Friday, May 17, 2024

05/17 Links Pt2: One-third of journalists killed in Gaza were affiliated with terrorist groups; Paul Kessler's Killer Will Stand Trial; Eurovision handed Israel the win

From Ian:

Seth Mandel: Only Israel Wants To End the ‘Forever War’
In 2000, Ehud Barak offered to Yasser Arafat a Palestinian state that included the Gaza Strip. Arafat turned down the offer of statehood. Five years after that, Israel left Gaza unilaterally, after decades of trying to walk away from the Strip. Hamas’s takeover of the Strip soon followed, and it was turned into a large military installation the entire of point of which was to keep Israel from walking away completely.

Attacks from Gaza did not begin in 1967, just as they did not stop after Israel’s disengagement in 2005. Hamas’s attacks have nothing to do with a supposed occupation. Whether or not there are Israeli boots on the ground in the Gaza Strip, there has been and will be war.

Which brings us to the second point: This is already a forever war. And that forever war was declared by Israel’s enemies and is re-declared each time Israel offers to end it. Hamas’s raison d’etre, in fact, is forever war. You can find this out by doing such things as: asking them; reading their statements; reading their essential documents; watching their interviews; opening your eyes; etc.

Hamas does not deny this. Since October 7, Hamas officials have been saying this with even more regularity than they did before. Just one example of about a million: “Hamas’s goal is not to run Gaza and to bring it water and electricity and such,” Khalil al-Hayya, one of Hamas’s top leaders, said in November. “Hamas, the Qassam [brigades] and the resistance woke the world up from its deep sleep and showed that this issue must remain on the table. This battle was not because we wanted fuel or laborers. It did not seek to improve the situation in Gaza. This battle is to completely overthrow the situation.”

Israel is not “walking into a forever war.” It has spent its 76 years as a state trying to get out of a forever war imposed on it by the enemies of its existence, some of whom, such as the Hamas leaders and soldiers involved in the October 7 attacks, are barbarian war zombies who have no other setting.

If you want to end the forever war against Hamas, you must destroy Hamas. President Biden’s opposition to that is, in essence, opposition to ending the forever war launched against Israel the day of its rebirth as a state. There isn’t another option. The twist here is that Israel is the only actor involved in this drama that wants to end the forever war. No one else seems to be in much of a rush.
One-third of journalists killed in Gaza were affiliated with terrorist groups
One-third of the Palestinian journalists listed by the Committee to Protect Journalists as being killed in the war in Gaza were employed by terrorist groups, Jewish Insider has learned.

The high number of journalists reported by NGOs killed in Gaza has made headlines in the Washington Post, The New York Times and elsewhere, without any mention of their affiliations with Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

Out of 100 Palestinian journalists on the list on May 17, 33 worked for “Hamas-affiliated” media, such as Al-Aqsa Voice Radio, Al-Quds Al-Youm, Quds News Network and others. Another two worked for Palestinian Islamic Jihad outlets Kan’an and Mithaq Media Foundation.

Hamas-run Al-Aqsa TV was named a Specially Designated Global Terrorist by the U.S. Treasury Department in 2010; the outlet employed 13 of those listed by CPJ.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) claims that 105 journalists were killed in Gaza, but only lists 23 of them. Several worked for terrorist organizations’ media outlets, but those affiliations are not listed on the RSF website.

These include Hassouna Salim, the director of the Hamas propaganda arm Quds News; Mohamed Khalifeh, director at Hamas-affiliated Al-Aqsa TV; Abdallah Iyad Breis, the lead photographer for the Hamas Education Ministry’s TV channel; and others.

RSF reported that Yasser Mamdouh El-Fady was killed while “reporting on the presence of Israeli tanks near the Al-Nasser hospital in Khan Younis.” It does not mention that he worked for Islamic Jihad through its Kan’an news agency, which CPJ reported on its list.

CPJ says Ibrahim Mohammad Lafi was shot and killed at the Erez crossing, while RSF said that he was “one of the first reporters to venture out in Gaza on the morning of 7 October.” Other Gazan news photographers who documented Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israeli civilians have been accused of having foreknowledge of the attack.

Both organizations say that they only included journalists “killed in connection with their work or where there is still some doubt that their death was work-related,” according to CPJ. RSF also noted in a statement to JI that they list journalists “killed in the line of duty or for reasons related to work.”
Alleged Paul Kessler Killer Will Stand Trial
A judge ruled on May 15 that Moorpark resident Loay Alnaji, who faces charges of involuntary manslaughter and battery with serious bodily injury in the death of Jewish man Paul Kessler, will stand trial on the matter.

Alnaji, 51, was present at a pro-Palestinian rally in Thousand Oaks on Nov. 5 in which an altercation occurred, resulting in the 69-year-old Kessler, a pro-Israel counterprotester and Thousand Oaks resident, fell and hit the back of his head; Kessler later succumbed to his injuries. Alnaji, who was arrested nearly two weeks later, is accused of hitting Kessler in the head with a megaphone, which allegedly caused Kessler to fall. Special allegations of greater bodily injuries were added onto the manslaughter and battery charges. Alnaji has plead not guilty to all the charges and is currently out on $50,000 bail.

According to reports from the Thousand Oaks Acorn and Ventura County Star, the ruling came after preliminary hearings were held on May 14 and 15. Ventura County Sheriff’s Office Forensic Scientist Jeannine Aguirre testified that she found Kessler’s blood on the rim of the megaphone in question. Ventura County Assistant Chief Medical Examiner Othon Mena testified on May 15 that, in his opinion, abrasions on Kessler’s face were consistent with being struck with the megaphone’s rim and he believes that is ultimately what caused Kessler to fall. Mena is quoted in both the Acorn and the Star as saying that “being struck on the face caused him to fall” and that “there’s an event that occurs where he is struck in the head, and shortly after he falls. I cannot disconnect that event from having at minimum contributed to his falling.”

Alnaji’s attorney, Ron Bamieh, argued in court that Alnaji swung the megaphone at Kessler in self-defense, claiming that Kessler shoved a phone in Alnaji’s face and was recording him, and that Alnaji swung the megaphone in an attempt to keep the phone away from him; a sheriff’s deputy testified that Alnaji had also told her that he swung the megaphone toward Kessler’s phone and that it’s possible he hit Kessler’s hand. Bamieh further claimed that Kessler fell as a result of a medical condition; Mena did acknowledge that Kessler did have a benign brain tumor that might have affected his balance, but was steadfast in his belief that it was being hit in the face with a megaphone that caused Kessler to fall. Police officers testified that they spoke with a couple of witnesses who claimed they saw Alnaji swing at Kessler before Kessler fell. By contrast, Bamieh contended that video evidence shows that Alnaji was far enough away from Kessler at the time of his fall to show that he did not cause the fall and it was more likely a medical condition did. He also claimed that most witnesses were “confused” as to what they saw take place, per the Star.




Ruthie Blum: Sunflowers and bad news
Friday afternoon. Gordon Beach in Tel Aviv. Less crowded than last year at this time. Fewer tourists.

It’s the fault of the war. Airline cancellations and El Al price hikes didn’t help.

Still, rows of chaises with tanning nymphets are packed. So is the water. The Mediterranean is calm. No black flags warning of undertow. Kids splash around. Parents play paddle ball.

Tattooed waiters bustle back and forth, carrying trays with iced coffee and watermelon. Couples seated at low tables bury their feet in the sand, talking about nothing in particular.

A hang-glider flies overhead. It’s startling for a second—reminiscent of Hamas’s infiltration on Oct. 7.

My phone vibrates with an incoming message from my son. It’s a photo of a field of sunflowers in the Gaza envelope. He stopped to snap it on his way back to the front. Beauty before battle.

The Home Front Command app informs of incoming rockets in the south: Sderot, Nir Am and elsewhere. Then drones along the “confrontation line” separating Israel from Lebanon: Dalton, Rehaniya, Kerem Ben Zimra. Afterwards, Kadita in the Upper Galilee. Again, the confrontation line: Daphna, Kibbutz Dan, Hagoshrim, She’ar Yeshuv, Snir.

Katzrin in the southern Golan Heights and Ma’ayan Baruch on the confrontation line are also in the crosshairs. More barrages in the Upper Galilee—in Gadot and back to Katzrin. A repeat performance at the confrontation line: Misgav Am, Kiryat Shmona … the list of Hezbollah’s targets goes on.

But no sirens here in Tel Aviv. It’s been more than two months since the last time the White City was hit with Hamas projectiles, forcing residents to run for cover.
The myth of ‘the Muslim vote’
Last week, TMV took to X to issue a list of 18 ‘demands’ Starmer must fulfil in order to supposedly win back Muslim voters. This included adopting an alternate definition of Islamophobia, cooked up by the All-Party Parliamentary Group on British Muslims, that would classify so-called Islamophobia as a form of racism. This could easily be used to shut down any kind of criticism of Islam or individual Muslims and severely limit freedom of speech.

