Wednesday, September 18, 2024

09/18 Links Pt2: An Executive Order that Targets Jews; International donors are complicit in Hamas’ presence in Gaza – and key to its demise

From Ian:

An Executive Order that Targets Jews
The sanctions are being imposed on people who are neither settlers nor violent. The list of sanctioned entities includes Tsav 9, an organization that engages in nonviolent protest to prevent humanitarian aid from being captured by Hamas. You’d think that this administration, or any U.S. government, would have exactly the same goal: It can’t be a good idea to let Hamas capture humanitarian aid, because we know—as reported by Israeli TV again recently—that Hamas sells the aid, at exorbitant prices, to the Gazans to whom it’s directed, and then uses that money to fund Hamas terror operations.

The Israelis who are trying to right this obvious wrong are engaging in exactly the kind of protests we see all the time. When such tactics were used to protest judicial reforms, President Biden praised the riots as an “enduring protest movement that is demonstrating the vibrancy of Israel’s democracy.”

But the same tactics deployed by Israeli Jews against Hamas get a different response, and this administration is committed to stopping them even if they take place entirely in Israel, entirely among Israelis and are entirely nonviolent. What does this mean in practice? It means that the organization Tsav 9 and one of its organizers, a mother of eight living in a development town in Southern Israel, have been debanked.

As shocking as it is, this Executive Order didn’t come out of nowhere: Within weeks of President Obama’s first inauguration, IRS and State Department officials began considering whether they could deny or revoke tax-exempt status for organizations that provide material support to Jews living across the Green Line—the nonborder that delineates pre-1967 Israel from the territories Israel acquired in the Six-Day War. The theory was that a Jewish presence in those areas is inconsistent with U.S. policy. The IRS drew up lists of such organizations based on information from anti-Israel websites such as Electronic Intifada and Mondoweiss. A case successfully challenged that policy, with a federal appellate court opinion holding that the IRS couldn’t discriminate on the basis of viewpoint when processing applications for charitable status.

One of the most troubling things about this Executive Order is how it’s targeting Jews. There are plenty of Islamist terrorists operating in Judea and Samaria, and in fact the Palestinian Authority itself officially pays monthly stipends to the families of terrorists who have been convicted of killing Jews. (Those payments are an explicit violation of the U.S. law known as the Taylor Force Act, but the Biden administration doesn’t care and allows such payments.) Not one Arab individual has been sanctioned under this Executive Order.

The only sanctions “imposed” on any non-Jewish person or entity was the Lion’s Den terrorist cell in Nablus. But the terrorist cell is just that—a cell. It has no bank accounts or credit cards in its own name, and nobody else was sanctioned along with it—no individual people or leaders, no banks that service those people. And aside from this “sanction,” the Biden administration has done nothing under this Executive Order to sanction any non-Jew for any action, including the actual or attempted murder of Jews, which you can read about every few days in the newspaper.

As a matter of Constitutional law, the president has the authority to treat allies and enemies largely as he wishes, and it’s not illegal for the President to discriminate among different groups of people when none of them is a U.S. citizen. But it’s disappointing that Israel, which for the Biden administration is formally categorized as an ally, has its citizens subject to financial sanction while the people who are trying to kill them not only get virtual immunity, but also get paid with money provided as U.S. aid.
Seth Mandel: Hamas’s Fitting Embrace of a Nazi Symbol
Ambiguity is in the eye of the beholder. That seems to be the lesson of the quadrennial fight over political symbols in U.S. presidential elections. Four years ago, an inverted red triangle in some of the Trump campaign’s Facebook ads caused a scandal, and the ads were eventually taken down and replaced with triangle-free versions.

The Nazis had used the inverted red triangle—and triangles of other colors—on prisoners’ uniforms to sort them into categories. Since the Trump ads took aim at the pretend anti-fascist rioters who called themselves Antifa, and the red triangle in German camps represented Communist political prisoners, we were told the symbol was proof of Trump’s Nazi role-playing games.

“If your reaction is, ‘sometimes a cigar is just a cigar,’” wrote a contributor to Psychology Today, “consider also that the first sentence of the ads contained 14 words, and a total of 88 ads were purchased by the campaign to be run on Facebook.” Fourteen is the number of words in an alt-right slogan, she pointed out, and 88 is shorthand for “Heil Hitler,” since H is the eighth letter of the alphabet. (Remind me never to watch Sesame Street with this person.)

It was doubtful Trump or Facebook’s moderators understood the full implications of this—the campaign had seen the triangles in Antifa material and assumed the group had adopted it, which some actual anti-fascists did after World War II—but both were scolded for it and the ads were changed.

Contrast that with the chin-stroking over the inverted red triangle used by Hamas to indicate its battlefield targets.

Because its origins (in this context) lie in Hamas’s use of the triangle for one specific purpose, its meaning contains no ambiguity. But in the grand tradition of Western play-radicals who want to have their cake and eat it too, Hamas’s supporters have begun to reverse-engineer the symbol into vague respectability.

To understand the truly demented nature of this, you’d have to be in the unlucky position of having watched some of Hamas’s battlefield propaganda videos. At their tamest, they show the triangle hovering over an Israeli tank in the distance before the tank is shelled. Often these videos are a cross between a snuff video and a horror film, and glorify the execution of people.

The adoption of the red triangle by pro-Palestinian activists is a badge of derangement. This is not the watermelon, which is used as a stand-in for the Palestinian flag because of its similar color scheme. The triangle is a specific marker of vicarious violence.
Seth Frantzman: International donors are complicit in Hamas’ presence in Gaza – and key to its demise
It’s important to understand here how deeply Hamas has infiltrated all facets of life in Gaza. It infiltrates media and also healthcare workers. It exploits schools, universities, shelters and hospitals. For Hamas, all these NGOs and UN organisations are targets to be exploited, and each large civilian building is a potential hideout. Hamas conducts itself both as a terrorist group and a kind of mafia in this respect. The armed men that it sends to hijack aid convoys, for example, pretend to be there for “protection”. This is the kind of protection that the mafia also offers in other settings. It’s how cartels operate. Separating the civilians from the mafia-cartel aspect of Hamas is key to uprooting Hamas.

Gaza’s misfortune is to have an international community that has worked in Gaza for decades and been unwilling to confront Hamas. The NGOs and other groups that work there want to get their aid to local people. They see working with Hamas as a lesser evil than the aid not being delivered. They aren’t willing to condemn Hamas or monitor their aid convoys for the presence of gunmen, because it’s easier to look the other way and just let a system that is in place continue. As long as they can say aid came across the border, they can say it was delivered, even if it never reaches the people in Gaza and even if Hamas and armed gangs take the aid and sell it, fuelling the Hamas war machine. To separate Hamas from local people in Gaza, donor countries should mandate that any NGO or UN organisation working in Gaza must monitor and report on Hamas and other groups’ presence in institutions that receive funding. It’s not enough to call on “armed groups” not to enter schools. Monitoring Hamas, as the ruling power, is needed.

This can be done. Schools can set up CCTV cameras and they can provide transparent lists of who enters and exits the school. Convoys can track where aid goes and make sure it is not stolen. UN institutions are strong enough to have a special rapporteur tasked specifically with reporting on Hamas’s presence. Hospitals can monitor each floor and each room in their facility.

This can also be done by shifting the way organisations operate in Gaza. Rather than pretending Hamas doesn’t exist and calling it an “armed group” it should be named and monitored. NGOs and UN organisations know how to do this in other conflicts. They know how to keep armed men out of their facilities or report the presence of armed men in places such as eastern Congo. If the UN and NGOs can report armed men entering schools or hospitals or taking over aid in other places in the world, they can do it in Gaza.

Separating Hamas from civilians in Gaza and ending the exploitation and use of civilians as human shields is key to defeating Hamas. This starts at the level of donor countries who back the UN and NGO efforts in Gaza. They can mandate reporting on Hamas presence. After October 7 it is imperative that a paradigm shift takes place in how the international community relates to Gaza. The international community can also work toward a day without Hamas, and a day when Gazan children can attend school without Hamas men illegally occupying their classrooms.


Jonathan Tobin: The issue that isn’t being addressed in the campaign
The influence of ‘Settler/Colonialism’
Literary critic, poet and biographer Adam Kirsch provides a timely explanation for a lot of what has happened since Oct. 7 in his new and highly important book On Settler Colonialism: Ideology, Violence and Justice (Norton).

In his slim volume, he traces the origin of this woke ideology and puts it in the context of far-left beliefs that speak of the illegitimacy of all “settler” states such as the United States, Canada and Australia. The reason why Israel is the focus of so much of the left’s advocacy is simple.

Some of them may call the United States “Turtle Island,” a made-up name for the North American continent as it existed before the European discovery of America, and demand hypocritical and meaningless “land acknowledgments” as institutions speak of which Native American tribes lived there in the distant past before European settlers arrived with no intention of divesting themselves of their property. But no one, not even in the fever swamps of the far left, thinks there is the slightest chance the United States will be dismantled and all descendants of Europeans deported.

