History is repeating itself. Remember 30November. Don’t Be A Statistic!From UK: Make Aliyah! Have them call Jewish Agency to start the formal application 0800-085-2105 / 0800-051-8227 or email gci-en@jafi.org
|
|
The Antisemites are in Full force!The Palestinian and their Antisemitic supporters are now after EVERY JEW IN THE WORLD. THEY WANT TO DO TO YOU WHAT THEY DID IN ISRAEL
|
Let’s Come Back Home Again
|
This corridor is the most magical place on earth.
We are waiting for you family! be safe, dont take too long.
300% from 🇫🇷 100% from 🇺🇸 150% from 🇨🇦 40% from 🇬🇧
She was right! Looking at the world reaction to Israel’s response to the Oct 7 Hamas massacre, I would just add: “Well, no more will we settle for the world’s pity. The Jewish people have regained our sovereignty, our army and our independence, having made a solemn promise of Never Again, whereas Hamas seeks to repeat the massacre of Oct 7 again and again.”
The world has lost it. Don’t play their game. Step away. Shut it down. Take a breather.
I see you’re having a moment. You open your X feed, Jew hatred. Your Instagram? Jew hatred. TikTok? 🤮 You are ready to give up. I get it. Don’t. It’s ok to not be ok. In fact, if you were ok, that would be reason to worry. So shut it down. You don’t have to be there all day. Consuming the news like a junkie helps no one. Shut it down for now. You can go back later. But I need to remind you of some things. When you’re told you’re crazy enough times, you start to question whether you really are crazy. So let’s just get this out of the way. You’re not crazy. I know everywhere you look, people are telling you you’re crazy, but guess what? They are. You’re not. You care about facts. You care about truth. You don’t have hate in your heart. They’re the sick ones. You’re healthy. Don’t forget that for a second. The lies being told about Jews are extremely reminiscent of what came before the darkest days in our history. The rhetoric. The blood libels. The calls for violence. It’s Deja vu on steroids. So here, come back to this post every time you are having a moment. So let’s break this down. Israel is the good guy here. Hamas and all of its supporters wherever they may be? They’re the bad guys. That is not up for discussion. The world has lost its moral compass. That doesn’t mean you have to. They can’t differentiate between good and evil. You can, and don’t let anyone confuse you. Israel is, in no way whatsoever, the aggressor here. Israel didn’t start the war. Israel wants to end the war. There is one aggressor here and that is Hamas. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. Humanitarian crisis in Gaza? Oh, where do I even begin? If anyone has a problem with what’s going on in Gaza, let them turn to Egypt to open their borders to Gazans. If someone talks about Gaza and doesn’t mention Egypt, then they don’t have a problem with Gaza. They have a problem with Israel. Don’t fall for their tricks. Besides, let me say this as clearly as possible. There. Is. No. Genocide. In. Gaza! The numbers the press blindly quotes originate from a savage barbaric terrorist organization. They are lies. The numbers you’re being fed are straight up lies. There are way less people dead in Gaza than the lies in the press, and out of those dead, the majority are either terrorists or terror supporters. Genocide my butt. Remember. Keep your moral clarity. Keep your honesty in a world full of deception. Don’t let them get to you. Don’t let them make you question your values. They are ideologically lost. You aren’t. By no honest standards is Israel committing anything even remotely resembling a genocide. The Palestinian population has grown exponentially. That proves there is no genocide. Period. Glad that conversation is now over. Israel must enter Rafah. It is the moral thing to do. You don’t put out 75% of a fire. Sure, Israel can try to minimize civilian death, but that has nothing to do with the legitimacy of the upcoming Rafah operation. You don’t decide whether a war is morally justified based on how many innocent people will die. By that standard, WWII was unjustified. Enough with that nonsense. Don’t let them confuse you. Anything less than the total destruction of Hamas is both immoral and dangerous. Anyone who says otherwise is morally bankrupt. Don’t doubt yourself. Hamas must not exist for the world to be safe. Period. Full stop. Not one Hamas terrorist should be spared. Not a single one. That doesn’t make you immoral. That is the epitome of morality, irrelevant of what the world says. There is ZERO indiscriminate fire in Gaza. I mean, by the IDF. Hamas does nothing BUT fire indiscriminately. No matter what anyone tells you, the IDF has never and will never intentionally kill innocent people. I know that’s what everyone is saying. They’re all liars. It’s a modern day blood libel. Don’t let it in. As far as innocent people, every single innocent life lost in this war is on Hamas. There is nothing else to say about that. The IDF has ZERO responsibility to protect Gazans who Hamas is using as human shields. Sure, the IDF can do what it can, but every one of those deaths is on Hamas. I know that diplomatic isolation is not fun. I know you’re worried about it. That’s fine. It’s worrisome. But again, remember morality. Biden can say what he wants and we can take his opinion into account, but that doesn’t make him right. He isn’t. Hamas needs to be a thing of the past. Biden can either get on board with that mission or not, but the mission remains. I know it’s infuriating and frustrating that everywhere you look, Jews are being vilified. This isn’t a new phenomenon. But it’s new for you. And so it’s hard. I never thought I’d see this level of antisemitism in my lifetime. But let me just remind you, anyone who ever tried to annihilate us is extinct. Right now you feel very alone, I get it. You’re not. The vast majority of people in the western world support Israel’s right to defend itself. They don’t make headlines. They’re not as exciting as Neo Nazis marching in the streets. But the majority has our back. And those who don’t, made a very big mistake that they’ll pay for. That’s not a threat. It’s a historical fact. Oh, and another thing… This is going to anger some people and that’s fine. Enough with the artificial differentiation between Jews and Zionists. The vast majority of Jews are Zionists. The anti Zionist Jews that all the antisemites love to quote are statistically non-existent. They are a fraction of a percentage. If you think Jews don’t deserve self determination in their eternal homeland, you’re antisemitic. There, I said it. Anti Zionism is antisemitism. End of story. Enough with the ridiculous notion that you can be against Zionism and pro Jewish. That’s impossible. So, I know you’re feeling overwhelmed and sad by all the news. Step away. Shut it down. Take a breather. The world has lost it. Don’t play their game. Step away, stay sane, and remember, you are one of the good guys, no matter what the world keeps telling you.
|
|
For Jews, every day is October 7thhttps://www.standwithus.com/post/for-jews-every-day-is-october-7th The Times of Israel Experiencing violent trauma would have been enough.
Now imagine experiencing violent trauma, the rape of your loved ones, their murder in ways so brutal as to be almost unimaginable, and then their dismemberment and the defilement of their bodies. Add to this unfathomable loss, the constant fear of attack as you attempt to grieve, the inability to give your surviving family a sense of security and the consistent dripfeed of new, gruesome testimony – and indeed video as the perpetrators filmed it all – on a daily basis. And as each shiva in each mourning-house takes place, the shadow of anxiety about the wellbeing of the mass-kidnappees is ever-present.
I studied the psychology of resilience in the face of terrible ordeals and wrote a book about it, but there is no psychologist on this earth that is fully equipped to counsel the victims of the Hamas massacre of October 7th. Help is certainly at hand – but there will never be a coming to terms with what happened that grisly Sabbath morning in southern Israel.
Your Jewish friends are suffering. Days, weeks have passed since the news started to seep out and the revelations began to be heard, but it is as if the clocks stopped on that unbearable day and time has yet to move on. I studied the psychology of resilience in the face of terrible ordeals and wrote a book about it, but there is no psychologist on this earth that is fully equipped to counsel the victims of the Hamas massacre of October 7th. Help is certainly at hand – but there will never be a coming to terms with what happened that grisly Sabbath morning in southern Israel.
Your Jewish friends are suffering. Days, weeks have passed since the news started to seep out and the revelations began to be heard, but it is as if the clocks stopped on that unbearable day and time has yet to move on.
The deadliest day for the Jewish People since the Holocaust, a shadow that looms large in the mind of every Jew. The parallels abound. Yet – with the exception of a decreasing amount of people – we didn’t live through the Holocaust. We did live through October 7th. (One awful thought I had following the massacre: for the first time, I am pleased that most Holocaust survivors are no longer with us so they were spared having to see this atrocity take place again in their lifetime.)
It is as the terrorists intended. The Nazis carried out systemic murder, and cruelty and took pride in it. But they didn’t have social media. The Hamas jihadists tortured and massacred families – and uploaded it to Facebook in real-time so their extended family and friends would have to watch. The psychological damage alone to so many – including children – is gargantuan.
It took time for modern-day racists to begin to deny the Holocaust. Today’s massacre-deniers did not pause for breath. Trawl through your favorite digital platform of choice and see denial, minimization and justification – not just from Hamas – but from people who live near you. Antisemitic attacks and threats peak. Never again is ever again.
Jews are the eternal survivors. From Greek and Roman attempts to snuff out our nationhood and appropriate our symbols, to the bloodletting of the Crusades, the pogroms of Eastern Europe, the Arab Farhud attacks of Middle Eastern Jews and beyond, we are still here. We are also no strangers to terrorism. Hamas and their allies have murdered civilians riding buses, eating out, dancing at clubs and at prayer. We are still here.
And we will be here forevermore. Hamas will be relegated, much like the aforementioned Jew-oppressors, to the recesses of history. Jews will continue, never the same, but as committed to life and their peoplehood as ever. Meanwhile, we grieve and we would appreciate your solidarity.
For now, every day is October 7th. It will be October 7th for some time.
Not because a Jew blew up or hijacked an airplane. In all cases they were the same “peaceful” people: 1970: Four airplanes blasted in Jordan 1985: American TWA flight 847 hijacked 1988: American Pan-Am Flight, 243 passengers killed. 2015: Russian Metrojet Flight, 224 passengers killed 2001: 9/11 Twin Towers New York
Jewish wedding pictures-Lakewood, NJ.
Location: Lakewood, NJ. Mazel Tov! ❤️
|
|
Tuesday, 05 June 2018 https://lazerbrody.typepad.com/lazer_beams/2018/06/rav-yehuda-zev-leibowitzs-third-prediction.html Archive: https://web.archive.org/web/20180607122634/https://lazerbrody.typepad.com/lazer_beams/2018/06/rav-yehuda-zev-leibowitzs-third-prediction.html Rav Yehuda Zev Leibowitz’s Third Prediction
If I were running for office or attempting to win a popularity contest, I wouldn’t be writing this post. Many of our readers outside of Israel are not going to like this. But what can a person do if he doesn’t like the weather? Bury his head in the ground? Close the curtains and say that there’s no hurricane with killer winds outside? Once a person’s house becomes flooded, the closed windows and curtains don’t help anymore. There comes a time when one cannot escape the storm outside. Yet, once the storm is predicted, he doesn’t sit with folded arms until it washes him away. He can get in the car or on a plane and move to a more amenable climate.
Don’t forget that the inclement weather, as well as the inclement political climate, all come from Hashem and for a reason. Be patient, I’m getting to the point. But first, I must preface and ask a question: Why are we so happy on Passover Seder night? Any 7-year-old will laugh and say, “What a dumb question! That’s when Hashem took us out of slavery in Egypt!”
Is it such a dumb question when I show little 7-year-old Chaimk’e and his parents that in the three days that preceded our Exodus from Egypt in the Hebrew year of 2448 (1282 BCE), eight million Jews died, and that’s according to the conservative figure. Some say it was 10 million. Rashi explains that only 1 out of 5 Jews left Egypt in the Exodus; the other 4 died during the three days of darkness. Since a minimum of 2 million left, that means that at least 8 million perished!
Why, therefore, do we not mourn during the three days that precede Pesach, and declare them as national Holocaust Days, when 33% more Jews died than during the entire six years of the Nazi Holocaust? Not only do we not mourn, we rejoice! What’s going on?
Our sages rule that we do not mourn anyone who denies the Redemption and refuses to be a part of it, just as we don’t mourn a heretic who denies the veracity of Moses’s prophecy and the Torah (Rambam, Laws of Teshuva, 3:8, and other places). This notion is even anchored in The Code of Jewish Law (see Shulchan Oruch, Yora Deah 345:5; Mishna Berura on Orach Chaim 126:1, letter b). Moses, in the Name of Hashem, told the Children of Israel to arise, we must quickly leave Egypt. 80% didn’t listen to him. They paid a steep price but we don’t mourn for them. They had become used to Egypt and had no desire – despite what Hashem wanted – to leave Egypt. Even though they were slaves, they liked the Egyptian culture, music, pastimes and food. Moses said no, we must go to our Promised Land. Egypt is not our home.
Moses’s voice saying, “We must go to our Promised Land”, echoes through all of our history.
The periodic “Golden Ages” of our Diaspora have always been followed by calamity. The Golden Age of Jewry in the Iberian Peninsula culminated in 1492, when the horrendous Inquisition began. Jews were either killed, exiled or forcefully converted to Catholicism. The Golden Age of German and Eastern European Jewry ended in Hitler’s Holocaust.
There is only one, true Golden Age in Judaism, and that’s when our exiles return home, Moshiach comes and our Holy Temple is rebuilt.
Hashem wants to redeem His people but in the meanwhile, He won’t until they come home. The sand of that “meanwhile” keeps is emptying out from the top of that 2,000 year hourglass. When a certain date comes according to Hashem’s timeline, He won’t wait anymore and Moshiach will come whether we like it or not or whether we’re here in Israel or not.
Rav Yehuda Zev, of saintly and blessed memory, lived through the Nazi Holocaust. He witnessed the slaughter of his parents, his siblings and his fiance. He never had children because of the torture that the satanic Nazis did to his body. He did not take the word “Holocaust” lightly – he lived through it and experienced it on his own flesh and in his own heart in the most excruciatingly painful way. Though scarred, completely, inside and out, he was a tzaddik of perfect emuna and not bitter in the slightest. He knew that everything was from Hashem. Yet, with all his heart, he did everything to prevent another Holocaust. He didn’t want Moshiach to come if the price would be tragic.
A tzaddik of Rav Yehuda Zev’s caliber has 20/20 spiritual vision because nothing in this world can fool, sway or tempt him. No wonder he was so accurate in predicting the Arab Spring and Bibi’s inability to attack Iran as we wrote on our No Go post from this past Friday.
A movie clip has now become public, where Rabbi Aharon Stern shlit’a from Bnai Brak, who was Rabbi Yehuda Zev’s personal attendant, reveals the tzaddik’s third prediction and says: “Before his death, Rav Leibowitz told me that the anti-Semitism in the United States is only going to continue to grow, until it gets to the point where the Jews will be forced to flee. They must come to Israel soon; if they wait too long, they’ll be lucky to exit with the shirt on their backs…come soon, the Redemption will be here in the Land of Israel, not anywhere else.” In case anyone doubts the veracity and authenticity of the quote, at the bottom of this post is the vid in Hebrew where you can see Rav Stern saying this (see minutes 2:48-3:40).
Hashem wants to redeem us, so He wants us all here. But what about those who for any number of reasons can’t come now? What about those with joint custody on children from a previous marriage or those with an elderly parent? (Plug in your own reason…)
Rav Shalom Arush shlit’a says that even if you can’t come now, you can do 2 things: 1) Pray daily for Aliya, so that you too can come home to the Land of Israel; 2) Spread emuna far and wide, in any way you can. This will protect you in the meanwhile, because the spread of emuna is also needed to expedite Geula, the full redemption of our people, speedily and in our days, amen! ביבי בוקר טוב – הרב אהרון שטרן שליט”א
|
|
Spotted in Los Angeles
|
|
Kristallnacht 2024 | Chabad Shul-Pomona NY-Arson-17April2024
The holy Torah books were burnt to ashes. This was no accident . It reminds me of dark ages we all thought we won’t have to go through again.💔 #Kristallnacht
|
|
Canada in 2024 is Germany in 1939!
🚨Targeted radical protests of intimidation and hatred 🚨Daily incidents of #antisemitism 🚨Theatres canceling plays and banning #Jewish films 🚨Upcoming ban of #Kosher slaughter 🚨Politicians using #antisemitic tropes on the floor of parliament 🚨Systemic antisemitism unmasked in government, healthcare and multiply public services 🚨Jewish students having to hide being Jewish on campus History will judge our leaders #cdnpoli cc @JustinTrudeau @theJagmeetSingh @yfblanchet @ElizabethMay @Dave_Eby @NikiSharma2
|
|
The World does not want to see
Every word @lucyaharish.
Don’t say we didn’t warn you
The rise of Jew Hate is always the harbinger of the fall of society into tyranny and totalitarianism. Don’t say we didn’t warn you. #AntizionismIsAntisemitism
|
|
#KidnappedFromIsraelhttps://www.kidnappedfromisrael.com/
On October 7th, 2023 more than 240 innocent civilians were abducted from Israel into the Gaza Strip by Hamas. Ranging in age from 3 months to 85 years old, these people were kidnapped in the midst of a vicious attack against Israel during which thousands of children, elderly, women, and men were slaughtered, raped, and wounded.
With the clear goal of returning these hostages back home safely and immediately, thousands of people have been hanging photos of the hostages in dozens of cities around the world, pasting up posters that were circulated via dropbox for individuals to print independently. These are the Posters. Please Download and Print them out.Bring them home November 7 English
Emily holds up her own kidnapped poster
I hope every horrible person who tore down her poster sees this.
|
|
Antisemites caught ripping down posters of kidnapped Israelis.
Baruchy-tweet-7November2023-Try Again
StopAntisemitism-tweet-7November2023- It is absolutely unacceptable for someone with such bias and hate to serve in your office @nyc_defenders
|
|
Senior CIA Official Posts, Then Deletes Pro-Palestine Contentby Tyler Durden, 29November2023 – https://www.zerohedge.com/political/senior-cia-official-posts-then-deletes-pro-palestine-content
A senior official at the CIA posted a pro-Palestine photo on her Facebook page amid Israel’s bombardment of the Gaza Strip but later deleted the post and other pro-Palestinian content after it was reported by the media.
The Financial Times reported on Tuesday that the CIA associate deputy director for analysis changed her Facebook cover photo on 21 October to an image of a man waving a Palestinian flag. The image posted to the CIA official’s Facebook page, as identified in FT. The official also published a selfie with a sticker saying “Free Palestine” superimposed on the photograph, which the Financial Times reported was posted to Facebook years before the ongoing war, citing an unnamed person familiar with the image.
The images were deleted on Monday after the Financial Times contacted the official, the report said. Middle East Eye reached out to the CIA associate deputy director for analysis on LinkedIn for comment but didn’t receive a reply by the time of publication.
While CIA officials like those in the directorate of operations mainly work undercover with their identity obscured, others who provide analysis for the agency can have a more public profile. It is extremely rare, however, for officials working in government intelligence, particularly senior officials, to share their political views on current events.
The associate deputy director for analysis at the CIA reviews and studies the raw intelligence that field officers collect from foreign sources abroad. That intelligence goes into a highly classified document known as the President’s Daily Brief, which the US leader receives almost daily.
The revelation that a senior US intelligence official was posting images widely seen as supportive of the Palestinian cause comes at a sensitive time for the Biden administration, which has faced pushback from officials over its unconditional support for Israel.
Middle East Eye reported in October that State Department officials had penned dissent cables calling for the US to push Israel for a ceasefire. The Biden administration’s stance has also pitted senior officials within the National Security Council against younger staffers, particularly those from diverse backgrounds, who have expressed concern over the support to Israel.
A former US official was recently filmed advocating for killing Palestinian children. New York police arrested Stuart Seldowitz, a former US State Department official, earlier in November after he was captured on video calling an Egyptian halal food street vendor a terrorist and saying the death of 4,000 Palestinian children “wasn’t enough”.
Seldowitz was deputy director in the US State Department’s Office of Israel and Palestinian Affairs. He was later National Security Council advisor to President Barack Obama.
The Financial Times report is notable because it is the first to suggest that a senior US official within the intelligence community has expressed pro-Palestinian sentiment since the outbreak of war on 7 October.
The CIA official was later identified by name in a Washington Free Beacon report…
Amy McFadden, the Associate Deputy Director for Analysis at the CIA, altered her social media cover photo to one supporting Palestine, which occurred two weeks after Hamas, recognized as a terrorist organization by the United States, launched attacks against Israel. The CIA prides itself on being apolitical and delivering unbiased intelligence to the US president regardless of the political views of its officers and staff. It is extremely rare for a senior intelligence officer to make personal political statements.
The disclosure comes as the head of the spy agency, Bill Burns, takes on a leading role in managing the administration’s response to the conflict. The CIA director has met with leaders from Egypt, Jordan, Israel, and Gulf states to discuss Israel’s battle plans and the release of hostages. On Tuesday, he was in Doha for talks with his Israeli counterpart and Qatari officials serving as mediators with Hamas. |
|
JerusalemCats Comments: Look at the News with all the pro-Palestinian riots, look at Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan. Look at the Universities! Hamas is in America and Europe! Netanyahu Warns America: “You’re Next” If IDF Doesn’t Decimate Hamas “Barbarism”by Tyler Durden, 14November2023 – https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/netanyahu-tells-americans-youre-next-if-idf-doesnt-defeat-hamas-barbarism
Israel has been ramping up its global messaging campaign at a moment it faces increased isolation from Global South countries, and amid growing criticism from large powers like China, Russia, and major Latin American countries such as Brazil.
But there have been signs of dissent even within the Biden administration as well, with pushback especially coming from the State Department of late, as US officials want to see the White House become more publicly critical of alleged Israeli war crimes, given also the immense death toll, at over 11,200 Gazans killed – with some half of these believed to be women and children.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is now taking his message to the American public, in a Monday night appearance on Fox News’ Sean Hannity, warning that the US will be “next” if his military doesn’t decimate Hamas. “We have to win not only for our sake, but for the sake of the Middle East, for the sake of our Arab neighbors. You know what, for the sake of Gazans who’ve been held by this dark tyranny that has brutalized and brought them nothing but bloodshed and poverty and misery,” Netanyahu introduced.
“We have to win to protect Israel. We have to win to safeguard the Middle East. We have to win for the sake of the civilized world. That’s the battle we’re fighting, and it’s being waged right now. There is no substitute for that victory.”
And that’s when he emphasized the potential dire repercussions for the West if Israel fails in its objectives. “If we don’t win now, then Europe is next and you’re next. And we have to win,” he added.
Netanyahu’s words carried a theme of a war between ‘barbarians’ and ‘civilization’, with an intent to make Americans believe what’s happening in the Middle East is “your fight” as well. According to Fox:
Such messaging filled with a ‘good vs. evil’ motif was also heavily relied upon by the Bush administration and neocons in selling the Iraq War in 2003. Netanyahu has in past years also painted such simple contrasts when speaking about Iran and its supposed ‘nuclear threat’ as well.
Netanyahu may have been responding to rare words of restraint issued by President Biden on the same day. “I have not been reluctant in expressing my concerns about what’s going on and it’s my hope and expectation that it will be less intrusive action relative to the hospital,” Biden said Monday regarding the worsening humanitarian crisis at al-Shifa hospital in the center of Gaza City.
Zelensky’s playbook of “you’re next”?…
– Israel is invading Gaza “for the sake of Gazans.” Sounds very generous and humanitarian – War boils down to “good guys” versus “bad guys” – If Israel doesn’t occupy the Gaza strip, “Europe is next, and you’re next.” I guess he means Ohio “So, I remain somewhat hopeful but the hospital must be protected,” he said. This was in response to growing international condemnation, including from the UN, of Israeli troops laying siege to the large Gaza hospital, amid reports that patients – including the very young – are dying, and as the hospital has run out of fuel to keep vital generators going.
|
|
EU Supreme Court has just outlawed kosher slaughter in the EU
|
|
The lives of French Jews today
” A hairdresser refusing a Jewish client
|
|
Dear diaspora Jews: It’s overThe past month has reinforced my belief that there is one place we’re meant to be, and it isn’t New York, Buenos Aires, or LondonJosh Feldman Nov 19, 2023, https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/dear-diaspora-jews-its-over/
As an Australian Jew, I’ve always proudly contended that I live in the safest Jewish community in the world. We have no lists of synagogues shot up by white supremacists, nor politicians whose campaign to become prime minister prompted nearly half the country’s Jews to consider leaving (high standards, I know). And while Australian Jewry — which is believed to have the world’s largest Holocaust survivor population per capita outside of Israel — is well aware of the dangers of antisemitism, much of the community has long-shared this sentiment. Antisemitism has always been present, but it was rarely, if ever, a cause for widespread anxiety.
If the outbreak of Jew-hatred after the October 7 Massacre didn’t change that, then November 10 did. As Melbourne’s Jews welcomed Shabbat, a mob of Arab and far-left thugs traveled from the other side of the city to protest in the heart of Melbourne’s Jewish community, forcing a synagogue only meters from the protest to evacuate mid-prayer.
Masked in keffiyehs, waving Palestinian flags, and accompanied by an astonishingly useless police force, the group chanted “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” — that all-too familiar call for the Jewish state’s destruction — and hurled vile insults at Jewish locals who exited their homes in a show of defiance, sparking violent clashes. Multiple witnesses told me protesters threw rocks and full water bottles at Jewish attendees.
One protester, keenly aware of the significance of harassing Jews in their backyard on Shabbat, taunted Jewish counter-protesters that they “can’t do this in Broadmeadows,” a heavily Muslim suburb around 40 minutes by car from where the protest took place. “People inside their homes having Shabbat dinner terrified hearing the chants of Allahu Akbar,” one Jewish local wrote during the ordeal.
To say this has shaken Melbourne’s Jewish community is a gross understatement. The quiet suburban life for Melburnian Jews, often accompanied by varying levels of naivety and denial about the dangers facing us, is over as we know it.
Such a story has become chillingly familiar for too many Diaspora Jewish communities since Hamas’s sadistic orgy of terror on October 7 and the terrifying explosion of antisemitism that followed. Jews have begun removing mezuzahs from their front doors. Jewish schools are telling their students they don’t have to wear school uniform so as to avoid being identifiably Jewish in public. Others are letting students study at home, while some Jewish parents have banned their children from taking public transport to school.
The night of the Melbourne protest, a Jewish family friend had invited people over to celebrate their birthday. Some refused to go: they were too scared to leave their homes.
The confident assertion that now is the best time in history to be Jewish has been all but forgotten. Welcome to the new Jewish reality.
For much of Diaspora Jewry, this is an immensely disorientating time, and understandably so. But as I told a friend who said the other day that no matter where we live, Jews will always be outnumbered by those who hate us, there is, in fact, one place we can go. It’s home to some seven million Jews, is run by Jews, for Jews, and three of its last six prime ministers have been veterans of one of the most elite Jewish fighting forces in our people’s history.
If ever there was a time to move to Israel, it’s now. Modern Zionism’s founding father Theodor Herzl’s rationale was simple: Europe is not safe for Jews; only in an independent Jewish state in the land of Israel can we guarantee our own safety. He was right. In a post-Holocaust West, however, many Jews believed that they too, had found countries that could guarantee not just their safety, but their sense of security. As long as that remained true, there was little reason to leave — hence why approximately half of world Jewry lives outside of Israel.
The last few weeks have shattered that illusion for many Jews. In response, some Jewish writers and activists have argued that now is the time for Diaspora Jewry to create new institutions, rethink who its allies are, and change how it educates the non-Jewish world about antisemitism.
While well-intentioned, these miss the point entirely. Generation after generation, Jews were expelled from their homes, shoved into ghettos, and murdered at will. Nothing our ancestors did could change that. Jewish communities today need to come to the same realization. This is not, and never has been, a question of allyship or education. Antisemitism is not an enemy you can defeat with well-funded and cleverly planned campaigns. The game is up. It’s over.
For some, moving to Israel now might feel like giving up, and I can understand why. I began the process of making aliyah months before October 7, and as someone who has never had much faith in the non-Jewish world’s ability or desire to guarantee Jewish safety, the past month has only reinforced my belief that there is one place we’re meant to be, and it isn’t New York, Buenos Aires, London, or Johannesburg.
For other Jews, however — many of whose families have spent generations flourishing in the Diaspora — it’s far from simple to admit that the societies they, their parents, and their grandparents invested in have proven to be a false promise.
But moving to Israel is not giving up. It is an embrace of Jewish destiny. It is to unapologetically declare that as Jews, we are choosing to direct our energy towards helping our ancestral homeland instead of spending countless hours and dollars contributing to societies that are already beginning to turn on us. My sense of Jewish pride demands that I accept nothing less than a society that will do everything in its power to guarantee my ability to live safely as a proud Jew. A world in which Jews are scared to be publicly Jewish is not one I want to live in.
Diaspora Jews have long-described Israel as the one place we can go to if we no longer feel safe in our host countries. It’s our insurance policy on which we hoped we’d never have to make a claim. But since October 7, what was usually little more than a comforting remark has been violently transformed, against our will, to a concrete reflection of reality. It’s time for us to cash in.
|
|
1970-2020 Jewish golden age
History will look at 1970-2020 as a golden age, where Jewish men in most Western cities could walk openly with a kippah without much concern. Where Jews could go on family outings with only a vague worry that there is a tiny chance that some crazy person might harass them. Where no one had a second thought about walking to and from synagogue with the kids. Certainly there are some neighborhoods where this is still true, but the map of where Jews can walk without fear has been shrinking over the past several years, and shrank dramatically since October 7, after decades of expansion. Like it or not, the normal state of the world over the past 2000 years is where Jews are outcasts and demeaned. These last decades were not a trend as we had hoped, but an anomaly. The West should be nervous. Jews are the canary in the coal mine, and this is just the beginning. History shows that the future for countries that decide that it is too much trouble to protect their Jews is bleak indeed. JerusalemCats Comments: I would add that the start of the “Golden Age” was the Six Day War on June 5 to 10, 1967 and ended on October 7, 2023
|
|
The truth is Israel’s narrativeIt took 30 years, billions in petrodollars and billions more from cultural Marxists to develop a language of lies and manipulation that placed Jews in Israel and the Diaspora in the oppressor column.https://www.jns.org/the-truth-is-israels-narrative/ Caroline B. Glick
(November 8, 2023 / JNS) Paul Kessler went to a pro-Hamas demonstration in the Los Angeles area waving an Israeli flag to stand down the crowd gathered to support the genocide of Jews. A pro-Hamas demonstrator, who tracked the 69-year-old before he approached him, clubbed Kessler in the head with a megaphone. Kessler fell to the ground and died of cerebral bleeding.
Forty-eight hours after Kessler was killed, his murderer was still free, even though the police know who he is. Ventura County Sheriff Jim Fryoff hadn’t arrested him because he couldn’t decide whether the murderer’s blow was the reason that Kessler died. Maybe he would have fallen on the ground head-first anyway. These things happen.
Fryoff isn’t the only one who can’t see the connection between A and B these days. From coast to coast, university presidents can’t figure out whether Israel is to be supported and Hamas condemned, or Hamas is to be supported and Israel is to be condemned. It’s true Hamas murderers savagely executed, raped, sodomized, decapitated, dismembered and kidnapped thousands of innocent Israelis. But then again, Israel retaliated and stuff.
The confusion isn’t limited to police chiefs and professors. Consider Sen. Bernie Sanders. The Socialist from Vermont told CNN that a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas is impossible. As he put it, “I don’t know how you can have a ceasefire, a permanent ceasefire with an organization like Hamas, which is dedicated to turmoil and chaos and destroying the State of Israel.”
But then again, Sanders said: “The immediate task right now is to end the bombing, to end the horrific humanitarian disaster, to build—go forward with the entire world for a two-tier, two-state solution to the crisis to give the Palestinian people hope.”
So, on the one hand, you can’t have a ceasefire because Hamas won’t cease firing since it seeks Israel’s annihilation. And on the other hand, Israel needs to stop firing on Hamas and give the people who elected Hamas a state. Sanders’s confusion makes sense, given his Jewish roots on the one hand, and his ties to the Hamas caucus in the U.S. House of Representatives on the other.
The obvious contradiction in his position resonates with President Joe Biden’s viewpoints as well. True, Biden says, Israel has a right and a duty to defeat Hamas. But it must do so without harming any of Hamas’s human shields, and it needs to accept a ceasefire that will allow Hamas to regroup, resupply and rearm.
True, Biden admits, Hamas wants to annihilate the Jews. And true (although he won’t acknowledge it), the unpopular PLO-controlled Palestinian Authority also wants to annihilate the Jews. All the same, Biden insists that they must always be empowered and never punished for anything.
Deeper than the competence of spokespeopleOn Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told ABC News that after the war, Israel will need to maintain overall security control over the Gaza Strip to prevent Hamas from rebuilding its military capabilities. The next day, the U.S. State Department publicly rejected the notion that Israel might stick around. State Department spokesman Vedant Patel told reporters, “Our viewpoint is that Palestinians must be at the forefront of these decisions, and Gaza is Palestinian land and will remain Palestinian land.”
People keep comparing Hamas’s slaughter of civilians to Sept. 11 and Israel’s counterattack as its invasion of Iraq. But as Capt. Thomas Wheatley, a professor of international law at West Point, explained in a paper he published in a George Mason University international legal journal, the analogy is wrong. Hamas didn’t hijack a plane. It invaded Israel. It occupied Israeli territory for several hours and used its time in power to conduct crimes against humanity and genocidal acts. It seized 244 hostages. The proper analogy of Israel’s counterattacks isn’t Mosul but Normandy. Israel needs to treat Gaza how the United States and the Allies treated Nazi Germany, Wheatley explained. Why can’t the West’s “best and brightest” understand this basic truth?
Israelis like to blame ourselves for this fiasco. We say that our public diplomacy, aka hasbara, is a complete failure. Our spokespeople are incompetent, the critics insist. But the truth is different. Israel’s official spokesmen are generally competent and often well-spoken. Palestinian spokesmen are just as often incompetent, and look and sound like terrorists. The problem is much deeper than the competence of official spokespeople.
Partly, it’s that a lot of people around the world simply hate Jews. We’ve been getting a good look at the dimensions of the phenomenon since the Oct. 7 mass slaughter. Jew-haters from Pakistan to Philadelphia like Hamas because Hamas is killing Jews.
But not all of the people who insist that Israel is in the wrong—or simply can’t see the difference between Israel and Hamas—are motivated primarily by bigotry.
Their problem isn’t that they despise Jews or even that Israel isn’t providing the facts. Their problem is that they have been trained to care more about “the narrative” than the facts. And “the narrative” tells them to stand with the Palestinians, who seek to annihilate the Jews.
Whether the problem began with Edward Said’s destruction of Middle East Studies with the publication of his anti-intellectual and glamorous Orientalism in 1978—or with the imposition of groupthink under the title “political correctness” as a litmus test for social, academic and professional advancement in the 1990s—over the last generation and a half, the details of the narrative were filled in. Across all fields of human endeavor and experience, humankind was divided into the oppressed, who can do no wrong, and the oppressors, who can do no right.
It took 30 years, billions in petrodollars and billions more from cultural Marxists to develop a language of lies and manipulation that placed Jews in Israel and the Diaspora in the oppressor column. But with enough money and indoctrination, David was transformed into Goliath, and Goliath was transformed into the Jews who were so scared of the Philistine giant that they sent a 13-year-old shepherd with a slingshot in to defend them.
The ‘new’ David and GoliathNone of this made any sense. None of it had anything to do with history, facts or scholarship. Indeed, to believe these lies, it was necessary to reject objective truth as a measuring rod for academic or professional advancement.
Faced with a state of affairs where public discourse was dominated by a narrative that vilified Jews, Jewish liberals in Israel and the United States invented their own narrative they hoped would satisfy their indoctrinated and incentivized colleagues in the West. They based their narrative on the same oppressor-oppressed narrative their Western counterparts embraced. But their narrative distinguished between “good Jews” and “bad Jews.”
They were the good Jews. And as good Jews, they accepted that Israel was Goliath. But they insisted that they didn’t want to be Goliath. They wanted to give the oppressed Palestinian David a state. They embraced the “two-state solution” that requires Israel to give up Israel’s biblical heartland—Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem along with the Gaza Strip to the Palestinians. The “bad Jews,” the oppressor Jews, refused to do so based on their atavistic, messianic belief that the land of Israel belongs to the Jews.
The key to peace, the “good Jews” proclaimed, is for the liberal Jews to be supported by all right-thinking people. Right-thinking, narrative-driven people need to oppose the leaders of the “bad Jews”—first and foremost, Netanyahu—and to deny tenure, promotions and even legitimacy to Jews in Israel and abroad who think like Netanyahu about certain things, particularly the “two-state solution.