Another TMV demand is ensuring that all Muslim pupils are allowed to pray in school. This is clearly a response to Katharine Birbalsingh’s controversial ‘prayer ban’, which she introduced at her strictly secular Michaela Community School in north-west London. Birbalsingh brought in the ban for the sake of community cohesion, to stop children of all faiths and none segregating along ethno-religious lines. But identitarian campaigners are trying to dishonestly portray it as an assault on Muslims in particular.

Even more bizarrely, TMV demands that Starmer ensures that car insurance ‘doesn’t cost more for someone called “Muhammad”’. This is pure nonsense. Yes, insurance costs more, on average, for British Muslims. But only because of the community’s relatively youthful population, which is disproportionately located in denser, inner-city areas. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that these two factors are strongly associated with a higher incidence of road accidents, and therefore irritatingly higher insurance quotes.

All of this ignores the things that would actually garner support among British Muslims. We know that Muslims tend to favour many of the same things that non-Muslim voters do: political stability, community values and ample opportunity for upward social mobility. If Labour wants to attract Muslims, or any group for that matter, it should focus on these fundamentals. The average British Muslim cares far more about small-business regulation and access to NHS services than he does about whether Israel participates in Eurovision or what exactly is meant by ‘Islamophobia’.

The truth is that a back-to-basics brand of politics is seen as boring for most MPs and local councillors now. They would much rather play-act as pro-Palestine freedom fighters than address the issues voters actually face.

British Muslims are not a monolithic bloc. The so-called Muslim community is made up of a diverse array of ethnicities, political persuasions and religious beliefs. They certainly do not need a group as divisive as The Muslim Vote to speak on their behalf.
Seth Mandel: Anti-Zionists Come for Amazon
In fact, much of this seems to have stemmed from resentment over a Black Lives Matter-related controversy. In 2020, a month after George Floyd’s killing, a Google web director emailed an apology to the Jewish Google employees’ list—called, yes, the Jewglers—for the company’s donation to the Movement for Black Lives. M4BL, as it is known, had drafted its political platform a few years earlier and included a sharp bit of Holocaust inversion—accusing the Jewish state of being genocidal. Left-wing Jewish groups were appalled at the gratuitous lie about Israel being part of a foundational document for a coalition for blacks’ rights.

Koren was furious that Google would violate a basic tenet of so-called “woke capitalism,” that you never apologize for making people uncomfortable so long as the people made uncomfortable are outside the ideological circle of trust. You don’t apologize to Jews for anti-Semitism; “white-adjacent” communities are supposed to be made uncomfortable. That’s what justice means to activists like Koren.

Koren’s compatriots at Google have set up a website that hosts Google employees’ complaints about the company’s friendly posture toward Israelis. It becomes very clear very quickly that worries about supposed surveillance are the farthest thing from their minds. Of Israel, one “anonymous Palestinian googler” says “this entity is known to exist solely due to the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians” (emphasis added). Moreover, the Jews are responsible for racial strife all over the world, according to this employee: “Its fatal tactics that are tested on Palestinians are then used on Black and Brown folks here in the US. Therefore, by building tools for the Israeli military and investing in the further development of their weaponry and surveillance tactics, Google is also indirectly strengthening the testing grounds for bringing fatal policing tactics here to the US, impacting our Black and Brown brothers and sisters.”

Another: “It is clear Google doesn’t care about antisemitism when it comes to truly protecting religious and ethnic minorities from the threats of the rise in white Christian nationalism.” The site gives a prominent link to an organizing page for the “No Tech for Apartheid” campaign, which is hosted by Linda Sarsour’s organization MPower Change.

Whatever this is, it’s not a serious discussion about technology and surveillance. And it isn’t some noble effort to protect democracy from powerful corporations. It’s a crusade against Israel’s existence. And it’s not just on campus. The battlefield has moved to the shareholders meetings at the world’s biggest companies.
Douglas Murray: Anti-Israel aren't really scared of COVID — they're hiding shame of their prejudice
Perhaps it is because they are professional agitators — drafted in by a range of left-wing “grass-roots” organizations to cause trouble. That is certainly what many people — including the police — believe.

Perhaps these people want to cover their faces because the media in this country might just notice that the same professional revolutionaries tend to turn up wherever there is trouble, almost as if they are paid to do so.

Presumably they want to keep their identities hidden as much as possible.

But what about the students at Columbia and elsewhere who want to sit in their tents and “bravely” protest about something they don’t know anything about?

Maybe, just maybe, they too are not actually afraid of COVID. What they are afraid of are the opinions they are espousing.

Because they know, at some level, that bullying other students and shrieking about things they don’t know about is not a good look. They want to intimidate people, but they never want to be intimidated themselves.

So I have a suggestion. At all future protests in New York State let’s have a masks off policy.

The KKK was the last organization in America that was so proud of their beliefs that their members covered their faces during protests.

Now “Students for Jihad” are doing the same job. For strangely similar reasons.

So let’s demand they take the hoods off too.

Sorry — I meant masks.

Shame of a canceled commencement
Talking of Columbia, yesterday morning I was invited to give an “alternative” Commencement address to students who have completed their studies.

Since the leadership at Columbia had canceled their official graduation ceremony, a number of faculty and student leaders arranged an alternative event for students and their families.

Attendees at the event in the city included students who had served in the US military, Jewish students, Christian students and conservative students. All from a bewildering variety of backgrounds.

We also heard from one of the students who had protected their campus when student radicals were trying to trash it earlier this year.

It was a great honor to speak with them all. And a great pleasure to give them a few words of advice as they set off on what I’m sure will be great and adventurous careers.

But what an indictment that students at Columbia who can actually think have to organize a graduation for themselves.
Eurovision handed Israel the win
Israel finished fifth overall in the 2024 Eurovision Song Contest. That surprise finish was widely celebrated by Israelis as a great success. In fact, it was a success greater than they realized.

The European public’s vote for a singer was a protest vote against the anti-Israel narrative of the elites and the antisemitic demonstrations marching through Europe’s cities by those celebrating Hamas.

“In a competition invaded by politics, the European public decided to respond and reject the clear bias and anti-Israel trend by supporting massively the Israeli candidate Eden Golan,” Daniel Shadmy, spokesperson of ELNET-Israel, a group dedicated to strengthening Europe-Israel relations, told JNS.

“After the judges of the competition snubbed the Israeli candidate, the European public voted with a loud and clear voice and put Israel as their second favorite song of the whole competition. Israel got top scores from 14 countries, this year’s record,” Shadmy said.

Israel actually won a 15th “country.” A new category, “Rest of the World,” includes voters from countries that aren’t participating in the contest.

Among countries whose public voted Israel into the top spot were the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Sweden, Holland, Switzerland, Portugal and Italy.

The Irish public, considered among the most hostile to Israel (although perhaps that assumption should be revisited), put Israel in a respectable second place, giving it 10 votes.

“It is noteworthy that countries that were very critical of Israel, both politically and during the competition itself, such as Belgium and Spain, were among those whose public gave the most points to Israel in a clear message of protest,” Shadmy said.
Watching Eurovision for first time as ‘patriotic duty’
Sheri Tehrani watched Eurovision for the first time this year and voted twice—on the first and the final nights.

The resident of Niagara Falls, Canada, who is neither Jewish nor Israeli, saw the 2024 Eurovision as “more than just a song contest.”

“This year, because of Oct. 7, there are more ways to support Israel,” she told JNS. “Eden Golan was representing Israel and the Jewish people in a time when so many stand against them and want their annihilation.”

“Just as the pro-Palestinians came in by the bus loads to cause chaos throughout the city and try to bring Eden’s spirits down, we had to vote for her and show her our full support,” Tehrani added. “To show Israel that we stand behind her.”

Israel’s representative for the recent Eurovision Song Contest, Golan, 20, was not only a performer or singer to many but also an emblem of resilience, mettle and courage. That was particularly the case given the harsh antisemitism that she faced in Malmö, Sweden, last week at the event, which drew some 12,000 anti-Israel protesters, including environmental activist Greta Thunberg.

Critics threatened a boycott, and a hostile, pro-Hamas group confined the Israeli singer to her hotel. Golan, who was protected by Israeli security teams and, at one point, by a convoy of some 100 Swedish police officers and by a police helicopter. She still managed to place fifth in the jury vote and was runner-up in the public vote in the contest in which Israel has participated since 1973 and which it has won four times.

“It brought tears to my eyes,” Tehrani, who works in the fraud department at a bank, said of the jeers that Golan faced.

“Watching her get booed just for being Jewish and Israeli made me so sad,” she told JNS. “Eden represents the right for the existence of the Jewish state of Israel. She represents 3,000 years of history. She represents the right to a homeland.”

Golan’s song “Hurricane” gave “a voice to those held hostage and those who have friends and families who are still held hostage,” Tehrani said. “It gave a voice to a nation rising from a brutal attack.”
Russia Is Again Using Anti-Semitism as a Weapon
On March 22, a terrorist attack at a concert venue outside of Moscow left over 140 people dead. Islamic State (IS) swiftly emerged as the most likely culprit, while Vladimir Putin and his supporters immediately tried to blame Ukraine. But that is not the only direction in which the Kremlin and its allies pointed their fingers. Izabella Tabarovsky writes:
Aleksandr Dugin, the influential Russian ultranationalist ideologue, wrote on his Telegram channel that the real culprit was not IS, which had taken responsibility, but “the Zionists.” The attack could have been “Zionists’ revenge” for Russia’s position on Gaza, he wrote, urging his 61,000 followers to look for the fingerprints of the Mossad, whose “close relations with IS” are supposedly well-known.

