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Wednesday, November 06, 2024

11/06 Links Pt2: The Unapologetic Bernie Marcus; Macron’s error: The UN did not create Israel; The Disgusting Lies of Haaretz; Is Brandeis University being ‘Palestinized?’

From Ian:

Seth Mandel: The Unapologetic Bernie Marcus
Bernie Marcus, the billionaire Home Depot founder and philanthropist who died yesterday at age 95, was in the process of giving away the majority of his fortune. But there’s a good lesson in one of his more-recent causes. In 2020, Marcus gave $20 million to launch RootOne, a program to send Jewish teenagers to Israel. He later put another $60 million into it.

The point of the program, according to Marcus: “We want young people stepping onto their college campuses with deep connections to Israel and strong Jewish identities.”

Marcus saw what Jewish students were up against and wanted them to feel a sense of pride and comfort with their Jewish faith before they entered the whirlwind of brainless anti-Zionist hostility on campus. Marcus had also given to organizations like Hillel International. The craziness of the past year has only reinforced the urgency of supporting Jews on campus.

His unapologetic Zionism was matched by his unapologetic advocacy of economic liberty and the free market. In 2019, he and grocery-chain billionaire John Catsimatidis cowrote an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal that began, provocatively: “The two of us are quite rich. We have earned more money than we could have imagined and more than we can spend on ourselves, our children and grandchildren. These days getting rich off a profitable business is regarded as almost sinister. But we have nothing to apologize for, and we don’t think the government should have more of our profits.”

To be clear, he wrote, “We believe in a well-funded government, and we understand it is our duty to pay our fair share of taxes. And we do.”

Marcus’s parents were Russian Jewish immigrants and his dreams of becoming a doctor were dashed when was accepted to Harvard Medical School but couldn’t afford it. So he found other dreams—one of which was the concept that would become Home Depot. In 1978, he and business partner Arthur Blank teamed up with financier Ken Langone to make it a reality.

Marcus’s life story is an uncommon one, but it does carry a universal lesson: We could do with less apologizing for success—and no apologizing for Zionism.
The US must reject the Palestinian claim of a ‘right of return’
American foreign policy can be quite resistant to change. When it comes to the Arab-Israeli conflict, that inertia includes a perennial refusal to take a decisive position on the so-called Palestinian right of return. The result has been decades of failed peace negotiations. With renewed talk of a two-state solution, it’s important to revisit this issue as a new approach is in order.

During the 1948 Israeli War of Independence, approximately 700,000 Palestinians fled or were expelled from what is now the State of Israel. Those refugees were housed in Judea and Samaria, the Gaza Strip and various refugee camps in neighboring Arab countries. Except for Jordan, those countries did not offer them citizenship.

Shortly after the war, the United Nations formed the U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) to manage the welfare of the refugees. UNRWA’s original mandate was to resettle the refugees in their host countries. However, in the face of Palestinian opposition, UNRWA abandoned that goal and instead began to advocate for the return of the refugees to their former homes. To complicate matters, it has taken the position that the original 1948 refugees and all of their descendants are entitled to refugee status. Today, that amounts to approximately five million people who, UNRWA maintains, have a “right of return” to what is now the State of Israel. The Palestinian leadership agrees, arguing that this supposed right is non-negotiable.

But there is no such right as Adi Schwartz and Einat Wilf have shown in their book, The War of Return. One study after another confirms this. Perhaps the best example is an exhaustive analysis by professor Andrew Kent, as cited by Schwartz and Wilf, in which he concludes that it is “clear that the claimed Palestinian ‘right of return’ for refugees from the 1947–49 conflict has no substantial legal basis.” Most legal scholars without a political agenda who have addressed the issue agree that 5 million Palestinian refugees are not entitled to take up residence in the State of Israel.

Nevertheless, American peace negotiators have failed to take a firm position on this crucial issue. And so, Palestinian officials have been free to claim that the conflict cannot be settled without recognition of a full right of return.

Perhaps because this issue is so contentious, the parties have largely avoided it over the history of peace negotiations. Under the Oslo Accords, questions regarding refugees were designated as a “final status” issue to be addressed at the end of peace negotiations. That set a pattern that continues to this day.

American foreign policy views the right of return as a bargaining chip in peace negotiations. For example, negotiators have suggested a symbolic right of return limited to only a few thousand refugees. However, U.S. policy has been ambiguous and noncommittal if such a right exists.
Macron’s error: The UN did not create Israel
French Prime Minister Emmanuel Macron told his cabinet last month that Israel was created by a decision of the United Nations and that the Jewish state should not “disregard the decisions of the U.N.”

However, the United Nations did not create Israel. Point of fact: U.N. General Assembly Resolution 181, generally known as the Partition Plan, was never implemented. By its express terms, it was merely a recommendation. While it requested that the U.N. Security Council take measures to implement it, this never occurred.

The Partition Plan was unequivocally rejected by the Arab world, which sought, by force, to eliminate any possibility of a Jewish state in any part of Israel (then referred to as the British Mandate of Palestine). There was no real appetite by the permanent members of the Security Council to intervene militarily to effectuate the recommended Partition Plan in the face of Arab militant intransigence or to prevent the existing Arab nations from invading and overrunning the country. The Jews in Israel were left on their own to deal with the onslaught and invasion.

