Thursday, January 23, 2025

01/23 Links Pt2: EU Funds NGO Promoting Antisemitic Imagery; Groups with ‘direct’ terror ties planned anti-Israel protests at Columbia; Nova massacre survivor to represent Israel in 2025 Eurovision

From Ian:

NGO Monitor: EU Funds NGO Promoting Antisemitic Imagery and Theology
According to the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) database, in December 2024-October 2028, the European Commission will provide Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center with €1 million for a project entitled “Faithful Futures: Religious Leaders for Accountability, Justice and Peace through the Two-State Solution.” As described in the database, the project, apparently funded through the EU Peacebuilding Initiative instrument (approved under the previous Commission), “seeks to preserve from further erosion and possibly reverse the negative public perception of the prospect for peace and a two-state solution.”

Yet, in blatant contrast to the project’s goal and EU policy, Sabeel states that its “ideal and best solution” is “a bi-national state in Palestine-Israel,” “one state for two nations and three religions” (emphasis added). Sabeel, through its “liberation theology” agenda (see section below), demonizes the existence of Israel and promotes antisemitic tropes. As such, Sabeel should be disqualified as a recipient of and a partner in any government-funded peace or development project.

Sabeel
Sabeel is a Jerusalem-based NGO, presenting itself as an “ecumenical grassroots liberation theology movement among Palestinian Christians” that “encourages Christians from around the world to work for justice and to stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people.”

Applying “liberation theology,” Sabeel casts Palestinians as the modern-day version of Jesus, blaming the State of Israel and Zionism for their “suffering”. The NGO regularly publishes imagery that violates provisions of the IHRA Working definition of antisemitism, endorsed and used by the European Union, thus also violating EU funding guidelines.1 In particular, Sabeel’s rhetoric conforms to the Working Definition’s examples of contemporary antisemitism is public life, such as:
Using the “symbols and images associated with classic antisemitism (e.g., claims of Jews killing Jesus or blood libel) to characterize Israel or Israelis.”
“denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor”
“holding Jews collectively responsible for actions of the state of Israel.”

For example:
In April 2024, Sabeel referred to the “Gaza crucifixion.”
In April 2024, Sabeel published a prayer: “Crucified Messiah, we behold how you were tortured, mocked, beaten, stripped, and killed on the cross. Your cry ‘My God my God why I have you forsaken me’ (Matthew 27:46) is an exclamation we are saying for more than 75 years , and now more than ever” (emphasis added). The reference to “75 years” makes clear that Israel’s very existence is illegitimate, causing inherent suffering to Palestinians – who are equated to Jesus.
In April 2024, Sabeel published a statement marking the Jewish holiday Passover, stating that “no one [Jews around the world] can celebrate the essence of Passover if they are enslaving others and promoting supremacy.”
In December 2023, Sabeel published a statement: “While the world is celebrating the Christmas season by decorating trees and holding Christmas parties, in Palestine, we are commemorating Christmas by foregoing the usual celebrations, waiting for God to deliver us from 75 years of settler colonial violence. Indeed, we are living out the reality of the Christmas story” (emphasis added). The imagery attached to the statement shows Jesus as a baby wrapped with a Palestinian keffiyeh and Santa Claus looking for kids in the ruins of a building in Gaza.
In 2017 and 2021, marking the Balfour declaration, Sabeel published posts with imagery portraying Jesus and a man tearing apart the Balfour Declaration, a way to undermine the legitimacy of Zionism and the existence of the State of Israel. According to Sabeel, the declaration started the “process that led to our dispossession.”
Nearly 60 Years Ago, a Polish Journalist Wrote a Familiar-Sounding Attack on Anti-Zionism
In 1967, following Israel’s sudden victory over the Soviet-backed Syrian and Egyptian armies, the Kremlin started encouraging anti-Zionist rhetoric often barely distinguishable from anti-Semitism. For Poland, the events came at a time of upheaval: there was a student movement increasingly unhappy with one-party rule and a head of state eager to maintain his position amid the reshuffling following Leonid Brezhnev’s consolidation of power in Moscow. When the Polish party began encouraging anti-Jewish propaganda, it unleashed a tidal wave of repressed anti-Semitism that culminated in the expulsion of the vast majority of the country’s Jews in 1968.

Philip Earl Steele surfaces a September 1967 document composed by Wiesław Górnicki, a Polish journalist recently returned to his country from several years covering the United Nations in New York City. Steele provides a partial translation of Górnicki’s formal statement to the Polish press bureau:

Even before the outbreak of the Near East crisis, I had begun to notice aspects of our policy with which I could not come to terms. Let me mention, for example, our visa policy, which . . . in its most vulgar form, often amounts to a general ban on entry visas for foreign citizens of Jewish origin. I was also concerned about specific aspects of our personnel policy and the growing trend in the party that at times is difficult to distinguish from open anti-Semitism.

It is my opinion that the concept of Zionism has of late been arbitrarily misused in our party. One cannot equate every hint of sympathy for Israel, or rather for Israelis, with Zionism. The tragic history of European Jews, the forging of new national traits, the resilience of Israelis in the development of a poor and inhospitable land—this must inevitably elicit favorable reactions in various people, regardless of national origin.

