Wednesday, May 22, 2024

05/22 Links Pt2: The European Bid to Save Hamas; The ICC’s war crimes; Salman Rushdie’s lonely crusade against Islamism

From Ian:

Seth Mandel: The European Bid to Save Hamas
There’s a moment in the novel The Parisian in which a bunch of Arab Palestinians in Nablus in 1920 read a newspaper report that King Faisal has declared himself head of an independent Greater Syria. Most of the group cheers, but one man turns to another and says: “Does it say where Syria is?”

What he wants to know is: What are the borders of this magically declared new independent state, and do they extend to where he is standing?

That’s the question everyone should be wondering today, as the governments of Ireland, Norway, and Spain have taken the rare step of recognizing the state of Palestine. And where is this existing state of Palestine? Well, according to Irish prime minister Simon Harris, it doesn’t physically exist yet: “We had hoped to recognize Palestine as part of a two-state peace deal, but instead we recognize Palestine to keep the hope of that two-state solution alive.”

In other words, the Irish government hoped to recognize a real state, but for the time being it will recognize an imaginary one.

If the Irish premier is right, however, he just solved the conflict. There’s no need to worry about keeping the two-state solution alive, because he just recognized the two states. Of course, if he doesn’t believe the state has borders yet, where is he going to put the embassy? Never mind.

Recognizing the state of Palestine while Hamas is in power explicitly and literally empowers and legitimizes Hamas as a governing entity. There is no wiggle room there. So, asked why he would legitimize Hamas now, Harris made clear that he didn’t really think about that part: “Hamas is not the Palestinian people, and here in Ireland, better than most countries in the world, we know what it’s like when a terrorist organization seeks to hijack your identity and seeks to speak for you.”

Now, it may sound from these comments that the trio of European leaders have made a rather thoughtless and dim move. But in fact Spanish premier Pedro Sanchez took great pains to clarify that the intentions behind this joint recognition announcement were evil, not stupid: “Spain will be accompanied by other European countries. The more there are of us, the sooner we will achieve a ceasefire. We are not going to give up.”

So the point of timing the announcement now was to save Hamas by stopping the war before the terror group loses control of the Gaza Strip. The three governments sought to legitimize Hamas, yes, but even more so they wanted to take action that might rescue Hamas from defeat and keep it in power in this new state of Palestine.
Caroline Glick: The ICC’s war crimes
The ICC’s lack of jurisdiction is only part of the legal problem with its move against Israel. In his statement on Monday, Khan drew a false moral equivalence between the crimes against humanity and acts of genocide Hamas committed on Oct. 7—meaning, the terror group’s invasion of Israel and slaughter, rape, torture and abduction of thousands of civilians and soldiers on the one hand, and the lawful acts of war that Israel has conducted against the Hamas terrorist regime and its terror army in response to that invasion and commission of atrocities.

Hamas is bound by its charter to commit genocide against the Jewish people worldwide and to annihilate the Jewish state. Khan’s allegations against Netanyahu and Gallant—and against the State of Israel more broadly—are predicated on blood libels originating from the Hamas regime in Gaza. In so acting, the ICC is providing material support for Hamas. That is, it is providing material support for a genocidal terror group engaged in a genocidal war against the Jewish people.

Unlike the libelous accusations Khan raised against Israel’s elected leaders, Khan’s provision of material support for Hamas’s war of genocide is an actual war crime.

Both houses of Congress are now advancing bills to sanction the ICC and its personnel for their illegal prosecution of Israel, a U.S. ally. It is essential that these bills be fast-tracked through the legislative process.

But two more actions should be taken.

A threat to the free world
First, the United States should indict Hamas’s terror masters, including senior leaders Yahya Sinwar, Mohamed Deif, Ismail Haniyeh, and other top Hamas terrorists for the murder, rape, kidnapping and torture of U.S. citizens on and since Oct. 7. Not only should these war criminals not get a free pass for their actions, they should be held criminally liable by real courts, as opposed to the ICC’s kangaroo court, which is only advancing charges against them to criminalize a liberal democracy carrying out a war for its national survival.

Second, Khan and his associates should be charged with extortion of U.S. elected officials. Following the news late last month that Khan intended to pursue false charges against Israel’s leaders, several American lawmakers announced their intention to advance legislation sanctioning ICC officials. In response to those announcements, on May 3, the ICC issued a statement that Khan posted on his X account, threatening action against anyone acting against them.

The statement claimed that “threats” of action against the ICC and its personnel “may … constitute an offense against the administration of justice under Art.70 of the Rome Statute.”

Although Israel is a small state and the only Jewish one, now isolated in the international community, prejudicial actions taken against it pose a threat to the free world as a whole.
Do You Actually Hate Jews?
In 2024, antisemitism generally evidences itself in two forms. The first is your classic Protocols of the Elders of Zion, “Hitler was right” sort of neo-fascist fabulism. The second is the kind who buys every lie coming out of Al Jazeera and the rabidly antisemitic Arab press. The thing about both of these kinds of hate is that they have been watered down to a level of acceptability in many circles. The watered-down Protocols crowd accurately points to the number of Jewish influencers in Hollywood and the media, as if that somehow validates an unspoken blood libel. These people are the Joe Rogans of the world—avowedly “fair” while actually speaking from highly bigoted assumptions.

The second crowd—the watered-down Al Jazeera crowd—hides behind “anti-colonialism” as an excuse for quaint chants in favor of exterminating Israel’s Jewish population. Unfortunately, that second kind of watered-down antisemitism is mirrored in the great majority of the mass media in the U.S. and globally. CNN, MSNBC, NPR, BBC, Reuters and the like will buy every line coming out of the Gaza Health Ministry and every staged Pallywood video without question, and will flood the zone endlessly with stories supporting the myth of Israeli fascism and “genocide.” When you see Jewish students on college campuses across America being terrorized by their Hamas-sympathizing peers, that phenomenon is fueled almost completely by that second sort of antisemitism—let’s call it the “media narrative of Israel.”

When someone starts demonstrating outside the Jewish dry cleaner because of that mustard stain—whether they’re politically on the right or the left—there are only two possible explanations:
1. They bought the media narrative of Israel.
2. Consciously or subconsciously, they hate Jews.

I can almost forgive people who fall prey to No. 1, especially if they are young and/or stupid. College students who don’t know any better are immersed in a nonstop barrage of the media narrative of Israel, and as college students their brains are mush anyway, so I sort of get how they could be so easily misled. Your average, working, adult American who does not pay much attention to politics or international relations can also be driven into this belief set—their media bombards them with unbalanced, anti-Israel propaganda, and if all those kids are protesting on campus, there must be something to it, right?

