Seth Mandel: What the Campaigns Don’t Get About Jewish Voters
Trump has a way of walking right up to a point and still completely missing it. The best example of this was when the former president addressed a gathering of Jewish Republicans and said “You’re not going to have an Israel if [Harris] becomes president … Israel will no longer exist.” To that oy, gevalt message he added: “If they win, Israel is gone. Just remember that. If they win, Israel is gone. You can forget about Israel, that’s what’s going to happen. So they have to get out on Nov. 5 and they have to vote for Trump. If they don’t, I think it’s going to be a very terrible situation.”American deterioration and the appeasement of the Islamo-Marxist alliance, pre and post 10/7
To state what I hope is the obvious: No, Israel will not disappear if the Democrats win the election. But before veering totally off course, Trump had put his finger on something real. This is the first time in the adult lives of many Jewish Americans that Israel’s place in the world has appeared vulnerable or even mildly precarious. Under attack from about six different directions, Israel was being lectured by its Western allies—two of whom then announced an offensive arms embargo that seemed designed to signal to the world that even the West preferred Hamas alive and kicking while the US poked and prodded at Israeli society’s internal divisions. The Biden administration spent months holding Israel back from going into Rafah (“I’ve studied the maps,” Harris ridiculously said), which ended up being where hostages were held and where Yahya Sinwar was ultimately tracked down and killed, as well as home to key tunnels that served as Hamas lifelines. Sometimes it really can feel like the world is lined up against Israel, and that was one of those moments.
Trump understood the vibe, as his opponents might say. But then he went and did something inexplicably counterproductive: he reinforced the fear.
Trump has never understood that his public statements matter. And the message Israel’s enemies heard when he made those comments was: You guys are close! You really might wipe Israel off the map this time. It showed an absurd lack of confidence in Israel to defend itself and suggested that the Iranian-backed coalition was on the right track; it had convinced the Americans that the momentum had shifted.
The state of Israel is what was supposed to take the fate of the Jews out of the hands of American (and other) presidents in the first place; doesn’t he understand that? Well, he ought to.
The Harris campaign, meanwhile needs to understand two things. The first is that Harris herself played a not-insignificant role in backing Israel into that corner. She cannot solve this by simply repeating that she supports Israel’s right to defend itself. She needs to somehow communicate to Jewish voters that she accepts some culpability for the fear they are expressing and give them reason to believe her presidency wouldn’t be four more years of that kind of pressure.
Second, the Harris campaign has put out several strong statements criticizing the anti-Zionist street mobs. But she undermines them by seeming to publicly agree with protesters who call Israel genocidal. Each time she does something like this, she encourages more of it.
And here’s the key: This outbreak of anti-Semitism of which those protesters are a part is here, in America. This is not an “Israel issue.” Saying “I support Israel” is not an answer to “what are you going to do about the fact that your administration has presided over an unprecedented explosion in public anti-Semitic sentiment?” Harris is talking to mothers and fathers who fear for their child’s safety on campus; Israel’s self-defense isn’t the point.
Harris has a terrible habit of treating all Jewish issues as Israel issues. Public institutions are ostentatiously violating civil rights laws by refusing to apply them to Jews. Harris’s support for Sinwar’s elimination isn’t relevant here. But you know what is? Saying those braying mobs are “showing exactly what the human emotion should be.”
Street violence against American Jews isn’t going anywhere if our leaders indulge anti-Semites’ stated motivation for their anti-Semitism.
This is what’s on the minds of anxious Jewish voters. So the Trump and Harris campaigns should stop saying they can’t understand why any Jew would vote this way or that. The candidates’ professed exasperation is a big part of the problem.
Universities are breeding grounds for radical ideologies, including antisemitism. For the past year, almost every weekend, young people in Keffiyehs have filled the streets, threatening Jews, carrying signs that call for the destruction of the world’s only Jewish state. These same people issue calls to bring down the Empire (referring to the US), and light the American flag on fire. They vilify the values that built America: democracy, free speech, individual rights, and the rule of law.
In this world, moral equivalence reigns. The narrative that there is no difference between good and evil, Israel and Hamas, or between those defending their citizens and terrorists determined to harm innocents.
America’s wavering and waffling support of Israel signals to radical groups that the West no longer stands firmly for the principles of freedom and human dignity. This weakness emboldens enemies of democracy and gives them license to act with impunity.
Appeasement of Evil Leads to Tragedy
For too long, radical Muslim movements have been given a pass by the international community influenced by the far-left. Hamas, Hezbollah, ISIS, Iran, and their ilk have grown in strength and influence, not because they are powerful forces, but because the West has repeatedly chosen diplomacy and appeasement over moral clarity. This willingness to engage with regimes and organizations that openly call for the destruction of Israel and the West has predictably led to disaster.
The Iran nuclear deal, celebrated by many as a diplomatic victory, normalized and empowered Iran - the world’s foremost state sponsor of terrorism. By offering legitimacy and financial relief to Iran, the deal strengthened the regime’s proxies, helped supply and train Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis in Yemen and the Shiah militias in Iraq, and allowed the IRGC to expand their reach. Instead of confronting Iran and its proxies, the United States and the West empowered it, leading directly to the Hamas’ 10/7 attack, Hezbollah’s daily missile attacks on Israeli civilians, and Iran’s ballistic missiles attacks on Israel.
This policy of appeasement is not just confined to the Middle East. Within the West itself, government officials, institutions, and human rights organizations legitimize Islamist groups, parrot their views and embrace their rhetoric. Hamas is regularly portrayed as a political movement fighting for Palestinian liberation, when it is a terrorist organization with a charter that explicitly calls for the annihilation of Jews worldwide.
Evil does not compromise. There’s a reason that Neville Chamberlain’s name is associated with blunder and Winston Churchill’s name evokes courage.
Churchill knew what Chamberlain failed to understand about Nazi Germany. Evil cannot be reasoned with or moderated, it can only be defeated. When it comes to brinksmanship, Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and Iran are no different.
A Call for Moral Clarity
The assault on Israel by Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and Iran are an attack on the values of freedom, democracy, human rights, secular life, women, and human dignity. They were an attack on the Western world.
Now is the time for moral clarity. Israel is the floodgate. The fight to defend Israel is a fight to defend Western values. Appeasement and moral ambiguity will only lead to more violence and hatred. The West must confront its enemies within and stand with Israel against the enemies on its border. Not just for the sake of the Jewish state, but for the sake of freedom and democracy everywhere.
Speaker at ‘peace’ festival compared Zionists to Isis
Speakers at an Islamic event held at London’s Excel Centre compared Zionists to Isis, said Hezbollah and the Houthis “rose to the occasion” in trying to halt Palestinian “genocide”, and claimed that Israel has no right to defend itself.
The Global Peace and Unity (GPU) festival attracted concern after the JC revealed that a Jordanian singer scheduled to appear had songs with lyrics such as “all the Jews will pay” and “we throw stones, small and big, at the Jewish demons”.
Abdel Fattah Owainat withdrew from the event, which has previously attracted audiences of 55,000, on Saturday.
Addressing the festival by video, former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir bin Mohamad said Israel's genocide had to be stopped by force.
The veteran politician previously told the JC he rejects “Jewish propaganda” about the Holocaust and does not mind being labelled antisemitic.
Speaking at the conference, Ben Jamal, the director of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, said: “Israel has no right to defend itself whilst it uses force to maintain a system of oppression.
"It is the Palestinian people who have a right to reist as enshrined within international law through armed resistance. They will never give up their struggle for liberation.