Górnicki also calls attention to now very familiar combinations of Holocaust inversion and misinformation:

I have in mind . . . the frequent use of a purported quote from an Israeli radio station, where the actions of the Israeli air force were allegedly compared to those of the Luftwaffe over Poland. The quote is a forgery. . . . I also have in mind . . . the public speech of Comrade [Kazimierz] Rusinek [then the deputy minister of culture], who stated that Nazi war criminals are advisors to the Israeli government—while the second bloodiest executioner of Warsaw, . . . SS Obersturmführer Oskar Dirlewanger, is head of government security in Cairo.
When Germany’s Foremost Liberal Scholar Turned against the Jews
Almost a century before Górnicki wrote his memorandum, a similar dispute was going on in a neighboring country. In The Berlin Anti-Semitism Controversy, Frederick Beiser examines attacks on Jews in highbrow German publications of the 1870s and 1880s, which paralleled more vulgar efforts to harness prejudice by pamphleteers and agitators. Allan Arkush writes in his review:

The key figure was Heinrich von Treitschke, who was a leading nationalist historian, editor of the important Historische Zeitschrift, and a prominent legislator. He was widely known as “the herald of the Reich,” of a unified Germany, and he had had nothing to do with the anti-Semitic movement during the years that it began to take shape. But in November 1879, he published an article surveying current events that concluded with a few pages on the recent rise of anti-Semitism.

Treitschke deplored the “dirt and brutality” in anti-Semitic activities. But he quickly acknowledged that the stir they were creating showed that “the instinct of the masses has in fact correctly recognized a grave danger, a very considerable fault of the new German life.”

How could a lifelong liberal veer so far in such an illiberal direction?

Beiser sizes up Treitschke’s outlook objectively, not sympathetically, but it is still startling to see how he takes for granted the basic accuracy of the German historian’s depiction of all too many of his Jewish fellow citizens in 1879 as members of a culturally alien nation within a nation.


Ayaan Hirsi Ali: How America’s DEI Bureaucracy Empowers Islamists: Part One
The lesson for the U.S. here is that liaising with self-appointed “community leaders” will only empower subversive Islamists. The Department of Justice already does this: instructing its Community Relations Service to focus on “engaging and building relationships with historically marginalized groups, including the Muslim, Sikh, and transgender communities.” In classifying Islam as a “marginalized” identity, America’s government departments are primed to treat all Muslims, and Islamist terror, with politically correct sensitivity. In its document on “Engaging and Building Partnerships with Muslim Americans”, the mantra “Our nation is enriched by its diversity” is repeated — meaning the prospect of challenging the ideas of Islam is off the table, lest you weaken the social fabric of the United States. This includes prioritising “addressing 9/11 backlash discrimination issues against Arab-Americans, Muslims, Sikhs and South Asian-Americans.”

In classifying Islam as a “marginalized” identity, America’s government departments are primed to treat all Muslims, and Islamist terror, with politically correct sensitivity. In its document on “Engaging and Building Partnerships with Muslim Americans”, the mantra “Our nation is enriched by its diversity” is repeated — meaning the prospect of challenging the ideas of Islam is off the table, lest you weaken the social fabric of the United States.

The FBI has dedicated resources to “innovative grassroots programs in each of its 56 field offices to meet the needs of Arab-Americans, Muslims, Sikhs, South Asian-Americans, and other communities within their domains.” Its budget request for 2025 is $29.1 million — a $4.1 million increase from 2024. More resources are being spent on ensuring Muslims in the United States are not offended by the monitoring of Islamist extremism than on actually stopping it.

In doing so, the CRS consults groups such as the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) and the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) in its Protecting Places of Worship (PPOW) forums. MPAC has been a historical target for subversion by Hamas-sympathisers the Palestine Committee, seeking “an entry point to use them to pressure Congress and the decision-makers in America.” In 2024, MPAC compared criticism of pro-Palestine protests on Qatar-funded U.S. university campuses to “a wave of anti-communist hysteria, otherwise known as the ‘red scare.’” Qatar has long harboured heads of Hamas, despite its attempts to play diplomat between the U.S., the Arab world, and Islamist groups in Afghanistan and Gaza. Only recently has Hamas’ political bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh, Mousa Abu Marzook, and “dear guest” Khaled Mashal reportedly fled Doha for Algeria, Lebanon, and Iran — foreshadowing the Trump Administration brokering a return of Israeli hostages from Hamas, and resolution to the war. Their influence on American universities is not the stuff of swivel-eyed conspiracy theories, but a sober matter of fact and a national security risk. For the CRS to put MPAC on a pedestal when it pushes such propaganda puts Americans in danger.

A Pew Research report found the Muslim Brotherhood were also involved in founding ISNA, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), and the Muslim American Society (MAS). The Palestine Committee proposed using “the network of Islamic schools” run by ISNA to disseminate propaganda which would make Muslim Americans sympathetic toward Hamas. CAIR was founded in Washington DC a few months after the Committee met in Philadelphia. CAIR founder, Omar Ahmed endorsed “infiltrating the American media outlets, universities and research centers… [and] working with Islamic political organizations and the sympathetic ones”. Nihad Awad, CAIR’s executive director, met with members of the Muslim Brotherhood as recently as 2022, and, in 2024, eulogized Sheikh Abdul-Majid al-Zindani, an Al-Qaeda recruiter. Just like in the UK, Islamists use respectable-sounding Muslim activist organizations to launder radical ideas, pose as “community leaders”, and convince government departments to focus less on the threat posed by Jihadists. As Zeyno Baran wrote for The Hudson Institute, “Through engagement, the U.S. government effectively legitimizes the Islamists’ self-appointed status as representatives of Muslim community.”
Ayaan Hirsi Ali: How America’s DEI Bureaucracy Empowers Islamists: Part Two
One reason for Israel to worry about Turkey is that President Erdoğan’s party, the AKP, is his country’s arm of the Muslim Brotherhood, much as Hamas is the Palestinian counterpart. The original Islamist movement, this loose network of national organizations tends not to be as violent as al-Qaeda or Islamic State, but is dangerous nonetheless. In a two-part essay, Ayaan Hirsi Ali examines how the Brotherhood has made inroads in the U.S. (and even more so in Britain), and how its institutions gain the respect and recognition of government agencies blinkered by political correctness and eager to maintain good relations with Muslim citizens.

