Monday, May 06, 2024

05/06 Links Pt1: Genocide Enablers; Why the Left failed on October 7; Hamas says it has accepted Egyptian cease-fire proposal; Alternatives to Replace UNRWA Immediately

From Ian:

Genocide Enablers
The man who ignored the information which arguably could have saved nearly a million lives was Kofi Annan, then U.N. under-secretary general for peacekeeping operations. Annan told PBS in 2004 that he ordered Dallaire to share his intelligence with the genocide’s architects because “sometimes it is a very good deterrent” to inform rogue states that “we know what you are up to”—as if such a tactic has ever worked before or since. Not surprisingly, during Belgian government investigations into the Hutus’ murder of Belgian peacekeeping soldiers, Annan blocked Dallaire from testifying, and declined to testify himself.

Annan made another telling remark in the PBS interview. Pointing the finger at Security Council members, the former secretary general noted that, although these states had even better intelligence than his office, he knew the “mood in the council”: The members, Annan said, were not going to say, “We are going to send in the brigade” or “send reinforcements to General Dallaire.” While clearly self-serving, Annan’s remark is a reminder of the complicity of the so-called “international community,” including the U.S., which, at the time, did not wish to even utter the word “genocide.” “If we use the word ‘genocide’ and are seen as doing nothing,” Susan Rice, then director for international organizations and peacekeeping at the National Security Council, said, “what will be the effect on the November [congressional] election?”

The author who later excoriated Rice for this comment was none other than Samantha Power, who, two decades later, would nevertheless join Rice in government as ambassador to the U.N., when the Obama administration was abetting the mass slaughter in Syria. In her current role as USAID administrator, Power, in order to advance the Biden administration’s obscene policy of “surging” aid to Gaza, has falsely claimed that Israel is causing a “famine.”

Annan’s boss during the genocide, then-Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali, was the one responsible for covertly selling the Rwandan government much of their weapons stockpile in the first place. That $26 million worth of weapons, approved by Boutros-Ghali while still Egyptian foreign minister in 1990, made up a large part of the supplies the U.N. blocked Dallaire from seizing. Boutros-Ghali later dismissed Dallaire’s original fax as merely one among many “alarming reports from the field,” thus not worth serious consideration at the time. Once the genocide was in full flood, however, all Boutros-Ghali and Annan allowed Dallaire to do was attempt to negotiate an impossible cease-fire between the Tutsi-led Rwandan Patriotic Front and the very government slaughtering their kin. Though he admitted to PBS in 2004 that “I failed in Rwanda,” he never truly took personal responsibility. When he traveled to Rwanda in 1995 and reluctantly visited the site of the barbaric Nyarubuye church massacre, he toured the untouched mounds of putrefied innocents for 18 minutes, told the living to be of good courage, and then left.

Current U.N. secretary general, Antonio Guterres, did something arguably worse 28 years later. Barely two weeks after Oct. 7, he appeared to give subtle justification to Hamas’ own Nyarubuye massacre of Jews, saying that it “did not happen in a vacuum.”

Still, perhaps the most stunning correlation between the U.N.’s abetment of genocide in Rwanda and in Israel 30 years later is its insistence upon “humanitarian” support for mass murderers and their civilian accomplices. A less-remembered side effect of the Rwandan civil war was the exodus of around a million Hutus into Tanzania and Zaire, whom the U.N. and international community aided lavishly. Many of these refugees were known at the time to have either supported the genocide’s aims or personally been part of the Interahamwe death squads, but they were given food, medicine, and shelter anyway. The thousands of killers among them became community leaders within the refugee camps and then, when the genocide was over, returned to their villages to live in sight of those few who had survived their butchery.

Today, the U.N. demands that Israel supply food, medicine, and shelter to people who passionately support Hamas and their genocidal exploits. Under severe U.S. pressure—including threats of stopping arms supplies, sanctions, and support for ICC prosecution of Israeli officials and IDF soldiers—Israel has been forced to oblige, even though they know that Hamas will steal the aid for itself, as it habitually does. The Biden administration has even begun constructing a $320 million pier to supply the terror group’s enclave, and is demanding Israel protect the aid convoys replenishing its enemy.

Nevertheless, there is one difference between the U.N.’s perfidy in Rwanda and hostility toward Israel. In Rwanda, the U.N.—even while often refusing to use the word—did understand that Hutus were, in fact, committing genocide against Tutsis. Today, however, the same U.N. actually accuses the victims of an act of genocide of being the murderers, while blessing the act’s perpetrators as the true victims.

It is only fitting, then, that one U.N. official reportedly described pointless cease-fire talks between the RPF and Hutu killers as “rather like wanting Hitler to reach a cease-fire with the Jews.” No observation could better encapsulate three decades of moral depravity dressed up as idealistic decency.
The women cheering on Hamas rapists are an insult to feminism
For all the loathing she received on social media, Karen was harmless. Her successor is not. This woman throngs university campuses, leading protests, wrapped up in keffiyehs and a face covering, passionately crying out for what she calls freedom fighters and their “just war” against Zionist apartheid, genocide and occupation, and the general existence of the Jewish state.

What she is doing – perfectly explicitly in many cases – is teeny-bopping for Hamas, as girls used to yell and scream for the Beatles. It’s truly chilling. In the sick world of too many pro-Hamas, pro-Palestine women protesting, the acts of sexual violence carried out by Hamas on October 7 are Zionist fabrications, designed to further deepen the Israeli stranglehold on Palestinian self-determination and freedom. Others know perfectly well that the rape, torture and abductions happened, but seem to think it’s all wonderfully noble “resistance”.

