Wednesday, April 16, 2025

04/16 Links Pt2: Josh Hammer: A renewed Jewish-Christian alliance for Western civilization; What the Oct. 7 Survivors Are Going Through

From Ian:

JPost Editorial: Trump's plan provides needed solution to combat campus antisemitism
It is worth recalling that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was enforced not just with words, but with funding. Institutions that refused to desegregate lost access to federal support.

Today’s crisis demands the same moral clarity. When Jewish students are being intimidated in classrooms and assaulted on quads, the government has not only a right to intervene – it has a duty to do so.

President Donald Trump himself framed the issue bluntly, writing on Truth Social: “Perhaps Harvard should lose its Tax Exempt Status.... Remember, Tax Exempt Status is totally contingent on acting in the PUBLIC INTEREST!”

Critics, including former president Barack Obama, have warned that the administration’s actions represent a threat to academic freedom.

“Harvard has set an example... rejecting an unlawful and ham-handed attempt to stifle academic freedom,” Obama posted on X/Twitter. But his statement ignores the lived reality of Jewish students, who are not enjoying freedom – they are being silenced.

This isn’t about ideology. It’s about restoring the basic promise that all students – Jewish, Christian, Muslim, atheist – deserve to feel safe, respected, and free to learn.

Trump's proposal offers a chance for course correction
What the Trump administration has proposed is a course correction – a necessary and proportional use of government oversight to ensure that taxpayer dollars are not funding hate.

The time for polite letters and listening circles is over. Action is needed. President Trump’s plan recognizes the urgency and responds with clarity. We support it, and we urge Congress, civil rights groups, and Jewish organizations to do the same.

Protecting Jewish students is not an overreach – it’s the bare minimum.
Jonathan Tobin: Harvard’s ‘resistance’ to Trump isn’t about science or academic freedom
Yet would anyone currently decrying Trump’s moves defend the funding of any medical school, hospital or research facility if it involved giving a seal of federal approval to an institution that discriminated against racial minorities protected by the Civil Rights Act? To the contrary, the same voices raised in defense of the “resistance” to Trump would demand the defunding of any entity—no matter how vital its scientific or medical research—that targeted blacks or allowed a chapter of the Ku Klux Klan to operate with impunity on their grounds or in their school buildings. Yet that is exactly what Harvard, Columbia and many other schools did by allowing pro-Hamas groups that support Jewish genocide to operate freely.

Moreover, as author Heather Mac Donald has pointed out, the impact of the DEI policies being defended by Harvard has led to discrimination and the lowering of standards throughout the sciences and math. That poses a far greater threat to American medicine and scientific research than Trump’s request that these schools give up their woke policies and stop antisemitism.

So, let’s be clear about what’s actually at stake in this controversy. It’s not science or academic freedom. It’s about elite schools wishing to remain in thrall to progressive orthodoxies on race and Western civilization that have fueled the surge in Jew-hatred.

Part of this can also be explained by politics.

The success of the left’s long march through American educational institutions over the past decades has created a situation in which conservatives and Zionists are rarities on college and university faculties. A career in academia for anyone who dissents from DEI and woke orthodoxy, as well as the notion that Israel and Jews are “white” oppressors who must be suppressed, can only do so by keeping their opinions to themselves. To openly dissent against the left’s toxic myths about critical race theory, intersectionality or settler-colonialism theory is to effectively guarantee that you won’t be hired for any post in the humanities and social sciences and to never obtain tenure even if you do get that far. Republicans or anyone who openly supports Trump are virtually an extinct species among those who work in higher education.

That’s why faculties like the ones at Harvard and Columbia have been so vocal in their support for the pro-Hamas mobs that target Jews and in defense of Middle East Studies programs, often funded by Islamist sources like the Emirate of Qatar that have become hotbeds of antisemitism.

However, it also creates a dynamic on campus that makes any accommodation with a Trump administration that left-wing Democrats view as beyond the pale, even on anything as clearly legitimate as a response to the rampant antisemitism that has been on display since Oct. 7, as a betrayal. Indeed, so strong is the pull of partisanship that many leading liberal Jewish groups like the Anti-Defamation League, the American Jewish Committee and even Hillel have put themselves on record as having reservations about Trump’s all-out effort to fight antisemitism or even to oppose it. In a country where politics now assumes the role that religion used to play in most people’s lives, opposing Trump is clearly a higher priority for many of those who identify as liberals or Democrats than combating Jew-hatred.

What Harvard is really fighting for
This debate isn’t about Trump’s alleged authoritarian tendencies. It is being triggered by the stubborn refusal of the most prestigious and venerable of American institutions, such as Harvard and Columbia, to ensure the safety of Jews and to give up practices in admissions, discipline and hiring that ensure their continued adherence to leftist ideologies that are at war with the Western canon and Jewish survival.

The cheers for Harvard’s stand are a reflection of the emotional needs of a portion of the American electorate that is overrepresented in the credentialed elites that venerate schools like Harvard. Their anger at the 2024 election results, hatred for Trump and affinity for woke racialism are so deep that they are willing to figuratively die on a hill that involves their support for or acquiescence to the legitimacy of a genocidal war waged against the only Jewish state on the planet. That is a telling indication of, as Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) put it, how “Harvard University has rightfully earned its place as the epitome of the moral and academic rot in higher education.”

Trump’s response to such defiance must be resolute. If Harvard won’t give up its toleration and support for antisemitism, then it must lose every penny of federal funding. And the same should go for any other school that follows its example. The pious platitudes about democracy, science or academic freedom that we are hearing from Trump’s opponents notwithstanding, the only thing they are really fighting for is the right to empower those who seek to harm Jews.
Josh Hammer: A renewed Jewish-Christian alliance for Western civilization
Josh Hammer, senior editor- at-large at Newsweek, discusses his new book Israel and Civilization and makes the case for a renewed Jewish-Christian alliance to preserve Western civilization. Here is my interview with him:

Let’s start with the title of your book, Israel and Civilization: The Fate of the Jewish Nation and the Destiny of the West. It sounds like the title is almost a thesis statement – that you’re not just writing a history book or a book of mere social commentary, but you actually have a point that you want to make.

The original title we were brainstorming was actually “Sinai and Civilization.” That gives away the core of the argument. “Israel and Civilization” also makes sense when you understand that “Israel” serves a dual function. It’s not just the State of Israel, but also the Children of Israel, the Jewish people.

The cover features Moses and the Israelites crossing the Red Sea. We wanted to make a statement that this is not a traditional blue and white Magen David hasbara book. I’m an unabashed Zionist, but such books have been written before.

This book was written in response not just to the horrific pogrom on October 7, 2023, but really in response to the world’s reaction to that pogrom. The world had a clear opportunity to choose between a Medieval Islamist death cult and one of the most vibrant, flourishing nations, and the fact that it was so morally confused is telling.

It was time for someone, especially from a younger generation, such as myself, to write a book trying to remind Westerners: “What do you think this is? You’re living in a very flourishing society. Where do you think you got this from?”

The book makes the argument that Western civilization begins with the Bible. The Judeo-Christian tradition going back to Revelation and Mount Sinai really is the core of what we refer to as “Western civilization.” Fundamentally, I’m explaining how the original People of the Book, the Jewish people, have a special and unique role to play not just in Western civilization, but really in the fate of mankind as a whole.

What you’re pointing to is that the reaction to October 7 was like picking up a rock and seeing all the bugs crawl out, realizing there was something very rotten at the core of how so many people in the West think about their own identity. Are Americans your primary audience for this book?