The lesson for the U.S. . . . is that liaising with self-appointed “community leaders” will only empower subversive Islamists. The Department of Justice already does this: instructing its Community Relations Service (CRS) to focus on “engaging and building relationships with historically marginalized groups, including the Muslim, Sikh, and transgender communities.” . . . In doing so, the CRS consults groups such as the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) and the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) in its Protecting Places of Worship (PPOW) forums. MPAC has been a historical target for subversion by the Hamas-sympathizing Palestine Committee, seeking “an entry point to use them to pressure Congress and the decision-makers in America.”

A Pew Research report found the Muslim Brotherhood was also involved in founding ISNA, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), and the Muslim American Society (MAS). The Palestine Committee proposed using “the network of Islamic schools” run by ISNA to disseminate propaganda which would make Muslim Americans sympathetic toward Hamas.

The first priority for the Trump administration to disarm the terror threat posed by Islamists is to ban the Muslim Brotherhood, and any affiliated organization, from operating in America. Its designation as a terrorist group is long overdue. This should have been done in 2004, when Khaled Sheikh Mohammed admitted that he had masterminded 9/11 after attending the Brotherhood’s training camps.
MSNBC’s Al Sharpton Uses Network To Launch Boycott of Companies That Cut DEI Programs
MSNBC host Al Sharpton announced plans on the liberal network Monday to boycott corporations that have ditched diversity, equity, and inclusion policies, marking yet another conflict of interest for the activist and liberal network.

Sharpton told MSNBC colleague Joy Reid he will select "two or three companies" that his National Action Network will boycott to show that "Donald Trump can’t make us spend money for companies that will not deal and commit and continue with diversity and equity and inclusion."

"What we said today is that these companies that are now saying they’re going to back up off of diversity and equity and inclusion, should therefore not have a diverse consumer base," said Sharpton, who hosts MSNBC’s weekend show PoliticsNation.

The campaign comes as Sharpton and MSNBC face scrutiny over a series of Washington Free Beacon reports that the Kamala Harris campaign gave $500,000 to Sharpton’s National Action Network—which paid him $650,000 in 2023—just before the anchor-activist interviewed the Democratic presidential candidate on MSNBC in October. The Society of Professional Journalists, considered the gold standard of media ethics, called the conflict of interest a "black eye" that "harms the credibility of the journalist, the news organization, and journalism overall." President Donald Trump recently said the arrangement was "totally against the law."

Major corporations like McDonald’s, Walmart, and Meta have ditched DEI policies in the wake of Trump’s election, part of a broad backlash against "woke" corporate policies that emerged during the height of the Black Lives Matter movement.

Sharpton, who said he will announce boycott targets within 90 days, has long been accused of weaponizing National Action Network to threaten companies into making donations to the nonprofit, or making other concessions.
As the Los Angeles Fires Rage, the California National Guard’s Top Wildfire Response Expert Says the Newsom Administration Fired Him Because He’s Jewish
Long-running accusations of anti-Semitism that for years dogged California’s troubled National Guard resurfaced at a crucial time for the force that is currently battling historic Los Angeles wildfires. A fired commander with extensive firefighting experience has filed a lawsuit alleging he’s now on the sidelines because he’s Jewish.

Brigadier General Jeffrey Magram is suing the state of California, Governor Gavin Newsom (D.), and Adjutant General Matthew Beevers, a Newsom appointee who was previously accused of referring to his Jewish subordinates as "kike lawyers." Magram claims his dismissal was driven by anti-Semitic animus.

The California National Guard is the largest such force in the country, and 2,500 guard members (including some reinforcements from Nevada and Wyoming) are now battling the wildfires from the air and the ground, as well as helping with public safety. But the "scandal plagued" guard, as the Los Angeles Times calls it, has been bogged down by unseemly allegations of impropriety, including the coverup of an incident in which someone urinated in a guardswoman’s boot, indecent exposure at a restaurant, retaliation against whistleblowers, and the use of spy planes and fighter jets to monitor and intimidate protesters.

Magram’s ouster just over two years ago came after an inquiry found he used military personnel for personal tasks, among other infractions that the inquiry claimed compromised his leadership. He was one of five generals who were fired or retired under pressure amid ballooning scandals at the guard in the last few years. But in his lawsuit, Magram—who was not implicated in the more lurid scandals that dogged the guard—argues he was targeted in a smear campaign that overlooked a sterling record because he is Jewish.

Magram claims that Beevers, who orchestrated his firing, was retaliating against him for defending a fellow Jew from Beevers’s anti-Semitic rants. Beevers discriminated against Magram, his lawsuit alleges, because of "Magram’s Jewish heritage" and his "complaints about Beevers’ anti-Semitic discrimination and harassment."

"Beevers never considered any of the significant contributions I made to the Air National Guard, the Military Department, and to California’s public safety," Magram told the Washington Free Beacon. "I believe he saw me as another ‘kike,’ and I should not be part of running the department. His actions certainly show that."
Netherlands Restricts F-35 Parts to Israel, but Buys Israeli Weapons Systems
The Dutch Defense Ministry has chosen Israeli company Elbit Systems to supply it with electronic warfare and self-protection suites to defend against anti-aircraft missiles in a deal worth $175 million.