Like their Western counterparts, these Jewish liberals were immune to rational debate. True, the Palestinians rejected the “two-state solution,” and all factions of Palestinian society call for the elimination of Israel. And true, the “two-state solution” foresees Israel shrinking to indefensible boundaries that invite invasion. But since the “two-state solution” would end Israel’s status as an oppressor, the Palestinians and their allies would bury the hatchet, and Israel could live securely in indefensible boundaries because no one would think of attacking it. Many liberal Jews accepted the slaughter of wrong-thinking Jews with something bordering on equanimity. They were asking for it, of course, by refusing to end the so-called “occupation.”
The problem with liberal Israelis’ and Diaspora Jewry’s acceptance of narrative over facts is that facts have proven their narrative—and the broader oppressed/oppressor narrative—false. As they wake up to the realization that Israel’s enemies see no difference between “good” Jews who support the “two-state solution” and the “bad” Jews who oppose it, they are coming to realize that their colleagues on the left really don’t care. They prefer their narrative to reality—and won’t reject it even if keeping the faith with the oppressed means embracing the eliminationist slogan, “From the River to the Sea, Palestine Will Be Free.”
Which brings us back to public diplomacy. It is the liberal Jewish embrace of the oppressor-oppressed narrative about themselves that has rendered Israel’s hasbara efforts dead in the water. If Israel is in the wrong and the Palestinians are in the right, then Hamas is right to slaughter and rape and abduct Israeli Jews. After all, we had it coming. And Israel has no right to annihilate Hamas because Hamas is oppressed. Rape isn’t a form of oppression if it is carried out by the oppressed against the oppressor. What does it matter how many women were brutalized? The same is the case with burning babies.
What’s missing from Israel’s hasbara isn’t facts and figures—of dead, of atrocities, of dates and of genocidal covenants, or even decent English.
What is missing is our story. Our history is the most compelling tale of human will and hope that the world has ever known. Our Jewish state is an apotheosis of justice. Jewish freedom is the triumph of the oppressed Jews against an oppressive humanity. Jewish settlement of the land of Israel from north to south, east to west is the victory of a native people against centuries of colonialist, imperialist invaders and occupiers. The Palestinians have organized themselves as a cult that sanctifies death, sadism, mass murder and destruction. They have no identity independent of their hatred of Israel. Were Israel to vanish, the Palestinians would be forgotten immediately.
It’s time to tell the truth about them, too. Perhaps more than we need to tell our story to the world, we need to tell it to ourselves. We need to let the truth remind us of who we are after a generation of unwarranted and deeply destructive self-flagellation. The more we tell our story, the less we will care whether people are persuaded because we will understand that our greatest triumphs across time happened when we were true to ourselves, our people, our traditions and our God. And when we stop caring whether we are alone or not, we will see that people of goodwill around the world will be standing with us.
|
|
New York is turning into a Nazi city
Video by @yyeeaahhhboiii2 Desk@freedomnews.tv to license
|
|
Elderly Jewish man dies after being beaten by pro-Palestinian protesterA video posted to the social media platform by StopAntisemitism captured the event.By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
An elderly Jewish man [65 years old] was allegedly beaten to death at a pro-Israel rally in Los Angeles on Monday in America by a pro-Palestinian demonstrator, the Los Angeles Police Department confirmed.
According to eyewitnesses a confrontation developed between the elderly man and the suspect. The elderly man was then found on the ground bleeding and was taken to hospital where he was pronounced dead from a cerebral hemorrhage.
“We are devastated to learn of the tragic death of an elderly Jewish man who was struck in the head by a megaphone wielded by a pro-Palestinian protestor in Westlake Village,” the Jewish Federation of Los Angeles said in a statement. “Our hearts are with the family of the victim.
“While we wait for more information from our law enforcement partners, we remind you that this is the fourth major antisemitic crime committed in Los Angeles this year alone,” the federation continued. “Violence against our people has no place in civilized society. We demand safety. We will not tolerate violence against our community. We will do everything in our power to prevent it.” The incident was caught on film by locals and shared with a warning of graphic content on X by the NGO StopAntisemitism. [EDD: updated tweet]
Sadly, the victim has passed away from internal bleeding. May his memory be a blessing and his attacker be prosecuted to the fullest degree of the law! StopAntisemitism-tweet-7November2023-alleged attacker
Police have declined to provide further details and it is unknown if the suspect has been arrested UPDATE:
Kessler was holding an Israeli flag and standing with other supporters when two pro-Palestinian agitators crossed the street to start trouble. Paul Kessler passed away from skull fractures, as well as brain swelling and bruising. Meanwhile, Loay Alnaji STILL has not been arrested. This is unacceptable @VENTURASHERIFF!
UPDATE: Suspect Arrested in Death of Jewish Man at California ‘Pro-Palestine’ RallyAn autopsy ruled Paul Kessler’s death a homicide. The medical examiner concluded a blunt-force head injury killed him.Posted by Mary Chastain 16November2023 https://legalinsurrection.com/2023/11/suspect-arrested-in-death-of-jewish-man-at-california-pro-palestine-rally/
The Ventura County Sheriff’s Department announced the arrest of Loay Abdelfattah Alnaji, 50, in the death of Paul Kessler, a Jewish man, at an anti-Israel rally in Thousand Oaks, CA. The police charged Alnaji with involuntary manslaughter. His bail is set at $1 million. The department did not mention if authorities will add a hate crime charge An autopsy ruled Kessler’s death a homicide. The medical examiner concluded a blunt-force head injury killed Kessler. People on the scene claimed that Alnaji, a computer science professor at Ventura County Community College, hit Kessler with a megaphone:
|
|
Citing Jew-hatred, Jewish families seek transfers out of Oakland school districtAt least 30 Jewish families had their transfer requests approved to leave the Oakland Unified School District, per media reports.Jessamyn Dodd https://www.jns.org/citing-jew-hatred-jewish-families-seek-transfers-out-of-oakland-school-district/
(January 18, 2024 / JNS) On Jan. 16, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights announced a Title VI investigation of alleged “discrimination involving shared ancestry” at the Oakland Unified School District, which consists of about 34,000 students and nearly 2,300 teachers at 80 schools in Oakland, Calif.
The department doesn’t specify the nature of the discrimination. But a few days beforehand, J. The Jewish News of Northern California reported that at least 30 Jewish families had transfer requests approved between October and Dec. 19 to leave the Oakland Unified School District “specifically due to issues related to the Israel-Hamas war,” according to John Sasaki, the district’s communications director.
“I just felt that there wasn’t a path forward for Jewish families, because I had reached out to OUSD and asked them to have a conversation about how they were going to keep Jewish families feeling safe and included,” a parent named Rebecca told CBS News Bay Area.
“When there were lesson plans that were being taught that said, ‘Draw the Zionist bully,’ or ‘I for Intifada, J is for Jesus.’ And to me, it felt like—honestly—we were being targeted and singled out and alienated,” she added in the interview.
A catalyst for the exodus of Jewish families, reportedly, was a “teach-in” of the Oakland Education Association, a teachers union, that drew dozens of teachers. The union encouraged using pro-Palestinian lesson plans about the war in Gaza, including a coloring book for elementary-school students that states: “A group of bullies called Zionists wanted our land, so they stole it by force and hurt many people.”
The parents reportedly felt it was important to transfer their children out of the school district mid-year, despite the inconvenience, to protect their kids. Some were reportedly unable to do so, as other districts were at capacity.
JNS contacted the Oakland Unified School District for a statement but did not receive a response by publication time.
|
|
Even before Oct. 7, Jewish groups struggled with security issues, burnoutA survey of more than 18,000 employees and CEOs puts forth ideas on how to keep Jewish employees energized and engaged.DAVID SWINDLE https://www.jns.org/even-before-oct-7-jewish-groups-struggled-with-security-issues-burnout/
(January 4, 2024 / JNS) Leading Edge released its report “The State of the Jewish Workplace 2023” based on data from 18,212 employees and 304 CEOs at 327 organizations. The information comes from a May 2023 survey.
The results of the survey—the largest of its kind researching Jewish organizations—offered five conclusions presented by Leading Edge First, the organization urged increased security, given that 14% of employees in May reported not feeling safe. Leading Edge pointed out that post-Oct. 7 polls showed that 70% of American Jews now feel less safe. The survey also found a link between workers feeling a sense of belonging and their on-the-job performance.
The research also revealed that organizations’ managers also needed more support. Leading Edge also reported that 66% of employees felt that employee well-being was a priority at their organization, a number below that of the average employer. Leading Edge urged an improvement here to reduce burnout, which it described as a “crisis.”
The report also found that the primary problem with employee engagement was a lack of confidence in organizational leadership—an issue that could be relieved with greater dialogue between workers and their bosses.
“Check in frequently with your team about their workloads and well-being. You can do that with employee surveys, conversations in one-on-one meetings, and other ways of checking in,” Gali Cooks, the president and CEO of Leading Edge, told JNS. “Set aside frequent, official times to ask for help. Ask in every weekly all-staff meeting if anyone has a project they need support on.”
Cooks urged for the occasional organization-wide shutdown, saying: “Giving all employees the chance to be ‘offline’ at the same time gives everyone permission to truly shut down and recharge, and allows executives to model the behavior for everyone. Plus, when everyone is out of the office, no one returns to a full inbox or a sense of missing out on key meetings.”
|
|
Background: Remember Germany and look around you.Brownshirt Clouds1932: The Jewish ‘grape vine’ has information that the Brown Shirt’s are already getting military training and will soon be getting firearms as well…Yaakov Bar Nahman Posted on 16April2023 https://breslev.com/365103/
Meanwhile on a fine afternoon in the autumn of 1932 in grand Vienna, the city of the Blue Danube, the Waltz, Kneissl skis, delicious cakes made more of whipped cream and butter than flour —
“Moshe Paul, look at you!” his mother shouted, “Just look at you, bruised, dirty, your shirt torn. You and your rowdy friends got into another silly fight?”
“Boys will be boys Mama.” “Go clean yourself up and change your clothes. You and your friends are 17 years old already. When will you boys calm down?”
“Yes Mama I’ll go clean up. Sorry I cause you grief. We didn’t look for this one. A gang of thugs from the third quarter came over and beat up cousin Rudolf Klinger and Bobbi Levi, and stole their bicycles. We went to rescue them. You know that the police won’t do anything to help Jews or catch those thugs.”
“Nu, fine but why are you always involved in such things?” “Oh, Mama, you know I care about my fellow Jews. Also we have so many cousins that almost every attack by neighborhood gangs involves at least one of them. Really Momma can I let family get hurt and stand by doing nothing?”
“Nu fine what can I say? Go wash up and come down for dinner.” “Martha, please bring a clean set of clothes to the bath for our knight in shining armor. Ernst, hot water for his bath, please.”
Moshe Paul climbed the oak staircase with the carved cherry wood banister and went to the bath. There Ernst was already preparing the bath. They chatted while waiting for the water boiler to heat enough for the bath, and for Martha to bring fresh clothes.
“Master Paul”, said the servant Ernst, “You and your friends must be more careful.” “Why do you say that Ernst?” “You know the servants ‘grape vine’. Before you came home I already knew about the fight you and your buddies were in today. And I know about your group and what you do. But don’t worry, as you see we have not told your mother, Frau Hermina.”
“Good, thank you. Thank God she believed my story too. Well it is at least half truth. I wouldn’t want Mama to know that I am in the Yuden Bundt. It will likely soon come a day that it would be dangerous for her to know.” Silently he thought to himself, ‘and not just a member but an officer and secret weapons maker, and whenever Ze’eiv comes to Vienna I am his body guard.’
Ze’ev Vladamir Jabotinski, was a controversial man of vision, a man with guts. Early on he saw the oncoming danger to European Jewry that would come from that little Austrian madman who gained power in Germany. Ze’eiv wanted to Jews to get out and to be ready to fight for their survival. The Vienna Yuden Bundt crew was operating by his inspiration and guidance. They were the youths of the Herut Movement.
Paul Feldman, Stephan Goldschmidt, Moti Klinger, Aharon Glick, Dudi Shmerler and Moshe Paul were the core of the defense crew in their neighborhood and in the high school.
Paul Feldman was later during war to escape to the U.S.A. to become a heavyweight wrestling champion. “You know Ernst, that in a few months I will be eligible to go to the army to get military training. It will serve us well to fight better against those who seek to harm us.”
“Yes, master Paul. Yet even so, I tell you that you and your friends must be careful. The ‘grape vine’ brings us information from the Brown Shirt’s side as well. They are already getting military training and will soon be getting firearms as well. On top of that, in the police they have more and more sympathizers. The police soon will not only refuse to help Jews against the Nazi Youth gangs, but will help those gangs against you. In case you haven’t heard any news lately, there is growing fear that the Anschluss will hit Austria soon, and there is great effort to infiltrate the police force and army command with their sympathizers.”
“Thank you Ernst, though Ze’ev has already warned us about the approaching take over by the Anschluss. He has ordered us that the day Austria falls to the Nazis we are to leave immediately. By the way that reminds me, I need you to buy me some items for survival, a hunting knife etc. I will give you a list and the money.”
“As you wish young master. Well the bath is ready and here are your clean clothes. Wash up quickly and I’ll clean up the bath room when you’re done. Your mother is waiting for you with dinner. Oh and here is the bottle of iodine for your scrapes if you wish.”
After the hot bath, Moshe now refreshed and polished descended the decorative stair case and entered the posh dining room. His mother and the kitchen servant were awaiting him.
“Mama, here I am, sparkling clean. What a wonderful smelling gulash (stew). You are indeed a kitchen marvel, God bless you. You can teach our cooks their profession.” “Thank you Mosheleh, now sit down and eat please.” “Mama has Papa returned from his sales tour yet?” “Not yet. This tour is a little longer since he’s going through Yugoslavia as well. He’s using the trip as a way to get to visit with his big brother Layish too.”
“Uncle Layish?! Oh I haven’t seen him in a long time. Pity Papa didn’t take me too. I love visits with him. I remember him still wearing the turban and long cloaks like our previous generations. I remember when I was six and Papa took me to visit uncle’s home in Yugoslavia seeing him fire his rifle while standing on horseback. Not only shooting, but hitting bullseye of the target while stepping from one horse’s back to another with both horses running.
He’s a master swordsman too. Mama did you know that he is a super horseman & rifleman as well? Well at least he came to visit here now and then and sent his sons sometimes.”
Pondering to himself he recalled the training sessions in the woods, learning the ancient martial arts system used by King David and his brethren in the Tribe of Judah. “Ben Teimah … light as an eagle … audacious as a panther …” The system served him well against the Brown Shirts and would yet serve him well later in life too.
“Oh yes Layish is indeed a dashing fellow. You know Moshe, you do look a lot like him too.” Photo above: Rally of Hitler youth
|
|
JerusalemCats Comments: Remember the Democrats hate the Jews and IsraelWhite House Sanctions Israeli Settlers For 1st Time Since Clinton Administrationby Tyler Durden, 06December2023 – https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/white-house-sanction-israeli-settlers-1st-time-clinton-administration
The Biden administration is moving to impose sanctions on Israeli settlers involved in attacks on Palestinians, which will involve banning them from traveling to the United States.
Fresh Axios reporting on Tuesday has cited government officials who specify that multiple dozens of known Israeli settlers will be impacted by the visa ban, expected to be implemented by the State Department.
The US government has not sanctioned Israeli settlers going all the way back to the Clinton administration, but Washington has consistently condemned settler expansion in the West Bank, at least as far as public policy and rhetoric goes.
Gaza sources have said the death toll in the Strip has reportedly surpassed 15,200. Meanwhile the White House has come under increased international pressure to impose limits on Israel’s military operations as well as usage of US-supplied bombs.
The conflict centered on Gaza has received by far most international media attention, but there’s been a parallel war happening in the West Bank. Nablus, for example, last week was declared a closed military zone, and is under blockade by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) for 55 days.
Regional sources say that since Oct.7 more than 250 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank – mostly in army raids and clashes with Israeli security forces, but also as a result of settler violence.
Axios has noted that since the conflict’s start there’s been “a spike in the number of attacks by settlers against Palestinians.” Two weeks ago the Biden administration circulated a memo to top State Department and other officials asking them to prepare action “against individuals or entities who directly or indirectly engaged in actions that threaten security or stability in the West Bank or take actions that intimidate civilians in the West Bank or actions that significantly obstruct, disrupt or prevent efforts to achieve a two-state solution.”
European countries like France are also said to be readying sanctions against settlers. European leaders have long been more vocal in highlighting the problem.
Since the Hamas terror raids which kicked off the Gaza war, individual Israeli citizens have sought to obtain assault rifles in droves. This has sparked concerns over US small arms being used by hardline Jewish settlers to attack Palestinians. Often it’s for the sake of removing entire West Bank families from their land or olive groves.
|
|
Victory is more important than US supportIsraeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his ministers must remember that Israel is not an American vassal state.
Caroline B. Glick
(January 10, 2024 / JNS) At his press conference Tuesday evening, U.S. Secretary of State Tony Blinken showed that contrary to popular belief, the Biden administration is not Israel’s ally. It is the greatest obstacle to Israel’s victory.
Blinken began his remarks by drawing a moral equivalence between the suffering of Israeli hostages and their families and that of the Palestinians in Gaza. The Palestinians in Gaza, who overwhelmingly support Hamas, are just as innocent as the hostages, Blinken insisted.
Blinken said nothing about the torture, rape, mutilation and deliberate starvation of the hostages carried out by Hamas terrorists and its civilian accomplices alike. Instead, Blinken spoke of the “acute food insecurity,” that Gazans suffer from—and blamed that “acute food insecurity” on Israel.
“Israel needs to do everything it can to remove any obstacles from [aid] crossing to…Gaza. Improving deconfliction procedures to ensure that the aid can move safely and securely is a critical part of that,” he said.
The body responsible for distributing “humanitarian aid” in Gaza today is the United Nations, through UNRWA. Blinken ignored completely the documented fact that thousands of UNRWA employees posted fulsome praise for the Oct. 7 slaughter on social media. He ignored the overwhelming evidence that UNRWA schools and clinics are Hamas military bases. He ignored that UNRWA employees have been credibly accused of holding Israeli hostages and deliberately starving them. And he ignored that UNRWA employees, including all of its regional directors in Gaza, have been credibly accused of being Hamas terrorists themselves.
Burying his head deep in the sand, Blinken cooed, “The United Nations is playing an indispensable role in addressing the immense humanitarian needs in Gaza. There is simply no alternative.
“UN personnel…in Gaza are demonstrating extraordinary courage by continuing to provide lifesaving services in what are extremely challenging conditions.”
Israel, he demanded, must join the United States in giving the United Nations its “full support.” As for Israel’s military campaign to wipe out Hamas, Blinken said that military operations must take no toll on civilians, even if that means that Israel will lose the war.
“We know that facing an enemy that embeds itself among civilians—who hides in and fires from schools, from hospitals—makes this incredibly challenging. But the daily toll on civilians in Gaza, particularly on children, is far too high,” said Blinken.
The only way to separate the civilians from the terrorists and so protect them is by permitting them to leave Gaza, just as 6 million Ukrainians left their country since the Russian invasion.
Gazans are so eager to leave that the Guardian reported they are paying $10,000 to middlemen to bribe Egyptian officials to let them leave. But the United States will have none of it.
“The United States unequivocally rejects any proposals advocating for the resettlement of Palestinians outside of Gaza,” said Blinken with a scowl.
Not only must Israel force the Palestinians to stay in Gaza and care for them, Israel must allow them to return to northern Gaza, thus subverting Israel’s main sustained operational achievement since the ground operation began.
“In today’s meetings” with Israeli leaders, Blinken said, “I was also crystal clear: Palestinian civilians must be able to return home as soon as conditions allow.”
The only way for the now abandoned Israeli towns and villages bordering Gaza to be rebuilt and for their surviving residents to return safely is to block Hamas from rebuilding its terror infrastructure, including its forces in northern Gaza.
Keeping that area unpopulated, or lightly populated, for the foreseeable future is a military imperative. After demanding that Israel permit Hamas to survive and regroup in Gaza, Blinken moved to the northern front against Hezbollah. There too, the United States demands that Israel lose.
“As I told the war cabinet and other senior officials, the United States stands with Israel in ensuring its northern border is secure. We’re fully committed to working with Israel to find a diplomatic solution that avoids escalation and allows families to return to their homes, to live security in northern Israel and also in southern Lebanon,” he said.
The problem is that the “diplomatic solution,” the United States proposes will make it impossible for Israel to secure its northern border or permit the 80,000 civilians that were forced to flee their homes along to border to return to their homes.
Blinken and the administration are pushing for a deal that will see no decrease in Hezbollah’s forces trained to invade Israel and commit genocide. Their deal will see no decrease in Hezbollah’s missile and drone arsenal, which are capable of destroying strategic targets and civilian populations throughout Israel.
The administration’s “diplomatic solution” requires Israel to surrender sovereign territory to Hezbollah in exchange for the removal of Hezbollah forces from the border area.
There are two problems with the plan. First, it requires Israel to surrender its land to terrorists. And second, the only force capable of pushing Hezbollah away from the border is the Israel Defense Forces, a prospect the deal is geared towards blocking at all costs.
In other words, just as is the case with Gaza, U.S. policy is to enable Israel’s enemies to win strategic victories against Israel by forbidding Israel to defeat them on the battlefield.
Leaving aside the administration’s slavish commitment to establishing Iran as the regional hegemon by empowering the regime and its terror proxies, the expressed goal of the administration’s effort to induce an Israeli defeat is to establish a Palestinian state.
As the administration sees things, the main obstacle to this goal is Israel, and specifically, the Netanyahu government, which represents the people of Israel.
To push this obstacle aside, the administration is working to overthrow the Netanyahu government. On Sunday, CNN’s Jake Tapper reported that an administration official told him that Netanyahu has to choose between his coalition partners from the nationalist Religious Zionism and Otzma Yehudit parties led by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, respectively, and his ties to President Biden and the United States.
In other words, Netanyahu needs to choose between the Israeli public, which elected him to office as the head of a right-religious governing coalition, and Washington, which rejects the will of the Israeli people.
During his visit Tuesday, Blinken took the unprecedented step of meeting privately with Minister Benny Gantz and Knesset member Gadi Eisenkot. In the wake of the Oct. 7 invasion, Gantz and Eisenkot brought their leftist opposition party into the government to form an emergency unity coalition. The administration has been all but explicit about its intention to use these men and their party to overthrow the Netanyahu government.
Immediately after their meeting, reports began to stream in that Gantz’s inclination to leave the government is growing. Blinken and the administration see two scenarios for Gantz to seize power. Either Gantz can incite a revolt in Likud that can lead to Netanyahu’s ouster and the formation of an alternative government led by Gantz in the current Knesset; or by working with the administration, Gantz can force Netanyahu to accept pro-Palestinian policies that will compel Smotrich and Ben-Gvir to bolt the government. If they leave and Gantz remains in the coalition, Netanyahu will become completely dependent on Gantz to remain in power.
Under both scenarios, the administration believes that it will be in a position to force Israel to crown the terrorist Fatah-led Palestinian Authority as the new leader of Gaza. That in turn will set the stage for a massive pressure campaign to coerce the Gantz-controlled government to make massive strategic concessions to the P.A. in Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem that will facilitate the establishment of a Palestinian state.
Blinken’s statements on the topic were nearly bereft of diplomatic niceties. “As I told the prime minister, every [Arab] partner that I met on this trip said that they’re ready to support a lasting solution that ends the long-running cycle of violence and ensures Israel’s security. But they underscored that this can only come through a regional approach that includes a pathway to a Palestinian state,” he said.
“To make this possible, Israel must be a partner to Palestinian leaders who are willing to lead their people in living side by side in peace with Israel and as neighbors,” he continued, adding, “and Israel must…stop taking steps that undercut Palestinians’ ability to govern themselves effectively.”
Doubling down on his practice of slandering Israelis as the moral equivalents of terrorists, Blinken then libeled the half million Israeli residents of Judea and Samaria as well as IDF forces operating in these areas.
“Extremist settler violence carried out with impunity, settlement expansion, demolitions, evictions all make it harder, not easier, for Israel to achieve lasting peace and security,” he said.
Finally, echoing Tapper’s report, Blinken took a shot at Israel’s leadership, stating that, “If Israel wants its Arab neighbors to make the tough decisions necessary to help ensure its lasting security, Israeli leaders will have to make hard decisions themselves.”
Blinken made his remarks during the primetime news hour. Before he spoke, commentators from left to right insisted that Blinken is a friend and an ally in Israel’s war. After his diatribe, they sheepishly changed their tune.
Blinken, they admitted, presented demands that would foment Israel’s defeat. The only way for Israel to rout its enemies and enable its citizens to return to their homes in southern and northern Israel is to do precisely the opposite of what the United State demands. Israel must end the farce of “humanitarian assistance” to Gaza. It must stop providing electricity and fuel to Gaza. It must fully control the distribution of food and water to the population. It must block the return of the population to northern Gaza. And it must open the Egyptian border with Gaza to permit the Gazans to leave or permit them to exit through Israel.
As for Hezbollah, the government must stop participating in the destructive farce of U.S. diplomacy. Instead, Israel should strike missile stores and terrorist barracks and be prepared to carry out a ground operation in the immediate term. Israel must defeat Hezbollah. It is the only way Israelis in northern communities will be able to live safely in their homes.
If the United States retaliates by placing a weapons embargo on Israel, then Israel must make do with what it has and what it can produce. Use of imprecise missiles will expand collateral damage, but it will also win the war faster at less risk to IDF soldiers.
Since entering office, the Biden administration has treated Israel with colonialist contempt. Rather than respect Israel as an independent ally, Biden and his aides have acted like imperial overlords barking orders at a backwater, troublesome province.
Despite the pressure, Netanyahu and his ministers must remember that Israel is not a vassal state. We are a successful regional power. It is Israeli power, not U.S. charity that has sustained us to date. And it is Israeli power, not U.S. largesse that will bring us victory in this war for our survival. If forced to choose between support from Washington and victory, the choice is an easy one.
|
|
Jews In Name Only promoting Antisemitism
And some media is referring to them as “Jewish activists” even though they represent no one in the Jewish community besides themselves. But think about it: average working people, who don’t have the privilege these pseudo-Jews have to spend all day protesting, just want to get to their work or home to his or her family. Who’s stopping them? All these jerks with big signs claiming they are JEWS. Not only are these self-entitled jerks directly promoting antisemitism with their “anti-Zionist” rhetoric, they are potentially causing ordinary Americans to hate Jews because they see these “Jews” disrupting their lives for a cause most don’t care about. These progressive “Jews” are not only antisemites. They are actively choosing to piss normal people off as Jews. This is what is known in real Judaism as a “chilul Hashem” and there are very few sins that are worse than this.
|
|
Denial of Hamas’ October 7 massacre spreads in US‘False flag attack’: Washington Post reports that US groups saying Israel staged attack to justify ‘genocide’ in Gaza grow on social media despite ample proof of Hamas’ atrocitiesYnet| 22January2024 | https://www.ynetnews.com/article/syxgwasy6
A U.S.-based news outlet The Washington Post reported Sunday on a disturbing phenomenon that is gaining momentum: the denial of the massacre carried out by Hamas on October 7. The newspaper said despite numerous pieces of evidence indicating that Hamas committed these horrible acts, including footage captured by the terrorists themselves, denial continues to spread.
According to The Washington Post, the number of massacre deniers in the United States is currently small, but growing. Some claim the IDF carried out the massacre to “justify genocide in Gaza,” while others believe some hostages were kidnapped by Israel. Some are even confident that the United States is behind the attack.
These false narratives have circulated on social media, and users on platforms like TikTok and Reddit are already blaming Israel for a “false flag” attack – a staged attack designed to justify a harsh retaliatory action.
This phenomenon is troubling Jewish leaders and researchers who see a connection between it and Holocaust denial. They also identify similarities between the denial of the massacre and conspiracy theories with antisemitic foundations, including supporters of the QAnon conspiracy theory.
In The Washington Post article, the news outlet shared the story of Mirela Monte, a real estate agent and holistic healer from South Carolina, who was shocked when she first heard about the October 7 massacre.
She continued to read more about it on Uncensored Truths, a Telegram group with 2,958 members focusing on international news and “supposed perils” related to vaccinations. According to posts in the group, Israel stood behind the attack.
Now, Monte is convinced that the massacre is a “false flag” attack by Israel – carried out with American assistance – to justify “genocide” in Gaza. Monte called Israel “pure evil.”
The false narrative according to which “Israel murdered their own people on October 7,” isn’t only growing online but is also present in anti-Israel demonstrations and protests where posters of Israeli hostages were hung in London, Chicago and other cities.
Following Hamas’ attack, Basem Naim, a senior Hamas official, claimed the terrorist organization didn’t kill Israeli civilians, saying it was “Israeli propaganda.” Some Reddit users are convinced he’s telling the truth.
“So basically the Hamas attack was a false flag for Israel to occupy Gaza and kill Palestinians. Expected behavior from Nazi wannabes.'” wrote one user in r/LateStageCapitalism, a left-wing forum on Reddit.
This claim can also be seen on extreme news websites like Electronic Intifada and GrayZone, where it was written that most Israeli victims were killed by operations carried out by the IDF, and not Hamas. According to The Washington Post, it’s not only extreme left-leaning individuals who blame Israel for killing its civilians, but also extreme right-wingers and Holocaust deniers.
Holocaust denial, the American newspaper wrote, is gaining momentum among American youths. According to a survey by The Economist and YouGov conducted in early December 2023, one in five Americans under the age of 30 agrees with the statement that the “Holocaust is a myth.” More than a fifth of respondents in the survey believe the data published about the Holocaust are exaggerated.
|
Israel’s Response To October 7 Massacre Triggers Virulent Antisemitic Pro-Hamas Demonstrations Across EuropeUK media, politicians slam ‘far-right’ for disrupting London’s ‘pro-Palestinian’ demonstration.Posted by Vijeta Uniyal 12November2023 https://legalinsurrection.com/2023/11/israels-response-to-october-7-massacre-triggers-virulent-antisemitic-pro-hamas-demonstrations-across-europe/ Israel’s counter-terrorism operation in Gaza triggered angry pro-Hamas demonstrations in London, Berlin, Brussels and other European cities. Tens and thousands of largely immigrant Muslims turned out for anti-Israel rallies, marked with violent clashes and antisemitic incidents.
Islamist and pro-jihad demonstrators are joined by useful idiots from the European Left, who see terror-supporting Palestinians as allies in their struggle for Utopian Socialism.
These ‘pro-Palestinian’ rallies are accompanied with antisemitic attacks on Europe’s tiny and dwindling Jewish population “The public prosecutor’s office is investigating the attempted arson attack on a Jewish community in Berlin,” German state TV ARD reported recently. “Since Hamas’ attack on Israel, more than 200 antisemitic cases have been registered in Germany.”
Isn’t it interesting that at all these “ceasefire” protests they never condemn the terrorist group Hamas. In fact whenever someone criticises Hamas they react violently. In London, hundreds and thousands of pro-Hamas marchers on Saturday were confronted by English nationalists, who wanted to prevent them from desecrating British monuments and war memorials as their anti-Israel rally coincided with Armistice Day, marking the end of the WWI.
The UK media and politicians condemned ‘far-right’ demonstrators for guarding national symbols. “Far-right protesters repeatedly tried to ambush pro-Palestinian supporters on a huge march across central London,” The Times of London reported Saturday.
Police officers have been repeatedly targeting those who carry the British flag whilst allowing those carrying the Hamas flag and chanting hate to march freely.
The mainstream media blamed the ‘far-right’ for disrupting the pro-Hamas demonstration. “More than 300,000 people gathered in London for a pro-Palestinian march as police arrested dozens of mainly far-right counter-protesters seeking to disrupt what had turned into a hot political issue,” the Bloomberg reported.
“Hitler knew how to deal with these people”
Ahead of Saturday’s pro-Hamas march, the London police apparently remove the Union Jacks from national war memorial. The Daily Mail (UK) reported November 5:
Uncontrolled mass-migration from the Middle East and Muslim-majority North Africa, has converted major European cities into strongholds for Islamic radicalism. Israel’s anti-terror offensive in Gaza gave many jihad-supporters an opportunity to come out in full force.
“Several thousand people took part in a demonstration in Dublin city centre in support of Palestine today,” Irish state broadcaster RTÉ reported. “Around 1,500 people attended the march in Cork city in support of Palestine.”
Similar “peaceful” pro-Hamas demonstration took place in the Belgian capital of Brussels. The France24 TV channel reported:
Berlin: Pro-Hamas mob angered by Israel flag; Berlin state bans antisemitic “From the River to the Sea” sloganIn Berlin, a mob of Hamas supporters got enraged when a resident waved an Israeli flag from his apartment. A video clip showed demonstrators kicking the person’s door and shouting threats at him.
“Residents waved an Israeli flag,” German weekly Der Fokus reported Saturday. “This angered the Demonstrators, who booed and screamed.” According to the magazine, “one of the Israel-haters reportedly broke into the house. Another video shows an unknown person kicking the residential apartment’s front door.”
But there is still some silver lining despite this dark pro-jihad cloud over Germany. Berlin reportedly became the first German state to ban the antisemitic “From the River to the Sea” slogan. “Berlin appears to be the only one of the 16 German federal states to outlaw the chant ”From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free,” which has often been heard at mass rallies in the capital city. The criminal penalty for incitement to hate can be a prison term or a fine,” the Israeli TV channel i24NEWS reported Friday.
Pro-Israel demonstrations are a rare thing in German cities nowadays. Every pro-Israel gathering is met with a much larger pro-Hamas mob.
Here is a video I myself took on October 19 in the Germany city of Bonn, showing a few dozen of us (pro-Israel demonstrators) surrounded by 600 Hamas supporters screaming Allahu Akbar and trying to shout us down. Only a strong police presence prevented them from getting into a hitting-distance from us.
Protester Wraps Palestinian Flag Around World War I Memorial In London, U.K., On Armistice Day
|
|
Britain is the new capital of anti-Israel hateAs their country unites in the face of terrorist evil, ours is exposing a nasty and divided underbellyDouglas Murray 16 November 2023 • https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/11/16/britain-new-capital-anti-israel-hate/ London’s marching season: Anti-Israel protestors head for the US embassy in Vauxhall
I have spent recent weeks in Israel, and goodness knows this is a country that has plenty of challenges. But one question I have been asked a lot by an alarmingly wide array of Israelis is: “What happened to Britain?”
Generally, I get protective after this question, and reassure people that Britain is still Britain and that our core of decency remains as it always was. But the response is always the same: “But these marches?” Now perhaps they will say “… and the vote?”
It amazes most Israelis – as it amazes me – that Britain has seen some of the worst scenes of all the anti-Israel marches across the world. And I say “anti-Israel” for a reason. The first protests in London happened before Israel had even begun its military response to October 7. Rallies were held within hours of the massacres. To most Israelis this is nearly unfeasible.
What other country would see 1,400 of its citizens slaughtered, 240 kidnapped and countless more wounded for life, and not be allowed even a day to mourn? What other country, having suffered a set of atrocities hardly superseded in the whole history of violence wouldn’t get even one day of sympathy?
Only the Jewish state. And everybody in Israel knows as much. Pakistan is currently in the process of forcibly deporting two million Afghans. Nobody cares. Bashar al-Assad is in his twelfth year of killing Muslims in Syria and the world’s cameras turned away long ago. Only Israel, when involved in any military action, or even when it is simply on the receiving end of extreme violence, cannot rely even on the world’s understanding.
And it is in this light that Israel notices the British politicians calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. The ignorance of a large number of figures in British political life, from Humza Yousaf to Jess Phillips, can hardly be exaggerated. As it happens, a ceasefire of a kind existed in Gaza. Israel withdrew from Gaza unilaterally, and very painfully, in 2005 – removing every Jew from the strip. They handed over the land and got rockets in return.
Everyone around the Gaza border and across wider Israel was used to running from rockets to the shelters. But despite various exchanges over the years, nobody ever foresaw the battalion-sized terrorist attack of October 7. It was Hamas who broke what ceasefire existed that day when its legions gunned down young people at a music festival, went door to door in small communities, and burned people alive in their homes.
I have been to the sites of many of these massacres. I passed by one – the utterly destroyed kibbutz of Be’eri – earlier this week as I went into Gaza. It is a reminder of a dream that once was. Many of the residents of kibbutzim such as Be’eri were peace activists. I have seen with my own eyes the peacenik literature that lies among the blood stains and looted remains of their houses. Their dream died with them on October 7. Not one Israeli believes they can now live with Hamas – a group whose leaders say they want to repeat the October 7 time and again.