It is important to note that there is no reference in Resolution 181 to the so-called Palestinian people. The label was invented more than a decade and a half later. There was also no reference to a so-called West Bank. This was an artificial construct by Jordan, which illegally annexed the land to distinguish it from Jordan proper, located on the eastern side of the Jordan River.

Resolution 181 referred to the area as the hill country of Samaria and Judea. The name given to the proposed partitioned area intended to house Arab residents of Israel was the “Arab state,” not the “Palestinian state.”

At the time and historically, Arab residents in Israel were viewed—and, indeed, viewed themselves—as a part of the Arab people. As Anwar Nusseibeh, a Jordanian minister in the 1950s, explained, Arabs who resided in the areas assigned to the re-established Jewish State of Israel saw themselves as a part of the Arab nation, generally and specifically as a part of Syria. There was no concept of a separate so-called Palestinian people, nor was there any distinct identity beyond being a part of pan-Arabism.

It is critical to appreciate that the U.N. Charter explicitly provides, in Article 80, that “ … nothing in this chapter shall be construed in or of itself to alter in any manner the rights whatsoever of any states or any peoples or the terms of existing international instruments to which members of the United Nations may respectively be parties.”


UN's Albanese blames pro-Israel lobby for cancelled meeting with Canadian officials
The UN’s Special Rapporteur for Palestine has blamed Pro-Israeli groups for pressuring Canadian government officials to refuse to meet with her during a visit to Ottawa.

Francesca Albanesen told a press conference on Parliament Hill Tuesday that meetings with government officials — including Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly — were unexpectedly cancelled.

“It’s happening because of the pressure from pro-Israel lobby groups, who are very vocal, very virulent, very aggressive,” Albanese said.

“What are they fearing? I’m telling you the truth — I’m just speaking facts and international law.”

A source within Joly’s office told The Toronto Sun that meetings with Albanese weren’t cancelled, they never existed — confirming that no arrangements were ever made to facilitate a meeting between Albanese and Joly.

Albanese is in Canada for a nationwide speaking tour, having attended a talk at McGill University on Monday.

Albanese unexpectedly pulled out of a two-day “Coordinating Council 4 Palestine” conference in Montreal over the weekend, where she was billed as a keynote speaker.

Among those speaking at that conference was Charlotte Kates, a leader of the Canadian-based terror group Samidoun.

Albanese’s comments about Israel following the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas terror attacks have sparked widespread criticism. She has compared Israel to Nazi Germany and Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, diminishing the Oct. 7 attacks. Albanese has repeatedly described Israel’s war against Hamas as a so-called “genocide.”

Germany, France and the United States denounced Albanese’s comments as anti-Semitic.


Seth Frantzman: Technology, drones and complexity: The IDF’s battle for Jabalya
There is a buzz in the air, a buzz that becomes a kind of whirring. Above our heads, a small quadcopter-type drone lifts off. Then, another one lifts off. They sound like locusts before the sound fades and the stillness of the war in Gaza returns.

This is Jabalya, one of the largest neighborhoods northeast of Gaza City, where the IDF has been fighting for a month, killing around 900 terrorists and apprehending hundreds.

This is my second time in Jabalya since October 7, 2023. It is also the second time in the neighborhood with the IDF’s Multidimensional Unit, which uses new technology and special weapons combined with special forces level of operations.

The unit was created several years ago as the IDF was seeking to shift from a large conventional force to be more nimble and technology-oriented. This was part of a more extensive process that saw the IDF reduce some conventional big army aspects, such as the number of regular company tanks and the number of combat helicopters, in favor of drones and other new platforms.

Today, the military understands that a big conventional army is vital to defeating enemies on multiple fronts. The reservists have been called up for most of the last year.
After being fired, Gallant says ‘moral darkness’ surrounds us, calls to return hostages, draft ultra-Orthodox, establish Oct. 7 inquiry
After being fired by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, an emotional Defense Minister Yoav Gallant says he was dismissed over three issues — the sharing of the defense burden; the imperative to bring back the hostages; and the need to learn lessons through a state commission of inquiry into October 7 and the war that followed.

On the IDF draft, he says that “the issue isn’t only a social one, but is a topic central to our existence — the security of Israel and the nation that sits in Zion.”

Israel will be facing complex challenges in the coming years, he says. “In these circumstances, there is no choice. Everyone must serve in the IDF, and participate in the mission of defending Israel.”

He warns that the “discriminatory, corrupt law” on Haredi enlistment that the coalition is pushing must not be allowed to pass.

On the hostages in Gaza, he hints strongly that Israel should take a deal to get the hostages out even if it leaves Hamas in Gaza. “Whoever dies among the hostages can never be returned. There isn’t and will never be atonement for abandoning the hostages. It will become a mark of Cain on the forehead of Israeli society, and on those who are leading this mistaken path.”

He calls for a government investigation into October 7, citing the need to get at the truth and extract military, political and security lessons. Gallant says that this is the only way to prepare Israeli forces for future challenges.

Choking up, he says that Israel’s security is his life’s mission.

