Thursday, June 27, 2024

06/27 Links Pt2: Why Did a Massacre of Jews Lead to an Explosion of Antisemitism?; Jewish Profs discuss hostile campuses at House hearing; Anti-Semitism and Tonight’s Debate

From Ian:

Melanie Phillips: The driver of Western Jew-hatred
President Joe Biden has condemned the mobbing of the Los Angeles synagogue as “appalling,” “unconscionable” and “antisemitic.” Yet his administration does everything it can to prevent Israel from eviscerating the “appalling,” “unconscionable” and “antisemitic” regimes of Hamas and Hezbollah, while also forbidding Israel from striking the head of the genocidal snake in Tehran.

Moreover, not only does America continue to fund the P.A. despite its murderous Jew-hatred, but the Biden administration also continues to promote the Islamo-Nazi entity as the worthy rulers of a post-Gaza war Palestine state.

In Britain, the Labour Party leader Sir Keir Starmer, who is expected to become prime minister in next week’s general election, has written affectingly about sharing Israel’s current trauma through his wife’s Jewish relatives.

Nevertheless, Labour’s election manifesto suggests, albeit in ambiguous and deniable form, that a Labour government might unilaterally declare a state of Palestine—a supremely hostile act that would greatly imperil Israel’s security still further and is promoted by those who want the Jewish state gone.

In a party election broadcast, Starmer also pledged to London’s Labour mayor, Sadiq Khan, that a Labour government would have a “zero tolerance approach” to Islamophobia.

Since “Islamophobia” covers any criticism of the Islamic world, Labour’s policy appears to mean stamping upon any critic of Islam with the force of law, including anyone who dares call out the wildly disproportionate level of Jew-hatred in the Muslim world.

The never-ending war between the Palestinian Arabs and Israel has been created and perpetuated by the West’s behavior in sanitizing, excusing, legitimizing, funding and incentivizing the Islamo-Nazis and their preposterous, mendacious, brain-frying “Palestinian” cause.

In The Wall Street Journal this week, Seth Cropsey, president of the Yorktown Institute and a former U.S. deputy under-secretary of the Navy, wrote that Iran has activated a network of global Islamist sympathizers to ramp up public pressure on Israel as an essential element of its strategy of attrition to destroy the Jewish state.

Tehran’s goal, he wrote, is to get Western politicians to back a ceasefire. “By slowing the conflict down and splitting Israel from the U.S. and its allies, Iran aims to make Israel an international pariah,” he said.

The Palestinian cause has been manipulated by Iran into a wedge issue. It has turned America against Israel, lined up liberals with Islamo-Nazis, and set Jew against Jew. And after Iran finishes with Israel, the West is next.

Palestinianism hasn’t just been used to give a veneer of respectability to Jew-hatred. It is being weaponized against civilization.
Brendan O'Neill: Antisemitism - The Hatred that Hides Itself in Palestinian Colors
I don't want to see protest of any kind outside a synagogue. What happened in LA at the Adas Torah synagogue last weekend was horrifying. Pro-Palestinian protesters turned up with Palestinian flags. They chanted, "There is only one solution - intifada revolution."

Let's be clear: this was the intimidation of Jews masquerading as political protest. The protesters said they picketed the synagogue because a real estate event was taking place inside, at which people were browsing houses for sale in Israel. What a thin excuse for mobbing a synagogue. The fact is this: if you are screaming at Jews as they enter their house of worship, you are not one of the good guys.

In fact, you are reminiscent of some of the worst guys in history. To holler at Jews about "intifada" eight months after an "intifada" claimed the lives of more than a thousand Jews in Israel is Jew-baiting, plain and simple. It is cruelty, not activism. It is more a mini-pogrom than an act of protest. If being "progressive" now means rubbing Jews' noses in an act of apocalyptic violence that claimed the lives of a thousand of their co-religionists, then I guess I'm not progressive anymore.

It feels to me that there is insufficient outrage over the intimidation of Jews in LA. The "anti-racists" are silent. Perhaps Jew-taunting is okay so long as you wear a keffiyeh while you're doing it. Antisemitism is reaching crisis levels in America and Europe. Attacks on Jews have shot up. It's time we got serious - very serious - about this hatred that hides itself in the Palestinian colors.
Why Did a Massacre of Jews Lead to an Explosion of Antisemitism?
The tragedy of Oct. 7 was so enormous, the violence of Hamas so blatant, the images of Jews being massacred so graphic, this posed a stunning threat to the cemented narrative of Israel as the oppressors and Palestinians as the oppressed.

Thus, it would require an immediate and massive response to shift the focus back to Israel. The world must know that big, bad Israel had it coming. That is the narrative that must never be disturbed.

The problem was that no one had seen such savage, monumental Palestinian violence as they saw on Oct. 7, so the usual explanations like the “occupation” were too small, too quaint. Occupation was too 1967. Occupation was two-states.

To match the epic nature of Oct. 7, the haters had to go back to 1948. They had to undermine the very birth of the Jewish state.

That’s why we’ve been hearing cries of “we don’t want two states” and “from the river to the sea”. This is no longer about ending an occupation for future co-existence. This is about ending Israel’s very existence.

The war in Gaza has fueled the rioters in two ways. One, it has given them a pretext to use the deaths of Palestinians as a moral cover. But again, notice the use of extreme language—not occupation but apartheid and genocide.

The second way the war has fueled the rioters is by reminding them how difficult it will be to get rid of Israel. This has exacerbated their rage. They see that these are not the powerless Jews who went to their slaughter in Holocaust death camps. These are badass Zionists who know how to fight.

Nevertheless, Oct. 7 introduced the tantalizing possibility that even these badass Zionists can be defeated. After 75 years of military victories, the dreaded Jewish state finally got the spanking it deserved. The haters smelled blood, even victory.

So while the war has put Israel back in the oppressor camp, this is no longer enough of a victory. Oct. 7 made the haters taste the ultimate victory of eliminating Israel, and they like the taste. That’s why they’re going hysterical. Their mission is to put Israel squarely in the defeated camp.

The Jews have tasted that camp before, however, and no matter how the world may feel about dead Jews, they will fight like hell to never taste it again.


NGO Monitor: FIDH and Its PFLP-Linked Member NGOs Lead “Genocide” Accusation Against Israel
On December 12, 2023, Paris-based international NGO, International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), published and promoted a resolution headlined, “Israel’s unfolding crime of genocide and other crimes in Gaza and against the Palestinian People.” It was adopted by FIDH’s international board in November 2023, making FIDH the first major international NGOs to accuse Israel of genocide in Gaza.

Under the facade of human rights, the resolution includes several false accusations (“Israel’s use of starvation as a tool of warfare” and “forced displacement”), and repeats recurrent demonizing themes (“apartheid,” “systematic domination and oppression over the Palestinian people for over 75 years”), to support the conclusion that “Israel’s actions against the Palestinian people constitute an unfolding genocide.”

This FIDH statement is part of a campaign marked by atrocity inversion, aimed at portraying Israel as the world’s worst violator of human rights. When this NGO network accuses the Jewish State of genocide, it is also seeking to distract attention from the October 7 Hamas atrocities (see NGO Monitor’s report: “NGO Atrocity Inversion: False Accusations of Genocide and Ethnic Cleansing to Distract from Hamas Massacre”).

FIDH’s Palestinian NGO members – Al-Haq (represented on FIDH’s international board), Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR), and Al Mezan – clearly influenced the resolution. The three are closely linked to the PFLP terror group, and promoted the genocide canard from the first days of the war. On October 11, Al-Haq tweeted, “For the fifth day, the occupation forces continue to launch their attacks on the #Gaza Strip… in such a way that amounts to acts of genocide” (translated from the original Arabic). On October 15, Al-Haq, Al Mezan, and PCHR published a statement on twitter claiming that “Palestinians are facing an impending genocide.” Similarly, from October 9, 2023, Al-Haq, PCHR, and Al Mezan accused Israel of “employing Starvation as a Weapon.” These and many similar posts and statements are reflected in FIDH’s statements.

The NGO campaign extended to the South African case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ). The directors of the three Palestinian FIDH partner NGOs – Shawan Jabarin (Al-Haq), Raji Sourani (PCHR), and Issam Younis (Al-Mezan) – served as advisers for the South African delegation to the ICJ.

In parallel, in November 2023, FIDH together with Al-Haq, PCHR, and Al Mezan demanded that the ICC “issue arrest warrants” against Israelis “for war crimes and crimes of genocide.”
House votes to bar State Department from citing Hamas casualty figures
The U.S. House of Representatives passed an amendment to the annual U.S. State Department appropriations bill on Thursday that would bar the department from citing casualty figures from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry.

The amendment, introduced by Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.) and co-sponsored by Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.), Joe Wilson (R-S.C.), Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.) and Carol Miller (R-W.Va.), passed 269-144, with 62 Democrats joining 207 Republicans to ensure its passage.