To call for a ceasefire now shows an astonishing lack of military understanding but also a horrific lack of decency. I have watched the Israeli Defence Force manage the evacuation of Gazans from the north of the strip to the south, so that the IDF can try to isolate Hamas and destroy them. It is a righteous mission, though one that is likely to prove incredibly hard.
I have also met many of the parents of the children and others stolen into Gaza. They want their children back. Why has there been no mass movement of MPs – from Labour, say – demanding that there be no ceasefire until Hamas hand back the hostages? Such a move seems to have never been on the cards.
Anti-Israel Labour MPs and others only ever campaign and condemn when they attack Israel. Perhaps because they know that Hamas would never listen to them anyway. These MPs are internationalist eunuchs. But my, do they talk a big game. Especially while they whip along the sectarian politics, which are the real driver of the protests on our streets.
In my view, Israel can look after itself. Watching the unity of this nation at war assures me of that. But as I watch hooligans clamber over our war memorials and statues and hold our city centres hostage, I wonder whether it isn’t Britain that is the one in real trouble here. |
|
They’re literally just hunting Jews on the streets of England.
Muslim School Children march through the streets chanting the Islamic battle cry: “Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar…” Most popular name among those born in England in 2022 is Mohammed Britain has the 3rd largest Muslim population in the EU, after France, then Germany Notice the young sharia-compliant school girls wearing their Hijabs… Hijab is supposed to prevent men from being tempted to sin by the appearance of women, right!? So, what exactly is tempting about the body of little girl that needs to be covered?
|
|
London just canceled the Jews
|
|
London is now a “no-go zone for Jews.”
|
|
metpoliceuk-swastikas disturbing public order “depends on context”
The Swastika is a symbol of evil, cruelty and death If you’re holding a sign with a swastika at an anti-Israel march — this is blatantly antisemitic. Come on Met Police…this is pathetic. #HamasAreTerrorists
|
Let’s Come Back Home Again
We will come back home. 🫶🏻 Not sure who made this. It’s brilliant. Time to COME HOME AGAIN…Posted 3November2023 Abraham’s Legacy:
Am Yisrael, it’s time we stop chasing “their” cheers and instead awaken to our inner strength, unashamed of who we are, “Orr Lagoyim”. The time to return is NOW – Let’s COME BACK HOME AGAIN!
My greatest hope with this film is that it doesn’t simply inspire but rather that it inspire each of us to ACTION. It may seem impossible to drop everything and return back to our homeland, but isn’t that what we pray for day in and day out? The power to return is in our hands, we simply need to heed the wake up call of Hashem and make the journey; to head out on our very own “Lech Lecha”.
I do not own this footage or music – just did the edit. This message has been in my heart for several years and I hope it inspires you.
Song Rights: The Greatest Showman | “From Now On” Lyric Video | Fox Family Entertainment
|
|
“We’re home” | A Yom Ha’atsmaut message from The Habura“We’re home” | A Yom Ha’atsmaut message from The HaburaPosted13May2024 The Habura: Text by Eitan Goodman (@eitangood) ENGLISH SUBTITLES AVAILABLE FOR THE HEBREW ENDING כן סבתא חזרנו הביתה- ?בתי ? כן, סבתא- .תלחפ. תלחם עד הסוף. עד שהאמת תתגלה שוב ישכון שלום- ?אפילו אם זה אנחנו מול העולם- ?אפילו אם זה אנחנו מול העולם – .אפילו אזץ בדיוק כמו סבא דלך לפניף, עם חול בידיים ואלוקים בשמים.
|
|
The Jews built #Israel 🇮🇱 from nothing!
|
|
Strengthening Olim in Times of CrisisNefesh B’Nefesh is staying focused on its responsibilities and unique capabilities committing our efforts to three main areas: Relief for Olim in distress, support for our Lone Soldiers and their families, and recruitment and coordination of volunteer physicians to bolster Israel’s national health care system.
|
|
Cleansing the WorldRabbi Shalom Arush Posted on 13November2023 https://breslev.com/video/cleansing-the-world/?_atscid=2_92797_86200982_4966760_0_Tawxttjaeucshh8uw Miracles!! How many miracles – protection from missiles, teshuva, unity! This war is global and affects all Jews. Who will hold firm to emuna in Hashem? Hashem is ridding the world of evil and those who oppose Him. CRITICAL: Aliyah – come now to experience the miracles! Importance of daily teshuva in personal prayer.
Humanity-Howard Klineberg
When we were forcibly converted, YOU said nothing. When we were thrown out of a country When we now defend ourselves How did we take our revenge How did we take revenge How did we take revenge How did we take revenge We studied our Torah So World, when you criticize us for defending our heritage and our ancestral homeland, we the Jews of the world do exactly what you did, we ignore you. You have proven to us for the last 2,000 years that when the chips are down, you don’t care. Now leave us alone and go sort out your own backyard whilst we continue our 5784-year-old mission, enhancing the world we share.” – Howard Klineberg,
|
|
My Lot in the Land of LifeThis week, Americans celebrate Thanksgiving. Let’s be thankful for being able to live in Eretz Yisrael! The Land of Israel is stronger than all other mitzvot, and therefore it is important to always remember the greatness of living there!Rabbi Shalom Arush Posted on 21November2023 https://breslev.com/4073222/ Never Get Used to This!The Torah warns us time and again not to get used to abundance. When a person gets used to abundance, he loses his ability to feel it; he loses any sense of gratitude. He doesn’t appreciate – and that is precisely the sin of “Yeshurun (Yisrael) grew fat and kicked” that leads to distance from Hashem to the point of doing avoda zara (worshiping false gods).
We have much good, much light, much chessed, much abundance in the Land of Israel. And, unfortunately, we became accustomed to it. We didn’t thank Hashem enough, and did not appreciate all this, and due to our sins, we were forced to learn to appreciate our existence here in the Holy Land the hard way.
The greatest chessed is the very fact that we are living in the Land of Israel!
This is not the place to bring all the amazing sayings of Chazal about the Land of Israel and its holiness.
So many generations yearned and prayed, cried and hoped to set foot on the land of Eretz Yisrael and to kiss it, and even just to be buried in it. The greatest rabbis endangered their lives to travel to this land. Hashem yitbarach had mercy on us and gave us the merit to live in the Holy Land, and to breathe the holy air, and to observe Torah and mitzvot here, including the mitzvot that are dependent on living here, and to visit the graves of our forefathers and ancient luminaries.
Tie-breaking WeaponRabbi Levi Yitzchak Bender zt”l, who was one of the greatest of Breslev chassidim, conveyor of its message in the previous generation, would say to his disciples: “Avreichim! Test me on this one! Do your best to remember that you are in Eretz Yisrael and be happy about this fact – and you will feel a great positive influence on all your service of Hashem.”
That means that if Rabbi Nachman of Breslev said that all of one’s service of Hashem depends on a person always searching for and finding good points, merits, mitzvot – Rabbi Levi Yitzchak says that there is one special point that is a “tie-breaking weapon” – and that is the Land of Israel. In other words, the Land of Israel is not just one other mitzvah, but rather a super-mitzvah, a mitzvah so big and powerful that it is stronger than all other mitzvot, and therefore it is important for a person to remember at all times the greatness of the merit of being in the Land of Israel and to think of it as a huge asset.
This is very useful for our service of Hashem because we have a rule: Every mitzvah brings glow to a person according to his attitude, his appreciation, and his yearning for the mitzvah. The rule of “As water reflects the face shown to it, so does one man’s heart reciprocate another’s” is true for mitzvot as well. All the immense light of the mitzvah of living in the Land of Israel depends on our appreciating the mitzvah, loving the Land of Israel, and thanking Hashem for this gift, and on our never taking for granted the immense merit we have earned.
Win-WinEretz Yisrael (the Land of Israel), too, “gains” from our residing in it. Eretz Yisrael glows only when the Jewish people live there. Rashi explains this in parashat Chayei Sarah.
In this parasha an amazing thing happens in the history of the Jewish People. Avraham Avinu purchases the first tract of land in Eretz Yisrael. “The Promised Land” is not just “on paper” anymore: it becomes a real property of the Jewish People.
Even before we were a Jewish People, we had a plot in Eretz Yisrael.
And after the transaction, the Torah says: “Vayakom – And Efron’s field rose”. (Bereishit 23:17) What does vayakom mean? How can a field rise? Says Rashi: “Tekuma haita lo: It rose in importance, for it passed from the hand of a commoner to the hand of a king.”
When Eretz Yisrael was in the hands of other nations it was actually in a state of falling; but when Eretz Yisrael passes into the hands of the Jewish People – that is the rising. Eretz Yisrael rises and brushes off the dirt, renewing itself as in times of old.
Rabbi Natan explains wondrous things in the parasha relating to the purchase of Me’arat HaMachpelah (Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron) according to the sod – the secrets of the Torah. He says that Efron had the aspects of afar – of dirt, of the Serpent, of sadness, and therefore the holy field of Me’arat HaMachpelah seemed dark and full of foreboding for him, and he didn’t have the merit to see the immense light and smell the fragrance of Gan Eden in this field.
The rectification of the trait of sadness is the trait of emuna (faith), as explained in the books of Rabbeinu. Avraham Avinu was the first of the believers, and therefore it was he who had to rectify the klipa of sadness of Efron and transfer the Land of Israel from being controlled by the klipa, to being controlled by kedusha – holiness.
And Eretz Yisrael itself was elevated, it had tekuma. Its holiness and light were revealed, and it became “the Land of Life”, as David Hamelech calls it. And therefore, the first act that Avraham Avinu performs in the land is to bury a righteous person in it. Because righteous people have the aspect of life; long life. Righteous people are considered to be alive even when they’re dead, and therefore immediately after buying a plot in the Land, it says about Avraham, “And Avraham was old, advanced in days (years),” for he merited a long life thanks to the holiness of Eretz Yisrael.
It is explained in several places in the books of Rabbi Nachman of Breslev that a long life doesn’t mean only living for many years, rather, that the days themselves should be long and full of Torah and tefilla, full of yir’at Shamayim (fear of Heaven) and love of Hashem.
Now we will go back to our piece of advice: never forget for a minute the extent of the merit, be joyful and thank Hashem endlessly.
No More SleepingIt is clear that the focal point of this entire tragedy and terrible massacre [Editor: on Simchat Torah], and the whole difficult situation that the Jewish People finds itself in is the control over Eretz Yisrael. The cruel enemy – enemy of Hashem and enemy of the Jews – is willing to die for Eretz Yisrael. And our answer to that is to strengthen our connection with Eretz Yisrael, strengthen our emotional connection, our joy in the mitzvah of living in Eretz Yisrael.
And as I have said repeatedly since this terrible disaster occurred, we must pray with all our might and insist in our prayers to Hashem that we get the complete Ge’ula (Redemption) – nothing less. So too we must pray to Hashem ceaselessly and without compromise for Eretz Yisrael, that the entire land should be in the hands of the Jewish People, with no exceptions.
Unfortunately, the main parts of Eretz Yisrael – all the places where our holy forefathers lived, and all the holiest places are in the hands of the lowliest of the nations. The princes, sons of the queen, have been shunted off to the coastal plain, whereas the prime parts of the Land are being ruled by the children of the maidservant.
Holy Jews, we were not given this difficult situation in order to ask Hashem only for peace and quiet, so that we can go back to slumbering.
Hashem has shaken us and woken us up in such a painful way, so that we will truly wake up and not go back to sleep again.
And waking up means to rise and shout: We are asking for the complete Ge’ula, we are asking for the kingdom of Heaven, we are asking for the kingship of the House of David and not for any cheap substitute. And we want the Land of Israel in its entirely, and specifically our holy Temple in its full glory that precisely from this big crisis will be built speedily in our days, Amen. |
|
End the ShameWe don’t need Mashiach to come to solve our problems. We need Mashiach to come so that Hashem’s glory will be fully revealed and the desecration of His Name will end.Rachel Avrahami | 11January2024 | https://breslev.com/4085308/
Since my last article on antisemitism, of course things are only getting scarier.
At some point, I realized that I was drowning in terror – but where was my emuna? If Hashem does everything for the best, then clearly this also must be the “darkness before the dawn,” or as Rabbi Arush puts it – the light of salvation that just hasn’t been revealed yet.
Clearly the 400%+ rise in Aliyah applications is a result of that fear (I actually wish that number was much higher based on Rabbi Arush’s warnings). I’ve spoken with Jews around the world who are starting to get closer to Hashem specifically through this tragedy. As Rabbi Arush said, “It’s forbidden to call it [Oct 7] ‘Black Shabbat’ – call it ‘White Shabbat’ because on that day, the light of repentance came down to this world!”
Even more than that, I realized that I can understand one of Rabbi Arush’s teachings about Mashiach a lot better now.
Some months ago, Rabbi Arush said, “What do we need Mashiach for? He is not coming for us or for our problems – there is the Law of Gratitude. Whatever suffering you have, do the Law – we don’t need Mashiach for our troubles.
“We need Mashiach because Hashem’s name is being desecrated and humiliated. Mashiach is coming for God’s Honor, not for us.”
Now I understand better the rampant antisemitism and the outrageous lies being spread about Jews, the IDF, and Israel. The Jews do represent God and a good portion of the world recognizes that, even if it’s subconsciously.
So, when the world has completely reversed the roles of the Jewish people and thinks that Israel i.e. JEWS are occupier-Nazis who are committing genocide – we have here a desecration of Hashem’s name of the worst kind.
The issue here is not what Israel is doing. The issue is that the hatred for Jews runs so deep. No matter how hard Israel tries to prove that these are just the usual blood libels (it’s just a modern twist on the “Jew killed a non-Jewish baby to use its blood in Passover matzah”) – the reality is that truth doesn’t matter when there is an agenda. The world and many people in it simply don’t want the truth. No matter what the circumstances, Jews are always to blame, and the current situation is no exception.
Herein lies the quintessential problem. The world does not recognize that goodness and morality come from the Jewish people – because we learned it from God Himself, Who is all good! Rather, the world thinks that the Jewish people are the evilest of all peoples! Evil incarnate! This thinking demonstrates complete psychopathic gaslighting role-reversal. This is the twisted, crooked thinking of so many people living on this planet!
Just a small example – We are the most righteous country, definitely human and imperfect but even in Gaza, the civilian death rate is 0.8%, compared to a global average of 4.5% and better than the US civilian death rate in Afghanistan! Rabbi Arush actually bemoaned and cried over this fact, because Jewish soldiers are dying to protect Gazan civilians. As Rabbi Arush put it, “The government is putting our boys in danger in order to protect our enemies.”
Another example – When the IDF did a military operation in Jenin to clear out terrorists a few months ago with ZERO civilian deaths, the UN Secretary General called it an illegal use of “excessive force.” Clearly then, any use of force is considered illegal or excessive if Jews are the ones wielding it. Every human on the planet is granted basic human rights, including the right of a country to strike offensively to defend its population. Self-defense is part of international law, and the US has been doing this recently with strikes in Syria to defend American troops. Clearly, Jews must not be humans with the basic right to defend themselves. I mean, what other country in the world even needs to have major politicians declare that Jews DO in fact, have a right to defend themselves?! Since when is it even a question? But clearly despite all the equal rights promises – Jews just don’t make the cut. We’re just not humans.
The truth is that in a certain respect, they are right. The Jews are called “the light unto the nations,” God’s “chosen people”, and a “priestly nation.” We ARE different, and we are supposed to be different. Even Hitler himself, his name should be erased, said “Conscience is a Jewish invention.” 1
Hitler continued: If one little Jewish boy survives without any Jewish education, with no synagogue and no Hebrew school, it [Judaism] is in his soul. Even if there had never been a synagogue or a Jewish school or an Old Testament, the Jewish spirit would still exist and exert its influence. It has been there from the beginning, and there is no Jew, not a single one, who does not personify it. 2
Sometimes an enemy can say it best.
Israel is going out of its way to prove its righteousness to the world, with little visible results. Jews are making Hashem’s name great by going to war, but with none of the typical war crimes that have been committed for centuries. The world is blaspheming God by saying that Israel is anyway doing all of that and worse. The world ignores the real act of genocide committed by Hamas against Israel and the captives, who are quite possibly near death in tunnels in Gaza. The massacre by Hamas was against all international laws. The hypocrisy and double standard are breathtaking.
I just don’t see any way out of this pit without Mashiach showing up and proving the world wrong. Mashiach will vindicate Hashem’s holy name. And THAT is why we want Mashiach to come as fast as possible!
It’s true that Rabbi Arush has been stressing the need to scream every day for Mashiach to come save us (watch the intro of The Geula is Ready! ) just like the Jews in Egypt did. Hashem immediately sent Moshe (Moses) after the Jews cried out from the oppression.
But what we should be screaming the most about is the terrible desecration of His name currently taking place.
If the purpose of creation is to learn emuna and recognize God – and that is true for every human on this planet, Jew and non-Jew – well, if this much of the world thinks what they do of emuna, God, and His people – we’re in big trouble.
So, scream for Hashem to not only save us, but most importantly, for God Himself to show up and prove Who is right – once and for all. And then the nations will recognize Him, and His name will be made great, and everyone will know that Hashem is good and will learn emuna – amen.
1 The complete quote: “The tablets of Mount Sinai have lost their validity. Conscience is a Jewish invention. Like circumcision it mutilates man…”. Published in Hitler Speaks (English translation of Gespräche mit Hitler) by Hermann Rauschning, p. 220, 1939.
***
Rachel Avrahami grew up in Los Angeles, CA, USA in a far-off valley where she was one of only a handful of Jews in a public high school of thousands. She found Hashem in the urban jungle of the university. Rachel was privileged to read one of the first copies of The Garden of Emuna in English, and the rest, as they say, is history. She made Aliyah and immediately began working at Breslev Israel.
Rachel is now the Editor of Breslev Israel’s English website. She welcomes questions, comments, articles, and personal stories to her email: rachel.avrahami@breslev.co.il. Reader’s Comments: 1. Tamar Israel on trial – with tremendous international media coverage! When this article went to press, the ICJ (International Court of Justice) began hearing South Africa’s case of genocide against Israel. Such an unfounded accusation is a major chillul Hashem on a planet-wide scale! How true is Harav’s call to cry out to Hashem for Mashiach to vindicate Hashem’s honor!
|
|
We’re still broken from this
🇮🇱
|
|
Don’t threaten us with cutting off aid to give up our principles.
– -Prime Minister Menachem Begin to Senator Joe Biden, 1982
|
|
74% of Israeli citizens oppose the establishment of a Palestinian statewomeningreen@womeningreen.org from E-Mail 25January2024 An ad by the Sovereignty Movement with data from a survey that was conducted, stating that 74% of Israeli citizens oppose the establishment of a Palestinian state – was rejected for publication in the Ha’aretz newspaper. The Sovereignty Movement: “Ha’aretz is trying to hide from its readers the awakening of Israeli citizens”.
Also, according to the survey that was conducted by the Direct Polls Survey Institute for the conference organized by the Sovereignty Movement and the Yesha Council entitled “Wake-up call from Gaza – putting an End to the Two-States Paradigm”, a mere 20% of Israeli citizens support the idea of two states, and 6% responded with “no opinion” on the matter. SEE: https://www.ribonut.co.il/BlogPostID.aspx?BlogPostId=861&lang=2
|
|
83% of Israeli citizens support total victoryOverwhelming support for encouraging emigration and against a Palestinian state – the surveyMeir elipur 12January2024 https://www.ribonut.co.il/BlogPostID.aspx?BlogPostId=858&lang=2 Here are the results of the survey presented by the Sovereignty Movement at the Lessons of the Gaza War Conference. The voice of the people is clear and unequivocal: no to a Palestinian state, yes to encouraging emigration of the Arabs from the Gaza Strip49% of Israeli citizens support total victory and tell the US to “Go to Hell”.
|
|
OPEN THE DOOR!Meir elipur 16January2024 https://www.ribonut.co.il/BlogPostID.aspx?BlogPostId=860&lang=2 Minister of Intelligence Gila Gamliel laid out her plan for the day after the war at a conference organized by the Sovereignty Movement, in collaboration with the Yesha Council.76% of Israeli citizens support voluntary emigration of the residents of the Gaza Strip to other countries[JerusalemCats Comments: How about New York, London, Los Angeles, The Hague, San Francisco, Michigan, Minnesota, Massachusetts, Vermont and so on 🇺🇸🐎, 🇪🇺] To read the article in its entirety
The conference, titled “Lessons from Gaza – an end to the idea of two states,” held at the Bible Lands Museum in Jerusalem last Thursday, focused mainly on opposition to the two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
According to a poll presented at the conference, in the wake of the Oct. 7 massacre, an overwhelming majority (74%) also said they were against a two-state solution; 20% were in favor, and 6%
The poll, conducted by Direct Polls Ltd. for the Sovereignty Movement a day ahead of the conference, also asked: “Are you for or against voluntary transfer emigration of the residents of the Gaza Strip to other countries?” A clear majority – 76% – responded in favor; 16% were against, and 8% had no opinion.
Surprisingly, center-left voters from the Yesh Atid and National Unity parties, headed by Opposition leader Yair Lapid and Minister Benny Gantz respectively, responded similarly regarding the issue. Among the Yesh Atid voters, 61% were in favor of the emigration, 24% were against, and 15% had no opinion. Among those who voted for Gantz’s party, 71% were in favor, 18% were against, and 11% had no opinion.
*Intelligence Minister Gila Gamliel, a longtime supporter of sovereignty over all of Judea and Samaria, addressed the conference on the issue of voluntary emigration.*
“Now is the time that we must try new solutions,” she told the audience. “It is clear that much has to change if any conceptions were proven wrong on the day of the pogrom of October 7. “Every time Israel retreated from territory, it became a base for terror and bloodshed” “Gaza has long been thought of as a problem without an answer. The greatest failure was the disengagement from Gaza,” she said. The State of Israel tried many solutions – enrichment, conflict management, and building high walls – in the hope of keeping the monsters of Hamas out of Israel. These have all failed.
“One of the issues on which my office has been working diligently is how to proceed the day after Hamas has been defeated and annihilated. We will still have about two million people, many of whom voted for Hamas and celebrated the massacre of innocent for men, women, and children. Gaza is a breeding ground for extremism… Gaza is a place devoid of hope, stolen by the genocidal terrorists of Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other terrorist groups.”
*‘Open the door’*
“Unfortunately, for the last 75 years, UNRWA has done zero to help the Palestinian people even though it has an annual budget of well over one billion dollars,” she continued. “Instead of funneling money to rebuild Gaza or to the failed UNWRA, the international community can assist in the cost of humanitarian voluntary resettlement, helping the people of Gaza build new lives in their new host countries
“I will make it simple by stating it in three simple words: Open the door.
“I say to the international community: No one is pushing or forcing anybody out, but surely you can’t be indifferent to their suffering. Just open the door and let those who wish it to join the hundreds of thousands of Gazans who have already left voluntarily in the last few years…
“It is an obligation of leadership to propose solutions and not just circle back to the same tired ideas and cliches,” she concluded.
|
|
The Occupation of Territory in War: A Diplomatic and Strategic Achievement for IsraelBy Brig. Gen. (res.) Dr. Meir Finkel | 14February2024 | https://besacenter.org/the-occupation-of-territory-in-war-a-diplomatic-and-strategic-achievement-for-israel/
BESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 2,263, February 14, 2024 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: The occupation and holding of territory, which used to be a central component of the IDF’s war concept at all levels, became almost irrelevant during Israel’s many years of fighting terrorism and guerrillas in Gaza and Lebanon. But there are three reasons why it is a big mistake to discount the value of conquered territory. First, the occupation by Israel of enemy territory (while evacuating the local population for its own protection) is considered by Israel’s enemies to be a painful loss, and the possession of territory can serve as a bargaining chip in political negotiations. Second, occupation offers the IDF an asymmetric advantage, as only it can occupy territory, clear it of the enemy, and protect it from counterattack. Third, after a long period of “wars of choice” in which Israel was the strong side, we have returned to the era of “wars of no choice” in which the occupation of territory has both internal and external legitimacy. These insights should be applied to any future war in Lebanon.
Until the 1980s, the occupation of territory and transfer of the war into enemy territory for the purpose of removing the threat of invasion into Israel were central components in the IDF’s perception of warfare. But combat against guerrilla warfare in the security zone in Lebanon, and against terror and guerrilla warfare in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, caused a shift in this perception. The holding of conquered territory that contained an enemy population prepared to conduct guerrilla warfare was perceived as a liability rather than an advantage.
The transition of enemy behavior to a pattern of stand-off bombardment of Israeli territory, and the development of an Israeli response of counter-fire and active defense implemented in limited “rounds” in Gaza, almost completely removed the occupation of territory from Israeli military and public discourse. This diminished the IDF’s focus on maintaining the military capability meant to implement occupation: the ground maneuver.
This trend can be seen in IDF strategic documents over the years. In the IDF Operations Concept document of Chief of Staff Dan Halutz (2006), for example, an emphasis was placed on developing the capability of operational-level fire against armored fighting vehicles as an alternative to the strategy of occupying territory when fighting enemy states. Occupation was perceived as an unacceptable burden because of the guerrilla warfare to which occupying IDF forces would be subjected.
The prolonged influence of the IDF’s experience in Lebanon is evident here. In the IDF Strategic Concept document of 2015, written almost a decade after the Second Lebanon War, a return to ground maneuver capability was stressed, with two components: the “focused maneuver” against key political and authoritative centers and the “distributed maneuver” against dispersed enemy artillery units and military infrastructures. However, occupying territory to be used as a diplomatic bargaining chip was not defined as an objective.
The Victory Concept authored by Chief of Staff Aviv Kochavi had three pillars: long-range fire strikes, ground maneuver, and defense. With the ground maneuver emphasizing “neutralizing capabilities” – in other words, maneuvering for the purposes of destroying specific enemy assets: artillery, combatants, and military infrastructure, but not for the purpose of occupying territory.
Israel’s operations in Gaza clearly illustrate the IDF’s preference for stand-off fire and defense. The offensive maneuver was activated during Operation Protective Edge only to neutralize the threat of the attack tunnels. Ever since the Second Lebanon War, the IDF has immediately withdrawn from every territory it conquered, forfeiting any achievement provided by the occupation of territory. In all documents and operations, occupation was meant to neutralize artillery fire or tunnels but was not viewed as an objective unto itself.
This is a narrow view, as occupying territory serves multiple purposes on all levels of warfare. On the tactical level, it can be used to capture advantageous positions from the enemy. On the operational level, it can disrupt enemy formations. On the strategic level, the enemy’s capital can be occupied for the purpose of regime change. On the diplomatic level, occupied territory can be a bargaining chip for negotiation.
There are three reasons why it is a serious mistake to devalue the achievement of occupying territory.
The first reason is at the diplomatic and strategic level: It’s the land, stupid. Losing territory is a painful loss for Israel’s enemies. Hamas in Gaza wants to “return” to Jaffa, Ashdod, Ashkelon (Majdal), and indeed the rest of the State of Israel, either through direct occupation, by exhausting Israel until it collapses, or by exerting enough political pressure to force the “right of return”. Hezbollah is fighting for the Galilee foothills, and the Rashidun force wanted to conquer the Galilee. Territory remains as important to Israel’s enemies as it ever was. Therefore, Israel’s occupation and holding of enemy territory constitutes a serious loss for those enemies.
Holding territory is also a bargaining chip in diplomatic negotiations. This was the case with Egypt and Syria in the agreements on the separation of forces at the end of the Yom Kippur War, and later in the framework of the peace agreement with Egypt, which insisted on the complete return of Sinai.
This will always apply when Israel occupies territory. Hamas’s claim that it will return the captives as long as the IDF withdraws from Gaza’s population centers proves that occupied territory is once again a diplomatic bargaining chip.
The second reason is at the operational level: The occupation of territory gives the IDF a clear asymmetrical advantage. This exploits enemy vulnerabilities and maximizes the IDF’s strengths. Only the IDF can occupy territory, clear it of the enemy, defend it against counterattack, use it to reduce the threat of infiltration, and hold it as a bargaining chip for diplomatic negotiations. None of Israel’s enemies can occupy territory and hold it for more than a few hours.
This asymmetry is especially important when it comes to firepower. Though the IDF is reluctant to admit this, a sort of symmetry has emerged between Israel and Hezbollah. Hezbollah has built a vast arsenal containing statistical rockets, short-range rockets, precision missiles, 120mm mortars, and drone-delivered explosives. The IDF has a highly sophisticated air force with precise intelligence-guided targeting capabilities on a world-class scale. The problem is that a symmetry has emerged. Both sides are capable of inflicting significant damage on the other, and victory in this operational space will be by points.
It has been argued for many years that occupying territory is not worth the price it will cost in terms of heavy casualties and exposure of IDF troops to guerrilla warfare. The “Iron Swords” war demonstrates that both these risks are limited in scope. It appears that with adjustments, territorial occupation can be restored during a future war in Lebanon. This can be done with relatively low attrition ratios (harder to achieve in Lebanon than in densely built Gaza) and with the evacuation of the local population from the battlefield area (easier to achieve in Lebanon than in Gaza).
Territory captured in a future war must be cleared of military infrastructure. Residents should not be allowed to return until Israel’s desired diplomatic arrangement is achieved, even if this means the IDF maintains a security zone for months or years in the enemy’s territory. I stress that preventing the return of the population is not for the purpose of punishing them. Rather, it is for the same reason that they were evacuated before the war: to minimize the chances of their being harmed. Territory captured during ground combat will remain largely destroyed and will lack any basic electricity or water infrastructure, and it will be filled with ruins and explosive remnants. Fighting is also likely to continue to occur in the area, even if only sporadically.
The third reason is that warfare changes constantly, both globally and regionally. Unlike advanced science, which progresses forward, the phenomenon of warfare sometimes returns to old motivations and patterns. When Israel was perceived as the stronger side against Hamas, the limitations placed upon it were severe. The Western world expected Israel to defend its citizens solely with active defense systems and counter-fire, without resorting to ground action. In terms of internal legitimacy, the cost of occupying territory was believed to outweigh the benefits when each round of conflict ended with relatively minor damage.
But on October 7, 2023, both Israel’s and the world’s understanding of the conflict with Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran changed completely. In response to Hamas’s brutal, genocidal massacre and mass hostage-taking, the State of Israel declared a comprehensive war. After a long period of “wars of choice” in which Israel was the stronger side, the Jewish State has returned to an era of “no-choice wars”. In a comprehensive multi-front war, which will include fighting against Hezbollah and Iran and possibly other elements, Israel will have to utilize all means at its disposal to defend itself. This includes occupying and holding territory.
Occupying territory in Lebanon – for the fifth time
Without attempting to broadly speculate on how the next war in Lebanon will unfold, we will consider a situation in which Israel has decided to enter Lebanon on the ground. In such a scenario, a defensive zone would be established and held as a security belt to protect the northern border settlements from surface-to-surface fire and ground attack until a diplomatic arrangement is reached. The conquered territory would remain “sterile”, with neither an enemy presence nor returned local residents, in order to protect those residents from the fighting that is likely to continue in the area as the enemy attempts to reconquer the territory or attack IDF forces.
Israel has a great deal of experience in Lebanon. During Operation Hiram in October 1948, the IDF captured 14 villages in the eastern sector. Israel withdrew half a year later as part of an agreement with the Lebanese government, but in Operation Litani in 1978, the villages were recaptured. In the First Lebanon War in 1982, they were captured a third time; in the Second Lebanon War in 2006, they were captured a fourth time. If we were to capture them a fifth time, as well as other areas along the border for a fourth time, we will need to ensure as much as possible that that will be the last time they pose a threat to the border settlements.
The way to do this, given the history I have described, is to gain internal and international legitimacy by turning these rural areas into a security zone under Israeli control. They should remain under Israeli security control until an agreement is reached that ensures that if Israel withdraws, the areas will no longer pose a threat.
Brigadier General (res.) Dr. Meir Finkel is head of research at the Dado Center and its former commander. He has written a series of books about the IDF’s senior headquarters: the Chief of Staff (2018), the General Staff (2020), Air Force Headquarters (2022) and Ground Headquarters (2023).
|
|
Protect yourselves; Hire Jewish LaborNEVER FORGET!7 Shevat 5784 16January2024 http://palmtreeofdeborah.blogspot.com/2024/01/never-forget.html
The message seems to have finally gotten through that we cannot safely employ Arabs from Palestinian areas. (Petition) Now, if only people will understand that no Arab can be trusted and that’s just how it is.
But, never forget that it is not only Yishmael whom we are fighting but Eisav and their attached Erev Rav as well. As more and more Jews are rejecting Arab labor, there is going to be a big push on by The Other Side to replicate the Hayovel model across the country, replacing Arab labor with imported Christian Evangelical “lovers of Israel.” God forbid!!
Watch out for it!
Beit Shemesh residents concerned for security say YES to Jewish & Foreign workersCitizens of Beit Shemesh 31December2023 https://www.change.org/p/beit-shemesh-residents-concerned-for-security-say-yes-to-jewish-foreign-workers
Residents of Beit Shemesh concerned for their security, say YES to Jewish and foreign workers!
We, the residents of Beit Shemesh, write with deep concerns regarding the potential entry of non-Israeli Arabs into our city. We understand the economic needs and the importance of cooperation, but recent events, particularly the tragic October 7th massacre, have heightened our fears for the safety of our residents and families.
In the aftermath of this terrible incident, with many of our men drafted to serve in various capacities, our community is already facing a heightened sense of vulnerability. The trauma and anxiety stemming from the events of October 7th have left us grappling with a profound sense of insecurity. In light of these circumstances, we are apprehensive about the introduction of non-Israeli Arabs into Beit Shemesh, even with the presence of guards.
While we acknowledge the necessity of labor from various sources, we believe that the safety of our families should be the top priority. The recent tragedy serves as a stark reminder of the unpredictable nature of the region, and we fear that allowing non-Israeli Arab workers to roam freely, even with security measures in place, exposes our community to unnecessary risks.
In light of these circumstances, we respectfully request that the government reconsiders any plans to allow non-Israeli Arabs into Beit Shemesh. We understand the complexities of balancing the economic needs of our residents and security concerns but believe that alternative solutions can be explored to address labor needs without compromising the safety of our families.
Sincerely,
The residents of Beit Shemesh
|
|
It’s time to come home! Nefesh B’Nefesh: Live the Dream 1-866-4-ALIYAHAnything but AliyaThe Evil Inclination will do anything in the world to keep a Jew from moving to the Land of Israel. When the EI hears the word Aliya – it goes on the warpath. Why?Rabbi Shalom Arush Posted on 09October2023 https://breslev.com/479379/ Rebbe Nachman couldn’t say enough good things about the Land of Israel. It’s therefore no wonder that the Yetzer Hara (the evil inclination, or “EI”) wages an ongoing battle on both Rebbe Nachman’s teaching and Aliya (immigration) to the Land of Israel.
The EI will do anything in the world to keep a Jew from moving to the Land of Israel. When the EI hears the word Aliya – it goes on the warpath. And, once a person has made Aliya and has moved to Israel, the EI doesn’t give up; it still fights tooth and nail to convince a person how terrible Israel is, Heaven forbid, and how good life once was in New York, LA, Chicago, Miami, or Toronto.
Why does the EI get so upset about a Jew living in the Land of Israel? On a national scale, the EI doesn’t want Geula (redemption), including Mashiach and our Holy Temple. Every Jew who comes here hastens the Geula. On an individual level, the EI wants you and your children wallowing in the diaspora, stressed and depressed, and not coming home to where your soul belongs. The Yetzer doesn’t want you attaining your soul correction, so he fights to keep you away from here and gives you fifty reasons to remain in the Diaspora.
With so much opposition from the Dark Side, a person with spiritual awareness can begin to realize the value of living in the Land of Israel.
The holiness of the Land of Israel is honey for the soul. Rebbe Nachman teaches that emuna leads to having one’s prayers answered. All prayers rise by way of the Land of Israel. A person’s prayers are strongest in the Land of Israel, to the extent that they can work miracles, above the limitations of nature.
The Land of Israel is the place to acquire emuna, for one sees Hashem’s hand very clearly here, every single day, especially in recent current events.