Israel is a different story. It is a tiny, vulnerable nation of fewer than 10 million people, as well as one whose Jewish majority is part of a people targeted by the world’s oldest hatred: antisemitism. Its destruction is something that can be imagined, and indeed, that is exactly what Palestinian Arabs who support Hamas and other terrorist movements, as well as the so-called moderates of the Palestinian Authority, dream about all the time.

That combination of vulnerability and the link to a widespread form of hatred makes Israel so attractive a target for the woke left. Although it is an integral part of a general war on the West that threatens the values and beliefs of most Americans, this ideology is what has also fueled the post-Oct. 7 surge in antisemitism and the emergence of supporters of Israel’s destruction as a voter group that one of our two major parties—the Democrats—must consider as it conducts its campaign and maps out foreign policy.

That’s why it is so depressing that antisemitism and its woke supporters and rationalizers are not being spoken of much or debated in the 2024 election campaign.

Indeed, this election—like almost every other one ever fought in this country—will be decided by the opinions of voters about which of the presidential candidates will best handle the economy and tame the inflation that has had a disproportionate impact on the ability of middle, working class and poor Americans to get by.

Other issues such as illegal immigration, health care and crime will also play a decisive role in determining the outcome, with more ideological concerns like abortion, racism and climate change ranking far below on the list of voter priorities. Worries about woke ideology rank even lower.

What the government can do about it
It is natural for Americans to worry first about their livelihoods, their ability to afford healthcare and whether our borders are overrun by illegal immigrants who are (regardless of whether we sympathize with their plight) having a devastating impact on many communities, as well as depressing the wages of working-class Americans. Still, the takeover of the U.S. education system, corporate America and the arts by woke bureaucrats will have as much, if not a greater, influence on what kind of a country we live in going forward.

There have been some successful examples of pushback against DEI culture among some universities, especially those in Florida, where the state government, led by Gov. Ron DeSantis, has played a key role in restoring sanity to public institutions.

Some elements of corporate America have also begun to realize that allowing their human resources departments to be run by woke commissars makes it harder for them to hire the best and most qualified candidates for jobs and promotions and creates potential legal liability if that results in lawsuits about discrimination based on race. While hopeful signs, these are more the exceptions to the rule of DEI dominance than anything else.

What could a new administration do about any of this? A great deal.

First of all, Biden’s executive orders should be rescinded. As important as that would be, the real priority would be for the Justice Department to unleash its civil rights division on any public institution that, in the name of DEI, is engaging in discriminatory practices as well as leading to, as has happened at so many colleges, to inaction against woke-inspired antisemitism.

If that were to happen—something that the controversial and much-lied-about Project 2025, produced by the Heritage Foundation, actually calls for—then the woke tide could be rolled up in relatively short order. DEI pledges, required for being hired as a college professor in many institutions, would be placed in the dustbin of history along with the much-despised McCarthyite pledges of the 1950s.

This would do more to counter the increasing wave of Jew-hatred than the entire contents of the toothless “U.S. National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism” promulgated last year by the Biden administration.

This would be a political winner for either party that implemented it, but the political left wants no part of a rollback of its animating ideology. As a New York Times feature published this week made clear, leftist academics want no part of anything that would strip them of their dominance. That’s especially true if it made viewpoint diversity rather than obsessions about race a staple of our education system.

An issue that is so important to the future of this nation and the fight to preserve the values and the history of America and Western civilization, as well as that against antisemitism, deserves more attention as we choose a president and a new Congress.

If those who wish to make permanent the left’s imposition of woke indoctrination are allowed to prevail, then the consequences for all Americans, and especially Jews, are incalculable.
Harris ‘entirely supportive’ of hold on large munitions while standing by Israel’s right to self-defense
At the start of a six-minute exchange about Israel and the war in Gaza, Harris asserted that “this war has to end,” and that the only way for the violence in the region to end “is by getting a hostage deal and the cease-fire deal done.”

“Stepping back, Oct. 7, 1,200 Israelis were slaughtered, and actually, some Americans, by the way, in that number. Slaughtered. Young people who were attending a concert. Women were horribly raped. And yes, so I have said, Israel has a right to defend itself. We would,” said Harris. “How it does so matters, and far too many innocent Palestinians have been killed.”

Harris’ comments reflected the same position she has staked out since the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks last year, and that she has recently articulated as the Democratic presidential nominee: support Israel’s right to defend itself, call for a two-state solution, stand with Biden’s diplomacy in the region and condemn the killing of civilians in Gaza.

Harris touted her role in discussions with Israeli and Arab leaders about the “day-after scenario” in Gaza, restating the Biden administration’s position that Gaza should not be reoccupied, that the borders of Gaza remain unchanged and that all people in the region are secure.

“Let us also recognize,” added Harris, “that Iran is not empowered in this whole scenario in terms of the peace and stability of the region.”

The questions from Harris’ interviewers — NPR host Tonya Mosley and Politico Playbook author Eugene Daniels — focused only on what the U.S. can do to pressure Israel to end the war. They did not ask about Hamas.

Mosley suggested that Israel had moved beyond defense into “aggression,” asking Harris where she sees “the line between aggression and defense.” Later, Mosley asked if it is “even possible as Israel’s ally” for the U.S. to support Palestinian self-determination. Support for a two-state solution has been U.S. policy for decades.”
Kamala Harris Delivers Word Salad on Israel, Spars With Black Journalists During Panel Discussion
Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris sat down with the National Association of Black Journalists for a Tuesday panel discussion, during which she struggled to convey her position on the Israel-Hamas war and repeatedly sparred with the friendly moderators.

During one exchange, moderator Tanya Mosley of Philadelphia radio station WHYY asked Harris where she draws "the line between" Israel's "aggression and defense." After saying there was "a lot to unpack" in the question, Harris touted her belief that the Jewish state "has a right to defend itself." Mosley pressed Harris to answer the question. Harris did not take it well.

"No, no, let me finish," she responded. "It's important to put it in context, which is what I'm doing, and I'll get to that."

"There must be stability and peace in that region, in as much as what we do in our goal is to ensure that Israelis have security, and Palestinians in equal measure have security, have self-determination, and dignity," Harris said. "That there be an ability to have security in the region, for all concerned, in a way that we create stability, and—let us all also recognize—in a way that ensures that Iran is not empowered in this whole scenario in terms of the peace and stability in the region."


Harris touts role in holding up 2,000-pound bombs to Israel
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, in her first solo interview, said she had supported the Biden administration’s decision to pause the delivery of certain munitions to Israel amid the country’s 11-month war with Hamas in Gaza.

Speaking to the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) in Philadelphia on Tuesday, the Democratic presidential nominee said that “one of the things that we’ve done that I’m entirely supportive of is the pause that we put on the 2000-pound bombs.”

She offered this as an example of a concrete action the White House had taken to pressure Israel to agree to a ceasefire deal. “So, there is some leverage that we have had and used,” she said.

“I absolutely believe that this war has to end, and it has to end as soon as possible,” she added.

In mid-June, in a video posted to social media, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu voiced his frustration with the Biden administration’s actions, calling it “inconceivable” that the White House was withholding weapons and ammunition to Israel during a war.

“During World War II, Churchill told the United States, ‘Give us the tools, we’ll do the job.’ And I say, give us the tools and we’ll finish the job a lot faster,” he said.


Harris targets digital ads spotlighting her words about 'human suffering in Gaza'
Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign is running new digital spots targeting voters in heavily Arab American neighborhoods in the Detroit area, emphasizing Harris’ saying she “will not be silent about human suffering in Gaza.”

The ads, which began running Tuesday on Snapchat and Google, according to records made available by the companies, include clips of Harris sympathizing with the people of Gaza. They mark a new stage in a microtargeted back-and-forth in the area over the Biden administration’s handling of Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza, with a GOP-aligned group running digital ads in similar areas stressing Harris’ support for Israel, apparently in a bid to drive voters there away from her.

The super PAC Future Coalition PAC also ran other ads that highlight the Jewish faith of Harris’ husband, Doug Emhoff, including ads that have leaned on antisemitic “dual loyalty” tropes about Jewish Americans.

The ads appear to be the first Gaza-related paid advertising from the Harris camp, showing how her campaign is trying to reach out to critics of the administration on the issue.

The first two clips in ad come from Harris’ remarks after her meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in July, four days after President Joe Biden announced he wouldn’t seek another term in office. The ad plays a declaration by Harris saying, “I will not be silent,” followed by a quick cut into a second clip from that address, in which she says, “About the scale of human suffering in Gaza, including the death of far too many innocent civilians.” Harris also said in those and other remarks that she also supports Israel’s right to defend itself, but those comments don’t feature in the digital ads.

In another clip from a Harris address in March, she addresses the situation in Gaza by arguing: “Our common humanity compels us to act.”

A second ad sounds a similar note, quoting Harris in the July address saying, “What has happened in Gaza over the past nine months is devastating,” and adding, “We cannot allow ourselves to become numb to the suffering, and I will not be silent.”

