Wednesday, September 04, 2024

09/04 Links Pt2: The Che Guevara of the Tentifada; Debunking Darryl Cooper; Archaeology is a big problem for the Palestinian cause

From Ian:

Seth Mandel: The Che Guevara of the Tentifada
The moments of clarity keep piling up. The latest one is thanks to the newest progressive hero, Abu Obeida, a senior Hamas official and spokesman for the terror group’s “military wing.”

It would be silly to pretend that anybody could’ve mistaken Obeida for a well-meaning functionary in the past, but he did us the favor this week of making his evil—and thus his admirers’ moral depravity—inarguable.

After Hamas executed six hostages less than a week ago, and their remains were discovered by IDF troops less than a mile from where they had just rescued another hostage, Obeida explained that such horrific crimes were now officially Hamas policy: “Let it be clear to everyone that, following the incident in Nuseirat, new instructions have been issued to the Mujahideen tasked with guarding the prisoners. These instructions outline how to handle the situation if the occupation army approaches the location where the prisoners are being held.”

The “incident in Nuseirat” is the IDF rescue of four hostages in a residential neighborhood in Gaza, including Noa Argamani. If Hamas fears hostages will be rescued, they will execute them in cold blood.

So says Abu Obeida, the Che Guevara of the tentifada.

That characterization is not an exaggeration, either.

At the Northwestern camps, a protester donned a hoodie with what is becoming the iconic picture of Abu Obeida, masked and in military fatigues with a finger in the air, on the front. Ohio State’s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine sold oil paintings of the image. The University of Wisconsin-Madison protests featured a banner with Obeida’s picture on it with the words “Glory to the Resistance.”

In case it was unclear why they admired Abu Obeida, the University of California-Santa Cruz encampments featured the written slogans “Death to Israelis” and “Glory to Abu Obeida.”

A Harvard graduate student, at a protest in New York, led the crowd in a chant of: “Strike, strike, Tel Aviv. Abu Obeida, our beloved.” Footage shows him leading chants at tentifada rallies at Columbia and the City University of New York.
Growing signs of antisemitism in the open
The current dehumanization of Jews all over the world and of Israelis of all kinds involves the false narrative that Jews are all white, successful and perpetrators rather than victims. Jews cannot win. Perceived success brings scorn and the internalized versions are heartbreaking.

The Santa Ana, California school district has taken this one step further as they are actually teaching students to be antisemitic! The ethnic studies steering committee noted in its agenda that it needs to address “the Jewish question” and that they would hold meetings on Jewish holidays to avoid Jewish participation.

The curriculum passed as senior committee members stated, “Jews are not a disadvantaged ethnic group in the U.S. because they were never slaves,” and “We only support the oppressed, and Jews are the oppressor.” The sole Jewish member of the committee was described by the leader as a “colonized Jewish mind” and a few other choice words not fit for print.

Earlier this summer I resigned from the board of directors of the UMass Amherst Alumni Association. I am a grateful graduate, but when I asked leadership to discuss antisemitism and to craft a statement for our website or quarterly that I offered to write, the board declined.

I was clear this was not about Israel but simply about hatred against Jews. For Jewish students and alums, it feels important at this moment. The ADL gave UMass Amherst the grade “F” for not combating antisemitism on campus. I offered a simple way to start to turn things around and for Jews to feel as safe as everyone else on campus.

Here’s what I would have written: “The UMass Amherst Alumni Association stands against the hatred of Jews and we support the safety and well-being of Jewish students and alumni.” Period, not but. If otherwise well-meaning organizations cannot do this, we are swimming in normative antisemitism. It’s unconscionable.
Archaeology is a big problem for the Palestinian cause
The stone seal that was just discovered doesn’t have any inscriptions referring to “Palestine.” It doesn’t refer to any indigenous Palestinian holidays, nor does it bear any ancient Palestinian symbols—because none of those things exist.

The writing on the seal is Hebrew, not Arabic. The name written on it is a Jewish name, not an Arab or Muslim name: Yeho’ezer ben Hoshayahu. The black stone seal was found near the Temple Mount’s southern wall,

That name is very similar to the name of one of King David’s warriors mentioned in the Torah. It’s not similar to the name of the warrior of some “Palestinian” king—because there never was such a thing.

It’s also very similar to a Jewish name mentioned in the biblical book of Jeremiah. It’s not similar to any names mentioned in the Quran. As a matter of fact, the city of Jerusalem itself is not mentioned in the Quran either. Isn’t that fascinating? Despite all the platitudes we hear about how Jerusalem is the “city of three ancient faiths,” Jerusalem does not appear a single time in the Quran.

Filip Vukosavovic of the Israel Antiquities Authority said the newly discovered seal, which dates to about 700 BCE, was used by someone who “held a senior position in the Kingdom of Judah’s administration.” Note: Kingdom of Judah, not Kingdom of Palestine.

It was only some 1,400 years after the creation of that seal, in the seventh century CE, that the Muslims of the Arabian Peninsula invaded and occupied the Land of Israel. The Muslim occupiers never called the country “Palestine.”

Altogether, the archaeologists of the Temple Mount Sifting Project have uncovered several thousand items related to the biblical period. And not one of those items—not one—refers to “Palestinians.”

No wonder the Islamic religious authorities treat the debris from their renovations as garbage. They know that every scoop of dirt can reveal additional evidence that the rightful owners of Jerusalem and the Land of Israel are the Jews.

The Islamic officials on the Temple Mount would like to hide the past. Fortunately, however, Israel’s archaeologists have come to the rescue—that is, the rescue of Jewish national history. In the course of fulfilling the noble scientific purpose of archaeology, they are reaffirming the deep roots of the Jewish people in the Holy Land.


Jerusalem court allows bereaved families to seize $43 million in PA funds
The Jerusalem District Court issued a provisional order on Wednesday allowing a group of Israeli families who have lost members to terrorism to seize 160 million shekels ($43 million) in Palestinian Authority funds frozen by Jerusalem pending proceedings against the P.A., according to Ynet.

If the families win the lawsuit, the funds will be distributed among the dozens of plaintiffs, amounting to 10 million shekels ($2.7 million) per family.

The 210 million-shekel claim was filed in early July by dozens of Israeli families whose relatives were killed in recent years, including in the ax attack in the central city of Elad on Independence Day in 2022 and the Oct. 7 Hamas slaughter at the Supernova festival near the Gaza border.

The lawsuit marked the first action taken since the Knesset passed the “Compensation for Terror Victims Bill.” The law requires courts to award punitive damages of at least 10 million shekels per fatality.

To ease the collection of the punitive awards by victims and their heirs, judgments may be enforced against “any property of the defendant, including any property seized or frozen by the State of Israel.”

The families included in the class action base their claim on the fact that Ramallah “encouraged, supported and sanctioned” the attacks in which their loved ones were murdered, their attorney told Ynet in July.

“The war on terror is currently focused in two areas: in the Gaza Strip and in the courtrooms,” said attorney Barak Kedem of the Jerusalem-based Arbus, Kedem, Tzur law firm in a statement cited by the website.

“In Gaza, our soldiers are fighting terrorism. In the courtrooms, we fight the encouragement of terrorism by the Palestinian Authority, which pays vast monthly salaries to terrorists in exchange for the blood they shed, the blood of righteous and pure men, women and children,” he added.