"You can assassinate individuals but you can never kill a spirit of resistance rooted, founded, in the principle that it is better to die on one’s feet than live a life of subjugation upon one's knees.”
Mohamed Ali Harrath, the CEO of the Islam Channel, said some people wanted to treat genocide-supporting Zionists as the spokespeople of the entire Jewish community.
"That’s incorrect,” he said. “That’s like coming to us as Muslims and saying Isis represents you.”
Norman Finkelstein, a Jewish American academic, said that once Israel’s genocide in Gaza had begun Hezbollah started firing rockets at northern Israel and “people were outraged”.
He continued: “This was between Israel and Hamas, why were they getting involved? Well in the early 2000s the western liberal developed this doctrine it was called R2P: Responsibility to Protect.
“Responsibility to Protect meant that when the international institutions fail humanity they fail to stop a genocide then individual states on their own when the international community fails to stop a genocide they have their own responsibility to protect, R2P.
“And it’s simply a fact that the party of God, Hezbollah, the Houthis in Yemen they rose to the occasion whatever you might think of their politics they rose to the occasion, they rose to their responsibility to protect the people of Gaza from a genocide that was being inflicted on them.”
Latifa Abouchakra, a reporter from the Iranain Press TV channel, said she found Palestine “beautiful” because, “they could strike at the heart of the most advanced armies in the world with handmade machines.”
She added: “We saw a biblical battle between good and evil. We saw the stone that struck the head of the enemy and it weakened them to a level that now makes the world, I think it’s reactivated this idea of the ummah.”
John Ress, a Stop the War Coalition campaigner, said: “When we are in solidarity with the Palestinians we are ensuring there is a good life for people in this country as well. Because the enemies of the Palestinians are our enemies as well.”
I spent the weekend at the Islamic Global Peace and Unity festival at the London Excel....
— David Collier (@mishtal) October 23, 2024
I will keep the thread short because the detail can be found by following the link to the article below 1/7
Thread ⬇️⬇️⬇️
In the conference centre - Speaker after speaker - spread lies, hate or open support for terrorism.
— David Collier (@mishtal) October 23, 2024
It isn't a single message - it is the cocktail that makes this so dangerous. The London Excel was turned into a radicalisation chamber for the weekend.... 3/7 pic.twitter.com/ZpK063s096
Also being handed around the Excel London was a small booklet - telling people not to use the word 'terrorism' - but instead to say 'resistance'....
— David Collier (@mishtal) October 23, 2024
Just where on earth are our counter terror police? 5/7 pic.twitter.com/ZfdyUW2AqD
Finally, Nobody else is on the ground like I am. Please support my hard hitting and unique research if you can. Help to the fight back. Subscribe to me here or support my Patreon- https://t.co/LX3lwOqlZW or donate via PayPal/CC https://t.co/orYQZG8P3L - thank you!!!! END
— David Collier (@mishtal) October 23, 2024
Poll: Gaza war ranks low on priority list for average American voter
Research from Harvard University and the Harris Poll suggests that while American support for Israel remains robust, the year-long war with Hamas in Gaza ranked low in voting priorities.
The survey polled 3,145 registered voters from Oct. 11-13, including 2,596 likely voters and 898 voters in battleground states. The margin of error is +/- 1.8% on a 95% confidence level.
On a question asking for “the most important issues facing the country today,” inflation topped the list with 39%, followed by immigration (35%), “economy and jobs” (29%), women’s rights (17%) and health care (16%). The Israel-Hamas conflict came in 15th on the list at 6% while antisemitism reached 28th with 2%.
Karlyn Bowman, a distinguished senior fellow emeritus at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), explained to JNS that the setup of the poll may have influenced the results.
“It is my impression that they asked people to volunteer what they thought was the most important issue,” Bowman told JNS. “In other words, if people had been given a list to choose from, the responses might be different.”
Bowman noted that “in nearly all other recent polls I’ve seen, the economy/inflation and immigration top the list of concerns people have. These two issues are so potent that they tend to crowd out other responses. So this isn’t surprising or unusual. Five percent is considered the threshold of significance; the Israel-Hamas conflict hits that mark.”
Bob Shapiro, a political science professor at Columbia University, told JNS that “the 6% for Gaza is not surprising and 2% for antisemitism as well. The percentages are only as high as they are since respondents evidently were allowed to give multiple responses so that the responses sum up to more than 100%. So they are likely to be the single most important issue for very few voters.”
Christopher Wlezien, a government professor at the University of Texas at Austin, told JNS that the use of “most” in the question “forces people to choose among the many important problems they might see, and when the economy and national security are problems, they tend to drive out other ones.”
Maybe it was when you called me a foreign agent for opposing your Iran Deal. https://t.co/vOQTdJySTA
— Jonathan Greenberg📟 (@JGreenbergSez) October 22, 2024
Swing State Debates Episode Four: The Jewish Vote in Pennsylvania
The eruption of antisemitism on the American left since October 7, 2023, is bound to have an effect in the voting booth. For all the anxiety over who the Muslims of Michigan will back come November, it could be the Jews of Pennsylvania who help swing the election. Which candidate this cohort will support—Kamala Harris or Donald Trump—is the question of my next episode of Swing State Debates.Jewish Voters Debate: Trump or Kamala? | SWING STATE DEBATES
While most American Jews are still nearly 2-to-1 Team Kamala, the rise in left-wing anti-Zionism over the past year has left many formerly reliable Jewish liberals with lukewarm feelings toward the Democratic Party. The disappointment in Democrats is particularly acute in Pittsburgh, where we shot this episode. The city’s Congressional representative, Summer Lee, is so progressive she can’t bring herself to pick a side between Israel and the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Our participants were no strangers to right-wing antisemitism either: Pittsburgh is home to the Tree of Life synagogue, where in 2018 eleven Jews were murdered by a white nationalist. That attack, of course, elicited unqualified sympathy from across the political spectrum, whereas Hamas’s October 7 massacre in Israel was met with leftist calls for “jihad.”
During my discussion with six Jewish voters, anti-Israel protests at American universities loomed large. “The antisemitic poison that we are watching spread across campus, it was born on campus,” said one voter, who is voting for Trump. But another panelist challenged the idea that Harris is unconcerned with the campus vitriol. “Her office made clear that we’re seeing anti-Semitism on college campuses.”
Trump’s support of Israel—and his hard-line stance on Iran—is what fuels his appeal among the pro-GOP panelists I spoke to. It’s a stance that some debaters found surprising even to themselves, given the media’s portrayal of the former president as the second coming of Adolf Hitler. “The idea that I’m somehow defending Trump in this moment feels insane,” marveled our formerly staunch Democrat.
It went the other way as well, with one lifelong Republican unable to get past Trump’s vulgarity, and unconvinced by his supposed Zionism. Untrustworthy was the word that came to mind when she heard the name Donald Trump. Not everyone was so restrained: “I think he’s a piece of shit,” said another participant.
I am not sure this conversation changed her mind, but that same Harris voter gave me an almost too-perfect sound bite about her opponents at the end of our debate: “It helps me understand their perspective,” she said. “Most of the time, I only want to speak to people who agree with me.”
The eruption of antisemitism on the American left since October 7 is bound to have an effect in the voting booth. For all the anxiety over who the Muslims of Michigan will back come November, it could be the Jews of Pennsylvania who help swing the election. And who they will vote for is the question of this episode of The Swing State Debates.
