and called on the demonstrators to continue the protest.

Protestors in Tel Aviv called on the government to find alternative solutions, insisting that military pressure would not lead to the release of the hostages. "This concept has failed," demonstrators chanted in Tel Aviv on Saturday after the video's release.

Keith was abducted from his home in Kfar Aza together with his partner Aviva, who was released during the ceasefire in November.

Omri was abducted from his home in Nahal Oz in front of his family. His wife, Lishay Lavi, managed to tell him before he was abducted, "I love you, we are waiting for you, don't be a hero."

As soon as he was taken by the terrorists, his two-year-old daughter Roni tried to run after him and shouted, "I want my dad!"

Danny Miran, Omri's father, told KAN, "I am moved to tears; these are tears of happiness. I saw his beard. We promised that we would shave the beard together when he returned. I am crying all over. I am moved and crying to recognize my son. I haven't seen the video, just a picture of it. I hope they send it to me soon. This is what kills me - this is how a country behaves?"

His father added, "I am not interested, Rafah if they bring all the hostages home immediately, and it doesn't matter how they do it."

Danny also told N12 "He looks just as I thought he would: with a beard. He must not have brushed his teeth since the catastrophe. It is immensely painful. Physically, he looks excellent; I just hope that, mentally, he is still in good condition."

His brother, Nadav, told Walla, "It's exciting to see this picture. I'm glad he's alive, and I hope to see him home as soon as possible. He seems fine to me. Going out to fight Rafah will bring them faster. Less talk, more action."


Ben Shapiro: This Guy Is EVERYTHING Wrong With Generation Z
One of the Columbia protest organizers makes clear just how much he hates Jews; USC cancels its commencement out of fear of protesters; and the Supreme Court considers whether Donald Trump has presidential immunity.


Mark Levin: We have Hitler Youth on our college campuses



Pro-Palestine protesters removed by police from Nancy Pelosi speech at Oxford Union
Police were forced to remove two pro-Palestine protesters from the Oxford Union on Thursday after they hijacked a speech by Nancy Pelosi, the former US speaker of the House.

The pair of students waved Palestinian flags as they disrupted her address at the debating society shortly after 6pm.

The protesters were swiftly removed by Thames Valley Police and escorted out as the crowd inside the chamber applauded.

“The suffering of Gaza must stop,” Mrs Pelosi told the chamber.

“We want peace on both sides. Both sides must agree to it.”

The protesters wore T-shirts with the logo from Youth Demand, the Just Stop Oil-linked activist group which spray-painted the Labour party’s head office in central London with red paint earlier this month in protest against the war in Gaza.

Sharing a video for the protest on social media, Youth Demand said that “genocide-backing” Mrs Pelosi was “not welcome” at Oxford.

“Warmongers like Nancy Pelosi are not welcome on University campuses,” the activist group said.

“When children are being murdered, and hospitals are being bombed, we will not sit down and be quiet whilst these people are given platforms.

“We must stand up and take action, because we aren’t f---ing around anymore. Whilst Pelosi was inside, students of the University made their voices heard.”

The Democrat was visiting the university to attend events at the Oxford Union and OxfordSpeaks, an international relations society.

Earlier, a crowd of approximately 250 students had protested outside the Union, chanting “Israel is a terrorist state”, “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”, and “London to Gaza, long live the intifada”.
Moment pro-Gaza students harass Jacob
Rees-Mogg hurling vicious foul-mouthed abuse as they surround his car while waving Palestinian flags after he gives speech at Cardiff University Pro-Palestine students and activists harassed Jacob Rees-Mogg and hurled foul-mouthed abuse at him after speaking at Cardiff University.

Cardiff University's Conservative Society hosted the Tory MP on Friday for a speech.

But shocking footage posted on X/Twitter shows him being escorted by eight security guards to a campus vehicle as students surrounded him shouting shouting 'Tory c**t', 'shame on you' and 'Free Palestine' and waving Palestinian flags.

The students and activists, who were banging drums and shaking tambourines, were calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and shouted 'shame on you'.

Two people even attempted to get closer to the vehicle carrying the North East Somerset MP before being dragged backed back by security staff.

The protest was organised by Welsh Underground Network and Cardiff Communists, who claimed Mr Rees-Mogg was a 'zionist'.