The ads target nine ZIP codes around Detroit, including Dearborn, a city with a high concentration of people of Middle Eastern or North African descent, where Muslim and Arab American political leaders have voiced criticism of Israel’s handling of the war. Biden officials met with leaders there amid the criticism this year, and frustrated critics led a push to get Democrats to vote “uncommitted” on the presidential primary ballot as a way to voice disapproval of the administration’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war and its military funding for Israel.

The majority of the nine ZIP codes in the Harris ad campaign are represented in Congress by Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib. Tlaib, who is Palestinian American, endorsed that protest vote in February, and she hasn’t specifically endorsed or said she’d oppose Harris in the general election.
State Department let Rob Malley access classified material after suspension, per report
The U.S. State Department’s internal inspector general determined that suspended Special Envoy for Iran Robert Malley was improperly allowed to access classified materials after his suspension, the Associated Press reported Wednesday.

According to a report obtained by the AP, the department “deviated” from its standard procedures in handling the case and created “significant confusion as to what work Mr. Malley was authorized to do following the suspension.”

“The department failed to consistently notify employees who regularly interacted with Mr. Malley that he was no longer allowed to access classified information,” the report said. “These conditions likely led to special envoy Malley engaging on issues outside the limited scope of issues on which he was authorized to work.”

Malley was allowed to participate in a classified White House call on Iran one day after his suspension was enacted but before he was informed about it, according to the report. Senior State Department officials also successfully restored access to his suspended, unclassified email account.

The inspector general report was circulated within the department on Tuesday and delivered to Congress on Wednesday.

Malley has been on leave without pay from the State Department since June 2023, when media reports revealed that he was under FBI investigation for potentially mishandling classified information. In August 2023, Malley accepted a visiting professorship at Princeton University and a senior fellowship at Yale University despite still being listed by the State Department as its special envoy for Iran.
State Department says Houthis should not be redesignated as a foreign terrorist organization
The State Department is continuing to rebuff bipartisan pressure from lawmakers to redesignate the Houthis as a Foreign Terrorist Organization, despite the Iran-backed group’s continued attacks on Israel and shipping lanes in the Red Sea.

The Houthis struck central Israel earlier this week, using what the group described as a new hypersonic missile, after striking within feet of a U.S. diplomatic facility in Tel Aviv in July.

In a letter to Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) on Tuesday, a State Department official said the administration opposes reimposing the FTO designation on the Houthis, saying that doing so could be an impediment to groups that may have to do business with the Houthis to provide basic supplies inside Yemen.

“An FTO designation triggers a criminal prohibition on knowingly providing material support or resources to an FTO, which cannot be mitigated by Treasury licenses,” the letter reads. “The Houthis control ports and distribution access, thus an FTO designation would have major implications on food security and basic needs of the population because approximately 90 percent of products to meet basic needs in Yemen are commercially imported.”

Torres wrote to the administration about the issue in response to the July attack in Tel Aviv.

The Specially Designated Global Terrorist designation, which the administration imposed on the Houthis, includes sanctions on the group, although the administration has also granted various waivers. The FTO label grants additional sanctions authorities.

The official also emphasized the administration’s goal of avoiding “harming and alienating Yemeni civilians.”


'We Are Disgusted': Foxx and Stefanik Slam Harvard for Stonewalling DA Probe Into Anti-Israel 'Die-In,' Request Internal Docs
Harvard University is facing pressure from Reps. Virginia Foxx (R., N.C.) and Elise Stefanik (R., N.Y.) to turn over internal documents on the school's investigation—or lack thereof—into the October "die-in" protest that led to assault charges against two students who accosted an Israeli classmate.

In a letter sent Wednesday to president Alan Garber, Foxx and Stefanik admonished Harvard for "wilfully obstructing the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office from investigating" the ongoing criminal case. They were referencing a Sept. 4 Washington Free Beacon report, which revealed that prosecutors repeatedly delayed the case because Harvard's police department "was asked to do a follow up investigation and has not." That decision, the lawmakers said, shows Harvard "believes protecting its campus antisemites is more important than providing a safe learning environment to all its students."

"In all our years of public service, we have never encountered a situation in which a law enforcement agency has affirmatively refused to cooperate with a prosecutor's investigation—much less done so in such an open and brazen manner," Foxx and Stefanik wrote. "Yet, that is precisely the situation we have here.

"This incident is the latest chapter in Harvard protecting antisemites. We are disgusted by the continued disregard that Harvard has shown towards the Jew hatred erupting on its campus."

The ordeal marks an early hurdle for Garber, who took over for Claudine Gay after she resigned in disgrace earlier this year. Toward the end of Gay's tenure, the House Committee on Education and the Workforce—which Foxx chairs and Stefanik serves on—launched an investigation into Harvard's handling of campus anti-Semitism. It subpoenaed the school to compel the production of internal documents in February.

The Wednesday letter, which requests "any and all documents related to Harvard's decision not to cooperate with the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office," is part of that investigation. "These documents are also responsive to the Committee's subpoena served to Harvard earlier this year," the letter states. "We request that these documents be produced by September 30, 2024."
Michigan Officials From Whitmer to Slotkin Silent In Wake of Assault on Jewish Student
Days after a group of young men attacked a University of Michigan student after overhearing him say he was Jewish, most of the state's top elected officials have yet to utter a word on the brazen anti-Semitic act.

Just two of Michigan's congressional representatives—Reps. Haley Stevens (D.) and Tim Walberg (R.)—had addressed the Sunday incident, which occurred just a block from the university's Jewish Resource Center, by Tuesday morning. Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer (D.), Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D.), and Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D.), Elissa Slotkin (D.), Hillary Scholten (D.), and Bill Huizenga (R.), have not addressed it and did not respond to requests for comment. Slotkin is running to replace Stabenow in the Senate.

Rep. Debbie Dingell (D.), who represents Ann Arbor, where the attack took place and is being investigated as a hate crime, did not address it until after publication of this article. In a statement sent Wednesday morning, Dingell said that "violence, hatred, and discrimination have no place on campus, in our community, or anywhere in our country" and called on "this responsible for this awful attack" to be "held fully responsible for their actions."

Sen. Gary Peters (D.) took a different approach. While his office did respond to a request for comment, it sent a statement attributable on background to an unnamed "Peters aide," rather than Peters himself. "Senator Peters condemns this attack and all violence based on hate," the statement reads. Peters's office did not respond to follow-up questions on why the senator did not address the attack earlier and why he opted to send the statement through an aide who asked not to be identified.

Peters has been vocal about combating Islamophobia in the past. In Feburary, he condemned a Wall Street Journal column that called attention to pro-Hamas officials in Dearborn, Mich. as "anti-Muslim." Whitmer also responded to this article, calling it both "cruel and ignorant" and Islamophobic. Her statement on Hamas's Oct. 7 terrorist attack, meanwhile, did not mention the words "Jewish," "Israel," or "Hamas."

"I have been in touch with communities impacted by what’s happening in the region. It is abhorrent," Whitmer wrote. "My heart is with all those impacted. We need peace in this region."

Stabenow has historically portrayed herself as an ally of the Jewish people. Tlaib has not. Last week, she condemned charges levied by Michigan attorney general Dana Nessel against anti-Israel protesters at the University of Michigan.

Though they have not commented on the anti-Semitic attack, Whitmer, Stabenow, and Peters all released statements on Sunday and Monday commemorating the beginning of National Hispanic Heritage Month, as did Scholten and Slotkin.

Walberg, the Republican who sits on the House Education and Workforce Committee, commented on the attack Monday morning.

"Antisemitism, especially violent antisemitism, cannot be tolerated," he wrote before calling on the perpetrators to be punished.
The Biden-Harris Justice Department Has Failed American Jews
Over the weekend, a Jewish student at the University of Michigan was reportedly approached by a group of men who asked if he was Jewish. When he replied in the affirmative, they physically attacked him. This and other incidents suggest that the new school year will see as much harassment of Jewish students as the last. The federal government, along with local police, could be doing much more to crack down on these abuses, writes David E. Bernstein. For instance:

The Ku Klux Klan Act prohibits conspiracies to deprive Americans of their civil rights. This act could be invoked against student groups that are blocking Jewish students from traversing their campuses, as at UCLA, and against groups that blockade public roads, depriving people of their right to travel. The act has been invoked in private lawsuits, but the Justice Department has not brought a single case.

The FACE Act prohibits “the use of physical force, threat of physical force, or physical obstruction to intentionally injure, intimidate, interfere with or attempt to injure, intimidate, or interfere with any person who is exercising or trying to exercise their First Amendment right of religious freedom at a place of religious worship.” Hillel buildings serve as houses of worship, and various campuses have seen acts of intimidation of and interference with those students trying to enter or exit Hillel buildings. No one involved in these incidents has been charged under the act.