In the lead-up to the election, Ben Kawaller embarks on a mission to mend America’s fractured political landscape, orchestrating provocative conversations among voters from different ends of the ideological spectrum. Taking place in various swing states across the country, each episode focuses on a specific hot-button issue, unfolding as an unpredictable microcosm of America’s broader political drama.
00:00 Introductions
03:00 Harris v. Trump
08:38 Antisemitism on the Left & Right
19:04 The Candidates on Israel
26:50 The Tree of Life Shooting & October 7th
32:06 Campus Protests
38:40 Jewish Values
44:16 American Foreign Policy
50:38 The Future of Israel
Mayor of Portland, Maine, apologizes for backing Israel divestment measure
Last month the mayor of Portland, Maine, shocked US Jewish communities in his backyard and beyond when he expressed full-throated support for his city council’s successful resolution to divest from companies linked to Israel.Sanders calls for review of IDF airstrike in Gaza that injured journalists
Now, Mayor Mark Dion is taking it all back.
“Upon personal reflection and following many private conversations I have had with our Jewish neighbors, I have come to the conclusion that my vote on the divestment was wrong,” Dion said during prepared remarks at Monday’s city council meeting.
He went on to call his stance on divestment “pretentious,” “a serious mistake in judgment” and “a betrayal to the trust that Jewish people should expect from the mayor’s office.” Dion concluded his remarks by giving what he called a “sincere apology” for his vote.
The about-face was another whiplash moment in the battle around divestment that has taken on new urgency since Israel’s war with Hamas began after the terror group’s October 7, 2023, attacks. Many colleges and universities have seen deep divisions over divestment proposals, and local governments have experienced their share as well.
Portland became the fourth, and highest-profile, American municipality since last October 7 to back some form of divestment when its council unanimously approved a plan in September to withdraw city funds from dozens of companies it said were “complicit in the current and ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza and occupation of Palestine.” Divestment proponents say the move is necessary to curb Israel’s retaliation in Gaza that has killed tens of thousands of people, and reduced most of the enclave to rubble.
The vote came over the stern objections of many in the local Jewish community, including the Jewish Community Alliance of Southern Maine, the local federation arm, which denounced the move as a “one-sided” and “performative gesture.” Local Jewish pro-Palestinian activists voiced support for it, with the Maine chapter of the anti-Zionist group Jewish Voice for Peace celebrating its passage.
At the time, the mayor supported divestment, calling it “the greatest act of friendship” and said it was the city’s role to “grab [Israel’s] shoulder and say, ‘It’s enough. It’s simply enough.’”
But the local government found, to their evident surprise, that the measure was almost entirely symbolic. Weeks after its passage, Portland council members said the city does not have any funds invested in the dozens of companies on its divestment target list and that “no divestment is expected to occur” as a result of the resolution. (When the resolution was first proposed months ago, city officials said, Portland did hold shares in a technology company that provides Israel with screening technology used at military checkpoints; the city sold those funds prior to the resolution’s passage.)
Both Dion and some council members told the Portland Press Herald this news came as a surprise to them, and that they had believed Portland to be more heavily invested in companies that do business with Israel when they backed the resolution.
“I guess on reflection, it’s a high price to pay to create division and anxiety in the community,” Kate Sykes, a council member who also backed the initial divestment vote, said afterward.
Congress members, led by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), sent a letter to U.S. President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Attorney General Merrick Garland calling for an independent investigation into an attack in the Gaza Strip by the Israel Defense Forces on Oct. 13, 2023, six days after the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attacks in southern Israel.John Kelly’s History Of Anti-Trump Activism And Smears
Sanders alleged that the strike was directed at working journalists.
Dylan Collins, a Vermont resident writing for the Agence France-Press, suffered shrapnel wounds to his face, arms and back. Five others were reported as being injured, and Issam Abdallah of Lebanon, who was reporting for Reuters, was killed.
“To date, Mr. Collins has received no explanation for the attack, and there have been no steps toward accountability. Given the inaction of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, the United States must open an independent investigation into this incident,” the letter stated.
Co-signers included Sens. Peter Welch (D-Vt.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) and Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.); and Reps. Becca Balint (D-Vt.), Cori Bush (D-Mo.), Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.), Melanie Stansbury (D-N.M.) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.).
A hit piece published Tuesday in The Atlantic featured a claim from former President Donald Trump’s chief of staff John Kelly that Trump had praised Adolf Hitler’s generals.
The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg highlighted Kelly’s claims, which he alleges happened more than four years ago. It’s a recycled claim from a 2022 book by New York Times reporter Peter Baker and New Yorker reporter Susan Glasser, titled “The Divider: Trump in the White House.” The pair wrote in the book that Trump had asked Kelly, “Why can’t you be like the German generals?”
The Atlantic hit piece also included a smear from unnamed sources that has been dismissed by on-the-record sources present at the meeting in question, as The Daily Wire reported.
Readers may also recognize Glasser’s name from her New Yorker article falsely claiming Trump made up a story about Vice President Kamala Harris supporting sex changes for illegal immigrants in prison. Yes, Harris said she thinks the government should fund them.
But back to John Kelly.
Kelly has a history of smearing Trump, like many former aides looking to continue their careers. He rebuked Trump for firing Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, who leaked a private phone call between Trump and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky and gained hero status among the Left.
Kelly also attempted to recruit others to defy Trump when he was president, The Daily Wire previously reported. Kelly allegedly tried to recruit then-United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley to his group, saying he was doing it to “save the country.”
When Trump fired Kelly, the former four-star general was singing a different tune – defending Trump and saying he consulted multiple sources for information before making a decision.
Yes, largely because Donald Trump rather famously says a lot of shit, and the implication of Kelly's remarks -- that Trump is an incipient dictator and probably a Hitlerian anti-Semite -- is absurd on its face. https://t.co/mMTpDbdlco
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) October 23, 2024
Hey, come to think of it, somebody should ask Kamala Harris why she wants to slow-walk aide to the Jews who want to fight people who literally agree with Hitler (Hamas and Hezbollah and Iranian government)? Oh, she took no questions and walked away. https://t.co/YKhHaBC1GR
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) October 23, 2024
The audacity of her using the Hitler card after accusing Israel of genocide is beyond me. She’s desperate and hysterical, and a Trump win is highly possible, but she can’t do anything to stop it.
— AP (@AP_from_NY) October 23, 2024
pic.twitter.com/XRvJZ5fR79
This Hitler "story" (hoax) is 7 months old.
— 🐺 (@LeighWolf) October 23, 2024
The Democrats are so desperate that they're just repackaging old nonsense and trying to pass it off as some shocking new "disqualifying" revelation, when in reality its just warmed over nonsense from two seasons ago. https://t.co/OW57zdIpMK pic.twitter.com/u8GeUftuRK
Wasn’t the Stauffenberg plot made up of a bunch of colonels and generals? This might be something the Atlantic might welcome! https://t.co/vwQcmU1L97
— John Podhoretz (@jpodhoretz) October 22, 2024
Should Israel accept Jordan's olive branch during the war?
Can we take this olive branch seriously?
Having said all that, can we take Safadi’s olive branch with any degree of seriousness? We need to step back and see the present in a broader historical arc.
There is a clear line from the brutal massacre of the Hebron Jewish community in 1929 and the atrocities committed on October 7.
In between, there has been the massacre of the Hadassah medical convoy in 1948, the Israeli Olympic athletes in Munich in 1972, the schoolchildren in Ma’alot in 1974, and the suicide bombings over the decades. That is to say, Israel has been on the receiving end of the murder of innocent civilians for a century now. Why?