They said: 'Mogg, and his ilk, are never welcome in Wales. No zionist politician should be able to walk our streets in peace, they shouldn't be able to open their mouths without being shouted down.'

Conservative Party Chairman Richard Holden, branded the protesters 'morons' and said: 'How silly of these morons - whatever they think their cause is, they do it a disservice I'm sure will have taken it in his stride but no elected politician should have to put up with this shrill intimidatory idiocy.'


Professor Caught on Camera Encouraging Violent Revolution to Columbia Students
Dave Rubin of “The Rubin Report'' shares a DM clip of footage of CUNY professor and fired CNN contributor Marc Lamont Hill encouraging violence to the pro-Palestine protesters at Columbia University.




AOC Praises Columbia Protest Encampment After ‘Student Leader’ Said ‘Zionists Don’t Deserve To Live’
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) visited the anti-Semitic protest encampment at Columbia University this week and praised its leadership, which comes after video went viral of one of the most vocal students in the protest saying earlier this year that “Zionists don’t deserve to live.”

Ocasio-Cortez traveled to the school on Friday where the demonstrations have generated national headlines for over a week.

“The leadership you have is so excellent,” Ocasio-Cortez told one of the activists. “It’s really special. It’s really amazing.”

The Daily Wire unearthed earlier this week that Khymani James, who CNN described as a “student protest leader,” openly stated in a live-stream of an official university inquiry in January that “Zionists don’t deserve to live.”

James, who was reportedly barred from campus late this week, had claimed in a statement posted to social media on Friday that he was the victim of “far right agitators” who he said posted his remarks on social media “without context.”

In a video stream from January, he made the case for Zionists to die several times and stated “Zionists don’t deserve to live.”

James said he made the comment because he was feeling “unusually upset after an online mob targeted me because I am visibly queer and Black.”


Progressive NY Rep. Jamaal Bowman duped by fake ‘Chief rabbi of Gaza’
Rep. Jamaal Bowman and his campaign were duped by the parody social-media account of the fake “Chief Rabbi of Gaza.”

The phony X account of “Rabbi Linda Goldstein” is infamous for spouting anti-Zionist vitriol to ensnare unsuspecting progressives unaware that it is satirical.

The rabbi messaged Bowman about sponsoring a fundraiser for his Democratic primary campaign.


Under Hamas rule Jews were not allowed in Gaza, and the only ones there now are hostages and IDF soldiers attempting to rescue them — something Bowman evidently didn’t pick up on when he began corresponding with the account.

Bowman, a member of the far-left House “Squad,” has become one of the most vocal critics of Israel and defenders of Hamas in Congress.

He is currently locked in a fierce primary battle with Westchester County Executive George Latimer, with polls suggesting Latimer could beat him badly.

“I really hope you win, I would love to host a fundraiser with you,” Goldstein messaged Bowman in a private X message on April 11. The message prompted a reply from the congressman’s account just 30 minutes later.

“Thank you, how do we get in touch with you?” Bowman asked. Goldstein promised Bowman she has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars before, adding “my anti-zionist community can’t wait to help.”

“Hi Rabbi, this is Bowman’s staff, we’ll have a member of our finance team follow up with you,” read another direct message from Bowman’s account, noting, “We’re grateful.”

Goldstein’s schtick as an over-the-top Palestinian-loving rabbi has won her a cult following.

“I’m organizing an aid convoy to the @Columbia campus,” Goldstein posted last week. “We need: Glamp Tents; Volunteer Baristas; Oat Milk; Keffiyeh’s; Canada Goose Jackets; and Also Leggings.”

In other tweets she has condemned Passover as Israeli “genocide” against Egyptians; and posed with photoshopped terrorists in front of a “Menorah for Justice” made of rockets.

She has urged Hamas fighters to practice social distancing in terror tunnels.


Met Police arrest Gaza protesters for racism and hate banner comparing Israel to the Nazis after force admitted Jewish people have been forced to avoid the Tube and hide their identities on demo days
A pro-Palestinian protester holding a banner comparing Israel to the Nazis and a demonstrator who hurled racist abuse at campaigners against anti-Semitism were two people arrested at a huge Gaza march today.

'Hundreds of thousands' marched through the streets of London in a series of protests today, some in support of a ceasefire in Gaza and others to call for an end to anti-Semitism.