The remarks referred to the P.A.’s “pay for slay” policy, under which it disburses monthly stipends to convicted terrorists and to the families of slain terrorists. The so-called Martyrs’ Fund is enshrined in P.A. law, granting terrorists or their next of kin the right to receive payments as long as they live.
Colin Allred Embraces Pro-Farrakhan Pastor Who Accused Israel of 'Apartheid' One Day After Oct. 7
When Texas Rep. Colin Allred (D.) visited Dallas’s Friendship-West Baptist Church in June, the pastor, Rev. Frederick D. Haynes III, was already known for praising anti-Semite Louis Farrakhan as a "wonderful man" and delivering an anti-Israel, anti-American rant the day after the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks. But Allred didn’t hesitate to embrace the radical pastor on stage.

Allred’s coziness with the pastor—who has described the congressman as a "brother"—could dent the moderate image that Allred has sought to portray in his bid to unseat Republican Sen. Ted Cruz. Haynes blessed Allred’s campaign twice in sermons on Sept. 17, 2023, and June 9, 2024, a Washington Free Beacon review found.

Haynes, who has close ties to Vice President Kamala Harris, praised Allred as a "mighty good man" in the sermon last year, and joked that the lawmaker’s appearance at the church could be used against him "on Fox News."

Weeks later, Haynes delivered an explicitly anti-Israel sermon, accusing Israel and the United States of "apartheid."

"I recognize that we gotta be pro-Israel … or we get in trouble," Haynes said on Oct. 8, a day after Hamas slaughtered 1,200 Israelis. "Well, I'm coming to get in trouble."

That didn’t deter Allred, who embraced Haynes on the church stage in a sermon on June 9. "I’m really glad today to have a history-making, game changing brother," Haynes said, referring to Allred.

Allred’s courtship of Haynes could prove a political liability as he runs a centrist campaign in conservative Texas. Allred, who has faced scrutiny before for praising anti-Israel cleric Omar Suleiman, has aired ads claiming he has "teamed up with Republicans" on various bills. And Allred has portrayed himself as tough on border security, an ally of Israel, and pro-police.

But Haynes has used the church pulpit and other high-profile venues to preach against all of those causes.

At the Democratic convention in 2020, Haynes said supporters of the southern border wall "may well go to hell." He has compared supporters of police officers to the Ku Klux Klan. Haynes supports cash reparations for slavery, and has organized events at his church in favor of critical race theory, which holds that American society is inherently racist.

And he has worked closely with prominent anti-Semites.
Jayapal accuses Netanyahu of ‘sacrificing’ hostages, ‘tens of thousands of innocent Palestinians’
Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), who has called Israel a “racist state” and who, in December, twice hedged when condemning Hamas terrorists raping Israeli women, accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of “sacrificing” hostages and civilians.

“Today’s labor strike and protests are extremely important,” Jayapal stated on Monday. “Netanyahu has no interest in a ceasefire—he’s prioritized his own political survival while sacrificing hostages and tens of thousands of innocent Palestinians.”

“The United States must use the entirety of our leverage to end this war,” the congresswoman added.

Jayapal’s statement didn’t mention Hamas, the U.S.-designated terror organization that executed the hostages.

In a fact sheet on the “elements of antisemitic discourse” by Kenneth L. Marcus, president and general counsel of the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, posted on the website of the United Nations Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, the suggestion that Jews “sacrifice” others is identified as Jew-hatred.

“Since medieval times, Jewry has frequently been depicted as a wealthy, powerful, menacing and controlling collectivity, demanding the sacrifice of others to their own greed,” per the fact sheet. “In these respects, Jews have been associated with Mammon, the deity associated with of money, and Moloch, the Ammonite god associated with human sacrifice.”
Anti-Israel Groups Oppose California Holocaust Education Bill That Passed Unanimously
Nihad Awad, co-founder and executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). Photo: Screenshot

Major anti-Israel groups opposed a Holocaust education bill in California that passed unanimously in the state’s legislature.

Last week, the California State Assembly and Senate approved Senate Bill 1277 by margins of 76-0 and 40-0, respectively, representing rare unanimous, bipartisan agreement.

The bill established a state program called the “California Teachers Collaborative on Holocaust and Genocide Education.”

According to the Jewish Public Affairs Committee of California (JPAC), the state “has required Holocaust and genocide education to be taught in public schools” since 1985. However, it continued, “most schools are not up to state standards, and there is no systematic teacher training to help bridge the gap. The Collaborative is led by JFCS [Jewish Family and Children’s Services] and brings together 14 leading Holocaust and genocide education institutions from across California.”

JPAC’s executive director, David Bocarsly, said in a statement that despite the importance of Holocaust education, “unfortunately, in many schools across California, we’ve seen how such education is simply non-existent or not meeting state standards.”

Despite the unanimous vote and the seemingly uncontroversial content of the bill, it garnered opposition from radical anti-Israel and progressive organizations such as Jewish Voice for Peace, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), and the Coalition for Liberated Ethnic Studies.

The bill “was surprisingly opposed by Jewish Voice for Peace, Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), and the Coalition for Liberated Ethnic Studies,” JPAC wrote in a press release.

The root of this opposition, the group claimed, had to do with opposition to Israel: “They argued that Holocaust educational institutions should not contribute to Holocaust education if those institutions also support Israel.”

But JPAC noted that “all major US Holocaust educational institutions do [support Israel].”

“Despite such disingenuous opposition,” JPAC added, “the bill’s overwhelming bipartisan support in the legislature demonstrated the desire for such education.”


Israeli Director Criticizes Calls for Film on War to Be Boycotted From Venice Film Festival
Israeli director Amos Gitai criticized on Saturday the nearly 350 members of the film industry who wanted his film to be boycotted from the Venice Film Festival.

“Why War,” which made its world premiere on Saturday out of the competition, was inspired by a correspondence in the early 1930s between Albert Einstein and Sigmund Freud about how to avoid war. The film “traces the roots of war, and embarks on a search for an explanation of the savagery of wars that inhabit our world.” It was co-produced in Italy and shoot in Vienna, Tel Aviv, Berlin, and Paris.

“Why War” and Dani Rosenberg’s Hebrew-language film “Al Klavim Veanashim” (“Of Dogs and Men”) was the focus of an anti-Israel open letter signed by figures in the film industry and published on the opening of the Venice Film Festival last week. They claimed the films were “created by Israeli production companies that are complicit in whitewashing Israel’s oppression against Palestinians.” They further slammed the Venice Film Festival for showcasing both films, saying they are against “the artwashing of [Israel’s] Gaza genocide against Palestinians” at the prestigious film festival.

Speaking at a press conference on Saturday, Gitai said “Why War” did not receive any funding from the government of Israel and insisted that those who wanted the film boycotted from the Venice Film Festival had not even seen the movie, according to The Hollywood Reporter. He further noted that his film examines the topic of war in general, and not “the intoxicated Israeli-Palestinian relationship.”

“The film is not actually focused on Israel-Palestine, although they love always to think that they are the center of the world,” Gitai said. “There is no center of the world. The planet is round. [It’s] a very important conflict, but they are not the only one on the planet.”

“Everything is based on these great two thinkers,” he added. “Karl Marx probably inspired Albert Einstein, because it’s a very Marxist piece about money and greed, or industry. Freud is about the human soul and why these smart animals want to make war.”
Venice Film Festival Director Rejects Petition to Boycott Israeli Films, Insists They’re Not ‘Anti-Palestinian in Any Way’
Alberto Barbera, director of the 81st Venice Film Festival currently taking place, responded to an open letter published last week that called on the iconic film festival not to screen two Israeli films because of the ongoing Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.