Various complaints and lawsuits against universities have documented threats and assaults against Jewish students in violation of their civil rights. The Justice Department has not brought any criminal or civil charges against the perpetrators, with the exception of a Cornell student who threatened to kill Jewish students. Lower-level and less well-publicized threats, harassment, and assaults have not attracted Justice Department intervention.
Seth Mandel: The ‘Anti-Semitism Isn’t Enough’ Hearing
Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin, the committee chair, opened the hearings this way: “Since the horrific Oct. 7 Hamas attacks on Israel, we have seen an increase in attacks on Jewish Americans, Palestinian Americans, Arab Americans, and Muslim Americans.” So Jews are in the top four victims of the pogrom and its aftermath, according to Durbin. Quite the start to this morning’s festivities.

Durbin then played a video of two attacks he believed were representative of the topic: the 2018 Tree of Life synagogue shooting, which took place five years before Hamas’s attacks, and the murder of a young Palestinian boy in Illinois in mid-October.

Durbin’s seething resentment at being asked to talk about the threat of anti-Semitism was on display from one of his party’s two witnesses as well: Maya Berry, executive director of the Arab American Institute. She was made to look like a fool because she did exactly what Democrats asked her to do and said what they asked her to say. Her performance was atrocious from a moral standpoint but perfect from an “understood the assignment” perspective. Her main point was that focusing on any one group undermines the fight against all hate, a demonstrably false and frankly ridiculous belief.

But the key moment came during the witnesses’ questioning by Republican ranking member Lindsey Graham. Quoting the director of national intelligence regarding the pro-Hamas protests, Graham said: “We have observed actors tied to Iran’s government posing as activists online, seeking to encourage protest, and even providing financial support to protesters.” He asked if any of the three witnesses doubted the veracity of that report, and no one did. Graham then asked each witness the following: “Is it Hamas’s goal to destroy the Jewish state? Is it Hezbollah’s goal to destroy the Jewish state? Is it Iran’s goal to destroy the Jewish state?”

Two of the three witnesses—Kenneth Stern and Rabbi Mark Goldfeder—answered in the affirmative. All three entities mentioned in Graham’s question, after all, have said they want to destroy the Jewish state without shame or ambiguity. Which is what made Berry’s response so odd. “I think these are complicated questions,” she said—immediately earning a shake of the head from Graham and conjuring memories of the catastrophic answer given by several college presidents when asked before Congress if genocidal anti-Semitism counts as harassment: It depends on the context.

“If you think it’s complicated to figure out that Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran want to kill all the Jews,” Graham responded, “I should not listen to anything else you’ve got to say. And I won’t.” And with that, Graham moved on to the next witness.

Berry was rattled. Though Graham left the hearing soon after, Berry referenced that exchange at least twice more with other senators, signaling that she’d realized how poorly her comments made her look and desperately trying to claw back some credibility.

The bad news for Berry was that she could not undo the damage. The good news was that she would eventually provide another quote that might make people forget about the first quote, if only because it was potentially even worse. Asked by Sen. Josh Hawley about the inherently violent implications of the phrase “Long live the intifada,” Berry argued for the slogan’s ambiguity. “‘Long live the intifada’ can mean different” things, she said, catching herself before she got to the word “things” but far too late to avoid the rest of the ridiculous comment, which was tailor-made for the sound-bite politics of congressional hearings.

She also defended “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” a call for all Jews to be cleansed from the land.
Senate hearing on antisemitism thrown into chaos as anti-Israel agitators shout obscenities
The Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on hate crimes devolved into chaos on Tuesday, with members engaging in partisan shouting matches over the hearing’s broad focus amid repeated disruptions by anti-Israel agitators in the crowd.

The crowd at Tuesday’s hearing, which was the first hearing in the Senate addressing antisemitism since Oct. 7, was largely made up of people in keffiyehs, several of whom had to be escorted out by Capitol Police officers for shouting profanities. One man shouted “F*** Israelis” and that he did not care about “f***ing Jews” during Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-TX) questioning of witnesses, saying that lawmakers should talk about the “dead Palestinians.”

“I would make a note for the record. This hearing is about hate. It includes antisemitism as well as hatred toward other people,” Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), the chairman of the committee and the No. 2 Senate Democrat, said after the incident disrupted the hearing.

“Who gets up and yells ‘F***ing Jews’ at an antisemitism hearing? I think it proves our point,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), the top Republican on the committee, remarked to Jewish Insider just after proceedings concluded.

“I don’t know why they did it. They would have been better off not to have done the hearing,” Graham added of Democrats, who control the upper chamber and organized the hearing.

Republicans and Democrats repeatedly sparred over the latter’s refusal to allow for a focused hearing solely on antisemitism, despite hate crimes against Jews surging to rates that one of the Democratic witnesses, Maya Berry, the executive director of the Arab American Institute, acknowledged had exceeded other religious and ethnic groups in the last year.


‘F—king Jews’: Protester Interrupts Hate Crimes Hearing at US Capitol Over Focus on Antisemitism
An anti-Israel agitator on Tuesday unleashed an antisemitic tirade during a congressional hearing in Washington, DC on rising hate crimes across the United States.

The US Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing to address growing numbers of attacks against minority religious and ethnic groups in the United States. While Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) delivered a presentation condemning anti-Israel protests on college campuses, an angry demonstrator stood up and hurled expletives targeted at the Jewish community.

“F—king Jews and the Israelis themselves!” the man shouted, apparently frustrated and angry at Cruz for focusing on the deluge of reported antisemitic attacks following Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel.

“Talk about the 40,000 [casualties in Gaza]. Talk about all these people. Why is [this presentation] about antisemitism? F—k the law,” the agitator said before being escorted out by Capitol Police.

“We now have a demonstration of antisemitism. We have a demonstration of the hate,” Cruz responded.

Cruz then slammed Democrats for exhibiting what he described as weakness on antisemitism and vowed to punish antisemites if Republicans secure a Senate majority and the presidency in November. He accused the Biden administration and the US Justice Department of turning a “blind eye” to antisemitism.

“I’ll tell you this. Next year, if there’s a Republican majority on this committee, you will see real leadership. Next year, if there’s a Republican administration, you will see people prosecuted for this sort of violence,” Cruz said.


Seth Mandel: Wikipedia Was Never Better Than This
Yesterday, social-media users highlighted the change in Wikipedia’s definition of Zionism. In 2023, it was “a nationalist movement that emerged in the 19th century to espouse support for the establishment of a homeland for the Jewish people in Palestine, a region roughly corresponding to the Land of Israel in Jewish tradition. Following the establishment of Israel, Zionism became an ideology that supports ‘the development and protection of the State of Israel.’”

Here’s the 2024 (and current) version: “Zionism is an ethno-cultural nationalist movement that emerged in Europe in the late 19th century and aimed for the establishment of a Jewish state through the colonization of a land outside of Europe. It eventually focused on the establishment of a Jewish homeland in Palestine, a region corresponding to the Land of Israel in Judaism, and of central importance in Jewish history. Zionists wanted to create a Jewish state in Palestine with as much land, as many Jews, and as few Palestinian Arabs as possible. Following the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948 by way of the proclamation of the Israeli Declaration of Independence, Zionism became the ideology supporting the protection and development of Israel as a Jewish state and has been described as Israel’s national or state ideology.”

When zealots get hold of a supposedly neutral source of information, they must make a public execution of it and parade their victim through the streets. The mutilated corpse of a Wikipedia page isn’t a sign of intellectual inquiry but an indication of a kind of ISIS-of-the-mind.

The process of manipulating Wikipedia entries is both common and complicated. In a July article for Tablet, the scholar Izabella Tabarovsky described how Polish editors “spent years systematically distorting Polish Jewish history across multiple Wikipedia articles to align it with far-right Polish nationalist preferences. Working in concert, the group falsified evidence, promoted marginal self-published sources, created fake references, and advanced antisemitic stereotypes.” The campaign of manipulation was unearthed by two historians last year, who wrote: “Challenging the distortionists takes a monumental amount of time, more than most people can invest in a voluntary hobby.”

Tabarovsky was writing in the wake of Wikipedia’s downgrading of the Anti-Defamation League as a reliable source on Israeli-Palestinian issues. It was quite clear that the ADL’s staunch defense of Zionism was the reason behind the downgrading. Facts were not at issue; ideology was the sole factor. As Jewish Insider noted at the time, Wikipedia’s editors had downgraded the ADL’s reliability while keeping Al Jazeera in the reliable category. Which is to say, the literal state propaganda outlet that employs members of terrorist armies to cover their own attacks is considered reliable, because to Wikipedia editors, reliability is a measure of ideological fealty.

No one should be surprised by this: Merriam-Webster changed its dictionary definition of “sexual preference” in 2020 immediately after Democrats attached a stigma to the phrase in order to criticize Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett. If an actual reference publication will allow day-to-day partisan politics to dictate its contents, an imitation reference publication will have no qualms about doing so. Wiki see, Wiki do.


Gallant: Northern border is becoming the main front of war
The Israel Defense Forces has entered a new stage in the conflict against Iran’s regional terrorist proxies, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said on Wednesday, speaking shortly before a second wave of explosions hit Hezbollah communications devices across Beirut and Southern Lebanon.