A sick irony lives in the fact that these protest babes, ardent, self-righteous, self-avowed progressives, are cheering on terrorists who, when not raping women, insist on a brutal patriarchal society.

Do these women really want an Isis-style caliphate? Do they want rape and the threat of murder as an instrument of control as the framework for society in which all must live? Or do they only want these things for the “Zionists”?

Perhaps they don’t really know what they’re wishing for, but they should be careful nonetheless. They might just get it.
Why the Left failed on October 7
A sentence I never imagined I’d write: I now think Jeremy Corbyn did Jews in Britain a favour. His time as Labour leader, between 2015 and 2020, was an extremely weird one for British Jews, but eye-opening all the same: I now think it prepared many of us for the Left’s reaction to October 7, whereas American Jews seemed far more surprised. The gaslighting (the attack didn’t happen), the defences (if it did, Jews deserved it), the hectoring moral superiority (how can you care about that when this is so much more important?): all that we saw after October 7, we had seen under Corbyn.

Now is not the place to rehash the many examples of Corbyn’s jaw-dropping attitudes towards Jews, never mind Israel, ideas some of us naively thought had died out with Stalin. Those are specific to Corbyn, whose political relevance is now, thankfully, in the past. But two general truths emerged from that era that would prove extremely relevant after October 7.

The first was how little people across the Left cared when Jews pointed out the obvious antisemitism they saw in the Labour Party. In 2018, 86% of British Jews said they believed Corbyn was antisemitic; and still the Left supported him, and still The Guardian backed him in the 2019 general election. Would they — good Lefties one and all — have done this if the vast majority of another minority said they believed Corbyn was bigoted against them? Would the Left have supported an Islamophobic leader in 2018? A homophobic one? A racist one? It’s hard to imagine. “What are Jews so scared of? It’s not like Corbyn’s going to bring back pogroms,” a prominent figure on the Left asked me. I briefly amused myself by imagining a response: “Why are black people so against the Tories? It’s not like they’ll bring back lynching.” But I stayed schtum. The Left doesn’t care about antisemitism if they deem it inconvenient to their cause. They just call it “anti-Zionism” and carry on, and that was — it turned out — a good lesson to learn.

There was another lesson, too. When Corbyn was pushed out of Labour in 2020, I dismissed him as a useful idiot, which was right. I also dismissed him as a blip, an aberration, one I needn’t think about again, which was wrong. Because then October 7 happened. I realised that the Corbyn era had opened a Pandora’s box and some ghosts cannot be controlled.

Antisemitism found a new point of entry through identity politics, which argues that in order to see the world clearly, we need to divide it up into particular group identities, specifically racial and sexual identities, and quantify the degrees of their oppression. As Yascha Mounk writes in The Identity Trap, adherents of identity politics believe that, in the name of fairness, liberal democracies need to jettison universal values such as free speech and respect for diverse opinions — values long championed by the Jewish Diaspora. Instead, we should now see everyone through the prisms of race and sexual orientation and treat them differently, depending on their identity group and how much oppression they have historically suffered.

To make this simplistic ideology even more simple, identity politics divides the world into two racial categories: “white” (defined as colonising oppressors) and “people of colour” (the oppressed). This is how the Left pivoted from talking about class to talking about race. It is also why antisemitism is thriving again on university campuses, as supporters of identity politics combine with activists for black and Muslim causes, who see Jews as ultra-white and therefore oppressive. And to be clear, those activists aren’t necessarily Black or Muslim themselves; in fact, as multiple students have told me, they are often white, but see supporting these causes — and trashing Israel and Jews — as a means of proving their allyship and exonerating themselves from white guilt.


Hamas says it has accepted cease-fire proposal from Egypt and Qatar
Israeli officials said the cease-fire deal Hamas claims to have accepted from Egypt and Qatar on Monday was not approved by the Jewish state — and that it could be a “deception” by the terrorist organization.

The stakes could hardly be higher at this moment. Israel is preparing to launch an offensive in Rafah, the last stronghold for Hamas — and a city where more than 1 million Palestinians have taken refuge while fleeing war elsewhere in the Gaza Strip.

IDF Spokesperson Rear Admiral. Daniel Hagari said Israel was reviewing Hamas’ response but still preparing for a possible deployment into Rafah, the Jerusalem Post reports.

Following Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh’s announcement that a deal was accepted, Israeli officials told multiple outlets that the deal presented to the terror group was a “softened” version of what was really on the table and is not being taken seriously by Jerusalem.

One official told Reuters that the announcement was a clear ruse by the terror group to create backlash against Israel for refusing a deal, and officials told KANN TV that the announcement of a cease-fire agreement was a “Hamas deception.”

The accusations came as a senior Hamas official told the AFP that the future of the cease-fire depends on Israel’s response.

“After Hamas agreed to the mediators’ proposal for a ceasefire, the ball is now in the court of Israeli occupation, whether it will agree to the ceasefire agreement or obstruct it,” the officials said.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan also pushed Israel to accept the deal with Hamas during a cabinet meeting on Monday.

“We welcome the statement by Hamas that they accepted the ceasefire with our suggestion. Now, Israel must take the same step,” he said.

The news of Hamas’ acceptance of a cease-fire deal immediately triggered celebrations across Gaza, where Palestinians cheered and chanted “Allahu Akbar” in the streets, Al Jazeera reports.

The deal Hamas said it agreed to includes a six-week cease-fire and the release of more than 30 hostages in Gaza in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.

It remains unclear if the latest deal included Hamas’ key sticking point in the negotiations that have dragged on for months, with the terror group insisting that a cease-fire will only occur if Israel completely withdraws from Gaza and agrees to end the nearly seven-month-long war.
Israel says Hamas offer does not meet key demands, will keep negotiating, is moving forward with Rafah op
Israel’s war cabinet decides unanimously to push ahead with an operation in Rafah “in order to apply military pressure on Hamas, with the goal of making progress on freeing the hostages and the other war aims,” the Prime Minister’s Office says in a statement.