But it’s people like my fellow soldier on X who trouble me more. When you know that Israel is the freest, most liberal state in the region; when you know that war is hell and civilians die in all wars; when you know that the IDF engages in state-of-the-art mitigation measures to protect innocent civilians; when you know all of these things and still engage in the blood libelish lies of “Israel is committing genocide,” No. 2 is the only logical conclusion. The only stain is the one on that person’s soul—a black stain of Jew hatred that goes back millennia.

The hate of the well-informed stands out because it’s purposeful. Ultimately, antisemitism is a mind virus. Any so-called influencer or self-styled intellectual who spreads it to fellow Americans, under the guise of informing them, is a predator.
A Response to the New Antisemitism: Independence of Thought
Considering the way the anti-Israel left combines its peculiar ideas of morality with its peculiar brand of anti-Semitism, Yehoshua Pfeffer explains the challenge it poses:
In a world that cares only about power inequality, the Jew loses all status. Abraham was chosen by God for his dedication to justice; he cannot live in a justice-free space. Moreover, when seen through the binary progressive lens of oppressor and oppressed, the Jew represents the quintessential evil: he becomes the epitome of whiteness, colonialism, imperialism, and patriarchism; he is oppression incarnate, and the oppressed Arab (or Palestinian) is goodness personified. . . .

Right-wing anti-Semitism drove us, decades ago, to physical independence in the Jewish state. Today, left-wing anti-Semitism inspires us to build on our spatial freedom and achieve a type of independence we have yet to develop and cultivate: intellectual independence.

To achieve such independence, writes Pfeffer, Jews must be willing to reject the recent trends of the world of ideas, and try to recover modes of thought and moral ideals rooted in their own tradition:
Notwithstanding its political independence, Israel has not made concerted efforts to cultivate a parallel [intellectual] space free from the shackles of academic uniformity. On the contrary, core institutions have copied the liberal ideas that 20th-century Jews had become so enamored with. In its early years, socialism was a dominant force in Israel’s economy and social models. Though socialism has declined and the kibbutzim mainly privatized, Israel’s universities, popular media, state institutions, and significant elements within branches of government (in particular the legal system) continue to reflect the same left-progressive principles that are breeding anti-Semitism worldwide.

Today, in an age of Jewish sovereignty and a period of unprecedented crisis, we must ensure that these study halls, haredi and otherwise, devote significant energies to the great questions of human life that contemporary academia [seeks to answer]. Israel must become the countercultural reaction against the anti-Semitism-breeding academic orthodoxy.


Biden Admin Faces Congressional Scrutiny Over $50 Million 'Environmental Justice' Grant It Awarded to Anti-Israel Group
The Environmental Protection Agency is facing congressional scrutiny for awarding a $50 million grant to the Climate Justice Alliance, a California nonprofit that has accused Israel of committing genocide and encouraged "solidarity protest actions" in opposition to the Jewish state.

Senate Environment and Public Works Committee ranking member Shelley Moore Capito (R., W.Va.) during a press conference Tuesday highlighted the EPA's grant to the Climate Justice Alliance and the group's anti-Israel activism. The top Republican lawmaker also blasted the agency for its ongoing pursuit of its big-money environmental programs and promised to lead oversight of such programs.

"You could ask yourself, is this group really going to be funding climate—again, cleaning up the water and cleaning up the soil and cleaning up the air? Or are they going to be funding things like the protests they had … weeks ago where several of them were arrested?" Capito asked Tuesday.

"Follow the money. We're going to be doing that in the Environment and Public Works Committee," she continued. "And I find it rather startling to me that the EPA and this administration are not doing any better research as to where American taxpayers' dollars are going."

EPA administrator Michael Regan unveiled his agency's grant for the Climate Justice Alliance in December, saying the funding was made possible by the "Environmental Justice Thriving Communities Grantmaking" program established by the behemoth Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. The funding, Regan said, would help "address our country's most pressing environmental justice concerns."

According to the agency, the Climate Justice Alliance will work with several local partners to use the federal grant for various environmental justice programs. The EPA awarded the grant, however, even as the Climate Justice Alliance in early October continued to loudly prioritize its anti-Israel agenda in the aftermath of Hamas's terrorist attacks on Israel.

The Washington Free Beacon first reported the EPA's grant and the Climate Justice Alliance's anti-Israel actions in late December.

On its website, the Climate Justice Alliance highlights its "Free Palestine" actions as one of its three featured projects, which also includes environmental justice work and climate philanthropy. The group further states that a "free Palestine" is a "climate justice issue" and that the "path to climate justice travels through a free Palestine."


'Satanic minds': NAACP leader who gave Biden award invited notorious antisemite to his church multiple times
The NAACP leader who introduced President Biden in Detroit on Sunday night was previously slammed by the Anti-Defamation League for inviting notorious antisemite Louis Farrakhan to speak at his church where the controversial minister lashed out at Jewish people and referred to them as "satanic."

Rev. Wendell Anthony, President of the Detroit Branch of the NAACP, stood on stage with Biden in Detroit on Sunday night at the NAACP Detroit Branch's 69th annual Fight for Freedom Fund Dinner, where the president gave a speech repeating his talking point about bringing people together and slammed former President Trump for being too divisive.

Anthony, who presented Biden with a lifetime achievement award on Sunday night, has a long history of associations with Farrakhan, who leads the Nation of Islam group, including being slammed by the Anti-Defamation League in 2013 for inviting the minister to speak at his church where he espoused antisemitic rhetoric.

Farrakhan spoke at Anthony’s Detroit-based church, Fellowship Chapel, at least three times in 2005, 2013, and 2015. The Michigan Chronicle reported in 1994 that Anthony was a guest speaker at the Nation of Islam's 64th annual "Saviour's Day."

"The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) today expressed deep disappointment with the members of Detroit City Council and local clergy who met with and embraced the anti-Semitic and racist leader of the Nation of Islam, Louis Farrakhan, during his visit to the city last week," the May 2013 press release stated.

"During his visit to Detroit, Minister Farrakhan was invited by Rev. Wendell Anthony, President of the Detroit Branch of the NAACP, to address the Fellowship Chapel on May 17. His speech, which was attended by U.S. Rep. John Conyers and Detroit City Councilmember JoAnn Watson, among other prominent city leaders, invoked hateful anti-Semitic canards and open racism. Thus far, none of the leaders present for his remarks have publicly condemned Minister Farrakhan’s anti-Semitic rhetoric, and several have praised him."

The ADL statement alleges that during the speech, Farrakhan "spewed hateful anti-Semitic invective, referring to ‘Satanic Jews’ and the ‘Synagogue of Satan’ supposedly controlling major institutions."