“I estimate that we are at the beginning of a new period in this war,” he declared, speaking at the Ramat David Airbase near Haifa.

“The center of gravity is moving to the north. This means that we are moving forces, resources and energy to the north,” the defense minister said. “We did not forget the hostages, and we did not forget our missions in the south. This is our duty, and we carry it out simultaneously.”

Regarding the looming war with Hezbollah, he said “this operation is carried out by all the [security] bodies, and the mission is clear and simple: To bring the residents of the north back to their homes safely.”

The IDF is making “excellent achievements together with the Shin Bet [internal security agency], together with the Mossad,” Gallant noted.

“The prime minister, the chief of staff, the head of the Shin Bet, of the Mossad, and the defense minister, all of them are participating in a joint effort, with one goal in mind, to bring the residents back,” he added.

Hezbollah, a proxy of Iran, “is not Hamas … and we need to take this into account. We need consistency over time. This war requires courage, determination and perseverance,” according to the defense minister.

Gallant’s office released the remarks shortly after more communications devices used by Hezbollah exploded across the terrorist organization’s main strongholds in Beirut and Southern Lebanon, killing at least nine.
Four soldiers KIA in Gaza, bringing IDF death toll to 713
Four Israel Defense soldiers were killed on Tuesday battling Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip’s southern city of Rafah, the military announced Wednesday morning.

The soldiers were named as:
Cpt. Daniel Mimon Toaff, 23, a deputy company commander in the Givati Brigade’s Shaked Battalion, from Moreshet.
Staff Sgt. Agam Naim, 20, a paramedic with the 401st Armored Brigade’s 52nd Battalion, from Mishmarot.
Staff Sgt. Amit Bakri, 21, of the Givati Brigade’s Shaked Battalion, from Yoshivia.
Staff Sgt. Dotan Shimon, 21, of the Givati Brigade’s Shaked Battalion, from Elazar.

Naim is the first female soldier killed during the IDF’s ground offensive in the Gaza Strip.

Five additional soldiers were wounded in the same incident.

The death toll among Israeli troops since the start of the Gaza ground incursion on Oct. 27 now stands at 346, and at 713 on all fronts since the Hamas-led Oct. 7 massacre, according to official military data.

Additionally, Chief Inspector Arnon Zamora, a member of the Border Police’s Yamam National Counter-Terrorism Unit, was fatally wounded during a hostage-rescue mission in Gaza in June, and civilian defense contractor Liron Yitzhak was mortally wounded in the Strip in May.
1st female soldier to fall in Gaza since 10/7
First sergeant Agam Naim, a paramedic in the 52nd Battalion who fell in the battle in the Gaza Strip with three other fighters, is the first female soldier to fall during the ground maneuver.

Agam's mother posted on Facebook about two months ago that she was feeling a "loss of control, anxiety attacks that came over her without warning."

She added: "Agam was accepted to the paramedics course. We were so happy for her. Maybe she would become a doctor. She finished the course with honors and two days later she was already in Gaza with the engineering corps. We stopped breathing, sleeping, our lives changed. Suddenly I experienced anxiety attacks that came without warning. At home it was easy, but one day it happened at the kindergarten I work in. Agami phoned and said that she was going in [to Gaza]. I wasn't ready for that. She was supposed to go in only a few days later."

Agam’s mother added that "slowly, slowly, as if adapting to the new situation, I told myself, ‘Engineering is fine. They come to clear explosion areas after they have been cleared of ​​terrorists.’ I heard the news, an anti-tank missile was fired at a Namer armoured personnel carrier. Eight soldiers of the engineering corps were killed. Agami was at home that day, but these were her company mates. She suffered great pain, fear."

One day I got a call, ‘have you heard from Agam? No, why?’ They announced on the news that a paramedic had been injured. Again I was at work. I stopped breathing again. I saw black. I tried to find out. Another phone call, the soldier had been injured in Jenin. I could not calm down! We didn't know where she was then and later we found out that she was with the Givati Brigade."

In conclusion, she wrote: "Just this week, she treated the wounded, some of them in serious condition. We are surviving without sleep, without breathing. What kind of child will I have at the end of the war? I hope that my daughter will return home healthy, both in body and soul. May the war end and we return to normal, Amen. My Agami, I am proud of you, my little girl. I am waiting for you, my love.”

The Menashe Regional Council shared in the family's grief: "We are grieving the loss of First sergeant Agam Naim from Kibbutz Mishmarot, who was killed yesterday in battle in the southern Gaza Strip. 20-year-old Agam, was daughter of Dorit and Dudi Naim, sister to Peleg and Yuval.


Israeli air, artillery strikes pound Hezbollah in southern Lebanon
The Israel Air Force and IDF artillery struck numerous Hezbollah terrorist targets in southern Lebanon since Tuesday, including a Hezbollah structure in the Majdal Selm area in which terrorists had been observed operating, the IDF reported on Wednesday.

In addition to the Majdal Selm IAF strike, the air force reportedly struck Hezbollah structures in another five areas of southern Lebanon.

Overnight into Wednesday morning, the air force also struck Hezbollah structures in the Odaisseh, Markaba, Blida, Maroun El Ras, and Chihine areas as well, the military continued.

Later, starting at 4:32 a.m. local time on Wednesday, multiple drone intrusion alerts sounded in several localities in the area of Lake Kinneret in northern Israel. Sirens blared in Tiberias, Kfar Nahum, and Ginossar, among other places.

Following the sirens, Israeli media reported there had been two interceptions above Tiberias, with no injuries being reported.

Drone coming from Iraq
In a later Wednesday statement, the IDF reported that the drone intercepted after sirens sounded in the Sea of Galilee area had approached Israeli territory from Iraq.

Drone intrusion alerts sounded last in Tiberias on October 11, 2023. This comes after thousands of Hezbollah members were wounded in Lebanon on Tuesday when the pagers they used to communicate exploded.

Israeli artillery also fired on targets in Lebanon's south, the military noted in its earlier Wednesday morning statement, adding that the army would "continue to operate against the threat of the Hezbollah terrorist organization in order to defend the State of Israel."

Explosion over Nahariya coast heard
Later, after residents of the northern Israeli city of Nahariya heard an explosion on Wednesday morning, Israeli media reported that the IDF's aerial defense array intercepted an aerial target over the coast.


‘Defender of Israel Award’ goes to three men who willingly put their lives on the line on Oct. 7
During the attacks and atrocities committed by Hamas terrorists in southern Israel on Oct. 7, Elchanan Kalmanson, his brother Menachem Kalmanson and their nephew, Itiel, drove towards the Gaza Strip under heavy rocket fire, ready to defend their country with their lives.

Arriving at Kibbutz Be’eri, they started evacuating houses, hoping to save whoever they could inside, unfortunately discovering that in many instances, there was no one left to save.

On Oct. 8, the second day of their rescue mission, they were ambushed by terrorists. Elcahanan was shot, dying in Menachem’s arms, leaving behind a mother, father, brother, wife and five children.

Now, once again, Menachem was able to honor his and his brother’s heroism, as he accepted the “Defender of Israel” award on Elchanan’s behalf and in his memory. The award was presented by the Steven M Mizel Foundation at the RJC Annual Leadership Summit held earlier this month in Las Vegas.

“I feel it is important that American Jews hear, meet and speak with some of the heroes of Israel in the fight against terrorists wanting to eliminate Jews and the State of Israel,” Mizel told JNS. “The Republican Jewish Coalition gives them the medium to do this.

So it was in front of that convention that Mizel gave his speech to the crowd, beginning: “Each year, we honor individuals whose service to the Jewish people and the State of Israel has gone above and beyond. He then invited Menachem to speak.

The Israeli began somberly, briefly summarizing that horrific day.

“Despite the fear, we knew that when murderers walk [among] us, we do not have a choice; we must continue,” Menachem said in his acceptance speech. “And so we did. Time and time again.”

After recapping his story, through tears, Menachem explained that he wasn’t there to tell it in full, but rather to honor “the spirit that lit” in them.
New book about October 7 tells ‘100 human stories’ behind the horror
Lee Yaron was in New York on October 7, doing a fellowship at Columbia University, when news broke of an unimaginable attack on southern Israel by Hamas. Like many Israelis living abroad, she felt helpless and frustrated. Unlike most Israelis, she is a journalist, a longtime contributor to the Haaretz daily, and she had an outlet for her fear and anger.

Within days, she was on a plane to Israel, where she spent the next four months interviewing survivors, first responders and eyewitnesses to the attacks. The result is “10/7: 100 Human Stories,” a book that documents perhaps the single most traumatic day in Israeli history through intimate profiles of some of the nearly 1,200 people killed and 251 taken hostage.

“I was still very much overwhelmed with my own grief and sense of shock and just this deep feeling that I need to do something,” Yaron, 30, said in an interview this week. “On the one hand, it was very traumatic, and I feel it now, even more than I felt it when I was writing the book. At the same time, I had a mission, I knew what I needed to do, and I was focused on this. The book helped me to deal with my grief and my sense of hopelessness.”