More than 300 film industry figures from around the world signed the open letter which focused its attention on “Why War” from director Amos Gitai and Dani Rosenberg’s Hebrew-language film “Al Klavim Veanashim” (“Of Dogs and Men”). In the letter, which was published by Artists for Palestine Italia on the opening of the Venice Film Festival, the signatories claimed that the two films were created by Israeli production companies “complicit in whitewashing Israel’s oppression against Palestinians” in Gaza. The filmmakers, actors, and other film industry members condemned the Venice Film Festival for its “unacceptable” and “immoral” decision to showcase the films, and expressed outrage regarding the festival’s “silence” about “Israel’s atrocities against the Palestinian people.”

“Al Klavim Veanashim” will screen at the Venice Film Festival later this week in the Orizzonti competition and “Why War” made its world premiere on Saturday out of competition.

In a recent interview with Deadline, Barbera started off by saying that like other major international film festivals, the Venice Film Festival is staying neutral when it comes to the Israel-Hamas war.

“Have you seen any major film festival ‘take a side’ in this conflict?” he asked. “We are a space open to everyone and to people with different political views. We show films that highlight different views on all sorts of issues. I don’t want to take sides and I can’t make such public statements for the festival in my role as festival director.”

Barbera was then asked to comment on those who believe there is a lack of support, particularly in Hollywood, for the plight of Palestinians living in Gaza during the current war that started in response to the Hamas terrorist attacks on Oct. 7 in southern Israel.
JetBlue Airways changes Israel's borders and name to 'Palestinian Territories'
American airline JetBlue Airways has updated their in-flight map to show the words "Palestinian Territory" in significantly larger text than the word "Israel," to the point where it is overlaid on the entire state of Israel, N12 reported Tuesday evening.

Hodaya Knafo, an Israeli woman studying in the United States, told N12 that she was on a domestic flight from Miami to San Diego when she tried to show another passenger where Israel was located on her seat’s personal screen. "The label was prominently displayed in a way that didn't seem innocent,” she said, and additionally, the borders were incorrect."

According to the map, Israel’s northern border does not include the Golan Heights.

“It happens often that the word Israel creates a dialogue,” Knafo said, “I wanted to show him where Israel is located on the map on the plane's screens. When I saw the map, I was shocked."

Knafo told N12 that she had intended to show the man next to her how small Israel is, especially compared to the interest it generates.

JetBlue’s borders
Along with the removal of the Golan Heights, "They don't show a division of the West Bank, so it doesn't seem like that's what they meant by the 'Palestinian Territory' label.” Knafo continued, “Also, I think this is new because I don't remember seeing something like this on previous flights."

In light of the global rise in antisemitism, affecting Israeli students, Jews, and even supporters of Israel on campuses across America, Knafo emphasized to N12 that the change in JetBlue's display of Israel and the Golan Heights has deeply upset her, "It's really, quite annoying and frustrating to see this after the year we've been through.” She said, “I'm returning to my studies in a month, and I already know that I'm returning to a battlefield."
Austria temporarily halts mail delivery to Israel due to war with Hamas
Rutie and Barry Davis, an Israeli couple visiting Austria, were shocked earlier this week to discover that Austria had temporarily stopped sending mail to Israel due to the ongoing war with Hamas.

The husband, who spoke to The Jerusalem Post from Linz, Austria, shared that his wife had entered a post office to mail postcards to Israel and was informed that Austria was no longer sending mail to the country.

"My wife went into the post office to send postcards to our kids, and she was told by the clerk, that the Austrians had banned mail to Israel," Barry said on Wednesday.

"When my wife asked her, all she could think of to respond was, and do you not send to Palestine?" She asked. The young woman was a little bit perturbed, so she asked her senior manager to come over. "The manager made a face and said, No, we're not sending mail to to Israel."

Barry added, "this is Linz, where Hitler went to school. This is pathetic. This doesn't help anybody. And this is despicable, especially in Austria."

Barry was surprised by the situation, saying, "We couldn’t believe that regular services like mail delivery were affected. It really brought home the global impact of the conflict.”

In response to an inquiry from the Post, the Israeli Foreign Ministry confirmed the following:

“Indeed, mail delivery has been suspended due to the cessation of Austrian Airlines flights to Israel, which has lasted for approximately three weeks. However, Austrian Airlines is expected to resume flights tomorrow, and the issue should be resolved.”

The ministry reassured Israeli citizens that this was a temporary issue linked to the disruption in flight schedules, which had a ripple effect on services like mail delivery. They also confirmed that other European countries had not implemented similar measures, although flight disruptions may impact services in other regions as well.
The Quiet Antisemitism: My Experience as a Jewish College Professor
How was it possible for one student to access the entire faculty and student body to spew their propaganda?

I contacted the Provost and Dean of the college to inquire. She replied that this was a recent policy change put into place two years earlier to encourage freedom of expression. I asked how this policy might play out if I rebutted the student’s charges through the college-wide email system, only to have another student rebut my defense, and so on and so on?

She replied that if it got out of hand, the school would shut it down.

I replied that the situation had already gotten out of hand, and trusted I wouldn’t be receiving anymore emails from such organizations.

The student newspaper got wind of this, and contacted me for my opinion. Here’s what they wrote in their article:
Safdie, who is of Israeli and Syrian Jewish descent, found sections of the message antisemitic and questioned why he received the email. “I’m all for freedom of expression, but I’m not sure this decision was able to foresee such a situation where students might abuse the privilege and create a hostile work/study environment for other members of the community.”

Fast forward several months, when I returned to campus for the Spring semester. Within a week of arrival, I received an email from the new chair of the English Department (who was also the associate Dean of the Race and Ethnic Studies program). She wanted to set up a Zoom meeting with me — even though our offices were 10 feet apart.

In a carefully worded statement that sounded like it was crafted by an attorney, she got to the point. Although the college was extremely pleased with all the work that I’d done, and that all my students loved my teaching, the college was making budget cuts and were not going to be able to renew my contract.

When I tried to explain to her my prior arrangement with the previous Chair, she simply replied that she’d be happy to write me a letter of recommendation.

Something about the Zoom call and her demeanor felt suspicious.

On a whim, I did an Internet search on my new Chair.

The first thing that came up on her Twitter Feed was a statement on the masthead of a literary magazine she edited, condemning the alleged mass killing and displacement of Palestinians in the wake of Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attacks.

As I explored further, I discovered other parts of the statement:
The Israeli military—with the support of the U.S. government—has bombarded Palestinian civilians relentlessly, in violation of international law, and deprived Palestinians of food, water, fuel, and electricity.

And:
Because we work to “bring our readers into the living moment, not as tourists, but as engaged participants,” we believe that Palestinians need space to speak directly, whether from siege in Palestine or in diaspora. So too do others who bear witness to the ongoing settler-colonial violence in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

Two days after the Zoom meeting, I figured I might as well take the Chair up on her offer to write me a letter-of-recommendation; it was March, and I could still apply to other universities for employment the following year. (Universities can be suspicious if you leave a position after just two years, so a letter would be crucial to securing a position.)

After a week of email silence, the Chair wrote me back, saying that she wasn’t familiar with my teaching and requested to attend one of my classes to observe my skills. I invited her the following week to attend a class, which fit her schedule, but she did not show, and didn’t even write to give an explanation.

I followed up with an email to offer her another opportunity, followed by a second and third, but there was nothing but email silence.

I should also mention that, at the one faculty meeting we had, she stayed as far away from me as possible, and if I approached, she would quickly engage in discussion with another professor. The topic that day was adding a requirement for English Majors to take an anti-Racism class. One of the new offerings for the following year was focused on racism against Palestinians.