All of the House Democratic leadership opposed the measure, except caucus vice chair Ted Lieu (D-Calif.). Two Republicans, Reps. Paul Gosar (Ariz.) and Matthew Rosendale (Mont.), also voted against it.

In a floor speech supporting his amendment, Moskowitz said civilian deaths in Gaza were tragic but that the State Department should not be using casualty figures provided by a U.S.-designated terrorist group.

“The Gaza Ministry of Health is the Hamas Ministry of Health,” Moskowitz said. “It is Hamas’s goal to sell propaganda to the American people, to sell propaganda to the world.”

“Hamas is not a credible source,” he added. “Since when is Hamas credible?”

U.S. President Joe Biden and administration officials have repeatedly cited Hamas’s casualty statistics in congressional testimony and press briefings, and Biden cited them in a State of the Union.

Defenders of the Hamas statistics claim that in previous rounds of conflict in Gaza, the terror group’s casualty claims have correlated broadly with later Israeli and U.N. conclusions. But in the current conflict, Hamas has issued multiple, self-contradictory claims about how many Palestinians have been killed in Gaza.

Earlier this month, an Associated Press analysis slammed the news outlet’s own reporting for repeating Hamas’s claim that more than two-thirds of the Gazan casualties were women and children, even as Hamas’s so-called “detailed” casualty lists refuted that claim.

Speaking on the House floor on Thursday to oppose the Moskowitz amendment, Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) said that the amendment was “genocide denial.”

“I know the majority of this chamber doesn’t believe Palestinians should live or exist,” Tlaib said. “There’s so much anti-Palestinian racism in this chamber that my colleagues don’t even want to acknowledge that Palestinians exist at all.”


Australia is turning a blind eye to anti-Israel extremism
The police response to what has now amounted to tens of thousands of dollars of damage has bordered on indifference. No charges have been issued so far. During the Covid lockdowns, Victoria Police arrested a pregnant woman in her own home for creating an anti-lockdown Facebook group, and spent significant state resources prosecuting people for exercising and shopping. Yet they look the other way when Israelophobes threaten our elected representatives.

The response of federal authorities has also been desperately wanting. Mike Burgess, head of Australia’s domestic intelligence agency, has consistently warned the public over the dangers of far-right extremism. Yet he has been silent over these orchestrated attacks by anti-Israel activists on politicians’ offices. The Australian Federal Police, for its part, has even started telling staff working for MPs supportive of Israel to work from home. Politicians are effectively being told to capitulate to fear and intimidation.

Prime minister Albanese has insisted that those responsible for vandalising Burns’s office should face the ‘full force of the law’. But overall, his response has been very weak. He told activists to ‘dial down’ the aggression, and even came close to justifying it. ‘Some people feel very strongly about issues in the Middle East’, he said.

Political leaders can’t say that they weren’t warned about the escalating violence we are currently witnessing. Many anti-Israel protests had sinister undertones from the moment they exploded on to the streets after 7 October. After all, participants were concealing their faces while calling for the only Jewish state in the world to be erased ‘from the river to the sea’.

This year, the same people have been allowed to disrupt university lessons, plaster anti-Semitic stickers in common university areas and, last month, harass elderly members of the Jewish community attending a ‘Never Again is Now’ rally.

These young activists seem incapable of tolerance or empathy. They have grown up amid trigger warnings and ‘safe spaces’, and have been told over and over again that their feelings and emotions are all important. Little wonder that as adults they now feel empowered to express these feelings and emotions, no matter how intolerant or anti-Semitic they might be. What’s more, the authorities seem powerless or unwilling to stop them.

It is disturbing enough that anti-Israel activists are engaging in self-righteous acts of anti-Semitic vandalism. More troubling still is the fact that the authorities are effectively permitting it.
Democratic software ActBlue allows Palestinian terrorism-tied group to fundraise
Top Democratic fundraising software ActBlue allows a subsidiary of a Palestinian terrorism-linked charity on its platform, according to a Washington Examiner review.

A little-known group called Colorado Freedom Fund has an active account through ActBlue’s charitable arm and is accepting donations via credit cards, PayPal, and Google Pay, a fundraising portal shows. But Colorado Freedom Fund isn’t a stand-alone entity: It is funded and managed by Alliance for Global Justice, an organization in Arizona that payment processors recently removed from their systems over a series of Washington Examiner reports on its ties to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a U.S.-designated terrorist faction.

ActBlue’s decision to allow the AFGJ-housed project on its platform illustrates how nonprofit organizations with connections to terrorism appear to take advantage of loopholes to fundraise in the United States. Last year, ActBlue removed an account for the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel, which the Washington Examiner reported is a project of AFGJ. The charity in Tucson, Arizona, houses an Israeli-designated terrorist group called Samidoun that shares staffers with the PFLP — a fact that previously prompted payment processors, including PayPal, to jump ship from AFGJ.

“We need to know if the tentacles of terror funding are wrapped around the most monied Democrat financing entity and exploiting legitimate payment services that Americans use every day,” said Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), who, in 2023, asked the FBI and the Treasury Department to investigate whether ActBlue violated federal law in allowing the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel to fundraise.

News of the fundraising operation comes days after a Washington Examiner report revealed AFGJ appears to have unlawfully failed to disclose lobbying on the state and federal level. That is because its project, Colorado Freedom Fund, lobbies in connection to various bills in the Centennial State, financial disclosures show.

Marc Greendorfer, an attorney leading Zachor Legal Institute, a think tank that has pressed for federal investigations into AFGJ, said it is surprising that ActBlue and the payment processors have not done basic due diligence to restrict a terrorism-linked group from fundraising.

“Alliance for Global Justice has a track record of funding terror,” Greendorfer said, noting that companies have a duty to their investors to “do a better job of vetting those who use its platforms, especially when the user has a long, documented history of supporting terror.”
Why antisemitism makes us stronger
If we look more broadly at Jewish history, for all the suffering and horrors antisemitism has wrought, it has also created generations of communities and individuals of unparalleled vibrancy and brilliance. Across every domain, the downtrodden Jews have made incalculable contributions: philosophy, science, economics, music, art, literature, medicine, commerce.

The persecution Jews have faced has never prevented us from achieving the greatest of heights. Indeed, maybe the persecution itself was at least partly responsible for much of it. Just like a bodybuilder gets bigger and stronger by lifting progressively heavier weights, perhaps the burden and strain of antisemitism has made Jews stronger over the generations, too.

For a contemporary example, one only must look at the vitality and innovation of, say, the Israeli tech sector – much of which has been undergirded by the IDF’s need for technical superiority – to see that having active enemies can have its benefits. I hope no one tells the antisemites they are helping us!

Antisemitism has always existed, and it has never held us back. Nor will it. Whether it’s Melbourne’s Jewish community, shunned by private golf clubs, deciding to establish its own; or New York Jews setting up their own law firms in the face of industry-wide antisemitic hiring practices, we as Jews have always found a way forward. And we always will.

In fact, it’s a shame other groups that perceive themselves to be marginalised and oppressed don’t look to us as an example of how a minority group can build itself up through self-reliance and hard work. Unfortunately, too many allow themselves to be poisoned by resentment and seduced by self-destructive notions of waiting for and expecting others to do it for them.

We as a community are certainly facing challenging times and the truth is that the relatively benign decades following the Holocaust have not left us match fit. Now, we should absolutely commit to vigorously fighting antisemitism and anti-Zionism, and we should be demanding real action from our country’s leaders. We should insist on a zero-tolerance approach to Jew hatred.

However, we must avoid catastrophising our current situation. We have generations of evidence that we will not only survive but thrive irrespective of what they throw at us. Let’s use this moment to commit to being even better Jews, an even better Jewish community, and continuing our great legacy of unrivalled contribution and achievement – no matter the challenges.
Jews Must Show Up Again in LA — This Time in Court
What happened outside Congregation Adas Torah happened because the LA police treated this event differently than they treat similar events when violence is reasonably expected. Here are just a few of the things they did, and didn’t do, when they do the opposite for everyone else:
1. They didn’t put up barriers to separate ideological opponents, when they routinely use that tool to protect people from demonstrators who are expected to be menacing or violent.
2. They didn’t ensure that the Jews trying to get into their shul could do so safely. Instead they left the pro-Hamas crowd right on the sidewalk leading to the shul’s front door.
3. They either issued a permit for a demonstration to people who they had reason to expect would be violent and threatening, or they didn’t even require one. The LA police have seen these people in action before; the Hamasniks threaten violence clearly, and in English. The police should have reasonably known what was bound to happen.