“10/7: 100 Human Stories” joins a number of works of nearly “instant” reporting and documentation of the attack on Israel, including the documentary film “Supernova — The Music Festival Massacre”; a forthcoming documentary on Paramount+, “We Will Dance Again,” also about the Reim-area trance festival; a museum-style exhibit about the rave, “The Nova Exhibition,” that was staged in Israel, New York and now Los Angeles; and a play, “October 7: In Their Own Words,” based on firsthand testimony

On Thursday, Yaron appeared on a virtual panel, sponsored by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency and the National Library of Israel, with Amir Tibon, the Haaretz journalist whose new book, “The Gates of Gaza,” describes how he was rescued from Kibbutz Nahal Oz on October 7 by his father, Maj. Gen. (res.) Noam Tibon.

“10/7” is, however, the most expansive account yet of the day, capturing the diversity of the victims and survivors and, by extension, of Israel as a whole. There are stories of Jewish refugees who fled the war in Ukraine, and Mizrahi Jews who escaped their countries to come to Israel in the 1950s. Hamas didn’t discriminate among left-wing kibbutzniks, blissed-out club kids or right-wing followers of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Nor did they spare Bedouins, Thai and Nepalese migrant workers, or the Christian and Muslim Arabs who, she writes, “had the gall to live among Jews as fellow citizens.”
Thousands Chant ‘Bring Them Home’ for Hamas Hostages at Packed Ishay Ribo Concert in Madison Square Garden
Thousands of fans who attended the concert of Israeli singer Ishay Ribo in New York City’s Madison Square Garden (MSG) on Sunday night chanted in unison for the release of the 97 hostages still held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip after they were kidnapped during the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks in Israel.

Roughly 15,000 people packed Ribo’s performance at MSG, Ynet reported, citing the show’s production team. Ribo also brought Israeli singers Idan Raichel and Eviatar Banai on stage to perform several songs with him, including traditional Jewish prayer hymns. In September 2023, Ribo headlined his first concert at MSG during a similar tour before the start of the Jewish high holidays.

At one point during Sunday night’s concert, the crowd spontaneously chanted “Bring them home,” which is a call for the return of the Israelis still held hostage by Hamas terrorists, and Ribo displayed on stage pictures of some of those abducted. The audience additionally chanted, along with Ribo, “Am Israel Chai,” which translates in English to “long live Israel.”

On Monday night, Ribo performed in New Haven, Connecticut, in a concert jointly organized by Yale Friends of Israel and Chabad at Yale. In February, Ribo performed twice at the Harvard Square concert venue, The Sinclair, after being invited by Chabad at Harvard University.


How Jewish refugees helped persuade this ex-SJP protester to change her mind
If you were a pro-Palestinian, what would it take for you to see the Israeli viewpoint? For Anna Beth, one of the most powerful arguments on Israel’s side is that 850,000 Jews were forced to leave Arab countries.

Anna Beth is an American who became involved with Students for Justice for Palestine at university, the group that today is very active in protests against Israel on campus. She studied Arabic at university and made friends with Palestinian Americans. Their stories were tragic. But the movement she had joined taught her Palestinians were the David to the Israeli Goliath.

It was only when she visited Israel that she had an epiphany. She ‘changed sides’. She had been particularly touched by the refugee issue, but was shocked to discover that there were Jewish refugees too. These had been welcomed into Israel, while the Palestinian refugees remained stateless.

Naturally, the fact that she had been brought up as a Christian played an important part in changing her mind. The land of the Bible resonated with her.

When she visited Yad Vashem, she realised that she had attached herself to an antisemitic cause.

Sadly, many of her peers remain ignorant and easily swayed by slogans. But Anna Beth’s story makes it more important than ever to raise awareness of the Jewish refugees from the Middle East and North Africa.




MEMRI: Head Of Youth Section At Hizbullah's Cultural Mobilization Department Calls For Forming 'Palestine Force' Of 'Resisting' Students, Professors Worldwide, Including In The U.S., UK, Germany, Italy, Australia, Who Will 'Carry The Spirit Of The Mujahideen' In Online International Student Seminar; Adds: 'We Are In A Historic Moment... Wherever We Are Present, We Must Influence Young People'
An international seminar on mobilizing students for Palestine, streamed live on YouTube, featured a Hizbullah official Ali Al-Hajj Hassan, head of the Youth Section at Hizbullah's Cultural Mobilization Department, who called for establishing an internation 'Palestine Force' of youth and students across Western and Islamic countries, including the U.S., UK, Germany, Italy, and Australia, who will lead protests in support of armed resistance in Gaza, Iraq, Yemen, and Lebanon, and "carry the spirit of the mujahideen" in their respective countries. He emphasized the Al-Aqsa Flood war, which he said began on October 8, 2023, is a global war between "humanity and the monstrous West". The youth's role in this global war, he said, is crucial at this historic moment, adding: "Wherever we are present, we must influence young people."

Ali Al-Hajj Hassan also recently spoke about his efforts to mobilize pro-Palestinian activism among students on college campuses in the West in an interview on Hizbullah's Al-Manar TV. Other participants in the webinar included Houston-based human rights activist Mohsin Naqvi and Canadian human rights activist Firas Al-Najim of CD4HR.

The webinar was streamed live on August 19, 2024 on the official YouTube channel of the Imamia Student Organization of Pakistan (ISO Pakistan Official).[1]

The following is a transcript of the statements by Hizbullah official Ali El-Hajj Hassan, as translated into English in the original YouTube video.

The Al-Aqsa Flood Battle Is A Global War Between Humanity And The Monstrous West; Professors, University Students, And Academics Rose As Martyrs In This Battle

Ali El-Hajj Hassan: "In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. May peace and blessings be upon the most honorable of creation, Muhammad, and upon his good and pure family. Dear brother, host of this webinar, brother, Tagi Haider Youth leaders and representatives who are defenders of Palestine and Gaza. May peace, mercy, and blessings of God be upon you all on your contribution to this international webinar for students on the issue of Palestine.

"First of all, allow me to express gratitude to the brothers in the Imamia Students Organization in Pakistan, especially to out dear brother, Mr. Syed Ali Awais, for inviting us, the educational organization of the Islamic Resistance in Lebanon, to participate in this webinar. Through our participation in this webinar, we exercise our role in the jihad of exposition in defense of our oppressed people in the Gaza Strip and in occupied Palestine. Dear brothers, I participate today in this webinar from Lebanon, the country of resistance, representing the students and youth of the resistance.

"Today our understanding of the Al-Aqsa Flood battle, is that we are in a global war. In fact, this situation represents a global war against Palestine and its people, where all the arrogance and all the arrogant ones have gathered, and all the criminals of the world have gathered against Palestine and its people. This is a war between truth and falsehood, a war between humanity and the monstrous West and the criminal Zionists. It is a war between the arrogant against the oppressed, and between the oppressed and the oppressors. It is a war between the Palestinian resistance and the axis of resistance against the Americans, the Zionists and their helpers.

"In this war, we in the resistance are obligated by our religion, morals and values to be alongside our people in Palestine and our people in the Gaza Strip, and to be a support for the brave and heroic Palestinian resistance. Therefore, The Resistance took this position and took up arms in this battle and opened the battle with the Israeli enemy with pride for the sake of Palestine, its people, and its resistance.


CBC Report Covers Israeli Strike in Gaza, Totally Ignoring Deaths Of Nine Hamas Terrorists, Including 3 Current And Past UNRWA Employees
For years, Israel has pointed the finger at UNRWA, the United Nations agency responsible for delivering humanitarian assistance to Palestinians, stating that the organization was deeply embedded with Palestinian terrorist groups.

Following Hamas’ genocidal October 7 terrorist attacks in Israel, Jerusalem pointed out that a number of UNRWA staff had directly participated in the massacres, and had allegedly held Israelis hostage, all while huge numbers of other UNRWA employees had openly glorified the attacks.

Undeterred, UNRWA continued to claim its innocence, even as a Hamas command centre was found directly underneath the agency’s headquarters in Gaza, proclaiming its innocence, a highly specious argument given the huge efforts required to construct such a bunker.

Even long before October 7, UNRWA textbooks had been identified as helping to promote violent hatred, antisemitism and rejection of Israel’s existence.

On September 11, UNRWA was back in the news, claiming that six of its employees were killed following a strike on a building in Gaza which Israel says was being used by terrorists as a command post.

The next day, CBC News television produced a six-minute broadcast reporting on the strike entitled: “18 killed in Israeli airstrikes on school sheltering displaced Palestinians, Gaza officials say.” But rather than giving viewers a full picture as to why the building was struck, and who was inside, the broadcast relied almost exclusively on Palestinian testimonials.
CBC Report On Canada’s Arms Embargo On Israel Quotes Exclusively Anti-Israel Activists
In just the latest instance of agenda-driven news coverage, a September 13 article for CBC News portrayed the matter of arms sales to Israel as an issue that is self-evidently problematic.