An event organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) began at Parliament Square at 12pm, setting off at 12.30pm on a route via Whitehall, Piccadilly and Park Lane and then ending at Hyde Park, where speeches were given.

Former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn was spotted among the crowds alongside First Minister of Northern Ireland and Vice President of Sinn Féin Michelle O'Neill.

The two pro-palestine politicians were pictured hugging near a large banner.

A counter protest by pro-Israeli groups against anti-Semitism was also held and overlapped in some places with the route of the pro-Palestinian march.

Some protesters on the counter-march reported being subject to antisemitic abuse as the marches crossed paths.

Reverend Hayley Ace who was on the Enough is Enough counter-protest, was misidentified as a Jew while wearing a Star of David cap and was told to 'F*** off to Poland', the Campaign Against Antisemitism reported.

Reverend Ace said: 'Obviously Poland is where the Nazis built most of their concentration camps for the extermination of Jews. Comments like those that I received are common on these marches. How can anyone pretend they are peaceful?'

According to CAA, some pro-Palestinian protesters carried placards promoting conspiracies including one that read 'Our media, TV, radio and Government are controlled by Zionists'.

Another poster showed the Statue of Liberty feeding an Israeli baby with blood, invoking the blood libel.


Israeli student detained by Border Force and anti-terror police after landing in Britain hits out at his 'disturbing' treatment - after guards at Manchester Airport were blasted for 'demeaning' two survivors of Hamas music festival massacre
A Jewish student has described how he was pulled aside by Border Force and anti-terror police after he landed in the UK and told them he had been on holiday to Israel.

Former Israeli Defence Force vet Neriya Ashwal, 28, was held for more than an hour by officials after flying into East Midlands airport from Barcelona where he is currently studying, for a short break.

It is the second time in a month that Israelis have been held by border officials and questioned by police after landing in Britain. In March two survivors from the Nova Music Festival were allegedly detained at Manchester airport for two hours.

Neriya was pulled aside after he was asked if he had visited Israel recently and when he said he had been to see friends and family last month he was pulled aside for questioning.

Posting on Facebook business studies student Neriya said:' Are you Israelis planning to fly to Britain? Think twice, especially if you are a veteran. You may be delayed in the field.

'So I had a weekend free from studying in Barcelona and Ryanair offered especially cheap flight tickets to the UK.

'Landed at 7am at a sleepy little airport outside Nottingham. Short bus from the plane to the terminal and passport inspection queue. Calm, in the process.

'When my turn comes, a nice policeman asks me the usual questions: where did you come from, why did you come, how long will you stay, etc.

'And then he looks again at the (Israeli) passport and asks: have you been to Israel lately?

Yes. Visiting family and friends 3 weeks ago.

'Hold on a min.' Calling someone, saying that he has an Israeli who has been to Israel recently.

'He nods at the phone, hangs up and asks me to sit and wait on the side. He has the passport.
‘It’s soul-destroying’: How a malevolent online campaign is targeting Jewish doctors in Ontario
Dox a doc a day.

As anti-Israel — often anti-Jew — protests violently roil campuses across America, a different campaign dripping with malevolence is specifically targeting Jewish physicians right here in Ontario.

There’s no fig-leaf of divestment from Israel, no camouflage exploiting the horrors experienced by civilians in Gaza. Rather, the doxing has been a directed, co-ordinated crusade aimed at physicians whose only “offence’’ is their Jewishness.

On social media and via pro forma emails sent to hospital administrators and leadership at teaching institutions, these doctors are being harassed, intimidated and professionally compromised. While part of the strategy is to victimize one particular doctor on a given day — lifting names of individuals who signed a letter last November under the banner of Doctors Against Racism and Antisemitism — the undertaking has spreader wider, become far more encompassing.

Of course most of the garbage is anonymous but on literally hundreds of occasions — letters and emails to MPs, for example — signatories of that DARA letter have been appropriated falsely as if they’re the ones demanding politicians take a harsher position on Israel’s military tactics.

“They’re prompting people to make complaints to their places of work, colleges and universities, hospitals, associations, faculty, the College of Physicians and Surgeons,’’ says Dr. Lisa Switzman. “This has been going on since the beginning of November in a systematic, co-ordinated way, with literally a Jewish doctor of the day.’’