Gallant praises Israel’s war effort: “We struck in Gaza and Lebanon, the terror in Judea and Samaria. We eliminated terror leaders in the world and across the Middle East. We operated for the first time in a precise, lethal and swift strike in Iran.”

“Since October 7, I’ve focused on one mission — victory in the war,” he says.

Gallant warns of “a moral darkness” that “surrounds us.”
David Horovitz: Netanyahu’s firing of Gallant mid-war is reckless, divisive and dangerous to Israel
Netanyahu made his move days after a judge partially lifted a gag order into an investigation of what is reported to have been the “systematic” theft of classified intelligence documents from the IDF, and the transfer of at least one such document to a Netanyahu spokesman, who then allegedly leaked parts of it that served the prime minister’s interests to Germany’s Bild newspaper. And he acted just hours after news broke of a second investigation that has been conducted in secret for months concerning alleged “criminal incidents” linked to the Prime Minister’s Office since the start of the war, apparently related to reported efforts by Netanyahu to doctor minutes of war meetings.

Along with the small matter of the US elections, it is those two probes, deeply troubling for Netanyahu, that would have been making headlines in Israel on Tuesday night.

The prime minister may have assessed that Israelis, battered and exhausted by more than a year of a war that began with the single worst catastrophe in the whole history of the modern state, would be disinclined to rush into the streets in their hundreds of thousands, as they did several times in March 2023, to relentlessly protest the sacking of the defense minister. And so it proved on Tuesday night.

Netanyahu’s firing of Gallant is far more dangerous for Israel now than it was last time around. The prime minister has booted the experienced ex-general at the political helm of the military, an independent thinker dedicated to the security of Israel who sought to strengthen the army despite the potential political cost. Highly regarded by the troops, his casual ouster, and his replacement by the lightweight Katz, can only undermine military competence, unity and morale, and raise new concerns in parts of the Israeli public about the oversight of the army in which they and their loved ones serve.

Gallant has also established very good relations with his US counterpart Lloyd Austin, in what has constituted a vital partnership as Washington has deployed forces to the region to deter Iran and led a regional coalition that helped intercept almost all of the drones and missiles the ayatollahs have fired at Israel.

In a video statement he recorded and issued immediately after firing Gallant, Netanyahu went so far as to accuse the defense minister of indirectly aiding Israel’s enemies, asserting that Gallant had said and done things that contradicted government decisions, and that their disagreements “came to the attention of our enemies — who took pleasure in this and derived significant benefit from it.”

In truth, however, it is Netanyahu’s unconscionable and reckless decision to dismiss a courageous, principled and patriotic defense minister at the height of a bitter war, undermining the internal cohesion on which Israel’s vital resilience depends, that will delight and potentially benefit Israel’s enemies.


We battled terror cell 100ft from UN base, says Finchley-born IDF soldier
A former Immanuel College pupil has revealed how he battled a Hezbollah terror cell metres from a United Nations “peacekeeper” base while serving with the IDF in Lebanon.

Yossi Levercoff, who is from Finchley in north London and made aliyah in 2011, was called up by his “Eagle” paratrooper brigade for the operation a mile beyond the Lebanese border last month.

On the second day of his brigade’s mission, which was to take over a Hezbollah stronghold, they received intelligence that a nearby company had found recently opened food and a warm hookah in a building, signs of terrorists hiding close by.

Astonishingly, the area of suspected terror activity – a collection of eight properties – “was situated right beneath a Unifil [United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon] watchtower. Just 100 feet from the UN compound”, he said.

Levercoff, 31, (not his real name) whose day-job is running an Amazon business, said: “We devised a strategy to flank and cover each house, moving forward with a team stationed on high ground. Team one secured the first multi-storey building without resistance. From the top floor, they provided cover for our team to advance to the next property.

“We sent a drone through the window and discovered that the entire building was rigged with explosives. The same was true for the next two buildings.”

They decided to wait for the other IDF teams across the street to make progress before moving around to the end of the line of buildings. With only three of the eight properties unchecked, they then brought in an armoured demolition truck and began dismantling one of the remaining structures, where they found a hatch leading underground.

Suddenly, two Hezbollah terrorists, one with an AK-47 and the other with a shotgun, emerged from between the last two buildings and opened fire in their direction.

Levercoff said: “Without hesitation, my friend in the team next door pulled out a hand grenade and lobbed it 30m, exploding close to them. We returned fire as they shot at us from behind a blue car. The heavy machine gunner to my right unleashed a barrage, and the sharpshooter next to him took down one of them with a shot between the eyes. The whole company searched every inch of the area until evening.”

Reflecting on the sequence of events, Levercoff said the key moment was the successful actions of the drone operator.


Hezbollah rocket hits Ben-Gurion Airport
Hezbollah terrorists in Lebanon on Wednesday fired two barrages of rockets toward central Israel, setting off sirens in several cities, including Tel Aviv.

Israel’s Channel 12 reported that at least 10 rockets were launched in the first barrage on Wednesday morning, some of which were intercepted by air defenses. According to the news channel, it was the largest barrage fired by the Iranian terrorist proxy at central Israel since the start of the war more than a year ago.