Rebbe Nachman teaches that the Land of Israel is the place for children. Our forefathers were barren outside of Israel, but Abraham and Sarah came here and had children. This can work for you too.
The Land of Israel can save a person from all evil, because of its high-level kedusha. Only in Israel can a person attain the level of emuna where natural restrictions and limitations don’t affect him at all, for here is the place of upper-level holiness.
The air of the Land of Israel makes a person’s brain function better. The Talmud teaches that a person can fulfill his intellectual potential only in the Land of Israel. That’s understandable, because the more emuna a person has, the better his or her mind functions. Since the Land of Israel is the land of emuna, one can attain a broadening of the mind here.
Rabbi Zeira fasted 100 times in order to forget the Babylonian Talmud, so that he could have a clean mind to learn the Torah of Eretz Yisrael.
Every Jew has a share in the Land of Israel – it’s your home!
The Torah teaches that Hashem’s eyes never depart from the Land of Israel. Therefore, those who are privileged to dwell here enjoy a maximum measure of Divine providence over their lives.
The Land of Israel is the source of blessings, for all blessings are derived from here.
There’s an optical illusion that money is easier to come by outside of the Land of Israel. That’s another trick of the Evil Inclination.
Why do you pray three times a day for the in-gathering of the exiles if you have no intention of coming here?
It is surprising the extent to which Shabbat-observant people don’t want to come to the Land of Israel. Rebbe Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev, who had nothing but good to say about every Jew, said that if a Jew doesn’t earnestly strive to come to the Land of Israel, and if he doesn’t long for the Land of Israel, and pray to come here and beg Hashem to let him have a foothold in the Land of Israel – then he won’t have a share in the redemption of our people in the Land of Israel! Are you waiting for Mashiach before you come?
Mashiach will say, “Now you’ve come? Where were you when we needed you?”
The Land of Israel is the place to get to know Hashem. The Land of Israel is the place where body and soul find unity and happiness. You can change your life for the better by coming here. If you yearn for fulfillment, emuna, fulfilling your potential, raising your children the best way possible, living as a Jew, and attaining personal freedom, there is no better place on earth than the Land of Israel!
Ask Hashem to take you home to Eretz Yisrael. I sincerely hope to see you here soon, with Mashiach, the in-gathering of the exiles, and the full redemption of our people speedily and in our time, amen. |
|
You Get What You Ask ForThe world is increasingly dangerous for Jews and supporters of Israel. How can we protect ourselves? Let’s take our enemies’ message to heart and grab our weapons!Rachel Avrahami | Posted on 14November2023 | https://breslev.com/4070244/
Jews around the world are alarmed by the sharp increase in antisemitism around the world in the wake of the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Besides the war on the ground in Gaza, there are “battles” being fought in protests, both for Israel and ever-increasingly violent mobs of pro-Palestinian protesters, in addition to the war of comments all over social media.
I just saw a comment on X that “all Israelis are illegal occupiers.” With one swipe we’re no longer civilians, no longer HUMANS, we’re “occupiers” – and therefore our death and abduction is “justified,” dismissed and even celebrated. Who cares about international law or history?
So I add – if antisemites say essentially that we’re all soldiers, no civilians here – then let’s realize that’s a wake up call from G-d Himself! Everyone needs to fight in this war! Our weapon is prayers and mitzvot – begging G-d to save us, our soldiers, our captives. Our weapon is holiness and modesty, that Hashem should be “in our camp… to save us” and not “turn away from behind us.”
Even the nations recognize that, like it or not, we are all soldiers in Hashem’s army – so let’s act like it!!!
We have already seen the silence of the UN, the EU, and other international bodies and countries in the face of the largest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. We can’t make them care. We can’t make them not hate us or our continued existence despite all their efforts to the contrary.
I keep thinking about all the miracle stories of our enemies. In the Gulf War, some captured Iraqi generals admitted that they sent thousands of missiles, they carpet bombed Israel with everything including chemical weapons! And they watched the missiles simply disappear off the radar. Only 39 missiles fell in Israel – 39, for the 39 types of prohibited work on Shabbat and the 39 lashes that can be given by the Jewish court. Hashem sent them to atone for the people.
There are so many more stories. They openly admit that “their G-d is moving the missiles.” So why are they still fighting? Why continue to fight G-d Himself???
The answer is that it doesn’t make any sense, correct. But Hashem is making them fight against all reason, and be stubborn against all reason – because we Jews are fighting Hashem against all reason! We are stubborn and refuse to listen to Him, to obey His laws for our own benefit! It’s midda k’neged midda – tit for tat.
The reality is that Israel is the only country in the world that is forced to defend itself for defending itself. The world is screaming for a cease-fire. Excuse me, is anyone screaming for Ukraine to make a cease-fire? Since when does anyone get to say boo about what another sovereign country decides to do? And when Hamas still has hundreds of hostages???
It’s not just a double-standard – it’s downright ridiculous! I continuously remind myself that all of these people have a special place in Hell, don’t worry! And the media is first in line…
So, what CAN we do in the face of all of this terrifying reality that we cannot directly change??? Clearly, we need special protection from above!
Rabbi Shalom Arush makes an awesome comment in The Garden of Emuna:
The idea is simple. Hashem loves us and only wants to do good things for us. Every parent knows just how much they want the best for their children, even better than for themselves! Could it be that the Creator is less loving than a flesh and blood parent?! As Rabbi Arush repeats over and over: Emuna is – Hashem loves me, everything is good and it’s only getting better and better!
So, what’s the catch? Everything goes according to the emuna! We have to believe!!!
Hashem is pushing us, individually and collectively, way past our ability to cope. He is asking us to wake up, to repent, to realize that our old way of living is gone, and He wants to give us something so much better in response.
We only have to respond – but we must respond.
We have to dig deep and create a connection in this darkness, which will light our way. To recognize that Hashem is always there with us. To believe He is here, loving us.
To not shrug off thousands of missiles and hardly any casualties, and a baited and ready Hamas just waiting for the IDF to come in and get slaughtered – and not see Hashem protecting us, and fighting for us, with outright miracles!
To work hard on our emuna, building those emuna muscles, that Hashem is the only power in the world, ein od milvado. Nothing and no one can hurt me, or anyone who calls out to Him, if it’s not His will. And if it’s His will, then it’s good – so there is nothing to be afraid of!
Rabbi Arush promises that anyone who strengthens their emuna and trust in Hashem in this way – Hashem will personally guard him and nothing bad can happen to him. As King David says in Psalms, “G-d is with me – what can a human do to me?” (Psalm 118:6)
And the opposite is true as well – if we don’t do this work, if we don’t focus on Hashem’s protection, if we don’t work on our absolute rock-solid belief that the only power in the world is G-d – then G-d forbid real evil could happen.
In the face of the evil on the streets, emuna isn’t just a nicety anymore. It’s our ticket to salvation. Please read my article Not Just Another War which includes specific segulot for protection during this very dangerous time.
They know we are Hashem’s people – that’s why they hate us!
But when we step up and call out to Hashem, to fight for us, to protect us, because really this is His war after all – and we act like Hashem’s people by trusting in Him and really try, really WANT, to return to His ways – then we will surely see wonders even greater than the Exodus of Egypt!
Amen soon and in our days!
*** Rachel Avrahami grew up in Los Angeles, CA, USA in a far-off valley where she was one of only a handful of Jews in a public high school of thousands. She found Hashem in the urban jungle of the university. Rachel was privileged to read one of the first copies of The Garden of Emuna in English, and the rest, as they say, is history. She made Aliyah and immediately began working at Breslev Israel. |
|
Why Hashem Loves the ActivistWe are living in the days of Avraham Avinu, Abraham Our Father. It is our birthright to follow in his footsteps as mankind’s first activist. We must continue his work of acknowledging the One True God and of serving Him with determination and faith.David Ben Horin Posted on 21November2023 https://breslev.com/4072624/ The world was created three times. Twice it was destroyed. The third time it survived.
Adam lived 930 years. He gave birth to the succeeding generations. He introduced the concepts of sin, free choice, and forgiveness to the world.
After ten generations, God destroyed the world he lived in.
Noah lived 950 years. He saved the world. He introduced the concept of reward for the righteous, the seven universal standards of mankind, and eating meat to the world.
After ten generations, God scattered his world into a multitude of languages.
Both of these great men, Adam and Noah, were the focus of their portion of the Torah (parshat Bereishit and parshat Noach respectively). But neither are mentioned beyond their parsha. Breaking His LimitationsAvraham was different. He deduced the Kingship of God at the age of three!
He fought for Hashem by destroying his father’s idols. He gained followers. He confronted Nimrod, the king of the earth, and was willing to die al Kiddush Hashem when Nimrod threw him into a fiery furnace.
Avraham lived 175 years. He introduced to the Jewish People the commandment to live in the Land of Israel, hosting guests, eternal and limitless faith in God, and the covenant of circumcision.
Avraham is the first to be mentioned beyond a single parsha in the Torah. He is mentioned hundreds of times through the Book of Deuteronomy whose events take place over three hundred years later.
How did Avraham merit to outlive his parsha? Avraham’s MissionAdam and Noah knew the truth, but the world didn’t listen.
Adam fasted for 120 years after the sin in the Garden of Eden. Noah spent 120 years building the ark. People had time to reflect on what they were doing and mend their ways. Adam and Noah were shining lights to the world. Anyone who chose to look could see the truth and live accordingly.
Avraham refused to shine like a light. He chose to blaze like a fire. A fire’s job is to spread its flame to everything it touches. When a fire shares a part of its flame with another object, that object gets its own flame while the original fire maintains its strength.
This is Abraham. A Holy CauseAvraham rebelled against his father. He rebelled against the country of his birth. He rebelled against all the idols of the day. He rebelled against what society considered to be moral, socially just, and progressive. He rebelled against 2,000 years of what everyone was comfortable with and pledged to change the course of history by recognizing the King of the earth and refusing to follow anyone else.
By following the One True God, Avraham rebelled against mankind. He was just like Adam and Noah throughout their lives.
Then, he took it one step further. He refused to be a spark in a world of darkness. Like a flame, he vowed to spread his light to others – Avraham became an “activist”.
He invited people to his tent for dinner and taught them about the True God. He begged Hashem for more guests, even as he nursed the most sensitive part of his body after performing the covenant of circumcision at the age of 99.
From the moment he learned the truth, he made it his mission to tell everyone. His vision was to transform mankind into a God-serving world.
It made him immortal. Right now, almost four millennia later, there are millions of Jews around the world all praying the Shemonei Esrei prayer three times a day by invoking God’s Name as the God of Avraham. Fighting for the Truth TodayOnce again, our world is drowning in darkness. On Oct 7, the world bore witness to women being raped, men beheaded, and babies burned alive by Hamas terrorists.
The world did nothing to stop the slaughter during the Holocaust. Likewise, world media today is siding with Hamas to the point of justifying their savagery.
Only a world that has blinded itself to Truth can reach such an abyss of human behavior. How can we convince the world that murder is wrong when they refuse to acknowledge He Who establishes that murder is wrong?
We are living in the days of Avraham. We possess a truth that few hold. We own knowledge that most have relinquished.
It is our birthright to follow in the steps of our forefather Avraham and to continue his work. We must acknowledge the One True God of Heaven and earth. We must serve Him with determination and with unbounded and unbending faith. We must scream to the four corners of the earth that His Name is One, His universe is one, His Torah is one, His reign is one, and His vision of right and wrong is one.
We, the sons of the world’s first activist, will continue the revolution until the world is set right. *** David Ben Horin lives in Afula with his family, millions of sunflowers, and Matilda, our local camel. David‘s Israeli startup, 300 Marketing Solutions, is a lean marketing agency for startups and small businesses that creates and promotes SEO-optimized ROI-driven to the right audience on LinkedIn to make your business the star of the show. |
|
‘The safest place to be Jewish’: 2,600 people have moved to Israel since Hamas invadedNew arrivals cite incidents of being spat on, bullied, and general rise in antisemitism; many had intended to make aliya and accelerated plans; authorities predict many more to comeBy Deborah Danan 23December2023
JTA — When Yona and Mikhael Benichou decided over the summer to move to Israel from their home in France, they set a target date of around a year later — in time for their eldest son, David, 15, to begin his studies for Israel’s matriculation exams.
But after the murderous Hamas invasion of Israel on October 7, they sped up their plans to immigrate, known in Hebrew as making aliyah. The straw that broke the camel’s back, Yona Benichou said, came a week after the attack in which the terrorists killed some 1,200 people — mostly civilians — and took 240 hostage in Gaza, when the family, who wear identifiably Jewish symbols, were spat on by a group of rugby fans while walking down the street in their hometown of Marseilles.
“I was in total shock, I didn’t know how to react. Lots of other people saw what happened but no one tried to help us,” she told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
“The antisemites were always there. But after October 7, we felt like they have a platform to do whatever they like and that no one — and definitely not the French authorities — can stop them.”
The Benichous landed in Israel on October 31, arriving in a country still reeling from Hamas’s devastating attack on its southern communities and in the early stages of a grueling ground war that has reshaped society.
They are among the more than 2,600 people whom Israeli authorities say have chosen to move to Israel over the last two months despite the crisis. Accelerated aliyaAlmost all of the new arrivals had been planning to move to Israel for some time, though a handful, like the Benichous, have accelerated their immigration.
Aaron Gold, 26, had planned to move to Israel next year and was in the country visiting when the war broke out. His parents, alarmed by the emergency evacuation of American citizens and by the fact that Gold did not live in an apartment with a safe room, pressured their son to return to the United States. He flew back to Philadelphia on October 18, but said he “despised” being there and returned to Israel as a new immigrant on November 16.
Gold, a product manager at Deloitte, said making aliyah had “always been a dream of mine” and said he felt waiting to see how the war played out would not make any difference.
“Hezbollah could attack now, they could attack in six months, they could attack in six years,” he said. “You can’t plan it.” According to Israel’s Immigration and Absorption Ministry, 2,662 people have made aliyah since October 7, including 1,635 from Russia, 218 from the United States, 128 from Ukraine, 116 from France, and 106 from Belarus.
The numbers are smaller than the average in recent years and dramatically lower than in the same period in 2022, when 16,400 new immigrants arrived, propelled by people escaping the war in Ukraine. They also come at the end of a year when political discord in Israel had already depressed immigration beyond the usual rate. More expectedStill, the new immigrants, known as olim, demonstrate that during challenging times, some Jews will still choose to move to Israel. And the organizations that support them say they anticipate a flood of arrivals soon, once the war ends but concerns about spiking antisemitism are still fresh.
The Benichous reached out to the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, which has helped 317 people make aliyah since October 7. The organization purchased flights for the family and donated around $2,000 toward the cost of furniture for the family’s new apartment in the central Israeli city of Beit Shemesh.
According to the group’s president, Yael Eckstein, fewer new immigrants have arrived in Israel since October 7 than in other years due to a combination of canceled flights and decisions to put plans on hold until the security situation stabilizes. Israel quickly retaliated to the Hamas attacks of October 7, launching a dedicated operation to topple the Hamas rule in Gaza. At the same time, Hezbollah has consistently sent rockets and armed drones over the northern border, leading to a months-long tit-for-tat campaign.
But Eckstein said she has seen an “increase in the number of requests for information about the immigration process from countries where cases of antisemitic incidents have risen.”
Nefesh B’Nefesh has facilitated aliyah for 384 people from the US and Canada since the start of the war, mostly for people who had begun the process long before October 7, the group’s vice president of communications, Yael Katsman, told JTA.
Still, like Eckstein, Katsman pointed to a “vast surge” in interest since the attack, marking an “an unprecedented increase” of more than 100% in aliyah applications compared to the same timespan in 2022. She attributed the spike to an increased “commitment to building Israel” by Diaspora Jewry during “difficult historic events.”
Many people who initiate aliyah applications, required for new immigrants to secure a range of benefits, do not end up completing them. But the chair of the Jewish Agency, which facilitates immigration, recently told an Israeli news station that he expects 1 million new Jewish immigrants in the coming years — a number that would dramatically reshape the country of about 10 million.
The agency’s head of international relations, Yigal Palmor, was more circumspect in comments to JTA but likewise said signs pointed to a rise in new arrivals. One thousand people initiated applications in France in October and November, according to agency data, marking a 470 percent increase over the previous two months.
“We’ve witnessed a dramatic rise in aliyah applications since the outbreak of the conflict, most notably in France and the US,” Palmor said. “We will probably see the results in the coming months, but it’s premature to predict numbers.”
Immigration Minister Ofir Sofer told JTA in a statement that his ministry was preparing for a surge in immigration as a result of the war.
Since October 7, there has been “a lot of interest [in immigration] from young people, students and young couples from western countries, including those from western European countries where people in the past did not show much interest in immigrating,” Sofer said.
The two main reasons, he said, were “growing antisemitism around the world, and solidarity with Israel.”
Gold said antisemitism in the United States redoubled his commitment to move to Israel permanently.
“You kind of realize you’re afraid to go to work, not only of physical violence but just emotionally,” he told JTA about his return in October. “I was with coworkers who told me that from their office they were able to hear people saying, ‘Restart the Intifada, death to the Jews’ and things like that.” The safest place to be JewishDaniel Bleiweiss, 51, made aliyah with his 14-year-old son Emiliano this fall from Buenos Aires, Argentina. He had made the decision years ago, but postponed it because of the pandemic as well as bureaucratic issues related to Emiliano’s adoption, a yearslong process that was resolved only in 2019.
Bleiweiss, a physician, planned on arriving in Israel on October 10 with his wife Natalia and her teenage daughter, Lucia, from a previous marriage. The war threw a wrench into their original plan and the flights were canceled. Ultimately, the family decided that Daniel and Emiliano would move immediately, while Natalia and Lucía would join them in the future when conditions become more stable.
Bleiweiss cited several reasons for wanting to make aliyah, including Argentina’s economic crisis and the South American country’s inadequate resources to support his son, who has learning and social difficulties. But like the other new immigrants JTA spoke to, the main impetus was a rise in antisemitism coupled with a strong desire to live in the Jewish homeland, which he described as a “historic responsibility.”
Bleiweiss recounted a recent incident in which his wife had tried to check into a hotel where she had a reservation. The clerk saw the Israeli visa in her passport and subsequently refused to allow her to stay at the hotel, Bleiweiss said, adding that his wife chose not to press charges. He also said that his son had been bullied at school for being Jewish.
“It is painful, but it reinforces our conviction that Israel is the safest place to be Jewish right now, and it is perhaps the only place where we can express our identity proudly and in peace,” he said.
Bleiweiss said that another reason he didn’t want to delay his aliyah again was because he felt compelled to be in the Jewish state in its time of need.
“If a friend is in trouble, you shouldn’t wait for a better time to go see him,” he said. “That’s the time you should be there.”
Meanwhile, in Beit Shemesh, life isn’t without its challenges for the Benichou family. Because of how suddenly they left France, they didn’t have time to save up money or sell their belongings.
“We never thought in a million years we would come within a month. We came without any money,” Yona Benichou said. “It’s not easy to build yourself anew.”
But there are no regrets for Benichou or her children, who she said were understanding of the fact that this Hanukkah they wouldn’t be receiving gifts on every night of the festival as they were used to from previous years.
She said: “My 8-year-old son told me, ‘Mommy, we don’t need Hanukkah presents this year. The biggest present is that we’re here.’”
|
|
Jewish Heroes
May Adar’s memory forever be a blessing🕯️ |
|
The indomitable spirit of volunteerism in wartimeFrom English teacher to volunteer chef for soldiers. a young American discovers a new Israel.ETGAR LEFKOVITS https://www.jns.org/the-indomitable-spirit-of-volunteerism-in-wartime/
(November 14, 2023 / JNS) When the war with Hamas broke out last month, 25-year-old Israel Tolchinsky from Queens, New York, had been in Israel for less than six weeks on an educational program aimed at immersing Diaspora Jews into Israeli society.
Then, with rocket attacks raining down nationwide, the phone calls from the U.S. started coming in urging him to come home. With most airlines suspending service to and from Israel, his father found him a connecting flight via Europe and urged him to take it.
“I love it here so much, I need to stay,” Tolchinsky responded. “The flight will be sold out, take it,” his father exhorted. “That’s OK,” he responded. From English teacher to volunteer chefTolchinsky arrived in Israel in late August on a Masa Israel Journey program, to teach English in an elementary school. He had “fallen in love” with Israel on an earlier Birthright trip, and was looking for something steady to do for the year when the idea of teaching came up.
“It seemed like the perfect opportunity to come to Israel and give back to my own country and teach kids at the same time,” he told JNS in an interview.
Tolchinsky began teaching in the Tel Aviv suburb of Rishon Letzion this fall, not without some trepidation, amid cautionary tales that Israeli kids are much more aggressive than their American peers. His experience was just the opposite.
“I fell in love with the school and felt the love and connection real closely,” he said. When his pupils heard he was from New York, they assumed he must be an actor, he recounted.
But no sooner had the school year started—quickly followed by the fall Jewish holidays—than the war erupted on the very last day of the extended holiday period, before he had a chance to make friends with any Israelis.
With the educational program put on hold, and some of his roommates packed up to leave, Tolchinsky was determined to find something useful to do and not waste his days staying in his apartment.
“I got to be more Israeli,” he told himself, and with his minimal Hebrew, he walked into a bar that had put up signs asking for volunteers to help pack food clothes and essentials for soldiers.
“Everybody was so welcoming,” he said, with some finding his story crazy and others telling him he really must stay in the country.
As the rocket fire grew in the first weeks of the war, the calls from home intensified (“every second,” in his words) to as many as three times a day. His aunt offered to buy him a ticket; his cousin told him to just get on the plane. But Tolchinsky would have none of it.
“’I’m sorry, I feel something,” Tolchinsky told them. “This is my real home. I need to be here.” Having worked in catering in New York for some years, he decided to volunteer as a chef and connected with an organization of veteran American immigrants in Modi’in, “Grilling for the IDF,” which makes barbeques for soldiers.
Next, he volunteered with Israeli chefs making meals for soldiers. He was even asked to cook for a wartime wedding in the IDF for 150 people.
“It felt so good to go to the bases and be thanked by the soldiers,” Tolchinsky said. “Bro, you are from New York—we love it,” they told him.
“We are all one family,” Tolchinsky said in the interview last week from a bustling cooking school kitchen in Or Yehuda, east of Tel Aviv, where meals were being prepared for soldiers and bereaved families.
A nation of volunteersNearly 50% of Israelis volunteered during the first month of the war, a recent survey found. Some 48.6% of the population engaged in volunteering during the war, including 28% who had not previously volunteered, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem study found.
The rate of volunteerism among the Israeli Arab population also reached a record high during the war, 29%.
Meanwhile, nearly 4,000 of the 5,700 young Jewish adults (aged 18-30) from abroad on the Masa Israel Journey program ended up staying in Israel during the war, a Masa spokesperson said. Many of those who left at the beginning of the war are now coming back.
In addition, the organization has launched a new six-week volunteer program after receiving more than 1,000 requests from young Jewish adults to volunteer in Israel.
Since its founding in 2004, Masa Israel has provided long-term educational programs to about 200,000 young people from more than 60 countries, aimed at immersing Diaspora Jews into Israeli society.
BondingFor Tolchinsky, the war opened a whole new Israel to him.
“I would never have met all these wonderful people if not for the war,” he said. “You don’t feel this connection in New York that you feel here.”
In the meantime, with school back on in central Israel, Tolchinsky is mixing his English teaching with volunteer cooking, with this past month in a country both at war and united irrevocably shaping his life.
“Nearly all my friends here are now Israelis,” he said. “I feel I should live my life here more than ever before.”
|
|
1 in 10 American Jews Showed Up in D.C. on a Tuesday to Stand for IsraelDaniel Greenfield published November 19, 2023 href=”http://www.danielgreenfield.org/2023/11/1-in-10-american-jews-showed-up-in-dc.html
On a Tuesday in November, around a third of a million American Jews left their jobs, skipped class and headed to Washington D.C. Some didn’t make it. In Detroit, bus drivers deliberately stranded hundreds of Jews heading to D.C. Others ran into less widely reported problems.
Even among those who arrived, tens of thousands never made it through into the secured area. In the final count, 290,000 people passed through the metal detectors at the ‘March for Israel’.
This was not only the largest ever rally by American Jews, but the largest gathering against Islamic terror. Having a third of a million people show up at the National Mall is not completely extraordinary. Farrakhan’s Million Man March did manage to turn out 400,000 black people from a total population of 34 million. The ‘March for Israel’ brought over 300,000 out of 4.2 million Jews.
There are an estimated 4.2 million American Jews by religion. 7% of them showed up. Accounting for the very old and very young who could not have made the trip, that’s 1 in 10 American Jews traveling to be in D.C. on a random Tuesday on fairly short notice.
The demographic equivalent would be 3 million black people, 4.5 million Latinos, 1.2 million Asians and 14 million white people rallying on the National Mall.
While the Million Man March received widespread media coverage at the time and in succeeding anniversaries, and was immortalized in movies like Spike Lee’s ‘Get on the Bus’, the media offered less coverage of the ‘March for Israel’ than it did of far smaller anti-Israel events.
The March for Israel ruined the media’s narrative that American Jews are turning on Israel. And so the media did what it always does: it protected the narrative by spinning and suppressing..
The Washington Post. which recently censored an anti-Hamas cartoon, falsely claimed that only “thousands” had attended the rally even though its own photos clearly showed far more than that. The AP began its coverage with the false claims of “thousands” and later updated it to the still false claims of “tens of thousands”. It’s easy to see from aerial photos that this is not true.
While the Post put the Women’s March, which turned out 470,000 participants, on its front page, it buried the ‘March for Israel’ in its metro section.
But despite the predictable media bias and the flaws of the rally, organized by liberal groups, it was an important statement of where American Jews stand. After weeks of the media providing disproportionate coverage to pro-Hamas rallies of hundreds of people by hate groups like If Not Now, hundreds of thousands of Jews stood with Israel and its war against Islamic terrorism.
In contrast to the pro-Hamas rallies in D.C. where flags were burned and monuments vandalized, the pro-Israel rally was a sea of American flags and attendees sang the anthem. Police officers were assaulted at pro-Hamas rallies and thanked at the ‘March for Israel’.
It wasn’t just across the ocean that the difference between Israel and Hamas was made clear, but right here in America. Pro-Israel rallies don’t break down into violence, vandalism and orgies of hatred for America. It’s the pro-Hamas rallies that turn into riots over and over again.
The ‘March for Israel’ had plenty of flaws. Like most liberal Jewish establishment projects, it sacrificed meaningful commitments for simple truisms (Hamas is bad, Israel is good) even if these truisms are now being disputed by academia, the media and large parts of the Left. Rather than taking a direct position on the issues being debated in D.C., pauses in the fighting, trading a ceasefire for hostages, and whether the PLO will take over Gaza, the march sought the broadest possible unity platform which maximized turnout, but didn’t break new ground.
Some rally speakers pledged support for a two-state solution: meaning an Islamic terrorist state inside Israel, whose existence is the reason for thirty years of terrorism against Israelis. The only Israel they seemed to be willing to support was one willing to give its enemies every possible chance until they finally do something so horrific that fighting back becomes justified.
There was little concept of who the enemy was, apart from Hamas, and what the issue was, apart from antisemitism coming from undefined sources, including on college campuses. And so there was also little concept of what standing for Israel actually meant beyond opposing Hamas. Speakers at the rally expressed pain, grief and determination, but lacked any real focus.
Biden spurned the rally, refusing to send a high-profile official, instead dispatching Deborah Lipstadt, the administration’s antisemitism monitor, but offering no larger presence at the event as another sign that he is moving even further away from his support for the war on Hamas. Other elected officials however showed up as did a whole lot of other seemingly random people.
The emphasis on unity did bring together people you would otherwise have trouble imagining participating in the same event. Not just Speaker Mike Johnson alternating with Democrat House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, but Pastor John Hagee and former Will and Grace star Debra Messing, a baffling appearance by Van Jones who didn’t seem to know which rally he was at, and a musical performance by Ishay Ribo, a major Israeli Orthodox Jewish pop star probably unknown to much of the parts of the audience that binge watches Will and Grace.
While to outsiders, American Jews may seem like members of the same group and reflect familiar stereotypes, the reality is those few millions consist of a dizzying variety of different groups which have little in common with each other and inhabit echo chambers. The ‘March for Israel’ brought together devout and secular, Reform and Orthodox, Christian supporters of Israel and Hollywood celebrities: people whose worlds never really meet.
And it took a major crisis to get at least some Jews from suburban temples and urban synagogues, those who study the Talmud and those who believe in Tikkun Olam, to temporarily stand in the same place and realize that Islamic terrorists, like the Nazis, want to kill them all.
That brief community is not likely to last, just as the unity of unity that brought together New Yorkers after 9/11 fell apart into infighting and routine, but it still is a meaningful moment.
Although it may not last, it is a rehearsal for what needs to happen for all of us, Jews and Christians, people who believe in something and those who believe in nothing, in the face of an enemy that wants to destroy us all.
There is plenty to criticize about the ‘March for Israel’, but the content of the march mattered less than the statement that bringing so many people together to stand up to terror made.
The flaws of the rally were those of American Jews: many still addicted to the illusion of peace with terrorists, incapable of questioning their partisan political allegiances and trapped in their echo chambers, in pain, but failing to understand where the pain is coming from.
But for all its failures of imagination, the March for Israel was representative of American Jews. From the mother of a hostage to a standup comedian outraged at the hypocrisy of his industry hostage, from angry college students to the politicians they hope will save them, the rally was a snapshot of what is wrong with American Jews, but also a reminder that there is hope.
The Left has put out a narrative that American Jews are turning on Israel. Those who are still Jewish, rather than merely possessing Jewish last names, have not. American Jews suffer from a painful ignorance and some of their lost descendants, like Kamala’s stepdaughter, may rally for the enemy, but those who have not given up on being Jewish have not abandoned Israel.
In Washington D.C., representatives of the scattered strands of American Jewry briefly met and stood together in the shadow of enormous hate and evil. And briefly became one.
After the Passover Massacre by Hamas in 2002, one hundred thousand Jews had rallied in Washington D.C. That rally may have been smaller, but resembled this one in many ways.
Elie Wiesel, then still alive, told the crowd that, “this day will be remembered in the history of American Jewry.” It was not. But that failure of memory is a choice. Whether or not this one will be remembered is also a choice. The choice is a matter of commitment and priorities.
If American Jewry is to have a history, it will have to remember and more importantly act. Nearly 1 in 10 American Jews showing up in D.C. on a random Tuesday is a historic moment. But whether it will change history is up to that third of a million and all the others who watched from home and attended rallies locally. History is made up of the choices that we make.
Will the March for Israel crystalize a wave of commitment in Jewish communities? Will it change how people vote, how they act and the cultural values that they pass on to their children?
Either we make history or we become history. |
|
Rabbis for Ceasefire vs. God’s Vow About Israel‘Rabbis for Ceasefire’ Start Reciting Torah Before Rally with Rashida Tlaib, Then Reader Gets to God’s Vow About IsraelBy Rachel M. Emmanuel 20November2023 https://www.westernjournal.com/rabbis-ceasefire-start-reciting-torah-rally-rashida-tlaib-reader-gets-gods-vow-israel/ That awkward moment when the undiluted Word of God gets in the way of your agenda.On Nov. 13, dozens of Jewish leaders from “Rabbis for Ceasefire” gathered near the U.S. Capitol in Washington to pray and call for a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas conflict, according to ABC News.
The Detroit News reported the event was accompanied by a news conference that included members of the “squad” of left-wing lawmakers: Democratic Reps. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, some of whom have made grossly anti-Semitic statements in the past.
These Useful Idiots will say or do anything to screw the Jews.
“This is a public Shacharit, the Jewish morning service, so prayers for a CEASEFIRE will ring into the streets and our elected officials’ offices,” the group said in a post on X.
During the service, rabbis also chanted a portion of the Torah in keeping with Jewish custom to read the same section across communities in the same week.
What happened next is proof God has a sense of humor.
As several Jewish posters on social media pointed out, the week’s reading included God’s promise to Isaac, the son of the Jewish patriarch Abraham, found in Genesis 26:3.
“Watch her drop her voice to a whisper TWICE when she awkwardly gets to the text, ‘to you and to your descendants will I give all these lands (Israel)…,’” Israeli entrepreneur Lazer Cohen noted on X.
“This is delicious,” said Ari Hoffman, a host at KVI-AM in Seattle. “Anti-Israel ‘Jews’ were reading the Torah at a rally with Rep. Rashida Talib (D-Gaza). The person reading goes quiet when she gets to the Hebrew for ‘…to you and to your descendants will I give all these lands (Israel).’”
Anti-Israel “Jews” were reading the Torah at a rally with Rep. Rashida Talib (D-Gaza). The person reading goes quiet when she gets to the Hebrew for “…to you and to your descendants will I give all these lands (Israel)”
Rabbi Yaakov Menken called it like it is, posting, “For those who don’t understand, when the so-called ‘Rabbis for Ceasefire’ read the Torah portion, they deliberately mumbled & skipped over God’s promise of the Holy Land to the Jews.
“What do you call a ‘Rabbi’ who repudiates Torah? A fraud. They are frauds, each & every one.”
What do you call a “Rabbi” who repudiates Torah? A fraud. They are frauds, each & every one. “Ok so then we’ll do Torah reading in Hebrew and English.” “Great, love it. Oh wait, what Parsha?” “Toldos.” “Shoot, not good. There’s some stuff in there about how Hashem promised the land to the Avos.” “Not to worry, we’ll handle that.”
Maybe these rabbis should have checked what the reading of the week was before deciding to read it out loud before the world, publicly disproving themselves.
The Torah — included in the Bible’s Old Testament — is clear that the land of Israel belongs to the Jewish people as promised to Abraham and his descendants through his son Isaac.
While some people may disagree on policies and politics related to the Holy Land, it is entirely contradictory to say you believe in the Scriptures and yet deny the right of the Jewish people to possess the land.
The ridiculousness of the rabbi trying to mumble away an inconvenient passage serves as a powerful reminder that the Word of God transcends our agendas.
Although some try to interpret Scripture in ways that align with their views, God’s truth will always remain unchanged.
|
|
SEE: South Africa takes Israel to the International Court of Justice (ICJ, UN) for the Gaza War
SHYLOCK AT THE HAGUE: Embracing Shylock and Disdaining the International Criminal Court12January2024 https://www.newenglishreview.org/shylock-at-the-hague-embracing-shylock-and-disdaining-the-international-criminal-court/
by Howard Rotberg
“As for legal niceties, the team of august lawyers Israel summoned to the Hague gives a shot in the arm to the ICJ, signalling that Israel concedes the case can be won on legalities. Israel was naive to rely only on jurists to defeat antisemites. One expert on anti-Israel propaganda could be worth a bench full of gowns.” – Steve Apfel
I am trained as a lawyer, but sometimes great literature is more enlightening than great law.
“Thou callst me dog before thou hadst a cause;
Anti-Israelism has passed into the realm of anti-Semitism through its holding of Israel to different standards than any other country, and its focus on the retributive aspects of Israeli reactions, rather than the actions of murderers attacking Israel.
The underlying premise is that modernity and culture itself, whether it was the modernity of a supposedly cultured German society in 1939, or whether it is present day modernity and culture, offers no protection for the well-being and safety of Jewish civilians. To the extent that modernity has embraced moral relativism, it is by nature hostile to our cause. And no assertion of a higher morality, be it religious, secular, judicial, or (as the Jews and later the American founding fathers saw it), a type of hybrid where religious notions could be adapted to a liberal, secular, and just democracy will be attractive to post-modern relativists.
The relativists, however, have eliminated the notion of personal and community responsibility from their lexicon. The severance of rights from responsibilities is the essence of today’s anti-Semitism and anti-Israelism. If the Palestinians are going to have the right to a sovereign nation, they must accept the responsibility to stop killing Jewish civilians, and the responsibility to create some kind of justice system and some freedoms in their own society. If the relativists simply critique Israel’s reactions without dissecting the actions that caused those reactions, that is bias, and a rather nasty bias, too. In a world of moral relativism, in a world of violent Islamism where European countries again are sacrificing Jews to aggressive totalitarianism (this time Islamism), we need more than ever a vigilance in our pursuit of justice. Tragically, the more vigilant we Jews and our homeland are, the more we are labeled “vengeful”, “disproportionate”, “unmerciful” and “extreme”. In other words, we risk being seen as Shylocks.