The statement says Hamas’s latest truce offer is “far from Israel’s essential demands.”

Nonetheless, Israel is going to send working-level teams to hold talks with the mediators in order “to exhaust the possibility of achieving an agreement on terms that are acceptable to Israel,” says the PMO.
Report: In first, US delayed an ammunition shipment; Israel: US supplies are continuing
The United States reportedly stopped the delivery of a shipment of US-made ammunition to Israel last week, according to Axios, although Israel says that deliveries are continuing as normal.

Citing two unnamed Israeli officials, Axios reports that the decision to place the ammunition shipment on hold left Israeli government officials concerned, as it is the first time since October 7 that the US has prevented a weapons shipment from reaching Israel.

A White House National Security spokesperson declines to confirm the report, saying they don’t comment on individual cases.

However, the spokesperson notes that the US “has surged billions of dollars in security assistance to Israel since the October 7 attacks, passed the largest ever supplemental appropriation for emergency assistance to Israel, led an unprecedented coalition to defend Israel against Iranian attacks and will continue to do what is necessary to ensure Israel can defend itself from the threats it faces.”

Speaking to Ynet, an Israeli official downplays the Axios report, saying “Even now, a continued series of defense shipments are being sent from the US to Israel.”

“It’s possible that one shipment or another is delayed, but the flow continues and we’re not aware of a policy decision to stop it,” the official adds.
Biden Admin Officials Coordinated With Anti-Israel Group To Isolate Israeli Jews in West Bank, Emails Show
Senior Biden administration officials have been coordinating since at least early 2022 with an outside anti-Israel group to isolate Jewish Israelis living in the West Bank, internal government emails show.

The previously unreported emails show top officials at both the State and Defense Departments fielding concerns from Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN), a human rights group that is highly critical of the Israeli government and has lobbied the Biden administration to cut off military aid to the Jewish state.

At the time, DAWN sparked an internal push at both departments to stop American officials from engaging with Jewish Israelis living in the West Bank and other contested areas of Jerusalem. DAWN is leveraging its clout with the Biden administration to push fresh sanctions on Israeli military units for alleged human rights crimes, having provided the State Department with a list of Israelis to punish. DAWN's anti-Israel lobbying campaign traces back to at least 2022, with the internal government emails shining new light on the level of access and influence it peddles inside the Biden administration.

In February of that year, DAWN's then-advocacy director, Adam Shapiro, emailed two top Pentagon officials—Dana Stroul, then the deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Middle East, and Jennifer Zakriski, then the deputy director of the Defense Security Cooperation Agency.

In the email, Shapiro raised concerns about U.S. officials engaging with Israeli "settlers," citing "media reports documenting a trip to Hebron by 2 US military officers, organized by an [Israel Defense Forces] commander and hosted by a settler affiliated with the Hebron Fund," a nonprofit group that provides education about the city of Hebron's Jewish history.

"From where I sit," Shapiro wrote, "I think this raises serious questions about the purpose of this trip to occupied territory and the ideological nature of the presentation and messaging—and seeming endorsement by US military personnel."
U.S. Policy Has Fed the Islamic Republic's Campaign of Terror
Iran's oil exports hit a six-year high last month. The regime in Tehran is a violent theocracy under U.S. and international sanctions. The energy sanctions reimposed on Iran in 2018 remain in effect, but the Biden administration is failing to enforce them, which has created a financial windfall for Iranian terrorism.

Iran's oil revenue underwrites a war machine that is tearing apart the Middle East, financing militias in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Bahrain and Yemen that target and kill American citizens. Hizbullah receives $700 million a year from Tehran. Iran's oil supported the Hamas death squads that carried out the Oct. 7 massacre, where at least 32 American citizens were murdered. The regime's oil revenue also funds its nuclear program and missile arsenal.

Iran is now exporting 1.56 million barrels a day of crude oil, most of it to China. This is netting the regime up to $35 billion annually. That's more than $100 billion in revenue since Mr. Biden took office in January 2021. Buoyed by these exports, Iran's economic growth surpassed that of the U.S. in 2023; the International Monetary Fund expects that to happen again in 2024.

The previous administration successfully reduced Iran's exports to a low of 70,000 barrels a day in April 2020. This denied Tehran access to as much as $50 billion in annual revenue. I monitored the sanctions' efficacy daily. Teams from across the federal government worked to track Iran's illicit oil transfers and disrupt them in every region. Countries took notice and heeded our warnings. Today, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries has spare oil capacity. That gives President Biden ample room to enforce the oil sanctions vigorously.

Skeptics have said our sanctions had little effect. That would be news to Iran's then-President Hassan Rouhani, who complained in late 2019 that U.S. sanctions cost the regime as much as $200 billion. That year, Iran cut its military spending by 28%. Iran-backed militias across the Middle East told reporters that Tehran's handouts had dried up.

Restoring deterrence starts with enforcing the existing sanctions with the goal of zero oil exports for the top financier of terrorism in the Middle East.
JCPA: Qatari Paymasters and the Hijacking of American Democracy
Ever since Hamas’s brutal pogroms of October 7, 2023, on Jewish communities in southern Israel, which sparked the ongoing war in Gaza, there has been a drastic surge in antisemitic incidents in the West, namely, the United States, Canada, and Europe.