By the end of April, I decided to contact the Associate Dean of Humanities who oversaw the English Department, and sure enough, within an hour of my email, I finally received an email back from the Chair of the English Department, offering to attend my class, but letting me know that she was too busy to write me a letter of recommendation until the end of May — well past the end of the semester, and too late to help with a teaching application for the following year.

If there was ever a thought of going to the administration to complain about my treatment, that was quickly extinguished following an SJP demonstration that demanded that the college divest from Oracle. Apparently, Oracle’s website had stated support for Israel, and the Head of Financial Aid for the college felt the need to apologize for the school’s actions.

A response from the school’s administration read thus:“The business strategy or public statements from Oracle do not represent the viewpoints of the College. Due to the College’s contract with the business and the cost it took to make such major system changes, the College does not have any feasible or affordable alternative.

It also went on to assure protesters:
Less than 0.5 percent of the College’s investments are tied to Israeli companies and that none of these investments are directly held by the college.

As the semester ended, on another whim, I searched the Human Resources page of the college, and sure enough, there was a listing for a new English professor. The skills they were looking for were for someone who taught poetry as well as Race and Ethnic studies courses — none of which I was qualified to teach.

Was the college looking to shift away from courses like Screenwriting, Playwriting, and Non-Fiction — three popular courses I had taught that were always in high demand and had long waiting lists?

I guess I’ll never know.
Rutgers University Residential Assistants Reject Mandatory Antisemitism Training Session
Rutgers University’s attempts at educating its students about antisemitism are being resisted by residential assistants (RA) who refuse to accept that Hamas is an anti-Jewish terrorist organization, the school’s campus newspaper, The Daily Targum, reported recently.

According to the paper, late last month Rutgers required its RAs, whose job is to supervise students living in on-campus housing, to participate in a “bystander intervention” course aimed at training them to identify antisemitism, xenophobia, and Islamophobia. Several of the RAs, however, abruptly left the session after a Jewish speaker explained that Hamas’s antisemitism and desire to destroy the world’s only Jewish state precipitated the Oct. 7 massacre, which resulted in the largest loss of Jewish life in a single day since the Holocaust.

The paper added that the RAs took issue with the program’s citing a definition of antisemitism offered by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). After walking out, they reportedly contacted Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), which proceeded to author, on the RAs’ behalf, a series of Instagram posts denouncing the antisemitism trainings as racist and upholding white supremacy.

“The mandated training program organized by the Office of Residence Life requires RAs to learn about DEI, restorative justice, community engagement, and more — all of these are inspired by Indigenous practices meant to unpack systems of white supremacy,” SJP said. “On the contrary, this specific session worked to perpetuate Zionism, racism, and white supremacy.”

SJP’s post included comments from the RAs who involved them in the controversy. One of them, who claimed to be Jewish, said, “I am tired of the word antisemitism being used to talk over genocide, I am tired of antisemitism being inflated.” The RA added, “I fear that when the Nazis and radicals come once again for the Jews that no one will believe us … it will be your fault.”

Another who took issue with the Israeli nationality of one of the course’s presenters said, “One of the facilitators even identified as ‘Israeli’ and made mention of this multiple times. He justified his authority on the topic by citing his 12 plus years spent in ’48 Palestine, going so far as to call ‘Israel’ [sic] a ‘beautiful land.'”
At the University of North Carolina, Teachers Attack Israel with the Lie of ‘Genocide’ and Students Threaten Violence
The 2024-25 school year has recently begun at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC), where faculty members and students are continuing their anti-Israel activism and indoctrination.

In an email promoting a Sept. 6 event titled “Teach Palestine,” Nadia Yaqub — Professor in the Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies — wrote to her fellow UNC academics: “As the genocide against the people of Gaza continues, many of us feel we cannot proceed with our teaching as if nothing is going on.”

The event flier asks, “Are you concerned by the ongoing genocide in Gaza? Are you looking for ways to bring Gaza or Palestine/Palestinians in general into your courses?”

In her email about the event, Yaqub added, “The workshop is open to faculty, staff, and graduate students from across the university, and we hope to present ideas and strategies that are applicable in any field.”

According to Yaqub’s email, all fields at UNC — such as mathematics, computer sciences, and speech-language pathology, just to name a few — should or can be used to focus on events in Gaza.

Community members I have spoken with expressed concern that Yaqub is clearly trying to stop students from getting a proper education in their respective fields in order to promote her political agenda.

Multiple sources report that donors and community members are outraged, and are contacting UNC with concerns about institutional bias and classroom activism. Many wonder if this planned workshop will fall outside of North Carolina state law on institutional neutrality, which clearly specifies, “The constituent institution shall remain neutral, as an institution, on the political controversies of the day.”
Harvard University Not Cooperating With DA's Investigation Into Students Charged With Assault of Jewish Classmate
Harvard University has refused to cooperate with the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office's investigation into the assault of an Israeli business school student that occurred during a protest in October 2023. That decision has delayed the ongoing criminal case against two of the students caught on camera accosting their Jewish classmate, the Washington Free Beacon has learned.

Assistant District Attorney Ursula Knight, who leads the office's Civil Rights and High-Risk Victims Unit and is prosecuting two of the students who participated in the assault, during a Wednesday hearing admonished the university.

"Harvard police essentially refused to investigate," she said, according to an attendee, adding that the school's behavior "has been a shock to the Commonwealth."

The Suffolk County District Attorney's Office in May charged two Harvard students, Elom Tettey-Tamaklo and Ibrahim Bharmal, in connection with the case. The pair was scheduled to be arraigned in June, court records show, but the hearings were postponed until September.

In a hearing on Wednesday, prosecutors again postponed the arraignment, preventing the case from moving forward until at least late October. Both delays stem from Harvard's refusal to cooperate with an investigation into the protest, the Suffolk County district attorney's office told the Free Beacon.

"Harvard PD has not done a follow up investigation, and the defendants are seeking a pre-arrangement disposition," Suffolk County District Attorney's Office spokesman James Borghesani told the Free Beacon. "Harvard was asked to do a follow up investigation and has not."

The investigation that the district attorney's office is seeking, Borghesani added, "would help to identify any additional perpetrators and may lead to inculpatory/exculpatory evidence and/or corroborate what we know."
Chaos at Columbia: Pro-Hamas Students Block Entry To Campus, Vandalize Statue on First Day of Classes
Anti-Israel students brought chaos to Columbia University on Tuesday morning, returning the campus to its new normal: dozens of keffiyeh-clad protesters blocked the entrance to the school, praising Hamas, vandalizing a statue, and clashing with police. At least one group involved aims to bring violence to America, while others called on their followers to help shut down the university.

Agitators with Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD) and the school’s Students for Justice in Palestine chapter prevented students from entering campus, promising that "this is just the beginning." A flyer posted to social media advertising the protest encouraged attendees to "wear a mask," "bring noisemakers," and to "shut it down." And Columbia’s Students for Justice in Palestine chapter released a statement praising Hamas founder Ahmed Yassin and the terrorist group’s current chairman, Yahya Sinwar.



"Sheikh Yassin was assassinated by the Zionists in 2004, but even in death, his legacy of unrelenting resistance in the face of oppression lives on," the group wrote on Telegram. "He lives on in his students, which includes the current head of Hamas, Yahya Sinwar—the man who fooled the Zionist entity—and all the Palestinian fighters who embody the steadfastness that Yassin taught."

On X, the Students for Justice in Palestine chapter said protests will continue.