At least, Shakespeare gave Shylock the voice to ruminate over his situation (“Hath not a Jew eyes?”); the vast majority of persecuted Jews, including those of the Holocaust, had no Shakespeares to emphasize their profound moral struggles and their ultimate fates, which were certainly no more palatable than Shylock’s.
Jonathan Pollard, about whom I wrote in The Second Catastrophe, stepped outside the law; Shylock tried to have his “contract” enforced within the law. In fact, Shylock was judged in a sham of a trial, presided over by Portia impersonating a Roman doctor named Balthasar. Driven to madness by his faith that a Court controlled by anti-Semites could ever dispense justice, Shylock continues to assert his claim for a surety’s pound of flesh, even when presented with the option of taking three times the monetary indebtedness. Pollard’s greatest error, ultimately, was also his faith in a corrupted Justice system (corrupted by Caspar Weinberger’s secret memo to the Judge.) He also passed into a form of madness due to the refusal of his superiors to pass on a clear threat to an ally, and so he also ignores justice while he continues to insist on it. He thought a plea bargain for a charge of passing secrets to a friendly nation would attract the appropriate sentence for that crime, not a sentence commensurate with treason. Shylock’s fate was forced conversion to Christianity; Pollard’s fate was abandonment by his community – many American Jews would “excommunicate” him if they could. Finally, after serving his unjust sentence he has been released and is now living in Israel.
If, as American politician Barry Goldwater argued, “moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue”, and if there were some severe problems in the administration of justice when it comes to both Pollard and the fictional Shylock, there is a problem, that too many commentators have glossed over. The actions of Pollard and Shylock can be seen as neurotic responses to travesties of justice, rather than themselves being unjust. In Shylock’s case, look at what the Duke, who presided over the Court in Venice (before turning it over to Portia’s impersonation) had to say to Antonio, at the very start of the trial, about the other litigant:
“I am sorry for thee: thou art come to answer
A Court this predisposed against him could not render justice to Shylock, and he knew it. That knowledge more than anything else explains why he turns aside an offer of three times the debt, and instead insists on his contractual “pound of flesh”. As he states in the quote at the start of this Chapter, having been called a “dog” without any cause, and since he has been pre-judged to be a dog, then, he states, “beware my fangs”.
The Jewish “dog”, says Shakespeare, is forced to seek salvation in justice because he cannot understand Christian concepts of mercy. Says Portia in the famous speech which starts with the words:
“The quality of mercy is not strained…”:
To mitigate the justice of thy plea;
Goldwater disagreed: Moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.
Goldwater says that the Americans are with the Jews on this one.
This is the key to understanding our current cultural struggle against Islamism, and why the Americans and the Israelis are on one side, and most Europeans are on the other side. It is an issue of Justice and Liberty. Unfortunately, any Jew in England or France or Israel today who insists on Justice, may find himself descending into that particular madness of Shylock. Israel avoids this fate only because of its military and other elements of its power and is not as isolated as Shylock.
Given their situations, neither Pollard nor Shylock had any alternative to the courses of action they tried. If their sad fates are meant to serve as a warning, however, I think we should rethink the whole matter of just what the warning tells us. The reader might ask, “Understanding Shylock is one thing, but embracing him is surely going too far?” I respond: In embracing Shylock we are not condoning his acts of madness, but instead we are embracing him as he faces his horrible situation. We are showing mercy. We are showing mercy towards one whose very existence is marginalized by an anti-Semitic society that allows him only the occupation of a usurer. We are showing mercy to one who clings to Justice as his only friend, his only protector, even as it is clear that the rules of justice have been subverted, subverted by the Duke who at the outset of the trial calls him an “inhuman wretch” and then abdicates his judicial duties by turning over the decision-making to a supposed Roman doctor, who is actually Portia in disguise. The anti-Semite focuses on Shylock’s evil character. We focus on the evil character of the Justice system as described by Shakespeare. Surely, the Judge in the trial between Shylock and Antonio could simply have directed Shylock to accept the funds tendered by Bassanio and release the bond. Instead, Portia tricks Shylock by pointing out that his bond is only a pound of flesh and not any blood, so that it is impossible to take the flesh without causing bleeding, thus voiding this evil bond. Throughout the
And so we embrace him, embrace him for the pitiful example of what happens to the Jew who is powerless, who ceases even to recognize that it is ridiculous to insist on Justice in a world in which the justice system is itself corrupted and used against him. We embrace him because of what he tells us about the world today. Even in America, the left is weaponizing the justice system and using injustice such as lawfare and removal of candidates from the ballot. Israel in the United Nations is like Shylock in the Court of Venice. Jonathan Pollard in the American Court system in the time of Caspar Weinberger and CIA Director Bobby Ray Inman, was like Shylock in the Court of Venice. Israel, defending itself against Hezbollah and Hamas missiles aimed at Israeli civilians, is seen by much of the world as exacting its “pound of flesh” against the “innocent” Palestinian civilians, notwithstanding that these civilians had allowed Hezbollah and Hamas to use their apartment blocks as launching sites, and notwithstanding that Israel dropped warning leaflets before bombing the launching sites. Yet Shakespeare’s Shylock was powerless. In the end, he is forced to convert to Christianity. We do not embrace him for the sad fact of what was his fate in 16th century Venice; we embrace him because of what it tells us about 16th century Venice, about 20th century Europe, and now about 21st century Iran. The evil is not in the Jew; it is in the anti-Semite. The Duke characterizes Shylock as inhuman even as the trial begins. The mullahs of Iran characterize Israel as deserving of destruction as they prepare their nuclear weapons knowing that America is appeasing them. Shylock tried to adhere to Justice, but in his society, justice was not meant for the Jews. Israel tries to adhere to Justice, and then is told by the United Nations that it is a Shylock, it is vengeful, it uses “disproportionate force”, and its ruthless neighbours are hardly criticized.
We return to Shylock’s words:
“Thou calledst me dog before thou hadst a cause;
No we do not depart from our quest for Justice and Liberty, but be sure, if you make us into dogs, because of your animal conduct, beware our fangs. Yet here is the question: how do we use our fangs, in a just and productive manner? To use our fangs is to empower Shylock, and thus to transform him. Have we not learned anything from the history of the Holocaust and modern day Israel? Strength of the Jewish state, Israel, creates respect; Weakness conduces to anti-Semitism. It is that simple. Diaspora Jews must learn that lesson, above all. Respect does not come from our accomplishments; it does not come from our wealth. Look how quickly Europeans are turning on their Jews in the last few years. Shylock’s wealth did not save him. Only a strong Jewish state could inhibit the unjust actions of the corrupt Venetian Court. Only the option of removing himself entirely from their jurisdiction (to a jurisdiction where a Jew could obtain justice) would give Shylock the strength and sanity he lacked.
The late Isi Leibler, a heroic and wise former leader of Australian Jewry, who moved to Israel, wrote the following in the October 31, 2006 edition of the Jerusalem Post: “The reality is that when Israel is perceived as strong and able to stand up to its foes, anti-Semitism tends to decline. Public manifestations of Judeophobia reached their lowest point following the Six Day War. In contrast, the exponential revival of anti-Semitism can be traced back to the Oslo Accords, reaching its climax in the course of the Gaza disengagement and during the Lebanese war, which were perceived by our enemies as manifestations of weakness.
“Unlike the 1930s there is an Israel and it is not powerless in the face of anti-Semitism and, together with Jewish communities throughout the world, not least the influential American Jewish community, we can defend ourselves. But we must galvanize to confront the barbarians in the war of ideas with no less determination than our adoption of countermeasures against terrorists seeking to bleed us. The decision is ours.”
So, to answer the question, how do we use our fangs, in a just and productive manner: The fangs that ultimately protect every Jew around the world, every potential Shylock, are the fangs of the Israel Defence Forces, and the strength and wisdom of Israel’s political and military leaders, to keep Israel strong and safe, while at the same time upholding freedom and justice. We Diaspora Jews must give our support, both financial and moral, to keep Israel strong. Israel’s strength, then protects all Jews from future victimhood, and protects all Jews from becoming pathetic Shylocks. Yet strength is one thing; knowing when to use it is another. In other words, if we are constrained by our confusion, or by international pressures, from using our strength, we begin to lose it, and our enemies know this. Accordingly, we must examine the threshold issue of when to use our strength.
This is a particularly difficult question in an age of moral and cultural relativism, which is loath to label anyone as “evil” and holds that in all conflicts, there must be wrong on each side, there must be evil on both sides; otherwise there would have been some way to avoid the conflict, some negotiated settlement possible. For example, the relativists still see Israel as faulty as the Palestinians that there is no settlement of the dispute, notwithstanding that Israel has tried every type of offer, even vacating Gaza, only to have Palestinian violence and terrorism increase. An ideologically based reluctance to label any people or any leader as evil is the trend today. I am opposed to that trend, because I contend that the leader of Iran, with his holocaust-denial, his threats to create a nuclear bomb and “wipe out” Israel, is more than just “nasty”; I contend that he is evil, just as Hitler was evil. I know that my language is outside the norms of the language used by the post-modernists, the relativists and the politically correct. But that is because I take seriously the words of the Jewish Torah. In particular I take seriously the teaching concerning Amalek. In Deut. 25:17-19 we read: “Remember what Amalek did unto thee by the way, when ye were come forth out of Egypt; How he met thee by the way, and smote the hindmost of thee, even all that were feeble behind thee, when thou wast faint and weary; and he feared not God. Therefore it shall be, when the Lord thy God hath given thee rest from all thine enemies round about in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance to possess it, that thou shalt blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven; thou shalt not forget it.”
Rabbi Marc Gellman has written: “What made Amalek so dastardly was that unlike any other enemy who attacked the Israelites fleeing slavery in Egypt from the front, Amalek attacked the rear. This meant that his soldiers could kill women and children, the elderly and the infirm and in so doing avoid engagement with the soldiers at the front. In this way he could produce maximum carnage and maximum terror. The moral problem the Bible addresses is that this is not warfare, it is the slaughter of innocents—it is terrorism.”
Rabbi Gellman concludes: “Why, I wondered, would God command us to remember the terrorist Amalek? There are other villains in the Bible, but there is no biblical command to remember Pharaoh or Nebuchadnezzar, or Cyrus. We are commanded only to remember Amalek… Indeed our remembrance of Amalek is combined with a chilling pledge from God that is also unique in the Bible: ‘The Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation’ (Exod. 17:16). Our enemies are just our enemies except if our enemy is Amalek. In that case our enemy is also the enemy of God. Amalek thus becomes the symbol of terrorism in every generation. He is the symbol not of evil but of radical evil. In our generation Amalek is alive and well.”
And so the Jewish people have faced an Amalek in every generation. In my father’s generation, he was Hitler; in my generation, he is Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. We are commanded, not to seek out what might be good with such Amaleks, not to try to appease and negotiate with such Amaleks, but we are commanded to “blot” them out, that is, to wipe them out. When doing so, we shall try to minimize the death or injury of innocent civilians, but we are commanded to do so, and do so we must. Then we must never lose sight of the distinction that our armies, uniformed and
Shylock failed to understand the evil of the pseudo-justice system of the Venetian Court, and that is why he submitted his case to it. So many of use today fail to understand the evil of Radical Islam and that is why some of us submit to it or fail to meet it with the strength and determination required. Let us not make Shylock’s mistake. Let us understand the lesson of the Torah that when we face an evil, we must call it an evil, and we must blot it out as we have been commanded to do.
Relying on an unjust court system is, as Steve Apfel argues in the quote that starts this essay, “naive”.
Howard Rotberg is the author of The Second Catastrophe: A Novel About a Book and its Author; Tolerism: The Ideology Revealed; The Ideological Path to Submission; and the forthcoming Second Generation Radical; The World Through One Man’s Second Generation Lens, from which this essay is excerpted.
|
|
Indian journalists, including Muslims from Kashmir, tour Israel“It was important to bring this group to see the truth firsthand so that they bring this story to millions of their readers and followers.”Etgar Lefkovits https://www.jns.org/indian-journalists-including-muslims-from-kashmir-tour-israel/
(January 19, 2024 / JNS) A delegation of Indian journalists and social media influencers, including three Muslim writers from Kashmir, are in Israel on a weeklong media tour in the wake of the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre and the three-month-old war in Gaza as Israel seeks to bolster its case in the world of public opinion.
The group, which also includes an Afghan journalist living in exile in Germany, is visiting amid a bitter media war over the narrative of the war with the Islamic terrorist organization in Gaza and growing international focus on the humanitarian situation in Gaza, where Hamas uses civilian buildings to launch attacks from densely populated urban areas.
“How do I stop the support for the evil things that Hamas has done,” Yana Mir, Kashmir’s first Muslim female blogger, told JNS in an interview.
Mir has been threatened for her support for Israel in Muslim-dominated Kashmir.
She said that reading a children’s book at the age of nine about the birth of Christianity changed her worldview and put her at odds with the universal teaching in Kashmir that Israel is the land of the Muslims.
“How can Israelis and Jews occupy their own land?” Mir asked. Of the Oct. 7 massacre that killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and triggered the war, she said, “Now in our era, Jews are being exterminated again.”
Columnist Irfan Ali Pirjade added, “We felt the parallels with what Hamas is doing after visiting the [Yad Vashem] Holocaust Museum.”
“I am Muslim, but Jews deserve life and dignity,” said Sajid Yousuf Shah, the founder and CEO of The Real Kashmir News who now serves as media head of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party in Kashmir. “It’s not a matter of land but a matter of existence.”
He noted that his mother and uncle were killed in Kashmir by Islamist terrorists in front of his four-year-old cousin. Educational tourThe weeklong study visit, which was funded by an Israeli NGO, included time at hard-hit southern kibbutzim attacked by Hamas, which have become a focus of war tours, and the traditional tourist stops at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Center and the Knesset in Jerusalem.
“Especially during these times, it was important for us to bring this group of journalists and social media influencers to see the truth firsthand so that they bring this story to millions of their readers and followers in India,” said Amit Deri, chairman of Sharaka (“Partnership” in Arabic), an Israeli NGO founded after the Abraham Accords were signed that seeks to shape a new Middle East built on dialogue, understanding, cooperation and friendship.
The Afghan journalist on the delegation, Abdulhaq Omeri, said that he had no clue before the visit that Muslims make up 20% of Israeli citizens, noting that he was pleasantly pleased to freely visit the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem and hear the Muslim call to prayer by the muezzin, things that he did not think were possible.
News cycle moved on“People have forgotten the brutality of October 7 with the relentless propaganda of the media,” said Swati Goel Sharma, an editor at Swarajya magazine who is Hindu.
She said that while the Qatari-based Al Jazeera television network openly picks a side in the conflict, the Western media was more deceptive in their pretense of reporting on both sides’ perspectives.
The Indian journalist noted that the majority Hindu India was largely supportive of Israel, with the exception of the upper class and the cinema world, which follow the cue of the American left.
“Not too many people in Bollywood have an understanding about Israel, but if [American actress] Susan Sarandon says something about Jews or Israel then it’s fashionable,” Sharma said.
|
|
Torah’s blueprint for the Simchat Torah warThe war is one scene in the biblical story of Jacob’s return from exile and his taking on an Israeli identity.Shlomo Vile https://www.jns.org/the-torahs-blueprint-for-the-simchat-torah-war/
(January 18, 2024 / JNS) Knowing that we’re in a biblical story can help make us less anxious. Knowing where we are in the story and what needs to happen next can help cement our commitment to wiping out Hamas and moving us toward the story’s glorious conclusion.
Jacob’s return is the central theme of the Torah portion Vayishlach (Genesis 32-36), and it is the prototype for all the subsequent returns of the Jewish people from exile. The modern return of the Jewish people to the Land of Israel closely follows the Genesis prototype. In the story, when Jacob returns to the land of his fathers, he is renamed Israel. Curiously, he is renamed Israel twice in two separate incidents.
The first renaming: All-night wrestling match
Our sages associated Esau with Rome and with Christian Europe. The wrestling match between the Jewish people and Christian Europe was indeed a dark night of struggle, culminating in the darkest night of the Holocaust.
Even after the Holocaust ended in 1945, the Jewish people still had to struggle with Great Britain to gain its independence. In 1945, the British Empire spanned the globe; it was the Esauian power of the day. The Jewish underground organizations waged an intense and bloody struggle with Britain in order to gain independence. In the biblical story, Jacob did not destroy Esau’s angel, but the angel “could not prevail” over him (Genesis 32:16). So too, the Jewish underground guerrillas did not destroy Great Britain, but they convinced Britain to leave and allow the Jews to create an independent state named Israel.
The second renaming, Part 1: Rape and kidnapping of Dina
When we read this section of the Torah—most recently, the week of Nov. 26—the story had a disturbing resonance with current events. Rape and kidnapping were central to what happened on Oct. 7.
The second renaming, Part II: Shimon and Levi wipe out Shechem and look bad to the neighbors
Right now, every Jew around the world who treasures their Jewish identity is hoping and praying for two outcomes of war that are unmistakably similar: the utter destruction of Hamas; and the rescue of our sisters and brothers who were kidnapped.
Jacob voices two criticisms of Shimon and Levi for their actions. The first criticism (עֲכַרְתֶּ֣ם אֹתִי֒) is explained by the 13th-century sage, Rabeinu Bahaya, to mean that Shimon and Levi appear to the surrounding people as having spilled innocent blood. The 11th-century commentator Rashi, says that the term indicates that Jacob’s mind was clouded by what Shimon and Levi did.
The second criticism (הַבְאִישֵׁ֙נִי֙) means that Shimon and Levi’s actions made Jacob’s family smell rotten to the surrounding people.
It is uncanny how accurately these terms characterize the negative impact of the war on Israel’s image in the world. The world is accusing us of killing innocent Gazans, and Israel’s image in most of the world’s media stinks right now.
In response to these concerns, Shimon and Levi ask their father: “Shall we allow our sister to be turned into a prostitute?”
Have you seen the videos and heard the witnesses describe what happened on Oct. 7? Can we allow our sisters and brothers to be raped/murdered/mutilated in such a horrific and degrading way? Can we allow the fear of not looking good to the world to cloud our minds and prevent us from doing what must be done to destroy Hamas?
The second renaming, Part III: Idolatrous conceptions are buried
So, too, the belief that Israel can live in peace with a Palestinian state needs to be buried. The belief that we can rely on technology for our security needs to be buried. These and other false conceptions that have guided Israel’s leaders over the last three decades need to be rejected and buried.
The second renaming, Part IV: Israel achieves security and God-awareness grows
So, too, in the current story, destroying Hamas is a prerequisite to Israel’s security. This war truly is a second War of Independence.
More than that, the story implies that a heightened global awareness of God will follow in the wake of Israel’s destruction of Hamas.
The second renaming, Part V: Israel rises to leadership
For the last 100 years, we have been living in the biblical story of the return of our forefather Jacob to the land of Israel and his taking on Israeli identity, and we are now reaching the climax of that story.
My hope in writing this article is that everyone reading this can feel more at ease in these unsettled times, knowing that we’re living out an old story with a glorious ending.
Secondly, I hope that knowing where we are in the story can strengthen our nation’s commitment to fulfilling the two conditions necessary to reach that glorious ending:
The opinions and facts presented in this article are those of the author, and neither JNS nor its partners assume any responsibility for them.
|
|
Ultra-Orthodox will be able to maintain empty kibbutzim and settlements in the south and north within the framework of the purity of the holy place.JerusalemCats Comments: YES! Each kibbutzim and settlement will have a Yeshiva and Jews will be able to Learn Torah, Dance and Sing to Hashem beside guard the Land and People of Israel!
מקור בכיר במשרד הביטחון אומר לי: בחודשים הקרובים החסר של חיילים בצבא יגיע ל-2500. אנחנו שוברים את הראש איך מביאים עוד חיילים בלי למוטט את המשק והאפיק היחידי שעומד כרגע על הפרק הוא הציבור החרדי. לדבריו חרדים יוכלו לשמור על קיבוצים וישובים ריקים בדרום ובצפון במסגרת על טהרת הקודש. A senior source in the Ministry of Defense tells me: in the coming months the shortage of soldiers in the army will reach 2500. We are racking our brains on how to bring in more soldiers without collapsing the economy and the only channel that is currently on the agenda is the ultra-orthodox public. According to him, ultra-Orthodox will be able to maintain empty kibbutzim and settlements in the south and north within the framework of the purity of the holy place.
|
|
THE CONTINUING STORY…November 15, 2023 https://www.nbn.org.il/stories/standing-with-israel-physician-volunteers-from-overseas/ Standing with Israel: Physician Volunteers from OverseasWith continued stress on Israel’s national healthcare system, Nefesh B’Nefesh, together with Israel’s Ministries of Health and Aliyah as well as The Jewish Agency for Israel, is working to help alleviate the nation’s physician shortageJerusalem, November 15, 2023 – In response to Israel’s pressing healthcare challenges during wartime, Nefesh B’Nefesh has been collaborating with the Israeli Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Aliyah and Integration and The Jewish Agency for Israel on assembling a comprehensive database of thousands of Jewish and non-Jewish physician volunteers from around the world. The Iron Swords War has heightened the demand for additional medical professionals in Israel, particularly in areas affected by the conflict in the south and north and this new initiative serves as an immediate solution for the shortage.
Designed to immediately bolster Israel’s national healthcare system, this extensive database includes essential information about the volunteers’ medical specialties, Hebrew-language proficiency and the documentation necessary to expedite the process for obtaining a temporary Israeli medical license. This enables the physicians to begin volunteering in hospitals and medical facilities around the country as quickly and efficiently as possible. Each participating physician will generously dedicate an average of two weeks of their time, although some may choose to extend their stay to provide longer-term assistance. If you are a physician from overseas who would like to volunteer in Israel, click the button below.Physician Volunteer Application“Supporting Israel’s healthcare system and finding an immediate solution for the physician shortage is extremely vital today,” said Tony Gelbart, Chairman and Co-Founder of Nefesh B’Nefesh. “We are honored to lead this joint initiative, in order to immediately provide Israel with essential care while alleviating the pressure on the nation’s healthcare system in areas where assistance is most urgently needed. In addition, Nefesh B’Nefesh is exploring ways to help solve Israel’s long-term physician shortage as part of a broader strategic plan.”
“The Israeli healthcare system is one of the best in the world, and its remarkable capabilities were demonstrated as soon as the war broke out. At present, we see great importance in strengthening our medical system with highly skilled, value-oriented, Zionist professionals who seek to tie their fate with that of the State of Israel,” said Israel’s Minister of Health, Uriel Buso. “These physicians are offering to help from a deep sense of national mission and love of the people and the Jewish homeland. I thank the doctors who have volunteered to come and help Israel and who are embodying the expression of ‘all of Israel are bound to each other’ in the purest of ways. And I’d like to especially thank Nefesh B’Nefesh, the Jewish Agency, and the Ministry of Aliyah and Integration for their cooperation on this blessed issue.”
“The support, solidarity, and rallying of our Jewish brothers in the Diaspora, in general, and in North America, in particular, during the war, is very heartfelt and strengthens the State of Israel,” said Minister of Aliyah and Integration, MK Ofir Sofer. “I want to thank them and salute them for helping our healthcare system by saving the lives of our soldiers as well as the civilians on the home front. Together with all the partners in the project – the Ministries of Aliyah and Integration and Health, Nefesh B’Nefesh, and the Jewish Agency – the people of Israel will win.”
“The mobilization of the Jewish communities in support of the State of Israel, at this difficult time, is particularly moving and strengthens us all,” said Maj.-Gen (ret.) Doron Almog, Chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel. The physicians who have come to volunteer in the Israeli healthcare system and the volunteers from the Jewish communities who are working side by side with the Israelis in essential fields throughout the country, are a tremendous display of strength and resilience.”
Over seventy physicians from various specialties, including emergency and urgent medicine, surgery, anesthesiology, pediatrics, cardiology, orthopedics and psychiatry have already arrived in Israel and additional doctors are expected to arrive in the coming weeks as needed. These doctors have integrated into medical centers throughout the country, including Ichilov, Barzilai, Soroka, Beilinson, Hadassah, Rambam, Shamir, Galil Medical Center, and the Magen David Adom Association. There is a particular emphasis on centers in combat areas, such as Sderot and Ashkelon.
This first-of-its-kind program has been made possible thanks to the generous sponsorship of The Marcus Foundation, an organization committed to making a difference in the lives of countless individuals and communities.
|
Hamas on Campus
Columbia Encampment Antisemitism April 17 24 2024
Lawfare against Israel
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Stop the Anti-Semitism on campuses
Benjamin Netanyahu-tweet-24April2024-Stop the Anti-Semitism on campuses
Anti-Semitism on campuses in the United States is reminiscent of what happened in German universities in the 1930s.
The world cannot stand idly by.
Benjamin Netanyahu-tweet-24April2024-Stop the Anti-Semitism on campuses
TOP
Hamas on Campus
Columbia Encampment Antisemitism April 17 24 2024
Posted 26April2024 Documenting Jew Hatred on Campus:
This is what’s going on at Columbia University. Must Watch.
Antisemitic Pro Terrorist, Pro Communist, Hamas supporting Students camping out on the grounds of Columbia University during Finals Week. They are intimidating and fighting Christian Americans Students and Jewish Students.
Columbia University judenrein
Canary Mission-tweet-30April2024-Columbia University judenrein
Chaos @Columbia as President Minouch Shafik clearly has made a decision not to intervene and allow her campus to be LITERALLY taken over by the pro-Hamas mob. WATCH
https://canarymission.org/campaign/Columbia_University’s_Antisemitism_Problem
Canary Mission-tweet-30April2024-Columbia University judenrein
Students chant “Kill the Jews” at the Northeastern University
Oli London-tweet-27April2024-Students chant Kill the Jews at the Northeastern University
Students chant “Kill the Jews” at the Northeastern University campus last night.
Oli London-tweet-27April2024-Students chant “Kill the Jews” at the Northeastern University
UCLA 2024 Germany 1938
Nazis prevent Jewish Students from entering University of Vienna, Austria 1938
Dr. Eli David-tweet-30April2024-Jewish UCLA student is prevented entry
Jewish @UCLA student is prevented entry by masked pro-Palestinian mob 👇
These are exactly the scenes last witnessed in 1938 Germany.
Dr. Eli David-tweet-30April2024-Jewish UCLA student is prevented entry
TOP
What the real intifada is
Eylon Levy-tweet-3May2024-What the real intifada is
Come closer, children, you have nothing to fear. Your friendly neighborhood jihadists just want to wish you a peaceful intifada. Take a candy.
Eylon Levy-tweet-3May2024-What the real intifada is
TOP
Shmuel HaNavi bus bombing (MFA-Suicide bombing of No 2 Egged bus in Jerusalem – 19August2003)
The Shmuel HaNavi bus bombing was the suicide bombing of a crowded public bus (Egged bus 2) in the Shmuel HaNavi quarter in Jerusalem, Israel, on August 19, 2003. Twenty-four people were killed and over 130 wounded. Many of the victims were children, some of them infants.[1] The Islamist militant group Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack.
The attack
Shmuel HaNavi bus bombing From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia The Shmuel HaNavi bus bombing was the suicide bombing of a crowded public bus (Egged bus 2) in the Shmuel HaNavi quarter in Jerusalem, Israel, on August 19, 2003. Twenty-four people were killed and over 130 wounded. Many of the victims were children, some of them infants. The Islamist militant group Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack.
On August 19, 2003 (22 Av 5763), a Hamas suicide bomber sent out by the organization’s Hebron cell disguised himself as a Haredi Jew and detonated himself on a No. 2 Egged bus traveling through Jerusalem’s Shmuel HaNavi neighborhood. He blew himself up after entering the back door.[2] The double-length bus was crowded with Orthodox Jewish children returning from a visit to the Western Wall. The huge explosion killed 7 children and 16 adults, among them an eight-months-pregnant woman, and injured more than 130 people. The bomb was spiked with ball-bearings designed to increase injuries on the crowded bus. Hamas said the bomber was a 29-year-old mosque preacher from the city of Hebron.
Because so many of the dead were young children,[3] the media dubbed it the “children’s bus”. According to an Associated Press report,
Suicide bombing of No. 2 Egged bus in Jerusalem
August 19, 2003
http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/MFAArchive/2000_2009/2003/8/Suicide+bombing+of+No+2+Egged+bus+in+Jerusalem+-+1.htm
Twenty-three people were killed and over 130 wounded when a Palestinian suicide bomber detonated a five-kilogram device packed with ball-bearings on a crowded No. 2 Egged bus in Jerusalem’s Shmuel Hanavi neighborhood. Many of the passengers were returning from prayers at the Western Wall when they were killed. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack.
For the ultra-Orthodox, the attack took place not only during the vacation, but also on the eve of the month of Elul, the month of selihot – the special penitential prayers recited during the week before Rosh Hashanah.
As a result of the attack, the Cabinet decided on September 1, 2003, among others, to wage an all-out war against Hamas and other terrorist elements, and to freeze the diplomatic process with the Palestinian Authority.
The victims:
– Avraham Bar-Or, 12, of Jerusalem
– Binyamin Bergman, 15, of Jerusalem
– Yaakov Binder, 50, of Jerusalem
– Feiga Dushinski, 50, of Jerusalem
– Miriam Eisenstein, 20, of Bnei Brak
– Lilach Kardi, 22, of Jerusalem
– Menachem Leibel, 24, of Jerusalem
– Elisheva Meshulami, 16, of Bnei Brak
– Tehilla Nathanson, 3, of Zichron Ya’acov
– Chava Nechama Rechnitzer, 19, of Bnei Brak
– Mordechai Reinitz, 49, and Issachar Reinitz, 9, of Netanya
– Maria Antonia Reslas, 39, of the Philippines
– Liba Schwartz, 54, of Jerusalem
– Hanoch Segal, 65, of Bnei Brak
– Goldie Taubenfeld, 43, and Shmuel Taubenfeld, 3 months, of New Square, New York
– Rabbi Eliezer Weisfish, 42, of Jerusalem
– Shmuel Wilner, 50, of Jerusalem
– Shmuel Zargari, 11 months, of Jerusalem.
– Fruma Rahel Weitz, 73, of Jerusalem died of her wounds on August 23.
– Mordechai Laufer, 27, of Netanya died of his wounds on September 5.
– Tova Lev, 37, of Bnei-Brak died of her wounds on September 12.
MFA-Suicide bombing of No 2 Egged bus in Jerusalem – 19-Aug-2003-The victims
Nefesh B’Nefesh: Live the Dream US & CAN 1-866-4-ALIYAH | UK 020-8150-6690 or 0800-085-2105 | Israel 02-659-5800 https://www.nbn.org.il/ info@nbn.org.il
It’s time to come home! Nefesh B’Nefesh: Live the Dream 1-866-4-ALIYAH
TOP
JerusalemCats Comments: Showing the Truth about the Antisemite George Soros is not Antisemitic just because he claims to “Be A Jew”. Just look at Korach. He was so bad they gave him his own Parshah, Parshah Korach, Numbers 16:1.
The Punishment of Korah (detail from the fresco Punishment of the Rebels by Sandro Botticelli (1480–1482) in the Sistine Chapel) From Wikimedia Commons, the free media repository
George Soros paying student protesters across US Colleges – report
Brendan Taylor April 26. 2024
https://insiderpaper.com/george-soros-paying-student-protesters-across-us-colleges-report/
George Soros is paying student radicals who are sparking a nationwide surge of anti-Israel protests at colleges throughout the country, NY Post reported.
George Soros and Rockefeller foundations paying students of US colleges who are arranging nationwide protests
Two major American philanthropic foundations, Rockefeller and Soros, are backing a group that pays certain activists. These protestors are disrupting college campuses across the country, WSJ reported.
The anti-Israel demonstrations initially erupted when students occupied Columbia University’s Morningside Heights campus lawn last week, now spreading across the nation.
Copycat tent encampments have emerged at various colleges, such as Harvard, Yale, Berkeley in California, Ohio State University, and Emory in Georgia. All were arranged by branches of the Soros-backed Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), resulting in clashes with law enforcement at some locations.
At three colleges, protests are being fueled by paid radicals who are fellows of a Soros-funded group called the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR).
The USCPR offers community-based fellows up to $7,800 and campus-based fellows between $2,880 and $3,660 to dedicate eight hours a week to organizing campaigns led by Palestinian organizations. They’re taught to “rise up, to revolution.”
This radical group has received over $300,000 from Soros’ Open Society Foundations since 2017 and $355,000 from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund since 2019. The SJP’s main organization has been financially supported by a network of nonprofits ultimately backed by Soros and other left-wing investors.
USCPR fellows driving protest actions on college campuses
Three individuals serving as “fellows” have been prominent figures in the nationwide protest movement. Nidaa Lafi, previously the president of the University of Texas Students for Justice in Palestine, was spotted at a encampment at UT Dallas on Wednesday, delivering a speech urging an end to the conflict in Gaza.
At Yale, USCPR fellow Craig Birckhead-Morton was arrested on Monday and charged with first-degree trespassing as SJP’s branch, Yalies4Palestine, occupied the school’s Beinecke Plaza, according to the Yale Daily News. Birckhead-Morton, who also previously interned for Democrat Maryland representative John Sarbanes, later spoke at a sit-in blocking traffic in New Haven after being released from custody.
The most prominent fellow is Malak Afaneh from Berkeley, who serves as co-president of the Berkeley Law Students for Justice in Palestine. She has been actively speaking at an anti-Israel protest on campus this week. Previously, Afaneh gained attention for disrupting a dinner at the law school dean’s house by shouting anti-Israel slogans. She later accused the dean’s wife of assaulting her when asked to leave.
TOP
George Soros is paying student radicals who are fueling nationwide explosion of Israel-hating protests
By Isabel Vincent
Published April 26, 2024, 6:00 a.m. ET
https://nypost.com/2024/04/26/us-news/george-soros-maoist-fund-columbias-anti-israel-tent-city/
George Soros and his hard-left acolytes are paying agitators who are fueling the explosion of radical anti-Israel protests at colleges across the country.
The protests, which began when students took over Columbia University’s Morningside Heights campus lawn last week, have mushroomed nationwide.
Copycat tent cities have been set up at colleges including Harvard, Yale, Berkeley in California, the Ohio State University and Emory in Georgia — all of them organized by branches of the Soros-funded Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) — and at some, students have clashed with police.
Israel hate camps explode – funded by Soros
George Soros is paying agitators who are fueling the explosion of radical anti-Israel protests at colleges across the country.
The SJP parent organization has been funded by a network of nonprofits ultimately funded by, among others, Soros, the billionaire left-wing investor.
At three colleges, the protests are being encouraged by paid radicals who are “fellows” of a Soros-funded group called the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR).
At three colleges, the protests are being encouraged by paid radicals who are “fellows” of a Soros-funded group called the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR).
USCPR provides up to $7,800 for its community-based fellows and between $2,880 and $3,660 for its campus-based “fellows” in return for spending eight hours a week organizing “campaigns led by Palestinian organizations.”
They are trained to “rise up, to revolution.”
The radical group received at least $300,000 from Soros’ Open Society Foundations since 2017 and also took in $355,000 from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund since 2019.
George Soros and Wall Street moguls financed radical anti-Israel groups behind campus protests at Columbia University. Rikki Schlott
The University of Texas-Austin is one of the campuses where anti-Israel protests have exploded this week, copycatting the takeover of Columbia University’s lawn. AP
It has three “fellows” who have been major figures in the nationwide protest movement.
Nidaa Lafi, a former president of the University of Texas Students for Justice in Palestine, was seen at an encampment at UT Dallas Wednesday making a speech demanding an end to the war in Gaza.
Lafi, a former legislative intern for the late Democratic Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson, graduated from the school last year with a degree in global business and is now a law student at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.
Lafi was seen at the University of Texas-Austin on Wednesday leading a protest against Israel. Alamy Live News
Nidaa Lafi returned to the University of Texas, Dallas, campus Wednesday to lead a “teach-in” at the Students for Justice in Palestine’s occupation of the college lawn. She is paid as a “fellow” by a group backed by George Soros.
In January, she was detained for blocking the route of President Biden’s motorcade after he arrived in Dallas for the funeral of Johnson, her former boss.
At Yale, USCPR’s fellow Craig Birckhead-Morton was arrested Monday and charged with first-degree trespassing when SJP’s branch, Yalies4Palestine, occupied the school’s Beinecke Plaza, the Yale Daily News reported.