The primary audience is Americans, especially younger Americans. They tend to be more morally confused in public polling when it comes to basic questions like: “Who do you sympathize with, Israel or Hamas?”

Part of the book includes my personal story as someone raised in a very secular setting who has since embarked on a religious journey. Part of that is a message to liberal Reform Jews and secular Jews: To be a true “Light unto the Nations,” don’t just talk the talk – actually walk the walk.

But above all, the number one audience is younger conservatives, maybe especially young Christian conservatives. The evangelicals in America are the Jewish people’s greatest friends, period.


What the Oct. 7 Survivors Are Going Through
Much of the first-person videography of the Oct. 7 massacre comes to us courtesy of the Hamas psychopaths who proudly recorded their actions that day. But footage from the phones of survivors of the attacks add a crucial dimension to our understanding of the atrocities. A new documentary, Saturday October 7, contains such scenes from survivors of the Nova music festival, where Hamas killed hundreds, and they are intense and terrifying and confusing in a radically different way from the videos many of us are used to seeing.

The hourlong film, which also mixes in Hamas GoPro footage, is a project of the Jerusalem Institute of Justice and features seven Israeli survivors of the attacks—five from the Nova festival and two from nearby kibbutzim, Nirim and Ein Hashlosha.

One of the Nova survivors, 33-year-old Mazal Tazazo, began recording on her cellphone as her group of friends exited the festival. At that moment, it was still unclear what was happening—the festival had ended abruptly as the area came under heavier-than-usual rocket fire from Gaza. The group gets into two separate cars and makes a plan to meet at Tazazo’s home because it’s the closest. “But then we hear shooting,” she says, and they started to understand getting home wouldn’t be easy.

They get out of their cars and Tazazo lets the recording continue but now, realizing they’re in danger, merely holds the phone in her hand as she moves about. We no longer see a “filming” of what she sees. Instead, we mostly see the ground as we hear the friends go through one terrifying moment after another—they see people running away from terrorists and coming their way, they hear gunfire get closer and closer, they crouch behind an Israeli police officer until they realize that one man with a handgun is no match for what’s coming.

They run behind cars, under cars, across the street, and then finally off the road to try to hide in the brush. Terrorists soon find them and order them to get off the ground. One hits Tazazo in the head with the butt of his rifle, hard enough to momentarily knock her out. When she regains consciousness, she can feel one of the Hamas men tying her legs together—presumably to take her hostage. One man picks up her face to see if she’s still alive, and drops it back on the ground; Tazazo was able to play dead long enough to convince them she really was. Tazazo assumes she is dying from her wounds and they didn’t want to carry her along if she wasn’t going to make it to Gaza. She passes out again. When she wakes, she realizes her friends were on the ground with her—they were dead.

That wasn’t the end of her ordeal, however. The terrorists set fire to the bushes on the sides of the road to smoke out—or burn alive—anyone who had survived. Tazazo eventually saw an opening and made a run for a nearby car and laid down until help finally arrived.

In another scene, this one filmed by a Hamas GoPro, we see terrorists going through a house looking for Israelis to kill. One gunman brushes past a safe-room entrance (it’s hard to tell from the video if it’s a false wall or a door), looks at it, and moves on. An on-screen graphic tells us there were civilians hiding in that room at the time. Eventually the terrorists move on. I found myself repeatedly holding my breath.
Rescued hostage Noa Argamani included in Time’s 100 Most Influential People of 2025
Former hostage Noa Argamani, who was kidnapped by Hamas-led terrorists in October 2023 and rescued in a daring IDF operation last year, was included in Time Magazine’s list of 100 Most Influential People of 2025.

She features alongside major world leaders and Jewish figures such as actor Adrien Brody, Anti-Defamation League head Jonathan Greenblatt and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.

Argamani responded that she is “deeply honored.”

“The video of Noa Argamani on Oct. 7, 2023, is forever seared into my soul,” wrote former US second gentleman Doug Emhoff, who is Jewish, in her entry on the Time website.

“She was joyfully dancing with so many others at the Nova music festival when Hamas launched its brutal terrorist attack. As she was kidnapped into Gaza on a motorcycle, her harrowing expression became a symbol of the pain and trauma Jews worldwide, myself included, continue to feel.”

He noted Argamani’s partner Avinatan Or, who is still captive in Gaza, as well as her “extraordinary courage and humanity in speaking out” for the plight of hostages who remain in captivity.

“My wife Kamala Harris and I stand with Noa in fighting for the release of all the hostages. We cannot give up until every one of them is home,” Emhoff wrote.

“Noa’s advocacy has illuminated Hamas’s extreme brutality, but more importantly, her bravery has embodied Jewish resilience and strength even in the worst moments. She is living proof to the world that, despite everything, ‘we will dance again.'”
The 100 Most Influential People of 2025: Noa Argamani

‘Get me out of here’: Palestinian Islamic Jihad airs video of hostage Rom Braslavski
The Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group released a video on Wednesday showing hostage Rom Braslavski, 21, whom they are holding captive in the Gaza Strip.

The video was the first recorded sign of life for Braslavski, 558 days since the off-duty soldier, a resident of Jerusalem, was abducted from the Nova music festival, where he was working as a security guard. His family has shared testimonies from partygoers that Braslavski rescued them amid the onslaught.

The family approved publication of a short clip from the video, with the hostage’s face blurred. Based on the content, the footage was filmed in recent weeks.

In the clip — whose contents were likely dictated by his captors — Braslasvski is heard complaining of an unspecified illness that makes his whole body itch, and appealing to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump to secure his release, asking: “Where are you?”

In the video, Braslavski also describes his general physical and mental condition as difficult, and speaks about the ongoing bombings in Gaza. Addressing Netanyahu, he demands: “Can you get me out of here?”

Last month, Sasha Troufanov — released in the January hostage-ceasefire deal that has since collapsed — said he was briefly held alongside Braslavski in Gaza, providing the first evidence of any sort that the latter was alive after his abduction.

Tami Braslavski, Rom’s mother, learned of the video from news reports and said no representative from the government had reached out to inform her of the clip before it was made public.

“Horrifying! A shame for the State of Israel. Shocking that I need to see it on Telegram like everyone. Not [IDF hostage point person] Nitzan Alon, not [government hostage point person] Gal Hirsch, not [Netanyahu], nobody’s phoning us,” she said, according to Ynet.

“I don’t even recognize my son. He has aged 10 years. This isn’t my Rom. He’s tough, and he looks terrible. If they broke Rom, they’ll break anyone,” she charged.


Dog abducted from murdered hostage’s family found by troops in Gaza
A dog abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz during Hamas’s October 7 onslaught was found in southern Gaza last week by Israeli ground forces.

Billy belongs to Rachel Dancyg, the divorcee of Alex Dancyg who was taken hostage and killed in captivity. Rachel’s brother Itzik Elgarat was also abducted from the kibbutz and murdered in Gaza.

The Cavalier King Charles Spaniel is three and a half years old.

Aviad Shapira, a reservist who has served more than 300 days in Gaza since the start of the war, told Channel 12 that Billy ran into his arms when his unit was operating in Rafah. He proceeded to take care of the dog for four days and insisted that he be allowed to take her back with him to Israel.

After spending the Passover Seder with his family and with Billy, Shapira brought the dog to a veterinarian who tested her microchip implant and discovered that she belonged to the Dancyg family.