The deal was closed even though a Dutch court has been restricting the supply of spare parts for Israel Air Force F-35 jets since February 2024.
Sa’ar thanks Hungary for opposing ‘politicized, corrupt’ ICC warrants
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar thanked Hungary for its stance against the “politicized and corrupt” International Criminal Court on Thursday, speaking during a diplomatic visit to Budapest.

“We are grateful for your stance alongside Israel against the ICC’s arrest warrants and for inviting Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu to Hungary,” Jerusalem’s top diplomat told reporters, speaking at a press conference with Péter Szijjártó, Hungary’s minister for foreign affairs.

Sa’ar said that the ICC has “severely undermined its own credibility.”

“The International Criminal Court is politicized and corrupt. Its actions cause significant damage to international law. It is unprecedented for the ICC to act against a democratic country fighting terrorism, operating in accordance with international law and the rule of law,” he said.

Sa’ar noted that under the leadership of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, Hungary has become “a close friend and an important ally of Israel.”

The cooperation is “an alliance between two proud, sovereign, free and independent nations,” Sa’ar said. He added, “I appreciate the significant support of the Hungarian government on the international stage, especially in the European Union and the United Nations.”

According to Jerusalem’s readout of the private meeting between Sa’ar and Szijjártó, the two men also discussed Israel’s ongoing operations against terrorist organizations in Lebanon, Yemen, Syria and the Gaza Strip.

The diplomats were said to have spoken about the plight of Israeli-Hungarian hostage Omri Miran, who was taken by Hamas during the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre and is expected to be released in the second phase of the ceasefire agreement with the Palestinian terrorist group.
American Voters Broadly Support ICC Sanctions Under Senate Consideration, Poll Finds
A majority of American voters support congressional efforts to sanction the International Criminal Court, a new poll shows.

The poll, which conservative firm GrayHouse conducted last week, surveyed 800 registered voters. When asked if they would back congressional efforts to protect "American soldiers from potential International Criminal Court (ICC) investigations by imposing sanctions," 55 percent of respondents expressed support for the move, with 42 percent expressing strong support. Just 28 percent said they opposed such sanctions.



A plurality of voters also backed ICC sanctions leveled "in order to protect Israel from what some see as unfair ICC investigations." In that case, 46 percent of respondents expressed support for the sanctions, compared with 35 percent who expressed opposition.



The findings come as Congress eyes a vote to impose wide-ranging sanctions on the ICC and its top prosecutor, Karim Khan. The House overwhelmingly passed an ICC sanctions bill after reconvening earlier this month, establishing it as a top policy priority for the GOP-controlled body. The measure is now working its way through the Senate, where it has staunch Republican support but could fall short of the 60-vote threshold needed to pass.

Broad support from the American public could help sway undecided Democratic senators to back the legislation, even though their liberal base largely opposes the effort. Around 40 percent of the Democratic voters polled said they "strongly oppose" sanctions on the ICC, though 48 percent of registered Independents said otherwise, according to the poll.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, in remarks delivered during his Senate confirmation hearing, said the ICC’s aggressive prosecution of Israel spells trouble for the United States, even though neither country is a member of the court or recognizes its jurisdiction.

"The ICC has done tremendous damage to its global credibility," Rubio said. "This is a test run. This is a trial run to see, can we go after a head of state from a nation that’s not a member. If we can go after them and get it done with regards to Israel, they will apply that to the United States at some point."


‘Very serious allegation,’ UN says of reports hostages held at its sites in Gaza
Reports that freed Israeli hostages had been held in U.N. shelters in the Gaza Strip amount to “a very serious allegation,” Farhan Haq, deputy spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, told JNS on Wednesday.

“We call on those who have information on this to share it formally with UNRWA or other parts of the United Nations so that we can investigate it further,” Haq told JNS at the global body’s press conference in New York.

Romi Gonen, Emily Damari and Doron Steinbrecher, who were released on Sunday, said Hamas had held them in U.N. camps that the global body created during the war to protect Gazan civilians and to provide them with food and water.

It wasn’t clear from public records and reporting in which camps they were held, when and for how long. Israeli intelligence, taken from captured Hamas terrorists, assessed that several Israeli hostages were held at the Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, Fox News reported.

The United Nations and other global groups have criticized the Israeli military extensively for conducting military operations in and around shelters, U.N. camps and Gazan hospitals. The Israel Defense Forces has said that Hamas has a documented history of using such facilities for terror operations. Hamas is known to be embedded in civilian and humanitarian areas.

“As you know, any time we’ve received information on the misuse of facilities, we followed up with investigations,” Haq told JNS at the briefing. “It is unclear at this stage whether the shelters were among those that had been abandoned during the fighting, so we’d need further knowledge about that and other aspects of what happened.”


Groups with ‘direct’ terror ties planned anti-Israel protests at Columbia, per Canary Mission report
Anti-Israel and antisemitic protests at Columbia University last academic year were planned “by groups with direct links to terror organizations and supported by those organizations,” according to a new Canary Mission report.

“Despite efforts to depict it as such, the encampment was not the product of naive, anti-war college kids,” according to the report, which runs more than 50 pages. “It was planned by groups with direct links to terror organizations and supported by those organizations.”

“We hope this report will serve as a wake-up call to university administrators, Congress and the American public regarding the ‘education’ that is happening today on college campuses across the nation,” the group said.

The report features 321 profiles of students, professors and external actors, whom Canary Mission identified as engaging in antisemitic activities on the Ivy League campus. It also includes a comprehensive analysis of the ways the school became a “gateway hub for Hamas’s activism in the United States.”