Noah Pollak, as reported in the Jewish Journal, shared on X what he saw:

“The LAPD let the Hamas supporters take over the sidewalk in front of the shul and block its entrance. In fact, LAPD had formed a cordon around the front of the shul to keep Jews out and Hamas supporters in. I tried to enter with my kids through the front door and was turned away not by Hamas supporters but by the LAPD. Anyone who wanted to attend had to use a secret back entrance.”

LA Mayor Karen Bass and the LAPD can make all the statements they want about antisemitism being “unacceptable,” but facts are facts and failure to act is failure to act. The Sunday pogrom on the Jews of Pico happened because the city of LA failed to act to prevent it.

This has all the markings of focused inequality and can and should be challenged in court.

So, back to that critical condition required for taking legal action.

The condition is that Jews who were there, who were affected by what happened on that day, and who have personal knowledge of what went down, must come forward and be prepared to sue. They have to be willing to be publicly identified as plaintiffs.

The videos from Sunday’s riot showcased Jews who showed up in a concerted and serious way, while protestors wore masks so they could hide their identity. The Jews didn’t wear masks to hide; they didn’t run away; they didn’t cower and whimper.

If we’re going to go to court to legally challenge what happened on Sunday, we need Jews willing to show up again—this time in court.
WSJ: Mob Targets Synagogue in LA
Protesters waving Palestinian flags and shouting anti-Israel slogans gathered outside Adas Torah synagogue in Los Angeles's Pico-Robertson neighborhood on Sunday. They tried to block the entrance and were soon met by counterprotesters waving Israeli flags. Synagogue officials said the anti-Israel demonstrators maced and bear-sprayed Jews trying to enter the synagogue.

"There was nowhere to turn where you could be safe," said Naftoli Sherman, 25. He was attacked and ended up in the hospital. "There was a whole gang of protesters on top of me. They broke my nose and kicked me in the head a couple of times."

Members of the Los Angeles Police Department observed the melee unfold rather than protecting those targeted by the mob. It took volunteers from nonprofit Jewish security organizations, including LA Shmira Public Safety and Magen Am, to break up the scuffles. "Without them, it would have been a lot worse," Mr. Sherman said.

David Kramer, 37, said people were begging uniformed officers to intercede. Despite many pleas, he said, "they were slow to move, and it appeared to me like they had orders to stand down." As the fighting moved toward other synagogues in the Jewish neighborhood, the police remained about a quarter-block away from the action.

Would the police have been as passive if those being targeted had been any minority other than Jews? Would they have stood by and let protesters block the entrance to a church or mosque?
Yisrael Medad: Political pawns? The controversy at Adas Torah synagogue
IfNotNow-LA was very upset at what occurred on June 23 at Los Angeles’s Adas Torah synagogue, “horrified by the use of Jewish identity and sacred religious space as shields to promote the sale of real estate on occupied Palestinian land.”

It wasn’t that pro-Palestinian protesters gathered outside, with one vehicle climbing the sidewalk; chants of “Free, free Palestine – from the river to the sea”; and “long live Intifada,” including one person carrying a “spiked flag,” that bothered them. Nor was it a problem that “Zionism’s got to go” was shouted. It wasn’t that a Jewish institution was being targeted but that the protesters were “met with violence at the hands of a militant mob defending Israeli apartheid.”

What truly bothered them was that the synagogue was being utilized for a “political act.”

Politicization of antisemitism
A June 21 mobilizing call informed all that “Our land is not for sale! This Sunday, 6/23, a real estate event will be marketing homes in ‘Anglo neighborhoods’ in an effort to further occupy Palestine. Racist settler expansionists aren’t welcome in LA!”

But that wasn’t the full extent of the protest. After blocking the synagogue’s entrance, there was a march near Jewish businesses. Those stores were not selling real estate in Israel. Some protesters tried to enter the Beverly Hills Bagel Company across the street from Adas Torah but were blocked by the pro-Israel protesters. Bagels are not property nor are they racist. And anyone can eat them.

And IfNotNow-LA ex-post facto went along with all that. For them, what was truly critical was that “marketing these neighborhoods as ‘Anglo’ is a shameful but obvious attempt to create white, segregated neighborhoods in an ethno-nationalist apartheid state.”

What was that political act involved? IfNotNow-LA rejected the use of synagogues as shields.

While it might be unfair to point out that Hamas using their own fellow Gazans as shields is never denounced – even though it is an actual war crime – I do not think it unfair to wonder if a synagogue were to offer itself to be used as a place of “sanctuary” (and that did happen in 2017 and again in 2019) would IfNotNow denounce that? I am quite sure their progressive ideology would be quite accommodating for that political act.

BUYING PROPERTY in Israel is a very Jewish thing. Some might consider purchasing property in the Land of Israel as a religious obligation. At the very least, it is an ancient Jewish custom.

The founder of Judaism, Abraham, went to Hebron and, as recorded in Genesis 23, spoke to the children of Heth to intercede with Ephron to enable him to purchase a burial place for his wife, Sarah. In Joshua 24, we read of the purchase of another burial plot, this time in Shechem (Nablus). Jacob had made the transaction with Hamor and there, Joseph was interred. Later, David bought the threshing-floor of Aravnah, as we read in II Samuel 24, located on Mount Moriah in Jerusalem in preparation for the future construction of the Temple.
CAIR Backs Antisemitic Protest at L.A. Synagogue; Blasts Mayor Karen Bass
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) “condemn[ed]” Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass Wednesday for speaking out (belatedly) against an antisemitic protest at a synagogue on Sunday, saying the protest was legitimate.

As Breitbart News reported, a mob of pro-Palestinian activists targeted the Adas Torah synagogue in the Jewish neighborhood of Pico-Robertson, blocking the entrance to bar access to an event about buying real estate in Israel.

It was the second protest at a synagogue in Los Angeles in the space of three days. Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) officers eventually cleared the protesters, after violence broke out aith pro-Israel counter-demonstrators.

Governor Gavin Newsom (D) and Mayor Bass (D) condemned the protest late on Sunday evening (after Breitbart News reported that neither had done so). On Monday, President Joe Biden also condemned the protest, calling it “dangerous, unconscionable, antisemitic, and un-American” for targeting a synagogue. The Israeli government also weighed in, calling the targeting of a Jewish house of worship, and the subsequent violence, “absolutely shocking.”

But CAIR objected to Bass’s words when she repeated her condemnation of the protest on Monday, June 24.

In a statement, CAIR said:
On June 24, Mayor Bass spoke at a press conference held in response to the violence that broke out when pro-Israel counter-protesters confronted pro-Palestinian demonstrators who were gathered outside the Adas Torah synagogue in Los Angeles to protest a real estate event organized by an Israel-based agency that reportedly markets real estate in Israel and the illegally occupied West Bank.

During the conference, Mayor Bass condemned the pro-Palestinian protesters and characterized the demonstration as “violent” and “abhorrent.” She did not mention the violence that was perpetrated against the pro-Palestinian protesters by pro-Israel counter-protesters or the reports that law enforcement on the scene did little to stop the violence against them.

CAIR denied that the protest was antisemitic, claiming that there were Jews involved in the demonstration. CAIR did not explain why the protesters blocked access to a house of worship rather than protesting peacefully nearby.


Real Progressives Reject Antisemitism
The defeat of Rep. Jamaal Bowman in New York sends a clear message to current and aspiring progressive politicians throughout the country: that antisemitism is not only bad morals, it's also bad politics.

Our movement to advance social, racial, economic, gender, and environmental justice in America will fail if we do not work to eradicate the malignant antisemitism metastasizing within it. It has been shocking to see that some who recklessly claim the mantle of progressivism are the most unapologetic in their indifference - or sometimes, malevolence - toward Jewish suffering, trauma, and victimization.

Progressive voters across the country are rightly concerned by the wing of our movement denying sexual violence, blindly embracing "resistance" and "decolonization" narratives that endorse terrorism, mocking and blocking Jewish students on college campuses, and violently protesting outside of synagogues and Jewish-owned businesses. The echoes of history are too stark to ignore.

Antisemitic elements within our progressive movement make our fights for justice exponentially more difficult. That's why, this primary season, truly progressive voters are making their voices heard and reclaiming what it means to be truly and consistently progressive. Sincere progressives are saying "Not In Our Name" to the normalization of antisemitism - just as we do for all other marginalized groups against all other forms of hate.

Real progressives condemn violence against Jews, whether done as criticism of Israeli policy or for any other reason. Real progressives fight violence, sexual assault, murder, kidnapping, and all forms of hate. True progressives are engaged in mobilizing to reclaim the progressive movement from the radical elements of division.
Seth Mandel: Anti-Semitism and Tonight’s Debate
Since anti-Semitism is likely to come up in tonight’s presidential debate, and since both President Biden and Donald Trump have a habit of wandering with their words, we should set expectations appropriately: The risk is not that they say nothing but that they say everything, thus diluting points they really need to emphasize.