Shapira said Billy would be reunited with her human family on Wednesday.

Yaron Maor, Rachel’s son-in-law, told Ynet: “We are in complete shock and overwhelmed with emotion to see her tomorrow. We didn’t believe she had survived. We got the kids another dog of the same breed. Now the two dogs will live together with us. It’s a miracle from heaven.”


Music legend refuses Channel 5 request to remove hostage badge
Music legend Graham Gouldman has revealed he was left stunned after Channel 5 News asked him to take off his yellow badge in solidarity with Israeli hostages held by Hamas — saying he would have walked out rather than take it off.

The frontman for 10cc, whose timeless hits include I’m Not in Love and Dreadlock Holiday, appeared on the channel on Wednesday to discuss the band’s concert at Hampton Court in June.

Gouldman told Jewish News: “I spoke with the presenter Dan Walker ahead of our interview. He politely asked, ‘What’s that badge you’re wearing?’ I told him it was a symbol of solidarity with Israeli hostages.

“The producer then asked me to remove my badge, citing Ofcom impartiality rules. I said no. He then said: ‘If you insist on wearing it we will need to blur it out.’”

Gouldman’s interview aired during the channel’s 5pm bulletin with badge, which he had pinned to a black jacket, not visible to viewers.

“If they had ordered me to take it off I would have walked out of the studio,” Gouldman, 77, added. “I wasn’t going to be dictated to. I’ve done entire tours wearing the badge for every gig. My wife and I wear one all the time. I’m baffled and disappointed by the broadcaster’s stance. I wore the badge for an interview with Jeremy Vine on the same channel last year and no one said a word about it. So what’s changed?”

A 5 News spokesperson told Jewish News: “Anyone wearing campaigning badges would be asked to remove them under 5 News’ Ofcom obligations to report impartially. These rules also cover advertising and other types of displays that would be considered to breach impartiality rules. If a contributor prefers not to remove a badge or clothing with labels we inform them that it will be blurred in post production to make sure we still comply with those rules.”
Nova survivor opens restaurant in New York
Opening a kosher restaurant in New York City wasn’t always in the cards for Raif Rashed, a Druze from the village of Usfiya in northern Israel.

But as Rashed, the owner of Taboonia — a new Druze restaurant in the Garment District that’s currently seeking kosher certification — will be the first to tell you, sometimes life can take an unexpected turn, especially after a tragedy.

An engineer by trade, Rashed, 40, moved to Hackensack, New Jersey, in 2019 to take a job at an Israeli manufacturing company. In October 2023, he was visiting family in Israel when he extended his trip to could help his brother, Radda — who had run a catering business and food stall there, also called Taboonia, for a decade — work a busy event.

Fatefully, that event was the Nova Music Festival. Intended to be a 15-hour party overnight dance party, the festival was the site of one of the deadliest massacres that occurred when Hamas invaded Israel on 7 October 2023.

During the violent chaos that unfolded, Rashed was separated from his brother, who ultimately survived. He sought cover behind a car belonging to his friend Erick Peretz, who was at the festival with his 16-year-old daughter Ruth, who had cerebral palsy and used a wheelchair. Rashed watched Peretz and his daughter seek cover behind an ambulance, then, to his horror, witnessed Hamas fighters burning the vehicle. Erick and Ruth Peretz’s bodies were identified 12 days later; they were among the more than 380 people murdered at the festival that day.

The experience turned Rashed’s life upside down. “I was in crisis [for] a year,” said Rashed, who added that, in the aftermath of the attack, “I looked middle-aged within hours.”

Rashed was stuck in Israel for several months, as his passport was stolen in the attack. When he finally returned to the United States, he quit his engineering job. Seeking comfort, he found himself cooking the foods of his childhood, like manakish — a type of flatbread served with toppings like za’atar, hummus, and labneh — or the very thin, crispy Druze pita, rolled into a wrap and filled with cucumber and tomato salad, hummus, hard boiled eggs, feta and chickpeas.


Ilhan Omar’s Daughter Fundraises For Columbia Activist in ICE Custody Who Endorsed Oct. 7 Attack
Isra Hirsi, the daughter of "Squad" member Rep. Ilhan Omar (D., Minn.), promoted a fundraiser supporting Mohsen Mahdawi, the Columbia University student activist facing deportation over his support for Hamas.

Hirsi, a far-left activist, anti-Israel agitator, and Barnard College senior, posted a screenshot of the GoFundMe with a link on her Instagram story Tuesday evening. At the time, the fundraiser had collected just over $9,000. By Wednesday afternoon, that ballooned to more than $42,000.

The GoFundMe launched after ICE detained Mahdawi, a Jordan native, following the revocation of his green card on Monday. The fundraiser has a $100,000 goal to cover his legal fees and other expenses while in detention. Originally, the page said the proceeds would also help Mahdawi "achieve his quest for US citizenship," but that language was scrubbed Wednesday afternoon.

"It also seeks to further his advocacy for building understanding between Israelis and Palestinians for the traumas that each have experienced in order to bring peace and justice to each," an earlier version of the GoFundMe page read.

But the fundraiser still portrays Mahdawi as an "advocate for peace and justice," though the Columbia graduate student has repeatedly expressed support for Hamas. Just two weeks after the terrorist group killed nearly 1,200 Israelis during its Oct. 7 attack, Mahdawi told a New England newspaper that "Hamas is a product of the Israeli occupation." According to the newspaper, he also helped pen an Oct. 14, 2023, statement that anti-Israel groups at Columbia issued arguing that the "Palestinian struggle for freedom is rooted in international law, under which occupied peoples have the right to resist the occupation of their land."

"If every political avenue available to Palestinians is blocked, we should not be surprised when resistance and violence breaks out," the statement read.

That December, Mahdawi said he empathizes with Hamas and argued that the terrorist group’s attack should not be looked at in a vacuum.

"I did not say that I justify what Hamas has done. I said I can empathize. To empathize is to understand the root cause and to not look at any event or situation in a vacuum. This is for me that path moving forward," he said during a 60 Minutes interview.

Last August, meanwhile, Mahdawi posted pictures to his Instagram account honoring the "martyrdom" of his "cousin," Maysara Masharqa, who served as a prominent field commander in the military wing of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade, a U.S.-designated terror group that participated in the Oct. 7 attack alongside Hamas. Mahdawi praised Masharqa as a "fierce resistance fighter" who had been fighting since he was 17, adding that he spent seven years in an Israeli prison.

"Here is Mesra who offers his soul as a sacrifice for the homeland and for the blood of the martyrs as a gift for the victory of Gaza and in defense of the dignity of his homeland and his people against the vicious Israeli occupation in the West Bank," Mahdawi wrote.
Bipartisan group reintroduces House legislation countering boycotts of Israel
A bipartisan group of U.S. House members reintroduced legislation to prevent the federal government from doing business with companies that support the movement to boycott Israel.

Sponsors said the bill would mirror anti-BDS laws in more than two-thirds of U.S. states and contended that the movement is antisemitic.

“The BDS movement promotes and normalizes antisemitism by singling out the world’s only Jewish state and targeting Israel’s economy,” stated Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-N.Y.), the measure’s chief sponsor.

“The United States should not support any entity that engages in or endorses such actions,” she said.

The measure was introduced in the last Congress, but no action was taken in either chamber.