The myth of the Mossad joining hands with IS has been around for as long as IS—and the notion that Jews were to blame for the Crocus City attack popped up on conspiracy theorist sites worldwide almost immediately. In this sense, Dugin’s remark did not reveal anything original. What it did do was confirm that anti-Semitic conspiracy theory is an inextricable part of Russian public discourse. What’s more, anti-Semitic speech is now an integral part of Russia’s domestic and global messaging.

One way this expresses itself is in incessant defamatory references to the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky’s Jewish identity, which are not only acceptable, but practically de rigueur among Russian political and media elites.

In this way, writes Tabarovsky, Russia is acting much like its Soviet predecessor, and like its allies Iran and China.
U.N.: Hamas Steals Aid and We Think We Negotiated to Get It All Back, ‘Very Serious’ Security Concerns About Pier
On Thursday’s “PBS NewsHour,” outgoing U.N. Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths stated that there are “very serious” security concerns about the aid pier in Gaza and that Hamas has stolen aid and when they do, “we have negotiated to get that aid back. And, as far as I’m aware, in all cases, that has succeeded.”

“NewsHour” Foreign Affairs and Defense Correspondent Nick Schifrin asked, “There are also security concerns about the pier. U.N. officials who’ve been working to prepare the pier had to take cover when the area came under fire. How serious, from your perspective, are the security concerns for the U.N., for the World Food Program, who’s going to be part of this?”

Griffiths responded, “I think they’re very serious. For the moment, the risk level is one that we can go with on the basis that no aid is coming in the other areas. So, we’re looking at being able to fulfill our task of distribution internally and hoping that we can get the right people to help us on the beach to get aid to the World Food Program.”

Later, Schifrin asked, “There have been occasions where Hamas has diverted or stolen the aid. How do you prevent that from happening?”

Griffiths responded, “Where that’s happened, we have negotiated to get that aid back. And, as far as I’m aware, in all cases, that has succeeded. We need to get all deliveries safely delivered. Aid is going in through the north, as you know, Nick, through Erez. I think 54 trucks got in there yesterday.”


Young Iranian Jewish man facing imminent execution - report
A 20-year-old Jewish man is scheduled to be executed by Iranian authorities on Saturday, according to Iranian media reports.

The young man has been sentenced to death following his involvement in a fatal altercation with a local non-Jewish Iranian.

According to the reports, the man was arrested by local police after the fight, during which the non-Jewish Iranian was killed.

Despite attempts by the man's family to resolve the situation under Iranian law—which allows the family of the victim to accept compensation and spare the accused from execution—the family of the deceased has refused to accept any payment and is insisting on the death penalty.

Efforts by lawyers and officials within the Iranian-Jewish community in the United States to persuade the victim's family to accept the compensation have so far been unsuccessful.

The Jewish man's family has appealed to the public for prayers, asking for support and intervention to save the man's life.


Yisrael Medad: A century of Arab rejectionism is reason for no two-states
Anti-Jewish violence before State of Israel
Anti-Jewish violence and terror by Arabs were a constant element that doomed the two-state solution.

The April 1920 riots in Jerusalem were partially responsible for the separation of Transjordan from the area of the Jewish national home. In 1922, the League of Nations withheld the application of the Mandate’s provisions east of the Jordan River following the riots of May 1921 in Jaffa, Hadera, Kfar Saba and Petah Tikva.

In the year following the outbreak of what became a three-year terror campaign, during which over 500 Jews were murdered, the British came up with the 1937 Partition Plan. It went through various versions but all were rejected by the Arabs. That situation brought about the 1939 White Paper that reneged on the Peel Commission’s idea of partitioning Palestine and calling only for the establishment of a Jewish national home in an independent Palestinian state within 10 years. Yet, in June 1939, mufti Mohammed Amin al-Husseini turned even that White Paper down.

The United Nations, after deliberations, proposed the November 1947 partition scheme. Once more, the leadership of the Mandate’s local Arab community followed the mufti’s diktat, and once again rejected any compromise that would facilitate Jewish political sovereignty on any of the Mandate’s territory.

Following Israel’s victory in 1967, the government convened on June 19, 1967. The resolution, unanimously adopted, offered Egypt and Syria peace treaties with security assurances for Israel and implied a willingness to withdraw from the Golan Heights and the Sinai Peninsula in exchange for peace. Only Jerusalem was to be claimed.

The Arab rejection came on August 1 that year, at the Arab League’s Summit when it adopted the “Three No’s” resolution: No to peace with Israel, no recognition of Israel, and no negotiations with Israel.

All other plans and proposals such as those of Moshe Dayan, Yigal Allon, Menachem Begin, and the Oslo Accords similarly and consistently floundered on the bedrock of rejectionism. Moreover, there appears to be an authoritarianism in pro-Palestine rhetoric restricting the ability of those Arabs who assert themselves as Palestinians and that of their international supporters, to exit this paradigm of rejectionism. They are stuck in rejectionist rut.

A century of conflict would seem to prove that there is no two-state solution and that it would be a dangerous option to pursue.
Israeli Cabinet rejects UN Palestinian statehood resolution
The Israeli government on Wednesday unanimously approved a proposal to oppose a U.N. resolution promoting recognition of a Palestinian state.

“No reward will be given for the terrible massacre of Oct. 7, which 80% of the Palestinians, both in the West Bank and in Gaza, support,” said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who initiated the proposal. “We will not allow them to establish a terrorist state from which they can attack us even more,” he added.

“No one will prevent us, Israel, from exercising our basic right to defend ourselves—not the U.N. General Assembly and not any other entity. We will stand together with our heads held high to defend our country,” he added.

The Cabinet approved three statements, signaling to the United Nations that it will not consider any resolution on the matter binding.

First, to “Reject the decision of the United Nations General Assembly of May 10, 2024 to upgrade the status of the Palestinian Authority and give it additional powers that are usually reserved for the member states of the United Nations.”

Second, “To state that the aforementioned decision does not change the status of the disputed areas, does not confer any rights, and does not detract from any rights of the State of Israel and the Jewish people in the Land of Israel.”

Finally, “To state that the aforementioned decision will not form a basis for future negotiations and has no purpose in promoting a peaceful solution.”
Yisrael Medad: The return of the ‘dhimmi’
According to WikiIslam, a “pact of protection” exists in Islamic society, termed a dhimma, which includes social rights, responsibilities and restrictions that are awarded those who merit the status of being a dhimmi. Those who qualify for dhimmi status within the Muslim society are free (i.e., non-slave) Christians, Jews and Zoroastrians as per orthodox Islamic law (Sharia).

In Understanding Dhimmitude, the Egyptian-born Bat-Yeor outlines the dhimmi condition in the legal domain, which includes an Islamic notion of protection as well as toleration; in the economic domain, where there is a tax involved (jizya); and in the social domain with the notion of vilification.

Maligned as a conspiracy theorist and an alarmist with some critics attempting to draw parallels to antisemitic conspiracies, especially after the publication of her Eurarabia, the idea that Jews cannot be free and independent in their national homeland—one even the Quran admits is their intended, at Sura 17:104: “And We said after him [i.e., Pharaoh] to the Children of Israel, ‘Dwell in the land, and when there comes the promise [i.e., appointment] of the Hereafter, We will bring you forth in [one] gathering’”—has burst forth in fury these past few months. That it appears that Jews are involved in the funding of much of the agitation in their posing as progressives is, perhaps, a sign of the return of the dhimmi.

At this time, however, their self-abnegation to an ideology that would seek the elimination—at least in the first stage, of their religious, cultural, national and historical identity combined with their presumed superior superciliousness, expressed with utter disdain towards those they berate as Zionists, is absolutely astounding in its shallowness.
Yisrael Medad: The Jewish Cordoba
I have blogged multiple times here on what I see as a parallel between the conflict between Catholics and Moslems over the Cordoba Cathedral and that of Jews and Moslems at the Temple Mount.

In short, I ask why can Moslems demand equal rights to a church, including prayer therein, that Moslems occupied and turned into a mosque after conquering Spain and then following the Reconquista, they were prohibited from doing so yet, when Jews retook the Temple Mount where Moslems had built an Islamic compound after conquering and occupying Judea, Jews demanding equal prayers rights and additional privileges are somehow in the wrong.

And now what do I read?

Medieval synagogue discovered under Spanish church
Remnants of a medieval synagogue were discovered during restoration of altarpiece in Santa Maria la Blanca church in Seville. Archeologists performing restoration work on the apse and altarpiece of the Santa Maria la Blanca church in Seville, Spain, have uncovered the remnants of a medieval synagogue Ark.