It was perhaps said most succinctly by David Ben-Gurion in 1936 about the local Arab Palestinian population: “It is inconceivable that a people would choose to become a minority.” That too often and for far too long Palestinians have chosen terrorism as a tactic only convinces more and more Israelis that Palestinians cannot be trusted and have no real desire to live in peace.
Conflict resolution theorist Johan Galtung teaches that when we only deal with violence, we create what he calls a “negative peace,” since the violence will come back.
Only when we also deal with the causes of the conflict will we obtain a positive peace to break the cycle – the decades, in this case, of Israeli and Palestinian blood being shed.
There is no question that we need to forcefully address violent attacks on Israelis and the Jewish state. But, as Galtung astutely explains, it only leads to a negative peace.
So how can we get closer to that positive peace and address the cause of the conflict without diminishing the need to focus on the symptom of the conflict – in this case, the violence?
They do not need to be viewed as mutually exclusive. The challenge is that in the immediacy and necessity to respond to or preempt violent assaults, addressing the causes of a conflict is often pushed aside, which may lead to quiet, but it will only be temporary, as Galtung points out. Israel and all of its neighbors deserve a better future.
This leads us back to the recent statement by the Jordanian foreign minister. His statement goes to the intractable cause of this century-long conflict – the 2,000-year-old homecoming for the Jewish people pushing up against the local Palestinian population becoming a minority.
Questions can be raised about Safadi’s overture, as mentioned above. But at the end of the day, he has opened an opportunity to face, at this moment, the causes of this 100-year-old conflict.
Yes, Iran and its proxies want to see Israel wiped off the map. But if there are 57 Arab and Muslim countries willing to live in peace with Israel, it’s not something to dismiss out of hand.
It is worth noting the wording of the psalmist: “Seek peace and pursue it” (Psalm 34:14). It says that our Jewish value is to “seek” and “pursue” peace. It does not say we will succeed each and every time, but it does say we must seriously explore and examine every opportunity that comes our way.
These words are not written lightly, but they are written with the guidance of that powerful Jewish value to “seek peace and pursue it,” even during a painful time of war.
30 years ago Israel signed a peace agreement with Jordan
— Hamas Atrocities (@HamasAtrocities) October 23, 2024
This year we've had:
⚠️ A Jordanian truck driver opened fire at an Israel-Jordan border crossing and killed three Israelis
⚠️ Two Jordanians wearing Jordanian army uniforms infiltrated Israel and attempted a shooting… pic.twitter.com/TVRf2f8uXC
Lawmakers call on State Department to publicly condemn Turkey’s Erdoğan
A bipartisan group of House lawmakers is stepping up its criticism of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, calling on the administration to publicly condemn Erdoğan’s provocative comments and actions against Israel.'France has always been antisemitic,' former French foreign minister says
Erdoğan has repeatedly and openly sided with Hamas since Oct. 7 and even threatened to invade Israel. Lawmakers have repeatedly expressed concerns about his activities and threatened penalties, but this letter puts forward their most explicit request for consequences for Erdoğan’s provocations.
“While allies often disagree, Erdoğan’s recent conduct has undermined U.S. efforts to counter global terrorism,” the lawmakers wrote in a letter to Secretary of State Tony Blinken on Wednesday. “With democracy under assault around the world, it is crucial that allies stand together with those on the frontlines fighting authoritarianism and strongly condemn antidemocratic conduct that violates our shared values. We urge the Administration to publicly condemn President Erdoğan’s rhetoric and actions that undermine support for key allies abroad, especially Israel.”
The lawmakers said that Erdoğan’s activities have continued since July, when they previously sent a previous letter in which they said the U.S. should reevaluate its relationship with Turkey if Erdoğan did not change course.
“Erdoğan’s promotion of harmful, anti-democratic policies and alignment with the Axis of Evil strains the relationship between the United States and Turkey,” the lawmakers said. “If this trend continues, the United States should consider steps to ensure Turkey complies with its obligations under the North Atlantic Treaty.”
They said that NATO must remain unified, but “Erdoğan’s recent anti-Israel rhetoric and Russia friendliness cannot be overlooked and ignored.”
The lawmakers accused the Turkish president of undermining U.S. security interests, of “playing directly into the hands” of authoritarians while rejecting U.S. and European priorities and of worsening divisions within NATO.
They specifically highlighted the Turkish leader’s threat to block NATO partnerships with Israel, which the lawmakers said would block critical technology and intelligence sharing.
"France has always been antisemitic,” former French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner told Paris Jewish station Radio J on Sunday in a conversation about Israel, the war in Gaza, and French antisemitism.Spain freezes arms sales and purchases to Israel amid internal tensions
“Antisemitism is the belief of fools,” Kouchner, who served as foreign minister from 2007 to 2010 under President Nicolas Sarkozy, told the interviewer.
“When there’s nothing to think about, one turns to antisemitism. When there’s any kind of misfortune, one turns to antisemitism. It’s a very profound sickness.”
When asked whether he thought the antisemitism that sparked the Holocaust was happening again, Kouchner replied that “it never really stopped.” Kouchner’s paternal grandparents fled the Russian pogroms and moved to France, only later to be deported to, and murdered in, Auschwitz.
“France has always been antisemitic,” he continued, adding that it had nevertheless increased in the last year.
This comes after the Jewish Community Protection Service told the Jerusalem Post in July that there had been a 1000% increase in recorded incidents of antisemitism in 2023 compared to the previous year, setting a new baseline norm for antisemitism in 2024.
Part of the reason for this hatred of Jews, he told the interviewer, lies in lack of education; “Many young French people don’t even know what the Holocaust is.”
Kouchner lamented a lack of knowledge of Jewish history: “We talk about colonization, about hatred, about territorial expansion, about genocide. But we talk about genocide without knowing what it really means.”
He did, however, add that, with the war, many might find it hard "not to be antisemitic when you see the destruction caused by the Israeli army in Gaza.”
When questioned whether he was saying it was normal to be antisemitic, he said it was “not normal,” but a not surprising reaction, given the war, devastation, and destruction.
Since October 7, 2023, Spain has suspended both arms sales and purchases with Israel, with no new arms export authorizations granted.
Margarita Robles, Spain’s Minister of Defense, confirmed that all contracts for the acquisition of Israeli armaments are currently on hold. However, as reported by Público.es on Tuesday, there are still existing contracts with the arms industry.
Ministry of Defense sources noted that only the repair of aerospace components, temporarily exported to Israel and returned after repair, has been contracted over the past year to maintain the Spanish Air Force’s operational capabilities.
On Tuesday, Pablo Bustinduy, Spain’s Minister of Social Rights, sent a letter to Defense Minister Robles on behalf of five ministers from the Sumar political group, demanding the suspension of any ongoing arms contracts with Israeli companies.
According to Público.es, Bustinduy pointed to “some contracts” that remain active despite Spain not authorizing any new arms operations since October 7. Bustinduy emphasized that Sumar's proposal was based on a thorough review to enforce a total arms embargo on Israel beyond the mere suspension of new licenses.
“We ask that these contracts be canceled immediately,” Bustinduy warned in his letter, as reported by El País. He also called for halting any defense or security agreements linked to the escalations in Gaza and Lebanon. Bustinduy stated that this would align with the recent declarations of President Pedro Sánchez.