Columbia’s Students for Justice in Palestine chapter viewed its New York City campus “as the ideal place to launch its nationwide strategy in support of Hamas’s terror campaign,” per the report.

Instead of quelling the unrest, pockets of the school’s administration supported SJP, including “the Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine, as well as the university’s senate, Middle East Institute and Center for Palestine Studies, among numerous other departments,” according to the report.

“Less than six months after Columbia’s leaders had promised Congress that the university would not tolerate antisemitism and would ensure a safe learning environment, the university had lifted discipline for its most extreme offenders and its president had apologized to them,” the report states.


Senate bill would require schools to help students file Title VI complaints, including about Jew-hatred
College students attacked or harassed due to their religion would find it easier to file complaints with the U.S. Education Department’s Office of Civil Rights under legislation reintroduced this week.

The Protecting Students on Campus Act—introduced by Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, and John Fetterman (D-Pa.)—requires colleges and universities to tell students how to file Title VI discrimination complaints, under the 1964 Civil Rights Act, with the department.

That information would have to be posted on the school’s home page and include a link to the civil-rights office’s site, where complaints could be filed.

The bill also would require colleges and universities receiving federal funds to report the number of complaints they received and what they did in response.

“The threats and attacks against Jewish students since Oct. 7 are despicable,” Cassidy stated. “No one should fear for their safety at school because of who they are.”

The measure initially was introduced in January 2024, weeks after Hamas’s Oct. 7 terror attack in southern Israel. Jew-hatred has surged globally, including on college campuses, where many anti-Israel protesters have chanted “from the river to the sea.”

The Anti-Defamation League called the expression antisemitic and said it advocated “the removal of Jews from their ancestral homeland.”
Kassy Akiva: Dems Block Jewish Leader From George Mason Board After Student Arrested For Anti-Israel Terrorism
Virginia Senate Democrats are attempting to block the nomination of a prominent advocate against anti-Semitism from joining George Mason University’s Board of Visitors, weeks after a George Mason student was arrested for helping plot a terror attack on Israel’s consulate in New York.

Kenneth Marcus, described by The New York Times as “The Man Who Helped Redefine Campus Anti-Semitism,” was appointed by Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin in June. However, the Virginia Senate Democrats voted this week to reject his appointment in the Privileges and Elections Committee.

Marcus is the founder and leader of the Brandeis Center, a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting civil and human rights for Jewish people. He previously served as the Assistant U.S. Secretary of Education for Civil Rights in the first Trump administration and was a Distinguished Senior Fellow at George Mason’s Antonin Scalia Law School.

Marcus, who has been serving in the position since his nomination last summer — Virginia law allows nominees to serve prior to confirmation — was blindsided by the amendment that struck his name from the resolution of appointments.

“I was surprised and dismayed to learn of yesterday’s action and I am hopeful that the general assembly leadership in both chambers will reconsider,” Marcus said. “I have been at work trying to strengthen George Mason University for months now.”

Virginia’s legislature still has opportunities to add Marcus’s nomination back into the resolution, though sources say it could be an uphill battle.

During the brief debate, Sen. Aaron Rouse (D) noted that out of respect, appointees could not be referred to by name in the discussion. In response, Sen. Bill DeSteph (R) followed the guidelines of not using names, but questioned why certain nominees were being removed, stating, “I think members of the committee should know why certain nominees are stricken. Otherwise, if we infer the reason, it could go in the wrong direction.”


Rhode Island School of Design Rejects BDS
The Rhode Island School of Design, which shares the College Hill section of Providence, Rhode Island, with Brown University, has rejected a proposal to adopt the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel, dealing a major tactical defeat to the anti-Zionist movement in higher education.

Divestment from Israel was an idea put forth by Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), a terror-affiliated network of organizations operating on college campuses across the US, during fall semester, according to a statement issued by the college. RISD administrators agreed to consider it and forwarded the question to two committees and the Board of Trustees, which determined on Jan. 9 that nothing happening in Israel and the Palestinian territories falls within parameters laid out in the college’s “Statement on Divestment.”

Issued in 2015, the Statement on Divestment permits the college’s investment decisions to be influenced by politics — or, in the college’s own words, “political and social considerations” — “in rare circumstances … when a proposed investment or divestment implicates an issue of importance to RISD as an institution and to its constituents as a whole.” Students for Justice in Palestine’s divestment proposal, the Board of Trustees ruled, “did not meet the criteria” stipulated in the statement and had to be rejected.

In explaining their decision, RISD’s trustees stressed the college’s mission “to educate its students and the public in the creation and appreciation of works of art and design, to discover and transmit knowledge, and to make lasting contributions to a global society through critical thinking, scholarship, and innovation.”

They continued, “The decision is also informed by our obligation to consider all constituencies, our fiduciary duty as Trustees, and our commitment to preserve the future long-term sustainability of the institution.”

Speaking to The Brown Daily Herald on Tuesday, RISD student and SJP member Jo Ouyang denounced the college’s decision, saying that it “came across like a slap in the face” and implying that the board of trustees acted from insidious motives such as “absolving themselves from their complicity in the genocide in Palestine.”

The Rhode Island School of Design is not the first higher education institution to refuse demands for BDS. Trinity College, for example, did so in November, citing its “fiduciary responsibilities,” as did Chapman University, the University of Minnesota, Oberlin College, Brown University, and Williams College throughout 2024.
Columbia Hires Trump Transition Alum To Lobby on 'Appropriations' Amid Threats To Tax $15 Billion Endowment
Columbia University has enlisted a Trump transition alumnus to lobby for the institution on "issues related to higher education and appropriation" as Republicans threaten to tax the Ivy League institution's $15 billion endowment.