Switzman, whose been involved with tracking the attacks, is uncertain how it all began or who triggered the onslaught. “Basically it was put out by someone who is very anti-Israel, saying these are terrible physicians who’ve signed this letter. All the letter said was that we support Israel and we’re Zionists. Being Jews and supporting Israel’s right to exist is really important to us.’’

Anonymous social media accounts joined the swarming on various platforms, postings that were recycled. “It incited very hateful, antisemitic attacks directly to doctors,’’ continues Switzman.

“What was especially upsetting is that they were targeting mainly female family physicians, probably because we’re seen as more vulnerable. At a time of a significant health-care crisis with family physicians, this put added stress on them. Many were quite distraught. Why would you do that to physicians who are saving lives and helping people?’’

The campaign became more heated after pro-Palestinian protesters convened outside Mount Sinai Hospital. “They posted form letters that auto-populated to many more people,” says Switzman. “Because all you have to do is click on it. But that incited other people to send hateful emails to doctors personally.’’

The doxing expanded to physicians who’d never signed the DARA letter.


Matthew Foldi: Columbia University Law Students Issue Demands of Their Own As Mob Rule Reigns
The chaos, insanity, and mob rule at Columbia University isn’t just limited to its undergraduate campus, it turns out — students at its law school, which costs just under $100,000 a year to attend, are demanding that all of their grades be pass/fail because “it is wrong to recognize academic achievement (no matter how deserved) at the expense of other students’ physical, emotional, and mental well being.”

This week, Columbia Law School’s student government sent campus administrators a list of demands that includes the “adoption of a mandatory pass/fail grading system” in the name of “equity” and “well-being,” which they repeatedly misspell in an open letter with enough grammar errors to embarrass even fake lawyers in shows like "Suits."

In the petition itself, which was signed by a number of students, they demand that Columbia “take immediate action to make all law school exams pass/fail, in light of the extraordinary circumstances our student body is facing.” Never mind that the circumstances confronting Columbia are being caused by the radical jihadists that would ostensibly align with these demands. Students who are in law school to learn, and not be arrested, presumably do not want their grades to be pass/fail.

While one Columbia student anonymously wrote that they “cannot study for more than 20 mins straight with everything going on…,” a push for exclusively pass/fail grades would likely do more harm than good for the long-term prospects of Columbia grads. As merely the eighth-best law school in America, according to U.S. News and World Report’s highly problematic, yet prestigious rankings, Columbia needs every way for its students to compete against more prestigious diploma mills, like Yale – which is tied for number one.

Unbeknownst to most outside of higher education, Yale Law School does not award letter grades, like Columbia normally does; instead, its grades are scaled from honors to no credit given. If Columbia switches to universal pass/fail, how will its alums be able to stand apart from their counterparts at other pass/fail schools, like Yale? Grades, it turns out, actually matter–yet, for the sake of supporting another intifada, Columbia activists are trying to sacrifice their futures and those of their classmates.

Just how chaotic is Columbia’s campus right now? Dore Feith, a current law student, described the scene thusly: “The new ‘Liberated Zone’ is a vortex of Jew-hatred, drawing not just Columbia students but outside actors. They scream for Israel’s destruction, banging drums and chanting loudly to celebrate jihadist terrorism. One student threatened that pro-Israel students were going to be Hamas’s ‘next targets.’”

The problems, it turns out, go well beyond Khymani James, the undergraduate activist who infamously said that “Zionists don’t deserve to live.” Feith continues in his saga about how “another activist, face wrapped in a keffiyeh, waved a photo of Hamas’s flag. Crowds on campus have been chanting ‘Oh Hamas, oh loved one, strike, strike Tel Aviv!’...A visibly Jewish student was assaulted on campus. No police could help him, because Columbia’s administration has refused to allow the NYPD to reenter campus since the arrests last Thursday. When the police were on campus that day, radical students called the officers 'baby killers' and told them to kill themselves.”
Anti-Israel radicals share guide for taking over university buildings
A Big Apple anti-Israel group blasted out a how-to guide to seizing buildings as protests rocked universities in Manhattan.

Days after cops arrested over 100 Columbia University students and cleared a large anti-Israel encampment at its upper Manhattan campus, The Peoples Park radicals posted “The Do-It-Yourself Occupation Guide” on its Instagram account, which has 2,300 followers.