I checked here:
Santa María la Blanca is the only church in Seville which has the remains of three religions. Formerly a mosque, it was made a synagogue on the orders of King Alfonso X in 1252, and was then consecrated as a Christian temple in 1391
The Guardian: ‘Israelis, go back to Europe’? Some on the left need to rethink their slogans
Though not a prevalent catchphrase in the student demonstrations, the slogan “Jews/Israelis go back to Europe” has garnered national, and even international, attention. This phrase, like the much more popular phrase “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” is troubling because it attempts to negate the existence of the Jewish state of Israel. The “Go back to Europe” chant also ignores the fact that the majority of Israelis today don’t come from European backgrounds.

Another slogan heard at rallies calls for ending the “75-year occupation”, pointing not to the occupation of the West Bank or Gaza, which dates back to 1967, but rather to the date when Israel was founded as a modern nation.

Rightly so, the protesters have dived into learning about the Palestinian cause and struggle, but from an extremely selective vantage point. At the same time, too many willingly refuse to know any facts about either Israel’s past or present.

This week, Israel actually marks its 76th Independence Day. The holiday this year is filled with anger and grief inside Israel, as could be imagined. The nation is intensely divided. The hatred toward the government is fierce and overwhelming. But one thing is irrevocably true: the country of Israel exists. It is not disappearing.

History can be interpretative, but facts can’t. Here are some facts.

Today, 45% of the world’s Jewish people live in Israel, with a similar amount in the United States, and smatterings across other countries in Europe (including the former Soviet Union), Canada, Latin America, Australia and South Africa.

Of Israeli Jews alive today, 80% were born in Israel. A majority of Israel’s Jews are not descended from Europe but rather from Arab nations, including from the parcel of land known today as modern Israel. Known as Mizrachim in Hebrew, they hail from Iraq, Iran, Morocco, Yemen, Egypt, Tunisia, Syria and Algeria, as well as from the Asian ccaucasus region of the former Soviet Union. Those Israelis who are Ashkenazi, the Israeli term for Jews of European descent, are increasingly the minority inside Israel. There are, additionally, a small percentage of Jewish people from Ethiopia, and even a nominal number from India. And, while small in number, there are Jews in Israel who are descended from families that lived in the region under Ottoman rule, and centuries before that.
Think Tank Draws on Free Beacon Reporting To Expose Liberal Donor's CCP Influence Operation
Neville Singham, a wealthy left-wing American activist who lives in China, abuses federal tax laws to "stoke unrest at the grassroots level," according to a new report from a liberal-leaning national security group.

Through his charity, the Singham Network, Singham "exploits regulatory loopholes in the U.S. nonprofit system to facilitate the flow of an enormous sum of U.S. dollars" to left-wing agitators as part of Chinese Communist Party influence networks, the 50-page report from the Network Contagion Research Institute states. Those nonprofits, the report says, "can be better understood as a well-funded initiative driving a revolutionary, anti-government, and anti-capitalist agenda."

Singham has largely avoided the scrutiny of his wealthy left-wing counterparts, including Pierre Omidyar and George Soros. But Singham, as the report notes, has quietly cultivated a massive network of nonprofits with tens of millions of dollars in funding to destabilize American institutions.

"[Singham’s charities have] effectively exploited the U.S. non-profit system and institutions that are afforded democratic protections to propagate anti-democratic ideologies and disrupt societal norms," the report reads.

The report cites two Washington Free Beacon reports on one of Singham’s nonprofits, the People’s Forum. The group, which describes itself as "a movement incubator for working class and marginalized communities," was a leading force behind the illegal occupation of Columbia University’s Hamilton Hall.

Police later said more than 25 percent of those arrested at the university were not students. Hours before protesters stormed the campus, the People’s Forum’s executive director encouraged attendees at an organizer meeting to "recreate" the riots of "the summer of 2020."

"The People’s Forum … serve[s] as the conduit through which CCP-affiliated entities have effectively co-opted pro-Palestinian activism in the U.S., advancing a broader anti-American, anti-democratic, and anti-capitalist agenda," the Network Contagion report reads.

Singham is the lead donor to the People’s Forum, having donated $12 million to the group through the Goldman Sachs Philanthropy Fund in 2019. Democratic Rep. Ritchie Torres (N.Y.) demanded the bank "cut ties" with the People’s Forum in January.
William Jacobson: It's Time to Defund Universities that Promote Antisemitism | Top Story

Cleric Linked to Prominent Michigan Dems Accuses Pro-Israel Lawmakers of ‘Treason'
An imam linked to prominent Michigan Democrats like Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Rep. Rashida Tlaib said in a sermon this month that pro-Israel members of Congress were "stooges" of the Jewish state who should be charged with "treason."

On May 3, Hassan Qazwini, the imam of the Islamic Institute of America, railed against lawmakers who days earlier voted for the Anti-Semitism Awareness Act. The measure, which passed with a vote of 320-91, would require the Department of Education to adopt a widely accepted definition of anti-Semitism for investigations into anti-Semitic incidents on college campuses.

"If there was justice in this country, those congressmen and women would be indicted and convicted of treason," said the Iraq-born Qazwini, whose remarks were first reported by the Middle Eastern Media Research Institute. He asserted lawmakers who voted for the bill "do not work for the interest of the United States, rather for the interests of a foreign country."

"Nothing but stooges of Israel," he said.

Two months before the fiery sermon, Tlaib and Dearborn mayor Abdullah Hammoud, a rising star in the anti-Israel movement, attended a fundraiser with Qazwini for the Islamic Institute of America, based in Dearborn Heights. Qazwini honored Tlaib and Hammoud at the banquet for their "courage and outspokenness against American biases towards Israel." The trio posed for a photo at the ceremony, attended by a number of Dearborn city officials and Arab-American community leaders.

Whitmer, considered a potential Democratic presidential candidate, appeared at a fundraiser for the mosque in 2022 and was photographed with Qazwini.
Spain denies port of call to ship carrying arms to Israel
Spain refused permission for a ship carrying arms to Israel to dock at a Spanish port, Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares said on Thursday.

“This is the first time we have done this because it is the first time we have detected a ship carrying a shipment of arms to Israel that wants to call at a Spanish port,” he told reporters in Brussels.

“This will be a consistent policy with any ship carrying arms to Israel that wants to call at Spanish ports. The foreign ministry will systematically reject such stopovers for one obvious reason. The Middle East does not need more weapons, it needs more peace,” he added.

The Spanish minister did not provide details on the ship but Transport Minister Oscar Puente said it was the Marianne Danica that had requested permission to call at the southeastern port of Cartagena on May 21.

El Pais newspaper said the Danish-flagged ship was carrying 27 tons of explosive material from Madras in India to the port of Haifa in Israel.

The announcement that permission had been denied comes amid a row between Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s Socialists and his coalition partners, the hard-left Sumar party, over another ship, the Borkum, which is due to dock in Cartagena on Friday.


Don’t buy Rashida Tlaib & Co.’s lie: ‘From the river to the sea’ has always meant erasing Israel
In English, protesters call for Palestine to be free.

But when their chants shift to Arabic, they often call for the whole of Palestine to be Arab — an explicit call to dismantle the Jewish state and dispossess its people.

A video from February shows a crowd gathered on the steps of Harvard’s venerable Widener Library.

A woman with a bullhorn is teaching the group to chant, “Min al-mayah lil-mayah, Falastin arabiyah!”

The literal translation of that: “From the water [the River Jordan] to the water [the Mediterranean], Palestine is Arab!”

At MIT last week, another bullhorn-wielding protester led the crowd in exactly the same chant, then improvised a new ending: “Al-mawt la-sahyuniyah!”— “Death to Zionism!”

There is a campaign afoot to persuade Americans that “From the river to the sea” is not a call to erase Israel from the map.

Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D), the Palestinian-American from Michigan, called the slogan “an aspirational call for freedom, human rights and peaceful coexistence.”

The Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee likewise insists it’s “a demand for democratic coexistence between Jews and Arabs.”

This is a willful distortion of history, which shows that the animating purpose of the slogan is to reject Jewish control of any sliver of land between the Jordan and the Mediterranean.

The phrase has its origins in early the days of the Palestinian national movement in the 1960s, though early examples of its usage remain elusive.

In 1980, Yasser Arafat declared, “The victorious march will continue until the flag of Palestine is raised above Jerusalem and above the whole area of Palestine from the River to the Sea.”


Sally Rooney, Naomi Klein join calls threaten to boycott literary festivals over links to Israel
Over 200 writers have threatened to boycott literary festivals across the UK unless the investment firm which sponsors them divests from Israel and fossil fuels.

Authors including novelist Sally Rooney, social campaigner Naomi Klein, journalist George Monbiot and writer Robert Macfarlane, have signed a statement by Fossil Free Books (FFB) which demands asset management firm Baillie Gifford withdraws all investment from Israel.

The group is calling on Baillie Gifford to divest “from companies that profit from Israeli apartheid, occupation and genocide”, and says it believes that “solidarity with Palestine and climate justice are inextricably linked”.