European Parliament member @MoritzKoerner asks: Who would be against removing antisemitic content from Palestinian schoolbooks other than an antisemite? https://t.co/1ucClFfd9s
— Israel War Room (@IsraelWarRoom) October 23, 2024
Some offensive claptrap from the delegation today.https://t.co/1N6rejmibU pic.twitter.com/ay3ZtyqZXa
— habibi (@habibi_uk) October 22, 2024
Jonathan Tobin: The DEI scam destroying education and fomenting Jew-hatred must end
Oct. 7 is DEI’s denouementHamas Loyalist Professor: Joseph Massad at Columbia University
What Confessore rightly depicts as the denouement of DEI at Michigan—the post-Oct. 7 surge in antisemitism as college campuses became battlegrounds dominated by pro-Hamas mobs targeting Jewish students—was repeated in many other places. At Michigan and elsewhere, universities that were supposedly dedicated to preventing prejudice because they adopted DEI standards became hotbeds of Jew-hatred.
As the article succinctly puts it, the essence of DEI culture—the “elaborate codes of speech and behavior” and “its ceaseless instruction around microaggressions and harm” didn’t apply to even the most open prejudice and public threats against Jews. Indeed, such concerns were “vaporized” when the targets of bias were people that the toxic ideology behind DEI had falsely labeled “white” oppressors—Israelis and Jews.”
And rather than seek to correct this, as the article reports, “civil rights officials at the federal Department of Education found that Michigan had systematically mishandled such complaints over 18 months. … Out of 67 complaints of harassment or discrimination based on national origin or ancestry that the officials reviewed—an overwhelming majority involving allegations of antisemitism—Michigan had investigated and made findings in just one.
What makes the tale of DEI at Michigan so depressing is that rather than admit that they failed, the new class of DEI administrators who had cowed the university into submission for fear of being falsely accused of racism refused to admit that their programs haven’t achieved their goals. Instead, they continue to double down on their ideological agenda. At Michigan, the answer to DEI’s failure is more DEI.
But this is more than an issue for that one school. The question facing the country now is what concerned citizens can do about this toxic ideology, which has spread its tentacles throughout society.
Individual states are in some cases rolling back DEI, with Florida providing an outstanding example, thanks to Gov. Ron DeSantis. But that’s not enough.
What must be done
The pervasive hold of DEI is—as much as any other issue that worries voters—a real threat to the nation’s future as well as to its hopes of maintaining itself as a free country. Yet, as I noted last month, it is being largely ignored in the presidential campaign.
That’s unfortunate since the best way to roll back DEI is for the next president to rescind the executive orders issued by presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden that allowed its spread in the federal government. More than that, the next president needs to appoint an Attorney General who will direct the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division to focus on enforcing laws against racial discrimination, which are comprehensively violated every day by DEI programs that make race the focus of hiring, admissions and curricula.
Such moves would also enable the government to take real action against the way antisemitism has been allowed to become a respectable form of prejudice in American society and education. Slaps on the wrist or reports from the U.S. Department of Education’s civil-rights division have not done a thing to deal with the problem.
If the DOJ were to act in this manner, then there is little doubt that the woke tide in education, culture and business would be rolled back. That the reason for doing so has been strengthened by Confessore’s report on the University of Michigan is highly ironic since the Times has done as much to defend and spread DEI as any news outlet.
Nevertheless, this case study should be read and understood by policymakers in the next administration as they plan their priorities for the next president. As much as there are other important problems to be solved, ridding the country of the DEI scam should not be relegated to the status of a “culture war” issue. As long as it is allowed to continue at Michigan and so many other places, racial division will be worsened and antisemitism will become further entrenched in American society.
During the more than two decades that he has been teaching students at Columbia University, Joseph Massad, a professor of Modern Arab Politics and Intellectual History, has accumulated a reputation as a notorious Jew-hater and an ardent supporter of the terrorist group Hamas. Yet it was an essay describing Hamas’s barbaric October 7th massacre of innocent Israelis as “awesome,” “astonishing,” “astounding,” and “incredible” that finally forced the university to launch a half-hearted “investigation” into his behavior.Hamas Loyalist Professor: Steven Thrasher at Northwestern University
Massad’s long record of anti-Semitism is hardly up for debate. He denies the Jewish people’s historical connection to Israel, claiming absurdly that the very establishment of Israel as a Jewish homeland was anti-Semitic because it differentiated Jews from other “white Europeans.” He has maliciously slandered Israel as a “racist settler colony” and has compared the Jews to Hitler’s Nazi party. In a speech given at Oxford University in 2002, Massad denied that Israel had a right to exist, claiming “The Jews are not a nation… The Jewish state is a racist state that does not have a right to exist.” This is the language of Nazism.
Massad’s comments on the October 7th terror attacks should not have come as a shock to the Columbia administration as he has repeatedly indicated his support for Palestinian terrorism against Israel, stating in a 2002 lecture that Israel is “a Jewish supremacist and racist state” and adding that “[e]very racist state should be destroyed.”
“It is only by making the costs of Jewish supremacy too high that Israeli Jews will give it up,” Massad said in another address, a clear endorsement of terrorism. The professor has also declared that the “resistance of Palestinians”—“resistance” is a well-known euphemism for terrorism among the pro-Hamas set— must extend to Israel’s “civil institutions” and he has referred to Palestinian terrorists as “anti-colonial resisters.”
In a 2006 article titled “Pinochet in Palestine,” Massad described the terrorist organization Hamas as the only group prepared to “defend the rights of the Palestinians to resist the Israeli occupation.”
Massad also has a record of promoting and acting on his anti-Semitism in the classroom. He was one of several Columbia professor profiled in the 2004 film Columbia Unbecoming which was produced by the David Project. The film exposed Massad’s anti-Semitic commentary in the classroom and his intimidation of pro-Israel students. According to witnesses interviewed in the film, Massad asked a Jewish student who had formerly served in the Israeli Defense Forces, “How many Palestinians have you killed?” and he ordered a female student to leave his class because she asserted the indisputable fact that – unlike Palestinian terrorists – Israel warns Palestinian civilians before launching attacks. In 2011, another Jewish student reported that she was discouraged by a Barnard Professor from enrolling in Massad’s class because it might be “uncomfortable” for her—an indication that the professor’s Jew-hatred extends to the students in his classroom.
Northwestern University Professor Steven Thrasher is a staunch ally to the pro-Hamas campus left at Northwestern who has engaged in illegal occupations of the Chicago campus and declared himself a “comrade” to the son of a Yemeni Houthi youth minister who shares his pro-Hamas sentiments openly on social media.UCLA is Still a Terror Campus
According to his biography on Northwestern’s website, Thrasher has the honor of being “the inaugural Daniel H. Renberg Chair of social justice in reporting (with an emphasis on issues relevant to the LGBTQ community) and an assistant professor of journalism.”
When an illegal encampment—the so-called “Gaza solidarity encampment”— was created on Northwestern’s campus last spring, Thrasher was front and center in defending the occupied campus zone against police and Zionist detractors.
“At Northwestern, he helped physically block police officers from entering the so-called encampment that the university said violated campus policy,” reports The College Fix. Thrasher gloated about his role defending the encampment and subduing law enforcement on X, stating, “We were successful. We locked arms and kept the police at bay. They retreated.”
During a speech given at that encampment, which he referred to as the “liberated zone,” Thrasher glibly shared a message from his “comrade” and twitter mutual Ahmed Hassan, the son of a Houthi youth minister (who was assassinated in 2020) who openly praises Hamas and the Iranian regime on social media.