"He expressed his love for President Barack Obama, but added that the president ‘surrounded himself with Satan...members of the Jewish community,’" the ADL said.
Screening of Raw Footage From Oct. 7 Hamas Attacks Cancelled at Cannes Due to ‘Security Threat’
A private screening of a film about the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attacks in southern Israel that was set to take place on the sidelines of the Cannes Film Festival was cancelled on Tuesday after the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) notified organizers about a security threat, Variety reported.

WestEnd Films Co-Founder Sharon Harel-Cohen organized a screening on May 17 of the 47-minute film Bearing Witness to the October 7 Massacre, which features raw, firsthand footage from the Oct. 7 massacre captured by video surveillance, body cameras, and cellphones of Hamas terrorists and IDF soldiers. A small group of members of the film industry were invited to the screening and it was scheduled separate from the Cannes Film Festival, which is taking place at the Palais des Festivals in France with heightened security measures this year.

The invitation for the screening noted that “for security reasons the location will be released only a few days before the event, to registered participants only.” It was set to take place at the Exclusive Hotel Belle Plage, which is roughly a mile from the Palais, and attendees were asked not to tell others about the location. But then the screening was abruptly called off.

“About an hour before, we received an order from the IDF not to hold the screening due to a security threat,” WestEnd Films Co-Founder Maya Amsellem told Variety. “We have not heard any additional details.”

“There’s not much you can do,” Harel-Cohen told the publication. “When you get word that there is a security issue from the IDF, that’s it. It was an opportunity. It’s really a pity.” Harel-Cohen added that she will not try to hold another screening of Bearing Witness during the Cannes Film Festival, which ends Saturday.
Ted Cruz Sets the Record Straight After SPLC Claims He Spread ‘Antisemitic Trope’
Is it antisemitic to point out that the massive, left-wing funding apparatus set up by Hungarian American hedge-fund billionaire George Soros has bankrolled many of the organizations behind anti-Israel protests and riots on college campuses? The Southern Poverty Law Center says that it is, and it smeared Sen. Ted Cruz for citing a Politico report on Soros funding.

Cruz, a Texas Republican, isn’t letting it stand.

“Leftists cannot defend their ideas on the merits, so they instead resort to censorship and cancel culture,” Cruz told The Daily Signal in a written statement Tuesday.

“The SPLC is a chief smear apparatus of the modern Left, and it dutifully attacked me for citing Politico’s investigative report linking George Soros’s money to the antisemitic riots at college campuses across the country,” he noted. “Instead of attacking people for speaking the truth, the SPLC should investigate why George Soros was financially supporting rioters who used horrific antisemitic slurs and attacked Jewish students.”

Soros Funding
Two weeks ago, Politico’s Shia Kapos wrote an article revealing that “some of the biggest names in Democratic circles”—specifically Soros, the Rockefeller family, and Hyatt Hotel heirs Susan and Nick Pritzker—have been funding the groups that support anti-Israel protests. Many of the protesters have reportedly harassed Jewish students, shouting antisemitic slogans.

Two groups, Jewish Voice for Peace and IfNotNow, receive funding from the Tides Foundation. That organization gets hefty funding from Soros’ charitable groups Foundation to Promote Open Society (which gave more than $10 million to Tides from 1998 to 2018) and Open Society Foundations (which gave more than $12 million to Tides during that same period).

Soros declined to comment to Politico, but a spokesperson for the Open Society Foundations said the charity has “funded a broad spectrum of US groups that have advocated for the rights of Palestinians and Israelis and for peaceful resolution to the conflict in Israel.”

A few days after Politico published the report, Cruz highlighted it during a news conference on Capitol Hill.

“I want to finally underscore a very important story that broke last week came from Politico, and it was a story [about] the funding for the anti-Israel, antisemitic, anti-American protests occurring at universities across the country,” Cruz said. “Much of the funding came from Joe Biden and the Democrats’ biggest donors.”

“Here’s who Politico identified: George Soros, the Rockefeller brothers, Bill and Melinda Gates, and the Pritzker family,” the Texas Republican added.
Meet the Iranian Donor Bankrolling Anti-Israel Jewish Groups
An Iranian-American businessman who bankrolls the country’s largest pro-regime lobbying organization, the National Iranian American Council (NIAC), is also a donor to left-wing Jewish organizations hostile to Israel, according to financial disclosure records.

Francis Najafi, an Iranian-born Phoenix investor and large donor to NIAC, which lobbies for policies favorable to the Iranian government, has also been a generous supporter of the anti-Israel Jewish group J Street and and the anti-Israel publication Jewish Currents, to which he has donated $175,000 and $25,000 respectively, according to the organizations’ financial filings.

Najafi is also a board member and donor at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, an anti-interventionist think tank that is run by NIAC’s founder and former president, Trita Parsi.

The donation records are the latest indication of a close connection between left-wing Jewish groups and advocates for closer U.S. relations with the Iranian government, which bombed Israel in April and has been financing Hamas’s war against the Jewish state. Last year, J Street, NIAC, and other left-leaning groups—including the Open Society Foundations and Human Rights Watch—teamed up to launch a lobbying campaign to revive the nuclear deal with Iran, the Washington Free Beacon reported.

Najafi told the Free Beacon that his foundation gives over $5 million a year to "mission driven organizations on education, health, women, children and global peace and security," including Arizona State University, the International Crisis Group, and others.

"Our donation to JStreet is one of the smallest donation given by our foundation," he said.

Daniel May, the publisher of Jewish Currents, told the Free Beacon that the magazine was "very proud and honored to have Mr. Najafi's support for our work. Our relationship is pretty straightforward: as a 501(c)3 we rely on the generous support of many individuals, and he is among them."

"Regarding editorial decisions, those are made by our editorial team. Donors to Jewish Currents do not have input," added May.
Young Americans to attend anti-Israel, anti-US ‘hatefest’ with Chinese ties
This weekend, a publicly funded venue in Detroit, Michigan, will host “The People’s Conference for Palestine,” a conference that defies so-called American imperialism. The event, featuring Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP)-affiliated figures, is organized by groups with reported ties to the Chinese government.

As part of the promotion of the event, the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM), one of the organizers, shared an endorsement video by Salah Salah, one of the founding members of the PFLP, which has been recognized by the US as a terrorist organization since 1997. The PFLP has referred to Salah as a “historic leader.”

“I call on the members of the Arab community and supporters of our cause to participate in the People’s Conference,” Salah said in a video recording from Lebanon. “[The Zionist forces] offer a new model of Nazism… Participation in the conference is crucial to setting a strategy for unified action.”

The conference will feature over 20 speakers affiliated with one of the main event organizers, the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM), a group that frequently voices support for terrorists, including members of the PFLP, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and the Houthis. PYM also celebrated and supported the October 7 massacre on social media.