A direct impact was reported in a parking lot at Ben-Gurion Airport, while a large rocket fragment damaged a parked car in Ra’anana, north of Tel Aviv. Flights from Ben-Gurion were briefly halted following the attack.

There were no immediate reports of injuries in the attack.

Shortly afterwards, another Hezbollah barrage triggered alerts in the central Galilee.

Less than an hour before the barrage on central Israel, rocket sirens were activated in Ramat Trump (Trump Heights) and nearby areas in the northwestern Golan Heights. The new community is named after the 45th president of the United States, who about two hours before Wednesday’s attack clinched his electoral victory ahead of becoming the 47th president.
Hezbollah rocket kills Israeli teen near Acre
An Israeli teenager was killed in a Hezbollah rocket attack on the Western Galilee on Wednesday night.

Magen David Adom first responders discovered the lifeless body of the victim in an agricultural field near Kibbutz Kfar Masaryk, south of Acre, the medical emergency response group said.

The slain teen suffered severe shrapnel wounds from a rocket and medics pronounced him dead at the scene.

According to local reports, he was wounded some 90 minutes before first responders arrived, in a barrage from Lebanon that targeted the kibbutz and consisted of approximately 25 rockets.

MDA medic Netanel Ben-Yehuda said, “We were led to the scene of the incident by a farmer from the area. We saw the wounded man lying in the field—he was unconscious with severe wounds from shrapnel. We performed tests on him but he was without a pulse and not breathing.”

Initial reports suggested that the victim was a foreign worker, but local authorities later confirmed that an Israeli citizen was killed. He was subsequently identified as Sivan Sadeh, 18, from Kfar Masaryk.


IDF jets hit series of Hezbollah targets in Beirut
Israeli Air Force jets conducted fresh strikes in Beirut’s Hezbollah terrorist stronghold of Dahiyeh on Wednesday afternoon, breaking a days-long lull in Israeli operations in the Lebanese capital.

“A short time ago, Air Force fighter jets, at the direction of the Military Intelligence Directorate, attacked headquarters, munitions depots and military infrastructure of the Hezbollah terrorist organization in Beirut’s Dahiyeh area,” the Israel Defense Forces confirmed in a statement.

The IDF noted that “the targets that were attacked were established by Hezbollah in the heart of a civilian population. This is another example of Hezbollah’s exploitation of Lebanese citizens as human shields.

“Before the attack, many measures were taken to reduce the chance of harming civilians, including the use of precision weapons, observation efforts and advance warnings to the local population,” the army said.

According to the MTV Lebanon, aka Murr Television, news outlet, waves of “heavy” strikes hit targets in the Beirut district, while simultaneously, attacks targeted Hezbollah sites in the Southern Lebanon city of Nabatieh.

The aerial attacks were launched shortly after the IDF issued evacuation orders for several buildings in Dahiyeh, where the Iranian-backed terrorist organization’s leadership is largely based.

The orders were published as Hezbollah released a pre-recorded speech by its secretary-general, Naim Qassem, on the occasion of the end of the 40-day mourning period for his slain predecessor Hassan Nasrallah.

In the address, Qassem rejected truce efforts led by the United States, saying that “only one thing will end this war, which is the battlefield.”


Dutch Embassy commemorates Oct 7, focusing on survivor support
The Dutch Embassy in Israel marked the anniversary of the October 7 massacre by hosting an event with international ambassadors and diplomats, focusing on psychological support for survivors in communities near the Gaza border.

The embassy invited leaders of SafeHeart, an organization created in response to the October 7 attacks. This group consists of volunteer therapists working in safe spaces and aims to provide mental health support to survivors of the massacre.

Prof. Roi Salomon, a co-founder of SafeHeart and a scientist and professor at the University of Haifa, discussed pioneering research involving thousands of survivors, examining the relationship between trauma and interpersonal connections.

Importance of Israeli research
The event included a virtual address by Prof. Eric Vermetten, a trauma expert from Leiden University in the Netherlands, discussing the global significance of Israeli trauma research.

The event included ambassadors from Spain, Austria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Norway, Poland, Romania, Rwanda, and Tanzania, as well as representatives from Brazil, Japan, Ukraine, Greece, Belgium, and the head of the Red Cross mission in Israel.

Dutch Ambassador to Israel, Marriet Schuurman, said, “We deeply appreciate the essential support provided by SafeHeart and other organizations for those who endured the horrific events of October 7.

We are also grateful for the involvement of Dutch researchers in this important research. Recognizing the enduring trauma of survivors underscores the resilience of the human spirit, allowing us to hold on to our humanity even under the most inhumane conditions. We must continue fostering this shared humanity."


Jocko Podcast 463: Urban Warfare Perspective on Ukraine and Israel. With John Spencer
John Spencer is the Chair of Urban Warfare Studies at the Modern War Institute at West Point and the Chair of Urban Warfare Studies w the Madison Policy Forum.


The Israel Guys: What Donald Trump Winning The Presidency Means For Israel
Ladies and Gentlemen, we have a 47th president of the United States of America, and that is none other than Donald J. Trump. Congratulations poured in from Israeli leaders and celebrations erupted in the streets even as protests were going on last night because Netanyahu decided he had enough of Yoav Gallant and gave him the boot.