Columbia tapped BGR Government Affairs to "provide strategic counsel and advocate on issues related to higher education and appropriations," according to lobbying disclosures filed with Congress.

The hiring comes as Columbia continues to deal with rampant campus anti-Semitism. On Wednesday, for example, the school posted a security guard outside at least one of its Jewish studies courses a day after pro-Hamas students stormed an Israeli history class and targeted Jewish students with anti-Semitic flyers.

Dan Murphy, who will lobby on behalf of Columbia, worked on President Donald Trump’s first transition team and was chief of staff to former Housing and Urban Development secretary Mel Martinez.

Columbia is not the only one scrambling to avoid Trump’s wrath as he lays waste to DEI programs and targets Hamas supporters on elite college campuses. On Tuesday, Trump issued an executive order requiring all government agencies and federally funded universities to terminate all race- or gender-based diversity programs. He ordered the agencies to identify up to nine organizations, including universities, with endowments of over $1 billion with diversity policies that violate civil rights laws.

Earlier this month, Harvard University made a similar move, hiring the MAGA-linked lobbying firm Ballard Partners to lobby on "education and educational research." The firm’s founder, Brian Ballard, will lobby on Harvard's behalf. He has close ties to Trump chief of staff Susie Wiles and Trump attorney general nominee Pam Bondi, both of whom served as partners at Ballard.


'Then masked men walked into my class at Columbia University'
It happened on the very first day I started teaching a course at Columbia University called "History of Modern Israel." A little excited as usual in the first class, I went over with the students the content of the classes they would be expected to take during the semester. I explained that the goal is to enrich and deepen their knowledge, and also to make them challenge their perceptions. So, for example, when it comes to classes dealing with the conflict, I said that we would study the two conflicting narratives about what happened in 1948: the Israeli angle that emphasizes the War of Independence after the Palestinians opposed the partition proposal and Arab armies invaded the country, and the Palestinian angle that emphasizes the Nakba as a result of the war.

I hadn’t even finished speaking when several masked men burst into the classroom, shouting indistinctly and holding posters showing pictures from Gaza, shouting about genocide. Since I had arrived in New York just a few days before the course began, and I was convinced that the protests from last year had already subsided, the moment I saw the masked men my first instinct was to think they were terrorists. After a second, I regained my composure and stood up toward them. I looked at the students in the classroom: they all continued to sit, perhaps frightened, perhaps disturbed. Some of them took out their cell phones and began to take silent photos.

First and foremost, I felt a responsibility toward them. I couldn’t tell if they were scared and how much. For my part, I mainly tried to calm the commotion; I suggested that the rioters give up their shouting and join the class, learn and express their opinions. They, of course, did not answer, and continued to shout and take pictures of themselves, proudly proclaiming their activity, while quoting something I had once written - I did not understand exactly what, and noting that a professor from Israel had come to teach Zionism.

When they started throwing the posters at the students, I realized that I should be less polite. Unfortunately, I am not fluent in Arabic, but I do know a few sentences. When I told them to leave the classroom in Arabic, it turned out, of course, that they did not understand the language, just as they, most likely, did not understand the complexity of the conflict. After they agreed to leave and the class ended, the photos taken by the students had already been distributed on social networks. When I left the classroom to digest what had happened, I came across a demonstration outside the campus, where the demonstrators promised that the end of Israel was closer than ever.
Columbia Posts Security Guards Outside Jewish and Israel-Related Courses
Columbia University is posting security guards outside of Jewish studies courses a day after pro-Hamas students stormed an Israeli history class and targeted Jewish students with anti-Semitic flyers.

"We have mobilized the Public Safety team to prevent future incidents, including identifying and directing additional resources to classes at increased risk for disruption," Columbia announced Wednesday. A security guard was already placed outside at least one class, "Zionist Thought," which is offered through the Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies, according to a Jewish student group.

On Tuesday, the first day of the spring semester, four keffiyeh-clad student activists marched into an Israeli history class and filmed themselves as they passed out anti-Semitic propaganda to Jewish students. The flyers glorified Hamas, depicted the Star of David being crushed, and promised violence.

"THE ENEMY WILL NOT SEE TOMORROW," read one flyer, which included an upside-down triangle—a symbol that Hamas uses to denote Israeli targets—to spell "TOMORROW." The flyer showed a truck full of Hamas terrorists brandishing RPGs and machine guns.

Another flyer, with the caption "CRUSH ZIONISM," depicted the Star of David underneath a boot. A third included an Israeli flag in flames with the threat to "BURN ZIONISM TO THE GROUND."

The Democratic National Convention took similar measures during the August event in Chicago. Jewish attendees were forced to meet in "secret locations" due to security threats and were required to register for panel discussions before receiving the location.

Columbia’s interim president, Katrina Armstrong, condemned Tuesday’s disruption. She said the university would "move quickly to investigate and address this act."


Letter to the Editor: Faculty denounce class disruption and hate speech at recent protest
Over the last year and a half, many of us have publicly defended free speech and the right to protest as essential components of democratic societies and as rights that all students should be able to exercise without fear. We uphold the principles that anti-Zionism should not be equated with antisemitism and that no state should be immune from criticism.