Baillie Gifford sponsors the UK’s most prestigious nonfiction accolade, the Baillie Gifford Prize for Nonfiction, as well as the Hay Festival, Cheltenham Literature Festival and Edinburgh International Book Festival.

The writers say that literary organisations that accept sponsorship from Baillie Gifford “can expect escalation, including the expansion of boycotts, increased author withdrawal of labour, and increased disruption until Baillie Gifford divests”.

The letter says that Baillie Gifford has “Nearly £10 billion invested in companies with direct or indirect links to Israel’s defence, tech and cyber-security industries.”

It added, “A literary industry free from fossil fuels, genocide and colonial violence is possible and it is necessary.”
FIFA Delays Decision About Suspending Israel Until Legal Assessment Is Complete
Efforts by the Palestinian Football Association (PFA) to have Israelis banned from all international matches due to the ongoing Israel-Hamas war are on pause after the FIFA Council decided not to address the issue at the 74th FIFA Congress in Bangkok, Thailand, on Friday.

Speaking to the 211 member federations that gathered at the congress, FIFA President Gianni Infantino said the FIFA Council unanimously agreed earlier this week that it will make a decision on the matter following a legal assessment. The congress supported the council’s decision, and a vote regarding Israel’s suspension did not take place at the meeting on Friday.

“Football should not and should never become a hostage for politics and always remain a vector for peace, a source of hope, a force of good, uniting people rather than dividing,” Infantino said. “This legal assessment will have to allow for inputs and claims of both member associations. The results of this analysis and the recommendations which will follow from this analysis will subsequently be forwarded to the FIFA Council.”

PFA submitted a proposal to FIFA in March that called on the governing body to suspend Israel from all international competitions. It called for “appropriate sanctions, with immediate effect, against Israeli teams,” citing alleged “international law violations committed by the Israeli occupation in Palestine, particularly in Gaza.” The motion also accused the Israel Football Association (IFA) of “providing moral, economic, and practical support to the occupation” of Palestinian territories. The proposal was endorsed on Thursday by the Asian Football Confederation at the 34th AFC Congress and PFA wanted the FIFA Congress to vote on the issue on Friday.

Infantino said FIFA’s governing council will instead “mandate independent legal expertise to analyze and assess” PFA’s allegations about Israel, and hold a special council before July 20 “to review the results of the legal assessment and to take the decisions that are appropriate.”
Asian Football Confederation Backs Proposal to Suspend Israel From FIFA Amid War in Gaza
Asia’s governing body for soccer on Thursday announced its support for a proposal by the Palestine Football Association (PFA) to suspend Israel from FIFA due to its military campaign targeting Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip.

Asian Football Confederation (AFC) President Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa made the announcement at the 34th AFC Congress in Bangkok, Thailand.

“The AFC is only as strong as its members and when one suffers, all its other members are affected,” Salman told delegates. “The AFC stands together with the Palestine FA, and we join them in seeking effective football-related solutions to the grievances raised by the Palestine FA in their proposal.”

AFC’s 47-member Congress includes Australia, Jordan, Lebanon, Uzbekistan, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar. FIFA President Gianni Infantino also attended the gathering on Thursday.

“We, as a football community and as a governing body of the most popular sport in the world, have a statutory commitment to uphold the FIFA and AFC objectives and take appropriate steps to prevent infringements of FIFA and AFC statutes and regulations,” Salman added. “It is our duty to support the Palestine FA for a swift and effective resolution in line with the rules, regulations, and statutes of the AFC and FIFA.”

AFC’s president additionally said the governing body is committed to standing in “solidarity and unity” with the PFA. “There is potential for us to play a dynamic role in standing up for human rights, including within our own sphere of operations,” he said.
Amsterdam Music Hall Restores Israeli Concert With ‘Tightened’ Security Following Outcry Over ‘Shameful’ Cancellation
Amsterdam’s famed music hall the Concertgebouw has reversed its decision from earlier this week to cancel performances by the Israeli group Jerusalem Quartet amid concerns about anti-Israel protests taking place at the venue and around the city.

The Jerusalem Quartet was originally scheduled to perform at the Concertgebouw on Thursday and Saturday. The first show was cancelled, but Saturday’s show will take place inside the venue’s Recital Hall with “tightened security measures, adjusted visitor flow, and an adjusted start time,” the concert hall announced on Thursday. The in-person concert is sold out but will be available via livestream on the Concertgebouw’s website.

“The earlier decision to reschedule the planned concerts has been met with understanding as well as disapproval,” the Concertgebouw acknowledged, after organizers were called “cowards” and accused of capitulating to “bullying and terrorism” for its “shameful” decision on Tuesday to cancel performances by the Jerusalem Quartet.

“Every concert must be able to go ahead,” said the venue’s General Manager, Simon Reinink. “The Concertgebouw fully supports its mission to connect and enrich everyone with sublime music, regardless of background, religion, culture, or any distinction. We must continue to stand up for the free society we want to be. Every day.”

The Concertgebouw originally cancelled the Jerusalem Quartet’s two concerts because it said it could not guarantee the safety of the venue’s employees, visitors, and musicians while multiple anti-Israel demonstrations were set to take place in the area. Reinink said social media users also urged the public to demonstrate at the Concertgebouw and the music hall received “a flood of messages” from people who opposed the Jerusalem Quartet’s appearance at the venue, likely due to the Israel-Hamas war.

On Thursday, the venue further elaborated on its original decision to cancel the shows.

“A particular factor was that concerts were scheduled simultaneously in the Main Hall and Recital Hall; with so many visitors, the security situation could have become precarious if disturbances had occurred,” said the Concertgebouw. “The recent demonstrations in and around the University of Amsterdam were the direct and only reason to take this decision. The Concertgebouw felt the risk was too great. This decision was taken solely on the basis of our concerns for the safety of all those involved. With the extra security measures now in place, and changes to the start time and visitor flow, we are able to let the concert on May 18 go ahead.”
Stockholm Syndrome: Outgoing Cornell President Expresses “Gratitude” To Anti-Israel Encampment Protesters
It related to an absolutely stunning (in a bad way) statement issued by Pollack on May 14, 2024, gaslighting the community about the anti-Israel encampment and the nature of the campus protests and hooliganism that have gone on since October 7. The entire statement was demeaning and insulting, except to the anti-Israel protesters. They were praised and “gratitude” was expressed that the encampment didn’t get violent. The statement read in part:
Last evening, the Coalition for Mutual Liberation (CML) voluntarily took down their encampment on the Arts Quad. While I do not condone the encampment, which was in clear violation of university policies, I want to acknowledge and express gratitude that in contrast to what has taken place at some other universities, the participants here remained peaceful and nonviolent throughout, and for the most part they tried to minimize the disruption caused. With this in mind, and provided no further violations of university policy occur, we are able to pause on issuing additional suspensions and disciplinary referrals. We will also promptly and carefully review all existing cases in accordance with our procedures for resolution and adjudication. Should there be repeat or new violations, additional sanctions will be issued, though I am very hopeful this will not be necessary….

The participants in the encampment shared that members of our Jewish community who have criticized Israel have been targeted with the slur “kapo,” which not only is deeply offensive, but also trivializes the memory of the Holocaust. Other students involved in the encampment shared experiences of being called “terrorists” over the past few months in an expression of anti-Arab discrimination and hatred. No matter one’s political beliefs, using such rhetoric, which questions the basis of someone’s religious, cultural, ancestral, or any form of identity is unacceptable, and I implore everyone in our community to think carefully about their words.

This was an inversion of reality and in many respects just flat out not true. The anti-Israel perpetrators were portrayed as the victims, and the campus victims who had to put up with seven months of abuse were portrayed at the problem.
RI Judge Issues ‘Not Guilty’ Verdict for Anti-Israel Student Activists Arrested at Brown University in December
A judge in Providence, Rhode Island, has just released more than 40 Brown University students who were arrested in December for trespassing in a campus building. The school did not drop the charges against them, but the judge gave them a free pass.

I’m sure the students will learn a lot from this experience. Also, our justice system treats everyone completely equal under the law, so stop asking questions about it.

The Public’s Radio reported:
Judge issues not guilty filing for 41 Brown University student protesters

A Providence judge has issued a not guilty filing for 41 Brown University pro-Palestinian protestors who were arrested for trespassing last semester.

Judge Nicholas Parrillo said he was going against the objections of the city of Providence and Brown University in issuing the not guilty filing to the protestors because none of them had a criminal record, and because he said he thinks they held a respectful protest.

“I think this is a reflection of what nonviolent and peaceful resistance, frankly, is supposed to look like,” he said.

A not guilty filing means that the students will have to stay out of legal trouble for the next six months. If they do that, the charges against them will be completely cleared after that period of time. An attorney for the students told them it was significant.

The university did not respond to a request for comment by deadline.

Oxford students who raised concerns about anti-Semitism ‘told to leave’
Students who have raised concerns over anti-Semitism at Oxford University have been told they should leave, a letter from staff and students claims. The letter, sent to Prof Irene Tracey, the university’s vice-chancellor, as well as deans and proctors, claims that there has been a lack of aid and sympathy for Jews, who face harassment and a hostile environment on campus.