We have witnessed hundreds of thousands of people marching in western capitals and cities – not in support of the 1,200 Israeli victims who were slaughtered in cold blood, but rather in support of Hamas terrorists. However, in the past few weeks, we have seen a new alarming development: the blast of Jew-hatred on American campuses, home to some of the world’s most prestigious universities. American campuses have been turned into breeding grounds of Jew-hatred and hatred of Western values and democracy. Campuses have turned into a second front for Hamas and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), plainly calling for violence and glorifying the Oct. 7 massacres. Protesters, many not students, burn American flags and chant “Down with the U.S.,” “We are all Hamas,” and “Burn Tel Aviv to the ground.”

Keffiyeh-clad students in a pro-Palestinian rally at Columbia University harassed Jewish students and, in some cases, prevented them from entering the university and shouted at them, “We don’t want Zionists here.” Other keffiyeh-clad students yelled, “Remember the 7th of October,” “Never forget October 7,” and “Are you ready? October 7 is about to be every day. Every Day.”1

These vile harassments and intimidations are also aimed at other non-Jewish students who do not share the ideals of the so-called pro-Palestine camp. They consciously or unknowingly support the Ideals of the cancerous ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood, of which Hamas is an offshoot.

The support and appeal for Islamist extremism and Jew-hatred among some diaspora Muslim communities and their far-left supporters is not a new phenomenon. It has been going on for years, with Western leaders well aware of it, yet they let it fester unrestricted.

But we are witnessing a new warning on American campuses: universities should be bastions for learning and debating without fear or intimidation.

Burning American and Israeli flags and chanting “We are all Hamas” and “Down with the U.S.” are traditional choruses on university campuses in Gaza, Tehran, Damascus, Sana’a, and Islamabad. The annihilation rhetoric calling for the extermination of Israel, the hate speech, and the violence coming from U.S. campuses should not be seen as the exercise of students’ right to freedom of expression. Calling for “Globalizing the Intifada,” “Burn Tel Aviv to the Ground,” or “Al-Qassam (missiles) are on their way” is nothing but the normalization of hate and violence.
Expert IDF personnel achieving ‘phenomenal results’ in civilian casualty minimisation
Former British Army commander Richard Kemp says Hamas must be “defeated in detail” with expert IDF achieving “phenomenal results” in civilian casualty minimisation.

“They have to be defeated in detail, and that can only be done on the ground,” he said.

“The great danger of that is killing large numbers of civilians; there are a lot in there, which is why the IDF are trying to push them out to the humanitarian areas.

“The IDF are very, very expert and have achieved phenomenal results so far despite what you see in many media programs … at destroying Hamas while minimising civilian casualties.

“I have seen the way they operate, and they are extremely careful, both in air operations which are very precisely targeted, with very high levels of authorisation required if there is a high likelihood of killing large numbers of civilians … soldiers even sacrifice and risk their own lives to minimise the deaths of innocent civilians.”


Four soldiers killed in Hamas rocket barrage toward Kerem Shalom, aid crossing closed
Four IDF soldiers were killed and at least three others were seriously wounded after Hamas fired ten rockets toward the Kerem Shalom area along the Israel-Gaza border on Sunday afternoon.

The four slain soldiers were identified as St.-Sgt. Ruben Marc Mordechai Assouline, 19, from Ra'anana; St.-Sgt. Ido Testa, 19, from Jerusalem; St.-Sgt. Tal Shavit, 21, from Kfar Giladi; and Sgt. Michael Ruzal, 18, from Rishon Lezion. Assouline and Testa served in the Shaked Battalion in the Givati Brigade. Shavit and Ruzal served in the 931st Battalion in the Nahal Brigade.

Soroka Medical Center stated that it received 10 people wounded in the attack, including three in serious condition, two in moderate condition, and five in light condition.

Shortly after the attack, the IDF closed the Kerem Shalom crossing located in the area, halting the entry of humanitarian aid trucks through the crossing which serves as the main entry point for aid.

Several people received medical treatment on the spot for injuries sustained from the rocket fire, and were evacuated to hospitals for immediate medical care. The Eshkol Regional Council announced that one of the people wounded was a resident of the Eshkol Regional Council.


FDD: Turn-Key Alternatives to Replace UNRWA Immediately An Alternative to UNRWA Exists — It Just Needs to Be Directed
Following October 7 and the mountain of evidence of UNRWA’s collaboration with Hamas, there is no going back to the status quo. Alternatives to the failed UNRWA model exist and should be supported immediately.

USAID, working with OCHA or another organization with a Middle East presence, could coordinate shelter, non-food items, and livelihood issues (the latter directly through USAID, DFC, and/or the World Bank); food security, emergency telecommunications, and logistics through the WFP; healthcare through the WHO; nutrition through UNICEF; water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) through UNICEF; and education through UNICEF, ensuring appropriate textbooks and teaching materials.

The new system must not swap one deeply flawed and corrupted welfare system for another. The goal should be to transition to self-sufficiency within five years or less. Mandates should be time-bound to hold to transition goalposts. Counterterrorism vetting must be stringent. Boxing out bad actors such as Qatar, Turkey, Iran, Russia, and China must be a condition for U.S. assistance.

For countries such as Jordan, where the United States already provides bilateral economic assistance, a transition away from UNRWA would be quite simple. To the extent necessary and through direct bilateral negotiation, the proportion of U.S. assistance that goes to UNRWA in Jordan can become additional economic assistance for Amman. No new funding would be needed.

In the West Bank, a transition from UNRWA is a necessary step to empower the kind of institution building that the Biden administration and moderate Arab governments have long endeavored to support. However, the United States and Israel will need to work closely to vet partners and prevent terror financing.