However, we cannot defend yesterday’s disruption by a handful of protesters during professor Avraham Shilon’s “History of Modern Israel” class. Demonstrators entered the classroom unannounced and distributed flyers featuring hateful, violent rhetoric and imagery—including a storm trooper boot crushing a Star of David, a visual derived from the disgraceful annals of antisemitic propaganda. According to a video posted to X, the protesters refused to engage when Professor Shilon invited them to discuss their concerns, and continued to film both Professor Shilon and his students after multiple requests that they stop. Such interference with a class engaged critically in the analytical study of Israel is indefensible and antithetical to the cause of Palestinian liberation and to the pursuit of learning.

We know that yesterday’s unacceptable actions do not represent the vast majority of pro-Palestinian activists at Columbia, and we do not mean to discredit the movement at large; we do, emphatically, repudiate actions that impede academic freedom and that propagate antisemitic material.


Abu Obeida's theological points show glimpse into Hamas's way of thinking
However, it appears that, in Hamas’s theology, Hamas are not merely the Romans or the Babylonians who come to punish the Jews – but can rather also be the Israelites themselves. The logo chosen for the ‘Al-Aqsa Deluge’ also showcases, in addition to a Qassam militant holding a Quran, a flag of the Shahada (bearing witness of Allah’s oneness) and an M16 rifle, a verse from the Quran (5:23) stylized in the shape of the Dome of the Rock, which reads: "Enter upon them through the gate, and when you enter it, you will be the victors."

This Quranic verse chosen to describe in a chilling way the plan to infiltrate the gates of the kibbutzim and the posts on October 7th, is brought in its original context as part of the Quranic version of the Biblical affair of the Twelve Spies: Moses calls the Israelites to enter the land that Allah has promised them, but they hesitate out of fear of the giants that roam the land: "We will never enter it until they (the giants) have gone out from it." Here, two God-fearing and nameless men – Joshua and Caleb in the Biblical version – tell them this exact quote: "Enter them at the gate!"

In other words, Hamas has chosen to invoke the verse that calls the Israelites to enter at the gate and defeat the giants who roam and occupy the promised land – as a method of branding their own actions. Here it is almost clear that, as far as they are concerned, Hamas are the true Israelites, and the Jews in the State of Israel are the giants and sinners.

This notion of supersession, consistent with Islamic texts accusing Jews (and Christians) of distorting the Holy Scriptures and the true religion of Allah, should be taken into account when dealing with Hamas’s ideology.

As the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas’s Islamist approach, promoted by governments in Qatar and Türkiye, also features many instances of antisemitism, from a direct reference to the Protocols of the Elders of Zion in their founding charter – to leaders prophesying a cosmic massacre against the Jews in the End of Days led by faithful men of faith. Rather than laic, terms such as ‘nationalism’ or ‘anti-imperialism,’ often imposed on other ideologies out of a narrow Eurocentric prism, any analysis, research or decision making which involves Hamas must take into account supersessionism, messianism and antisemitism, all part and parcel of the ideological incentives driving them and their followers.


Senior House Republican urges leaders to prioritize maximum-pressure sanctions on Iran

Iraqi FM says Israeli researcher held hostage is alive, efforts ongoing to free her
Elizabeth Tsurkov, a Russian-Israeli researcher who is believed to have been kidnapped in Iraq by a local terror group nearly two years ago, is alive, and Iraqi Prime Minister Muhammed Shia al-Sudani is working for her release, Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein told journalist Barak Ravid on Thursday.

“Iraqi foreign minister Fuad Hussein told me in Davos that Princeton researcher Elizabeth Tsurkov who has been held hostage by an Iraqi militia is alive and stressed Prime Minister Sudani is working for her release,” Ravid, who writes for the US Axios site and Israel’s Walla, posted on X.

Tsurkov, a 38-year-old student at Princeton University, disappeared in Baghdad in March 2023 while doing research for her doctorate. She had entered the country on her Russian passport. The only sign she was alive was a video broadcast in November 2023 on an Iraqi television station and circulated on pro-Iranian social media purporting to show her.

No group has claimed responsibility for the kidnapping. But Israel believes she is being held by Kataeb Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed Iraqi terror group that it says also has ties to the Iraqi government.

Earlier this month, a senior Israeli official said Israel is working with allies in a renewed push to win Tsurkov’s freedom.

The official’s statement came after special envoys for hostage affairs met the family of Tsurkov, and Israel asked the representatives — from the US, UK, Germany, Austria and Canada — to have their embassies in Baghdad lobby the Iraqi government and search for a way to start negotiations.

The Israeli official said that after months of covert efforts, Israel believes the “changes in the region” have created an opportunity to work publicly for her release.


Nearly half of Americans can’t name a single Nazi death camp, new study finds
A groundbreaking eight-country study on Holocaust knowledge has revealed alarming gaps in awareness, particularly among young adults.

The comprehensive survey, conducted by the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, spanned a selection of nations most prominently involved on the Second World War’s Western front – the United States, England, France, Austria, Germany, Poland, Hungary and Romania

Researchers found that 76 per cent of American adults believe another Holocaust could happen today, marking the highest percentage among surveyed nations.

But 48 per cent of US respondents were unable to name any of the concentration camps that carried out the industrialised murder of six million Jews.

Indeed, “substantial portions” of those asked across all countries were unaware that of the six million figure.

In France, the study revealed a striking knowledge gap, with 46 per cent of young adults aged 18-29 indicating they had not heard of the Holocaust or were unsure if they had heard of it. Similar concerning trends emerged in Romania (15 per cent), Austria (14 per cent) and Germany (12 per cent).

"The alarming gaps in knowledge, particularly among younger generations, highlight an urgent need for more effective Holocaust education," said Claims Conference President Gideon Taylor. "The fact that a significant number of adults cannot identify basic facts—such as the six million Jews who perished—is deeply concerning."