Describing himself as “a young Yemeni man who lost his father due to his opposition to the Zionist regime” Hassan urged students to continue with their illegal campus riot. “You are the frontline defenders of humanity, not just in Gaza!” he said, in the message repeated to students by Professor Thrasher. “Gaza is just the beginning… Push the rock uphill… Swim against the current… If necessary, be the current itself! Be the rock… Be the mountain… But beware of retreat and surrender!”
While Hassan’s message to Northwestern students may not have mentioned Hamas directly, his social media is much more explicit. “May God be satisfied with Hamas,” he posted in Arabic recently, adding, “Hamas is winning.” On April 6 Hassan posted, “Israel is losing. Soon enough, it will ask all the citizens to join the army[.] Hamas will end them all[.]”
I visited UCLA yesterday around the time of Ben Shapiro’s speech.
Unlike previous times, the area around the speech, the Ackerman Union, had been thoroughly secured with chain link fences and some pretty tough security.
The terrorist encampment was still set up and populated by the usual crowd in keffiyehs and a banner claiming “resistance is justified”.
By resistance, they mean terrorism.
The encampment, as it is currently positioned, doesn’t actively suppress Jewish students. And the Shapiro speech seems to have emboldened some folks. I saw kippahs worn on campus. And even red caps.
But meanwhile the systemic bias continues. Not a single pro-Hamas supporter was arrested for macing Jewish students and community members, but a Jewish community member who maced a thug in self-defense has been arrested.
And the pro-terrorist encampment remains subsidized by taxpayer money. When the right time comes along, it will rebound and go to war once more.
NEW: The task force on Antisemitism and Anti-Israeli Bias at UCLA surveyed 428 Jewish faculty, students, and staff.
— Steve McGuire (@sfmcguire79) October 22, 2024
The results are devastating.
“Two-thirds of respondents reported that antisemitism is a problem or a serious problem at UCLA and three-quarters reported that… pic.twitter.com/8P7fu0u6IX
On physical attacks, slurs, and vandalism: pic.twitter.com/6LbtnoGCoO
— Steve McGuire (@sfmcguire79) October 22, 2024
Link: https://t.co/dsPUxAFr0s
— Steve McGuire (@sfmcguire79) October 23, 2024
His “they don’t speak for me” routine is true. No one would want to speak for someone as ethically compromised as Aaron. Ask him about the antisemitic cartoon he helped publish with the Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine: Aaron_Shakow@hms.harvard.edu pic.twitter.com/ZeNTKDAwTr
— Shabbos Kestenbaum (@ShabbosK) October 23, 2024
This footage is from a teach-in I recorded and published back in June called The Student Intifada: Reports from Encampment Leaders. Keep that in mind, but this is invaluable footage in the light of yesterday's occupation.
— Stu (@thestustustudio) October 23, 2024
Altobell-Resendez is happy to "debrief to other… pic.twitter.com/BszdBarjgE
Altobell-Resendez discusses getting media training so you don't fall into "traps" like discussing Hamas with the "bourgeois media." pic.twitter.com/AXMDxVAXWj
— Stu (@thestustustudio) October 23, 2024
Major Takeways from The Student Intifada: University of Minnesota
— Stu (@thestustustudio) October 23, 2024
-This is technically Part V of a series I did back in June. People seem fried, so I decided to focus on more timely stories and never released the clips from the University of Minnesota.
-However, Fate can be… pic.twitter.com/q3kklGlqDh
Pretty funny.
— Australian Jewish Association (@AustralianJA) October 23, 2024
Incredible to see an Australian university actually doing the right thing in the fight against antisemitism.
Good on UNSW.
Hopefully they stick with it. pic.twitter.com/jQMtRZx1AM
Etsy selling abusive anti-Israel T-shirts and stickers, breaching own policies and the law
Etsy has been accused of breaching its own policies as well as UK law by selling abusive and threatening anti-Israel T Shirts and stickers.Skateboard clothing brand accused of acting illegally by refusing to sell to Israelis.
Etsy is selling a T shirt with the slogan “Fuck Israel”, which includes the inverted Red Triangle symbol, Hamas’s symbol for “violent resistance”, pointing at the word Israel. It is also selling several other T-shirts and stickers with the same slogan.
UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) has reported to Etsy that these items breach many of Etsy’s own policies including the policies on Prohibited Items and on Anti-Discrimination and Hate Speech, as well as breaching UK law.
Etsy’s Prohibited Items policy prohibits the sale of items that promote, support or glorify violence or hatred, or items that promote illegal activity.
UKLFI contends that these T-shirts and stickers fall into these categories.
Etsy’s Anti-Discrimination and Hate Speech policy also prohibits the use of its Services to discriminate against people based on personal attributes including race, national origin, ethnicity and religion. UKLFI argues that these T-shirts and stickers also breach this policy.
Etsy claims: “We want Etsy to be a community where people of all backgrounds, nationalities, religions, and even different types of artistic taste and humour feel welcome. Art is incredibly subjective, and what is offensive to one is not necessarily offensive to others.”
Despite these laudable aims, Etsy’s site is being used to sell clothing and stickers which are offensive to Jews and Israelis, and would not make Israelis or Jews feel welcome in the Etsy community.
UKLFI also draws attention to possible criminal offences. Wearing the T-shirts in public may breach Section 5 of the Public Order Act 1986 by displaying writing or a sign which is threatening or abusive within the hearing or sight of a person likely to be caused harassment, alarm or distress. It may also breach Section 18 of the Public Order Act 1986 by displaying written material which is threatening, abusive or insulting and intended or likely to stir up racial hatred.
A skateboarder clothing brand has been accused of illegality after posting on Instagram that it will not sell or ship its goods to Israel.The Courtauld clarifies staff uniform policy to prevent Palestine badges
Yardsale recently posted on its Instagram a message saying “we do not sell or ship YS products to Israel and stand in full solidarity with Palestine and Lebanon.”
UKLFI has written to Daniel Kreitem, Yardsale’s director, to point out that his stance is illegal and is in breach of Section 29 of the Equality Act 2010 (the Act). This sets out that a “service-provider” to the public must not discriminate against a person requiring the service by not providing the person with the service. The provision of a service is defined in Section 31 as including the provision of goods or facilities. In this case Israelis would be discriminated against, since Yardsale would be refusing to provide them with the service.
Yardsale has 112,000 followers on Instagram, most of whom, are likely to be impressionable teenagers.
Caroline Turner, director of UKLFI commented: “It is particularly egregious to be spreading, by these illegal means, anti-Israel propaganda to young people, and encouraging hatred between communities.”
UKLFI has requested that Yardsale posts another Instagram story that specifically countermands its announcement that it will not sell or ship its goods to Israel.
The Courtauld Gallery has clarified its staff uniform policy so that only badges from the Gallery may be worn. This follows complaints about a staff member being caught wearing a Free Palestine Clenched fist badge in the colours of the Palestinian flag.
UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) wrote to The Courtauld about the staff member scanning tickets, who was wearing the Free Palestine badge along with a Palestine flag badge, having received a complaint from an Israeli Jewish visitor.
The Courtauld visitor was upset to see these pro-Palestinian badges worn by staff and commented: “I felt this was antisemitic, that The Courtauld did not want me there. I felt singled out since these protests are applied only to Israel.”
UKLFI pointed out to The Courtauld that the fact that the staff member was displaying his personal political affiliations, was intimidating and offensive, particularly to Jewish or Israeli gallery visitors. Jews and Israelis have protected characteristics of race, religion and belief under section 4 of the Equality Act 2010 (the Act).