The letter, whose signatories wish to remain anonymous, also accused the university of promoting “conspiratorial narratives”, as well as failure in reporting procedures in the past seven months.

They claim the university is becoming a “no-go area” for Jews and Israelis and that when some individuals raised concerns to their heads of programmes, they were “simply advised to leave Oxford”.

The letter, seen by The Telegraph, states: “We have felt isolated, unsafe, targeted, stressed, disappointed, angry and hopeless. Many of us have faced all manners of anti-Semitic slurs.”

It also details a list of 70 incidents that are alleged to have occurred since the Hamas terrorist attacks on Israel on Oct 7.

The letter says a group of students told a Jewish student that “the Jews control the American government”, “Jews are everywhere”, and that they had “a Jewish nose”.

In another incident, the signatories said: “In vigils for the [Israeli] hostages, university members, mainly students, shouted at us, told us we are kid murderers, that we are spreading conspiracy theories and ‘Zionist propaganda’, and they vandalised our displays for the hostages. In fact, almost every time we did such a display, it was vandalised by organised groups from the university.”
Oxford students invite terrorist sympathisers as ‘special guests’
A pro-Palestine group at Oxford University invited a Hamas sympathiser and terror-supporting doctor to speak at a press conference and rally on campus yesterday.

The student-led group Oxford Action for Palestine (OA4P) posted a flyer to its Instagram page on Wednesday notifying students about an “emergency rally and press conference” at 6pm on 16 May featuring special guests Dr Ghassan Abu-Sittah, a British-Palestinian surgeon, and Dr Tamim Al-Barghouti, a Palestinian-Egyptian poet, outside the Clarendon Building on campus, which houses the offices of the Proctor and Vice Chancellor.

Abu-Sittah, who was elected rector of Glasgow University in March, attracted criticism for previously delivering a tearful eulogy at a memorial event for Maher Al-Yamani, a terror group leader whose organisation was later involved in the October 7 attacks.

The JC has also revealed that in a 2018 a newspaper article, Abu-Sittah praised several terrorists who organised the murder of Israeli civilians, and the doctor was pictured in 2019 sitting beside notorious terrorist hijacker Leila Khaled at a memorial for a leader of terror group Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).

However, Abu-Sittah’s lawyers told the JC at the time that Al-Yamami was one of their client’s patients and they later became personal friends when the surgeon lived in Beirut between 2011 and 2019.

They said their client had been asked to speak at Al-Yamani’s memorial by his widow and his distress reflected his personal friendship with him.
Harvard is 'capitulating' to 'lunatics': Bethany Mandel
Author Bethany Mandel and Rabbi Chaim Mentz break down the latest in anti-Israel sentiment nationwide on 'Fox News @ Night.'


Columbia deletes Instagram story celebrating dual degree with Tel Aviv U
Columbia University’s School of General Studies reposted an Instagram story congratulating the first graduating class of the Columbia-Tel Aviv University dual-degree program, only to delete the story two hours later, according to Columbia Jewish & Israeli Students’ post on X.

For the past several weeks, tensions have been rising at Columbia as anti-Israel protests were getting out of hand, occupying campus grounds with an encampment as well as Hamilton Hall—one of the main administration buildings—resulting in violent incidents that have eventually led to a New York City Police Department raid on campus to evacuate and arrest protesters, allowed by the university’s president, Minouche Shafik.

Due to these events, the administration has decided to cancel this year’s main commencement ceremony.

One of the protesters’ demands of Columbia was to effectively divest financially from Israel, close the school’s Tel Aviv Global Center and end Columbia’s dual degree program with Tel Aviv University, as proposed by the Columbia University Apartheid Divest movement and reported in the Columbia Daily Spectator. This proposal has received much support, which might have led to the deletion of the Instagram story.

“Columbia University welcomes and embraces the Israeli students, faculty and staff on our campus,” a university spokesperson told the Columbia Daily Spectator. “We also benefit greatly from our dual-degree program with Tel Aviv University.”

Although none of these demands was met, this incident underscored the continued unrest on campus and the grim reality that Jewish and Israeli students face. Israel Hayom was unable to verify this story independently, yet as of Thursday afternoon, no such story appears on Columbia’s official Instagram page.


Jewish Student at Reed College Struck by Rock a Day After Vandalism of Religious Symbol
A Jewish student at Reed College was struck in the head by a rock thrown through the student’s dorm room window on the night of Monday, May 6, according to an email sent to staff and the student body by Reed administration.

The incident came one day after the same student’s mezuzah, a scroll with Torah verses that many Jews affix to their doors, was removed and destroyed, Reed administrators said in the email. That incident occurred on Sunday, May 5. Holocaust Remembrance Day started that day at sundown.

“This is a clear act of antisemitism directed at a student on our campus, and that is unacceptable and unlawful behavior,” Phyllis Esposito, vice president and dean for institutional diversity, and Karnell McConnell-Black, vice president for student life, wrote. “Every Reed student, regardless of their faith, has the right to express their faith tradition through the symbols they display, clothes they wear, and practices they keep.”

The incident comes as U.S. college campuses have been riven by protests against Israel’s assault on Gaza, which followed the Oct. 7 attack on Israelis by Hamas.

The student who was assaulted with the rock, a woman, heard anti-Israel protesters outside her window on the night of May 5, says Bob Horenstein, director of community relations at the Jewish Federation of Greater Portland, who has discussed the matter with the student.

Students for Justice in Palestine held a “noise parade” on campus that evening, Horenstein says. Reed College spokeswoman Sheena McFarland confirmed that the event took place.

The student recorded the protest on her phone, he said. Afterward, she heard protesters banging on doors in her dorm. Later that evening, she discovered that the plastic mezuzah on her door had been smashed and the scroll inside torn up, Horenstein says.

At around 2 am on Tuesday, May 7, the student was stuck by a rock thrown through her window, Horenstein said. There were rocks of various sizes in her room. The student has since left Reed and doesn’t plan to return, Horenstein says

“This did not happen in a vacuum,” Horenstein adds. “There have been complaints from students, parents and faculty for the last seven months about what they would describe as a hostile climate for Jewish students on that campus.”


The Washington Post’s Disgrace
Some wealthy Jews would like to influence American public opinion. They also appeal to their elected representatives.

That is the "news" in a Washington Post "exclusive" that ran Thursday, and the paper makes clear that there is something very untoward about it. The piece, by reporters Hannah Natanson and Emmanuel Felton, is based on an inside look into an online chat that included New York City mayor Eric Adams and several wealthy New York businessmen.

In that chat, several people pressed Adams to send the New York Police Department to clear out Columbia University’s dangerous, disgraceful, and violent pro-Hamas encampment, something that did not happen until student reprobates further escalated the situation and broke into and occupied a campus building several days later.

The Post surfaces no evidence—zero—to indicate there is any connection between the demands made in the chat and the cops’ appearance at Columbia, since the decision, of course, was left to Columbia University’s weak-kneed president Minouche Shafik.

A spokeswoman for the newspaper declined to comment, and the paper did not publish the piece in its print version on Friday.

Maybe this is why. "The messages offer a window into how some prominent individuals have wielded their money and power in an effort to shape American views of the Gaza war," the reporters write ominously. Get it? The piece is a modern-day echo of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion in which Woodward and Bernstein—er, Natanson and Felton—mimic the uncovering of a secret plot.

We hope you’re sitting down, because the Post reveals that several of the billionaires also "worked with the Israeli government" to screen film footage of the Oct. 7 massacre compiled by the IDF and one of them, the hedge funder Bill Ackman, even facilitated its screening at Harvard.


Washington Post under fire for story alleging outsized influence by Jewish donors
The Washington Post published a news story on Thursday suggesting that a group of wealthy Jewish donors used their influence to push New York City Mayor Eric Adams to send the NYPD onto Columbia University’s campus to clear out protesters.

The article alleges that a group of prominent business leaders privately voicing their concerns about growing pro-Hamas sentiment and instances of antisemitism on college campuses in a WhatsApp group chat “offer a window into how some prominent individuals have wielded their money and power in an effort to shape American views of the Gaza war, as well as the actions of academic, business and political leaders — including New York’s mayor.”

The group chat eventually led to a Zoom call with Adams, where members mused about how they could press Columbia University leadership to allow NYPD forces onto campus to clear out the encampment. Days earlier, protesters’ antisemitic harassment led the Biden White House to condemn “physical intimidation targeting Jewish students and the Jewish community” taking place on Columbia’s campus

The story claimed that the group “pressed” Adams to “send police to disperse pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University,” though the mayor had already been openly pleading for days with Columbia University President Minouche Shafik to allow his cops on campus.

Fabien Levy, a spokesperson for Adams, condemned the Post for the line of questioning in the first place, saying in a statement: “Let’s be very clear: Both times the NYPD entered Columbia University’s campus — on April 18th and April 30th — were in response to specific written requests from Columbia University to do so. Prior to these operations, Mayor Adams consistently stated that Columbia is a private institution on private property and that assistance would be provided only upon request.”