In Syria, UNRWA admits that most of the country’s registered population has been displaced at least once by the civil war.25 Many have left the country entirely. The International Organization for Migration is already on the ground in Syria providing the same services to even more people than UNRWA — making it an obvious choice for a smooth transition.26

In 2018, one former Israeli official estimated that fewer than 250,000 Palestinians lived in Lebanon and Syria combined. It is quite reasonable for another organization to take over UNRWA’s responsibilities in those countries.27 But Lebanon also poses other challenges due to the government’s longstanding discrimination against Palestinians as well as the presence of armed groups actively fighting each other in the country’s largest UNRWA camp.28 Pressure will be needed on Lebanon — a recipient of U.S. foreign assistance — to restore security, help Palestinians integrate into society, and work with other partners on the post-UNRWA transition.

Conclusion
The reality on the ground in Gaza is already shifting away from an UNRWA-centric aid model to a post-UNRWA alternative. UNRWA’s supporters are working hard to lobby countries to resume aid, and they are relying on the UN secretary-general to halt the entry of other agencies. However, if the United States remains firm on permanently prohibiting aid to UNRWA and brings in key allies and partners along with a credible plan for an alternative structure that makes UNRWA irrelevant while improving life for Palestinians, it can achieve a new paradigm in Gaza that excludes UNRWA (and thus its Hamas partner). Implementation can begin immediately in Gaza to demonstrate proof of concept while steps are taken to prepare and implement transitions in other areas of UNRWA responsibility. In the end, even if the UN General Assembly maintains UNRWA’s mandate, the agency will be a shell of itself — unable to harm Palestinians or Israelis any longer.


COGAT: Int'l orgs told us too much aid was sent to northern Gaza
The Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) stated Sunday that they had been asked by international organizations to reduce the volume of goods transported to northern Gaza last week as too much was being sent to the area in relation to the population.

"Israel has continuously enhanced its humanitarian efforts to increase aid into Gaza, spearheading initiatives that significantly improve conditions in both northern and southern Gaza while addressing security concerns related to Hamas," wrote COGAT on X on Sunday.

According to the agency, about 100 food aid trucks were sent to northern Gaza on a daily basis over the past few weeks in coordination with the international community, including the UN.

COGAT added that "In talks between Israeli and UN representatives, including [the] WFP, none of the entities indicated a risk of famine in northern Gaza. They noted that the humanitarian situation is improving and that there is a variety of goods in both warehouses and markets in the north."

"Noting the improved situation, [international organizations] stated last week that the volume of goods transported to northern Gaza must be reduced since the quantities are too high in relation to the population," wrote COGAT.

COGAT also noted that Israel has set up various routes to bring in aid, including through airdrops, through a maritime route, and through land crossings. There are two crossings set up for aid delivery in northern Gaza and two in the south, with over 350 trucks entering Gaza daily.


Josh Frydenberg to present new Sky News Australia documentary on fight against antisemitism
Former treasurer Josh Frydenberg will examine the alarming rise of antisemitism in a new Sky News Australia documentary Never Again: The Fight Against Antisemitism.

Following the devastating attack on Israel by Hamas terrorists on October 7 last year, the one-hour documentary will examine the rise in hostility towards Jewish people taking place around the world at levels not seen since the Holocaust.

Josh Frydenberg will speak with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton, former prime ministers John Howard and Julia Gillard, Olympic champion and former senator Nova Peris, former governor-general Peter Cosgrove, award-winning Australian music artist Deborah Conway and survivors of the Holocaust.

The documentary will take a close look at the radicalisation on our streets and how antisemitism has been allowed to take hold, and, critically what needs to be done to stop it.

“Like so many Australians I have been really shocked by the speed and the scale in the rise of antisemitism after October the 7th and I think many Australians don’t know how bad and how dangerous the situation is today, so I wanted to use my voice to ring the alarm bell,” Mr Frydenberg told Sky News Australia host Sharri Markson.

“I wanted to use my voice to shine a light on what is happening here in Australia today and I wanted Australians to see and hear for themselves what is happening in their own country with the rise of antisemitism and to understand this is not just the Jewish community’s fight – this is Australia’s fight.”


The Commentary Magazine Podcast: It’s Worse Than That
Hosted by Abe Greenwald, Christine Rosen, John Podhoretz & Matthew Continetti
A landmark podcast episode in which we all take turns claiming the situation between America and Israel and between college campuses and the rest of the country is worse. Who’s right? What is worse? And what’s the TV show you should watch but shouldn’t Google anything about if you want to enjoy it?
Call Me Back PodCast: The Age of Grievance – with Frank Bruni
Hosted by Dan Senor
Frank Bruni is a long time journalist, including more than 25 years with the New York Times. He is the author of four New York Times bestsellers. He is now also a full professor at Duke University, teaching at the school of public policy, while he continues to write his popular weekly newsletter and additional essays for the Times.

Two of Frank’s recent books are relevant to what we are watching play out right now on America’s college campuses. Eight years ago, he published “Where You Go Is Not Who You’ll Be: An Antidote to the College Admissions Mania”

And Frank’s most recent book, which was just published last week, is called “The Age of Grievance”

In our conversation and in his new book, Frank addresses the fact that Jews are being blamed for objecting to the 10/07 massacre of Jews. How did this happen? It didn’t come out of nowhere? How is it the college campuses have become the focus of this debate over here?

“The Age of Grievance” addresses the shocking upside down debate that erupted over here following 10/07, which we discuss in our conversation. We also try to understand how some universities are getting it right and others are getting it so wrong. Frank is uniquely positioned to have insights – from his perspective at the Times, on the front lines as a professor at a top American university, and as a bestselling author of a new book about grievance.
Republican senators warn ICC prosecutor: Target Israel, and we will target you
A dozen Republican senators on Monday sent a letter warning International Criminal Court chief prosecutor Karim Khan not to issue arrest warrants for senior Israeli officials, days after the British lawyer cautioned against efforts to try to sway the court.