According to Section 29 (3) of the Act, a service-provider must not, in relation to the provision of the service, harass a person to whom the service is provided.
Any Jewish or Israeli person seeing the staff member wearing the Palestine flag “fist” badge and the Free Palestine slogan is likely to feel harassed, according to the definition at Section 26 of the Act which says: “A person (A) harasses another (B) if …. the conduct has the purpose or effect of— (i) violating B’s dignity, or (ii) creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for B.”
After initially stating that “As a Gallery, we always welcome feedback and we will be reflecting further on our dress code policy”, the Courtauld has now said: “Under our revised policy, only items from The Courtauld shop will be permitted to be worn on staff uniforms.”
UPDATE: antisemite Katherine Grover is no longer with Vinson & Elkins law firm. https://t.co/jlVWzGqiuB
— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) October 23, 2024
Why is rape denier Khoder Baydoun STILL receiving a nice paycheck courtesy of California taxpayers, despite the City of San Jose's Public Works department being fully aware of his actions?
— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) October 22, 2024
ACT HERE: https://t.co/bUecTDxOSp https://t.co/xRvBgIV2RU pic.twitter.com/CCBN4hTqP4
Too late for this doctor, now there's nowhere to hide. pic.twitter.com/mAevxZUj0Q
— GnasherJew®גנאשר (@GnasherJew) October 23, 2024
Details can be found here. https://t.co/N7Wkhu5mMg
— GnasherJew®גנאשר (@GnasherJew) October 22, 2024
Some additional posts of Mohammad Alkarkhi, including further posts glorifying Yahya Sinwar, his police training, and a special messages to the people he is most disappointed with, which are fellow Arabs.
— Leviathan (@l3v1at4an) October 23, 2024
He says that if you are an Arab and are friends with Zionists or "buying… pic.twitter.com/OSr9HS7rfc
The Pope Cites a Favorite Verse of Anti-Semites in His Letter to Middle Eastern Catholics
While Israel and its friends commemorated the anniversary of the October 7 attacks, and its foes celebrated it, Pope Francis marked the date with a letter to Middle Eastern Catholics. Ethan Schwartz finds nothing objectionable about the Vatican sending a missive to this vulnerable population, but is disturbed by the pope’s decision to cite John 8:44:WSJ Opinion releases documentary on the 1991 Crown Heights riot
[Francis] urges that Catholics “must never tire of imploring peace from God” and calls for a day of prayer and fasting to “defeat our one true enemy: the spirit of evil that foments war, because it is ‘murderous from the beginning,’ ‘a liar and the father of lies.’”
In its historical context, John 8:44 is part of a disagreement between specific Jews about an internal matter. However, as Christianity developed, the verse was understood as a fundamental, eternal indictment of the entire Jewish people, by a Jesus who stood fully apart from and against them. The Jews are the children of the devil, the embodiment of evil, the enemies of humanity.
It would not be unreasonable to speculate that no individual sentence has caused more Jewish death and suffering than John 8:44. . . . Regardless of Pope Francis’s intentions, this is the legacy that he invoked when he chose John 8:44 to characterize “our one true enemy” on the anniversary of October 7. In a war that much of the world blames on the Jewish state, citing a verse that condemns all Jews as the murderous children of the devil creates an unavoidable implication: the Jews are the reason for this horror. They are the enemies of those who seek peace—the enemies of the church and, indeed, of humanity itself.
It is impossible to overstate what a disaster this is for Jewish-Catholic relations.
Wall Street Journal Opinion and Palladium Pictures released their first in a series of short documentaries earlier this month, with the opening film shedding light on the unfolding of the 1991 Crown Heights riot.
The film, titled “‘Get the Jew’: Brooklyn 1991,” was released on the anniversary of the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel. The 23-minute documentary details the three-day episode, the worst antisemitic riot in American history, and explains how the media and leading political figures in the city “played down or excused the antisemitism at the heart of the violence,” according to a press release on the project.
“Not to state the obvious, but there’s a resurgence of antisemitism, so it’s good to look back and see what happened in the past,” Michael Pack, president of Palladium Pictures, told Jewish Insider of the decision to make this the debut film in the series. “This is the worst antisemitic riot in American history and it went on for three days. One person was killed. There was a lot of property damage and terrorizing of Jewish people. Since it has lessons for today, this seemed a good time to look back on it.”
The riot began in August of 1991 with a car crash involving the motorcade of the late Lubavitcher Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson, whose Chabad movement is headquartered in Crown Heights, that left one Guyanese American child dead and another severely injured.
Despite being completely accidental and there being no suspicion of foul play, the situation escalated into antisemitic violence almost immediately, the result of a misunderstanding that led to Guyanese locals believing that the Hatzolah ambulance that arrived on the scene denied the children medical care. It was also the result of long-standing resentments in the community over a belief among Black residents that the police were more favorable to the neighborhood’s Jewish community.
Black rioters and agitators, largely encouraged by local and national civil rights leaders at the time, spent the next three days attacking the homes and stores of their Jewish neighbors. Rioters also attacked Jewish residents on the streets of their shared Brooklyn neighborhood, injuring several and killing one, a 29-year-old Australian Jewish man in the U.S. on a student visa while conducting research for his doctorate.
Three hours after the riot began, a group of about 15-20 Black men surrounded Yankel Rosenbaum, then a University of Melbourne student working toward his Ph.D. in history, after one of them shouted, “Let’s go get a Jew.” The men stabbed Rosenbaum repeatedly in the chest and back, and he died of his wounds at a nearby hospital.
The Making of ‘"Get the Jew": The Crown Heights Riot Revisited’
Paul Gigot speaks with documentary filmmaker Michael Pack and journalist Elliot Kaufman about the new Wall Street Journal Opinion film, "'Get the Jew": The Crown Heights Riot Revisited.' The story of the worst antisemitic riot in U.S. history echoes today amid incidents of antisemitism on university campuses and in U.S. cities.
0:00 The Making of ‘"Get the Jew": The Crown Heights Riot Revisited’
8:00 Al Sharpton's Role
16:00 Lessons for Today
In memory of the 11
We were heartbroken to learn earlier this month that the memorial outside Pittsburgh Allderdice High School, honoring the lives of the 11 Jews murdered in the Tree of Life building, was vandalized and that the plaque listing their names was stolen.
The memorial was a gift from the high school’s 2018-19 boys’ basketball team and was inscribed with the words: “As long as we live, they too will live; for they are now a part of us as we remember them.”
The memorial paid tribute to cherished community members Joyce Fienberg, Richard Gottfried, Rose Mallinger, Jerry Rabinowitz, Cecil Rosenthal, David Rosenthal, Bernice Simon, Sylvan Simon, Dan Stein, Melvin Wax and Irving Younger.
We are grateful that Allderdice officials have promised to replace the plaque before Oct. 27, the date we mark six years since an antisemitic gunman attacked three congregations, turning our Jewish community’s world upside down.
But we are distressed that Pittsburgh, which claimed to be “stronger than hate” back then, is still grappling with antisemitism. Since Oct. 7, 2023, there have been more than 200 antisemitic incidents here, many fueled by venom for Israel.
We have no information on the identity or motivation of the vandal who desecrated the Allderdice memorial. But with so much anti-Israel rhetoric proliferating throughout our city, including from some of our local politicians, we are not surprised it happened — even though the memorial for the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting victims had nothing to do with the Jewish state.