One organizer of the conference is National Students for Justice in Palestine (NSJP), a US-based group that endorsed designated terror organizations in the past and played a leading role in the violent anti-police and pro-Hamas rallies on US campuses.

Another organizer is The People’s Forum (TPF), a Manhattan-based 501(c)3 that continuously fosters activities sympathizing with America’s enemies, including China, North Korea, Iran, and Palestinian terrorist organizations such as the PFLP. TPF is largely funded by Marxist activist and capital owner Neville Roy Singham, who lives in Shanghai and has alleged links to the Chinese government, with which he reportedly works on propaganda affairs.

The organizers: Anti-American and terror-supporting groups with ties to China
TPF has also been subject to increased scrutiny due to its activities in the wake of the October 7 massacre, including by Congress, with senators including Marco Rubio calling to investigate whether it is complying with the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA). Likewise, House Representative Anthony D’Esposito, a House Homeland Security Committee member, called on the IRS to investigate The People’s Forum for potentially “advancing the agenda of those who advocate violence against our country.”


Salman Rushdie’s lonely crusade against Islamism
Given his own experiences, it is perhaps not surprising that Rushdie would want to draw attention to the baleful influence of Islamism on the current conflict in Gaza.

Speaking to German broadcaster RBB, he has acknowledged that: ‘Any human being right now has to be distressed by what is happening in Gaza because of the quantity of innocent death.’ But, he argues, we cannot ignore the role Hamas played in igniting the current conflict with the 7 October massacre. ‘I would just like some of the protests to mention Hamas, because that’s where this started’, he says. For Rushdie, ‘it’s very strange for young, progressive students to support a fascist, terrorist group’.

He argues that if a Palestinian state was created immediately, it would be a client state of the Islamist regime of Iran. ‘Is that what the progressive movements of the Western left wish to create?’, he asks. ‘To have another Taliban, another ayatollah-like state, in the Middle East, right next to Israel?’ He laments the lack of ‘deep thought happening’ in relation to the Gaza conflict.

Rushdie also does not shy away from highlighting the role of anti-Semitism in both the conflict in Gaza and in many of the protests in the West – a fact too often denied by those claiming to side with the Palestinians. While supporting the Palestinian cause, he notes that: ‘When it slides over towards anti-Semitism and sometimes to actual support of Hamas, then it’s very problematic.’

What Rushdie is arguing really ought to be apparent to anyone who thinks carefully about the Israel-Hamas war. Of course it is heart-wrenching to watch video footage of civilian casualties in Gaza and it is natural to feel empathy for Palestinians’ plight. But it is also vital to consider what is really driving the current conflict and, in particular, the role being played by anti-Semitic, Islamist movements.

All too often, anti-Israel activists portray the conflict in Gaza as a toytown battle between good and evil. In their view, Israel is the epitome of wickedness in the world and Palestinians are the ultimate victims. These simplistic characterisations help no one.
Love music, hate Islamism
Seven years ago today, Ariana Grande fans were looking forward to seeing their idol perform at Manchester Arena. You can imagine the giddy excitement many of them must have felt as they approached the venue that evening. The joy that surged through them as Grande stepped on to the stage and started singing.

Now try to imagine what it takes to want to destroy this joy. Try to imagine what it must take to pack a rucksack with 3,000 nuts and bolts and explosives and head out with the intention of killing young people enjoying themselves. Such a nihilistic, destructive action cuts against everything we feel, think and believe.

But that was exactly what 22-year-old Salman Abedi did. In May 2017, he bombed a pop concert. In the name of Islamism, in the name of his hatred of the West, he slaughtered young people enjoying themselves.

In some ways, the elite response to the Manchester Arena bombing compounded the horror of the act itself. The victims of Abedi’s attack had barely been buried before liberal-left pundits and politicos said almost as one, ‘Don’t look back in anger’. We were being told to remember the young lives lost, but to forget why they had been taken. We were being told to remember the victims, but to forget the perpetrator and his Islamist beliefs.

On 7 October last year, in southern Israel, Islamists once again targeted young people dancing and listening to music. Once again, they set out to extinguish youthful joy. Those Hamas operatives on that awful day saw those young people dancing at the Nova music festival, and decided to shoot, rape and mutilate hundreds of them. Another 40 were kidnapped.

What Hamas did to those festival-goers was as evil as what Salman Abedi did to those young Ariana Grande fans. This time, however, we haven’t been told to remember the victims, but ignore the Islamist cause. We haven’t been told not to look back in anger. No, the ‘progressive’ left and much of the establishment are ordering us not to look back at all.
‘Semester From Hell’: How Anti-Semitic Harassment Derailed An Israeli Student’s Soccer Dreams
Noam Nedivi moved to Michigan from Israel to play college soccer and study science. As a freshman, he wrote that it felt “unreal” to make it to this level of competitive soccer, given that “high-level adult soccer teams in Israel play in stadiums that are the same size” as the one he was playing in as a scholarship athlete at Lawrence Technological University.

His new life 6,000 miles away in Southfield, Michigan turned dark his sophomore year when he moved in with his teammate, Zavier Chimienti. Nedivi says Chimienti harassed him for four months beginning in September 2023, with anti-Jewish slurs, Nazi salutes, and full-on physical abuse.

But months after he reported the alleged abuse to both police and school officials, Nedivi is no longer on the soccer team. The school kicked both students off the team as it conducted its investigation, and, though court records show the police charged Chimienti, the investigation concluded that there was no discrimination.

An outside law firm, however, has concluded that the university mishandled its investigation. With a second external review of the evidence underway, records obtained by The Daily Wire appear to corroborate Nedivi’s allegations, including a teammate’s official witness statement to police, as well as text messages and pictures that document the claims.

‘The anti-Semitism burst out of nowhere’

“The anti-Semitism burst out of nowhere a few weeks after I moved in with Zavier Chimienti and hung up my Israeli flag,” Nedivi told The Daily Wire. The apartment also had an Italian flag — symbolizing Chimienti’s ancestry — but it was the Israeli flag that set off months of harassment.

Nedivi said Chimienti would do the Nazi salute in front of the flag, call it ugly, disgusting, and “a Jew flag.” Chimienti would often make references to the Holocaust, remarking for example that “Jews should be put in the oven because they are stinky,” according to Nedivi.

Nedivi recalled one incident where he says Chimienti ran into their room to fart before exclaiming, “I gassed the Jew,” and leaving the room.
Anti-Israel campus protests force US university to send Israeli athlete home
Israeli sprinter Gal Arad was forced this week to end his studies at the University of New Mexico abruptly amid escalating anti-Israel protests sweeping through American campuses.

Arad, who recorded the second-best result in Israeli history for the 200-meter dash (20.70 seconds) last week, was forced to return immediately to Israel after university officials informed him they were concerned about his safety and purchased him a plane ticket.