"As we begin our new semester, students in Gaza have no universities to return to. Instead of listening to the student body, Columbia University is doubling down. We will not stop & we will not rest until @Columbia divests from apartheid and genocide. This is just the beginning," the group posted to X.

"We refuse to trade in the blood of Palestinians, and until Columbia commits to full financial disclosure and complete divestment from Zionist apartheid, occupation, and genocide — we do not deserve a first day of school," a statement by CUAD said. "In the belly of the beast, we have the highest responsibility to crush the gears of this cold and unloving death machine and to build something new. For us and for Palestine, the only option is revolution."
Students for Justice in Palestine: Purpose of BDS is to “Eradicate America”
The myth that the Islamic and Marxist war against Israel is somehow separate from their larger war against the West and human civilization is collapsing, not because the media and our establishments stopped lying about it, but because the perpetrators themselves are taking off their masks and showing their true faces.

After Oct 7, Students for Justice in Palestine openly endorsed the Hamas atrocities. As they prepare to launch the celebration of the Hamas attack, they’re vandalizing campuses and taking credit for it.

They’re also being open about their goal.

BDS isn’t just about destroying Israel, it’s about destroying America. The chants of “Infifada worldwide revolution” should have been a clue. Along with the calls to “globalize the intifada”.

But for anyone still living in a world of denial, SJP’s national organization is stating openly that their goal is to “eradicate America as we know it.”

Good thing they’re funded by student fees and backed by university administrators.

And yet not a single top Democrat has condemned the terrorist campus group by name.


‘Dogs off campus’: anti-Israel demonstrators target NYC university Jewish centre
New York City university students from a coalition of pro-Palestine organisations targeted the Baruch College Hillel centre on Tuesday, shouting, “Baruch Hillel, go to hell,” “Dogs off campus,” and “All Zionists are terrorists.”

Less than a week after the fall term began at Baruch College, a constituent college of the City University of New York (CUNY) system, student protesters from various CUNY schools gathered at Baruch’s campus to demand their universities “cut ties with Hillel and boycott the Zionist entity,” according to an Instagram post about the protest shared by Baruch’s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine.

The protesters, wearing keffiyehs and face coverings, chanted outside the Jewish centre at Baruch College: “We don’t want no Zionists here,” “Dogs off campus,” “all Zionists are terrorists,” “Baruch Hillel, go to hell,” and “you’re from Brooklyn, not the Middle East.”

Videos taken during the demonstration also show a small group of counter-protesters holding Israeli and American flags and chanting, “Am Yisrael Chai” and “USA, USA.” It is unclear how many students with either the pro-Palestine protest or the counter-protest were Baruch students. A source from CUNY has said the Baruch SJP group is not affiliated with Baruch College.

Tuesday’s demonstration was not Baruch College’s first brush with anti-Israel hostility. Last week, protesters gathered outside the Hillel with a banner that said, “Bring the war home” beside an image of an assault rifle, and a sign that said, “Let the intifada pave the way for people’s war.” They also carried a sign that said, “Hillel go to hell,” with an upside-down red triangle, according to images protesters posted on social media. The symbol has been used by Hamas to mark its targets in propaganda videos.


Meta’s oversight board rules anti-Israel slogan ‘From the river to the sea’ is not hate speech
Meta’s independent Oversight Board ruled Wednesday that the controversial, anti-Israel slogan “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” is not hate speech.

Users of Meta’s Facebook and Instagram apps can continue to use the slogan in their posts as long as the posts do not include other context that glorifies Hamas or calls for violence, the board said in a majority decision.

The slogan, which Jewish groups have criticized as inherently antisemitic, calls for a Palestinian state stretching across the land in between the Jordan River and Mediterranean Sea – the land currently occupied by Israel.

Some board members disagreed with the Wednesday decision and argued that the phrase should be understood as an inherent glorification of Hamas since the phrase appears in the 2017 Hamas charter.

The board looked at three cases in which users reported posts using the phrase and ruled that the posts did not break Meta’s hate speech rules because they did not explicitly call for violence against Jewish or Israeli people.

“Instead, the three pieces of content contain contextual signals of solidarity with Palestinians,” the board said.

“We welcome the board’s review of our guidance on this matter,” Meta told The Post in a statement. “While all of our policies are developed with safety in mind, we know they come with global challenges and we regularly seek input from experts outside Meta, including the Oversight Board.”

“From the river to the sea” is not a new saying, but it has become a popular chant at pro-Palestinian protests since the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks on Israel by Hamas, which led to Israel’s bombardment of the Gaza strip.

Israeli and Jewish advocates have decried the use of the phrase, which Hamas adopted to call for the violent destruction of Israel.

“Palestine is ours from the river to the sea and from the south to the north,” Khaled Mashaal, Hamas’ former leader, said in a 2012 speech in Gaza. “There will be no concession on any inch of the land.”


New York Times Brings Anti-Israel Bias to Campus Protest Preview
The New York Times is previewing the fall semester’s anti-Israel campus protests with the same anti-Israel spin it has brought to coverage of the war in Gaza.

The front page of the Sunday New York Times featured a story with the print headline “Colleges Target Gaza Protesters With New Rules.” Even the headline, framing it from the perspective of the protesters rather than the Jewish students, subtly expresses the tilt.

The online subheadline carries a similar slant: “University officials are spelling out strict codes around protests. They say they are trying to be clear. Others say they are trying to suppress speech.” Actually some of them say, at least privately, that they are trying to protect Jewish and Israeli students and the rest of the campus from antisemitic violence that has interfered with teaching and learning.

When the Times gets to that, it puts it in scare quotes: “disrupting the learning environment.” The framing of the whole article emphasizes the “approach to free speech” (no scare quotes from the Times there) aspect of the story rather than the antisemitism and disruptive violence aspect.

The Times article wasn’t even updated to reflect the situation accurately at the time of print publication.

My print, Sunday, Aug. 25 New York Times says, “A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction this month that said the University of California, Los Angeles, could not allow protesters to block Jewish students from campus facilities. (UCLA objected to the court telling it how to manage demonstrations. The court’s order, the university said, could ‘hamstring our ability to respond to events on the ground.’)”

Online, the article was stealth-edited, without appending a print correction, so that it now reads: “(Although UCLA initially warned that the ruling threatened to ‘hamstring our ability to respond to events on the ground,’ it decided not to appeal and said it would ‘abide by the injunction as this case makes its way through the courts.’)”
NSS raises concerns with BBC over interview with extremist imam
The NSS has raised concerns with the BBC after a presenter introduced an imam as "highly respected" without acknowledging his extremist views.

Haitham al-Haddad (pictured, second left, with Taliban Minister of Foreign Affairs) was interviewed by BBC Radio London's Asad Ahmad last month about far-right violence and extremism in the UK.

In 2018, Sara Khan, then Lead Commissioner for Countering Extremism said: "Haitham al-Haddad's views are misogynistic, racist and homophobic. They promote a supremacist 'us versus them' worldview that wrongly makes Muslims feel that they can't be fully British".

BBC editorial guidelines on impartiality state: "particular viewpoints [of contributors] should be made available to the audience, when relevant to the context."


The high-stakes battle over understanding Palestinian public opinion in Israel
In March, the highly regarded Palestinian pollster Khalil Shikaki set out to survey Palestinian public opinion about the brutal attack carried out by Hamas on Oct. 7. The poll, published by Shikaki’s Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, found widespread support for Hamas: More than 7 in 10 Gazans backed the Oct. 7 attack, nearly two-thirds were satisfied with Hamas’ performance in the war and a majority were satisfied with Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.