“Target Israel, and we will target you,” the senators, led by Sen. Tom Cotton, warned in the letter. “Such actions are illegitimate and lack legal basis, and, if carried out, will result in severe sanctions against you and your institution.”

Sens. Mitch McConnell (minority leader), Rick Scott, Tim Scott, Ted Cruz, and Marco Rubio also signed the letter, amid increasing concern in Israel that the UN court could issue arrest warrants for senior political and military officials over the nearly-seven-month-old war in Gaza, including against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi.

As reports swirled of US and Israeli efforts to dissuade the court from issuing arrest orders, the ICC prosecutor said on Friday that, while the ICC “welcomes open communication” with government officials and non-governmental bodies alike, it will only engage in such dialogue so long as it is “consistent with its mandate under the Rome Statute to act independently and impartially.”

“That independence and impartiality are undermined, however, when individuals threaten to retaliate… should the office, in fulfillment of its mandate, make decisions about investigations or cases falling within its jurisdiction,” he added, demanding that “all attempts to impede, intimidate or improperly influence its officials cease immediately.”

Nevertheless, the senators charged in the letter that the ICC “is attempting to punish Israel for taking legitimate actions of self-defense against their Iranian-backed aggressors. In fact, in your own words, you witnessed ‘scenes of calculated cruelty’ conducted by Hamas in Israel following the October 7 attacks.”


House Latino-Jewish caucus slams Colombian president for cutting ties with Israel
The bipartisan Latino Jewish Congressional Caucus condemned Colombian President Gustavo Petro on Friday for his recent decision to sever ties with Israel.

“This inflammatory and unwarranted decision is unacceptable from a major non-NATO ally of the United States, counterproductive to Petro’s ostensible goal of securing the release of hostages and deeply damaging Colombia’s national interests and objectives,” six of the group’s 20 members wrote.

Four of the signatories, Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), Mario Díaz-Balart (R-Fla.), Tony Gonzales (R-Texas) and Adriano Espaillat (D-N.Y.), are co-chairs of the group. Caucus members Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) and María Elvira Salazar (R-Fla.) also signed the letter.

“Petro’s decision emboldens Hamas, undercuts global pressure to seek the return of hostages and undermines the tireless efforts of serious world leaders to seek justice on behalf of Israeli and Palestinian victims of Hamas,” the congressmen wrote.

“These actions do not reflect the views or interests of the Colombian people, who have benefitted for decades from security and economic cooperation with Israel and the United States,” they added.

Petro announced that he was breaking off diplomatic relations with the Jewish state on Wednesday over Israel’s military campaign against Hamas, which he has repeatedly described as “genocide.”

A leftist and former armed guerrilla in Colombia’s M-19 movement, Petro did not condemn Hamas on Oct. 7, instead calling, in Spanish, for immediate peace talks and the recognition of a Palestinian state.


France Bars Entry of Shifa Surgeon following Germany’s Ban over his ‘Hatred for Israel’
In October and November 2023, at the beginning of Israel’s war on Hamas in Gaza, London-based surgeon Ghassan Abu-Sitta operated in Gaza’s al-Shifa hospital, which was later exposed as the main Hamas headquarters in the Strip, in deeply dug tunnels and spaces. Abu-Sitta, who is the Rector of the University of Glasgow, used his 43 days in Shifa and al-Ahli hospitals to issue “eyewitness reports” of what he claimed was a “massacre unfolding” in Gaza.

Born in Kuwait in 1969, to “Palestinian” parents, Abu Sitta is a plastic and reconstructive surgeon who resides in East London with his wife and three sons. On Saturday, May 4, he was scheduled to speak at the French Senate about the medical situation in Gaza but was denied entry to France, based on a Schengen-Area-wide entry ban against him put in place by German authorities.

The Schengen Area encompasses 29 European countries that have officially abolished border controls at their mutual borders.

The French police reported that Abu-Sitta, who had been denied entry to Germany in April, faced a one-year visa ban imposed by German authorities, preventing him from entering any Schengen country. It remains uncertain whether Abu-Sitta was aware of this restriction before traveling to Paris.

German Police tweeted on April 12 that Abu-Sitta was “banned from political activity,” and “There’s concern that another speaker, who has previously expressed antisemitic or violence-supporting views, might be connected in the future. As a result, the assembly was adjourned, and a prohibition was also announced for Saturday and Sunday.”

“France is barring my entry. I was scheduled to address the French Senate today,” lamented Abu-Sitta, who had been invited by Green party lawmakers to participate in a conference at the Senate, focusing on Gaza. The conference’s theme was ‘France and its responsibility in the application of international law in Gaza.'”


Editor's Notes: Unmasking JVP, SJP: Pro-Palestinian terrorists on US campuses
For instance, at a notable event in Houston, these organizations, including JVP, came together to support BDS and other anti-Israel movements, signaling a broader coalition of student activism that often sidesteps the violent realities endorsed by their beneficiaries. Additional demonstrations in Chicago and New York have further echoed these sentiments, advocating for unrestricted aid to Gaza and positioning the Houthi movement as part of a broader anti-imperialist fight for justice.

This pattern of support raises critical questions about the responsibilities of student organizations in international conflicts. By choosing to support groups involved in violent actions under the banner of anti-imperialism, these students and their organizations risk endorsing a narrative that simplifies complex international issues and undermines global peace efforts.