“Taxpayer dollars should not be going towards groups that engage in antisemitic boycotts targeting Israel,” said Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.). “The BDS movement is antisemitism, plain and simple, and this bill will ensure we’re using taxpayer dollars responsibly to stand up against hate and stand up for our ally Israel.”

Other sponsors include Reps. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.), Ben Cline (R-Va.), Greg Steube (R-Fla.) and Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), whose nomination as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations was withdrawn by U.S. President Donald Trump to guard against any erosion of the narrow Republican majority in the House.

“Americans have made it overwhelmingly clear they do not want to fund antisemitism,” Stefanik said.
Harvard's Antisemitism Problem is a Hamas Problem
In 2020, Harvard’s Kennedy School welcomed Chief Palestinian Negotiator for Yasser Arafat’s Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), Saeb Erekat. No doubt, Masri was a vital part of that decision. Erekat was the propaganda mouthpiece for the murderous PLO while constantly accusing Israel of massacres and genocide, exactly as Hamas is doing today. Who knows how many other alleged terrorist-sympathizers like Bashar Masri are part of Harvard’s or any other US college or university’s leadership?

Yes. The 2023 Capitol Hill hearings on campus antisemitism were a dog-and-pony show. But there’s one other pertinent item that must be addressed.

The terrorism lawsuit against a Harvard board member is further proof that anti-Israel student groups (Students for Justice in Palestine, the Muslim Students Association, etc) are nothing but pawns and distractions. The real threat was always the billions in Islamist and Communist money and the campuses’ direct ties to jihadists. This was always a matter of national security that required the actions of the Department of Justice and the State Department, not pro-Israel student groups.

Finally, until the Muslim Brotherhood and Islamist states like Qatar are designated as terrorist organizations, none of these recent scandals will do anything to stop the Jew/Israel-hatred that is consuming American academia. This includes more hearings on Capitol Hill. The US hasn’t even scratched the surface of the problem.


Harvard Law Publishes Fond Reminiscence From Student Facing Criminal Charges for Assaulting Jewish Classmate
Harvard Law School published a blog post from one of the students facing criminal charges for assaulting an Israeli classmate. The post, from former Harvard Law Review editor Ibrahim Bharmal, features Bharmal’s praise for something called the "Crimmigration Clinic," a law school course in which students work on federal immigration cases. He does not mention that he is facing criminal charges connected to the assault, which was captured on video.

In the post, titled, "Crimmigration lawyering: Advocating for immigrants caught in two unjust systems," Bharmal touts the "close-knit immigrant and Muslim community" he grew up in in Southern California, indicating that it taught him "that our legal systems and institutions do not distribute justice evenly." He also wrote of his "future" as an attorney, saying, "I know who I want to advocate for. I know the kind of law I want to practice. And I know, without a doubt, that this clarity will be the foundation of a long, committed career in service to immigrants and the fight for justice."

Bharmal's criminal case could also impact that future. Along with Harvard divinity school graduate student Elom-Tettey Tamaklo, Bharmal was charged last May with misdemeanor assault in connection with his behavior at a "die-in" protest that took place shortly after Hamas's Oct. 7 attack. Bharmal and Tettey-Tamaklo were captured on camera accosting an Israeli business school student, surrounding him and making it difficult for him to walk freely as keffiyeh-clad onlookers shouted, "SHAME!"

The case has attracted attention from prominent lawmakers, both past and present. Footage of the ordeal, first reported in the Washington Free Beacon, prompted outrage from prominent Harvard Business School alumni, including former Sen. Mitt Romney (R.), who cited the school in an October 2023 letter as proof that university leaders were "paralyzed" in the face of "expressions of hate and vitriol against Jews." Reps. Virginia Foxx (R., N.C.) and Elise Stefanik (R., N.Y.) similarly savaged Harvard after the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office accused the university of stonewalling an investigation into the protest.

Harvard nonetheless published Bharmal's blog as the Trump administration reviewed its $9 billion in federal grants and contracts. On Friday—one day after Harvard published Bharmal's blog—the administration demanded from the school a series of policy changes and reforms, including the expulsion of Bharmal and Tettey-Tamaklo, both of whom remained in good standing at Harvard in the months following the "die-in." Harvard rejected those demands on Monday, and the Trump administration froze $2.2 billion in Harvard grants hours later.

Harvard Law School did not respond to a request for comment.

Bharmal was first charged with misdemeanor assault and battery and with violations of the Massachusetts Civil Rights Act, which prohibits attempts to "intimidate or interfere with … any other person in the free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege secured to him by the constitution." A judge dismissed the latter charge in February, though the assault charge remains.

Bharmal was supposed to be arraigned last June, a month after he was charged. But local prosecutors twice postponed the arraignment because Harvard police declined to perform a "follow up investigation" into the "die-in," the Suffolk County District Attorney's office told the Free Beacon in September. The investigation would have helped "identify any additional perpetrators" and generate "inculpatory/exculpatory evidence." Attorneys told the Free Beacon at the time that they had never heard of police refusing an investigation request from prosecutors.
Removal of Yale Law School member was justified, not a free-speech violation
Yale Law School associate research scholar Helyeh Doutaghi, who describes herself as an Iranian-Muslim, was placed on administrative leave and later terminated following an article published by an online news site that detailed her involvement with the U.S.-designated terrorist group—the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine fundraiser Samidoun.

In a letter on March 12 addressing her suspension and the article on Jewish Onliner, which calls itself “AI-empowered,” Doutaghi denied the terror allegations, claiming they were generated by artificial intelligence. She also said the suspension was a violation of free speech. In the letter, Doutaghi asked “every professor, scholar, researcher, student and member of the community to stand up and speak out publicly against Yale Law School operating as an extension of the fascist state apparatus.”

As the only Iranian international student at Yale College who was born, raised and completed all of his pre-college education in Iran, I agree with fellow Iranian nationals that Yale does support fascist states—or at least, the Yale population does. The admiration is mutual. The Islamic Republic’s news agencies praise my schoolmates and professors for spreading the “axis of resistance” narrative on campus. Iranian leader Ali Khamenei even sent a “thank you” letter to anti-Israel protesters.

Doutaghi’s suspension drew immediate attention from the state-sponsored Iranian media. While the regime agencies were praising her, it didn’t take long for non-regime-affiliated Iranians to begin posting about Doutaghi’s history of support for the Islamic Republic. Her father, Hassan Doutaghi, is currently the acting head of Iran’s consulate general in Hong Kong. He was removed from his post at the Islamic Republic’s embassy in Canada in 2012 due to concerns that “the Islamic regime is using its mission here to monitor the activities of Iranian-Canadians.”

After her father’s removal, Doutaghi remained in Canada, where she went to law school and wrote her dissertation on the harms of sanctions against Iran. She has lived most of her life in a free country, away from sanctions. We Iranians who have actually endured life under these sanctions know that hyperbolizing their impact only helps the regime avoid responsibility. Some Iranians abroad abuse the freedom granted to them by Western countries to hijack our voice, portray themselves as representatives of oppressed Iranians and advocate for the same things as our oppressor—the Islamic Republic. To us, people like Helyeh Doutaghi, whose actions benefit the Islamic regime by bolstering its narrative, are no different than the mullahs.