But like so much else about the war in Gaza, Shikaki’s poll results are shrouded in fog.

The official Israel Defense Forces X account, in a post last week carrying the hashtag “busted,” released documents purporting to show Hamas falsified the results of the poll from the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research to indicate greater support for the Oct. 7 attacks in Palestinian society.

Experts, however, told Jewish Insider that allegations that the polling was unreliable is far less dramatic than the military made it seem, with all evidence indicating that the Palestinian public still overwhelmingly supports Hamas and condones the Oct. 7 attacks.

The IDF found a letter in Gaza that the military said indicated that someone named Abu Khaled was manipulating March 2024 poll results without evidence that PCSR Director Khalil Shikaki had any knowledge of the matter.

“The results of the survey were corrected in accordance with the practice that existed in previous surveys … The attached real survey results are confidential and intended for limited circulation,” the letter reads.

The letter indicated that the previously published polling had been altered, on questions ranging from whether Gazans supported the Oct. 7 attack, whether they preferred Hamas to control Gaza after the war, and whether Gazans believed Hamas would win the war.

One notable example of the disconnect between the published results and claims of what the actual data show: The published poll reportedly found that 71% of Gazans supported the Oct. 7 attacks, 62% were satisfied with Hamas’ performance in the war and a 52% majority were satisfied with Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar. According to the letter, the actual results found fewer than one-third (30.7% and 32%) were in favor of the Oct. 7 attacks and were satisfied with Hamas, and less than one-quarter (22%) approved of Sinwar.

According to the IDF, “these documents are part of a systematic process, the purpose of which is to disguise the collapse of the organization and the collapse of public support for it.”


Seth Frantzman: Iran’s president backs Palestinians amid spats with UK, Australia
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian released a statement on Tuesday backing Palestinians during a trip to a university in Iran. “From the beginning of my tenure in government, I have declared my steadfast support for the Palestinian people and the oppressed around the world, highlighting my commitment to uphold their rights in all arenas,” he said.

Iranian state media characterized this as support for more “resistance.” Pezeshkian was speaking at the ninth International Conference of Mujahideen in Exile, held at Damghan University in the Semnan Province. The president also commemorated late Iranian foreign minister Hossein Amirabdollahian during his speech, with reports describing him as being the “embodiment of resistance diplomacy.”

This is an interesting new term for Iran’s diplomacy; it shows how the diplomatic offensives that Iran has run recently, working with Russia and various countries in the region, are part of the overall Iranian aggressive strategy that dovetails with the role of the IRGC in the region.

The Iranian presidential visit to a university comes as Iran’s new foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, continues to hold calls and receive messages from abroad. According to Iranian media, both Mexican Foreign Minister Alicia Bárcena and Elmedin Konaković, the foreign minister of Bosnia and Herzegovina, sent notes to Araghchi.

This is important for Iran; it wants to work with countries like Bosnia and Mexico. It wants to do outreach to the West, including the Global South, in initiatives that are likely part of Araghchi’s new foreign policy. This is not to say that everything is new, but Iran wants more outreach to Latin America and eastern Europe. IRNA reported that Konaković “also expressed certainty that friendly relations between Iran and Bosnia and Herzegovina will further strengthen with the support of Iran’s new foreign minister.”
How Close Is Iran to the Bomb?
If Iran ever builds a nuclear bomb, then we’ll be living in a drastically more dangerous world. For more than two decades, avoiding that reality has motivated American foreign policy, with decidedly mixed results. Now, recent activities at a secretive office inside Tehran’s Ministry of Defense is stoking fears that we’re far closer to that day than many experts understand.

Two separate documents—about a half dozen pages written in Farsi—obtained by The Free Press reveal how Iran’s parliament, or Majlis, is significantly expanding the funding and military pursuits of the Organization of Defensive Innovation and Research, known by its Farsi language–based acronym, SPND. The pages of legislation, passed this summer, were downloaded from the parliament’s website, but are being detailed for the first time in the Western press.

While the new Iranian legislation doesn’t specifically mention nuclear bomb development, it clearly states that SPND’s mandate is to produce advanced and nonconventional weapons with no civilian oversight. The legislation, which The Free Press translated, states that “this organization focuses on managing and acquiring innovative, emerging, groundbreaking, high-risk, and superior technologies in response to new and emerging threats.”

The law essentially shields Iran’s defense department from any domestic oversight—while giving it a seemingly unlimited budget, though no specific numbers were given. When Iran’s parliament published the legislation on its website in May, it offered the most detailed accounting yet of SPND’s structure, which was largely kept secret.

The Iranian law decrees that SPND reports directly to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who is also the chief commander of Iran’s armed forces. It says the organization “has an independent legal [status] and operates as a government institution with financial, transactional, and administrative independence.”

Ali Akbar Salehi, a former foreign minister and ex-head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, bluntly told Iranian state television in February that his country already has all the necessary components to build a bomb. “We have all the thresholds of nuclear science and technology,” Salehi said in response to a question about Iran’s nuclear capabilities. “I’ll give you an example: What does a car want? It wants a chassis, an engine, a steering wheel, and a gearbox. You tell me, did you make the gearbox? I say yes. Did you make the engine? Yes, but each one is for its own purpose.”

For more than a decade, American, Israeli, and United Nations officials have closely tracked SPND’s operations due to their collective belief that it has played the leading role in covert nuclear weapons research for the Islamic Republic.
US-Iranian man charged with smuggling drone parts to Islamic Republic
Gholam Reza (“Ron”) Goodarzi, 76, appeared in federal district court on Tuesday, accused of smuggling material that could make drones and manned aircraft to Iran.

The dual U.S. and Iranian citizen, who lives in Porter, Texas, was arrested on Aug. 30 at George Bush International Airport in Houston. The septuagenarian allegedly tried, for years, to smuggle drone parts and other technologies to Iran, “even concealing controlled items in his own luggage,” according to Matthew Olsen, assistant U.S. attorney in the Justice Department’s division of national security.

“Smuggling aircraft parts into Iran endangers U.S. national security by potentially enhancing Iran’s military capabilities, enabling them to advance their aerial combat potential, increase regional power and threaten U.S. allies and interests in the Middle East,” stated Alamdar Hamdani, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Texas.

He added that the prosecution reflects his office’s “core commitment” to “disrupt and hold accountable Goodarzi’s alleged efforts to evade sanctions against Iran, a hostile nation.”

Per the complaint, Goodarzi allegedly smuggled “aircraft-related parts, in addition to oil and drilling components” illegally to the Islamic Republic between Dec. 1, 2020, and July 5. “As alleged, Goodarzi purchased U.S.-origin aircraft components from U.S.-based suppliers and then exported them to Iran—typically through Dubai, United Arab Emirates,” the Justice Department stated.
Last Nazi hunter Efraim Zuroff resigns from Simon Wiesenthal Center, vows to fight antisemitism
The last Nazi hunter, Efraim Zuroff, stepped down from the position of the Simon Wiesenthal Center Israel Office director after 38 years, Zuroff announced on Facebook on Tuesday morning.

Born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1948, Zuroff has dedicated his life to identifying and bringing to justice Nazi war criminals who evaded capture for decades. His interest in Holocaust studies began early, and after completing a degree in history from Yeshiva University, he moved to Israel in 1970 to work at Yad Vashem, Israel's official memorial to the victims of the Holocaust.

Zuroff staunchly combatted antisemitism. “Holocaust education was the best cure for antisemitism,” he stated in an interview with Australian actor Nathaniel Buzolic, who has been vocal in his support of Israel since October 7. He immediately followed that statement and said, “It turns out it’s not true.”