“Any suggestion that other considerations were involved in the decision-making process is completely false, and the insinuation that Jewish donors secretly plotted to influence government operations is an all too familiar antisemitic trope that the Washington Post should be ashamed to ask about, let alone normalize in print,” Levy said.

Levy went on to condemn the Post for the article’s framing and language choices in a series of posts on X, formerly Twitter, writing that the paper and “others can make editorial decisions to disagree with the decisions by universities to ask the NYPD to clear unlawful encampments on campuses, but saying Jews ‘wielded their money & power in an effort to shape American views’ is offensive on so many levels.”


Globe & Mail Commentator Rewrites History: Refers To Arab Invasion Of Israel In 1948 As A “Civil War” & Falsely Claims 70% Of Gazans Homes Have Been Destroyed
In his May 14 commentary in The Globe & Mail entitled: “For Palestinians, the disaster unfolding in Rafah triggers painful memories,” Raja Khoury, a noted pro-Palestinian activist, attempts to elicit sympathy from readers on the anniversary of Israel’s independence, and does so by shamelessly rewriting history to suit his ideological purposes.

Khouri referred to the period 76 years ago when Israel gained its independence, writing that “after a brief civil war between the Jewish and Arab communities, Israel declared its independence on May 14, 1948, and the Arab states joined the war. Israel won.”

There was no “civil war” in Israel; it was an attempted genocide against the Jews by Arab countries.

In reality, immediately after Israel declared its independence, it was invaded by neighbouring Arab countries, intent on destroying the newly reborn Jewish State and massacring its entire population.

Azzam Pasha, the secretary-general of the Arab League at the time, promised “a war of extermination and momentous massacre” that was to befall Israel.

Understandably, such historical facts are uncomfortable to a commentator attempting to reframe reality, so rather than addressing history as it was, Khouri simply rewrote it.

In addition to conjuring facts, Khouri also sought fit to simply ignore details, however central, that he once again found to be inconvenient.

Justifying the rejection of the United Nations Partition Plan by the Arab delegates because “they viewed (it) as grossly unfair,” Khouri also quoted Arab-American writer Edward Said, who said that the plan was “made by a European power … about a non-European territory … in a flat disregard of both the presence and wishes of the native majority resident in that territory.”

Khouri utterly disregarded the reality that the Jewish delegates also saw the United Nations plan as extremely unfair to them, given that it cut Israel down to a small fraction of what was once historically Jewish lands, and failed to give Israel sovereignty over the holy city of Jerusalem. Nevertheless, they accepted it, while Arab powers, thirsty for total conquest, accepted nothing less than everything.

No less importantly, quoting Said’s statement that Israel’s existence is due to a plan “made by a European power,” and in disregard to the “presence and wishes of the native” population, is extraordinarily misleading.


Toronto Life Magazine Adds Its Voice To The Disingenuous Whitewashing Of Hateful Anti-Israel Demonstrations
Toronto Life has joined the ranks of Canadian outlets presenting one-sided and biased coverage of campus protests with Emma Buchanan’s May 13 piece entitled “The university’s response has been pathetic”: Scenes from the pro-Palestine encampment at U of T”.

The story opened by laying out the supposed facts, that an encampment was set up at the University of Toronto on May 2, and that since then, student protestors have peacefully occupied the space, refusing to leave until their demands of disclosure of, and divestment from, Israeli-linked investments, companies and universities have been met. To further understand the realities of the encampments, Buchanan ventured inside to interview a variety of those organizing and attending the protest.

Fortunately, Toronto Life didn’t position their piece solely around erroneous assertions from token Jewish students and faculty (indeed, only one seems to have been tapped for the cause). Instead, they do offer a seemingly representative cross-section of those involved, students and outside community members alike.

Unfortunately, that’s where objectivity stops.

Every assertion made by the interviewees – from accusations of genocide, to claims of peaceful assembly and a pacifist agenda – went unchallenged by Buchanan. At one point, an interviewee went so far as to claim that Jewish community members (under the banner of the Jewish Defense League) were harassing the encampment attendees, but Buchanan didn’t bother to look into the claim or interview any counter-protestors for their side of the story.

Of course, she did interview Gur Tsabar, a self-proclaimed Israeli and spokesperson for “Jews Say No to Genocide” – a regular token-Jew trotted out at anti-Israel rallies and events around Toronto. Tsabar – not a student at the university – shared that he’s been present at the encampment every day since its establishment. He went on to rant about the Jewish students who feel unsafe, saying that “Zionists… [are] watering down the concept of antisemitism”, and that there’s a difference between “feeling uncomfortable and being unsafe.”
MEMRI: Popular Front For The Liberation Of Palestine (PFLP) Deputy Secretary-General: 'The University Intifada In America Should Be A Model To Be Emulated In Order To Triumph For Palestine... We Are Completely Confident In The Inevitable, Imminent, And Decisive Victory'
On May 14, 2024, Workers.org published a speech by the Deputy Secretary-General of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), Jamil Mezher, delivered on May 10 at the opening session of the Palestine session of the Maghreb-Mashreq Social Forum in Tunis, Tunisia.[1] The event also featured leaders from Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ).

The PFLP, a U.S. Designated Foreign Terrorist Organization since 1997, is being supported at pro-Palestinian protests in the U.S., as evidenced by the presence of its flags and flags featuring PFLP Secretary-General Ahmad Sa'adat.

The following is the text of the speech (bold in the original):
"The Palestinian Resistance In Gaza... Is Engaging In The Greatest Epic Of This Modern Era"

"The Palestinian resistance in Gaza, with its various military wings, is engaging in the greatest epic of this modern era. Despite its modest means, its joint operations in the field and surprise tactics have managed to defeat the strongest military force in the region, heavily armed with all types of American-made weapons, and permanently undermine its deterrence and military superiority.

"The Zionist entity has failed in marketing its colonial project and its claim as the only democratic state in the East, revealing its racist identity and ugly face to the entire world during the eight months of the Al-Aqsa Flood battle. We witnessed the victory of the Palestinian rights, the historical narrative and the legitimacy of our resistance.

"The events of the battle of Al-Aqsa Flood expanded the circle of supporters for the Palestinian cause globally. Who would have expected the world to rise up, even from within the regions most controlled by the Zionist lobby, especially in Western countries and particularly in America?

The university intifada in America has struck a nerve with the Zionist lobby there. Now, the world is aligning with our people's cause in ongoing advocacy campaigns and isolating the aggression of the occupation.

"The achievements of the international popular boycott movement on economic, cultural, academic and political levels have been notable with the university uprisings being a significant highlight.

"The expanding isolation of the enemy, even among Jewish organizations in the United States, which have started to denounce the occupation's crimes and disavow their relationship with the Zionist entity, is notable. For the first time, the occupation's crimes are being prosecuted in the International Court of Justice, with occupation leaders facing arrest and trial as war criminals."


Iran ‘Reshaping Murder-for-Hire Markets’ in West
A detailed report from The Spectator has revealed the detailed strategies employed by Iran in the assassination of its opponents abroad.

According to the report, Iran is actively transforming the murder-for-hire industry across the US and Europe, contracting out killings to avoid direct involvement.

The Spectator's investigation indicates that Iran employs the same covert tactics abroad that it uses to manage proxy forces like Hezbollah and militia groups across the Middle East, outsourcing murder plots through proxies or criminal gangs.

“There appear to be no set rules for the methods Iran uses to find the criminals to do its work abroad, except to avoid the obvious. Biker gangs and people-traffickers are better able to operate away from the gaze of counter-terrorism police than politically motivated ideologues,” wrote the Spectator.

Plots have reached the highest levels of state. Two years ago, the US charged an Iranian man with attempting to hire a hitman to kill John Bolton, a former national security adviser in the Trump administration, for a lucratively tempting $300,000.


Hartlepool killer who murdered pensioner as ‘revenge for Gaza’ sentenced to life in prison
A Moroccan asylum seeker who murdered a pensioner as “revenge” for Palestine and attempted to murder a Christian housemate in his sleep has been sentenced to life in jail.

Ahmed Alid, 45, stabbed 70-year-old Terence Carney multiple times in Hartlepool in October, murdering him. He was also found guilty of the attempted murder of his housemate, Javed Nouri.

Alid was sentenced to life in jail with a minimum term of 45 years less time served at Teesside Crown Court on Friday.

Alid carried out the politically and religiously motivated attack eight days after Hamas’s massacres on October 7.

He told police the attacks were in protest against Israel and Zionism.

Judge Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb said he “did not have the courage to admit his guilt in court.”

Addressing Alid, the judge said, “On October 15 last year, you attacked and murdered Terence Carney in a terrorist act.

“You intended it as revenge for the actions of a foreign government, Israel, and to intimidate and influence the British government in its international relations. You hoped to frighten the people of Britain and to undermine the freedoms they enjoy.”

The judge said that Alid intended to kill both of his victims and succeeded in killing one.

“For each of these offences, you are sentenced to life imprisonment.”

She said Alid should expend to spend “most of the rest of his life in custody”.
Shooting reported next to Israeli Embassy in Stockholm
The Israeli Embassy in Stockholm has been sealed off after a shooting early this morning, according to local media reports.