In her letter, Doutaghi—like the Islamic Republic—uses “Zionist” as a slur when referring to her detractors. In the past, she has called Iranians “Zionists.” During the Iranian people’s “Women, Life, Freedom” protests following the morality police’s brutal killing of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, Doutaghi repeated Khamenei’s claim that our protests were “hijacked” by Zionists and used her platform in Western academia to twist the narrative about Iranian resistance against the regime.
Georgetown Eyes Vote on Israeli Divestment Resolution Sponsored by School of Foreign Service Student
Georgetown University is set to vote later this month on a school-wide referendum to boycott Israeli businesses and academic institutions after initially scheduling the vote during the Jewish holiday of Passover. The referendum's sponsor is a student at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service (SFS), Meriam Ahmad, who has referenced "Israel's ongoing genocide in Gaza" in news coverage for Georgetown's student news magazine.

The non-binding referendum, which will be open to student voting from April 26-28, will need to win majority support with at least 25 percent student body participation to pass. The resolution itself makes unsubstantiated claims about the Israeli military targeting civilians and calls on the school to cut off investments in Alphabet, Amazon, and other companies that have worked with the Israel Defense Forces.

Two student senators, Ahmad and Sienna Lipton, introduced the referendum. Ahmad is a student at Georgetown’s prestigious SFS, one of the top institutions for students entering foreign policy roles in the government and diplomatic corps. She is also a writer for the student magazine the Georgetown Voice, where she provided news coverage of a January 2024 "vigil" at which Georgetown students "honored those killed by Israel's ongoing genocide in Gaza and echoed calls for an immediate ceasefire."

The news comes as Georgetown faces criticism over a surge in anti-Semitism and terrorist support on campus. Days after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks, a coalition of student groups signed a letter that defended the terrorist massacre. "Nothing about the resistance of October 7 is 'unprovoked,'" it said.

The vote also comes as the Trump administration takes steps to crack down on anti-Semitism and pro-Hamas activism at universities across the country, including by cutting off billions in federal funding to prominent higher education institutions like Harvard and Columbia.

Georgetown's Student Government Association greenlit the referendum earlier this month in a secret vote that bypassed the Policy and Advocacy Committee, breaking precedent.

The ballot measure was initially scheduled for a campus-wide vote on April 14-16. Student government leaders rescheduled it to later this month after objections from the Georgetown Jewish community, which noted that the vote fell during the Passover holiday and would thus prevent some Jewish students from participating.
Northwestern Vandals Spray-Paint Hamas Triangles, 'Intifada Now' on Campus Building Housing Holocaust Center
Anti-Semitic vandals used red paint to write "Death to Israel" and draw Hamas triangles on a Northwestern University building that houses the school's Holocaust center as Jewish students observe Passover.

Unity of Fields, a self-described "militant front against the US-NATO-zionist axis of imperialism" that has vowed to bring violence to America, shared photos of the vandalism on Monday evening.

"The accusation of antisemitism is nothing more than a veiled attempt to hide what they truly fear: the inevitable victory of the Palestinian Liberation struggle," the group posted on X. "The University wants us to succumb to our fears. $790million lost should only push us to further escalate."

"History calls on us to respond with total upheaval," the group added. "Glory to the Martyrs! Escalate for Palestine!"

The anti-Semitic radicals spray-painted "Death to Israel," "Inifada [sic] Now!" "River->Sea!" and upside-down triangles—a symbol Hamas uses to denote Israeli targets—on Kresge Centennial Hall around 4 a.m. on Monday, the second morning of Passover. The building is home to Northwestern's Holocaust Educational Foundation, which was founded by Auschwitz survivor Theodore Zev Weiss and hosts a number of Holocaust Studies courses. It's also connected to Crowe Hall, home to the Weinberg School Crown Family Center for Jewish Studies.
Russian court convicts Israeli national, 3 others for work with Kremlin foe Navalny
A Russian court on Tuesday convicted four journalists of extremism for working for an anti-corruption group founded by the late opposition leader Alexei Navalny and sentenced them to 5 1/2 years in prison each.

Antonina Favorskaya, Kostantin Gabov, Sergey Karelin and Artyom Kriger were found guilty of involvement with a group that had been labeled as extremist. All four had maintained their innocence, arguing they were being prosecuted for doing their jobs as journalists. Karelin is an Israeli national who lived in Israel with his family for several months, according to Haaretz.

The closed-door trial was part of an unrelenting crackdown on dissent that has reached an unprecedented scale after Moscow sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022.

The authorities have targeted opposition figures, independent journalists, rights activists and ordinary Russians critical of the Kremlin with prosecution, jailing hundreds and prompting thousands to flee the country.

Favorskaya and Kriger worked with SotaVision, an independent Russian news outlet that covers protests and political trials. Gabov is a freelance producer who has worked for multiple organizations, including Reuters. Karelin, a freelance video journalist, has done work for Western media outlets, including The Associated Press.

The four journalists were accused of working with Navalny’s Foundation for Fighting Corruption, which was designated as extremist and outlawed in 2021 in a move widely seen as politically motivated.


Anti-Israel hate at Tufts: A case study
A pro-Israel activist at Tufts shared their experience: “When I hear ‘Free Palestine from the river to the sea,’ and when I see posters that say ‘Glory to our martyrs,’ it’s hard not to feel intimidated, disrespected, and to feel that there’s some sort of hatred directed at my perspective.”

It’s important to note that antisemitic acts on Tufts’ campus have been a recurring issue for over a decade. In both 2019 and 2021, there were reports of swastika vandalism on campus, and similar incidents made news in 2014 and 2015.

What actions have the Tufts staff taken? According to an April 2 article in The Tufts Daily, a “group of Jewish professors, lecturers and staff members sent a letter” to university officials asking them to support Ozturk’s rights, while launching an ad hominem attack on the Anti-Defamation League. Yet nowhere in this letter did they call for an investigation into the harassment of Jewish students on campus.

Tufts Students for Israel wrote an op-ed in The Tufts Daily saying, “The detainment of Rumeysa Ozturk is plain wrong. And we stand firmly against it.”

Evelyn Beatrice Hall, a British writer, once said, “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”

While this might have been an acceptable sentiment for a woman of letters in Edwardian England, Jews living in a post-Oct. 7 world should know better.

Members of Tufts Students for Israel should also recognize that if they find themselves aligned with J Street, it’s time for a reevaluation.

J Street U’s director, Erin Beiner, rushed to defend Ozturk in a March 28 email, writing: “We were absolutely shocked by scenes earlier this week of a young graduate student at Tufts University, Rumeysa Ozturk, being ambushed on the street in front of her home and pressed into a car by masked agents. These are images straight out of playbooks run by authoritarian regimes that Jews spent generations fleeing.”

The decision by J Street to continually compare Israel’s enemies to victimized Jews is reprehensible.

There is more to consider. A March 31 editorial in The Free Press pointed out: “It may turn out that Ozturk and Mahmoud Khalil have coordinated their activism with Hamas, or encouraged or participated in riots or other activities that are more than sufficient grounds to expel them from the country.”

Whether or not they did is beside the point. It is not in the best interest of the Jewish community to join in common cause with those who would see an end to the Jewish state. Our community should be wiser than to stand with those who seek to delegitimize Israel.
Top 10 weird things activists put on seder plates this Passover
The Passover Seder meal is steeped in symbolism, using traditional food items to commemorate and relate the suffering of the enslaved Hebrews in Egypt and how God freed them from bondage in an exodus toward Israel.

The seder plate is the central prop in the retelling of the Passover story, with the shank bone, boiled egg, bitter herbs, haroset paste, and vegetable greens.

While these symbolic foods have graced seder plates for generations, activists have added new items to represent and advocate for modern political and ideological causes.