“We are sharing educational-only materials on tactical skills like holding down occupations *inside* of university buildings,” read the post, originally penned by the group Palestine Action US, which featured the hashtag “EscalateForGaza.”

The 32-page booklet details tips for breaking into abandoned and commercial buildings; diagrams and step-by-step guides for barricading doors; and advice for how to maintain control of an occupied space.

When “less-destructive methods [for entering a space] don’t work, more aggressive options are abundant. Use a crowbar to open a window. Cheap Milgard latches and latches on older aluminum windows often break in place,” the guide suggests.

It also included tips for how to create shields out of trash cans for protesters to defend themselves during a march onto a property, and advice for handling different alarm systems.

“We look ahead to when we enter the buildings, take over the streets, and occupy the city,” the text reads.


Yale professor accuses Columbia prez Shafik of plagiarism, ‘intellectual theft’ in resurfaced 1994 research paper
Embattled Columbia University president Nemat “Minouche” Shafik screwed a former underling out of credit on a research paper published 30 years ago, a Yale University professor claims.

Ahmed Mushfiq Mobarak posted the bombshell allegations in a blistering thread on X early Friday, juxtaposing images of a 1992 report Shafik co-authored for World Bank with researcher Sushenjit Bandyopadhyay, along with a journal published in Oxford Economic Papers two years later in which Bandyopadhyay’s name was removed.

Mobarak, an economics and management professor at Yale, told The Post the findings and research cited in both papers are pretty much equal.

“It got rewritten, but fundamentally it’s the same paper,” he alleged.

“We can’t get in the room and [learn] what sentences did he write and what sentences she wrote, but what we do know is his contribution was sufficient to warrant co-authorship [in 1992],” he added. “What is not common is for someone to be a co-author and then suddenly their name is taken off.”

Instead, Bandyopadhyay is only “thanked” in an acknowledgement section in the back of the 1994 published journal — which screams of “power asymmetry” considering Shafik was then Bandyopadhyay’s boss, alleged Mobarak.


NY AG Letitia James condemns Columbia encampment — even as she makes tens of thousands from university
State Attorney General Letitia James offered sharp criticism of Columbia University’s anti-Israel student encampment this week — even as she pockets tens of thousands of dollars as a member of the university faculty.

“The events that have occurred at Columbia University have been deeply concerning and painful for many,” James said in a statement. “When peaceful protest devolves into hate and antisemitic violence, the line is crossed and will not be tolerated. My office is monitoring the situation closely.”

James has served as the William S. Beinecke Visiting Professor of Public Policy in the Faculty of International and Public Affairs since 2021, according to her faculty bio.

Her class, “Public Management Innovation,” is part of the Executive MPA program for graduate students.

James co-teaches with William Eimicke, a veteran of Gov. Mario Cuomo and Mayor Bloomberg’s administrations.

Her office noted the New York Commission on Ethics and Lobbying in Government had given her the green light to teach the class.
Model-turned DEI manager is fired by university for posing in front of Israeli flag emblazoned with swastikas - and is now suing over claims her free speech rights were violated
A model-turned DEI manager who was fired because she posed in front of an Israeli flag emblazoned with swastikas is now suing because her First Amendment rights were 'violated'.

Mashal Sherzad, 29, was fired from her position as the diversity, equity and inclusion manager at the University of Minnesota because of now seemingly deleted pictures that she accidentally uploaded onto her public social media of her posing in front of the controversial flag.

Sherzad, who identified as Muslim, and who is in a relationship with a woman, began her role in October, 2023, and travelled to Barcelona to attend a pro-Palestinian rally just two months later. She shared pictures of herself from the rally - including snaps of her posing in front of the swastika-embezzled Israeli flag.

She was removed from her DEI manager job for the university's School of Public Health on January 16 after the Dean, Melinda Pettigrew, said her employment would create a 'real risk of significant disruption.'

Sherzad has since filed a lawsuit against the school for violating First Amendment right to free speech - along with claims of discrimination.
Jewish GWU student whose grandparents survived the Holocaust is 'terrified' of anti-Israel protestor's haunting Nazi 'final solution' poster and demands action to clear 'dangerous' pro-Hamas activists from campus
As hundreds gathered at George Washington University to participate in anti-Israel protests Friday afternoon Jewish students told DailyMail.com they have felt afraid, adding that the university is 'accommodating' the 'pro-Hamas' activists.