Anti-Israel activists have been escalating their protests similarly to the recent one at Columbia University. Last week, New Mexico police dismantled a protest encampment after weeks of demonstrations. Demonstrators took over the Student Union building, chanting "viva Palestine" and demanding the institution divest from companies affiliated with Israel. University President Garnett Stokes took a soft stance on the issue, expressing her support for peace. However, she hinted that the school's next investments, to be announced in August, might be influenced by the protesters' demands.

This is Arad's third year at the university, where he is studying computer science and has been commended for his achievements. He will now have to find another institution to continue and complete his studies.

Arad confirmed the details but promised the Foreign Ministry, which is handling the case, that he would not address the issue. "It happened so quickly. The only thing I can say is that I will have to complete my third year and degree elsewhere," said Arad.

Arad, 24, made his breakthrough this season despite disruptions to his training routine. He set a time of 20.62 seconds for the 200-meter dash in the United States. Although his result will not be recognized due to a tailwind of 2.1 meters per second, he has a personal record of 10.54 seconds in the 100-meter dash. He is considered one of the top athletes on the university team.

Due to his unexpected return to Israel, Arad participated in the Jerusalem Grand Slam on Monday, the first international competition in Israel since October 7, and finished fifth (20.83) in the 200-meter race, won by Blessing Afrifah.

The university vice president Eddie Nuñez said in response they did not at any point chose to send Gal home.
Brigham Young University ‘nothing but supportive,’ its Jewish quarterback says
The Jewish quarterback of the men’s football team at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints-associated Brigham Young University often likes to talk football rather than politics.

“Other times, I’m like, ‘Yeah, it is definitely a big deal, especially in today’s political climate,’” Jake Retzlaff told the Y’s Guys podcast. “There is not enough good news in the world, period. So, you might as well be some of it.”

The 6-foot-1 inch-tall native of Corona, Calif., who is majoring in exercise science and says he is the team’s best ping-pong player, is the son of Steve and Max Retzlaff, per the BYU website. He has often been photographed wearing a Star of David necklace.

He wears No. 12 and was ranked the top quarterback in a 2023 ESPN ranking for Junior College 50 and 46th overall.

Retzlaff said it’s “good news that there is a Jewish starting quarterback at BYU.”

“That’s good news because maybe some thought it was impossible,” he added. “And, maybe some are thinking the Jews aren’t doing too well right now because, frankly, we are not, with Israel being in the state that it is constantly in—and even worse now, and the political climate all over campuses in America right now is unbelievable.”

The Jewish quarterback said he is grateful that BYU has been “nothing but supportive” he has been able to grow in his Jewish faith.
Campus protests in Australia highlight rising tensions and antisemitism in the country
Australia’s mid-year report card is in and we appear to be failing nearly every class. Sub-standard grades in logic and common sense, falling short in history and research, an F for language and communications, and close to zero for team work.

Recent events read like a Jewish fever dream. First, our federal government, unlike most of our allies, voted yes to the latest UN General Assembly resolution to grant rights and privileges to “Palestine” – a decision that was seen by many as rewarding Hamas for its October 7 massacre. This possibly helped inspire a Muslim Labor Party senator to call a press conference to accuse Israel of genocide, demand a boycott of the Jewish state and conclude with the infamous genocidal chant “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”

A few weeks prior, another pro-Palestinian advocate proudly hosted what could only be labeled as a children’s holiday indoctrination program at one of the country’s largest university campuses. Footage showed Aussie kids as young as five calling for an end to Israel.

Campus protests down under
And last weekend, angry mobs of “pro-Palestinian” protesters stormed the state conference of the governing Labor Party, as similar groups attempted to overrun a peaceful rally against antisemitism. Some local news outlets reported the latter violence as a “clash” rather than the assault it really was. And I haven’t even gotten to the university encampments yet.

I used to joke that Aussies couldn’t commit to a rally or a protest longer than it took for the next round of footy (Australian football) or the next cricket test match, but things seem to have changed. I have concluded that there has been a generational shift, coupled with real inertia in our national leadership. How else can one explain the level of anger and vehemence that we have witnessed at these protests? People with no skin in the game finding their meaning in a conflict far, far away?

It took about a week for our Gen Zs to set up tent cities at university campuses across the nation in emulation of the scenes at prominent schools in the US. These sit ins, or “die ins” as one protest at the University of Melbourne called theirs, are definitely not sites of debate and discussion.

Even worse is that as the protesters set up camp, there is regular participation by non-students, who don’t even attempt to conceal their aggressive propaganda tactics.
Ed Department launches Title VI investigations into Santa Monica College, two school districts
The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights announced investigations on Tuesday into claims of discrimination involving shared ancestry at Santa Monica College in California; Evanston Township High School District 202 in Illinois; and Goddard Unified School District 265 in Kansas.

The Office for Civil Rights does not release explanations for the origins of each investigation.

Donald Girard, senior director of government relations and institutional communications at Santa Monica College, told JNS that the school had learned of the investigation on Monday and that, quoting from the complaint, it involved “alleged harassment of students by a professor based on national origin (shared Jewish ancestry).”

He added that the investigation “arises out of concerns expressed about an ethnic-studies class,” pointing to a statement March 10 from superintendent/president Kathryn E. Jeffery.

“The college is confident it met its legal obligations under federal law, and will fully cooperate and respond to the OCR investigation,” said Girard.

Reine Hanna, the interim director of communications for Evanston Township High School District 202, told JNS that “the district is fully cooperating with the Department of Education’s investigation. We do not comment on open investigations.”
Rick Scott tells colleges condoning Jew-hatred he’ll fight ‘to rescind every last cent of taxpayer funding’
Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) wrote to university presidents on Tuesday informing them that he will do everything in his control to investigate and defund schools that fail to support Jewish students.

The senator expressed “profound concern” about demonstrations and encampments on college and university campuses and “lawless display of support for terrorists and incitement of violent acts toward Israel and the Jewish people.”

“Many failed to take appropriate action to ensure the safety of Jewish students, who faced the risk of horrific antisemitic verbal and physical attacks,” Scott said. “This failure cannot happen again.”

Scott said he would do “everything in my power to ensure that institutions that allow this lawless and hateful activity are fully investigated and held accountable for any violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.”

“I’ll also continue my fight to rescind every last cent of taxpayer funding of any institution that condones this antisemitism through the Stop Antisemitism on College Campuses Act,” he wrote.

“As the summer semesters begin, it is imperative you take decisive action to ensure that your campus is safe for all students,” he added. “You can help restore trust in your institution and reaffirm the values that universities and the United States should uphold.”
Harvard Slapped With Lawsuit Alleging ‘Cruel Anti-Semitic Bullying, Harassment, and Discrimination’ on Campus
Harvard University on Tuesday was sued in federal court by a leading civil rights organization for allowing "cruel anti-Semitic bullying, harassment, and discrimination" to take place on its campus for years without any action by the Ivy League’s leaders, according to a copy of the lawsuit obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.