He then explained that Holocaust denial is a problem “in the Muslim world and the Arab world, where they don’t teach anything about the Holocaust… where they have a deep tradition of antisemitism,” implying that Holocaust denial is another form of antisemitism.

Zuroff's career in Nazi-hunting began when he joined the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles in 1978. He later returned to Israel, where he played a crucial role in launching “Operation: Last Chance,” a campaign which offers financial rewards for information leading to the conviction of Nazi war criminals. This operation has been implemented in over a dozen countries and has led to numerous prosecutions, including that of Sobibor death camp guard John Demjanjuk in Germany.
Two Arabic-Speaking Men Arrested for Antisemitic Attack in Switzerland
The Swiss authorities arrested two men in late August for an alleged antisemitic attack on a 19-year-old British Orthodox Jew in Davos.

The victim said the two men, who speak Arabic and French and are rejected asylum seekers in Switzerland, spat on him and knocked off his kippah while shouting “Free Palestine.”

Peter Peyer, canton Graubünden Director of Justice, told Swiss media outlets that “we do not tolerate people who are allowed to stay here attacking other people, whether it is because of religion or skin color.”

The Swiss authorities quickly released the two suspected perpetrators, who are aged 24 and 29.

“If people insult a Jewish guest, there is a high probability that it has an antisemitic background,” said Peyer. The Swiss authorities ruled out that the attack was linked to terrorism.

Writing for the popular Switzerland-based, pro-Israel website “Audiatur Online,” Lukas Joos said that the incident in Davos “is one of the most serious antisemitic violent crimes in recent years.”

He criticized the Swiss justice system for not jailing the suspects and the seemingly lax attitude of Jonathan Kreutner, the General Secretary of the Swiss Federation of Jewish Communities (SIG), toward an ostensible outbreak of Muslim antisemitism.

The title of Joos’ article is: “Muslim hatred of Jews? The SIG has ‘no evidence at the moment.'”

Joos wrote: “But Muslim violence against Jews is a sensitive topic, so it’s best not to say anything without hard and fast evidence. As Kreutner explained to the NZZ, you have to be careful not to ‘generalize’ or ‘stigmatize entire population groups.'”
Alleged assault at train station
Two Yesodei HaTorah College high school students were allegedly attacked at Caulfield train station on Sunday, according to an email to parents.

The email from deputy menahel Rabbi Yosi Fromer on September 1 stated, “An incident took place today with two of our high school students where one was punched in the face after unprovoked antisemitic slurs directed at them.

“As our students are visibly Jewish, the school will endeavour to get professional awareness and safety training on how the students should deal with these situations.”

No medical assistance was required.

Yesodei HaTorah’s interim educational director Rabbi Yehoshua Smukler told The AJN on behalf of the school, “We are very upset that two of our students were verbally and physically accosted and assaulted, unprovoked, whilst going about their business on a Sunday afternoon in a public space here in Melbourne.

“Victoria Police have been informed. We would like to thank the CSG for their support and proactive approach in ensuring that the issue is being dealt with appropriately, and for working with the relevant authorities to ensure that issues like this don’t continue to happen in the future.”

Victoria Police said it is investigating.

Senior Sergeant Alasdair Farrell, commander of Caulfield Police Station, told The AJN, “It is understood a 15-year-old boy was approached by a group of youths on Sir John Monash Drive about 1.45pm. Police were told one of the male offenders assaulted the boy whilst another member of the group filmed the incident.

“The boy sustained minor injuries which did not require hospital treatment. The group fled the scene on foot.”

The father of one of the boys told The AJN, “A group of Middle Eastern-looking teenagers threw antisemitic slurs, including ‘f***ing Jews’. Two of them followed the boys and one punched my son in the face while another filmed it. My son had a bruised jaw and bleeding in his mouth. They approached two people for assistance but they didn’t help.”
London Launches New Bus Route to Help Jews ‘Feel Safe’ When They Travel Amid Rampant Antisemitism
With antisemitic incidents surging in London, the British capital city has introduced a new bus route to help Jewish residents “feel safe” when they travel.

The newly launched 310 bus will run every 20 minutes from 7 am to 7 pm daily between Stamford Hill in Hackney and Golders Green in Barnet, areas with two of the biggest Jewish communities in London, according to British media reports.

Transport for London, a local government body overseeing much of the city’s transport network, will collect data on the new bus route’s use before deciding whether to make it permanent.

“Jewish Londoners have felt scared to leave their homes,” London Mayor Sadiq Khan told The Jewish Chronicle. “So, this direct bus link between these two significant communities means you can travel on the 310, not need to change, and be safe and feel safer. I hope that will lead to more Londoners from these communities using public transport safely.”

Khan expressed similar sentiments to BBC London.

“I was struck by the conversations I’ve had in recent months with the Jewish community,” he said. “They were frightened because of a massive increase of antisemitism since Oct. 7 of last year. I was told stories by families who, where they changed buses from Stamford Hill to Golders Green at Finsbury Park, they were frightened about the abuse they had received.”

London specifically and the United Kingdom more broadly have experienced a surge in antisemitic hate crimes following the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel.

The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) recorded 2,065 antisemitic hate crime incidents between October and July, with several hundred taking place in Barnet and Hackney.

Orthodox Jews in the Stamford Hill section of the city have been targeted disproportionately for being visibly Jewish, as shown in a spate of incidents reported by Shomrim, a Jewish organization that monitors antisemitism and also serves as a neighborhood watch group.


Debunking Darryl Cooper
Cooper reserves a special hatred for Winston Churchill, whom he calls “the chief villain of WW2” - who is apparently to blame for every single catastrophe visited upon the German people since WW1. In this distorted vision of history poor, blameless Adolf Hitler was goaded into a second bloodletting of the German nation by the imperious, racist, diabolical Winston Churchill. Nothing could be further from the truth.
- By 1939, Churchill had been in the political wilderness for 10 years. He was considered a spent force by his peers, especially after Munich when it was assumed a lasting peace had been achieved by Neville Chamberlain. Had Hitler waited a few more years to seek war with Britain, he might not have had to contend with Winston Churchill at all!
- As Winston became Prime Minister in 1940, he was inheriting a war he hadn’t initiated, a war he was losing, and it was all his responsibility. It’s difficult to overstate the precarious situation of the United Kingdom in the wake of the fall of France. The continent belonged to Hitler. Stalin was content to sit back and supply Germany, and the United States would maintain its policy of neutrality for 2 more years. The pressure on Churchill to make peace with the Nazis was immense. Even a rumor of negotiation would’ve destroyed British morale. Churchill’s indomitable stance is perhaps understandable, when Britain’s survival was balanced on a knife’s edge.
- If there’s anything Churchill can be criticized for, it's the post-war collapse of the British Empire. In this, he was too old-fashioned to realize the shifting tides. Both world wars had imposed massive costs on the British treasury, and the loss of prestige in the face of Nazi and Japanese aggression was palpable. So too was the obvious sense that the new world order was going to be decided by others - The United States and the Soviet Union. Most likely there’s nothing Churchill could’ve done to stop the future. But it is a fact that by Churchill’s second term in 1950, the British “had come to the end of themselves as they were.”