The demonstrations on campus have been going off and on since the October 7 attack, but recently students - taking a page out of Columbia University protestors' playbook - have established a pro-Gaza encampment that has yet to be taken down.

Protestors set up the encampment early Thursday morning and hundreds later joined in on the demonstrations.

And despite the university demanding the camp be disbanded by 7:00 p.m. Thursday evening, the tents and their occupants still stood in defiance by late Friday afternoon.

One protestor at George Washington University (GWU) Thursday was even seen carrying a sign calling for the 'final solution,' which was Adolph Hitler's plan for the 'annihilation' of Jewish individuals.

'To hear people calling for more violence makes me really afraid to come out of my house out of fear that someone's going to hurt me or do something to me,' Skyler Sieradzky, a Jewish GWU student, told DailyMail.com at Friday's protest.

'As someone whose grandparents were Holocaust survivors, seeing people using the Holocaust as something that we should be striving towards again, it makes me very sad and very scared.'

Sieradzky was one of a few counter-protestors who arrived to support Israel amid calls for its annihilation at GWU Friday.

She draped her self in an Israeli flag, which earned her some disdain and dirty looks from pro-Gaza demonstrators.

'It's very scary to see signs calling for the extermination of the state of Israel, calling for another intifada,' Sieradzky said. 'In the second intifada one of my family members was killed in a suicide bombing.'


WATCH: Jewish Law Student, October 7 Hamas Attack Survivor, Spit On at University of Texas Protest
Seth Greenwald, who hopes to graduate in May from the University of Texas School of Law, is a fortunate survivor of the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel. Greenwald described his experience in Israel during the horrific attack that claimed the lives of nearly 1,200 people in Israel. During a video interview, Greenwald told Breitbart Texas he was spat on twice and told to “go back to Poland” during a pro-Palestine demonstration on the university’s campus earlier this week.

In the video, Greenwald described seeking shelter as thousands of rockets were launched by Hamas toward Israel early on October 7. He quickly noted his experiences were not as severe as those of friends he had who attended the Nova music festival. Greenwald says several stabbings occurred near his home, but he was fortunate to survive the attack.

During the pro-Palestine protest organized by the Palestine Solidarity Committee on Thursday afternoon, Greenwald spoke about the lack of civility towards Jewish students at the University of Texas campus a day earlier. After an order to disperse given by campus officials was ignored, nearly 60 protesters were arrested and charged with criminal trespassing. According to school officials, roughly half of the pro-Palestine protesters were not students at the university. According to Delia Garza, Travis County attorney, most of the criminal cases were dismissed on Thursday for deficiencies in probable cause affidavits.

When asked, Greenwald stated he was not satisfied with the response from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and other Antisemitic organizations to demonstrations occurring on college campuses across the country. Greenwald says more needs to be done.

Although tensions remained high between the group of Palestinian supporters and several dozen counter-protesters like Greenwald, who were there to support Israel, interactions between the two groups and campus law enforcement officers were much more subdued than on the first day of protests.


Exposing the antisemitic poison on Western universities (ft. Miles McInnes)
While the students at Columbia University weren't very talkative at the anti-Israel encampment, Gavin McInnes and his brother (or alter ego?), Miles McInnes, weighed in on the demonstration.




Al Jazeera helps Hamas and can't be trusted for reporting on Israel
When Al Jazeera first opened its bureau in Jerusalem’s technological park 18 years ago, I enjoyed the novelty of getting interviewed on the Qatari network.

Their interviewers were never particularly fair, but that made it more of a challenge and more gratifying than a typical interview with Fox News or a speech to AIPAC or the Jewish National Fund.

I hoped that by presenting Israel’s side to the Arab and Muslim world, I was making a difference. If the rest of the panel, the host, and the callers were all Arabs – as often happened – proving them all wrong made me feel like an underdog boxer who had won against all odds.

Full disclosure: Al Jazeera, unlike CNN and most news networks, provides a stipend for interviews, and I have therefore been paid by the same Qatari government that funds the Hamas terrorists who are trying to kill me and my loved ones right now. I never turned the money down, but I swear I would have done it for free.