In the saga of university activism, the conduct of groups such as JVP and SJP stands as a stark reminder of the thin line between fervent advocacy and outright endorsement of terrorist activities. These organizations, under the guise of fighting for human rights, have fostered a campus environment where extreme actions and views against the State of Israel and its supporters are not only normalized but celebrated. Their activities, such as mimicking violent uprisings and disrupting academic settings, have turned educational institutions into battlegrounds rather than places of learning.

The failure of university authorities and law enforcement to address these activities promptly has only emboldened these groups further. For two decades, these organizations have operated within university grounds, gradually escalating their aggressive tactics, while oversight bodies have either turned a blind eye or responded too leniently.

The police and campus security have often been too slow to dismantle these radical encampments and arrest those who break the law. This negligence has allowed a dangerous ideology to flourish – one that does not merely seek to criticize Israeli policies but aims to destroy the only Jewish state and, by extension, the Jewish people along with Western interests, primarily those of the United States.

We must recognize and confront this threat decisively. The mantra “Never Again” must be a call to action against such extremism, ensuring that advocacy never serves as a cover for terrorism.
13 Federal Judges Say They Will No Longer Hire Law Clerks From Columbia University, Citing ‘Virulent Spread of Antisemitism’ and ‘Explosion of Student Disruptions’
Thirteen federal judges said Monday that they would no longer hire law clerks from Columbia College or Columbia Law School after the university allowed an encampment on its lawn to spiral into a destructive occupation of a campus building. The judges cited the "explosion of student disruptions" and the "virulent spread of antisemitism" at Columbia, which has now canceled its main graduation ceremony because of the unrest.

Led by appellate judges James Ho and Elizabeth Branch, who spearheaded a clerkship boycott of Yale Law School in 2022 and Stanford Law School in 2023, as well as by Matthew Solomson on the U.S Court of Federal Claims, the judges wrote in a letter to Columbia president Minouche Shafik that they would no longer hire "anyone who joins the Columbia University community—whether as undergraduates or as law students—beginning with the entering class of 2024."

"Freedom of speech protects protest, not trespass, and certainly not acts or threats of violence or terrorism," the judges wrote. "It has become clear that Columbia applies double standards when it comes to free speech and student misconduct."

The letter’s signatories include Alan Albright, a district judge who hears a fourth of the nation’s patent cases; Stephen Vaden, a former general counsel at the Department of Agriculture who now sits on the United States Court of International Trade; and Matthew Kacsmaryk, the district judge who suspended approval of the abortion drug mifepristone in a controversial ruling last year. Others are well-known district judges appointed by former president Donald Trump.

While 12 judges joined the Yale boycott anonymously, Monday’s letter marks the first time that more than two judges have said on the record that they will not hire graduates from an elite university.

It also marks an about-face for Solomson—one of the letter’s lead signatories—who previously criticized the boycotts of Yale and Stanford as a form of collective punishment. His decision to spearhead the Columbia boycott underscores just how much good will the school has lost over the encampment, which effectively put the campus on lockdown.


Ben Sasse criticizes other universities for ‘bizarrely’ giving attention to ‘smallest, angriest group’ amid protests
University of Florida president Ben Sasse criticized other universities for giving attention to the “smallest, angriest group” of protesters as various anti-Israel protests continue to occur on campuses across the country.

Sasse, a former Republican senator representing Nebraska, said on CNN’s State of the Union Sunday that under his leadership in Gainesville, Florida, the school has not negotiated with the “people who scream the loudest” but does not hinder their free speech rights.

“We just don’t negotiate with people who scream the loudest. It just — it just doesn’t make any sense to me. We believe in the right of free speech. We believe in the right to free assembly and you can try to persuade people,” Sasse said.

“But what you see happening on so many campuses across the country is instead of drawing the line at speech and action, a lot of universities bizarrely give the most attention and most voice to the smallest, angriest group, and it’s just not what we’re going to do here,” he added.

While some schools, such as Columbia University, have resisted divestment from Israel despite negotiations amid fiery protests, others have offered concessions to protesters.

Northwestern University announced on Monday that it reached an agreement with protesters, which among other things, reestablishes the Advisory Committee on Investment Responsibility with student, faculty, and staff representation. Brown University announced on Tuesday that it would hold a vote on whether to divest from Israel in October, in exchange for protesters’ encampment being torn down.

The University of Florida has rebuked protests that went outside of school policies, saying that the school is not a “daycare” and that they will “not treat protesters like children.”

“What we tell all of our students, protesters and not, is there two things we’re going to affirm over and over again, we will always defend your right to free speech and free assembly,” Sasse said on CNN on Sunday. “And also, we have time, place, and manner restrictions, and you don’t get to take over the whole university. People don’t get a spit at cops. You don’t get a barricade yourselves in buildings. You don’t get to disrupt somebody else’s commencement — we don’t allow protest inside,” he added.
Columbia Faculty Group Goes on Strike in Solidarity With Anti-Israel Student Protesters
A Columbia faculty group has gone on strike in solidarity with arrested student protesters and will not return to campus until law enforcement is removed.

Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine at Columbia announced on Friday that "faculty, staff, and graduate workers of Columbia University, Barnard College, and Teachers College" would be "immediately" going on a strike until police are removed from the recently occupied campus.

"We will not return to a campus that is extremely dangerous for Black, Palestinian, Middle Eastern, Latinx, South Asian, Arab, Muslim, trans, queer, and other communities who are disproportionately profiled by police," said the group. "As members of the faculty, staff, and graduate workers, we will not return to campus nor engage remotely for administrative service work—we will only serve students directly—until police are removed from our campus."

The announcement comes as Columbia president Minouche Shafik struggles to reestablish normalcy on campus. It is unclear how Shafik will respond to the strike and calls to get rid of the police. The school's plan for law enforcement to remain on campus extends until May 17, two days after its graduation ceremony was supposed to take place, to ensure order and safety. Columbia on Monday canceled the ceremony in light of the protests.