Later, Cooper continued his revisionist hot takes in a tweet thread again blasting Churchill. In one tweet he mentions the Allied blockade of Germany during WW1 - which continued after the November 11 armistice, causing starvation for the German people. Why would the Allied powers continue a naval blockade preventing supplies from reaching Germany? There are a few valid reasons:
- Fear of revolution: Even before the armistice of November 1918, Germany was facing mutinies and uprisings in its interior from its working class population. Russia had fallen in 1917. The Austrio-Hungarian empire had collapsed, the Ottomans had signed an armistice in October 1918. When the Kaiser abdicated, Germany seemed to be the next front for a violent revolution.
- The armistice was exactly that - an cessation of hostilities. It did not mean Germany had surrendered. The allied powers were fearful of a revolution leading to a Napoleon like situation, justifiable given that the various worker’s uprisings and strikes in Germany were ended by nationalist paramilitary groups like the Freikorps.

Cooper’s thread then devolves into more antisemitic speculation that Churchill only became pro-zionist after 1938 after being saved from bankruptcy by a rich Jew. As to that accusation, Churchill had always been a fiercely pro-jewish politician, thanks to his father’s influence. He was outraged by the Dreyfus affair calling it a ‘monstrous conspiracy’. Moreover, Churchill came to the defense of Edwin Montagu who was the Secretary of State for India and a practicing jew. Montagu faced anti-semitic attacks by far-right Tories for calling the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre ‘terrorism’, a sentiment Churchill shared with Montagu. This was in 1919, decades before Churchill became insolvent.

Darryl Cooper’s portrayal of Adolf Hitler as a victim of circumstance, and Winston Churchill as a cigar chomping Bond villain is a fantasy devoid of any basis in reality. By picking and choosing facts to support his ideological vision, he’s spreading a dangerous form of revisionist history that must be refuted. He whitewashes the crimes of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi regime, while vilifying the only person who held fast against fascism from the start. The debt owed to the Old Lion by the West is incalculable. Winston Churchill always remembered the motto of his father, “trust the people” - he stood aside when he was voted out of office in 1945. Some say the British public was tired of the toffs getting them into wars, but others believe he was that class of hero who is only called upon in the most dire moments to save civilization itself.

I hold close the memory of a white-haired teacher in middle school in Florida, who had been a veteran of the Second World War. He told us how his unit had found a train wagon full of jewish corpses, whose doors were held shut by a flimsy lock with the Nazi swastika on them. His eyes hardened as he recalled the anger of the American unit at the lies of the German mayor who insisted he had no knowledge of the train. He never forgot the face of that man, who insisted with perfect sincerity that he wasn’t allowed to break the lock on the train, and he didn’t know what was inside. Later, their commanding officer made the entire town clean up and bury the corpses.

Eighty years after the end of the Second World War, those who remember it are fast fading from this world. The lessons of that terrible carnage should not fade with them.

In the glare, the great and terrible light of this happening, God seems to signal that the story of the rest of us need not end, and that the new light can prove a troubled dawn. For the rest of us, perhaps. Not for the dead, not for the more than fifty million real dead in the world’s worst catastrophe: victors and vanquished, combatants and civilians, people of so many nations, men, women, and children, all cut down. For them there can be no new earthly dawn. Yet though their bones lie in the darkness of the grave, they will not have died in vain, if their remembrance can lead us from the long, long time of war to the time for peace.


Netherlands will order Spike LR 2 anti-tank missiles from Rafael
In the early 2000s, the Netherlands replaced their American-made M47 Dragon and TOW anti-tank missiles with a single system, the Spike, designed by the Israeli group Rafael Advanced Defense Systems. A total of 297 launchers and more than 2,400 missiles were acquired to meet the needs of the army and the marine infantry. However, over time, these Spike missiles have now become outdated or are close to it. This was highlighted by Gijs Tuinman, the Dutch State Secretary for Defense, in a letter addressed to the House of Representatives on September 2.

The Dutch official explained, "The current system is reaching the end of its technical and operational lifespan after 25 years. As a result, it is experiencing increasing technical failures, and its maintenance is difficult. Moreover, the optical target detection and missile guidance systems are obsolete." He added that replacing this capability is "urgent, partly due to the deteriorating security situation in Europe." But also because delivery times must be considered. "Ordering later leads to delays and higher prices," Tuinman continued, emphasizing the need to place an order by October 31 at the latest.

The argument for a deadline to place an order was also made by the Danish Ministry of Defense when replacing the CAESAr systems given to Ukraine with ATMOS 2000 self-propelled howitzers from Elbit Systems. In fact, it is from the Israeli group that the Netherlands intends to procure new anti-tank missiles, specifically the Spike LR 2. These missiles "can neutralize enemy combat vehicles up to a distance of 5,000 meters. Additionally, they can engage targets without direct line of sight. These modernized anti-tank weapons are provided exclusively by Rafael," the Dutch Ministry of Defense stated in a press release.

The Spike missile is a family of anti-tank missiles developed by the Israeli company Rafael Advanced Defense Systems. The Spike is designed to be versatile, capable of being launched from various platforms, including infantry, armored vehicles, helicopters, and ships. It stands out for its multi-mode guidance capability, combining wire or fiber-optic guidance with an autonomous mode using an electro-optical sensor. This allows the Spike to adapt to combat conditions, offering high precision against stationary or moving targets at distances ranging from a few hundred meters to several kilometers. The Spike is available in several versions, each optimized for different ranges and missions, including the Spike SR (Short Range), Spike MR (Medium Range), Spike LR (Long Range), and Spike ER (Extended Range).

The Spike LR 2, one of the most recent versions, represents a significant improvement over its predecessors. This long-range missile (up to 5.5 km) is equipped with enhanced penetration capabilities, making it particularly effective against modern reactive armor. Additionally, it incorporates advanced target recognition and tracking systems, as well as the ability to update the mission in flight, allowing operators to adapt their attack based on battlefield developments. The Spike LR 2 is also designed to be interoperable with existing systems, making it an attractive choice for many armies worldwide, including the Netherlands.
Party in the U-S-A
“Do you still love America?”

Hundreds of fraternity brothers, Jewish college students, and their dates respond to the question, posed by country musician John Rich, by howling with delight into the night sky. Two girls, both in white dresses and cowboy boots, clink their vapes together, as if to say cheers. Others cup their hands around their mouths to chant: “U-S-A! U-S-A!”

Of course they love America! These are the boys from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, who were hailed as patriots last April when they defended the American flag from a crowd of jeering anti-Israel protesters. Just as their peers were descending deeper into madness, setting up encampments on college campuses nationwide, these Vineyard Vines–clad students stood up for normalcy when they rushed to protect Old Glory. After their image went viral, John Noonan, a former adviser to then–presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, established a GoFundMe in their honor. The purpose? “Throw these frats the party they deserve.”

Thousands answered the call, and half a million dollars later, voilà—Flagstock 2024, as organizers called the event, was born. Held in a field at the American Legion outside of Chapel Hill, Flagstock featured country music artists Big & Rich and Lee Greenwood.

And so it was that at 2:30 p.m. on Labor Day, dozens of journalists from around the country poured in looking for a show. They placed us in a press pen (thankfully, I escaped) and told us to wait. So we did. There were maybe thirty porta potties, enough chicken wings to feed an army, and security was flown in from New York. It was obvious that the organizations were expecting a “rager” (Noonan’s word) of mammoth proportions.

I assumed I just had to sit back, and the frat bros would come. But it was more a trickle that never really picked up beyond that. Of the 7,000 tickets that were distributed to the university’s Greek chapters, the campus ROTC program, and local veterans, fewer than a thousand people showed up.

It didn’t take long to figure out why. The gestalt of the party was conservative—although, c’mon, protecting the flag shouldn’t be a conservative gesture!—which caused many students to stay away.




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

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