Hospital trust vows to investigate nurse photographed in her scrubs at pro Palestine demonstration where she appeared to join in chants
An NHS hospital trust has vowed to investigate a nurse after she was photographed wearing her pink scrubs at a pro-Palestine demonstration.

Jo Jo Forsythe, a phlebotomist at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, was identified after being photographed and videoed in her uniform at the demonstration – breaking NHS rules on uniform guidance.

Ms Forsythe was photographed at the latest pro-Palestinian demonstration in London last Saturday wearing a pink nurse's uniform, an NHS lanyard hanging on a Palestine thread, a Palestine keffiyeh and multiple 'free Palestine' badges.

The back of her outfit bore her name Jo Jo.

This was despite NHS rules saying scrubs should not be worn outside the hospital environment and that staff should not wear numerous badges.

The NHS guidance also states: 'The way staff dress is an important influence on people's overall perceptions of the standards of care they experience.'

Ms Forsythe was photographed by the X (formerly Twitter) pro-Israel activist account called Stop The Hate and identified by a second group @GnasherJew which also found video of her as part of a crowd which was singing 'Zionists are not welcome here'.

'Since the October 7 massacre, actions by some healthcare professionals and others in various sectors have fuelled discrimination against Jews,' the anonymous GnasherJew group told MailOnline in a statement.

'Over the past year, we have received numerous reports of Jewish staff and patients experiencing both direct and indirect discrimination within the NHS, affecting their ability to receive equal treatment simply because they identify as Jewish.

NHS staff publicly shouting, 'Zionists are not welcome here' on the streets of London is not a political statement – it is discrimination against the majority of Jews who identify as Zionists. This disturbing pattern is happening far too often to ignore.'


The Disgusting Lies of Haaretz
Finally, Scheindlin moves to discuss the IDF’s activity in the Northern Gaza Strip in recent weeks:

Israel is still starving, bombing and expelling the population of northern Gaza. Many suspect it is implementing the “General’s Plan,” which seeks to empty northern Gaza of Palestinians…

She also describes the proceedings in Israeli court regarding the paucity of humanitarian supplies entering northern Gaza. She writes about the call of Israeli settler leaders and coalition members to establish settlements there. The conclusion is clear: Israel is slaughtering, starving, and expelling hundreds of thousands of civilians in order to build settlements in their stead.

Meanwhile, this is the version per the IDF regarding the operation in Northern Gaza Strip (as far as Scheindlin is concerned, this is merely typical Israeli “denialism”):
The Israel Defense Forces said Sunday that troops had encircled Jabaliya amid a new ground operation targeting efforts by Hamas to reestablish itself in northern Gaza. […]

Amid the expanded operation, the IDF announced on Sunday that it was preparing to evacuate civilians from the entire north of Gaza and would increase the size of the Israeli-designated humanitarian zone in the southern Strip.

The zone, where the vast majority of the Gazan population currently reside, is where most humanitarian aid is being delivered. There are also field hospitals there.

The military also said it was opening up two evacuation routes for Palestinians — along the Salah a-Din road and the coastal road.

The evacuation order’s purpose, according to the IDF, is to minimize the damage to the Palestinian population, while fighting Hamas and preventing the terror organization from tightening its hold in the region.

Which version should we believe — the IDF’s or Dahlia Scheindlin’s?

Well, it’s easy to believe Scheindlin if we ignore the military reality on the ground and Hamas’ modus operandi. And Hamas’ reality on the ground, as explained by a recent document by the Washington Institute, is that Hamas is maintaining “shadow governance” wherever the IDF hasn’t completely cleared the terror organization’s presence:
Hamas has employed various methods to demonstrate a presence on the ground, provide essential emergency services to the people, and—most important—prevent any other potential players from stepping into its shoes.

These methods include, among others, taking over the humanitarian aid and its distribution to the population; establishment of terror command centers and ammo depots well inside the civilian population; and violently preventing civilians from going to humanitarian zones, including by shooting those who dare evacuate.

These are the conditions that Hamas created, which require evacuating the civilians, in order to fulfill two goals: to end Hamas’ rule in Gaza, and to minimize civilian casualties.

Regarding the expansion of humanitarian zones, Scheindlin writes:
The IDF says it has expanded the humanitarian zones for Gazans, but Tania Hary, executive director of Gisha, an Israeli NGO working on human rights in Gaza and the lead petitioner, rejects that term: “There is nothing actually humanitarian about the humanitarian zone … there’s not enough aid or shelter for people there, and airstrikes still take place in the zone

Again, it’s very easy to portray Israel as a monster, as long as we ignore Hamas’ existence and the ways it chooses to operate throughout Gaza, even a year after it chose to start this war. And so Scheindlin hides from her readers the systematic theft of humanitarian supplies by Hamas; Hamas officials who hide in the humanitarian zones; the firing of rockets from those zones; and the use of humanitarian zones to establish command centers, weapon workshops, ammunition storage, and bases to launch attacks against Israeli forces.