Put simply, the two men have a habit of watering down their condemnations of bad behavior with caveats and contradictions.

“Americans have a right to peaceful protest. But blocking access to a house of worship—and engaging in violence—is never acceptable,” Biden said about the recent pro-Palestinian mob attacking Jews in Los Angeles.

That first sentence is a sign of the president’s fear of angering his base, which has made simple condemnation of anti-Semitism politically uncomfortable for his party. That the president needs to signal his reassurance to the base first, then condemn anti-Jewish violence second, dissolves any force the statement might have had. The same is true of the ubiquitous suffix “and Islamophobia” the administration adds to condemnations of anti-Semitism.

A good rule of thumb: Do not begin condemnations of bad behavior with praise for the perpetrators. Also: do not end such condemnations with denunciations of that which did not happen (i.e. the phantom cases of Islamophobia among counterprotesters).

Luckily for Biden, he knows how to do this correctly. Left-wing anti-Israel thugs may be recreating the Charlottesville riot weekly, but Biden continues to talk about that 2017 white nationalist rally specifically, and he makes his point clearly every time. Here is how he described it in August 2021, on the hate riot’s fourth anniversary: “The forces of hate and violence were summoned from the shadows as Neo-Nazis, Klansmen, and white supremacists descended on a historic American city. With torches in their hands and veins bulging from their necks, they spewed the same antisemitic bile that was heard in Germany in the 1930s and with the same beatings and bigotry we saw in Jim Crow America for nearly a century.”

He did not say: “The right to free speech and peaceful protest is sacred, but violence and intimidation are not.” He painted a midnight-dark portrait of the marchers who were no different from any number of protest mobs ransacking Jewish neighborhoods and assaulting Jews in the street. He is capable of the moral clarity he has lacked these past eight months.

We can fully expect Biden to condemn anti-Jewish hate, but that’s too low a bar. He has the power and authority to do something about it. On college campuses and at synagogue protests, anti-Zionist extremists in his party have quite clearly violated the civil rights of Jews all over the country. Enforcement under Biden is virtually nonexistent, and he should have to explain why that is.
Experts expect Trump to ‘hammer’ Biden on Mideast policy at debate
With Israel facing a “looming war” with Hezbollah, the Houthis causing “mayhem” in the Red Sea and antisemitism on the rise in America, the Biden administration “has been lax in enforcing sanctions on Iran amid Tehran’s march to a nuclear weapon,” May said.

“Trump, meanwhile, can point to the United States leaving the Iran nuclear deal, recognition of Israeli sovereignty in the Golan Heights, the elimination of Qassem Soleimani, Iran’s top terrorist, and the Abraham Accords as his Middle East policy legacy,” May said.

“Biden will try to emphasize his support for Israel, particularly through supplying weapons, but this has been overshadowed by noticeable tensions between Washington and Jerusalem,” he added.

If Iran comes up during the debate, “we should expect Trump to note Iran’s advances on its nuclear program and contrast that crisis with his own strict sanctions, maximum pressure campaign,” Danielle Pletka, distinguished senior fellow in foreign and defense policy at the American Enterprise Institute, told JNS.

It’s hard to know what either Trump or Biden, “who now operates according to Dearborn rules,” will say on Israel, Pletka said.

“Trump is likely to comment on Biden’s slow rolling of military support to Israel, which is slowing down progress in the war on Hamas,” she told JNS. “Given the rules, which pundits believe advantage Biden because of Trump’s penchant for bombast, we could be surprised if Trump brings a disciplined game.”

At his best, Trump can out-debate Biden, according to Pletka.

“The real question is whether Trump will bring his best, and having set the bar so low for Biden—all he needs to do is not die on stage—can Trump really manage to make the case that he’s the right man this time around?” she added. “It’s a crap shoot for them both.”

Nathan Diament, executive director of the Orthodox Union Advocacy Center, told JNS that he anticipates that the moderators will ask the current and former presidents “about the new, worst surge in antisemitism ever in the United States.”

“We would like each of them not only to condemn it but to say what they will do concretely to respond and ensure those who perpetrate acts of antisemitism are held accountable,” Diament said.
American donor giving $5m to Israeli colleges after spurning Penn
An American-Jewish entrepreneur who has decided to reroute his philanthropy from U.S. colleges is donating $5 million to institutes of higher education in Israel.

The move comes as months of often violent antisemitic protests at universities across the U.S. have shaken American Jewry in ways not seen since World War II.

David Magerman of Pennsylvania told JNS Wednesday that he is giving an initial $1 million grant each to five Israeli schools, including the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa, Bar-Ilan University in Ramat Gan and the Jerusalem College of Technology, as well as two other institutions where the grants are still under discussion.

He halted his donations to his alma mater, the University of Pennsylvania, over the administration’s handling of antisemitism on campus.

“The American Empire is ending and we learn from history that when empires fall the Jews die first,” he said in an interview conducted at the Bible Lands Museum in Jerusalem. Magerman was there to attend a ceremony where his Tzemach David Foundation was honoring teachers in Israel’s state religious school system with awards for excellence in innovative education.

“In the past, we could never leave, but now we can come to our national homeland,” he said.
Bill protecting students, including from Jew-hatred, passes Ohio house
A bill protecting students on campus, including from Jew-hatred, passed the Ohio State of Representatives on Wednesday.

The state legislature’s Jewish Caucus helped write the Campus Accountability and Modernization to Protect University Students (CAMPUS) Act, which Republican state representatives Justin Pizzulli and Dontavius Jarrells co-sponsored.

“The CAMPUS Act is essential for fostering a safe, inclusive and respectful educational environment,” Pizzulli said on the state House floor. “This bill not only safeguards students but also promotes a campus culture grounded in respect and understanding, essential for the academic and personal growth of every student.”

Among the bill’s requirements is to require Mike Duffey, chancellor of the Ohio Department of Higher Education, “to establish a task force on combating antisemitism and other forms of racial, religious and ethnic bias, harassment and intimidation at institutions of higher education.”

The legislation (HB 606), which became part of SB 94 and heads back to the state Senate for a vote, also requires colleges and universities to create and enforce policies combatting and “comprehensive” staff training on “racial, religious and ethnic harassment and intimidation” and to establish procedures for investigating complaints of alleged racial, religious and ethnic harassment, per a state House release.

The Senate bill also calls on each college and university and each higher education nonprofit to “create a campus task force on combating antisemitism, Islamophobia, anti-Christian discrimination and hatred, harassment, bullying or violence toward others.”

The three state representatives who make up the Ohio legislature’s Jewish Caucus—Casey Weinstein, Dani Isaacsohn and Beryl Brown Piccolantonio, all of whom are Democrats—played an important role in drafting the CAMPUS Act, per an Ohio House release.
Why Ford Foundation President Darren Walker thinks more people need to talk about antisemitism
When you run an organization focused on promoting social justice, but with the namesake of one of the most virulent antisemites in American history, you have to talk about the uncomfortable history.

Or at least, that’s the attitude taken by Ford Foundation President Darren Walker, who published a blog post reckoning with Henry Ford’s antisemitism just weeks before the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks. Since then, Walker has spoken out against rising antisemitism — at times, he said on Tuesday, sparking clashes with his left-leaning staff.

“I’m mindful of the history of the Ford Foundation, and our donor who was most certainly the archetype of the 20th-century American antisemite,” Walker told Jewish Insider in an interview at the Aspen Ideas Festival. “That history absolutely informs my work. But just as important is my own view, this idea that every person ought to live with dignity.”

Walker has helmed the Ford Foundation, which has an endowment of $16 billion, since 2013. Its grantees include Jewish organizations like the Anti-Defamation League. He was in Aspen to speak on a panel about modern antisemitism alongside Carole Zawatsky, CEO of Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life, which recently broke ground on a new synagogue, memorial and museum.

“Right now, and certainly since October 7, there is so much pain and anguish, and a sense of disaffection and abandonment, that a lot of Jewish Americans are rightly feeling,” Walker said. His focus is on building bridges between diverse communities — but he acknowledged that that work has become harder since Oct. 7.

“Many Jewish Americans expected, understandably, there to be more empathy, more allyship and more understanding of the pain that Jews around the world and in America, American Jews, experienced in the aftermath of that terrorist attack on that horrific, horrible day,” said Walker. “I think people rightly were asking the question, ‘What happened to the people we have worked with on the journey for equality, on the journey for justice in this country? We feel abandoned.’”
Who Does Wikipedia Consider a ‘Reliable Source’ on Israel-Palestine?
Wikipedia recently decided that the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) is not a “reliable source” on the Israel-Palestine conflict. The decision was made by three Wikipedia editors, known only by the following pseudonyms: The Wordsmith, theleekycauldron, and Tamzin (pronouns: “they/xe”).