When Israeli governments chose to boycott Al Jazeera, I still kept interviewing there more than any other network and connecting the network’s Jerusalem- and Doha-based producers to Israelis from across the political spectrum who presented different sides within Israeli democracy.

I insisted on explaining news developments in Israel without taking any side in internal Israeli political debates or taking a side on the Israeli government’s policies.

No matter how many times my words were twisted or my time to speak on a panel was limited unjustly, I never felt particularly guilty about my years of cooperation with Al Jazeera.

Until this war.


BBC has turned into modern day Joseph Goebbels
My intuitive guess supported by years of research is that rabid anti-Jewish state bias morphing into true Jew hatred really began with the era of the Dimbleby brothers or thereabouts. How perverse that the sons of the morally decent Richard Dimbleby who was the first British correspondent working for the BBC to witness the horrors inflicted on Jews in the concentration camps should be the ones who, probably, knowingly facilitated antisemitism within the BBC. Even more perverse is during their reign their BBC propaganda output ignored several genocides in Africa including Rwanda.

Their father must be turning in his grave watching from heaven the garbage output produced by those reared from his loins. We thought we had persuaded them, the BBC, to take seriously our concerns on Jew hatred and they did indeed request an independent journalist to investigate which he did in 2004. The results of the investigation, the Balen Report, have never been made public despite several legal attempts and costing the taxpayer millions of pounds in efforts to stall publication. The organization despite huge legal costs, hundreds of thousands of man hours, meetings with lawyers, internal news staff and pressure groups have successfully weathered the pressure and obstructed exposure of the report to those who fund the organization. Since then the problem has multiplied and is now beyond control let alone repair.

Jew hatred within the BBC foreign, domestic and regional news outlets and related output is now so ingrained within the BBC that news staff would not be employed if they were not the subservient, sycophantic stooges required by the organization to continually promote the biased agenda. Jew hatred runs deep within the veins of BBC news verified by decades of totally, distorted, dishonest and disproportionate negative coverage concentrated on the only Jewish state in the world, the nation state of Israel.

Watching programs such as Question Time hosted by David Dimbleby and Any Questions (the BBC radio equivalent) hosted by his brother Jonathan for thirty plus years it was obviously apparent that the BBC news editors and their program hosts created and knowingly facilitated an agenda designed to promote hostility to Israel.

The stooge audiences, the ideology of the guests, the designed questions and the unbalanced concentration on the subject of Israel created unsubtle propaganda which further indoctrinated an intellectually imbecilic mob orgasmically feeding themselves on the vomit spewed by the vast majority of invited guests and audience alike.

A similar agenda was regularly provided by other BBC news channels, TV, radio and online. Adolf Hitler’s propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels knew only too well that if you told lies enough times to an illiterate audience, the mythology would become facts. The BBC unsurprisingly and without any subtlety still promotes the Goebbels methodology – telling lies, promoting false narratives and propaganda to its taxpaying audience continuously and unchallenged. The audience is influenced, indoctrinated and believes. And hence Jew hatred flourished and continues to flourish.


Olympics chief says Palestinian athletes to compete in Paris even if they don’t qualify
Between six and eight Palestinian athletes are expected to compete at the Paris Olympics, with some set to be invited by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) even if they fail to qualify, its head Thomas Bach said.

Bach told AFP on Friday that qualification events for the Paris Games, which start on July 26, were ongoing for a number of sports.

“But we have made the clear commitment that even if no [Palestinian] athlete would qualify on the field of play… then the NOC [National Olympic Committee] of Palestine would benefit from invitations, like other national Olympic Committees who do not have a qualified athlete,” he said in an interview at IOC headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland.

He said he expected the Palestinian delegation to number “six to eight.”

Bach said that the International Olympic Committee “from day one of the conflict” in Gaza had “supported in many different ways the athletes to allow them to take part in qualifications and to continue their training.”


The Rise of the ‘Survivors’
If the undergraduates in my “Postwar Jewish Experience” seminar are any indication, and I believe they are, a startlingly large percentage of young American Jews are taken aback to learn of the liminal space of the displaced persons camp. From what they’ve been taught (or, more to the point, not taught), it’s almost as if what remained of European Jewry made one big and speedy leap from the hellishness of the Shoah to tilling the soil in Israel or adjusting to life in the New World.