9. Banana - Refugees
Another modern item that has fallen out of favor in recent years is the banana. While usually placed next to other items to demonstrate scale, the yellow fruit is meant to represent the Syrian refugee crisis.

A 2015 pamphlet predictably called “The Banana on the Seder Plate” explains that Syrian refugees were undergoing their own modern exodus.

The pamphlet noted the tragic death of the child Alan Kurdi, whose appearance on a Turkish beach after drowning in 2015 raised awareness of the plight of those fleeing the Syrian Civil War.

10. Artichoke - Interfaith marriage
Another uncommon item added by some movements is the artichoke, meant to represent interfaith marriages.

An 18Doors article called “Five Interfaith Passover Readings You Can Add to Your Haggadah” explained that the thistles of the artichoke are like the thorny issue of interfaith marriage.

“Let this artichoke on the seder plate tonight stand for the wisdom of God’s creation in making the Jewish people a population able to absorb many elements and cultures throughout the centuries yet still remain Jewish. Let the thistles protecting our hearts soften so that we may notice the petals around us.”


What Western Media Won’t Tell You About Paramedics from Gaza
What comes to mind when you think of a paramedic who rushes to save innocent people during a war—only to be attacked and detained?

Most people would envision a peaceful individual devoted to saving lives, and instinctively view those who detained him as brutal and unjust. You’re also far more likely to trust his version of events over those who arrested him.

This is precisely the narrative dominating most Western media outlets today in their coverage of Asaad al-Nasasra, a paramedic from Gaza. Readers too easily fall into the trap set by biased journalists at The Guardian and other outlets who, as usual, haven’t done their due diligence.

Because just a cursory check of Asaad al-Nasasra’s public Facebook account reveals someone far from the peaceful medic he’s portrayed as. His posts are filled with incitement to terrorism and praise for Gaza’s “martyrs.” Here are just a few examples.

In a post from May 2021, accompanied by a poster whose design disturbingly echoes Nazi-style antisemitic visuals, al-Nasasra wrote (translated from Arabic):
Muslims today, due to their weakness and shallow understanding of the true essence of religion, are waiting for a miracle from God to destroy their enemies — while their enemies are growing stronger! This is foolishness…

God Almighty said: ‘And prepare against them whatever you are able of power and of steeds of war.’ After you prepare all that you can, say: O Lord, You are the Supporter, You are the Granter of success, You are the Protector, You are the Sustainer. We must take the necessary means as if everything depends on them, then put our trust in God as if they mean nothing. This is the lesson Muslims need today more than at any time in the past.

We now know all too well what “necessary means” stands for in Gaza: taking hostages and slaughtering civilians, in the case of Israelis, and sacrificing thousands of Gazans, using them as human shields.
BBC broadcast song glorifying ‘heroes’ who murdered Jews
The BBC’s Arabic-language service broadcast a song that glorifies three murderers who took part in the 1929 Arab riots in the British Mandate of Palestine that saw the killing of over 130 Jews.

A BBC Arabic programme called National Awareness Through the Art of Storytelling, first broadcast on 9 September, 2024, featured an excerpt of the song From Acre Prison by Palestinian poet Nouh Ibrahim.

In August 1929, Arab rioters targeted Jews in Jerusalem, Jaffa, Safad and Hebron, killing more than 133 and injuring a further 339. The British mandate forces arrested dozens of Arabs and executed three – Muhammad Jamjoum, Fuad Hijazi and Ataa Al-Zir – for having committed “particularly brutal murders”.

Ibrahim’s song praises Jamjoum, Hijazi and Al-Zir as “three heroes” for their bloody acts in Safad and Hebron. The excerpt broadcast on BBC Arabic includes the lyrics: “From Acre Prison went forth the funeral of Muhammad Jamjoum and Fuad Hijazi / Take revenge for them, my people, take revenge."

Another part of the song, not played during the BBC broadcast, refers to the third killer Al-Zir: “Muhammad Jamjoum, Ataa Al-Zir and Fuad Hijazi, the power of ammunition / Look at the one going first, the distinguished person / They are executing us on verdicts of the oppressor.”

The BBC Arabic programme showcases Palestinian playwright Ghannam Ghannam performing his one-man show With My Own Eyes 1948 to around 100 people in the Al-Mahatta Palestinian refugee camp in Jordan in July 2024.

During the show, Ghannam sings the following lyrics from Ibrahim’s song, encouraging the audience to take part: “From Acre Prison went forth the funeral of Muhammad Jamjoum and Fuad Hijazi / Take revenge for them, my people, take revenge." He goes on to praise Jamjoum, Hijazi and Al-Zir as “martyrs”.


Central Asian nations reject Turkey’s push for occupied north recognition
Turkey’s relations with Central Asian members of the Organisation of Turkic States (OTS) have hit their lowest point as Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan pledged support for Cyprus’s sovereignty, effectively burying Ankara’s efforts to use the OTS as a vehicle for recognition of the occupied north.

In a joint declaration at the European Union-Central Asia summit in Samarkand on April 4, the three Central Asian nations explicitly endorsed UN Security Council resolutions 541 (1983) and 550 (1984), which condemn the declaration of the self-proclaimed Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus and call on UN members not to recognise it.

The declaration states: “The EU and Central Asian countries confirmed their strong commitment to UN Security Council resolutions 541 and 550 and noted that the development of their relations depends on adherence to this principle.”

While Turkish Cypriot authorities had anticipated OTS officials travelling to occupied northern Cyprus as steps toward recognition, they instead witnessed three OTS member countries opening embassies and upgrading diplomatic relations with the Republic of Cyprus.

Paragraph 4 of the declaration emphasises the parties’ determination to respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all states in international forums and to avoid measures that would violate this principle.

The Turkish Foreign Ministry has maintained striking silence on both developments, making no public statements about the embassy openings in Nicosia or the summit declaration, though this does not rule out diplomatic initiatives behind closed doors. (h/t MtTB)


Seth Frantzman: Phased US pullout from Syria raises concerns for Israel
Reports this week indicated that the US may be withdrawing its forces from Syria in a phased plan that could take months.

The first Trump administration also attempted to withdraw US forces in 2018 and 2019. In both cases, the overall withdrawal did not take place. It’s possible that this time, US forces may re-deploy but not withdraw completely.Israel has often viewed the potential US withdrawal as a challenge. During the first Trump administration, the concern was that Iran-backed militias would fill the vacuum left by the US.

It’s important to understand the geography here. The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces control eastern Syria. Essentially, they control the third of Syria east of the Euphrates River. They ended up on the river during the ISIS war because the last ISIS cells were in an area called Baghuz, where the Syrian Euphrates meets the Iraqi border.The US sent forces to Syria to help the SDF – primarily made up of Kurdish fighters, with some Arab and Christian contingents – fight ISIS.

Turkey opposes the SDF and views it as part of the Kurdistan Workers Party or PKK. Ankara has sent forces to fight the SDF. When the US withdrew from a few areas around Sere Kaniye in 2019 near the Turkish border, Ankara bombed the SDF, invaded, and backed Syrian proxies called the Syrian National Army to attack the SDF.

This put the US in an awkward position of backing the SDF and having the SDF bombed by a member of NATO. In essence, a US ally was bombing a US partner force.

US forces are also at al-Tanf in southern Syria near the Iraqi and Jordanian border. The US 10th Mountain Division has personnel at Tanf backing a small Arab force called the Syrian Free Army. Tanf is a strategic asset because it sits near the Iraq-Jordan border, and in the days before the fall of the Assad regime, this area could keep watch on Iranian-backed activity.