The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, which is leading the charge to hold a range of American universities accountable for an explosion of anti-Semitism on campus, filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts. The complaint outlines a litany of anti-Semitic incidents on campus—including calls for violence against Jews by professors and student protesters—and alleges that Harvard’s top administrators knowingly turned a blind eye to these incidents. The civil rights group is handling the case on behalf of five Jewish and Israeli students who claim to have been subjected to anti-Semitic harassment and bullying.

"[W]hen Harvard is presented with incontrovertible evidence of anti-Semitic conduct, it ignores and tolerates it," the lawsuit states. "Harvard’s permissive posture towards anti-Semitism is the opposite of its aggressive enforcement of the same anti-bullying and anti-discrimination policies to protect other minorities."

The lawsuit is the latest in a string of damning allegations suggesting that Harvard’s leadership has systematically failed to address a host of anti-Semitic incidents that have erupted on campus in the wake of Hamas’s Oct. 7 terror attack on Israel. Six students also sued Harvard in January, alleging the school has become a bastion of anti-Semitism. Harvard is being investigated by Congress for similar reasons, with a House investigation last week determining that Harvard’s top leaders, including interim president Alan Garber, ignored recommendations from the school’s in-house anti-Semitism task force and failed to investigate instances of anti-Semitic harassment that were raised by students, teachers, and parents. The situation, students and civil rights groups say, has left Harvard’s grounds a dangerous place for Jews.

"Harvard has been deliberately indifferent to the pervasive antisemitism on campus, creating an unbearable educational environment," the lawsuit alleges. "Jewish and Israeli students feel isolated, unwelcome, and unable to enjoy the educational rights and benefits to which they are legally entitled."


Ahead of House hearing, Jewish Rutgers students, faculty condemn handling of campus antisemitism
Ahead of testimony on Capitol Hill on Thursday by Rutgers University President Jonathan Holloway, hundreds of Jewish Rutgers students, faculty, administrators and staff signed onto a pair of letters condemning the school’s handling of antisemitism on campus.

Rutgers’ administration agreed to many of the demands put forward by anti-Israel protesters on campus, but refused to divest from companies linked to Israel or cut ties with Tel Aviv University. Lawmakers, including Gov. Phil Murphy, have condemned the university’s handling of the situation.

The more than 150 students who signed the student-led letter wrote that they “would like to share our experiences of the past academic year in the hope of conveying the hurt, pain, and isolation that many of us have suffered and suggesting ways that the entire university community might do better in the future, not just to support its Jewish students, but to create a more tolerant climate for all its members.”

The students said that anti-Israel demonstrators had “in short… taken over our university,” including by forcing the delay of final exams, taking over building and blocking events.

They said they felt “abandoned” by people they considered friends in the wake of the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, some of whom defended the Hamas massacre and “quickly mobilized in support of terror, conveying to us that we would not be safe and welcome at the university many of us called home.”

The students further accused “many faculty and staff” of having “guided [protesters] in tactics of intimidation and menacing protest,” helped the students negotiate with administrators and in some cases “allowed for and perpetuated antisemitic behavior in their own classrooms.”
Rutgers University adviser routinely shares pro-Hamas social media posts, calls attacks on IDF soldiers ‘funny’
A New Jersey lawyer who sits on one of Rutgers University’s advisory boards routinely shares bloodthirsty pro-Hamas content on his social media accounts — including a slew of posts celebrating attacks on Israeli soldiers as “hunting season.”

Rajeh A. Saadeh, a divorce and family attorney from New Jersey and member of the board of advisors for the school’s Center for Security, Race and Rights, has taken to sharing daily clips on his personal Instagram page of Israel Defense Forces personnel being gunned down in Gaza in the wake of the Oct. 7 terror attack.

In a video posted over the weekend that showed a Hamas terrorist appearing to assassinate three IDF soldiers, Saadeh captioned the video: “Say a prayer.”

“Three birds one stone,” he wrote alongside a similar post that showed three soldiers being blown up by a rocket-propelled grenade.

Another video showed Hamas fighters climbing out of tunnels and firing upon Israeli soldiers while chanting “Allah Akbar.”

“Scenes from an ongoing epic!” he captioned the clip, alongside the hashtags “funny” and “lol.”

Saadeh, who is also on the advisory for the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ New Jersey chapter, regularly retweets antisemitic content via his X account, too.


EXPOSED | UC Berkeley Professor suggests Israel to blame for October 7th | V24 Investigations
V24Investigates continues our series of undercover investigations into American universities where radical terrorist sympathizing professors and administrators indoctrinate students with patently absurd and noxious views on Israel and what happened October 7th.

UC Berkely Professor Rakesh Bhandari tells our journalist:

• That Oct 7th was perpetrated by “gangs raping and pillaging within Gaza who came over the border and did the same thing” and that “they weren’t ordered by Hamas” and that this “undermines the narrative of the war”

• Suggests Israel is to blame as “there is a story of technological failure, arrogance and maybe racism here” (on the part of Israel)

• Cites a U.N. report where “they didn’t pin the rapes on Hamas” (at the Nova festival) to bolster his claim that this was perpetrated by a random group of those that “do look like gangsters”

• “Israel doesn’t want to talk about it because it looks like…’we left the fence down for 6 hours’…and this starts to get on Israel to some extent”

• “Israel intensifies (the conflict)…because they want full scale war” and lays blame on the Minister of National Security Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich for “provoking” Palestinians with settlement expansions “so they can justify a full scale war.”

The victim blaming and false narrative peddling, cloaked in a veneer of academic rationalizing, is rotting America’s top universities from inside out.

More congressional hearings are certainly needed by the House Committee on Education and Labor post haste.

Time to add UC Berkeley leadership to the subpoenaed testimony list?


HIDDEN CAM | “Brick By Brick, Wall By Wall, Israel Will Fall” chant Rutgers Students
The next stop in the V24Investigates series into radical Islamist terror apologists at America’s universities took us to Rutgers University where:

* A DEI Admin speaks to the “polarization” on Rutgers campus between pro-Palestinian students and pro-Israel students

* Pro-Palestinian Encampment students chant “Brick by brick, wall by wall, Israel will fall!”

* Rutgers Religious Studies Dept. Admin. Assistant calls Israel the real terrorists. Claims Israel thinks they can get away with “genocide” because “someone wrote a book 4,000 years ago.”

* Rutgers University hosted speakers Rashid Khalidi and Dr. Nadine Nabor according to another Religious Studies Dept. Admin.