The faculty group says that "no one can safely return to campus" because of police.

"Given the use of military-grade assault weapons and surveillance technology against our students … and the announcement of the plan for police to remain on campus until May 17th, we believe no one can safely return to campus," the group said.
Columbia Cancels Main Graduation Ceremony After Weeks of Anti-Israel Protests
Columbia University on Monday announced it is canceling its main commencement ceremony after weeks of anti-Israel protests and hundreds of arrests on campus.

The university administrators canceled the graduation ceremony scheduled for May 15, instead focusing on "Class Days and school-level ceremonies, where students are honored individually alongside their peers," according to a press release by Columbia.

"These past few weeks have been incredibly difficult for our community," the administrators said of the chaotic and oftentimes violent demonstrations on campus that led to hundreds of Columbia students being arrested and suspended.

School officials said they may hold a "festive event" in place of the large graduation ceremony that was canceled. "We are eager to all come together for our graduates and celebrate our fellow Columbians as they, and we, look ahead to the future," the press release added.


Protesters at Penn seek clash, police refuse to clear encampment
As tensions escalate at a Gaza Solidarity Encampment at the University of Pennsylvania, administrators are taking a dialogue and de-escalation approach, possibly because they have no choice.

Penn asked the Philadelphia Police Department (PPD) to dismantle the encampment, but the police refused, the student-run Daily Pennsylvanian claimed on May 2.

Police asked that the university first provide proof that the encampment “presents an imminent danger,” reported the paper, citing a source familiar with the matter.

If accurate (and the Philadelphia police refused to confirm or deny the report), it suggests the PPD is creating a new standard for enforcing the law. As the university points out, “The encampment itself violates the university’s facilities policies.”

In response to JNS requests for clarification, the police said, “We do not publicly discuss specific planning or engagement strategies related to ongoing situations. Our response will be based on the specific circumstances of each situation.”

The office of the interim university president was also vague, telling JNS, “We have reached out to the City of Philadelphia to ensure we have the necessary resources to keep our community safe. The Mayor’s Office has asked for more information, and we are providing it.”

A George Soros-funded DA
The protesters may have sympathy among senior public officials. Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner, a George Soros-funded DA sharply criticized for his soft-on-crime policies, visited the protesters three times, saying the purpose of his third visit on May 2 was “to find out what the truth is.”

The encampment has not been peaceful, judging from a letter sent Monday to the Penn community by interim President J. Larry Jameson. (President Liz Magill was forced out after backlash for her testimony before Congress, in which she failed to recognize calls for genocide against Jews as violating the university’s code of conduct.)


Anti-Israel University of Ottawa protesters obey handler instructions to ignore reporters
Almost all protesters at Saturday's Worker Solidarity With Palestine demonstration in Ottawa, ON, refused to speak with Rebel News after being directed by minders not to speak with news media. The protesters congregated at the University of Ottawa, which is now becoming an encampment resembling similar protests seen at New York University, Columbia University, and McGill University. Tents were seen at the protest location.


Anti-Israel encampments erected in Cambridge and Oxford
Pro-Palestinian encampments have sprung up on the campuses of Oxford and Cambridge on Monday morning.

Students occupying the lawn of King’s College at the University of Cambridge, said they erected the camp because the university “supports Israel’s genocide of Palestinians in Gaza.”

In footage posted to social media on Monday, participants can be seen marching onto the green with tents, supplies and sleeping bags.

Organisers of Cambridge for Palestine said their demands of the university include disclosing financial and professional ties to Israel, divestment from such organisations, reinvesting in Palestinian students academies, and protecting “all forced migrants and protesting students.”

Another post said: “As students of the university of Balfour, who initiated the UK’s support for the colonial Zionist project, and of the vast majority of the prime ministers who have since continued it, we feel a particular obligation to stand with Palestinians in ending this historic injustice.”

Tents have also been assembled outside the University of Oxford’s Pitt Rivers Museum, which the organisers claim is hoarding “artefacts stolen from colonised peoples across the world.”

Demands of the Oxford encampment include “stop banking with Barclays”, help rebuild Gaza’s education system and “divest from Israeli genocide, apartheid and occupation.”

Organisers said in a statement: “There is no university in the history of human civilisation that is more complicit in violence, dispossession, and the building of destructive colonial empires than the University of Oxford.”

Students on the grass chanted, “Stop the bombing now, now, now. We are the people. We won’t be silenced.”
Outrage as pro-Palestine activists stage 'Stop Genocide' protest as thousands of Israelis including Holocaust and October 7 survivors walked to Auschwitz in 'March of the Living' event to honour victims of Nazi WW2 atrocities
Pro-Palestinian demonstrators have sparked outrage after staging a protest near the grounds of Auschwitz – as Israelis including October 7 survivors marched to honour victims of the Holocaust.

Sirens wailed as protestors displayed a banner reading 'stop genocide' at groups wearing Israeli flags along the sidelines of the 'March of the Living' event, which brings together thousands annually to observe Holocaust Remembrance Day in silence.

Eyewitnesses claimed protestors were 'chanting' at participants on the march, with Israelis responding with lines from 'Am Israel chai', a Jewish solidarity anthem.

Survivors of Hamas' October 7 incursion into southern Israel were also in attendance as participants marched the two-mile (three kilometre) walk from Auschwitz to Birkenau, where approximately one million Jews were systematically killed by Nazi Germany during the Second World War.

Just last week, distressing footage invoked fury as a man filmed himself walking through the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Auschwitz and saying: 'You belong here. This is your place of origin. You left these camps and ghettos. Long live Palestine.'




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

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