The article entitled: “The government’s stance on military exports to Israel is anything but clear-cut,” written by Senior Reporter Janyce McGregor, quoted Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly in her opposition to sending Canadian export permits to Israel, as well as quoting and paraphrasing exclusively anti-Israel activists.

The only context ever provided to readers about why Canada approving export permits to Israel – a liberal democratic state with whom Ottawa enjoys full diplomatic relations – would be so supposedly controversial, was replete with problems.

Citing the arguments of anti-Israel activists who have criticized the Trudeau government, McGregor wrote that, in one letter, a group of “civil society organizations” have “remind(ed) Joly of some relevant factors,” including “UN’s Arms Trade Treaty, something export permits supposedly help enforce. That treaty prohibits signatories like Canada from exporting arms if they could be used to commit series (sic) crimes under international law, including disproportionate or indiscriminate attacks.”

CBC Quotes Only Radical Anti-Israel Activists
Among those “civil society organizations” include radical anti-Israel pressure groups like Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME), and Independent Jewish Voices (IJV), a fringe group that has defended Hamas’ use of violence.

Moreover, despite raising the ‘question’ raised by these radical activists warning of supposed “disproportionate or indiscriminate attacks,” CBC News failed to tell readers that, in complete contrast, Israel’s counter-terrorism efforts in Gaza have been hailed by actual experts in urban warfare as doing the utmost to protect civilians and that the Israel Defense Forces are the most moral army in the history of modern warfare.
BBC WS radio promotes ‘genocide’ misinformation yet again
Uwonkunda refrained from informing her audience that the ICJ advisory opinion issued in July is non-binding or that after the end of his tenure as ‘special rapporteur’, her interviewee was involved in preparations by the “Permanent Observer for the State of Palestine” at the UN ahead of that case.

Once again we see how the BBC’s repeated failure to comply with its own editorial guidelines on the issue of ‘contributors’ affiliations’ compromises audience understanding. Information about Michael Lynk’s record as an anti-Israel activist – of which the BBC is surely aware – would have enabled listeners put his opinions and claims into context – including those on the topic of “respected counts of the death toll”.

Additionally, once again we see that the fact that the BBC has previously had to publicly correct a particular inaccuracy following complaints from members of the public is absolutely no guarantee that the same inaccuracy will not appear again in BBC content. If, as in this item, an issue as central as false representations of a court’s decision reappears despite multiple corrections, then clearly the BBCs corrections procedures do not meet their purpose.
BBC platforming of UNRWA talking points and allegations
The August 5th BBC report to which that link leads does not provide audiences with a link to the statement put out by the UN following the conclusion of an investigation by the UN Office of Oversight Services (OIOS), the results of which were not made public.

The “UN review published in April” to which this version of the BBC’s report refers is the Colonna Report which, contrary to the claim in this and previous BBC content, did not purport to investigate either the Israeli allegations that UNRWA Gaza staff members participated in the October 7 atrocities, or the subsequent Israeli allegations that significant numbers of the Gaza staff belong to Hamas and that nearly half have a close relative who is a Hamas member.

The following morning the headline of that report was again amended and the version currently appearing on the BBC News website is credited to David Gritten and titled “UN says Israeli strike on Gaza school killed six of its staff”.

That version of the report relates to a statement put out by the IDF on September 12th naming nine Hamas operatives killed in the strike on the al Jaouni school in Nuseirat, three of whom were also UNRWA employees.

As reported by the Times of Israel and others, the IDF had already approached UNRWA on that topic:
‘The military says that “upon receiving the allegation that local Palestinian workers of the UNRWA agency were killed in the strike, the IDF contacted the agency yesterday for details and names in order to examine the allegation in-depth and as of this writing it has not yet been answered despite repeated requests.”’
AP, Los Angeles Times Falsely Report Activist Rachel Corrie Was Trying to Block Home Demolition
The Haifa court which ruled on the Rachel Corrie case found that the bulldozer was clearing brush, not demolishing homes. The court stated:
The mission of the IDF force on the day of the incident was solely to clear the ground. This clearing and leveling included leveling the ground and clearing it of brush in order to expose hiding places used by terrorists, who would sneak out from these areas and place explosive devices with the intent of harming IDF soldiers. There was an urgency to carrying out this mission so that IDF look-outs could observe the area and locate terrorists thereby preventing explosive devices from being buried. The mission did not include, in any way, the demolition of homes. The action conducted by the IDF forces was done at real risk to the lives of the soldiers. Less than one hour before the incident that is the focus of this lawsuit, a live hand-grenade was thrown at the IDF forces.

While both AP and The Los Angeles Times failed to correct their reports even after CAMERA supplied them with the court document, The Jerusalem Post last week commendably corrected the identical error.


MEMRI: Palestinian Journalist Urges Jordan's King: Outlaw All The Islamic And Palestinian Organizations In Jordan, For They Endanger Your Kingdom
In a September 14, 2024 article on the Saudi website Elaph, Palestinian journalist Majdi Abd Al-Wahhab called on Jordan's King Abdullah II to "strike with an Iron fist" all the Islamic and Palestinian organizations that use Jordan's territory to act against Israel and thereby endanger the kingdom of Jordan. The attack that took place last week (on September 8, 2024) at the Israel-Jordan border crossing, in which three Israeli civilians were killed, he said, as well as the rising strength of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) party in Jordan, as indicated by the results of the recent parliamentary elections there,[1] and the reports on the smuggling of weapons from Jordan into the West Bank, require the kingdom to take steps against the Palestinian and Islamic organizations that jeopardize its security. Abd Al-Wahhab praised the firm policy taken by King Abdullah's father, the late King Hussein, against the Palestinian organizations in Jordan in 1970, and called on King Abdullah to follow his father's example before it is too late.

The following is the translation of the article:
"Your Majesty the King, I address you, Sir, following the attack carried out by a Jordanian soldier [sic][3] at the Al-Karama (Allenby) [border] crossing, following the publication of the results of the parliamentary elections in Jordan, which indicate a victory for the [MB's] Islamic Action [Front] party, and following the reports about the use of Jordanian territory for smuggling weapons into Israel and the West Bank. These events require us to pause and reflect deeply on their implications and impacts, and on what Jordan's state mechanisms need to do to protect the Jordanian entity from the dangers surrounding it. These dangers encircle the kingdom from all directions: from the east, west, north, and south, and the Jordanian leadership is surely aware of them

"Your Majesty, let me first of all note that, if [your father], His Majesty the late King Hussein, hadn't purged the Jordanian kingdom of the PLO [presence] in September 1970, Jordan's situation today would be similar to that of Lebanon or even the Gaza Strip. [Jordan] would have surely been destroyed, whether by Israel or by those Palestinian organizations and various Islamic organizations that would have ultimately brought about its destruction.

Sir, the late King Hussein acted wisely in September 1970 by preserving the kingdom and protecting the Jordanians and Palestinians from the impending evil. What happened in that black month pales in comparison to what might have happened if those accursed organizations had taken control of Jordan. The situation in Lebanon is completely clear, and we know what would have happened to Jordan if a resolute decision had not been taken [at the time]."

Following the recent events that occurred in Gaza after October 7, [2023], and following the evil exhibited by the Islamic and Palestinian organizations [in Jordan], I urge you without hesitation, Sir, to strike those organizations with an iron fist, before it is too late. If the situation continues as it is, Jordan may become fertile ground for those organizations, which will bring about the destruction of the kingdom, and this will be equally detrimental to the Jordanians and the Palestinians.

"Sir, I call on you to outlaw the activity of all Islamic and Palestinian organizations on Jordanian soil. I also hope that any activity of these organizations or the Palestinian Authority in Jordan will be banned, that their leaders residing in Jordan will be arrested, that their leaders and operatives will be barred from entering [the country] and that their assets will be seized. Such a step – which is supported by Palestinian public opinion – will have many implications, the most notable of which will be the protection of Jordan and the defense of what remains of the Palestinian entity, which needs a strong and unified Jordan."
PMW: The PA covers up murder, while Hamas celebrates it and congratulates the murderer
A few days ago, a Palestinian terrorist veered his truck into an Israeli soldier and murdered him. Hamas immediately glorified the "heroic" murderer, while the Palestinian Authority just as quickly covered up the murder as a "car accident" and libeled Israel for "executing" the driver.