The US forces in Syria are there to help fight ISIS, not to watch Iran or Iranian-backed militias. However, their mere presence has helped to warn off Iran and Russia, which also had forces in Syria.
Iran says its right to uranium enrichment is non-negotiable
Iran's right to enrich uranium is not negotiable, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Wednesday, ahead of a second round of talks in Oman this weekend with the United States about Tehran's disputed nuclear program.

Araghchi was responding to a comment made on Tuesday by the US top negotiator Steve Witkoff, who said Tehran must "stop and eliminate its nuclear enrichment" to reach a deal with Washington.

"We have heard contradictory statements from Witkoff, but real positions will be made clear at the negotiating table," Araghchi said.

"We are ready to build trust regarding possible concerns over Iran's enrichment (of uranium), but the principle of enrichment is not negotiable."

Iran and the US are due to hold a second round of talks in Oman on Saturday over Tehran's escalating nuclear program, with President Donald Trump threatening military action if there is no deal.

Before the talks, Araghchi will deliver a message from Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei to Russian President Vladimir Putin on a trip to Russia, Iranian state media reported on Wednesday.

The Kremlin on Tuesday declined to comment when asked if Russia was ready to take control of Iran's stocks of enriched uranium as part of a possible future nuclear deal between Iran and the United States.
US sanctions small Chinese refinery, Iranian shadow fleet
Ahead of a second round of nuclear pact talks with Iran, the Trump administration levied more sanctions on Iran’s oil network on Wednesday.

The U.S. State and Treasury departments announced the designation of a Chinese “teapot” refinery, which purchased more than $1 billion of Iranian crude oil, according to the State Department.

Shandong Shengxing Chemical Co. is a small, independent refinery known as a “teapot.” Those refineries, which process crude oil, are known to play a significant role in circumventing sanctions, and U.S. President Donald Trump took action against a different China-based teapot refinery in early February.

“The president is committed to driving Iran’s illicit oil exports, including to China, to zero,” the State Department stated. “All sanctions will be fully enforced under the Trump administration’s maximum pressure campaign on Iran.”

Washington also sanctioned companies and vessels in Iran’s so-called “shadow” fleet, which facilitates Iranian oil shipments to China.

“As long as Iran attempts to generate oil revenues to fund its destabilizing activities, the United States will hold both Iran and all its partners in sanctions evasion accountable,” the State Department stated.

The Trump administration has regularly been announcing sanctions against Iran and its terror proxies, even as it attempts to negotiate with the Islamic Republic over a revived nuclear accord.

U.S. and Iranian officials are expected to meet in Rome on Saturday, following an opening round of dialogue in Oman last weekend.


Lessons from the Kidnapping of a Jewish Businessman 50 Years Ago
A recent novel has brought renewed attention to the real-life incident from which it takes its inspiration: the 1974 kidnapping of a successful American Jewish businessman named Jack Teich. In the rhetoric of his kidnappers, one finds a familiar mixture of racial and class resentment, anti-Semitism, pro-Palestinian sympathies, and justification for violence that wouldn’t be out of place on a college campus today. Teich, in his memoir, describes the rantings of the captor he dubbed “the Keeper.” Daniel Edward Rosen writes:

The Keeper wanted Teich to confess to being a member of the Jewish Defense League, which he was not, and insisted that Teich and the JDL were “going to kill Yasir Arafat,” the leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization. The Keeper’s rants against Jews would continue throughout Teich’s captivity. He called Teich a Jew slumlord. He blamed “Jews and the whites” for causing the “plight of the poor people in America, Africa, and the Middle East.” The Keeper set the ransom for Teich’s release at $750,000 ($4.7 million in today’s dollars)—one of the largest in U.S. history.

The Keeper referred to the ransom as Teich’s “fine” that, once paid, would be sent overseas to “feed hungry poor people in other lands. It’s going to help the Palestinians and poor black people.” He tells Teich: “This is going to teach you and your people not to keep all the money for yourselves.” [The kidnappers] signed their ransom note with “Death to racist capitalism.”

The Keeper’s anti-Semitic rants . . . were a gateway justification for a more malignant form of anti-Zionism as anti-Semitism, which has reemerged after Hamas’s terror attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.
Edith Bruck mural by graffiti artist moved to Rome's Museum of the Shoah following vandalism
The mural entitled "The Star of David" Edith Bruck, created by contemporary artist aleXsandro Palombo, has found a permanent home at the Museum of the Shoah in Rome. Originally appearing in Milan, this mural is a tribute to Holocaust survivor and writer Edith Bruck. Following antisemitic vandalism defacing the mural, the piece has been reinstalled as a powerful symbol of resilience, memory, and the fight against hate.

Edith Bruck, one of the last living witnesses of the Holocaust, attended the unveiling of the artwork, joined by Israeli Ambassador Jonathan Peled, Noemi Di Segni, President of the Union of Italian Jewish Communities, and other distinguished figures. Speaking at the event, Bruck emphasized the significance of the mural continuing to exist, even after it was vandalized.

“The mural must live precisely because it was vandalized, and so it will live, and everything related to memory and what I have personally experienced must live,” Bruck said. “After they defaced it, it will finally live. It will live because it has returned to Rome, where I live.”

The mural, which depicts Bruck in a deportee’s striped uniform with the Israeli flag draped over her shoulders, originally marked the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. The powerful piece was unveiled in Milan in January 2025, but just days later, it was marred by an anti-Semitic act. The Star of David, traditionally a symbol of unity for the Jewish people, was erased, and Bruck’s face was defaced.

No revenge needed
Despite the vandalism, Bruck maintained a message of peace and forgiveness, stating she holds no resentment or hatred toward those responsible for the act.


“I do not know vengeance nor what it is, nor do I ever want to know it in my life,” Bruck added. “I am free from all vengeance, I said that the Holy Door is my heart and that I hate no one.”

The mural’s new home at the Museum of the Shoah Foundation reinforces a message of resistance and remembrance, affirming that memory cannot be erased, regardless of how violent the attempt. The piece joins other works by Palombo in the museum’s collection, including "Antisemitism, History Repeating," which was acquired in January 2025.


German school students made neo-Nazi gesture at Auschwitz and sang a nationalist chant at Bergen-Belsen
German high school students have caused outrage after they made neo-Nazi gestures at Auschwitz and sang a nationalist chant at Bergen-Belsen in two separate incidents.

Pupils from a school in the western city of Bielefeld, aged 14 and 15, were heard singing 'Germany for the Germans, foreigners out' at the Bergen-Belsen memorial. The chant is popular with neo-Nazis.

The students from Helmholtz school were confronted by staff at the site last summer, but the incident has only now been made public, The Times reported.

Headmaster Joachim Held said the pupils involved had been disciplined but not expelled.

He told public broadcaster WDR: 'This is a problem for society as a whole. Incidents like this happen to us more often than we would like.'

Around 52,000 people were killed at the site Bergen-Belsen concentration camp near Hannover during the Nazi regime - including Anne Frank.

In a separate incident at Auschwitz, four pupils from a school in the eastern city of Görlitz were pictured making the 'OK' hand gesture, a signal made by neo-Nazis.

The photo was taken in March but has only been reported this week, after the photo appeared on one of the pupil's Instagram accounts.