Conclusion
It’s very easy to incriminate the Jewish State and portray her in a monstrous light, when you believe any lie that her enemies tell about her, and dismiss any evidence that exonerates Israel as worthless “denialism.” That how Dahlia Scheindlin dismisses the professional assessments of military experts regarding Israel’s conduct of war; what historians say about the 1948 war; the real meaning of the al-Durrah and Al-Ahli hospital affairs; and what’s going on in the Northern Gaza Strip and the humanitarian zones.

Dahlia Scheindlin wanted to write an indictment against the Israelis’ propensity to reject and deny their crimes. But ironically, the manifest she wrote is a good example of the way Israel’s haters blame the Jewish State for anything, disregarding inconvenient facts.
Is Brandeis University being ‘Palestinized?’
Why is the Israel Studies Center at Brandeis University describing the Hamas war against Israel merely as the “suffering of Israelis and Palestinians?” Why is the center boasting that it “brings Palestinian scholars” to campus? Why is it calling the biblical heartland of Israel “the Palestinian Territories”?

These are among the many troubling questions that arise from the new catalogue issued by the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies at Brandeis University, which describes the center’s recent activities and makes an impassioned pitch to prospective donors.

Before members of the Jewish community reach for their checkbooks, they should take a long, hard look at what the Schusterman Center has been saying and doing about Israel in recent months.

The catalogue opens with an appeal from the center’s director, professor Alexander Kaye. “Since October 7, 2023,” teaching about Israel is “particularly challenging,” Kaye writes. “Witnessing the scale of trauma and suffering of Israelis and Palestinians is overwhelming … .”

That’s his entire description of Oct. 7. He doesn’t call it a Hamas terrorist attack. He doesn’t describe it as a Hamas assault. In fact, he doesn’t mention Hamas or terrorism at all. It’s just “trauma and suffering” of both “Israelis and Palestinians” alike.

There is a kind of both-sides-ism that has become almost an epidemic in the academic world and beyond. Sure, it’s technically correct to say that some Palestinian Arabs in Gaza have suffered; however, they’ve suffered as a result of Hamas’s actions, like storing its missiles in kindergartens. The suffering experienced by Israelis is just the opposite; they are victims of Arab terrorist aggression. For Kaye to say only that both “Israelis and Palestinians” have suffered, without any indication of who or what is responsible for their suffering, is outrageous.

In the next paragraph, Kaye writes about the integrity of Israel studies and the mission of the Schusterman Center. He emphasizes the importance of “guarding against those who would subordinate it to ‘us vs. them’ politics.”
Split preliminary ruling on Harvard antisemitism case
A federal lawsuit against Harvard University that alleges the school has ignored the harassment of Jewish students for more than a year is set to begin after a U.S. District Court judge on Tuesday rejected Harvard’s request for dismissal, but denied claims that the school directly discriminated against Jewish and Israeli students.

Filed in May in federal court in Boston by the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law and Jewish Americans for Fairness in Education, the lawsuit alleges that since the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks in Israel, students and faculty on campus have called for violence against Jews and celebrated Hamas’ terrorism daily as the university did nothing to stop harassment —- including a physical assault — of Jewish students. Five months earlier, the group filed a previous complaint against the university’s John F. Kennedy School of Government for violating Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

The lawsuit, which was first reported by JI, states that Harvard allowed student protesters to occupy and vandalize buildings, and interrupt classes and exams. “Professors, too, have… spread antisemitic propaganda in their classes,” according to a Brandeis Center statement in May. “Jewish students are bullied and spat on, intimidated, and threatened, and subject to verbal and physical harassment.”

In Tuesday’s decision, Judge Robert Stearns wrote that to prove deliberate indifference, plaintiffs must plead that the school “either did nothing or failed to take additional reasonable measures after it learned that its initial remedies were ineffective.”

In a statement, a university spokesperson said, “Harvard has and will continue to take concrete steps to address the root causes of antisemitism on campus and protect our Jewish and Israeli students, ensuring they may pursue their education free from harassment and discrimination. We appreciate that the Court dismissed the claim that Harvard directly discriminated or retaliated against members of our community, and we understand that the court considers it too early to make determinations on other claims. Harvard is confident that once the facts in this case are made clear, it will be evident that Harvard has taken significant steps to strengthen and clarify our policies and procedures, as well as engage our community around civil dialogue to bridge divides.”
Massachusetts teachers’ event is not about education
What do you think might be the slogan of an all-day event for teachers in Massachusetts, sponsored by some of the largest and most influential teachers’ organizations in the state and their partner organizations, shortly before a presidential election?

“More pay for teachers?”

“Protect teachers’ pensions in 2024?”

“Better teachers for better student outcomes?”

And who would you think would be their partner organizations? Maybe various parent-teacher associations or school administrators.

Well, the answer in the commonwealth is none of the above.

Instead, on Oct. 26, Massachusetts teachers were invited to “Books Not Bombs 2024,” an online program sponsored by the progressive Our Revolution Massachusetts and the anti-Israel “Massachusetts Peace Action.”

Yep, those are the real sponsors.

If you’re scratching your head, you probably don’t realize just how off-the-rails a lot of teachers’ unions in Massachusetts have gone.