These three editors—yes, these are the people deciding what we can and cannot see when we’re scrolling Wikipedia late at night—said they made their decision on the grounds that the ADL is both a research and advocacy organization. While they say that the ADL “is a generally reliable source,” they insisted that the organization should not be cited on topics relating to the Israel-Hamas war. On Tuesday, more than forty Jewish groups signed a letter sent to the Wikimedia Foundation, which runs Wikipedia, saying that the decision “is stripping the Jewish community of the right to defend itself from the hatred that targets our community.” As a rule, the foundation does not intervene in the site’s editorial process, so a reversal of the decision is unlikely.

So who does Wikipedia consider reliable on this subject?

One example is a man named Salman Abu Sitta, a Palestinian activist who wrote that “Nothing can hide the determination and courage of those young people who returned to their land on October 7.” (He was the first cited source on the Wiki page 1948 Palestinian expulsion and flight.) Wikipedia also considers Al Jazeera—a Qatari-sponsored news organization that has described the October 7 pogrom as “heroic”—a “reliable source”: on its page Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Al Jazeera is cited without skepticism seven times. On the page for the October 7 attacks, Wikipedia absolves Hamas of its antisemitism, describing how in 2017 the terrorist group “adopted a new charter, removing antisemitic language and shifting focus from Jews to Zionists.” We could go on like this all day.
MEMRI: U.S.-Based Islamic Organization That Participates In Anti-Israel Student Protests Glorifies Sheikh Yousuf Al-Qaradawi, An Ideologue Of Muslim Brotherhood And Hamas Known For His Support Of Terrorism, And Praises Hamas October 7 Massacre
The Muslim American Society (MAS) Youth Center in New York is one of the Muslim organizations that takes part in the student protests against Israel that have been held in the city since the outbreak of the Gaza war. Although it bills itself as an independent American organization, MAS is affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood (MB), the parent organization of Hamas, and some of its founders have ties to the MB. [1] In addition, MAS venerates MB ideologue Sheikh Yousuf Al-Qaradawi (d. 2022) as a major religious authority. This is despite the extremist positions expressed by this sheikh, who over the years condoned terror against Israeli and Western targets and used hateful discourse against Christians, Jews and LGBT,[2] and also despite MAS' claim that it undertakes a "critical evaluation" of the writings of various Islamic scholars in order to adapt them to American culture.[3]

This ideological affiliation with the MB explains the organization's radical anti-Israel positions, such as its unreserved support for Hamas and justification the movement's October 7 massacre in southern Israel, as well as the calls for martyrdom and jihad against Israel heard at events held by MAS Philadelphia chapter, some of which were attended by children.

The following are some examples of the organization's support for the ideas of MB and Hamas ideologue Yousuf Al-Qaradawi and for Hamas' October 7 attack.

Praise For Al-Qaradawi's Legacy
Upon Al-Qaradawi's death in September 26, 2022, MAS' New York chapter eulogized him on its Facebook page, calling him "one of the most influential Islamic scholars of this age," and adding: "Muslims the world over looked to Sheikh Qaradawi to answer questions on how to navigate the modern world... He was known to be a staunch opponent of imperialism and [the] political oppression faced by the Muslim world. MAS joins millions around the world to mourn him..."[4]

MAS also held two events, on September 28 and October 23, 2022, to commemorate Al-Qaradawi's "remarkable contributions" to the Islamic nation."[5]

Support For Martyrdom And Jihad Against Israel, Including Hamas' October 7 Attack; Antisemitic Rhetoric
This support for Hamas ideologue Al-Qaradawi, who permitted jihad and suicide attacks against Israel, may account for the organization's unreserved support for Hamas' deadly October 7, 2023 massacre in southern Israel. Just two days after this massacre, on October 9, 2023, the organization condoned Hamas' attacks on the Israeli localities while completely ignoring the atrocities it committed as part of these attacks. A post on the organization's Facebook page said that "Palestinian resistance fighters in Gaza began mobilizing and resisting the Israeli settlements surrounding Gaza…" and justified this as "a response to the 16-year blockade, siege and occupation" of the Gaza Strip. It added that this act of "resistance" was " the largest step forward for Palestinians." [6]

In a lecture to young people posted online on April 26, 2024, Abdelrahman Badawy, an imam and resident scholar at the MAS youth center in Staten Island, made flagrantly antisemitic remarks. Comparing the Zionists to the Jews of Muhammad's era, he said that "the Zionist devils have envy, hatred [and] evil in their hearts. They are like the sneaky, cunning, conniving, foul Jewish tribe that battled the Prophet Muhammad."


My Year at Harvard
The first day of the holiday of Sukkot was a week before the Oct. 7 attack. Each year the Divinity School at Harvard, to its credit, erects a Sukkah. Remarkably, the only ceremony marking the holiday was run by a group that called itself “Jews for Liberation.” As a Visiting Scholar I was new to campus and decided to attend my first Divinity School event. There was no lulav or etrog, traditional symbols of the holiday. Hebrew prayers were omitted in favor of English songs. But before even this exiguous ceremony began, we were told by the student coordinator for whom the ceremony was intended:

“This is a safe space for anti-Zionists, non-Zionists and those who are struggling with Zionism.” Wow, I thought. My first Divinity School event is a Jewish one in which there is no safe space for people like me.

Like many people, I had a somewhat idealized image both of Harvard and of the position of Jews in the United States. I stood in the Divinity School chapel and marveled that this was the spot where Emerson had delivered his famous address, “The American Scholar.” Here was a plaque to the great American Preacher Theodore Parker whose sermons Emerson called “a streak of rockets all night long.” I passed by storied halls and pictures of illustrious alumni. But as the days passed, in the pit of my stomach was a gnawing sadness mixed with dismay. I began to understand, as I visited these places with my kippah on my head, that I might be the kind of Jew that this place was not eager to see.

Then came Oct. 7. As the world knows, campuses exploded into protests and became a focus of worldwide attention. The Divinity school was swept up in the maelstrom. The “apartheid wall” — an art installation claiming Israel is an apartheid state and calling for divestment from any business or institution associated with the State — was removed from Harvard Yard, where it had stood in previous years, and found a congenial home on the grounds of the Divinity School. The explosion and its implications, of course, went far beyond that corner of the university.

When I packed my bags in September and moved across the country, the air was still warm and I felt a little like a student again. After 26 years as the Senior Rabbi of Sinai Temple in Los Angeles, I retired and was serving for one year as a visiting scholar at Harvard’s Divinity School. The move promised a reunion across the generations. My parents grew up in Boston and we used to come here when I was a child to visit my grandparents. Although I had not returned here as an adult, and never attended Harvard, it was a kind of homecoming. Cousins appeared whom I had never met nor knew existed. I expected a year of family, quiet study, teaching and writing. Nothing turned out to be quite what I thought it would be.

The Divinity School has a very strong Protestant tradition, but is nonsectarian. Today you will find self-identified pagans, Buddhists, Sikhs, syncretic faiths, as well as Judaism, Islam Christianity, and many others. The notice boards are a pastiche of workshops in psychedelics, gender studies, ancient languages and slam poetry.

I was aware that the Divinity School had a reputation for being politically left even among the leftist bent of higher education. The usual explanation was that graduates, unlike those in other departments of the university, did not have to enter corporations or businesses that moderate any ideological excesses. Additionally, the Divinity School was both geographically and ideologically the most distant from the business school. These were the avatars of Harvard idealism. Or, as one professor wryly put it, “The Woodstock of Cambridge.”

During orientation we all stood before the students and presented our classes for the coming year. The dean who ran the session with skill and wit, told us all where her office was located. Later that day I happened to wander by her office. Her front door was dominated by a poster reading “Democracy is not Occupation” in Hebrew, English and Arabic. For the curious, no, I don’t recall during my time seeing a poster or protest concerning the Chinese treatment of the Uyghurs, the Syrian treatment of the Yazidis, the oppression of the Rohingya in Myanmar, or even a forlorn hope that Tibet might be restored. With hundreds of millions of literal slaves in the world from North Korea to Mauritania to Eritrea, America’s racial problems, gender questions and the plight of the Palestinians seemed to be the only issues that gripped the conscience of students and faculty.

The day after Hamas’ brutal massacre of some 1,200 Israelis, 33 campus organizations issued a statement blaming Israel for its citizens having been raped, brutalized and burned alive. The following day I received a call from the Harvard President, Claudine Gay. She was clearly shaken by the events. Only two months into her term, the University was suddenly facing what one old hand told me was “undoubtedly its greatest crisis.” Gay was contemplating possible responses. We spoke for a while and it was a good conversation: I suggested some resources to acquaint her with the history of the conflict and the story of antisemitism. She asked if I would serve on an antisemitism committee. I said yes without thinking — why wouldn’t I? I felt proud to have stepped onto campus two weeks before and suddenly have a way to contribute something meaningful.