Lebanon bans Snow White because of Gal Gadot
Deadline reported on Wednesday that Lebanon banned Disney’s Snow White remake from being shown in theaters there because one of the movie's stars, Gal Gadot, who plays the evil queen, is Israeli and is on Lebanon's boycott list.

According to the Lebanese newspaper An-Nahar, Lebanon’s interior minister, Ahmad Hajjar, suggested the ban, Deadline wrote.

Gadot, who became an international star with the release of Wonder Woman, has always been an outspoken supporter of Israel around the world.

At a speech at the Anti-Defamation League’s summit earlier this year, where she received a leadership award, she said: “I’m Israeli. And I’m Jewish. I’m going to say it again. My name is Gal, and I’m Jewish. Isn’t it crazy that just saying that — just expressing such a simple fact about who I am — feels like a controversial statement? But, sadly, this is where we’re at today.”

Gadot, who helped organize a screening in Los Angeles of footage of October 7 atrocities, also said in her speech, "Never did I imagine that on the streets of the United States, and different cities around the world, we would see people not condemning Hamas, but celebrating, justifying and cheering on a massacre of Jews.” On this and many other occasions, she called for the release of the 59 hostages still held by Hamas in Gaza.

There were reports of tension between Gadot and her Snow White co-star, Rachel Zegler, because of pro-Palestinian sentiments expressed by Zegler, but the two have appeared cordial in joint promotional appearances.

Previous films banned
Gadot's previous films, including Wonder Woman and Death on the Nile, were also banned in Lebanon. The Arab news website reported in March that a number of Arab organizations were calling for a boycott of Snow White because of Gadot's participation.


To the servicemen who liberated Bergen-Belsen, my letter of gratitude
This weekend I will join Jewish ex-servicemen on a visit to Belsen to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the camp. It will be my opportunity to pay tribute to the armed servicemen who gave so much to secure our freedom.

Many of those who entered the camp could not speak of it, so traumatic did they find it. Others, for a similar reason, found it hard later to talk of anything else.

Their relatives often write to me. Here, as it is Yom Hashoah, is my reply.

“Thank you so much for telling me all that your relatives did, and the experience they had when they entered the camp. Given all I know, I am not surprised that the experience stayed with them for the rest of their lives.

I want you to know how much their sacrifice means to me personally. I want you to understand that what they suffered—the psychological damage they endured—was at least not suffered in vain.

My mother was just 11 years old when she was freed from Belsen, and she went on to have a happy life. She settled in Britain, married my Dad, had three children, made many friends and became a much-respected maths teacher. She never forgot what happened to her, but she was able to move beyond it.

If the British had not spent blood and treasure fighting the Germans, my Mum would not have survived to live this worthwhile and fulfilling life. In other words, in a very simple human way, your family brought joy and comfort to mine.

And I am grateful for it. I can’t put petrol in the car, or pass a stranger walking a dog, or reply to a letter from a reader, without appreciating that I am surrounded by people who cared enough to put their lives at risk in order to save mine. And even if this was done by a generation that is now passing, the costs and the scars were borne by everyone here—and I will never forget it.

But I reply not only to offer thanks. I also reply to say that you and I—we have inherited a duty. We each must do honour to our ancestors.




BABY BOOM! Why are Israelis so happy and optimistic about the future? | Israel Undiplomatic
Israel is booming with babies, happiness and economic resilience even in the midst of war. In this uplifting episode of Israel Undiplomatic, hosts Ruthie Blum and Ambassador Mark Regev—both former advisers at the Prime Minister’s Office—break tradition to focus entirely on the good news coming out of Israel today.

This special Passover episode covers three remarkable signs of Israeli strength and optimism: a post-October 7th baby boom, Israel’s top-10 global happiness ranking by the UN and the country’s robust economic outlook despite ongoing conflict.

Ruthie and Mark unpack why birthrates are soaring even among secular Israelis during wartime, what Israel’s happiness index reveals about national purpose and resilience, and how Israeli innovation is driving record-breaking acquisitions in global tech. They also examine how strong family values, deep community bonds and a rising generation of patriotic youth have positioned Israel not just to endure crisis, but to thrive in its aftermath.

Chapters
00:00 Celebrating Good News Amidst Adversity
07:04 The Baby Boom: A Sign of Hope
14:48 Happiness in Israel: A Surprising Index
20:52 Economic Resilience: Israel's Bright Future


Gil Troy: 'Dry Bones' cartoonist Yaakov Kirschen helped Jews to love our faults, not just heroics
It’s eerie reading Kirschen’s 1996 and 2017 collections. They’re so prescient. Even in 1994, he resisted Oslo delusions, labeling “the Palestinian peace process” a “virtual reality game.”

“Illegal” West Bank settlements are called “towns” if they’re Arab – and “obstacles to peace” if they’re Jewish. Why, he asked: “Because they’re Jewish.”

Kirschen defined “land for peace” as “Israeli land” exchanged for whatever Arabs decided to call “peace.” And years before October 7, he depicted “The Gaza Underworld”: Hamas terrorists tunneling toward Israel.

Always too honest to be politically correct, Kirschen catalogued Palestinians’ rejection of compromise. “You’ve got to feel sorry for the Palestinians,” he admitted. Their “leadership” is “even dumber than ours.”

Journalistic hypocrisy embarrassed Kirschen. In 2009, he skewered reporters for wanting to report Gaza casualties without mentioning “Dead civilians courtesy of Hamas human shield dept.” He wondered what always made Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “Israel’s Hard Line Leader” while Syria’s “dictator” was “The New Hope for Peace.”

Similarly, Kirschen laughed that “brave BBC cartoonist[s]” drawing “antisemitic images of Jews and the Jewish state,” feared drawing Muhammed cartoons. The Jew-bashing shows they enjoy “being free”; their cowardice shows they enjoy “being alive.”

Ultimately, Kirschen understood that “The Jewish state is maligned and defamed… not because of what it does, but because of what it is… The Jewish state.” He compared claiming “anti-Zionism is not antisemitism,” to dentists saying “your teeth are fine… but your gums” must “come out.”

European appeasers, liberal hypocrites, and Jewish traitors infuriated Kirschen. “When future historians write of European courage in the face of Islamic terror,” he thundered, “it will be a really short book.”

“Islamism is anti-gay, anti-Christian, anti-feminist, and against academic freedom,” he noted 15 years ago. “So it’s no surprise that gays, Christians, feminists, and professors are demonstrating. The surprise,” alas, is that they’re “demonstrating against the State of Israel.”

And years before today’s smarmy anti-Zionist Jews demonized Israel, he scoffed: Today’s boycott “to crush the Jewish state is not like the Nazi boycotts to crush the Jews.” Why? Because Nazis didn’t “recruit Jewish participants.”

Like many Zionists, Kirschen could have allowed our enemies to embitter him. Instead, our kookiness and success reassured him. He lived long enough to see Israel evolve into a more functional society, even as most Palestinians and much of the world remained cemented in their hostility and hypocrisy.

“Yes, the ancient promises are ridiculous,” Kirschen had “Joe Zionist” assure “everyone at a community meeting in ancient Egypt,” which the Jewish News Syndicate republished days before he died. But Israel “has no natural resources, so nobody will attack us. We will live in peace and anonymity for eons.” This unapologetic Zionist softie titled the cartoon: “He didn’t get it right… but his heart was in the right place.”

That’s precisely where Ya’akov Kirschen’s heart was too – which is how he taught generations to laugh, squirm, and love as good Zionists, all at the same time.




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