* Dr. Nadine Nabor (Prof. of Gender Studies) gave a talk entitled: “Palestine is a feminist and queer anti-imperialist-abolition struggle”

* Rutgers professor Maya Mikdashi (at this lecture originally recorded by The StuStuStudio) says those who call out Hamas’ treatment of gays “we have to start naming this as actually homophobic.”

* Prof. Nabor says: “Indeed the practices of rape and sexual assault that have been well documented during the founding of Israel continue today are not an exception or a secondary impact of colonial violence but part of the settler colonial white supremacist logics and practices of Israel.”




Israel reverses decision to shut down Associated Press live footage
Israeli officials have reversed a decision to seize journalism equipment from the Associated Press on Tuesday in a move that had initially been widely criticized.

The AP had been sharing its broadcast feed of northern Gaza with al Jazeera, as it does with thousands of other news outlets across the globe, but the Israeli government recently closed the outlet’s broadcaster operations earlier this month after passing a new law, citing national security concerns.

Al Jazeera is a Qatari news outlet, and Israeli leaders have long accused the publication of bias against the country. Israel closed the news outlet’s offices earlier this month.

Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi initially announced the move, only to renege hours later. He said the Israeli Ministry of Defense would “re-examine the matter of broadcasts from sensitive locations and their effect on the risk of our forces” and added that “in light of this, the Communications Minister ordered that the equipment be returned to the AP agency at this stage, until the security opinion is received and the issue re-examined.”

The AP initially denounced the move, arguing that it was an abuse of the new foreign broadcaster law.

“The Associated Press decries in the strongest terms the actions of the Israeli government to shut down our longstanding live feed showing a view into Gaza and seize AP equipment,” said Lauren Easton, the vice president of corporate communications at the AP. “The shutdown was not based on the content of the feed but rather an abusive use by the Israeli government of the country’s new foreign broadcaster law.”

“We urge the Israeli authorities to return our equipment and enable us to reinstate our live feed immediately so we can continue to provide this important visual journalism to thousands of media outlets around the world,” Easton said.
BBC graphic misleads on humanitarian aid crossing
Five days after the appearance of Wong’s report, the US military reported that over 569 tonnes of aid had already entered the Gaza Strip via the new maritime route. However on the same day, Reuters and other media outlets reported that:
“The U.N. said that 10 truckloads of food aid – transported from the pier site by U.N. contractors – were received on Friday at a World Food Programme warehouse in Deir El Balah in Gaza.

But on Saturday, only five truckloads made it to the warehouse after 11 others were cleaned out by Palestinians during the journey through an area that a U.N. official said has been hard to access with humanitarian aid.

“They’ve not seen trucks for a while,” a U.N. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters. “They just basically mounted on the trucks and helped themselves to some of the food parcels.””

BBC audiences have yet to see any reporting on that story. Both Adams and Wong devoted just one sentence in their reports to the issue of the theft of humanitarian aid, notably without any mention of Hamas:
Adams (report 2): “But given the threats faced by aid convoys, which have been looted by gangs, mobbed by desperate civilians, and shot at by the Israeli military, how safe will this operation be?”

Wong: “Deliveries to Gaza have considerably slowed down. Sending aid by land can be dangerous, with convoys at times looted by gangs and mobbed by desperate civilians.”

If the BBC really does intend to provide its audiences with accurate and impartial information on the topic of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip – a topic which has become all the more relevant in recent days given the ICC’s accusation of ‘starvation’ – it should not only focus on the amount of aid entering via crossings and other routes but also start reporting more thoroughly on what happens to that aid once it enters the territory and the actions of some Palestinians which prevent that aid from reaching civilians.
CTV Interviews UNRWA Representative Who Says Israel’s Efforts To Minimize Civilian Casualties Have Caused “Panic And Anxiety”
A May 13 broadcast of Your Morning, a CTV program, interviewed Louise Wateridge of UNRWA, the disgraced United Nations agency with ties to Palestinian terrorism, for her thoughts on Israel’s counter-terrorism operations in the Gaza region of Rafah.

The segment entitled: “Humanitarian corridor desperately needed in Rafah,” featured Wateridge telling her host that Israel’s recent evacuation order in Rafah, which informed civilians in the area of Israel’s expected military operations, had “caused panic and anxiety” among the population.

Wateridge described the mood in Rafah as “eerie” and “scary,” adding that “the speed at which people have had to flee for their lives is something I struggle to explain.”

What Wateridge struggled to explain is in actuality quite straightforward: Israel’s providing of advance warning of counter-terrorism operations represents a laudable and virtually unheard-of step among militaries, which is aimed at minimizing civilian casualties in an urban warzone, even as Hamas, the genocidal Islamic terrorist group, aims to maximize civilian deaths by using Gazans as human shields.

Despite heavy fighting between Israel and Hamas terrorists in Rafah, the last major holdout of the group in Gaza, Wateridge said that “we are not evacuating Rafah,” a statement which on the surface appears noble and even perhaps brave, but in actuality is reckless and irresponsible.

Rather than helping Gaza’s civilians find safety elsewhere, UNRWA is deliberately keeping them in an active warzone.

As scandalous and dangerous as UNRWA’s actions are, it comes as no surprise to observers who are familiar with the agency and its dalliance with Palestinian terrorism. On May 14, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) released a video showing gun-toting Palestinian terrorists freely roaming around an UNRWA compound in Rafah, shooting at civilians.
CTV News Windsor Gives Fawning & One-Sided Coverage To Tiny Anti-Israel Protest Representing 0.08% Of Students At University Of Windsor
Nearly 18,000 students attend the University of Windsor, but a loud group of perhaps 15 radical anti-Israel protesters – representing roughly 0.08 percent of the total university enrolment – have attracted media attention from CTV Windsor.

In a May 13 broadcast for CTV Windsor entitled: “Liberation Zone ready for extended stay at UWindsor,” News Reporter Bob Bellacicco didn’t just report on the anti-Israel occupation; he provided a sanitized, one-sided view of the mob, failing to provide any criticisms of them whatsoever.

In both the broadcast and accompanying news article, not a single student was identified by full name, and in one case, a protester’s face is fully obscured by a keffiyeh, a favourite garment used in pro-Hamas rallies.

One protester, identified only as Jana, told the camera that the University of Windsor has “to agree to our demands, and then we can leave.” While such demands could be reasonably seen as being akin to a hostage-taker making demands, Bellacicco nevertheless told viewers that the encampment is peaceful.

Nowhere in the report did Bellacicco interview anyone opposed to the encampment, including members of Windsor’s Jewish community, other students, or even a resident of Windsor, given that recent polling data shows that roughly half of Canadians oppose the anti-Israel campus occupations, while only 30 percent claim to support them.