To her credit, and the credit of the advisor to the committee, Provost (now interim President) Alan Garber, those appointed to the antisemitism committee were both committed to Israel and to free speech on campus. We took the meetings — almost all on Zoom — seriously. I think it is fair to say we began under the impression that our advice would be heeded.

The conversations of the committee were confidential, since it was advisory. Each of us was glued to the news day and night and much of the communication concerned the latest developments in the unfolding war and the world’s reaction to it. Our task was clear: To encourage Harvard to enforce university policies already in place, institute transparent punishments for those who broke the rules, set up a decent and responsive reporting system for infractions, and take antisemitic speech as seriously as racist or homophobic speech. We offered longer term suggestions in terms of hiring and administrative and policy changes. It took skill and will, but the solutions to the immediate problem were not that complex. Effecting deeper ideological changes would take longer.

Yet day after day we received reports on the ubiquitous faculty and student WhatsApp groups of hostage posters defaced or torn down, students subjected to cruel and sometimes blatant antisemitic statements on internal channels of communication, protests that violated the school’s own policies, and in the favored inversion, defining Israelis as that which has most cruelly afflicted Jews, widespread Nazi imagery.
Harvard Jewish leaders, alumni disappointed by antisemitism task force recommendations
A six-page set of preliminary recommendations released on Wednesday by a Harvard University task force focused on combating antisemitism at the school falls short of expectations set by Jewish faculty, alumni and a member of the school’s previous antisemitism advisory group who spoke to Jewish Insider shortly after the document’s release.

The recommendations in Wednesday’s report included ones that could immediately be put into action, such as marking pork products in dining facilities and creating a webpage on the school’s site to provide information on Jewish holidays for university community members. The report also urged the implementation of two long-term actions: “the administration should institute anti-harassment training for all students” and for teaching fellows, “antisemitism and anti-Israeli bias need to be included in training for these essential employees.”

The suggestions, which interim President Alan Garber is expected to review, were divided into six areas: clarify Harvard’s values; act against discrimination, bullying, harassment and hate; improve disciplinary processes; implement education and training; foster constructive dialogue; and support Jewish life on campus.

The document lacks “comments about hiring faculty, interim and full-time, about rethinking DEI [diversity, equity and inclusion] and ensuring sanctions against those who have called for violence,” Rabbi David Wolpe, a former member of a separate antisemitism advisory group that the elite university formed last year amid an academic year marked by strife for Jewish students, told JI.

Wolpe added that the recommendations are missing “[affirmation that Zionism is a] legitimate and even praiseworthy ideal.”

Harvard Jewish leaders and alumni echoed Wolpe’s dissatisfaction with the preliminary recommendations.

“None of this addresses the pervasive and systemic nature of antisemitism … I’m incredibly disappointed and frustrated,” Shabbos Kestenbaum, who graduated in the spring with a master’s degree from Harvard Divinity School, told JI. Kestenbaum called the report “a slap in the face.”

“There’s nothing in here about the hiring and firing of faculty members, nothing in here about examining the pernicious and dangerous role that diversity, equity and inclusion has played in antisemitism, there are no recommendations or even a mention of security at Harvard Chabad and Hillel,” Kestenbaum, who in March spoke to a roundtable organized by the House Committee on Education and the Workforce about the antisemitism he experienced on Harvard’s campus, said. “Of the more concrete policy recommendations, those were just obvious and had been stated months ago by students themselves and by Congress,” he said.


Harvard University continues to be a volatile environment for Jewish students

Title VI investigations launched into UC Davis, Berkeley public schools, Northwestern law school
Schools in California and Chicago will face federal scrutiny for potentially failing to address bigotry at their institutions.

The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced on June 21 that investigations had opened on June 17 into potential violations of Title VI in the 1964 Civil Rights Act by the University of California-Davis, Berkeley Unified School District and Northwestern University School of Law in Chicago.

JNS contacted all three for copies of the letters received from the OCR. UC Davis responded that it had submitted a public records request to provide the communication; the documentation did not arrive by press time. Berkeley Unified Schools and the Northwestern University School of Law did not respond to the request for information.

The OCR usually does not provide details about complaints. OCR records indicated that the investigations into Northwestern University School of Law, UC Davis and Berkeley Unified Schools all feature alleged National Origin Discrimination Involving Religion.

The investigation into Berkeley schools originated in a complaint filed by the San Francisco-Bay Area chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-SFBA), whose national executive director, Nihad Awad, said that the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks in southern Israel made him “happy.”

CAIR accuses the district of failing to properly respond to anti-Palestinian, anti-Arab and anti-Muslim bigotry.

Zahra Billoo, a lawyer and the executive director for the CAIR San Francisco Bay Area chapter whose antisemitic rhetoric has been reported for years, praised the OCR “for taking this critical step.” She said, “It is crucial that all students, regardless of their background, feel safe and supported in their educational environment.”
Jewish college profs discuss hostile campuses at House hearing
Two Jewish university professors, speaking at a House Education and the Workforce subcommittee hearing on Wednesday, discussed the hostile environments they and other Jewish faculty have faced on college campuses in the wake of the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks.

The professors, Brian Keating of the University of California, San Diego, and Dafna Golden of Mt. San Antonio College outside of Los Angeles, recounted their experiences with antisemitism and anti-Israel demonstrations, as well as those of their colleagues.

Golden said that she’s aiming to leave academia and potentially move to Israel in response to the harassment and discrimination she said she faced on campus, which she said began after she raised concerns about a screening of an anti-Israel film.

She said that a fellow professor began a campaign of harassment against her, spreading falsehoods and urging students to harass and boycott her classes as well, a situation she said effectively forced her off campus into holding virtual-only classes, harming her professional relationships, and had made it impossible to do her job.

She said both deans and the school’s human resources department were unhelpful and unsupportive, dismissing a complaint she filed because a student witness to the other professor’s behavior was not willing to testify about it.

What Golden described as a non-political display on the changing borders of Israel she set up at the school’s library also came under criticism and was removed due to student complaints.

“Like so many of my Jewish colleagues at colleges across the country, the general antisemitic hostile environment turned to focus on me,” Golden said. “This hostile environment has significantly impacted my professional duties and relationships. As a result of the toxic atmosphere and severe impact on my mental health and my professional standing, and the refusal of my employer to protect me in my workplace, I have decided to transition out of academia as soon as possible.”


UT-Austin lawyer co-hosts podcast made in partnership with group that promotes terrorism and praised Oct. 7 attack
One attorney at the University of Texas-Austin School School of Law co-hosts a podcast that’s made in partnership with a group that has a history of promoting terrorism and even praised the October 7, 2023 attack in Israel.

Rhiannon Hamam, supervising attorney at the UT-Austin School of Law Ginni Mithoff Program was one of 57 people who were arrested during anti-Israel protests at the University of Texas at Austin in late April. All charges were dropped by the Travis County attorney’s office, according to the Texas Tribune. All protesters were initially charged with criminal trespass.

According to the report, students arrested were banned from campus, and can only come on campus for “academic reasons.”

While arrested students were banned from campus, Hamam is still listed as an employee of the Ginni Mithoff Program. The Ginni Mithoff Program exists to help students “engage in pro bono work to increase access to justice, build their lawyering skills, and develop a lifetime commitment to providing legal services to those in need.”

Hamam co-hosts the Popular Cradle Podcast, which is made in partnership with the Palestinian Youth Movement.

According to data collected by NGO Monitor, the Palestinian Youth Movement has a history of promoting terrorism.

Following the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack on Israel, the Palestinian Youth Movement proudly took to Facebook and wrote “PALESTINE LIVES! THE RESISTANCE LIVES!”

”In the past several hours, the resistance in Gaza stormed the illegitimate border fence, reentering 1948 Palestine for the first time in many of our lives,” the group wrote. “With these developments come new equations in the Palestinian struggle, and a shifting of the ground beneath our feet, the reverberations of which we can only begin to imagine. Gaza, the cradle of our resistance and the lifeblood of our struggle, is pushing us closer to the hour of liberation than ever before.”

The Palestinian Youth Movement also has a reading list, which contains articles written by members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a terrorist organization.


Bob Casey Praised CAIR Official Who Urged Fetterman To 'Hang His Head in Shame' Over Support for Israel
Sen. Bob Casey has touted an official at a pro-Hamas activist group who this week attacked the Pennsylvania Democrat’s Senate colleague, John Fetterman, for meeting with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Ahmet Selim Tekelioglu, the executive director of the Council on American Islamic Relation’s (CAIR) Philadelphia chapter, called on Fetterman to "hang his head in shame" for meeting Netanyahu during a trip to Israel this week. "It is shameful that a senator from our state would meet with and express support for a genocidal war criminal like Benjamin Netanyahu," said Tekelioglu.