When the antisemitic gunman burst into the Tree of Life building and murdered 11 Jewish worshippers, he didn’t care whose lives he was extinguishing, just that they were Jewish lives. He was inspired by the antisemitic Great Replacement Theory (a conspiracy theory that Jews are bringing immigrants into the country to ultimately replace white people) — one of several modern-day justifications for hating Jews.
There are others, like the anti-Zionist blood libel that Jews are genocidal colonialists which, since Oct. 7, 2023, has ostensibly motivated hundreds of hate crimes throughout the United States.
But when six men physically attack a Jewish student in Oakland while shouting “Free Palestine! F— Jews!” it’s clear that the purported pro-Palestinian sentiment is merely a pretext.
No one should not buy into that pretext.
Dara Horn, who wrote “People Love Dead Jews,” a collection of insightful essays on antisemitism, had something to say on the topic. She told the Australian Jewish News:
“There’s this stupid thing that we in the Diaspora are asked to do where we have to publicly announce at all turns that criticism of Israel is not antisemitic. When you’re throwing eggs at a synagogue, that’s not criticism of Israel. When you’re shutting down a train station, that’s not criticism of Israel. When you’re spray painting Jewish communal buildings, that’s not criticism of Israel. When you’re spouting blood libel, that’s not criticism of Israel. And it doesn’t really matter if you use the word Zionist or Israel instead of Jew while you’re spouting blood libel.
“There’s criticism of Israel, which looks like a conversation about government policies, and then there’s antisemitism, which looks like people throwing bottles at your head, and it’s really not that hard to tell the difference,” Horn continued.
“If somebody is yelling ‘Free Palestine’ while they’re throwing a bottle at your head, that doesn’t magically make it criticism of Israel.”
A year later (Hebrew calendar), “The sunrise" occurred this morning in Nova. We will dance again. Never forget, never forgive 10/7 pic.twitter.com/QF7AsBTvIr
— Raylan Givens (@JewishWarrior13) October 23, 2024
'I was powerless to stop it': Released hostage Amit Soussanna appeals to UNSC
Amit Soussana, a former hostage who was released after 55 days of Hamas captivity, made an emotional appeal to the UN Security Council on Wednesday, urging immediate action to secure the release of those still held hostage. Susanna, from Kibbutz Kfar Aza, shared her harrowing ordeal of abuse while in captivity, revealing painful details of her treatment.
“In captivity, I was isolated from the other hostages. I was alone, chained by the ankles with a metal shackle, unable to move, and forced to beg to use the bathroom. In the apartment where I was held in isolation, I was sexually assaulted by the Hamas terrorist who guarded me.
He forced me into the shower, following closely with his gun aimed at me. His heavy breathing and predatory stare were terrifying. I knew exactly what he intended, and yet I was powerless to stop it. I had no one to comfort me and had to ‘behave’ for the man who had just violated me in the most horrifying way.”
Susanna continued, “A few days later, I was moved to a new location, watched over by other Hamas terrorists. Despite my fear, I felt relief to be away from the terrorist who assaulted me, knowing that had I stayed, he would have done it again. In this new place, I was tortured—hung upside down, beaten, and humiliated. Every moment, I feared for my life.”
“We, the hostages, made a vow to each other: if one of us were ever freed, we would never stop fighting for the release of the others. Today, I am fulfilling that promise by sharing my story, no matter how painful it is. Staying silent would be even harder.”
She added, “I cannot remain silent, not just because of the promise we made, but because of the silence and denial surrounding the atrocities still being inflicted on hostages in Gaza, now for 383 agonizing days.
Bring them home now
“Now, I stand before the UN Security Council, pleading with you to fulfill your duty. Act immediately to ensure the release of those still in captivity. Each passing day causes them further psychological harm and endangers their lives. Act before it’s too late.
“I beg you not to turn a blind eye to the horrors being inflicted on innocent civilians. It is your responsibility to protect human rights, fight terrorism, and bring the perpetrators to justice. The world is watching, waiting for the Security Council to live up to its mandate. Do not fail us. Secure the freedom of the hostages and ensure no one else endures such a fate. We have a collective duty to fight terrorism and protect human rights. The time to act is now.”
Amit Soussana, a former hostage freed from Hamas captivity, bravely shared on the UN stage the horrors, violence and pure evil she experienced from the moment she was abducted from her apartment in Kibbutz Kfar Aza until the moment of her release. Amit, you are strong and… pic.twitter.com/QtgrQUqj8d
— Danny Danon 🇮🇱 דני דנון (@dannydanon) October 23, 2024
This Simchat Torah is the first yahrzeit of the victims of October 7.
— Eylon Levy (@EylonALevy) October 23, 2024
Jewish communities will have to grieve and celebrate at the same time.
Has your synagogue joined the Simchat Torah Project yet?https://t.co/PedheAPZMI pic.twitter.com/4vyvjUqpQ4
Call me Back Podcast: Scott Galloway ( @TheProfGShow ) - One Year Since October 7
LIVE EVENT ALERT – PITTSBURGH: On Monday October 28th at 6:00 PM, Dan will be speaking at a live event in conversation with Dave McCormick, combat veteran, former CEO of Bridgewater Associates, and candidate for U.S. Senate. A West Point graduate, Dave was deployed to the Middle East during the first Gulf War with the 82nd Airborne Division. He later served as the Under Secretary of Treasury and Deputy National Security Advisor. Dave has distinguished himself as an outspoken ally of the Jewish community and of the U.S.-Israel relationship. In Pittsburg, Dan and Dave will have a conversation before a live audience and take questions. To register: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/dan-seno...
SPECIAL SERIES: As we reflect upon one year since 10/07, we continue our dedicated series in which we take a longer horizon perspective, asking one guest each week to look back at this past year and the year ahead. If you are listening to this episode on a podcast app, please note that this episode was filmed in a studio and is also available in video form on our YouTube channel.
For the sixth and final episode in our series, we sat down with Scott Galloway, who is a Professor of Marketing at NYU Stern School of Business where he teaches Brand Strategy and Digital Marketing. He’s the host of the Prof G Podcast and the Pivot podcast, which he co-hosts with Kara Swisher. He is the New York Times bestselling author of numerous books, including “The Four”, “The Algebra of Happiness”, “Adrift: America in 100 Charts”, and most recently, “The Algebra of Wealth: A Simple Formula for Financial Security.”
Scott has served on the board of directors of Eddie Bauer, The New York Times Company and the Berkeley School of Business.
Timestamps:
00:00 Introduction
01:30 Experience on 9/11 in relation to 10/07
10:51 What was your relationship to Judaism prior to 10/07, and now?
15:03 Reactions to speaking out about Israel
17:23 Media responses: how Israel lost the story
41:09 What should Israel’s story be?
44:27 Jewish Identity
Hundreds of Jews attended the overnight prayers at the Nova festival grounds before the Hoshana Rabba prayers in the morning
— Documenting Israel (@DocumentIsrael) October 23, 2024
There were also some artists performing. This song is from slichot called "HaNeshama Lach" https://t.co/xI7KobRmWA pic.twitter.com/wKQXcgdIwb
Simchat Torah is upon us again, many are dreading it after the events of last year. So, what is this festival? And why is marking it joyfully so essential, especially now, because, not just despite, what happened on it last year?
— Saul Sadka (@Saul_Sadka) October 23, 2024
It is the final day of Sukkot, the grand… pic.twitter.com/5RTLaFa2lG
Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon! Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424. Read all about it here! |
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