One keffiyeh-clad protester told the camera that “every single university in Gaza has been destroyed…every hospital has been targeted,” adding that “our tuition money is going to a literal genocide.”

Rather than providing any context to viewers and readers that Hamas, the genocidal Islamic terrorist organization dedicated to Israel’s destruction, has widely embedded themselves in Gaza’s civilian infrastructure, and that by no standard whatsoever is there any “genocide” taking place in Gaza, Bellacicco simply gave a platform to the radical anti-Israel campus occupiers.

Referring to the encampment as “pro-Palestinian,” as Bellacicco did, is similarly factually untrue. The demands include boycotting Israel, divesting from Israel, and sanctioning Israel. The target of their ire is Israel; they are not pro-Palestinian, but simply anti-Israel.


Guardian omits pro-Palestinian Congressman's antisemitism
Unsurprisingly, the Guardian doesn’t inform readers why AIPAC opposes Bowman’s re-election and is supporting his opponent in the Democratic Primary.

Context that could have been provided includes the fact that even J Street – the putatively ‘pro-Israel’ US lobbying group that’s in fact known primarily for its criticism of Israel and support for candidates who share their hyper-critical view of the state – recently pulled their endorsement of Bowman over his extreme anti-Israel rhetoric since Oct. 7.

Bowman, a member of the informal uber-progressive, anti-Zionist group in Congress known as ‘the Squad’, accused Israel multiple times of engaging in genocide, including as early as November, and smeared Israeli supporters with the charge of being complicit in genocide.

Further, the congressman called evidence of Hamas’ sexual violence on Oct. 7 a “lie” inspired by Israeli “propaganda” at an pro-Palestinian rally. He distanced himself from those comments only after the video was revealed, which was months after he made the remarks. Bowman also recently peddled another antisemitic conspiracy theory, claiming that AIPAC has “full control of Congress”.

Bowman also defended the decision to place a taxpayer-funded mural of notorious anti-Semite Louis Farrakhan in a NY suburb, and, just this month, he hosted a fundraiser with an extremist Muslim leader who praised the Oct. 7 massacre.

The fact that the Guardian frowns upon the fact that a pro-Israel organisation in the US is (legally) spending money to defeat Bowman, while failing to reveal the congressman’s antisemitic record, is yet another example of the outlet’s dishonesty when covering issues of concern to the Jewish community.


Across political and religious spectrum, 61 Jewish groups urge House to take up antisemitism bill
A rare coalition of 61 Jewish groups — encompassing a broad political and denominational spectrum of the Jewish community — came together on Tuesday to urge House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) to promptly take up the bipartisan Countering Antisemitism Act, Jewish Insider has learned.

The bill, which has bipartisan support in both the House and Senate, would implement a dedicated White House coordinator for antisemitism, among a series of other steps to improve and coordinate federal efforts to fight antisemitism. The legislation has become something of a political football in recent weeks amid partisan debates over antisemitism and Israel legislation.

The letter, organized by the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, the Religious Action Center, National Council of Jewish Women, the Anti-Defamation League and the American Jewish Committee, highlights broad-based Jewish community support for the legislation. It includes signatories ranging from J Street and the Nexus Leadership Project on the left to the Zionist Organization of America on the right.

The full denominational spectrum is also represented, including the Reform, Conservative, Orthodox and Reconstructionist movements.
Northern Virginia sheriff probing anti-Israel graffiti at four Starbucks stores
The Loudoun County, Va. sheriff’s office is investigating “anti-Israel/pro-Palestine graffiti and property damage” that vandalized four Starbucks stores in Ashburn on Monday night.

“Hate speech and destruction of property will not be tolerated in Loudoun County,” said Mike Chapman, sheriff of the county, which had the highest median household income in the nation in 2022.

“We are actively investigating these incidents as we do all similar acts and are determined to identify and charge whoever is responsible,” Chapman said.

According to the sheriff’s office, “various words and symbols” were spray-painted on the outsides of the stores. The vandalism has been removed or covered up by Starbucks staff, it stated.

After Starbucks staff saw and reported the graffiti on Tuesday morning, the sheriff’s office “promptly responded and believes the incidents are related,” it stated.

At one of the stores, staff found “free Palestine” and “I heart genocide” painted on the building, NBC4 Washington reported. A resident of the county told the news station that “if you want to have a discussion, find a place a place where the discussion is welcome instead of somewhere where people, I guess, are trying to get coffee in the morning.”

Another Loudon County resident told NBC4 that she has been boycotting Starbucks, “because I am supporting Palestine in that sense, but I would never, you know, there’s people who work there, who have, that’s where they get their paycheck. Like, I wouldn’t go as far as trying to affect them in that sense.”

Images that circulated on social media appeared to show the inscriptions “death to capitalism” and “victory to Hamas,” and “boycott,” “Sbux loves genocide” and “free Palestine.”


Setting the stories of the October 7 heroes to music
“The Israeli people tend to tell our stories from the perspective of victimhood,” says award-winning Israeli recording artist Gilad Segev, “but we need to start telling our story in the narrative of heroism.”

Segev started Project Heroes “to change that narrative of our own perception and project it to the rest of the world.”

The immersive multimedia show Segev has already put on in New York City, Palo Alto, Los Angeles, and will present on May 22 and May 23 in Montreal and Ottawa, respectively, weaves together recorded and live music, music videos and documentary scenes — in English or in Hebrew with English subtitles — to honor the unexpected heroes of October 7 and its aftermath.

Heroes like Aner Shapira, an off-duty soldier who was at the Supernova party near Kibbutz Re’im on October 7 and ran to a shelter where 30 people were surrounded by terrorists throwing grenades. Shapira caught seven hand grenades and threw them back out, but the eighth one exploded in his hand and killed him.

All profits from the project will be donated to residents of Gaza border communities and others impacted by the Hamas attacks. Songs for heroes

The death of his brother, an IDF officer killed in the line of duty, triggered Segev’s career 20 years ago. His song “Achshav Tov” (Now it’s Alright) rose to the top of the Israeli charts.

Under the name Passerby, Segev became a traveling artist with fans and collaborators in countries including China, Japan, Cuba and Malawi. There’s a Passerby book and an upcoming TV series documenting “Passerby Heroes” who’ve overcome difficulties through music.

“When October 7 happened, I was on the west side of Mongolia in the most remote place I’ve ever been,” Segev told Israel Radio Hour.

“When I heard the news, I was shocked by the atrocities but I was also shocked by the amazing acts of heroism I encountered and the sacrifices involved.”

It was time to take the Passerby project home.

He posted texts about the heroes on social media. The volume of responses in many different languages encouraged him to turn them into songs in cooperation with his producer, Gilad Shmueli, and the families of the heroes.




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