“Books Not Bombs” is not a simple updating of the classic “butter vs. guns” economic principle from the 1950s in the hopes of ensuring we have sufficient resources for the proper education of Massachusetts children. Rather, it’s a political statement about foreign policy made in the service of the most fringe precincts of American politics. “Our Revolution” was founded to support socialist Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’ 2016 presidential run, and now regularly puts forward proposals calling on people to “reject AIPAC” and support a “ceasefire now” on social media.

In case anyone misses the point, one of the supporters of “Our Revolution” corrects their “Reject AIPAC” social-media post by saying what they really want is to “abolish” AIPAC and “abolish” Israel.

The MTA Rank and File for Palestine made up of members of the state’s teachers association, advertised the “Books not Bombs” event on their Instagram page. These same teachers believe Israel is “committing a Palestinian holocaust.”

None of this bothers the Massachusetts Teachers Association because they’ve been saying much the same thing for months. Last December, they sent a communication to the National Education Association urging them to tell the Biden administration to stop Israel’s “genocidal” war on Gaza. Their statement ignored the more than 100 Israeli hostages still in captivity by the avowedly genocidal terrorist organization Hamas.
Anti-Israel protests cost Amsterdam U $4.4m in damage
Anti-Israel protesters who occupied and vandalized the University of Amsterdam earlier this year caused about $4.4 million in damage, a Dutch news site reported on Wednesday.

Protesters caused the damage, initially estimated at $1.7 million, in May, according to the GeenStijl news site. The damage occurred around campus, where anti-Israel activists occupied facilities and public spaces for days.

There were also several riots at the university at around that time. One of them produced images that shocked the Jewish world, showing men wearing keffiyehs covering their faces wielding wooden planks and using them to forcefully hit Jewish students who staged a small counterprotest on campus.

The damage will come out of the 2024 budget of the University of Amsterdam, which is about €970 million ($1 billion), according to the school’s financial report. Most of the damage owe to delays in the construction of a library, according to GeenStijl. But more than $1 million in damage was caused by vandalism of university property, including to the exterior of campus buildings.


Sweden: Would-be bombers of Israeli defense firm ‘accepted a mission’
Three Swedes suspected of having planted an explosive device earlier this year at the offices of Elbit Systems Sweden, the Gothenburg-based subsidiary of Israel’s largest defense contractor, likely acted on behalf of “someone else,” prosecutors told reporters on Wednesday.

“Nothing indicates that these people knew each other from before. They seem to have accepted a mission,” Johan Udén told the Dagens Nyheter newspaper. Udén said it “is currently still unclear who the clients are.”

On June 3, Swedish police announced that an unexploded bomb was discovered outside Elbit’s Gothenburg office, noting that the Israeli defense supplier was likely the target of the attempted terrorist attack.

A day later, security forces were again called to the scene after two suspicious individuals were detected outside Elbit’s premises.

The two suspects, aged 16 and 24, were apprehended and found to be carrying an explosive charge weighing about 1 kilogram (2.2 pounds). They were subsequently charged with “aggravated unlawful threat” and “attempted destruction causing public endangerment” for placing the bombs at the scene.

The third suspect, 29, stands accused of storing the explosive devices in his home and transporting them to his two accomplices near the Elbit offices. All three suspects have denied the charges, AFP reported.

The attempted terrorist attacks targeted “the company’s security guard, representatives and employees” and aimed to cause “serious fear for their and others’ personal and property safety,” Udén said.

On Oct. 10, a suspected terrorist opened fire at the Elbit office. Nobody was wounded in the attack, police spokesman August Brandt told local media. A minor under the age of 15 was apprehended at the scene.


Iran's Currency Craters to Historic Low Following Trump's Victory
Iran’s already ailing national currency cratered after Donald Trump’s election victory, heralding tough times for Tehran’s economy as the former president prepares for another term in the White House.

The Iranian rial traded at 703,000 to 1 American dollar early Wednesday, an all-time low, before settling at 696,150 to a single dollar, according to the Associated Press. The steep drop signals fears in Iran that Trump will enter office prepared to level harsh new economic sanctions on the country—and enforce active ones—as punishment for its yearlong war on Israel.

As the Iranian rial tanked, the American stock market surged, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average jumping more than 1,300 points to 45,557 as of mid-day trading. The Nasdaq grew by more than 430 points, hitting 18,875 in the afternoon.

During his first stint as president, Trump decimated Tehran’s economy with sanctions, ushering in a "maximum pressure" campaign that the Biden-Harris administration subsequently dismantled in a bid to entice Iran into a revamped version of the 2015 nuclear accord. Under the administration, Tehran was given access to upwards of $100 billion in cash resources, helping it arm a slew of regional terror proxies that have wreaked havoc on Israel and American military positions in the Middle East.

With Trump’s second term looming over Tehran, the country will have to make tough choices about its war on Israel. Iran has already promised a crushing response to Israel’s first direct attack last month but could decide to hold fire given Trump’s track record of support for the Jewish state. In 2020, Trump greenlit the assassination of Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani.

Iran said Wednesday that it is not concerned by Trump’s election and saw both candidates as enemies.