Claims Conference Executive Vice President Greg Schneider emphasized the critical timing of these findings.

"With the Holocaust survivor population rapidly declining, we are at a critical and irreversible crossroads. Survivors, our most powerful educators, will not be with us much longer—and this Index is a stark warning that without urgent and sustained action, the history and lessons of the Holocaust risk slipping into obscurity."

Holocaust denial also remains a pressing concern, with 45 per cent of Hungarian respondents and 44 per cent of American respondents reporting that denial is common in their countries. Social media platforms have become a significant vector for Holocaust denial, with 47 per cent of Polish adults encountering denial or distortion online.

However, despite these challenges, the study revealed strong support for Holocaust education. Across all surveyed countries, more than 90 per cent of adults believe it is important to continue teaching about the Holocaust.

The US showed the highest support for Holocaust education in schools at 95 per cent, followed by Poland at 93 per cent.

The survey was conducted in November, 2023 and interviewed a sample of 1,000 adults from each country.
Jewish nominations at the Oscars: A look at the 2025 contenders
The 2025 Academy Award nominations highlight the significant presence of Jewish talent in Hollywood, with several filmmakers, actors, and creatives making their mark across various categories.

One standout is Real Pain, which earned two nominations, including Best Supporting Actor and Best Original Screenplay.

Directed and written by Jesse Eisenberg, the film explores universal themes of trauma and memory, resonating with Jewish experiences of loss and resilience. Eisenberg's raw script has been praised for its emotional depth and its universal appeal.

Meanwhile, The Brutalist has garnered 10 nominations, including Best Picture and Best Actor for Adrien Brody, whose performance captures the complexities of identity and displacement.

The film’s exploration of Jewish immigration and assimilation in post-WWII America reflects key moments in Jewish history, further cementing the Jewish legacy in Hollywood.

Timothée Chalamet, nominated for Best Actor for his portrayal of Bob Dylan in A Complete Unknown, brings a sensitivity to the role that resonates with his own Jewish upbringing.

Chalamet’s performance highlights Dylan’s early years and his struggle with identity, a theme central to both Jewish storytelling and the artist’s life.

Elsewhere, No Other Land is up for Best Documentary Feature, offering a bold exploration of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Jewish filmmakers Basel Adra, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal, and Yuval Abraham have created a powerful piece that challenges conventional narratives and sparks critical dialogue about the region’s complexities.

Additionally, the docudrama September 5, which dramatises the 1972 Munich Olympics hostage crisis and the massacre of Israeli athletes by the Palestinian terrorist group Black September, was nominated for Best Original Screenplay.


Oregon Logs Display of Israeli Flag As Bias Incident
In January 2020, the top law enforcement agency in the state of Oregon launched a "Bias Response Hotline" for residents to report "offensive ‘jokes.’"

Staffed by "trauma-informed operators" and overseen by the Oregon Department of Justice, the hotline, which receives thousands of calls a year, doesn’t just solicit reports of hate crimes and hiring discrimination. It also asks for reports of "bias incidents"—cases of "non-criminal" expression that are motivated, "in part," by prejudice or hate.




Who is Yuval Raphael? The Nova survivor selected to represent Israel at Eurovision
Yuval Raphael, Nova festival survivor and winner of the Israeli talent competition HaKokhav HaBa or ‘Rising Star’, will become Israel’s representative in the 2025 Eurovision song contest in Switzerland this spring.

The national singing contest, whose winner earns the spot to perform for Israel on the Eurovision stage, broadcast its final last night on Keshet 12, where viewers watched Raphael, 24, sing a ballad version of ABBA’s “Dancing Queen” which she dedicated to “all the angels” murdered at the Nova festival.

On October 7 Raphael, who is from Ra’anana, was at the festival with friends when Hamas terrorists began their attack. She survived by hiding amidst the piles of dead bodies inside a roadside bomb shelter until the IDF arrived after a grueling eight hours. Out of the roughly 50 people who hid in the shelter, Raphael was one of just 12 who emerged alive.

She has frequently spoken out about her experience and, during the ‘Rising Star’ final, cited music as “one of the strongest ingredients in my healing process” and an outlet for her emotions.

“I want to tell them the story of the country, of what I went through, of what others went through,” Raphael said in an interview on the program ahead of the final. “I want to tell the story, but not from a place of seeking pity. I want it to be from a place of standing strong in the face of this, and in the face of the boos I’m 100 per cent sure will come from the crowd.”

She triumphed over three other contenders for the winning spot, including Daniel Wais who survived the Kibbutz Be’eri massacre on October 7. Wais, who has also spoken about finding healing through music, lost both of his parents to the attacks; his father was murdered in their home and his mother, after being taken as a hostage, was later killed in Gaza. Raphael also beat out Christian Israeli singer Valerie Hamaty, who appeared in a previous season of the show, and offbeat duo Moran Aharoni and the puppet Red Band.

The song Raphael will sing on the Eurovision stage will be selected in March by a committee convened by the Kan public broadcaster.

Last year, Israeli Eurovision representative Eden Golan was under rigid protection by Shin Bet and largely restricted to her hotel room due to a flurry of threats and anti-Israel protests in Malmo, Sweden where the contest took place. Her entry in the contest was marked by controversy as activists around the globe called for Israel to be banned from the competition amid its ongoing war with Hamas.

Israel was also forced to rewrite and retitle its song entry after it was deemed too political by the European Broadcasting Union. Originally called “October Rain” after the October 7 attacks, it was later changed to “Hurricane” and its lyrics were lightly edited. Despite the controversy, Israel finished the competition in fifth place and third in the public vote.




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

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