Birckhead-Morton — also a former intern for a Democrat, Maryland rep John Sarbanes — emerged from custody to address a sit-in blocking traffic in New Haven.
At Yale, Craig Birckhead-Morton (circled) is paid up to $3,360 for his work encouraging protests. He was arrested for trespass Monday and charged with first-degree trespass.
The most high-profile of the fellows is Berkeley’s Malak Afaneh, co-president of the Berkeley Law Students for Justice in Palestine.
She has been a serial speaker at an anti-Israel protest on the campus this week — which came after she first shot to prominence by hijacking a dinner at the law school dean’s home to shout anti-Israel slogans, then accused the dean’s wife of assaulting her when she asked the radical to leave.
Serial protester Malak Afaneh is paid by the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights as a “fellow.” She has repeatedly spoken to an encampment of students at the University of California, Berkeley, where she is a law student.
UC Berkeley law student Malak Afaneh speaks to a large crowd of pro-Palestinian protesters during a protest on the campus of UC Berkeley in Berkeley, Calif., Monday, April 22, 2024. AP
The cash from Soros and his acolytes has been critical to the Columbia protests that set off the national copycat demonstrations.
Three groups set up the tent city on Columbia’s lawn last Wednesday: Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and Within Our Lifetime.
At the “Gaza Solidarity Encampment,” students sleep in tents apparently ordered from Amazon and enjoy delivery pizza, coffee from Dunkin’, free sandwiches worth $12.50 from Pret a Manger, organic tortilla chips and $10 rotisserie chickens.
Afaneh posted this video after hijacking a dinner to which she was invited by the dean of the law school and shouting anti-Israel slogans — then claimed she was the victim. TikTok/@realsairarao
An analysis by The Post shows that all three got cash from groups linked to Soros. The Rockefeller Brothers Fund also gave cash to JVP.
The fund is chaired by Joseph Pierson, and includes David Rockefeller Jr, a fourth-generation member of the oil dynasty, on its board of directors. The non-profit gives money to “sustainable development” and “peace-building.”
And a former Wall Street banker, Felice Gelman, a retired investment banker who has dedicated her Wall Street fortune to pro-Palestinian causes, funded all three groups.
Free sandwiches from upscale takeout joint Pret a Manger are on offer at the encampment, worth up to $12, and $10 rotisserie chickens. Cash for the encampment has come from billionaire investor George Soros. NYPJ
Both SJP and JVP were expelled from Columbia University in November for “threatening rhetoric and intimidation.” JVP blamed Israel for the Oct 7 Hamas terrorist attack that left 1,200 Israelis dead.
“Israeli apartheid and occupation — and United States complicity in that oppression — are the source of all this violence,” JVP said in a statement on its website.
SJP called the terrorist strike on Israel “a historic win.”
Also on offer for the thirsty anti-Israeli protesters camped out at Columbia is free coffee from Dunkin’. Behind the scenes, the groups organizing the encampment have received cash from Soros and another former Wall Street banker. NYPJ
An analysis by The Post shows how Soros and Gelman’s cash made its way to the students through a network of nonprofits that help obscure their contributions.
Soros has given billions to the Open Society Foundations which his son Alexander — whose partner is Huma Abedin, Hillary Clinton’s top aide and the estranged wife of pervert Anthony Weiner — now controls.
In turn, Open Society has given more than $20 million to the Tides Foundation, a progressive nonprofit “fiscal sponsor” that then sends the cash to smaller groups.
George Soros, the billionaire investor, is the ultimate source of cash for JVP and SJP, two of the groups encamped on Columbia’s lawn. It comes via a series of intermediaries. Andrew Toth
Those groups include A Jewish Voice for Peace, which between 2017 and 2022 has received $650,000 from Soros’ Open Society. Its advisers include the academic Noam Chomsky and the left-wing feminist author Naomi Klein.
JVP has been a prominent part of the protests at Columbia and one of its student members was among a group expelled from the university for inviting the leader of a proscribed terrorist group, Khaled, to the “Resistance 101” Zoom meeting.
Soros has also donated $132,000 to WESPAC, called in full the Westchester People’s Action Coalition Foundation.
Soros’ Open Society Foundations is now controlled by his son Alexander. It has been the ultimate source of funds for all three groups that set up camp on the Columbia lawn.
The White Plains-based nonprofit was founded in 1974 to rally for civil rights and against the Vietnam War but is now a major funder of anti-Israel groups, including Within Our Lifetime and Students for Justice in Palestine.
SJP has also received funding from the Sparkplug Foundation, a New York-based nonprofit run by Gelman and her husband, Yoram Gelman.
The couple funneled their $20,000 donation to the group through WESPAC in 2022, according to public filings.
Alexander Soros’ partner is Huma Abedin. The Hillary Clinton aide separated from her husband Anthony Weiner after he was caught sexting an underage girl. X/@humaabedin
Gelman was previously on WESPAC’s committee for Justice and Peace in the Middle East in 2009 when she was invited to Gaza by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, according to the group’s website.
The UN group has been slammed for its support of Hamas.
Gelman is on the board of the Bard Lifetime Learning Institute, an offshoot of the infamously progressive college, as well as the Jenin Freedom Theatre, located in the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank.
David Rockefeller Jr., seen with daughter Ariana, is a fourth-generation scion of the Standard Oil fortune. He chaired the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, which champions progressive causes until 2022. It is now chaired by Joseph Pierson. Paul Bruinooge/PatrickMcMullan.c
Felice Gelman, a former Wall Street investment banker, gave Students for Justice in Palestine $20,000 through Sparkplug, her family foundation. Bard LLI
WESPAC president Howard Horowitz, a former Orthodox Jew, is a member of the New York chapter of JVP, which says it works for “advocacy and public education for Palestinian human rights.”
Horowitz said he embraced the Palestinian cause after time spent living in Israel, according to a report in the Israel Times.
WESPAC has also given money to Within Our Lifetime, founded by the ubiquitous anti-Israeli protester Nerdeen Kiswani.
Howard Horowitz, a former Orthodox Jew from New York, is the longtime leader of WESPAC, which funds radical anti-Israel groups, including Students for Justice in Palestine. 914Wired/ YouTube
Within our Lifetime uses a loophole in the law to avoid declaring how much it receives from donors by not being a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, meaning it is unknown how Kiswani has benefited.
However, WESPAC is named as a fiscal sponsor of Within Our Lifetime.
After The Post published our story, an Open Society Foundations spokesperson said: “For the record, Open Society Foundations has a long history of fighting antisemitism, islamophobia and all forms of racism and hate.
“Open Society has funded a broad spectrum of US groups that have advocated for the rights of Palestinians and Israelis and for peaceful resolution to the conflict in Israel and the OPT.
“This funding is a matter of public record, disclosed on our website, fully compliant with US laws, and is part of our commitment to continuing open debate that is ultimately the only hope for peace in the region.
“The Open Society Foundations proudly support the right of all citizens to peaceful protest — a bedrock principle of our democracy.”
None of the other groups responded to requests by The Post for comment.
TOP
Antisemitism surging, report finds, prompting fear for future of ‘Jewish life’ in West
The US saw a 103% increase in incidents fueled by Gaza war, a global report for 2023 shows, while France stands out with near-quadrupling of cases
By Canaan Lidor
5May2024, 11:07 am Updated at 1:05 pmhttps://www.timesofisrael.com/in-global-surge-of-antisemitism-france-stands-out-with-near-quadrupling-of-cases/
Thousands gather for a march against antisemitism in Paris, France, November 12, 2023. (AP Photo/Sylvie Corbet)
In 2023, France registered the highest increase in recorded antisemitic incidents of any country with reliable statistics, according to data released in a new report that warned that current trends could threaten the very “ability to lead Jewish lives in the West.”
Published Sunday by Tel Aviv University and the Anti-Defamation League, the report showed a near-quadrupling of incidents in France, from 436 in 2022 to 1,676 last year. It also highlighted antisemitism on US campuses, which the head of the ADL called the “most alarming” aspect of the surge of Jew-hatred in the United States.
Of last year’s antisemitic incidents in France, the tally showed that 74% happened after October 7, when invading Hamas terrorists killed some 1,200 people in Israel and abducted another 253, triggering a still-ongoing military campaign by Israel in Gaza and daily exchanges of fire with Hezbollah along the border with Lebanon.
In the United States, the tally more than doubled, from 3,697 incidents in 2022 to 7,523 last year, with 52% of the 2023 total occurring after October 7. In Canada, the increase was from 65 to 132; in the United Kingdom from 1,662 to 4,103; in Germany from 2,639 to 3,614, and in Italy from 241 to 454.
On an incident-per-capita basis, French Jews, who according to the report number about 440,000, were three times likelier to experience an antisemitic attack than Jews in the US, whose population the report estimates at 6 million.
“For those whose views serve an anti-Jewish and anti-Zionist ideological and instrumentalist purpose, October 7 was a golden opportunity to advance further their hateful and racist fringe perspectives into mainstream conservative discourse, using it to attack rivals, mobilize supporters and attract new followers,” wrote the authors of the US chapter of the report, which is titled “Antisemitism Worldwide Report for 2023.”
Illustrative: Anti-Israel protesters call for an intifada at a protest in New York City, September 17, 2021. (Luke Tress/Flash90)
The authors of the chapter on France interviewed Jonas Jacquelin, the rabbi of the Copernic Street Synagogue, the first Reform synagogue in France. He does not wear his kippa on the street, partly because he was raised not to and in part because he does not want to provoke antisemitic attacks, the authors wrote.
“The year is not 1938, not even 1933,” Prof. Uriya Shavit, head of The Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry and the Irwin Cotler Institute, wrote in a press release. “Yet if current trends continue, the curtain will descend on the ability to lead Jewish lives in the West – to wear a Star of David, attend synagogues and community centers, send kids to Jewish schools, frequent a Jewish club on campus, or speak Hebrew.”
The 148-page report features an essay devoted to antisemitism on US campuses, where the ADL recorded 913 incidents in 2023, or 12% of the annual tally for the entire country.
“Antisemitism today seems to have taken firm root in the academy,” the author of that essay, Dr. Sara Yael Hirschhorn, wrote.
On campuses across the US, anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian students have staged demonstrations that included the occupation of campus buildings and other disruptions and led to clashes with police, who have arrested hundreds of student protesters. A standoff at Columbia University in New York City between police and students occupying campus grounds ended in fresh arrests last week.
A car with smashed windows and anti-Israel graffiti reading ‘Intifada’ and ‘Free Gaza’ is seen at Portland State University in Portland, Oregon on May 2, 2024. (John Rudoff/AFP)
“Jewish and pro-Israel students have been physically assaulted, verbally harassed, bullied online, and generally made to feel unsafe on campus, while Jewish fraternities, Hillel and Chabad houses, and even dorm rooms have been vandalized,” Hirschhorn added.
Nearly 75% of American university students have said they experienced or witnessed some form of antisemitism since the academic year began, the ADL report notes.
“All this occurred as the leadership of academia fell silent, particularly at America’s most elite universities,” wrote Hirschhorn. She connected that reality, as she described it, to ethnic studies and discourses that vilify Jews and Israel as colonialist or oppressive; prevailing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) frameworks that fail to account for antisemitism; and Qatari and other funding from the Middle East.
“By dint of their affiliations, campuses sponsored by despotic and anti-Zionist regimes are sometimes silent partners to rampant human rights abuses and illiberal agendas,” Hirschhorn wrote.
Jonathan Greenblatt participates in a panel during the TAAF Heritage Month Summit at The Glasshouse on May 5, 2023 in New York City. (JP Yim/Getty Images via AFP)
In his essay in the report, Jonathan Greenblatt, the CEO of the ADL, called the proliferation of antisemitism on US university campuses the “most alarming” aspect of the national surge of Jew-hatred after October 7.
“We have seen instances where Jewish students barricaded themselves in a library because a pro-Palestinian mob was outside. We have heard stories of students being afraid to cross their campuses at night for fear of being attacked, or attending Shabbat dinners at their Hillels with armed guards posted at the doors,” wrote Greenblatt.
These and other events on US campuses, he added, mean that “the Jewish community is facing a crisis unseen in generations.”
TOP
In Our Name: A Message from Jewish Students at Columbia University
Published using Google Docs 8May2024 https://docs.google.com/document/u/0/d/e/2PACX-1vRQgyDhIjZupO2H-2rIDXLy_zkf76RoM-_ZIYsOfn9FkI7TETgRtOfXK9VobMvGh6iEZfDPgALXJTCR/pub?pli=1
[Source:]
Shai Davidai-tweet-8May2024-In Our Name
Hundreds of Jewish students at @Columbia just published one of the most incredible student letters I have ever read.
It’s not only magnificently written, but it also clearly articulates their experiences on campus for the past six months.
Their letter tells the story of what’s it like being a Jewish student right now better than any professor like myself could ever do.
Please take 4-5 minutes to read their letter.
Give Jewish students a voice.
https://docs.google.com/document/u/0/d/e/2PACX-1vRQgyDhIjZupO2H-2rIDXLy_zkf76RoM-_ZIYsOfn9FkI7TETgRtOfXK9VobMvGh6iEZfDPgALXJTCR/pub?pli=1
Shai Davidai-tweet-8May2024-In Our Name
In Our Name: A Message from Jewish Students at Columbia University
To the Columbia Community:
Over the past six months, many have spoken in our name. Some are well-meaning alumni or non-affiliates who show up to wave the Israeli flag outside Columbia’s gates. Some are politicians looking to use our experiences to foment America’s culture war. Most notably, some are our Jewish peers who tokenize themselves by claiming to represent “real Jewish values,” and attempt to delegitimize our lived experiences of antisemitism. We are here, writing to you as Jewish students at Columbia University, who are connected to our community and deeply engaged with our culture and history. We would like to speak in our name.
Many of us sit next to you in class. We are your lab partners, your study buddies, your peers, and your friends. We partake in the same student government, clubs, Greek life, volunteer organizations, and sports teams as you.
Most of us did not choose to be political activists. We do not bang on drums and chant catchy slogans. We are average students, just trying to make it through finals much like the rest of you. Those who demonize us under the cloak of anti-Zionism forced us into our activism and forced us to publicly defend our Jewish identities.
We proudly believe in the Jewish People’s right to self-determination in our historic homeland as a fundamental tenet of our Jewish identity. Contrary to what many have tried to sell you – no, Judaism cannot be separated from Israel. Zionism is, simply put, the manifestation of that belief.
Our religious texts are replete with references to Israel, Zion, and Jerusalem. The land of Israel is filled with archaeological remnants of a Jewish presence spanning centuries. Yet, despite generations of living in exile and diaspora across the globe, the Jewish People never ceased dreaming of returning to our homeland — Judea, the very place from which we derive our name, “Jews.” Indeed just a couple of days ago, we all closed our Passover seders with the proclamation, “Next Year in Jerusalem!”
Many of us are not religiously observant, yet Zionism remains a pillar of our Jewish identities. We have been kicked out of Russia, Libya, Ethiopia, Yemen, Afghanistan, Poland, Egypt, Algeria, Germany, Iran, and the list goes on. We connect to Israel not only as our ancestral homeland but as the only place in the modern world where Jews can safely take ownership of their own destiny. Our experiences at Columbia in the last six months are a poignant reminder of just that.
We were raised on stories from our grandparents of concentration camps, gas chambers, and ethnic cleansing. The essence of Hitler’s antisemitism was the very fact that we were “not European” enough, that as Jews we were threats to the “superior” Aryan race. This ideology ultimately left six million of our own in ashes.
The evil irony of today’s antisemitism is a twisted reversal of our Holocaust legacy; protestors on campus have dehumanized us, imposing upon us the characterization of the “white colonizer.” We have been told that we are “the oppressors of all brown people” and that “the Holocaust wasn’t special.” Students at Columbia have chanted “we don’t want no Zionists here,” alongside “death to the Zionist State” and to “go back to Poland,” where our relatives lie in mass graves.
This sick distortion illuminates the nature of antisemitism: In every generation, the Jewish People are blamed and scapegoated as responsible for the societal evil of the time. In Iran and in the Arab world, we were ethnically cleansed for our presumed ties to the “Zionist entity.” In Russia, we endured state-sponsored violence and were ultimately massacred for being capitalists. In Europe, we were the victims of genocide because we were communists and not European enough. And today, we face the accusation of being too European, painted as society’s worst evils – colonizers and oppressors. We are targeted for our belief that Israel, our ancestral and religious homeland, has a right to exist. We are targeted by those who misuse the word Zionist as a sanitized slur for Jew, synonymous with racist, oppressive, or genocidal. We know all too well that antisemitism is shapeshifting.
We are proud of Israel. The only democracy in the Middle East, Israel is home to millions of Mizrachi Jews (Jews of Middle Eastern descent), Ashkenazi Jews (Jews of Central and Eastern European descent), and Ethiopian Jews, as well as millions of Arab Israelis, over one million Muslims, and hundreds of thousands of Christians and Druze. Israel is nothing short of a miracle for the Jewish People and for the Middle East more broadly.
Our love for Israel does not necessitate blind political conformity. It’s quite the opposite. For many of us, it is our deep love for and commitment to Israel that pushes us to object when its government acts in ways we find problematic. Israeli political disagreement is an inherently Zionist activity; look no further than the protests against Netanyahu’s judicial reforms – from New York to Tel Aviv – to understand what it means to fight for the Israel we imagine. All it takes are a couple of coffee chats with us to realize that our visions for Israel differ dramatically from one another. Yet we all come from a place of love and an aspiration for a better future for Israelis and Palestinians alike.
If the last six months on campus have taught us anything, it is that a large and vocal population of the Columbia community does not understand the meaning of Zionism, and subsequently does not understand the essence of the Jewish People. Yet despite the fact that we have been calling out the antisemitism we’ve been experiencing for months, our concerns have been brushed off and invalidated. So here we are to remind you:
We sounded the alarm on October 12 when many protested against Israel while our friends’ and families’ dead bodies were still warm.
We recoiled when people screamed “resist by any means necessary,” telling us we are “all inbred” and that we “have no culture.”
We shuddered when an “activist” held up a sign telling Jewish students they were Hamas’s next targets, and we shook our heads in disbelief when Sidechat users told us we were lying.
We ultimately were not surprised when a leader of the CUAD encampment said publicly and proudly that “Zionists don’t deserve to live” and that we’re lucky they are “not just going out and murdering Zionists.”
We felt helpless when we watched students and faculty physically block Jewish students from entering parts of the campus we share, or even when they turned their faces away in silence. This silence is familiar. We will never forget.
One thing is for sure. We will not stop standing up for ourselves. We are proud to be Jews, and we are proud to be Zionists.
We came to Columbia because we wanted to expand our minds and engage in complex conversations. While campus may be riddled with hateful rhetoric and simplistic binaries now, it is never too late to start repairing the fractures and begin developing meaningful relationships across political and religious divides. Our tradition tells us, “Love peace and pursue peace.” We hope you will join us in earnestly pursuing peace, truth, and empathy. Together we can repair our campus.
Signed:
Eliana Goldin, GS/JTS ’26
Elisha Baker, CC, ’26
Eden Yadegar, GS/JTS ’25
Rivka Yellin, Barnard ‘26
David Hidary, CC, ’26
Natan Rosenbaum, Columbia School of General Studies ‘26
Jesse Spear, GS 26
Amiel Nelson, General Studies ‘27
David Tarrab, SEAS ‘27
Nicholas Baum, General Studies/JTS ‘27
Daniella Coen, GS ‘24
Rosie Alchalel, Barnard ‘26
Robbie Fox, CC ‘24
Stephanie Tarrab, SEAS ‘25
Charlotte Roiter, Columbia/JTS ’26
Jonathan Lederer, CC, ’26
Benjamin Trau, Columbia ‘26
Daniel Katz CC’27
Michael Pagovich, GS/JTS
Gabriel Nelson, CC ‘27
Tova Segal, Barnard/JTS, ’25
Shira Weiss-Ishai, GS/JTS ‘27
Eliana Wagner , CLS ‘26
Ayelet Glaser, Barnard ‘24
Adam Vogt, General Studies ’24
Rachel Halpern, Barnard ‘26
Rebecca Kalimi, Barnard ‘23
Mariana Lederman, Teachers College ‘24
Cecile Toussaint, School of General Studies, 2024
Jonathan Rosen, Columbia ‘25
Daniel Kroll, Columbia 24
Alexander Rosenberg GS/JTS ‘26
Josef Korich, SEAS ’27
Rachel Lisbona, general studies, 2025
Alice Loiferman, Barnard ‘27
Jamie Cappell law school 24
Jonny Rosen GS/JTS ‘25
Menachem Weiss, Columbia Law ’24
Talia Rabban, Barnard ‘25
Jacob Schmeltz, Columbia College ‘24
Shira Eisman, GSAS ‘26
Austin Stoll, GS ’24
GSAPP, 2024
Jordan Sumberg GS/JTS ‘27
Haley Wiener, Barnard ‘24
Danya Gewurz, Barnard ‘24
Maytal Polonetsky, Barnard ‘27
Kyra Weisberger, Barnard ‘27
Beth Kahn ‘25
Jake Schwalbe, Columbia ‘24
Talia Bodner, GS/JTS ‘27
Bo Kizildag, Columbia ‘25
Lily Penn, GS/JTS ‘25
Matthew Meltzer, CLS ’25
Asher Strell Columbia school of General Studies 26
GF, Barnard ‘24
Dore Feith, LAW ‘25
Kendall Bender, Columbia Law School ‘24
Jessica Yeroshalmi, Columbia Law School ’26
Ron Chalamish, GS, 26
Brandon Rosenberg, Columbia Law School ‘24
Jaime Israel CLS ‘24
Raphael Kepecs, SEAS ’27
Shiri Gil, GS, ‘25
Maya Jamil, GS ‘26
Jonathan Shapiro, CC ‘18, LAW ‘25
Laura Bellows, Barnard/JTS ‘27
Lior Kreindler, Biomedical Engineering PhD
Bar Maman, GS ’26
Avital Kobrin, Barnard ‘27
Inbar Brand, GS/TAU ’25
Jacob Dubin, CLS ‘25
Gabriel Kahane, General Studies, ‘26
Noam Josse, CLS ’26
Saphira Samuels, Barnard ‘26
Aliza Ruttenberg, Barnard ‘27
Jessica Weinfeld, CC ‘27
Noa Siegel, GS ‘24
David Lederer, SEAS, ‘26
Parker De Dekér Cabral-Vásquez, Columbia College ’27
Alix Gilkarov, GS/JTS ‘26
Liv Shalom, Columbia ‘26
Sheina Benzaquen, General Studies ‘25
David Padover, CBS/CLS ‘24
Mark Kava, Law School ‘26
Daniel F. CLS ‘24
AR, Law ‘24
Dina Herzig, Columbia Law School ‘25
Dalia Moallem, Mailman ‘24
Stella Vayner, Columbia Engineering, 2026
Jonah Chill, Columbia Law School, ‘26
Avi Fixler, Columbia Law School, ‘24
Dahlia Bernstein, Barnard ‘27
Sam Lisner, SPS, 2024
Hannah Wander, CLS ‘25
Noga Aharony, CUIMC 26’
Esther Kishk, Columbia Law School 26
Victoria Kontsevich, General Studies ‘24
Maytal Rahimzada, Teachers College Columbia University ’25
Beverly Dweck, Barnard ‘27
Olya Skulovich, PhD, ‘24, Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science
Ariel Nurieli, Gs, 25
Ezra Dayanim, GS/JTS ‘24
Marc Nock, Mailman MPH ’24
Moshe Gershenfeld, Columbia Law School ‘24
Liam Schorr, GS/JTS ‘27
Franziska Sittig, GSAS ‘24
Rachel Freilich, CC ’27
Matan Malka, VP&S ‘25
Dori Baron, CC ‘26
Ella Waisman, SEAS, ’27
Sarah Ginsberg, Barnard ‘27
Risa Farber, SEAS ‘27
Robyn Beyda, Barnard ‘27
Frieda Catton, Barnard ‘27
Joy Reeve ‘25
Aryeh Krischer, Columbia, ’26
Bracha Weinberger, Barnard 24′
Rachel Landesman, Barnard ’25
Sam Nahins, Columbia GS ‘24
Eytan Abramowitz, SEAS ’27
Nathan J Saldinger, GS ‘24
Omer Nauer, GS ‘24
Ilana Bramson /GS/JTS ‘27
Yehuda Dicker, Columbia College ‘25
Leo Salkind Columbia GS 26
Daphna Spira, Barnard ‘24
Lucy Hecht, CC ’26
Abraham Jacobs, Columbia ‘24
Ali Levontin, GS 24
Zachary Krivine, SIPA ’24
Gideon Marcus, GS, ’25
Sally Schuster, SIPA ‘24
Yahli Bibi, GS ‘27
Michael Kolber, GS 26’
Katya Kantor, GS ‘22 SIPA ‘24
Sarah Hamerman, Columbia College ‘27
Dor Lev GS 26
Maya Jubas, CC ’25
Evgeny Manzhosov, PhD Candidate, Columbia
Aiden Englander, SEAS ‘25
Caroline Ulrich, BC ‘25
Elya Levi, SPS ‘24
Jaya Fainzilber, Touro ‘27
Lihi Tal, GS ‘25
Danielle Feit, Barnard ‘24
Danelle Tuchman, CC ’25
Jacob Resnick, GS/JTS’ 26
Liana Marks, GS/JTS ‘27
Alexander Dobensky, School of the Arts ’24
Shai Goldman, CC ’24
Andrew Stein, GS, ’25
Rebecca Dyckman, Barnard ’27
Henna Krauss, Barnard ‘27
Molly Nelson, Barnard ‘24
Simone Miller, CC ‘26
Emily Silverstein, Barnard ‘25
Stella Lessler, Columbia Engineering ‘24
Ariella Burnstein, Barnard ‘27
Ariel Slomka, Columbia GS ‘25
Yael Amiel, CLS ’24
Joseph Kaplan, CC 25
Sonya Poznansky, Columbia GS ’24
Sabrina, Columbia TAU 25
Mendi Hecht, GS ‘26
Zippy Wilson, Barnard ’26
Avi Kohn, CLS ’26
Tal Zussman, SEAS PhD
Esther Rotlevi, Neurobiology and Behavior (GSAS), ’27
Mali Lobel, GS ‘26
Tans Rosen, SEAS ’26
Meira Saffra, Barnard ’24
Eliza Binstock, Columbia College ‘27
Yasmine Abouzaglo, Columbia ‘27
Rebecca Glanzer, Columbia College ’16, Columbia Business School ’24
Nora Samadi, Barnard ‘25
Daniel Glick, SEAS 24’
Riva Rubin, Columbia College ’25
Jared Axelowitz, Columbia Law School ’25
Annika Erickson, Barnard ’24
Talia Kesselman, Columbia School of Social Work, ’24
Tallie Steiner, Barnard ‘24
Gal Lev Ari, GS’26
Noam Zolty, CLS ’22
Natalie Carnoy, Columbia College ’26
Emily Kahan, Columbia College ‘26
Noam Woldenberg, CC ‘27
Joel Sontag, Columbia Law School, ’24
Lexi Berger, Barnard ‘24
Rachel Neplokh, TAU General Studies Dual Degree ‘24
Ava Quinn, GS/JTS ’25
Ann Mizrahi, Columbia University ’24
Shimon Nataf, Columbia Law School ’26
Sam Horowitz CLS 25
Josh Sussman, Columbia Mailman School of Public Health ‘25
Eden Shaveet, Bridge to Ph.D. Scholar, ’24
Nickia Muraskin, SEAS PhD Student
Joshua Strongin, Teachers College ‘24
Sasha Isler, SEAS ‘26
Molly Litvak, CC ‘26
Alon S. Levin, Electrical Engineering PhD Student
Alex Malamud, Barnard ‘24
Hannah Solon, GS/JTS ’25
Danielle Yahalom, Barnard ’25
Emily Vayner GS/JTS ’27
Daniel Barth, GS ’24
Noa Salkind GS 26
Sapir Agam GS ‘25
Rebecca Wernick, Barnard ‘25
Asher Dayanim GS ‘24
Ariel Weinsaft, Barnard ’25
Samantha Tarlowe, GS/JTS ‘27
Simone Glajchen, Columbia College ‘27
Jessica Major, Columbia School of Social Work, ‘25
Aaron Bruce, JTS/GS ’25
Lola Hurst, Barnard ‘27
Michael Lippman, GS ‘25
Yaniv Yatziv, CBS ’25
Emma Vorchheimer, Barnard, 25’
Yola Ashkenazie, Barnard ‘24
Clementine silver Schwartz, GS ‘27
Daniel Becker, GS Tel Aviv Dual-Degree ‘25
Jessica Brenner, Barnard ‘26
Sharon Nagy, Tau-Columbia 28‘
Eliana Steinlauf, Barnard ’24
Hana Cohen, GS/JTS ‘26
Tomas Fiure, SEAS ‘24
Gabriela Bentolila, SEAS ‘25
Gabriela Bentolila, SEAS ‘25
David Rabbani, CC ‘25
Emily Bejerano, SEAS PhD ‘27
Benjamin Hadar, CSSW ’25
Ilana Goldstein, Barnard/JTS, ’26
Katie Friedman, TAU GS ’25
Danielle Dorfman, Barnard ’24
Andrew Leibert, SIPA ’24
Daniella Davis, GS, 2027
Mikael Rochman, GS 25’
Ben Wald, JTS/GS, 25’
Chloe, TAU/GS Dual Degree Program, ’25
Danielle Gillai, Barnard ‘27
Thomas Zev Huneycutt, GS ‘27
Sarah Cohen, SIPA ‘25
Maya Gal, GS/TAU ‘24
Gabriella Jacobs, TAU-Columbia ‘27
Ariana Pinsker Lehrer, Columbia School of Social Work, 25
Ayal Yakobe, GS ’24
Talia Escobedo, SOA ‘24
Trevor Siegel CC ‘24
Ara Nazmiyal, Columbia ’26
Almog Ankori, GS ‘27
Matthew Shtaynberg, JTS/GS ‘25
Maayan Malter, CBS PhD ’24
Sahar Paz, Columbia GS, 2025
Kayla Venger, Barnard ‘27
Edan Mortman, GSAS, ’26
Eliana Khoobian, GS, ‘26
Ayelet Kurz, Columbia College ’26
Loren Kertsman, Dual Degree ‘26
John Morozov, School of General Studies, ‘26
Ellie Stallman, Columbia ’26
Benny Attar, GS ’26
Corey Brooks, Columbia ‘26
TOP
UC-Berkeley Law Prof: Don’t Hire My Anti-Semitic Law Students
“It’s time for the adults to take over, and that includes law firms looking for graduates to hire.”
Posted by Mike LaChance October 16, 2023 https://legalinsurrection.com/2023/10/uc-berkeley-law-prof-dont-hire-my-anti-semitic-law-students/
Steven Davidoff Solomon is trying to hold these students accountable. There is a lot of this going around right now and it’s encouraging.
He writes at the Wall Street Journal:
TOP
CEOs Vowing Not to Hire Harvard Students Who Signed Letter Blaming Israel for Hamas Attack
“I would like to know so I know never to hire these people”
Posted by Mike LaChance, 12October2023 https://legalinsurrection.com/2023/10/ceos-vowing-not-to-hire-harvard-students-who-signed-letter-blaming-israel-for-hamas-attack/
Some of the student groups at Harvard who signed on to this are already scrambling to distance themselves from it. This is why.
The New York Post reports:
Joel M. Petlin-tweet-2November2023-message for the deans of law schools
Some of the largest law firms in the country have a message for the deans of law schools who have tolerated Antisemitic activities conducted by their students:
If you want your graduates to get good jobs in our law firms, stop producing Antisemites.
Joel M. Petlin-tweet-2November2023-message for the deans of law schools
largest law firms-Letter to Deans
UPDATE:
Joel M. Petlin-tweet-12November2023-message for the deans of law schools
More law firms keep lining up in the fight against Antisemitism.
There are now 2️⃣0️⃣6️⃣ firms that have signed the @sullcrom
letter to law school deans.
Each one sends an important message. I hope that they get it and remove Antisemitic students and faculty from their campuses.
Joel M. Petlin-tweet-12November2023-message for the deans of law schools
largest law firms-Letter to Deans-12November2023
Examples of Anti-Semitic Law Students
See Post: https://www.nbcnews.com/business/corporations/harvard-letter-israel-columbia-ivy-davis-polk-law-firm-student-rcna120881
NBC News-tweet-17October2023-Top US law firm Davis Polk announces it had rescinded letters of employment for three law students
The @ColumbiaSJP @ColumbiaJVP letter had nothing to do with supporting Palestine & everything to do with celebrating & glorifying the torture, murder and mutilation of 1,300 Israelis and abduction of an additional 200. Civilians. Women. Babies. Innocents.
Do better, @Newsweek.
HonestReporting-tweet-18October2023-The @ColumbiaSJP @ColumbiaJVP letter had nothing to do with supporting Palestine & everything to do with celebrating & glorifying the torture, murder and mutilation of 1,300 Israelis and abduction of an additional 200. Civilians. Women. Babies. Innocents.
Do better, @Newsweek
TOP
Statement on Israel and Anti-Semitism From Leading Asset Managers
Noah Pollak-tweet-20November2023-Statement on Israel and Anti-Semitism From Leading Asset Managers
Some of the biggest names in finance have signed a public statement declaring they will not hire Hamas supporters and anti-semites at their firms:
“We call on our colleagues to join us in pledging to protect and support our Jewish and Israeli employees, family, and friends against violence and hate.”
Signatories include @BillAckman, @CliffordAsness, David Einhorn, Michael Steinhardt, Sander Gerber, Jon Jacobson, Peter Feld, Seth Fisher, Jeff Talpins, Doug Silverman, Ross Stevens, @boazweinstein, @michaelfertik, Dan Sundheim, Ryan Tolkin, and many more. Over $1T total under management.
Thank you gentlemen for taking a stand.
Statement on Israel and Anti-Semitism From Leading Asset Managers
Alex Berger New York https://www.ipetitions.com/petition/asset-manager-community-supports-israel
Asset Manager Community Statement of Support for Israel
We stand united in our support for the State and people of Israel. We mourn the senseless and barbaric acts of mass terror. We condemn Hamas and their collaborators.
The attack in Israel is an attack on all of us. Israel is the Start-Up Nation. Its innovations make the world a better place.
We stand with Jewish communities around the world, which are experiencing antisemitic harassment and violence. We are profoundly disturbed by people who are indifferent when confronted with Jewish suffering or who organize to blame Jews and celebrate hate. Supporters of hate will have no place in our organizations or our community.
We call on our colleagues to join us in pledging to protect and support our Jewish and Israeli employees, family, and friends against violence and hate.
Since 1948, the State of Israel has been a source of hope, strength, and innovation. Israel has given our industry and the world an abundance of moral, intellectual, and material gifts. Now, in Israel’s hour of need, we, the undersigned, pledge to do everything we can to support the Jewish state and the Jewish people. We support Israel’s right to defend itself against Hamas, and against all people, states, and organizations who threaten the State of Israel and the Jewish people. Never again will we sit by while peace-loving people are slaughtered en masse.
***
The following are among the signatories to the petition.