[Palestine Post, Telegram channel, Sep. 11, 2024]

Hamas' praise of the murderous attack:
"The heroic car ramming operation… led to the killing of an [Israeli] soldier and the wounding of others"
"A natural response to the occupation's (i.e., Israel's) crimes in the Gaza Strip and West Bank"
"A new heroic operation that joins the record of our resistance"
"The perseverance of the resistance's operations… proves the resistance's ability to kill the enemy"
"Indeed this is jihad; victory or Martyrdom"
[Hamas, Telegram channel, Sept. 11, 2024]

PA TV's news report denying the attack:
"The occupation (i.e., Israeli) forces opened fire at Palestinian truck driver [Hayel Deifallah]… and claimed that he carried out a car ramming operation, but eyewitnesses claim that it is more likely that what happened was a car accident"
"This is the [Israeli] version we always hear: That the driver of the car or truck carried out a ramming attack, and [the Israelis] immediately execute the driver on this pretext."
[Official PA TV, Sept. 11, 2024]
MEMRI: The Iranian Regime Explains The Delay In Its Direct Revenge Against Israel For The Assassination In Tehran Of Hamas Political Bureau Head Ismail Haniyeh
Following the July 31, 2024 assassination of Hamas Political Bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh at a Tehran guest house belonging to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), the Iranian regime leadership, first and foremost Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, vowed to take exceptionally harsh retaliatory action against Israel, "at the most unexpected time and place." Hours after Haniyeh's assassination was announced, Khamenei promised to avenge him, stating:

"The criminal and terrorist Zionist regime has turned our dear guest into a martyr in our home, thus causing us great sorrow. But it has also prepared the ground for a harsh punishment for it... As far as we are concerned, it is our obligation to avenge this painful and bitter event, that took place within the borders of the Islamic Republic."[1]

On August 1, 2024, the day after Haniyeh's assassination, a banner was hung in Tehran Square with his image against the backdrop of the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, with Khamenei's pledge in Hebrew: "Await harsh punishment" (Source: Mehr News, Iran, August 1, 2024)

As days went by and the promised vengeance did not arrive, regime officials have been forced to explain the delay, with a range of justifications. First, they hinted at a direct response in the form of missiles and drones, similar to Iran's April 14 response to the killing of IRGC Qods Force officials at the Iranian consulate complex in Damascus, Syria. A few days after the assassination, it became clear that Iran was deterred by Israel and feared a harsh Israeli response that might destabilize the regime or start a regional war that it did not want – and that would harm its assets, i.e. its proxies, in the region (see MEMRI analysis Deterred By Israel, Tehran Returns To Its Strategy Of Using Proxies And Extracting Gains From The U.S.; Iranian Regime Mouthpieces: Instead Of Reprisal Against Israel By Missile Strategy, We Must 'Create Insecurity In Tel Aviv And Other Central Places In Israel'; 'Sabotaging Sensitive Centers In Israel, Carrying Out Terror Attacks, And Even Assassinating Top Leaders Could Be A More Painful Response Than A Massive Missile Strike', August 12, 2024).

Now, as many weeks have passed, Iranian leaders' statements refer obliquely to a strong response, without making any commitments that the response will involve direct Iranian military operations against Israel, and without committing to any particular timeframe. It appears that the Iranian regime, known for its pragmatism, seeks to exact a price in another way, whether by funding and/or directing terror attacks within Israel and its territories by means of Palestinian and other elements that is dispatches, guides, or funds – such as the failed Tel Aviv suicide bombing in August and the recent attacks in the West Bank – or by parlaying the assassination into political benefit, for example, in the nuclear sphere, with U.S. recognition of Iran as a nuclear state with nuclear weapons.

This report will review the range of explanations and justifications given by Iranian regime officials for the delay in Iran's response to the assassination of Haniyeh.
MEMRI: Iran's Supreme Leader Khamenei: We Must Master All Layers Of Artificial Intelligence Technology Before An IAEA-Like International Regulator Is Established And Forces Us Ask Permission
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned in an address that was uploaded to his website, leader.ir, on August 27, 2024 against an artificial intelligence international regulatory body, similar to the IAEA – International Atomic Energy Agency. He said that Iran must master the "different layers" of artificial intelligence technology, and not just be end-users, otherwise, Iranians will be forced to ask permission in order to use it later.

"Iran Is Known In The World For Its Science, Military Progress, Regional Power And Strategic Depth"

Ali Khamenei: "Iran used to be known for its carpets and oil. Today, Iran is known in the world for its science, military progress, regional power, and strategic depth.

Iran's Military And Civilian Departments Use AI As End-Users, But Must Master The Technology's Deeper Layers – Before An IAEA-Like Body Is Established To Regulate Its Use And We Will Have To Ask Permission

"Today, artificial intelligence is [advancing] at an amazing speed. One is astonished by the results of this amazing technology in the world, and by how fast it is advancing. Our various departments – whether military or civilian – use AI, but we must not be misled by this. When it comes to AI, being end-users is not an advantage. This technology has deep layers and we must master these layers. Others have control over those deep layers. If you cannot develop the deep and diverse layers of the AI technology, tomorrow they might establish an IAEA-like body [to regulate] AI. They are currently preparing for this. When we get there, you will have to ask permission to use AI in certain matters, and in other matters, you will not have that permission."


Jewish Mass Grave Uncovered in Belarus
A Jewish mass grave containing 23 bodies was located in Belarus on Tuesday, local media reported.

The remains of 12 adults and 11 children between the ages of one and seven were uncovered in the town of Strešyn in the country’s southeastern Gomel region, which was occupied by Nazi Germany in August 1941.

The local Jewish population was forced into a local ghetto and its property was looted by the Nazis during the Holocaust.

According to the assessment of the Belarus authorities, the Jewish mass grave contains the remains of some of those who did not survive the conditions in the ghetto, Israel’s Kan radio reported.

No evidence of execution was found on the remains, but keys and a rusty rifle bullet were uncovered in the grave.

The official news agency of Belarus, Balta, reported that a local who bought a house in Strešyn about 15 years ago had discovered the bodies during agricultural work he carried out on the grounds. But he chose not to report the find to anyone, even though he and many of the local residents knew that these were the remains of Jews who died in the local ghetto.

The news come at a time when Belarusian authorities are belatedly acknowledging that Jews were murdered in the Holocaust, after years when they were promoting a controversial narrative of a “Belarusian genocide” during World War II.

About 40,000 Jews lived in Gomel in 1939, comprising nearly 30 percent of the total population.
It’s ‘been a nightmare,’ says man moving Milwaukee tattoo shop due to landlord’s antisemitic mural
The co-owner of a tattoo shop in Milwaukee told WISN-TV that an antisemitic mural the landlord installed on the building has been “a nightmare,” and he is relocating his store.

“For the property owner to not even reach out to us to say, hey, are you OK? Hey, this is probably going to affect your business. Nothing,” Aaron Rodgers, who co-owns Black Dawn Tattoo, told the station.

He added that he has been losing sleep, and it is “heart-wrenching.”

Ihsan Atta, the Palestinian American man who owns the building and installed the mural, which contains a swastika embedded in a Star of David, told reporters that it has been vandalized multiple times.
Former Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman laments post-Oct. 7 damage to Israeli farming
For the past year, Hamas’ massacre in southern Israel — which involved the slaughtering of some 1,200 Israelis and kidnapping of more than 200 people — has been widely reported. But often overlooked has been Hamas’ attack on Israel’s agriculture, with the deliberate goal of destroying Israel’s food security by attacking the Negev farming communities that pioneered the country’s agricultural success with the vision of Israel’s first Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion’s call to “make the desert bloom.”

On Oct. 7, greenhouses and crops were burned to the ground, irrigation systems destroyed and farm animals killed. In particular, Israel’s dairy production — per capita, the country had the highest annual milk yield in the world — was severely hit, as were areas where much of Israel’s produce is grown. (The Western Negev is estimated to provide 70% of the country’s vegetables, 20% of the fruit and 6.5% of the dairy.)

Eleven months later, Dan Glickman, who served as the U.S. secretary of agriculture in the Clinton administration from 1995 until 2001, decided to see for himself “what the status is of damage done to Israel after these attacks,” he told Jewish Insider during a recent interview fresh off his trip to southern Israel.

Glickman, who was the first Jewish secretary of agriculture (“at least since Joseph served the Pharaoh in biblical times,” he joked), wanted to understand “how serious is the damage and can it be mitigated?” Following meetings with Israeli Agriculture Minister Avi Dichter, food and agriculture scientists at Hebrew University and the Volcani Institute and working alongside the nonprofit ReGrow Israel, which recently received a $12.5 million grant from Jewish Federations of North America, Glickman concluded that Israel is “building back,” but “it’s not what it was [before] taking a direct hit in the Hamas attacks.”

He continued, “In most agricultural areas, a lot of the work was done by immigrant labor, a lot of those people have left.”

Philanthropy can “play a big role in rebuilding infrastructure,” he said, adding that more extensive philanthropic efforts are needed.

Further complicating Israel’s food policy is that the desert country relies on imports, but that reliance makes the country vulnerable. Glickman said the import-domestic production dynamic is a necessity, even amid risk. “Israel has done remarkably with what it’s got in terms of irrigating water, but they are still going to need to import,” he said. “Israel will never be able to grow enough beef to satisfy the consumption,” for example.

But Glickman also emphasized that Israel is a key player in the export of fresh produce, mainly to Europe.

Imports and exports have both been impacted by Oct. 7.

“Food security [in Europe] was impacted for at least the first several months after the attacks,” Glickman said. “Turkey has shut off Israel for the time being. But there is still fairly active import-export business being done at the ports, so the rest of Europe has allowed the status quo to remain.”

As Israel’s agriculture faces an arduous rebuilding process, a silver lining is the growing research cooperation between Israel and the U.S.


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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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