This gap, as much a historical as a linguistic phenomenon, shortchanges opportunities to deepen our understanding of the means by which the Jewish polity reconstituted itself in the face of insurmountable odds, highlighting the role of resilience at the grassroots and with it, the extraordinary efforts of the Joint Distribution Committee, ORT, and the Jewish Cultural Reconstruction Inc., among other Jewish communal NGOs, as agents of regeneration.

At war’s end, an archipelago of hastily built or repurposed facilities, among them former concentration camps and Nazi youth summer camps, housed an estimated 1 million people left homeless. Though not all displaced persons were Jews, all surviving Jews were displaced persons, consigned by nationality to live among their tormentors. Once this and other untenable conditions came to light, a consequence of the harrowing revelations of the 1946 Harrison Report detailing the abysmal physical environment in which Jewish victims of the war unwittingly found themselves, they were relocated to displaced persons camps populated entirely by their own kind. Between 1946 and 1951, Jewish DPs lived among their own kind, anxiously awaiting their collective fate. Since returning home was no longer an option, and the nations of the world remained inhospitable, to put it mildly, where, oh, where were they to go? What “exit options” were at hand?

While in limbo, Jewish displaced persons actively documented what had happened to them, married, had babies—in 1946, the Jewish DP camps were said to have the highest birth rate in the world—put their faith in Zionism, made themselves heard, and planted themselves in the world.

When the history of the displaced persons camps, then, is fully acknowledged and taken into account, the factors that made for the elevation of the term “survivor” become clearer still. Ultimately, its claim to fame rests on the difference between a name conferred, even thrust upon, a population, and one generated from within; between a form of classification and an expression of identity. Where she’erit ha-peletah, lebn-geblibene, and “survivor” were of the Jews’ own devising, the label “displaced person” was not—at least not until 2001, when Joseph Berger of The New York Times published Displaced Persons: Growing Up American After the Holocaust, his poignant, textured, coming-of-age memoir as the son of Rachel and Marcus. By situating that designation within the context of the New World rather than the Old, he reclaimed it as his own. Until then, “displaced persons” functioned as a stigma, rather than a salute. “DP. We hated that word,” Benjamin Harshav recalled. “We were never anybody’s displaced persons … DP was a label, a category for bureaucrats.”

“Survivor,” on the other hand, was all theirs. It had their name on it.
Murder and rape in the dunes of pre-state Israel: The story of a hike turned horror
It was to be a two- or three-day hike from Tel Aviv to Herzliya. But they never finished their trek.

They were friends and perhaps wanted to become lovers. They also loved the Land of Israel and set out to walk through it. Tragically, their walk was horrifyingly interrupted.

Yochanan Stahl was born in 1908 in Germany and was orphaned from his mother in 1925. His high school education was in an agricultural school at Ladenburg, east of Mannheim, and he joined a socialist-Zionist youth movement. He applied and received an immigration certificate for Mandate Palestine and arrived in late 1929, despite family opposition and leaving behind a girlfriend, Anna.

Stahl first worked at Kibbutz Beit Zera, and then Kibbutz Sarid in the Jezreel Valley but, in December 1930 moved on to Givat Brenner and worked in the orange groves near Rehovot. A relative described him as not that tall, curly haired, with blue eyes.

Celia/Sarah Zohar (Zonnenshein) was born in Chodorów, southeast of Lviv – then Galicia – in 1902. At the outbreak of World War I, the family moved to Vienna. Her brother was Dr. Zvi Zohar, a founder of Hashomer Hatzair, the Tarbut Hebrew school system, and Shomriya, the educational institution at Mishmar Ha’emek. She also joined a Zionist youth movement and studied pediatric nursing.

Zohar made aliyah in 1928, first working at the Ben Shemen Youth Village and then moving to Sarid, just west of Migdal Ha’emek and south of Nahalal. Prof. Ezra Sohar, her nephew, recalled that Celia and Yochanan met at Sarid.

While Celia was on a family visit to Poland, Yochanan wrote to her that he had found a spot some “30 meters high; to my right Sidna-Ali, to my left Jelil village [today, south of the Dan Accadia Hotel], behind me Herzliya and before me – the sea. I promise that when you return, we’ll hike to this place.”




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