Sander Gerber, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Partner, Hudson Bay Capital
Yoav Roth, Managing Partner, Hudson Bay Capital
Bill Ackman, Chief Executive Officer, Pershing Square Capital Management
Robert Agostinelli, Co-Founder, Rhone
Clifford Asness, Managing and Founding Principal, AQR
Brett Barth, Co-Founder and Co-Chief Executive Officer, BBR Partners
Zachary Berger, Managing Director, ArchPoint Investors
Andrew Bernstein, Chief Executive Officer, Aeolus Capital Management
Marty Burger, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Artisan RE Ventures
Douglas Cifu, CEO, Virtu Financial
Brett Cohen, JGB Management
Aaron Cowen, Chief Investment Officer, Suvretta
Alexander Crisses, Managing Director, General Atlantic
David Einhorn, President, Greenlight Capital
Isser Elishis, Managing Partner and Chief Investment Officer, Waterton Global Resource Management
Peter Feld, Managing Member, Starboard Value
Seth Fischer, Founder and Chief Investment Officer, Oasis Management
Matan Friedman, Chief Investment Officer, Generate Capital
Stephen Goldstein, Senior Managing Director, Evercore
Adam Herz, Co-Founder, Coalition Investment Partners
Jon Jacobson, Non-Executive Chairman, HighSage Ventures
Todd Kantor, Founder and Managing Member, Encompass Capital Advisors LLC
Adam Katz, Co-Founder and Chief Investment Officer, Irenic Capital Management
Jeremy Katz, President and Chief Operating Officer, D1 Capital
Ilya Koffman, Founder and Managing Partner, Turnspire Capital Partners
Jonathan Kolatch, Partner, Jasper Lake LLC
Greg Lippman, Chief Investment Officer, LibreMax Capital
Marc Majzner, Founder and Chief Investment Officer, Clearline Capital
Candice Richards, MidOcean Partners
Evan Roth, Co-Founder and Co-Chief Executive Officer, BBR Partners
Steven Roorda, Partner, Stonebridge Capital
George Rohr, President, NCH Capital
Douglas Silverman, Managing Partner, Senator Investment Group
Paul Singer, Chief Executive Officer, Elliott Management
Michael Steinhardt, Steinhardt Management
Ross Stevens, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Stone Ridge Asset Management
Dan Sundheim, Founder, D1 Capital
Jeffrey Talpins, Chief Executive Officer, Element Captial
Udi Toledano, Managing Partner, Good Springs Capital
Ryan Tolkin, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Investment Officer, Schonfeld
Boaz Weinstein, Founder, Saba Capital
Rich Abbe, General Partner, Iroquois Capital
Aimee Almeleh, BlueMountain Capital
Alex Berger, Managing Director, Hudson Bay Capital
Scott Black, Chief Legal Officer, Hudson Bay Capital
Shlomo Cohen, Managing Director, Jones Trading
Halit Coussin, Chief Legal Officer and Chief Compliance Officer, Pershing Square Capital Management
Seth Damski, Chief Executive Officer, Old City Securities
Victoria Drabkin, Senior Vice President, Macquarie
David Feldman, Portfolio Manager, L1
Michael Fertik, Founder & Managing Director, Heroic Ventures
Jay Freedman, Principal, KPMG
Ian Jacobs, Managing Partner, 402 Capital
Max Karpel, Partner, Akin Gump
Nadav Klugman, Partner, Mayer Brown
Sam Leffell, Hudson Bay Capital
Alan Leifer, President, Leifer Capital Advisers, LLC
Noam Lipshitz, Shareholder, Greenberg Traurig
Amy Margolis, Hudson Bay Capital
Michael Masri, Partner, Kirkland & Ellis
Abel S. Osorio, Partner, Turnspire Capital Partners
Greg Racz, President and Co-Founder, MGG Investment Group
Zoya Raynes, Managing Director, Bank of America
Brian Rebhun, Partner, PricewaterhouseCoopers
David Reichsfeld, JP Morgan
Adam Rosenbluth, Managing Director, Bank of America
Michael Roth, Ares
David Salanic, Co-Managing Partner, Whitefort Capital
Craig Sedaka, LibreMax Capital
Mark B. Spiegel, Stanphyl Capital
Matthew Weinstein, Portfolio Manager, Hudson Bay Capital
Rami Zaitchik, Director, Bank of America
Noah Pollak-tweet-20November2023-Statement on Israel and Anti-Semitism From Leading Asset Managers
TOP
Harvard 2024
Harvard Chabad-tweet-25April2024-Harvard Passover 2024
I’m hearing from first-year students who, while studying for exams in their dorm room, are being confronted with terrifying chants of globalize the Intifada – a call for the murder of Jews. I’m now receiving calls from their parents who are frightened to learn that Hamas supporters are being allowed to camp out in Harvard Yard – in brazen defiance to the university’s explicit guidelines – and are chanting in support of terrorism and call for the murder of Jews.
The last two nights at the Harvard Chabad Seder table, along with Jews around the world, we read the words of the Passover Haggadah
how “in each and every generation they rise up against us to destroy us. And the Holy One, blessed be He, rescues us from their hands.” That those who seek the destruction of the Jewish people are receiving support from Harvard students and other university students around the country – as we heard today from Hamas, should shake every moral person to their core.
We call on University leadership to remove these Jew haters and Hamas lovers who are continuously and brazenly violating university code of conduct, not to mention their own humanity.
– Rabbi Hirschy Zarchi, Jackie and Omri Dahan Harvard Chabad Jewish Chaplain
Harvard Chabad-tweet-25April2024-Harvard Passover 2024
Hillel Fuld-tweet–24April2024-Antisemitism in America is not so bad and you’re exaggerating
One month ago, I heard this sentence over and over: “You are being an alarmist. Antisemitism in America is not so bad and you’re exaggerating. It can never happen in America. The public wouldn’t allow it.”
Ladies and gentleman, Harvard, 2024.
Hillel Fuld-tweet-24April2024-Antisemitism in America is not so bad and you’re exaggerating
Yael Bar tur-tweet-15February2024-Harvard Yard 2024
Harvard Yard 2024: Jewish students woke up this morning to see posters of innocent Israeli hostages completely defaced.
Let’s put aside discussions of codes of conduct and ousted presidents for a moment. I want to ask @Harvard: what is the value of my degree when fellow students think that it’s acceptable to use intimidation and violence as an argument? What are they learning if they repeat hateful lies to a point where the face of a kidnapped baby held by Hamas for over 4 months is too offensive to bear?
Yael Bar tur-tweet-15February2024-Harvard Yard 2024
AsperGirl-tweet-15February2024-Harvard Graduate Hiring Freeze
1. Declare a boycott/moratorium on hiring Harvard grads
2. Recruit firms & large companies to sign on
Do we really want to encourage student bodies behind this culture? Students of the classes of 2024 – 2028 should be held to a standard
AsperGirl-tweet-15February2024-Harvard Graduate Hiring Freeze
Harvard Graduate Hiring Freeze
Bill Ackman-tweet-31December2023-Company Background Check Won’t Turn Up a Harvard Diploma
Bill Ackman-tweet-31December2023-Company Background Check Won’t Turn Up a Harvard Diploma
Company Background Check Won’t Turn Up a Harvard Diploma
TOP
When You Realize Nearly Everyone In Your University Wants You Dead
How, how, how did this come to pass? There is no evil like the academic who provides the ideological foundation for the extermination of a people, and insists that you call that program “virtue.”
Posted by Andrew Pessin 22October2023 https://legalinsurrection.com/2023/10/when-you-realize-nearly-everyone-in-your-university-wants-you-dead/
University of Wisconsin–Madison 11October2023Hamas Israel Palestine Protest
Four days in, after explicit images of the slaughter had been blasting around the internet nonstop for days, my college administration, and my faculty colleagues, had remained silent. In contrast, when a single Black man died by a police officer far away a few years ago the place had exploded for days. When an administrator more recently scheduled an event at a venue that 40 years earlier had racist admissions policies there were weeks of outrage, the canceling of classes and then of the administrator. The misuse of pronouns here can get you disciplined on a bias charge, in this age of microaggressions and in the name of promoting inclusion.
But when (now) 1400+ Jews are slaughtered in cold blood, live on camera, there is—silence.
And not just slaughtered: bloodthirsty murderers going house to house, murdering entire families, children, grandparents, medics and first responders, raping women and little girls, abusing corpses, burning down houses with their families inside like in medieval times, paragliding into a music festival with automatic weapons gunning down 260 young adults (same age as our students), not to mention taking 200+ hostages (women, children, elderly) whom they have threatened to execute publicly (assuming they are still alive) —no different from the Nazi Einsatzgruppen, except that the Nazis didn’t have the ability to also livestream their atrocities—
There was silence.
Actually worse: business as usual. Chatter about upcoming events, department business, the usual weekly newsletters, announcements re upcoming meetings. Nothing to talk about, folks, it’s just Jews being slaughtered on the largest scale since the Holocaust.
“We must take care of our students”—a wonderful rallying cry that fills up our airwaves whenever any identity group is perceived to have received a harm, however abstract that harm is, however removed that harm might be from them directly and personally.
Except for Jews—whose family members, friends, and acquaintances were literally just gunned down, raped, burned alive, decapitated, all livestreamed. (They used one grandmother’s phone to film their execution of her, then posted the video to her own Facebook account so everyone she knew could witness it—which is how her family learned of her fate.)
How would they feel if that were their grandmother?
If they watched her be executed with their own eyes?
Did this community truly have no care or concern for its Jewish members?
I didn’t want to believe it.
But this isn’t just about my institution. Apart from a small handful of university presidents who responded appropriately (such as at the University of Florida), most were either silent like mine or (eventually) expressed tepid, neutral, general words of dismay without truly acknowledging what had just happened before our very eyes. Although admittedly these responses were at least marginally better than what happened and continues to happen on many other campuses: active, large, loud rallies where students and faculty and at least the occasional administrator openly endorsed and called for the deaths of Jews.
But only marginally: the silence, and the tepidness, convey the same message, if slightly less explicitly.
The problem is nearly—everywhere.
Other people saw the problem earlier, but for me it was around 2014 that I began to understand that nearly everyone not merely at my institution but at these very many institutions, including the best institutions, really—hated—the Jews. But since I first saw it I’ve also seen it getting worse, and now it is shockingly unambiguous. I no longer have the occasional worry that my concerns are maybe a little paranoid, apocalyptic, overly emotional.
It is now clear.
Many, many people in our universities don’t merely really hate the Jews, but actually—want them dead.
In 2023 America, not to mention around the globe.
Take a look at the rallies the first week after the massacre at Harvard, at Yale, at Princeton, at Columbia, at Georgetown, and at the University of North Carolina where one very excited young woman screamed exuberantly, “We are all of us Hamas!”
Hamas, which openly calls for, and acts to bring about, the death of every Jew on the planet.
At the University of Washington rally “for Palestine” a young woman Jewish student was filmed sobbing in front of a seemingly indifferent administrator, “Why are you allowing this to happen here? They want us dead!”
How, how, how did this come to pass?
Know this to start: Israel is home to half the world’s Jews, and the majority of the other half are closely connected to it, identify with it, support it, have family, friends, acquaintances there. It is safe to assume that most Jewish persons on your campus either know someone who was just murdered in their homes or taken hostage and perhaps soon to be executed publicly, or knows someone who does. That means not only that most Jews on your campus have just suffered an incalculable concrete personal loss, but that anyone who wants Israeli Jews dead must also want these Jews dead—because these Jews mostly support those Jews, and may even be related to them.
There is no comfort in imagining, well maybe they want to kill the Jews there, but here, in the US of A, in 2023, I am safe.
Do not forget that point.
This may be the US of A in 2023, but what we’re seeing is an old story, dressed up fresh for the 21st century Western world.
Years of lies, fertilizing the soil, all deliberately designed to delegitimize and dehumanize the Jew, to label the Jew as inhuman, demonic, pure evil. Once you are convinced that the Jew represents evil, then killing Jews becomes not only acceptable but even obligatory. If the Jew is evil, then you in turn must be a very good person in killing him. The Christians did this for centuries, portraying the Jew as literally the fleshly embodiment of evil in their rejection and crucifixion of Jesus. The Germans and the Nazis did this for decades in racial terms, inspired by the antisemitic conspiracy-theory forgery Protocols of the Elders of Zion, even developing a whole academic discipline to document and thus demonstrate the evils of the Jews. After some decades of this program, killing Jews isn’t merely easier but becomes an act of virtue.
The newer lies, now also several decades old, are merely superficial variations on the older lies, aiming to better reflect the specific evils of today. The charges of “genocide,” “ethnic cleansing,” “settler colonialism,” “apartheid,” and more recently “Jewish supremacy,” not to mention probably every single thing most people believe about Gaza—you may be sure that all of these are lies, in fact easily documentable and demonstrable lies for anyone who takes a few minutes to honestly evaluate them. (Maybe people don’t know that rather unlike most “open air prisons” or “concentration camps” Gaza has four-star hotels and restaurants, luxury cars, ritzy malls, affluent neighborhoods, fancy beach resorts, and an obesity problem, not to mention a massive military infrastructure.) These charges don’t have to be true, they just have to be widely circulated, widely repeated, and widely believed, so that the Jew becomes the embodiment of whatever is considered most evil today.
And this is what the “pro-Palestinian” movement, along with its numerous “progressive” allies, has successfully accomplished.
After twenty years of the “Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions” (BDS) movement against Israel, orchestrated on campus by the now more than 200 chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), their short-term goal, that of damaging Israel economically, was a bust; but the long-term goal, the real goal, has succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. Whether or not a particular BDS resolution passes or fails on a given campus, the campaign itself soaks the campus in all the lies above for weeks on end, year after year. Most students don’t really follow the details, but come away thinking, man, those Jews with their genocide, apartheid, and supremacy, must really be pretty evil.
And now in 2023 no one blinks an eye when SJP asserts boldly, baldly, as if factually, on their recent social media celebrating the slaughter of 1400 Jews, that every single Israeli Jew is a “settler.” In today’s campus vernacular the slur “settler” rivals in evilness the slur “Nazi,” which they also sling against Israelis. If every Israeli Jew is a settler, then every Israeli Jew is evil, and therefore legitimately murdered. That includes the babies, and the grandmothers, and the unarmed dancing teenagers, and by the way it also justifies torturing them and raping the women before you murder them, which also occurred on a significant scale. (The first report to the Red Cross on the hostages noted that many suffered from “severe injuries due to rape.”)
Every Israeli Jew is guilty. And if every Israeli Jew is guilty, is evil, then so is every other Jew who supports them and may even be related to them.
There are no innocent Jews.
The actual Nazis couldn’t have orchestrated it better.
Those administrators, those faculty members, those students who say nothing while 1400 Jews are slaughtered—and livestreamed, with the most horrific recordings circulating the globe getting millions of views and shares and likes and celebratory comments—Do they remain silent because they too believe these Jews actually—deserve this?
One liberated kibbutz included the bodies of 40 babies.
Babies.
Some beheaded.
Are there no innocent Jews, who don’t deserve this fate?
Babies, grandmothers, dancing peaceniks, living in their ancestral homeland, in an internationally recognized UN member state, in territory that is not disputed except by those who believe that no Jew is innocent?
If they can’t condemn this—if they remain silent—then they must believe these Jews deserve it. I can draw no other conclusion. Is it possible that these academic colleagues, sophisticated, educated, refined, “experts” in values—for do they not daily proclaim their expertise in values, in their anti-racism, their anti-hate, their commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion?—is it possible that the people we work with, share offices with, who teach our children, share the belief and value system of the ancient and medieval Christians, the modern Nazis?
And of the contemporary Islamic Resistance Movement, otherwise known as Hamas?
Hamas has made no secrets of its views. From its founding charter—which literally openly endorses the murder of every Jew on earth, and quotes repeatedly, and “factually,” from the antisemitic Nazi-worshipped forgery Protocols in order to support its view that every Jew deserves to be murdered—to literally every action, every behavior, and every statement in the 40 years since, it has been telling you exactly what it thinks.
They tell us this openly, and have been telling us this openly for decades. A week after the massacre their leaders called on every Muslim on earth to bring the jihad to everywhere on earth, which prompted attacks in several European countries and had the FBI on alert here.
This isn’t hard to figure out. This movement is not about peace, about negotiation, not about “two states,” not about “justice,” not about Palestinian self-determination, not even about bettering the lives of Palestinians, all the things that should rightly matter to genuine progressives.
It is about murdering every Jew on earth, starting with the ones in Israel. (They also are interested in removing Christians, for the record, but the Jews are the first priority.)
That the animus is not restricted to Israeli Jews is also clear by the global reaction. Mass rallies in major cities around the globe, celebrating the slaughter and attacking local Jews and Jewish institutions. And back to campuses: SJP immediately launched a social media campaign celebrating this mass slaughter of Jews (which they call “resistance”), and then launched a campaign to “bring the resistance” to every campus they could, in order to “dismantle” Zionism on every campus. Lovely words—except when “resistance” openly means “slaughter every Jew,” when “dismantling Zionism” means removing, “by any means necessary,” anyone on campus who believes that Jews have human rights too, and when they illustrate their campaign with a celebratory image of the paraglider armed with automatic weapons about to embark on gunning down every unarmed dancing teenager in his sight.
This is open endorsement of, and incitement to, mass homicidal violence—occurring on, and directed towards, not only Israel and Israelis but our very campuses.
They don’t even hide it. They’re proud about it.
They were exulting in it.
“We are all Hamas!” the young woman in North Carolina screamed. Can you imagine if she were your roommate, your classmate, your student?
Hamas, SJP, have never hid their intentions. “Resistance,” and “By any means necessary,” even “decolonization,” are the sanitized way they like to put it, but as you see them chuckle in glee, in ecstasy, over this mass slaughter, giving those snuff videos millions of views and likes and glowing reviews, it looks a lot less sanitary.
When an openly genocidal Jew-hating group declares, and then perpetrates, their intention to slaughter Jews, is it not advisable to #BelieveThem?
And when a campus group does the same?
Silence?
Really?
Is there any other identity group about which it would be acceptable to celebrate their mass slaughter, and campaign to bring that slaughter to your campus? What exactly are all those diversity and inclusion administrators paid to do, if not to prevent this?
Or at least condemn it?
But silence is what we got on my campus, and on many campuses.
Is that because people—our administrators, our colleagues, our students—agree? That every Jew is guilty, that every Jew is evil, that every Jew must be eliminated?
Is that what they are thinking, when they look at their Jewish colleagues, students—at you—even if they are good enough not to say it aloud?
That the answer is yes is supported by what, of course, predictably, happened next.
Jews began to defend themselves. And the world, including campuses, promptly erupted and continues to erupt in outrage at every single measure Jews take in so doing. There isn’t a single nation on earth that wouldn’t respond massively to such an attack, but when Jews do it, every measure is instantly labeled an aggression, an atrocity, a war crime, there will be international tribunals, etc. That is because in their eyes Jews do not have the right to defend themselves, the right that all other human beings have—because after a generation of the program academics and their students now apparently believe that Jews are so demonic they are not even endowed with the “human rights” championed by all the anti-Israel “human rights” NGOs, whose condemnations of Israeli self-defense are as loud as anyone else’s.
One other thing also happened next. The more decent among the academy did have some words of concern about the massacre but couldn’t resist even a nanosecond before appending to those words their “explanations,” their “context,” the “nuance,” the “what choice did they have” rhetoric—invoking, after all, the “blockade,” the “occupation,” the “apartheid,” etc. The lies, the damned lies, doing all the work, obscuring the fact that the Palestinians, even Hamas, did and do have many other choices available besides slaughtering Jews, including that of actually making peace with Israel.
One academic actually said the following to me. The reason she was silent to that point wasn’t that she hated Jews, she said, but that she was trying to understand the conflict from multiple sides, because it is after all extremely complicated. When this person was confronted with the mass sadistic slaughter of 1400 mostly civilian Jews including babies, in other words, her response was “I need to hear more perspectives.” Imagine saying on a campus today that you were suspending judgment on the George Floyd case, and on the general phenomenon of anti-Black racism, and while you’re at it on slavery too because the situation is “complicated” and there are other “sides,” including the side that held that all Blacks are evil and deserve to be enslaved or eliminated.
Is there any other identity group about which it would be acceptable to justify their mass slaughter by providing “context,” insisting on “nuance,” wanting to see the “other side”?
Academics are supposed to be in the subtlety and nuanced business, and indeed the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is complex, and there is lots of room for reasonable debates about many aspects of it.
But that is not what’s going on here.
The issue at hand really is extraordinarily simple: either those raped and murdered and abused and burned and decapitated babies and families and grandmothers deserved that fate, or they did not. Any “but,” any “explanation,” any “context,” any “complication,” any “both sides,” any “all lives matter” (as many of those tepid university statements exhibited) blames the victim for their slaughter and comes down as a vote that they deserved it—because, in the end, because no other explanation is possible, they must believe that every Jew is evil, and that the medieval Christians and modern Nazis and contemporary Hamasniks have it right.
Anything less than outright unqualified condemnation of this act is a signal to your Jewish colleagues, peers, and students, that their very existence on this planet is an aggressive provocation to you. The tepidity and the silence may be marginally better than the “Intifada!” and “Resistance by any means necessary!” and “Death to the Jews!” chants heard on all too many campuses this past week, but they signify exactly the same thing.
Here is one other neat trick, pointing again to the same conclusion. Many instantly responded to the onset of the Israeli response by calling for de-escalation, by condemning genocide. Beautiful: who could be against de-escalation, and for genocide? But here’s the problem. Wasn’t Hamas’s mass sadistic slaughter of some 1400 mostly civilians just a little bit of a, you know, escalation? And part of an explicit campaign of, you know, genocide? How does one come out for de-escalation only after the Jew-slaughterers have finished their slaughter, and without even acknowledging that slaughter? How does one come out against genocide only after the openly genocidal group has finished its round of genocidal activity, and do so without even acknowledging that genocidal activity? Think about the message that sends to Jewish community members: we have no objection when you are attacked, but we condemn you when you respond. Or maybe: genocide is dreadful, except when it’s perpetrated against Jews.
Not to mention that there is a whole other mode of de-escalation, and genocide prevention, that these folks entirely overlook. They could demand that Hamas return all the hostages immediately and surrender, and then the war is over, instantly. You don’t get more de-escalating and anti-genocidal than that. Yet somehow that is not the mode they are calling for.
Make that condemnation of the Hamas slaughter, full stop, unconditional—and then perhaps we can have reasonable discussions about many things, including about the scope and nature of the Israeli response.
Anything else and the conclusion is inescapable: they just want Jews dead.
For the record, it is possible to be “pro-Palestinian” yet also condemn this massacre, full stop. That really isn’t so hard to work out. And yet finding a person or two on a campus taking that position will keep you busy for a pretty long time.
Even as I write this I cannot fully believe it, but it really is past denying. As that young woman at the University of Washington sobbed, “They want us dead.”
It is Hamas, I obviously believe, that is profoundly evil. But one thing to their “credit,” I suppose: they at least tell you who they are, they are open about it, they may be violent religious extremist fanatics but at least you know who you are dealing with.
But the academics—the professors, the administrators, now a full generation of students and young alumni—the people who justify that violence, who create entire ideologies that fertilize the ground by painting the victim as the evil one, as the one who deserves this extermination, are at least equally evil. They may not pull the trigger but they create the conditions that make the trigger pulling justifiable and therefore feasible, and do so in a massively deceptive way. The entire “Anti-Zionism” campaign of the past two decades was just that, a wolf in sheep’s clothing: take the eternal hatred of the Jew and wrap it up as “political critique,” or “human rights,” so that it will be allowed to enter the academic arena, where it will seep into the brains of unsuspecting students. In the past decade the “wokeness” and “diversity” program added fuel to this fire, prettying up that sheep, turning Western Jews into privileged white supremacist oppressors of people of color while their Israeli Jewish siblings oppress the Palestinians of color, so that in the name of all the higher virtues it became acceptable and then obligatory to start hating the Jews, all of the Jews, who now represent the ultimate evil in their 21st-century eyes. That is precisely what the medieval Christians and the modern Nazis did, and what those academic “progressives” and “Anti-Zionists” who have been propagating these vicious lies for many years under their various jargony names have been doing.
There is no evil like the academic who provides the ideological foundation for the extermination of a people, and insists that you call that program “virtue.”
“Death to the Jews!” at least has the decency to be explicit.
But the tepidity, and the silence from administration, from the diversity administrators, from the faculty, on so many other campuses—says the same thing.
They really want us dead.
[Featured Image: Pro-Hamas protest at University of Wisconsin (“Glory to the martyrs, glory to the murders”), via Twitter]
——————-
Andrew Pessin is Professor of Philosophy and Jewish Studies at Connecticut College, and Campus Bureau Editor of the Algemeiner. Among other works he is co-editor of Anti-Zionism on Campus: The University, Free Speech, and BDS. More information about him and his work may be found at www.andrewpessin.com.
[See Next Post: Not So Safe Space ]
Stumbled upon a protest today at the @UWMadison
campus, gross chants including “glory to the murders”
They believe the only good Jew is a dead Jew #IStandWithIsrael
Geoffrey Datz-tweet-11October2023-protest at the UWMadison campus-gross chants including-glory to the murders
The folks screaming “Intifada, Revolution” on college campuses aren’t talking about Israel anymore
The Persian Jewess-tweet-18April2024-The folks screaming Intifada Revolution
The folks screaming “Intifada, Revolution” on college campuses aren’t talking about Israel anymore.
They’re talking about America.
Wake Up and Smell the Jihad.
#AmericaUnderAttack
The Persian Jewess-tweet-18April2024-The folks screaming Intifada Revolution
TOP
Why Can’t They Just Leave The Jewish Hostage Posters Alone?
Mentally healthy people just walk by a poster they don’t like. Psychopaths and sociopaths tear them down, and when you throw in DEI-infused dehumanization of Jews, you get the anti-Israel movement we now have.
Posted by William A. Jacobson, 9November2023 https://legalinsurrection.com/2023/11/why-cant-they-just-leave-the-jewish-hostage-posters-alone/
NYU Students Destroy Israeli kidnapped Posters
There has been a wave of vandalism of posters placed in various locations of Israelis who were kidnapped by Hamas, other terrorist groups, and “civilians” on October 7.
While I haven’t done a rigorous statistical survey, anecdotally I and others have noticed that the poster-rippers and other violent anti-Israel protesters disproportionately are young women.
Ian Haworth-tweet-9November2023-Why are most of the people tearing down pictures of hostages women
Why are most of the people tearing down pictures of hostages women?
Israel War Room-tweet-8November2023-
NEW: A USC student is caught on camera laughing and tearing down posters of Israelis kidnapped by Hamas.
Ian Haworth-tweet-9November2023-Why are most of the people tearing down pictures of hostages women
William A. Jacobson-tweet-9November2023-kidnapped poster destroyers are young women
What’s really striking is how many of these violent demonstrators and kidnapped poster destroyers are young women, seems like a significant majority
Ron M.-tweet-9November2023-
Higher education in America.
@UCLA: Covered faces wearing keffiyehs and beating the effigy of the Jew/PM of Israel.
Los Angeles. 2023.
William A. Jacobson-tweet-9November2023-kidnapped poster destroyers are young women
StopAntisemitism-tweet-1November2023-NYC-couple tearing down flyer of kidnapped Israeli children
NYC – a couple is spotted on West 4th tearing down flyers of kidnapped Israeli children taken into Gaza by Hamas terrorists.
Recognize them? DM us!
StopAntisemitism-tweet-1November2023-NYC-couple tearing down flyer of kidnapped Israeli children
Manhattan Mingle-tweet-This young poster ripper is the logic we are fighting against
This young poster ripper is the logic we are fighting against. Parents, it’s time to delete Tik Tok from your children’s devices! UES 79th Lexington @bethanyshondark @visegrad24 @canarymission @StopAntisemites @ViralNewsNYC
Manhattan Mingle-tweet-This young poster ripper is the logic we are fighting against
Viral News NYC-tweet-7November2023-She cut the poster like she was trying to kill the hostages
Mill basen Brooklyn NY
This person came out with a knife and started cutting a poster of kids who were either killed or kidnapped by hamas terrorists.
She cut the poster like she was trying to kill the hostages.
Viral News NYC-tweet-7November2023-She cut the poster like she was trying to kill the hostages
Noah Pollak-tweet-7November2023-This is what our schools are producing now
It’s amazing how many of these psychos either work in higher education or graduated from college within the past few years. This is what our schools are producing now:
Canary Mission-tweet-7November2023-
NEW Canary Mission profile. Azali Ward, who is the VP of Student Mentor Leads for Diversity Chief Office @FordhamNYC
& an asst coach @BaruchCollege, helped rip down posters of Israelis kidnapped by Hamas terrorists. https://canarymission.org/individual/Azali_Ward
Noah Pollak-tweet-7November2023-This is what our schools are producing now
New York Post-tweet-9November2023-NYC woman ranted-I’ll kill you Jews
NYC woman who tore down hostage fliers ranted ‘I’ll kill you Jews’ before attack, victim says https://nypost.com/2023/11/09/metro/melissa-ugur-ranted-ill-kill-you-jews-victim-says/
“The incident unfolded as hate crimes against Jewish New Yorkers skyrocketed since the raging Israel-Hamas war started last month, with a whopping 214% surge in antisemitic incidents in October, the NYPD announced Wednesday.”
New York Post-tweet-9November2023-NYC woman ranted-I’ll kill you Jews
StopAntisemitism-tweet-17October2023-The lack of humanity is extremely concerning
HORRIFYING- NYU students walking around campus removing posters featuring missing Israelis being held in Gaza by Hamas terrorists.
The lack of humanity by your students is not only heartbreaking but extremely concerning @nyuniversity
@NYUCampusSafety
StopAntisemitisms-tweet-17October2023-The lack of humanity is extremely concerning
There are many more examples posted at StopAntiSemitism, Canary Mission, and elsewhere on Twitter.
They have smug grins and a glee on their faces just like the sadists who tortured and mutilated Israelis on October 7. The posters for them are a proxy for Jews in the flesh. If you wonder how “normal” people can turn into barbarians, you are witnessing it in real time.
William A. Jacobson-tweet-9November2023-It’s the same glee you see
It’s the same glee you see on the faces of the people tearing down the Kidnapped posters
John Roberts-tweet-8November2023-This Canadian journalist’s reaction to screening the raw footage of 7October
This Canadian journalist’s reaction to screening the raw footage of Oct. 7:
I watched Hamas hack innocents to death. The worst part was their glee | National Post
William A. Jacobson-tweet-9November2023-It’s the same glee you see
The posters attract these deranged haters like flies. They just can’t help themselves.
Why not just walk on by? Why not put up your own posters? Why the need to destroy? They are taking out some life frustration and letting loose the demons within them on Jews who are victims.
I read a really good description of what is at least part of the problem, by Antonio García Martínez writing at The Tablet:
A lot of people are waking up to the dehumanization of Jews through CRT/’anti-racism’/DEI. We’ve been screaming about it for years. We even started a website to document how deeply the racialized pathology has spread (CriticalRace.org).
But we’re just “right wing” so we never penetrated the broader and mostly liberal American Jewish community. Now that Bari Weiss is writing about it, though, its okay for liberal Jews to call out the DEI monster:
It’s no coincidence that so many of the poster-rippers are in college or work at colleges. That is where the DEI-indoctrination is the most intense.
This is not a working class phenomenon.
NYScanner-tweet-27October2023-Friday morning in Forest Hills, Queens
Friday morning in Forest Hills, Queens. Seems like some good old New Yorkers are pissed.
NYScanner-tweet-27October2023-Friday morning in Forest Hills-Queens
This is a DEI-addicted illness.
Of course, there are other factors. Some are motivated by traditional Islamist Jew-hatred, some by traditional leftist-Jew hatred, some are just deeply unhappy and disturbed people with deep emotional problems who have found someone else to make miserable.
Mentally healthy people just walk by a poster they don’t like. Psychopaths and sociopaths tear them down, and when you throw in DEI-infused dehumanization of Jews, you get the anti-Israel movement we now have.
TOP
Liberals more distant from Israel
JPPI-tweet-6November2023-New JPPI Poll
New JPPI Poll: The survey examines whether the events make US Jews feel “closer” or “more distant” from Israel. In this question, there is a substantial decrease in the proportion of very liberal or fairly liberal Jews who consider that the events will make them feel closer to Israel, alongside a slight increase in those who estimate that the events will make them feel “more distant ” from Israel (notably, among very liberals, from 5% to 13%). Additionally, there is an increase in the proportion of those who believe that the events will “not change” their degree of closeness to Israel.
The survey was conducted among 696 Jews in the United States.
JPPI-tweet-6November2023-New JPPI Poll
Elder of Ziyon-tweet-6November2023-If your entire worldview
If your entire worldview is that the world is divided between “oppressors” and the “oppressed,” then anything that shows that you are wrong and sometimes Jews can be oppressed enrages you.
Which is why people tear down the “kidnapped” signs. The signs violate their religion.
Elder of Ziyon-tweet-6November2023-If your entire worldview
TOP
Please walk away from the people in your life who are..
Jordyn-tweet-8November2023-Please walk away from the people
To my Jewish American brothers and sisters – I mean this with love: Please, PLEASE have some self-respect. Walk away from the people in your life who are liking or sharing social media posts wrongfully accusing Israel of genocide, ethnic cleansing, or apartheid after Israeli communities were just massacred in the most inhumane, barbaric ways. I am begging you. Have some self respect and let them go.
Let. Them. Go.
Jordyn-tweet-8November2023-Please walk away from the people
TOP
How are Jewish students coping with antisemitism on campus?
How are Jewish students coping with antisemitism on campus?
A @UBCPsych study is recruiting Jewish students to take part in a study on stress and coping. If you self-identify as Jewish and attend a college or university, we would love to hear from you.
https://delongis.psych.ubc.ca/participate/jewish-on-campus/
How are Jewish students coping with antisemitism on campus
TOP
Jewish students, university campuses can be tough places these days
noa tishby-tweet-3March2024-Jewish students university campuses can be tough places these days
I recently spoke to more than 4000 Jewish teens at @BBYOInsider. And I told them, very soon, most of you will go to college. That’s exciting. But for Jewish students, university campuses can be tough places these days.
So I want to run through a few things that you will encounter on college campuses. Because you need to be prepared.
When you get to college you’re going to run into groups which are a part of the boycott Israel movement. These groups will pretend to be all about justice, freedom and human rights, which is great, except that’s not what they are about. These groups intention is to destroy the only Jewish state in the world. They don’t hide it, they just hide it from you.
They will tell you that they don’t hate Jews, they just hate Israel or even better “Zionists”. Never mind that Zionism only means that Jews are allowed to have a state, like every other people, and that most Jews believe in that.
They will tell you that Jews have nothing to do with the Land of Israel. But the simple truth is: Israel is a massive part of Jewish identity. It’s where Jews and Judaism come from and where we have always had a presence. We’re called Jews because we come from Judea.
Why am I telling you all this? Because they want to tell you that your identity is wrong and that there is something wrong with you. That being Jewish, being a Zionist is something to be ashamed of. They want you to hide your Jewish identity.
But Jewish people are done hiding. We are not going to live in hiding. We live in a time when everyone is encouraged to celebrate who they are. Every identity is expected to be accepted. And should be. Gender identity. Sexual identity. Ethnic identity.
We have to celebrate our Jewish identity as well!
So now, at college and beyond: walk with your heads held high. Take pride in who you are and what you represent. Flaunt your star of David, invite all your friends for Shabbat. find a nice Jewish boy. We will not hide and we will not let the haters tell us who we are or who we can be.
Now go have a great weekend, have fun get inspired and don’t forget – Am Yisrael Chai
noa tishby-tweet-3March2024-Jewish students-university campuses can be tough places these days
TOP
21April2024-Jewish students at Colombia University, “Return home as soon as possible and remain home antisemitism explodes on campus.”
Belaaz News-tweet-21April2024-Jewish students at Colombia University Return home as soon as possible and remain home
🇺🇸✡️ — NEWS: Jewish Rabbi at Colombia University and Barnard College, Rav Elie Buechler, sent a WhatsApp message to all Jewish students warning them to “return home as soon as possible and remain home antisemitism explodes on campus.
“It deeply pains me to say that I would strongly recommend you return home as soon as possible and remain home…”
Belaaz News-tweet-21April2024-Jewish students at Colombia University Return home as soon as possible and remain home-Rav Elie Buechler-21April2024
Rav Elie Buechier
Dear Yavneh,
What we are witnessing in and around campus is terrible and tragic.
The events of the last few days, especially last night, have made it clear that Columbia University’s Public Safety and the NYPD cannot guarantee Jewish students’ safety in the face of extreme antisemitism and anarchy.
It deeply pains me to say that I would strongly recommend you return home as soon as possible and remain home until the reality in and around campus has dramatically improved.
It is not our job as Jews to ensure our own safety on campus.
No one should have to endure this level of hatred, let alone at school.
If you need assistance please reach out to me.
Belaaz News-tweet-21April2024-Jewish students at Colombia University Return home as soon as possible and remain home
Jewish students at Colombia University Return home as soon as possible and remain home-Rav Elie Buechler-21April2024
Dr. Logan Levkoff-tweet-22April2024-Jews are not safe in NYC
Jews are not safe in NYC.
Shame on you @Columbia.
Shame on you @nyuniversity.
Shame on you @TheNewSchool.
@NYCMayor @GovKathyHochul it’s fucking time to do something.