"The election of the U.S. president has nothing to do with us. The general policies of the U.S. and Iran are constant," Iran’s foreign ministry said in a statement. "It doesn't matter who becomes the president in the United States because all the necessary planning has been made in advance."
Iran sentences 3 to death over 2020 killing of nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh
Iran on Tuesday announced it had sentenced three people to death over the 2020 assassination of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, one of the country’s top nuclear scientists whom Israel has accused of leading Tehran’s push to build an atomic bomb.

Separately, Iran’s judiciary said that Iranian-German national Jamshid Sharmahd died before his execution, which was announced by Tehran late last month. His death sentence in 2023 for “terrorist attacks” had set off a diplomatic rift between Iran and Germany.

Commenting on the death sentences related to Fakhrizadeh’s assassination, judiciary spokesman Asghar Jahangir told a Tehran press conference that the Revolutionary Court in northeast Iran’s Urmia had sentenced the three suspects to death “in the initial stage, and the case is currently in the appeal stage.”

Fakhrizadeh was killed when his car was ambushed on a highway outside the capital in November 2020, in an attack Iran blamed on Israel. Iranian authorities said the attackers used a bomb and a remote-controlled machine gun. Israel has never commented on the killing.

Jahangir told reporters, “After some investigations, three people out of eight arrested in West Azerbaijan province were accused of committing espionage for the occupying regime of Israel.”

He added that the three are also “accused of transporting equipment into Iran for the assassination of martyr Fakhrizadeh under the guise of smuggling alcoholic beverages.” Dr. Mohsen Fakhrizadeh in an undated photo. (courtesy)

In December 2022, then-judiciary spokesman Massoud Setayeshi said nine people had been charged with the capital offense of “corruption on earth” for their suspected collusion with Israel in the assassination.

Fakhrizadeh had been under US sanctions for his role in Iran’s nuclear program when he was killed. In 2018, Israel accused him of leading Iran’s efforts to develop an atomic bomb, which Iran has denied.

Meanwhile, Jahangir said that Sharmahd, the German-Iranian accused of terrorism, had “died before the execution of his death sentence.” The spokesman did not elaborate.


‘Here we go, another one’: 13-year-old Chabad boy assaulted in Crown Heights
A 13-year-old Jewish boy from Crown Heights was assaulted as he rode his bike to school in the heavily-Jewish Brooklyn neighborhood at about 8 a.m. on Monday, the victim’s mother told JNS.

“Whatever the motivation was, whether it was hate or not, this was a case where a 40-year old adult smacked a kid who looks like he is 10-years-old,” said the mother, who asked not to be named. “It’s just completely inappropriate.”

“We should be able to send our boys off to school on their bikes without worrying,” she added.

The 13-year-old rides his bike to his yeshiva daily without problems, according to his mother. On Monday, he was “suddenly slapped in the face” as he rode on the sidewalk. “He was so scared that he was going to be attacked further that he drove away as quickly as he could,” she said.

She told JNS that her family is working closely with the New York City Police Department to find the alleged assailant.

“The point of pursuing a case is making sure that this person is brought to justice to ensure that our kids can walk around our neighborhood safely,” she told JNS. “If it turns out that hate was a motivating factor in this case, then we have to facilitate good feelings between our communities.”

The NYPD told JNS that it had a report on file for an alleged assault on Monday, when “a 13-year-old male was punched in the face by an individual in front of 655 Parkside Avenue causing pain and swelling.”

“The victim refused medical attention,” the NYPD stated. “There are no arrests and the investigation remains ongoing.”
‘Something we can fix,’ store manager says, after windows of LA Jewish businesses smashed
Israel Gabay was in the middle of praying when he received a text informing him that someone had smashed a window at Mezuzah Gallery, where he is the store manager, and stolen some jewelry.

“In the beginning, I didn’t think so much about if it’s a hate crime,” Gabay told JNS.

Then he learned that glass windows had been smashed at other shops in the heavily-Jewish neighborhood of Pico-Robertson. “The majority of them were Jewish stores,” he told JNS.

Multiple business owners, who asked not to be named, told JNS that someone used a golf club to break windows in the Jewish Los Angeles neighborhood between 4:30 and 5:30 a.m.

“At this time, LAPD is still investigating this morning’s spate of vandalism in the Pico-Roberston area. So far, we know of several businesses impacted, many of which are Jewish-owned,” Jeffrey Abrams, the Los Angeles regional director of the Anti-Defamation League told JNS. “We do not have an exact figure at this time.”

“The nature of the vandalism was primarily shattered windows,” Abrams added. “LAPD did have a presence in the neighborhood this morning and ADL, a key member of the local Jewish Security Alliance, will keep the community informed as we learn more.”

Photos and videos that circulated on social media suggested that Got Kosher Bakery, Glatt Mart, Bargain Oakhurst Pharmacy and Elat Market were also vandalized.

Abrams told JNS that he hopes those involved “will be brought to justice” and it is necessary to determine if the crimes were motivated by hate.

“Hate crimes are message crimes and intend to cause fear in the communities they target,” the ADL leader said. “Similarly, strong sentencing for hate crimes sends the message that antisemitism and bigotry of all kinds will not be tolerated in our city.”




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