Police press officer Per Fahlström tells newspaper Expressen that a police patrol heard loud bangs, suspected to be from a firearm. The area was cordoned off shortly after 2 a.m., and at 6:30 a.m. the police wrote that their investigations indicated there was a shooting in the area.

Police are posted at the Israeli Embassy, where they are searching for traces of gunfire. Fahlström does not comment on whether the embassy was the target of the suspected shooting.

A preliminary investigation into serious weapons crime has been launched. Fahlström has told media that several people have been detained, without elaborating further.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry says the incident is being probed by Swedish authorities and there are no further details available.
Police shoot dead suspect who threw ‘Molotov cocktail’ into French synagogue
French police have shot dead an armed man who allegedly set fire to a synagogue in the northwestern city of Rouen, officials said.

Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin posted on X that the armed man was “neutralized.”

“In Rouen, national police officers neutralised early this morning an armed individual clearly wanting to set fire to the city’s synagogue. I congratulate them for their reactivity and their courage,” he said.

The synagogue is said to have suffered significant damage in the attack.

Local police responded at 6:45am to reports of a fire rising from the main Rouen synagogue.

The suspect exited the synagogue threatening police with a knife and an iron bar, according to the national police information service. An officer opened fire and fatally wounded the man, police said.

A source told Agence France-Presse the man “was armed with a knife and an iron bar, he approached police, who fired”.

The Rouen synagogue sustained significant damage, including to its furniture, but no one was injured, mayor Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol said.

Mayer-Rossignol added that the town was "battered and shocked".

"An armed man somehow climbed up the synagogue and threw an object, a sort of molotov cocktail, into the main praying room," the mayor told reporters.


Israeli Tourist Attacked by Mob in Belgium, Suffers Broken Jaw
A 64-year-old Israel tourist was attacked by a mob in the Belgian city of Bruges and suffered a broken jaw after he and his daughter removed an anti-Israel sticker in a train station on Friday, according to the European Jewish Association and Israel’s Embassy in Belgium.

The assailants saw Amnon Ohana and his 29-year-old daughter Shira removing the sticker from a wall at a Bruges train station and proceeded to attack the father, punching and kicking him.

The Israeli tourists fled to a lower floor but were pursued by at least one of the attackers, who knocked Ohana to the ground and continued to strike him.

After the assailants left the scene, Ohana was taken to the hospital and diagnosed with a broken jaw.

According to several reports, passersby ignored the father and daughter’s pleas for help.

Ohana filed a complaint with local police against the assailants but reportedly said the authorities did not seem willing to prosecute them to the full extent of the law, despite the attack being filmed by his daughter and security cameras.

Israeli Ambassador to Belgium and Luxembourg Idit Rosenzweig-Abu decried the incident, calling attention to a spike in antisemitic incidents that has turned increasingly violent.

“A 64-year-old Israeli man was attacked while on a tourist visit in Bruges,” the ambassador wrote on X/Twitter. “He was kicked to the head and suffered a fracture to his jaw. What started as violent discourse has turned in past weeks to actual violence on the streets. We expect the authorities to denounce this violence in the strongest terms possible. And we expect the police to find and press charges against this man.”


LA’s Academy Museum initially excluded Hollywood’s Jewish origins, a new exhibit fixes that
Today’s understanding of Hollywood — the glitz, the glam, the red carpets and paparazzi — are a far cry from the film industry’s humble beginnings, when a group of Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe laid the groundwork for what would become an epicenter of American and global culture.

Such is the story told by a new exhibition at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles, which opens Sunday. “Hollywoodland: Jewish Founders and the Making of a Movie Capital” traces the history and legacy of early 20th century Jewish Hollywood pioneers like the Warner brothers, Louis B. Mayer, Adolph Zukor and others. It is the museum’s first permanent exhibit.

The exhibit’s debut comes two and a half years after the museum’s opening, which sparked controversy among supporters and visitors for not including the industry’s Jewish beginnings.

Jacqueline Stewart, the museum’s director and president, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that community feedback helped the museum change its contents — and influenced its decision to make the exhibit permanent.

“I really feel that we’re able to present this exhibition now in a way that’s better than it would have been if we had tried to tell the story when we first opened,” Stewart said during a press preview. “Because we understand our audiences better.”

The “Hollywoodland” story
Dara Jaffe, the exhibit’s curator, said she held listening sessions and spoke to a number of rabbis and other members of the Jewish community both in Los Angeles and across the country to gather as much feedback as possible.

“I talked to every single person who reached out to me,” Jaffe said. “Anyone who called, emailed, I wanted to hear from them. And also, most importantly, we wanted a lot of eyes on this. We didn’t want anyone to be surprised by the content. We wanted people to know exactly what to expect, and to feel like their voices were heard.”

Stewart also pointed to the exhibit’s bilingual presentation — the displays all include English and Spanish — and its permanence as signals of the importance of the “Hollywoodland” story.

“That is providing a point of access to this story that we were not doing when the museum first opened,” Stewart said, referring to the Spanish-language offerings. “It’s from listening to a broad range of voices and coming to understand that we really need to be the place to tell this industry history. And this industry history is a story about Jewish immigrants and the world that they built in Los Angeles.”
Dave Ramsey Steps In To Rescue Pro-Israel Conference After Nashville Hotel Cancels
Personal finance expert Dave Ramsey is rescuing a pro-Israel conference from cancellation after a Nashville hotel backed out from hosting because of alleged threats by anti-Israel activists.

When Ramsey heard that a Nashville hotel revoked access for the Israel Summit, an event scheduled for next week that will feature prominent Christians and Jews, organizers say Ramsey got in touch and offered not only to host it, but also to help make it even bigger.

“Dave Ramsey reached out and said, ‘You’re going to have it at my place and we’re going to take this event to a whole new level and make it 10x what it was before,’” Joshua Waller, a host of the Israel Guys podcast who is co-hosting the event, told The Daily Wire. “All of the details have come together and the event is skyrocketing in numbers.”

The Israel Summit describes itself as the first gathering of pro-Israel supporters who “unconditionally support Israel’s right to be sovereign in the entirety of the land of Israel, including Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, and the Gaza Strip.”

Along with The Israel Guys, the event is sponsored by HaYovel, an organization started by Waller more than 20 years ago which brings Christians to volunteer at farms in Judea and Samaria, and the Christan-Jewish bridge building nonprofits, Israel365 and Keep God’s land.

HaYovel went viral after Hamas’s brutal October 7 attack for bringing a group of American cowboys to help Israelis in need of labor as foreign agriculture workers fled and men were called up to fight in the war.
Israeli Pavilion at Cannes Film Festival Highlights Movies From Gaza Border Communities Impacted by Oct. 7 Attacks
The Israeli Pavilion at the 76th Cannes Film Festival opened on Wednesday and is dedicated this year to residents living near Israel’s border with the Gaza Strip, where the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attacks took place.

The pavilion will showcase films made by filmmakers from Sapir College in Sderot that highlight the lives of those living near Gaza before the atrocities of Oct. 7. The films will show the daily lives of residents in the area and also the toll it takes on children in the region who have lived for years with the constant threat of missile attacks from Palestinian terrorists.

“The opening of the pavilion during the war reflects Israeli resilience and the Israeli commitment to building bridges of culture and international dialogue even in challenging times,” said Israel’s Culture and Sport Minister Miki Zohar. “Especially in this complex time, we must amplify the voices promoting the Israeli narrative first. For the first time, we will show Israeli films in the pavilion that reflect the unfathomable reality that the residents of the border communities lived in before Oct. 7.”

One of the films is from director Michal Lavi, whose brother-in-law, Omri Miran from Kibbutz Nir Oz, is one of about 130 hostages still held by Hamas terrorists in Gaza. The pavilion will also host a panel discussion on “diversity in cinema” and another panel about women in the cinema industry who work in countries at war. The pavilion will additionally highlight film creation, co-productions, and collaborations between the Israeli film industry and foreign film industries.

The Cannes Film Festival takes place from May 14-21 in Cannes, France, and the Israeli pavilion will remain open during the entire duration of the festival.

Laura Blajman-Kadar, a survivor of the Oct. 7 Hamas attack at the Supernova music festival in Israel, attended a screening at the Cannes Film Festival on Wednesday wearing a gown that honored the Israeli hostages who have been held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip for seven months.

The short film “It’s Not Time For Pop” by Tel Aviv University student Amit Vaknin is the only film from Israel taking part in the Cannes Film Festival this year and it will compete in the La Cinéf section, which highlights projects from film students. The 14-minute film is about a woman who is not interested in spending Memorial Day in Israel commemorating her father, who was killed in a war, and instead wants to focus on trying to find an apartment in Tel Aviv.




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This blog may be a labor of love for me, but it takes a lot of effort, time and money. For over 19 years and 40,000 articles I have been providing accurate, original news that would have remained unnoticed. I've written hundreds of scoops and sometimes my reporting ends up making a real difference. I appreciate any donations you can give to keep this blog going.

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