That attack could put pressure on Casey to weigh in on the fracture between Fetterman, who has campaigned aggressively on his behalf, and a politically active group Casey has praised in the past.

Casey, running in one of the highest profile Senate elections of the cycle, spotlighted Tekelioglu in May 2021, for his work on "civic engagement." In 2016, Casey praised CAIR’s "fight against rising discrimination" as a "testament to the bravery, work ethic and ideals of everyone involved." Just seven years before that glowing statement, the Department of Justice labeled CAIR an "unindicted coconspirator" of Hamas as part of a terrorism finance investigation. In November, CAIR executive director Nihad Awad said he "was happy to see" Hamas attack Israel on October 7.

Casey has expressed support for Israel in its war with Hamas, but like many Democrats he has shied away from aggressively criticizing the anti-Israel groups aligned with Democrats' left-wing base. President Joe Biden has dispatched campaign and White House officials to Michigan to preserve support from Arab and Muslim voters in the swing state. The Biden team has met with several pro-Hamas activists during those visits, including a newspaper publisher who has called the terrorist group "freedom fighters."

While Fetterman has gone to bat for Casey on the campaign trail, lobbing attacks on Republican Dave McCormick and soliciting campaign donations, Casey has not reciprocated as Fetterman has drawn fire from anti-Israel groups and former staffers over his ardent support for the Jewish state. Activists have adopted the hashtag #GenocideJohn to protest his support for Israel, which a group of former campaign staffers called a "gutting betrayal."


Canada sanctions seven Israelis, five entities over West Bank violence
Canada on Thursday imposed sanctions on seven Israeli settlers it said had taken part in extremist violence in the West Bank. It was the second time in just over a month that Ottawa has taken such action.

The Canadian Foreign Ministry said it had also imposed punitive measures on five entities, including settler organizations.

“We remain deeply concerned by extremist settler violence in the West Bank and condemn such acts, not only for the significant impact they have on Palestinian lives but also for the corrosive impact they have on prospects for lasting peace,” Foreign Minister Melanie Joly said.

Violence in the West Bank was already at a more than 15-year high in 2023 and surged after the October 7 terrorist attack and the IDF’s response.

The targeted Israelis include: Ben-Zion “Bentzi” Gopstein, the founder and leader of Lehava, a right-wing group; Elisha Yered, who has justified killing Palestinians on religious grounds; and Shalom Zicherman, who the US State Department earlier this year said had assaulted Israeli activists and their vehicles in the West Bank.

Canada’s sanctions follow similar measures by the United States and Britain.

The measures prohibit dealings related to the individuals and render them inadmissible to Canada, the Foreign Ministry said. Ottawa imposed sanctions on four settlers last month. Decision is 'scandalous'

Israel Gantz, head of the Binyamin Regional Council and chairman of the Yesha Council, said Canada’s decision was “scandalous” and supports terrorism and Hamas.

“Those who impose immoral and illegal sanctions against Jewish entities fully share [Hamas leader Yahya] Sinwar’s vision and create an existential threat to the State of Israel,” he said. “In its decision, Canada encourages terrorists and anarchists to continue attacking communities throughout Judea and Samaria and all of Israel.”
Revealed: Reform candidates posted Rothschild conspiracies and ‘Hitler founded Israel’ video
Candidates standing for Reform UK at the general election have posted links to antisemitic videos by the conspiracy theorist David Icke, shared claims that Israel was behind the 9/11 terrorist attacks and suggested Greta Thunberg is “controlled” by “Rothschild handlers”, the JC can reveal.

Some of the most offensive posts were disseminated by Northampton North candidate Antony Antoniou. In May 2016, he posted a video by Icke on Twitter along with a description stating it was “the most antisemitic video ever” and revealed “the truth about Jews”. Since Antoniou posted the link, YouTube has removed it on the grounds it “promoted hate speech”.

Other videos linked to in posts by Antoniou included one entitled “Rothschild Zionism, World War Three and the New World Order”, in which Icke claimed “Zionism puts agents in places of power”. Another suggested “Hitler founded Israel”.

The Mail on Sunday reported in March that Jacqui Harris, who is standing for Reform in Kenilworth and Southam, was suspended by the Conservative Party when she was a councillor after suggesting on Twitter that row over Labour antisemitism was “probably masterminded” by the Mossad or CIA.

However, the JC can reveal that after being cleared, she was suspended again and then expelled when the Campaign Against Antisemitism complained about further posts.

These included sharing a claim that President Trump was an “Israel puppet” who was “completely controlled by criminal Zionists”, and a post in which she linked to an article that said “all the credible, independent, and objective evidence proves that Israel and the United States were behind 9/11” while Israel’s treatment of Palestinians should be compared to the crimes committed by the Nazis in Auschwitz.


The Muslim Vote campaign is poisoning democracy
This is the danger of a campaign group like TMV. By promoting a form of militant Muslim identity politics, it inevitably attracts tribal conspiracists and sectarian ideologues.

The TMV’s outlook is also incredibly limited. It has no interest in cultivating meaningful support beyond its particular religio-political milieu. It shows no interest in candidates’ views on economic or social issues, or indeed on anything beyond their attitudes to Israel. Many TMV-endorsed politicians may challenge Labour MPs on the matter of Palestine, but they have little to say on broader social issues. Take Labour’s ludicrous positions on trans rights, which defy biological reality and threaten female-only spaces. This has dismayed both Muslims and feminists alike, but TMV has shown no interest in taking Labour to task for this. No doubt Muslim voters would also like questions about the role of faith in society, the breakdown of the family or the increasing atomisation of Britain to be debated in this election.

The problem with TMV is that while it chimes with mainstream British Muslim opinion in calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, it also goes much further than that by fraternising with bigoted conspiracy theorists. What’s more, it fails to represent the views of British Muslims on just about everything else. This is largely because British Muslims are not a monolithic bloc. They comprise diverse opinions and even religious beliefs.

TMV claims that it wants to ‘reinvigorate the spirit of democracy’ and tackle ‘dirty politics’. Given some of the parliamentary candidates it has endorsed, and the figures it associates with, such claims ring hollow. TMV is not encouraging greater democratic engagement. It is spreading division and further poisoning public life.


Al-Aqsa imam indicted on charges of incitement to terrorism
The imam of Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque denounced on Thursday a “fabricated” campaign against him after being charged with inciting terrorism for allegedly praising Palestinian gunmen who killed four Israelis, including a soldier.

Sheikh Ekrima Sabri, 85, formerly mufti of Jerusalem and now head of the Supreme Islamic Council in the city, preaches at the contested Jerusalem holy site.

Sabri was indicted this week for inciting terrorism for comments he made that allegedly supported an attacker who shot at guards in the West Bank settlement of Maale Adumim, killing a soldier, in October 2022.

The imam is also accused of praising a second attacker, Raad Hazam, who killed three Israelis and wounded six others in an April 2022 shooting in Tel Aviv. The 28-year-old was later killed in a shootout with security guards.

“The state attorney’s office submitted to the Jerusalem magistrate court an indictment against… the former mufti of the city, after he incited terrorism and praised terrorists,” the Justice Ministry said in a statement Wednesday.

It said Sabri had “praised and sympathized with terrorists” during a visit to Hazam’s family home.

Sabri denied the allegations, saying he merely offered condolences to the families of the attackers after their deaths.


House Republicans Want To Label Iraqi Leader as 'Tool of Iranian Influence'
House appropriators are eyeing a landmark measure that would name and shame a top Iraqi leader for serving as a corrupt "tool of Iranian influence" in Iraq, according to advance information about the proposal obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.

Rep. Mike Waltz (R., Fla.), a member of the House Armed Services and Foreign Affairs Committees, is set to introduce on Thursday an amendment to the foreign appropriations bill that would designate Iraq's Supreme Judicial Council and its president, Faiq Zidan, as Iranian-controlled assets. The measure is expected to garner bipartisan support and make its way into the final legislation.

If adopted, the measure will mark the first time that Congress, and therefore the Biden administration, is calling out by name the Iraqi leaders who are enabling Iran to overtake Baghdad's government and use Iraq to foment terrorism. Congressional sources said they are counting on the measure to serve as a wake-up call to Iraq's government as the country morphs into an Iranian client state.

Zidan and his judicial council are the leading forces advancing Iran's interest in Iraq and helping Tehran's militia groups gain a foothold in the country. His court is behind a contested February 2022 ruling that required a two-thirds majority to select the president of Iraq. This decision effectively prevented Iraq's anti-Iran elements, such as the Kurds, from forming a more U.S.-friendly government.

Waltz and congressional sources working on the issue say the effort is a first step toward isolating Iran's assets in the Iraqi government and walking back the hardline regime's growing influence.

"The Iranian regime needs to understand the U.S. Congress won't allow the Ayatollah to turn Iraq into a client state," Waltz told the Free Beacon. "Iranian sympathizers in Iraq like Faiq Zaydan and others should take note."

For the last several years, Iran has quietly worked to co-opt Iraqi leaders and use them to wage influence in the country's governing coalition, with little response from the Biden administration. In the face of congressional warnings, the United States has engaged with Iraq's government and pursued policies that have done little to drive Baghdad away from Tehran.

"Through 'soft war' and the use (and misuse) of the legal system and courts, the coalition of [Iranian] militias has hit upon a winning combination that largely uses non-kinetic tools to build a trifecta of power that comprises the judiciary, civilian and military sides of the executive branch, as well as the legislature," the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP) think tank wrote in a 2023 analysis of the situation. Through this effort, Iran effectively created "regime change" in Iraq.
North Carolina IHRA bill heads to governor’s desk
The North Carolina state senate passed the SHALOM Act, which codifies the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA)’s working definition of antisemitism and contemporary examples of Jew-hatred into law, by a margin of 45 to two on Wednesday.

The bill, which passed the state’s House 105 to four on May 8, now heads to the desk of North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat.

“Both chambers of the legislature passed the bill with overwhelming bipartisan support,” stated the Israeli-American Coalition for Action, a nonprofit, which noted that North Carolina would be the 37th U.S. state to codify or endorse the IHRA definition.

“By passing H942, North Carolina has sent an important message, not just within the state, but across the United States, that every form of antisemitism is unacceptable,” stated Joe Sabag, executive director of IAC for Action.

“Without the IHRA definition, our community has suffered a civil rights deficit, where perpetrators of antisemitic discrimination would target Jews and Jewish institutions and then hide behind the false pretense that they were motivated by anti-Israel politics and not anti-Jewish bigotry,” Sabag said. “North Carolina’s passage of H942 is an important step forward in a national effort to deal with the current antisemitism crisis we are facing.”

“Rising Jew-hatred is a threat to all Americans, and North Carolinians today should feel deeply proud of what their government is doing to confront this scourge,” added Elan Carr, CEO of IAC and a former U.S. special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism.

The bill’s title SHALOM refers to “Standing up to Hate And Leading with Our Moral principles.”
Rome Jews outraged as footage shows antisemitism in youth movement of Meloni’s party
Rome’s Jewish community has called for Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni to punish members of her party’s youth wing who were recorded making antisemitic and pro-fascist comments in an undercover media investigation.

A reporter from the online newspaper Fanpage infiltrated Gioventu Nazionale, Meloni’s rightist Brothers of Italy youth movement, and recorded videos in which members declared themselves fascists and shouted the Nazi slogan “Sieg Heil.”

The investigation also showed a Gioventu Nazionale member mocking Brothers of Italy Senator Ester Mieli for her Jewish origin and revealed chats on messaging platforms where militants took aim at ethnic minorities.

Fanpage has broadcast its expose in two installments, releasing the second one on Wednesday.

“The Jewish Community of Rome condemns the shameful images of racism and antisemitism that emerged from the Fanpage investigation,” the group’s President Victor Fadlun wrote on his X social media account on Thursday.

Fadlun offered his support to Senator Mieli and urged Brothers of Italy to take “appropriate action,” saying it was “imperative that society and institutions” strongly react against hatred and discrimination.

Brothers of Italy said the youth group members had used “unacceptable” language “incompatible with the values” of the party and it vowed to punish those responsible. However, it criticized the way the images were captured because the reporter was undercover.

Italian newspaper La Repubblica reported on Thursday that two of the members involved in the investigation had resigned from their posts.

Brothers of Italy traces its roots to the Italian Social Movement (MSI), formed in 1946 as a direct heir of Benito Mussolini’s fascist movement that ruled Italy for more than 20 years.
Swedish court indicts teen for going to Israeli embassy with semi-automatic weapon
A Swedish court on Thursday found a 15-year-old boy guilty of possession of a semi-automatic weapon while heading to the Israeli embassy in Stockholm in a taxi.

The conviction came less than a month after Sweden’s intelligence agency accused Iran of recruiting gang members to attack Israeli interests in the Scandinavian country.

The boy was arrested on May 16 when police stopped a taxi in the Tyreso suburb south of Stockholm, en route to the Israeli embassy in the capital. He was carrying the gun in his jacket.

The following night, a 14-year-old boy was arrested after a shooting near the Israeli embassy. That investigation is still underway.

The 15-year-old, who was sentenced to 11 months of juvenile supervision, told the Nacka district court he had been ordered to pick up an item in Tyreso for delivery, according to the verdict obtained by AFP.

He said he thought he would collect drugs and only discovered it would be a gun on the way to pick up the item.

He said he found out he was going to the Israeli embassy when he got in the taxi, which a woman had ordered for him.

The taxi driver confirmed that a woman, whose identity has not been established, gave the driver the embassy address.

The teen told the court he felt tricked, but still went ahead with the assignment.

Prosecutors presented evidence from the boy’s smartphone showing that he had looked up the route to the embassy, and the court ruled the youth “knew that the trip was going to the embassy even if he was unable to give the taxi driver an address.”

The fact that the weapon was discovered en route to the embassy meant “the weapon typically could be feared to be used criminally,” the court said.
‘I will be actually doing my attack’: Terror teen’s alleged manifesto
Patten’s suspected manifesto and online activities, shared with the Herald by extremism investigators from The White Rose Society, revealed the teenager had previously fantasised about murder and had described wanting to carry out a range of terrorist attacks in Newcastle and Sydney, inspired by Christchurch shooter Brenton Tarrant.

The manifesto describes a car attack on New Year’s Eve revellers in Sydney and a shooting.

The teenager was seen in tactical gear.

The author copied the format from Tarrant’s own manifesto, beginning with lengthy and often incoherent rants that range from antisemitic to anti-LGBT, anti-immigrant, anti-feminist and profoundly anti-left-wing politics.

He described himself firmly as “right wing” and a Liberal voter “at odds” with the current party.

Like Tarrant, the manifesto ends with a Q&A in which Patten, the alleged author, described bringing a knife to school to behead his school counsellor, and then his teacher.

Patten allegedly wrote in the manifesto he had plans to shoot his school or bomb it, killing dozens of people.

“The scenes in my mind also made it seem poetic to be killed by the police after killing a bunch of people,” he allegedly wrote.

In the end the author settled on a plot to behead a Labor leader – though he wondered aloud if he had the capacity to do it or whether it would just “hurt my head”.

Like his idol Tarrant, who killed 51 in the Christchurch shooting, Patten allegedly livestreamed the Newcastle incident on helmet camera.


Israel's friend in the East: Taiwan has stepped up since October 7
Israel should not forget that it has friends in the East, and a really good one is Taiwan. Especially after the October 7 massacre, relations between the two countries have been growing fonder and stronger.

In 2023, former Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen reminded a delegation from Israel's Knesset that the 75th anniversary of the founding of the State of Israel also marked 30 years since the two countries mutually established representative offices.

On that occasion, Tsai stressed: “Over the past three decades, Taiwan and Israel have signed 32 agreements, covering such areas as technology, health care, and aerospace. … Taiwan and Israel are key trading partners. Even during the pandemic, our bilateral trade continued to grow steadily, reaching $3.28 billion in 2022.”

However, it is not just about business. Israel and Taiwan are connected by a profound link, since both countries are resolutely defending democracy and liberty, despite being surrounded by authoritarian neighbors. For these reasons, after the October 7 massacre, Taiwan was among the first countries to condemn Hamas’ pogrom in Israeli territory.

The Taiwan Foreign Ministry published a statement stressing that it strongly condemned “Hamas for the terrorist attack on Israeli civilians and causing the deaths of innocent people,” and outlined that Taiwan “will work with like-minded countries to resist all forms of terrorist attacks.” In order to show support, Taiwan's tallest skyscraper Taipei 101 was also lit with the blue and white colors of the Israeli flag.

On its X account, Taiwan’s Foreign Ministry posted photos of the display, adding that “Taiwan stands resolute, united in solidarity with Israel.” In an Instagram post, the Foreign Ministry further underlined that the lights “show our solidarity for the people of Israel in the wake of the horrific terrorist attacks.”

Thanking the Taipei government, Israeli Representative to Taiwan Maya Yaron stated: “Taiwan is a very good friend to Israel, and we truly appreciate everything that we receive.” Soon after the massacre, on October 23, it was reported that the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office made a donation of approximately $70,000 to the Pitchon-Lev Association, a non-profit organization whose goal is to break the cycle of intergenerational poverty in Israel.

“By standing steadfastly by Israel's side, the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Tel Aviv, representing Taiwan, not only upholds the values of humanity and justice, but also rekindles hope for those who may have lost faith in the goodness of humanity,” Eli Cohen, CEO of the Pitchon-Lev organization, stressed in the wake of the October 7 pogrom.




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