Dr. Logan Levkoff-tweet-22April2024-Jews are not safe in NYC
Nefesh B’Nefesh: Live the Dream US & CAN 1-866-4-ALIYAH | UK 020-8150-6690 or 0800-085-2105 | Israel 02-659-5800 https://www.nbn.org.il/ info@nbn.org.il
It’s time to come home! Nefesh B’Nefesh: Live the Dream 1-866-4-ALIYAH
TOP
Israeli student at Columbia “We currently fear for our personal safety”
Shai Davidai-tweet-24April2024-Israeli student at Columbia
I just got an email from an Israeli student at @Columbia.
Don’t listen to me. Listen to them:
“Dear Shai,
I am writing to you as a concerned Israeli student at Columbia University, along with 133 fellow Israeli students. On April 23rd at 8:00 AM, we addressed a letter to President Shafik, Co-Chair Shipman, and Co-Chair Greenwald, expressing our fears about our safety on campus and the critical need for immediate action. I have attached the letter for your reference. We are reaching out because we believe that our concerns are being neglected by the university administration, and we recognize the significant role that the media is playing in these recent events. We fear further escalation of violence on campus and want to ensure that our voices are heard and that preventive measures are taken to safeguard all students. We believe that increased media attention can help bring about the necessary changes and hold the university accountable for ensuring a safe environment for everyone.
We request that when posting the letter it is done anonymously, as we currently fear for our personal safety.”
Shai Davidai-tweet-24April2024-Israeli student at Columbia
Shai Davidai-tweet-24April2024-Israeli student at Columbia_letter
TOP
Columbia is currently preventing its Jewish professors from entering the campus
Dr. Eli David-tweet-22April2024-Columbia is preventing its Jewish professors from entering the campus
🚨 Breaking: @Columbia is currently preventing its Jewish professors from entering the campus.
A dark day in the history of the US 🇺🇲
_
Dr. Eli David-tweet-22April2024-Columbia is preventing its Jewish professors from entering the campus
TOP
Purge Jewish faculty from universities
Caroline Glick-tweet-5May2024-Purge Jewish faculty from universities
Before 1933, Nazis were most popular in the universities. They promised upward mobility to mediocre academics who couldn’t compete with Jews.
One of the Nazis’ first acts in power was to purge Jewish faculty from German universities.
This is happening now in America.
David Bernstein-tweet–5May2024-drive Jews out of the academy
Benjamin Ginsberg of Johns Hopkins presciently argued that part of the “antizionist” coalition at American universities is motivated in significant part precisely by the desire to drive Jews out of the academy, and especially out of leadership in the academy. They see mainstream Jews as an unwelcome moderating influence (think Larry Summers), and they also resent the prominent role Jews have played in the modern university, thinking that they should be displaced by an emerging coalition of groups that does not include Jews, or at least does not include Jews who are not on the very far left.
Yashar Ali-tweet–4May2024-demanding that Hillel be fully removed from UC Santa Cruz
Let me tell you something: if you’re demanding that Hillel be fully removed from UC Santa Cruz, you’re an antisemite.
Hillel is a cultural lifeline for Jewish students.
If you want it gone – that means you want Jews gone.
There’s no negotiating on the antisemitic nature of this demand.
Also, I am intentionally not mentioning other demands because I think it’s important to focus solely on Hillel here, as the demand is so plainly antisemitic there isn’t even room for a nuanced discussion.
Caroline Glick-tweet-5May2024-Purge Jewish faculty from universities
TOP
Technion Israel Institute of Technology Invitation to Faculty and Students letter 26April2024
Technion Israel-tweet-28April2024-Invitation to Faculty and Students
Following the surge of antisemitism and anti-Israel rhetoric around the world: the Technion invites undergraduate and graduate students and academic faculty residing abroad to come to our campuses in Haifa to carry out their research, teaching and learning
Technion Israel-tweet-28April2024-Invitation to Faculty and Students
Invitation to Faculty and Students
The Technion, Israel’s leading technological university, is troubled by the growing prevalence of anti-Israel and antisemitic rhetoric on university campuses around the world.
We extend an invitation to all faculty and students who are facing these distressing circumstances to join us for study, teaching, and research at our Haifa Campuses.
Technion, Israel invitation letter 26April2024
Talia Khan-tweet-26April2024-Technion Israel invitation letter 26April2024
Israeli universities are offering spots to people in US universities who don’t feel safe. This is circulating at @MIT right now. People will certainly take them up on the offer.
There is a Jewish brain drain going on elite US universities. We should all be concerned about the future of technological innovation in this country when some of our greatest minds are being pushed off campus for being Jews.
Talia Khan-tweet-26April2024-Technion Israel invitation letter 26April2024
TOP
Aliyah is now an emergency – act on it
Israel was caught off guard and unprepared on October 7th. Is it prepared to facilitate the mass wave of Aliyah that may be coming?
Tzvi Fishman / 25April2024 https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/389003
63rd Nefesh B’Nefesh chartered Aliyah flight – Shahar Azran
In the wake of the events which took place on October 7, and because of Israel’s ongoing war against demonical enemies, the Israeli public has come to realize that many previous false conceptions must be changed in order to guarantee a better future.
Just as military conceptions must be changed and illusions about Hamas and other Islamic groups must be altered, conceptions regarding Aliyah must be rethought and altered as well.
Israel was caught off guard and unprepared on October 7th. Is it prepared to facilitate the mass wave of Aliyah that may be coming? Does Israel have a plan to evacuate the Jews of Paris, London, New York, South Florida, and LA if the violence against Jews explodes out of control around the world? Is Israel prepared to house the millions of Jewish refugees who sooner or later will flock to our shores? Has the Government of Israel purchased hundreds of thousands of emergency tents?
This may seem like a futuristic scenario, but it could easily come to pass and soon. Who ever thought that 300 missiles would be launched against us from Iran? Who can promise that the situation won’t heighten? The State of Israel was founded to be a refuge for all Jews. Is it prepared today to fulfill its chartered mission?
In response to the increasing global anti-Semitism and the havoc on college campuses throughout the United States, grassroots Aliyah activists in Israel are holding an emergency conference after the Pesach holiday in Jerusalem.
Yosef Mendelevich, Jonathan Pollard, Rabbi Leo Dee will be present, along with representatives from NBN and the Israel Ministry of Aliyah and Klita, and a hall filled with grassroots Aliyah activists.
It is obvious to us that the Master of the World is bringing about upheavals in Israel and throughout the world in order to bring His Chosen People home, just as He has done many times in out past. For decades since the founding of the State of Israel, He has waited patiently for the Jews of the West to come home on their own, but now His patience seems to be ending. As Ze’ev Jabotinsky warned a decade before the Holocaust: the Diaspora must be liquidated before the Diaspora liquidates us. It is time to come home.
Due to the urgency and seriousness of the situation, and to the likelihood that world Jewry will face greater outbursts of hatred as Israel continues to fight its very just war, we have to think “out-of-the-box.” Old formulas won’t help. While new programs of outreach and new incentives to lure immigrants are important, they will only succeed in bringing a few thousand more immigrants to Israel if Aliyah does not become a number-one national priority.
Fortunately the heads of Nefesh B’Nefesh and the Ministry of Aliyah and Klita are open to implement new ideas. They will be present at the Aliyah conference to hear what we have to say. Since they, along with the Government of Israel and its various agencies dealing with Aliyah like the Jewish Agency and the WZO, have the manpower and funding to put new ideas into practice, we hope that we can influence their dedicated, around-the-clock work.
By thinking together as a team, we can, with G-d’s help, bring about a revolution in our continuing Redemption which began long ago in ancient Egypt and which must gain momentum today with the ingathering of our millions of brothers and sisters from their no longer comfortable exile in the West. The call, “Let my people go!” must be resounded once again.
Just as Israel needs to be more aggressive in Gaza, we need to be more aggressive in Jewish communities and on college campuses throughout Diaspora. Israel is at war but there is a burgeoning war against the Jewish People everywhere. Instead of spending billions of dollars in trying to strengthen Jewish identity in the exile, the focus must be switched to Aliyah.
For example, the Jewish groups at work on college campuses blessedly try to strengthen Jewish students against the rabid anti-Israel sentiment – but Aliyah is not in their agenda at all.
-“Aliyah commando” teams of young idealistic Israelis must be sent to college campuses immediately to invite the beleaguered Jewish students to become a part of a much higher mission in the Jewish Homeland.
-The Government of Israel will provide free tuition for students making Aliyah and the word must be spread. Full university bachelor-degree curriculums must be immediately created in several Israel universities in various majors to offer the beleaguered college students in America a real option for escape.
Aliya college programs – Jewish Agency
-Other teams of idealists, for example from the settler community, must be sent out far and wide to bring families to Judea and Samaria where the Government is prepared to offer new and significant incentives.
-Diaspora Rabbis must begin to encourage aliyah. To help inspire this change, leading Rabbis in Israel must be summoned to issue a proclamation calling on Rabbis and Jewish educators in the Diaspora to actively teach the Torah commandment of living in Israel.
-Diaspora congregations must establish funds to help people make aliyah.
-Parents must push their children to go to college in Israel.
-Chabad must jump on the aliyah bandwagon and hand out aliyah brochures in addition to Hanukah candles and Tefillin. In addition, Chabad must be pushed to relocate its world headquarters to Israel to carry out our Pesach yearning: “Next year in Jerusalem.” It must no longer provide a “fig-leaf heksher” to Diaspora Jews as if it is OK to live in gentile lands where assimilation is constantly skyrocketing and where Jewish hatred will only get worse.
-And the Government of Israel must begin to build the proper infrastructure to absorb the mass wave of Diaspora refugees who will soon seek a safer haven in Israel.
Concurrently a much greater effort must be extending in bringing the Lost Tribes home, the myriads in India, Afghanistan, South America, and other places who maintain Jewish traditions and who want to be fully converted and immigrate to Israel. These people have proven to become outstanding citizens in Israel, hard-working, hard-fighting, happy with their new life in the Holy Land.
(These are just a few of the proposals that will be discussed at the upcoming Emergency Aliyah Conference and then passed on to the official government bodies. All Aliyah activists are invited to attend. The Emergency Aliyah Conference will be held at the Hibba Center in Jerusalem, 75 Herzog Boulevard, on May 1 between 5-9pm. For further information call: 0507810595).
Tzvi Fishman was awarded the Israel Ministry of Education Prize for Jewish Culture and Creativity. Before making Aliyah to Israel in 1984, he was a successful Hollywood screenwriter. He has co-authored 4 books with Rabbi David Samson, based on the teachings of Rabbis A. Y. Kook and T. Y. Kook. His other books include: “The Kuzari For Young Readers” and “Tuvia in the Promised Land”. His books are available on Amazon. Recently, he directed the movie, “Stories of Rebbe Nachman.”
TOP
Not So Safe Space
Anti-Israel Berkeley students attacked a Jewish girl at the university
Visegrád 24-tweet-3March2024-Anti-Israel Berkeley students attacked a Jewish girl at the university
Anti-Israel Berkeley students attacked a Jewish girl at the university, choking her as other “protesters” spit in the face of another Jewish student while shouting “Jew Jew Jew Jew”
Crickets in national media.
Antisemitic physical attacks at universities are becoming a norm
Visegrád 24-tweet-3March2024-Anti-Israel Berkeley students attacked a Jewish girl at the university
Retsef Levi-tweet-19November2023-Liyam Chitayat antisemitism at MIT
Heartbreaking.
Courageous and authentic testimony by Israeli-American MIT PhD, Liyam Chitayat, about antisemitism at MIT.
Commons in Boston, Nov 19, 2023.
@BillAckman @MIT
Retsef Levi-tweet-19November2023-Liyam Chitayat antisemitism at MIT
Antisemitism at MIT
StopAntisemitism-tweet-16October2023-
Heartbreaking 💔- students at UC Berkeley plead with Vice Chancellor of DEI Dania Matos and Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs Steve Sutton to protect their Jewish students as promotion of Hamas intensifies on campus.
StopAntisemitism-tweet-16October2023-students at UC Berkeley plead with Vice Chancellors to protect their Jewish students
Kassy Dillon-tweet-5March2024-Smith College’s antisemitism problem
NEW: Mezuzahs were stolen from door frames and swastika graffiti has appeared near Smith College’s campus.
In response, the school’s president felt the need to condemn Islamophobia and have an advisory committee consider divesting from companies doing business with the IDF.
Kassy Dillon-tweet-5March2024-Smith College’s antisemitism problem
Annie Vail-tweet-29October2023-
Currently on a @Cornell discussion forum, the kosher dining hall (104 west) is now on lockdown and Jewish students are scared to leave their rooms. @GovKathyHochul @HenMazzig
Annie Vail-tweet-29October2023-Currently on a @Cornell
discussion forum, the kosher dining hall (104 west) is now on lockdown and Jewish students are scared to leave their rooms. @GovKathyHochul
@HenMazzig
Kyle Becker-tweet-25October2023-
NOW: Jewish students at @cooperunion
are locked in the school library because a pro-Hamas gathering found out scared Jews were sitting in the library.
So they brought the protest inside and blocked all the exits. Then the banging started.
Whateverdear-tweet-25October2023-
This is an attempted pogrom.
Kyle Becker-tweet-25October2023-Jewish students at cooperunion are locked in the school library
Whateverdear-tweet-25October2023-This is an attempted pogrom
The Reaction to the pogrom
Benjamin B@dejo-tweet-26October2023-See below my email
Benjamin B@dejo letter to
cooperunion president
Not So Safe Space
Eliana Rudee – Not So Safe Space 2017 contest video 1080p
2017 contest video from “Inspired by Israel” Video Contest http://www.israelvideonetwork.com/inspired-by-israel-video-contest-gallery/ on the Israel Video Network. http://www.israelvideonetwork.com/not-so-safe-space/ or https://player.vimeo.com/video/207474009
Written and Produced by Eliana Rudee, Actresses: Dana Mileguir
“Thank you to the Sderot Media Center for their footage! Published: March 20, 2017”
TOP
https://amgreatness.com/
How Were the Universities Lost?
The Ivy league and their kindred so-called elite campuses may soon go the way of Disney and Bud Light
By Victor Davis Hanson 7December2023 https://amgreatness.com/2023/12/07/how-were-the-universities-lost/
After October 7, the public was shocked at what they saw and heard on America’s campuses.
Americans knew previously they were intolerant, leftwing, and increasingly non-meritocratic.
But immediately after October 7—and even before the response of the Israeli Defense Forces—the sheer student delight on news of the mass murdering of Israeli victims seemed akin more to 1930s Germany than contemporary America.
Indeed, not a day goes by when a university professor or student group has not spouted anti-Semitic hatred. Often, they threaten and attack Jewish students, or engage in mass demonstrations calling for the extinction of Israel.
Why and how did purportedly enlightened universities become incubators of such primordial hatred?
After the George Floyd riots, reparatory admissions—the effort to admit diverse students beyond their numbers in the general population—increased.
Elite universities like Stanford and Yale boasted that their so-called “white” incoming student numbers had plunged to between 20 and 40 precent, despite whites making up 68-70 percent of the general population.
The abolition of the SAT requirement, and often the comparative ranking of high school grade point averages, have ended the ancient and time-proven idea of meritocracy. Brilliant high school transcripts and test scores no longer warrant admissions to so-called elite schools.
One result was that the number of Jews has nosedived from 20-30 percent of Ivy League student bodies during the 1970s and 1980s to 10-15 percent.
Jewish students are also currently stereotyped as “white” and “privileged”—and thus considered as fair game on campus.
At the same time, the number of foreign students, especially from the oil-rich Middle East, has soared on campuses. Most are subsidized by their homeland governments. They pay the full, non-discounted tuition rates to cash-hungry universities.
Huge numbers of students have entered universities, who would not have been admitted by the very standards universities until recently claimed were vital to ensure their own competitiveness and prestige.
Consequently, they are no longer the guarantors of topflight undergraduates and professionals from their graduate programs.
Faculty are faced with new lose/lose/lose choices of either diminishing their course requirements, or inflating their grades, or facing charges by Diversity/Equity/Inclusion commissars of systematic bias in their grading— or all three combined.
The net result is that there are now thousands of students from abroad, especially from the Middle East, far fewer Jewish students, and student bodies who demand radical changes in faculty standards and course work to accommodate their unease with past standards of expected student achievement.
And, presto, an epidemic of anti-Semitism naturally followed.
In such a vacuum, advocacy “-studies” classes proliferated, along with faculty to teach them.
“Gender, black, Latino, feminist, Asian, Queer, trans, peace, environmental, and green”-studies courses demand far less from students, and arbitrarily select some as “oppressed” and others as “oppressors”. The former “victims” are then given a blank check to engage in racist and anti-Semitic behavior without consequences.
Proving to be politically correct in these deductive gut-courses rather than pressed to express oneself coherently, inductively, and analytically from a repertoire of fact-based-knowledge explains why the public witnesses faculty and students who are simultaneously both arrogant and ignorant.
At some universities “blacklists” circulate warning “marginalized” students which professors they should avoid who still cling to supposedly outdated standards regarding exam-taking, deadlines, and absences.
All these radical changes explain the current spectacle of angry students citing grievances, and poorly educated graduates who have had little course work in traditional history, literature, philosophy, logic, or the traditional sciences.
Universities and students have plenty of money to continue the weaponization of the university, given their enormous tax-free endowment income. Nearly $2-trillion in government-subsidized student loans are issued without accountability or reasonable demands that they be repaid in timely fashion.
Exceptions and exemptions are the bible of terrified and careerist administrators.
Faced with an epidemic of anti-Semitism, university administrators now claim they can do little to curb the hatred. But privately they know should the targets of similar hatred be instead blacks, gays, Latinos, or women, then they would expel the haters in a nanosecond.
What is the ultimate result of once elite campuses giving 70-80 percent of their students As, becoming hotbeds of dangerous anti-Semitism, and watered-down curricula that cannot turn out educated students?
The Ivy league and their kindred so-called elite campuses may soon go the way of Disney and Bud Light.
They think such a crash in their reputations is impossible given centuries of accustomed stature.
But the erosion is already occurring—and accelerating.
At the present rate, a Stanford law degree, a Harvard political science major, or a Yale social science BA will soon scare off employers and the general public at large.
These certificates will signify not proof of humility, knowledge, and decency, but rather undeserved self-importance, vacuousness, and fanaticism—and all to be avoided rather than courted.
TOP
Israel-Hamas War Proves America’s Ivy League Colleges Are Festering With Violent Antisemitism – Part One
“Astonishing,” “astounding,” “awesome,” and “incredible” were some of the adjectives used by Columbia University tenured professor Joseph Massad to describe the rape and murder rampage by Hamas terrorists in southern Israel on October 7. Massad, who…
Rachel O’Donoghue 5November2023 https://honestreporting.com/israel-hamas-war-proves-americas-ivy-league-colleges-are-festering-with-violent-antisemitism-part-one/
Pro-Palestinian-students
“Astonishing,” “astounding,” “awesome,” and “incredible” were some of the adjectives used by Columbia University tenured professor Joseph Massad to describe the rape and murder rampage by Hamas terrorists in southern Israel on October 7.
Massad, who has taught Modern Arab Politics at the New York institution since 1999, lavished praise on the barbaric attack in a piece published in the Electronic Intifada, which is edited by Ali Abunimah and infamous for promoting hateful rhetoric.
“What can motorized paragliders do in the face of one of the most formidable militaries in the world?” Asks Massad in his opening line, referring to the armed paragliders who swooped on the Supernova musical festival and slaughtered hundreds of revelers. “Apparently much in the hands of an innovative Palestinian resistance,” he crows in response to his question.
It’s truly sickening stuff; a shameless celebration of wanton violence against primarily unarmed men, women and children by a professor at one of the most prestigious colleges in the United States.
And yet, it is not surprising.
Something is rotten in America’s elite educational establishments; Ivy League schools are becoming breeding grounds for extremism and intolerance.
This has been no better exemplified than in the weeks since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, when students at nearly every Ivy League college have attended marches and protests where they have openly voiced their support for the Hamas attacks and called for the extermination of the world’s only Jewish state.
HonestReporting-tweet-5November2023-Eretz Nehederet takes pro-Hamas university students to task
Eretz Nehederet or ‘A Wonderful Country’ takes pro-Hamas university students to task for ignoring what’s right in front of them.
HonestReporting-tweet-5November2023-Eretz Nehederet takes pro-Hamas university students to task
Columbia University
Massad’s support for Islamist terrorism and indiscriminate violence against Jews is disturbing. Even more disturbing, though, is the Columbia University leadership’s refusal to take any action against — even to condemn — the academic.
Shortly after Massad penned the article, Columbia student Maya Platek started a petition, which has now been signed by nearly 70,000 people, calling on Columbia University to hold him accountable.
“Massad’s decision to praise the abhorrent attack encourages violence and misinformation in and outside of campus, particularly putting many Jewish and Israeli students on campus at risk. Moreover, many students have expressed that they feel unsafe in the presence of a professor who supports the horrific murders of civilians,” states the petition.
While the university has completely ignored the petition and the concerns voiced by Jewish students, members of the faculty have come out in support of pro-terror students, including more than 100 academics who signed a letter demanding that such students not face consequences for praising the attacks.
“In our view, the student statement aims to recontextualize the events of Oct. 7, 2023, pointing out that military operations and state violence did not begin that day, but rather it represented a military response by a people who had endured crushing and unrelenting state violence from an occupying power over many years,” the academics wrote of the attack.
The academics’ letter was released after a leading law firm rescinded job offers to students at Columbia University and Harvard University who signed statements in support of the attacks.
While Columbia University President Minouche Shafik joined forces with other college heads to announce a vague plan to combat antisemitism on campus, it appears to be a superficial effort considering that Shafik also praised the “persistence” of Columbia students accused of antisemitism.
Visegrád 24-tweet-1November2023-Jewish students at Columbia University
Jewish students at Columbia University in New York City release at statement saying they are being intimidated on campus and that the university is doing absolutely nothing about it
Visegrád 24-tweet-1November2023-Jewish students at Columbia University
Harvard University
Among the worst behavior witnessed on college campuses since Hamas launched its attack on Israel last month has been at Harvard University, where students belonging to the recently-formed group Graduate Students 4 Palestine (GS4P) spearheaded numerous campus protests.
The most shocking scenes of anti-Israel and antisemitic hatred occurred at a so-called “Stop the genocide in Gaza” die-in demonstration at the Harvard Business School on October 18, when a pro-Israeli student attempting to film the protest was assaulted by a mob that had surrounded and taunted him with screams of “Shame, shame, shame.”
The mob of aggressive pro-Palestinian students reportedly included one of the founders of GS4P, Elon Tettey-Temalko, a graduate student at Harvard Divinity School, and Harvard Law Review editor Ibrahim Bharmal, whose name has since been scrubbed from the website page naming the board of the editors.
Aviva Klompas-tweet-1November2023-The pro-murder-pro-kidnapping mob
The pro-murder, pro-kidnapping mob is targeting and harassing Jewish students at @Harvard.
Aviva Klompas-tweet-1November2023-The pro-murder-pro-kidnapping mob
Antisemitism and hostility toward Israel and Israeli students are not new phenomena at Harvard — indeed it is a festering problem that has long been ignored by the university administration.
There have been numerous incidents at the elite college over the years, including the Cornel West tenure controversy, which HonestReporting has documented and is indicative of a culture of intolerance toward Israeli and Jewish students.
Just last month, Harvard refused to take action against Harvard Kennedy School Professor Marshall Ganz, who was found to have discriminated against Israeli students, subjecting them to “anti-Israel and antisemitic bias,” according to a third-party investigator.
Far from rebuking the academic, Ganz was praised for his civil rights work in the Harvard Gazette, which is the university’s official news website.
Cornell University
Classes had to be canceled at Cornell University and 21-year-old computer science student Patrick Dai was arrested after he posted several violent threats directed at Jewish classmates on a Cornell student forum.
Dai appeared in federal court earlier this month after he logged onto the forum using the screen name “Hamas” and threatened to slit the throats of Jewish people and described them as rats and pigs. In one post he warned he was “gonna shoot up 104 west,” in reference to a dining hall that mostly caters to Jewish students and is next to the Cornell Jewish Center.
While Cornell University’s president made the decision to cancel classes and condemned antisemitism on campus in a statement, it is clear that the problem of anti-Jewish hate at Cornell is more entrenched and widespread than one individual student.
Russell Rickford, a history professor at the college, issued an apology after he was filmed at an October 15 pro-Palestinian rally on the Ithaca, New York, campus praising the attack that had occurred one week previously. “Hamas has challenged the monopoly of violence” and “shifted the balance of power,” he told a crowd of young people. “It was exhilarating. It was energizing,” Rickford added of watching the attack unfold.
After initially standing by his statements, Rickford later rowed back on his remarks and apologized “for the horrible choice of words,” admitting they were “reprehensible.” He is currently on a leave of absence from the university and will not teach this semester.
Cornell president Martha Pollack and board of trustees chairman Kraig Kayser condemned Rickford and explained the college is “taking this incident seriously and is currently reviewing it, consistent with our procedures.” Whether that review will result in Rickford’s permanent dismissal remains to be seen.
Yale University
There have been accusations that Yale University ignores the problem of antisemitism on its campus — from inviting antisemitic speakers to visit campus and address students during Jewish holidays to anti-Jewish fliers being handed out on campus.
Yale also proved little had changed with regard to how it deals with antisemitism following the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war, including the university refusing to remove a professor who praised the Hamas attack.
Zareena Grewal, associate professor of American studies, ethnicity, race and migration, described the events of October 7 as “extraordinary,” adding in another post on X (formerly Twitter) that “Israel is a murderous, genocidal settler state and Palestinians have every right to resist through armed struggle, solidarity #FreePalestine.”
Despite a petition calling for her to be fired being signed by tens of thousands of people, Yale released a statement in support of Grewal’s right to “freedom of expression.”
Meanwhile, the Yale Daily News, which is the oldest college daily newspaper in the United States, published the most extraordinary apology after initial articles it published reporting on the Hamas attacks were later “corrected” to remove reference to terrorists raping and beheading people.
Explaining how the actions of murderous terrorists were sanitized in this way, the student newspaper’s editor Anika Seth explained they were “wrong to publish the corrections” and claimed they only did so because the “specific forms of violence” had not been independently confirmed by the source cited in the article.
“It was never the News’ intention to minimize the brutality of Hamas’ attack against Israel. We are sorry for any unintended consequences to our readership and will ensure that such erroneous and damaging material does not make it into our content, either as opinion or as news,” the apology added.
Zach Kessel-tweet-30October2023-Yale’s student newspaper is running cover for Hamas
At the end of a column by @sahar_tartak, editors at @yaledailynews affixed a “correction”, saying claims that Hamas raped women and beheaded men are “unsubstantiated”. @Yale’s student newspaper is running cover for Hamas.
https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2023/10/12/tartak-is-yalies4palestine-a-hate-group/
Zach Kessel-tweet-30October2023-Yale’s student newspaper is running cover for Hamas
Found this article informative? Follow the HonestReporting page on Facebook to read more articles debunking news bias and smears, as well as others explaining Israel’s history, politics, and international affairs. Click here to learn more!
Photo credit: Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images
TOP
Why Antisemitism, Anger and Intolerance Have Infected America’s Ivy League Colleges – Part Two
We recently examined the alarming escalation in antisemitism seen on US college campuses — specifically at the Ivy League universities of Harvard, Yale, Cornell and Columbia — since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war on October…
Rachel O’Donoghue November 8, 202 https://honestreporting.com/why-antisemitism-anger-and-intolerance-have-infected-americas-ivy-league-colleges-part-two/
We recently examined the alarming escalation in antisemitism seen on US college campuses — specifically at the Ivy League universities of Harvard, Yale, Cornell and Columbia — since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war on October 7.
In this second part, we will look at the remaining four Ivy Leagues, charting how America’s most elite educational establishments have become havens of intolerance and why so many of their students harbor such hatred toward both Jews and the State of Israel.
University of Pennsylvania
Two weeks before Hamas’s barbaric rampage through southern Israeli communities resulted in the biggest loss of Jewish life in a day since the Holocaust, the University of Pennsylvania was embroiled in an antisemitism scandal when notorious Jew-hating musician Roger Waters was invited to speak on campus.
Waters, who is best known as a founding member of the rock band Pink Floyd and for goose-stepping on-stage while dressed as a Nazi, was asked to address attendees at the “Palestine Writes Literature Festival” before he was banned from campus following a backlash by critics who had noted that the event was scheduled to coincide with the Jewish High Holiday period, thus reducing the likelihood of Jewish students protesting antisemitic speakers.
In the lead-up to the festival, which went ahead as scheduled with Waters speaking remotely, numerous incidents of antisemitism were recorded on campus, including a swastika that was drawn inside the school’s Stuart Weitzman School of Design and the arrest of a man who entered the Penn Hillel and screamed statements such as, “F—k the Jews” and “They killed JC,” a reference to the myth that Jews are responsible for the crucifixion of Jesus.
In light of the Waters controversy, UPenn President Liz Magill belatedly announced her personal commitment to addressing antisemitism at the college, adding: “The University of Pennsylvania has a long and proud history of being a place for people of all backgrounds and faiths, and acts of antisemitism have no place at Penn.”
How utterly hollow those words were.
In the days and weeks after Hamas terrorists murdered and kidnapped more than 1,400 Israeli civilians, UPenn has again allowed antisemitism to rear its head on campus.
The university administration’s first statement to condemn the Hamas atrocity was more than a week after it took place. On Sunday, October 15, Magill sent an email to the university community.
“I want to leave no doubt about where I stand,” it said. “I, and this university, are horrified by and condemn Hamas’s terrorist assault on Israel and their violent atrocities against civilians. There is no justification — none — for these heinous attacks…”
However, the email apparently only came after Jon Huntsman Jr, the former governor of Utah and former US ambassador to China, Russia, and Singapore, told Magill that his charitable organization, the Huntsman Foundation, would be pulling donations from the university over the issue of antisemitism.
For some UPenn students, though, the email’s failure to mention Palestinians was akin to not recognizing their “existence,” and they organized a mass walkout of classes in response. Videos and photos taken of the protest show students chanting slogans such as, “Intifada, Intifada,” “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” and “Israel, Israel, you can’t hide, we charge you with genocide.” A handful of students reportedly harassed a rabbi who was manning a tefillin stand on the route marchers took.
Other wealthy UPenn donors have since followed Huntsman Jr’s lead and pulled funding from the college, including Marc Rowan, who contributed more than $50 million in 2018, and Steve Eisman, who demanded his name be removed from a university scholarship.
Canary Mission-tweet-5November2023-Canary Mission profile-Tara Tarawneh
NEW Canary Mission profile. Tara Tarawneh, a student at @Penn
& writer for Penn’s student newspaper, glorified the massacre of Jews at a pro-Hamas rally: “I remember feeling so empowered and happy…I want all of you to hold that feeling in your hearts.”
https://canarymission.org/individual/Tara_Tarawneh
Canary Mission-tweet-5November2023-Canary Mission profile-Tara Tarawneh
Princeton University
In August this year, Israeli Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli wrote a letter to Princeton University’s senior leadership about a book that was approved to go on the syllabus of the Near Eastern Studies Department’s “Decolonizing Trauma Studies from the Global South” course.
The book, “The Healing Humanities: The Right to Maim,” written by Jasbir Puar, falsely claims that Israel harvests the organs of Palestinians and that the country has a policy of trying to maim Palestinians.
Despite the text promoting a modern-day blood libel, Princeton’s President Christopher L. Eisgruber refused to remove the text from the syllabus on the grounds that it would be “censoring” the curriculum.
“Those who disagree with a book, or a syllabus, are free to criticize it but not to censor it,” he wrote. “Such arguments are the lifeblood of a great university, where controversies must be addressed through deliberation and debate, not administrative fiat.”
However, one must question the sincerity of Eisgruber’s view about fighting censorship, considering the fact that under his tenure, Princeton scrubbed the name of America’s 28th President, Woodrow Wilson, from its public policy school on the basis that Wilson’s “racist thinking and policies make him an inappropriate namesake for a school or college whose scholars, students and alumni must stand firmly against racism in all its forms.”
Incidentally, as Michael Goldstein pointed out in the Jewish Journal, the inclusion of Puar’s antisemitic tome in the curriculum actually marked the second time the “Israelis harvest Palestinian organs” blood libel had been legitimized on campus. Just months before the Puar controversy, professional Palestinian activist Mohammed El-Kurd, who has accused Israelis of eating Palestinian organs and lusting after their blood, was paid to give the Edward Said lecture at the university’s English Department.
Many in Princeton’s undergraduate student body have also been gunning to pass a resolution in support of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign, which seeks to isolate and eventually dismantle the Jewish state.
What followed a March 2022 vote on BDS was reminiscent of something out of a banana republic. In total, 44 percent of students voted in favor, 40 percent voted against and 16 percent abstained, which was supposed to mean the resolution immediately failed, because abstentions prevented a majority.
However, a dispute ensued about how abstentions would be counted, with Eric Periman, then-president of the Princeton Committee on Palestine (PCP), which sponsored the resolution, arguing the pro-BDS camp had won.
Around the same time that PCP was pushing for Princeton to support BDS, the group made crystal clear its real target when it held a protest outside the campus Center for Jewish Life (CJL) in which protestors held signs with phrases commonly used by Hamas such as, “from the river to the sea” and during which PCP President Periman suggested Princeton’s Jewish students were complicit in human rights violations.
Dartmouth College
Two pro-Palestinian students were arrested at Dartmouth last month after they allegedly trespassed on the grounds of the university’s Parkhurst Hall late at night and threatened to “escalate” and take “physical action” against college administrators in a document titled the “Dartmouth New Deal,” which demands the school divest from “Israeli apartheid.”
“You have until the first day of the winter term to publicly address our demands and outline a plan to meet them. If you fail to do so, we will escalate and take further action,” the document reportedly warned.
The arrests followed at least one pro-Palestinian rally in which attendees reportedly chanted, “Israel is a terror state.”
The Dartmouth Review-tweet-28October2023- Hanover Police arrested two pro-Palestinian protesters
Around 1AM today, Hanover Police arrested two pro-Palestinian protesters who were camped on Parkhurst Hall’s front lawn, charging them with a misdemeanor for criminal trespassing. The two students were released on bail later in the morning.
The Dartmouth Review-tweet-28October2023-Hanover Police arrested two pro-Palestinian protesters
However, while Dartmouth has grappled with more isolated incidents of anti-Jewish hatred on campus, including a swastika being carved on the college green and a public menorah being shot at with pellets, it should be noted that the general response by the university leadership to the Israel-Hamas war last month has been commendable.
Spearheaded by a group of Middle Eastern academics at the college, two public forums were set up on October 9 that featured professors from Israel, Lebanon and Egypt discussing the conflict, which were attended by hundreds of students in-person and online.
Encouraging students to attend the forums, the university’s President Sian Leah said: “I watched with growing horror the Hamas attack on Israel this weekend, the escalating violence, and the devastating loss of life, especially among civilians… In every conflict, one of the most important roles a university can play is to help us understand it, and to make a space for dialogue and community.”
Leah’s dither-free response to the attacks, which was in stark contrast to the leaders of so many other colleges, was a welcome change from her predecessor Philip Hanlon, whose role in attempting to hire BDS-supporting Professor N. Bruce Duthu as Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences had been criticized as another “chapter in the school’s history of anti-Semitism.”
Brown University
Brown’s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), an organization that has a well-documented history of disseminating vicious anti-Israel propaganda and vilifying Jewish students, was already organizing pro-Palestinian campus protests as Hamas terrorists were still cutting their bloodsoaked path through southern Israel.
In addition to organizing several student walkouts, the group posted on October 12 a statement to its Instagram account in which it claimed Israel was responsible for the Hamas massacre and stated it stands in “solidarity with the Palestinian resistance against Israeli occupation.”
At one such campus rally, an SJP member was captured on film telling the crowd: “Palestinians will die for justice and will die to return to our land. Glory to our martyrs from the river to the sea … Palestine is the hope of the world.”
Apparently, explicitly supporting a proscribed terrorist organization that is sworn to the destruction of both Jews and Israel is not enough to get the group banned from Brown’s campus.
Although Brown University’s President Christina H. Paxson has opposed calls for the college to adopt a pro-BDS stance, the school’s response to antisemitism among the Brown community has been criticized, particularly after several high-profile incidents at the college over the past two years, including swastikas drawn around campus and antisemitic threats directed toward Brown Hillel.
Brown University-Students for Justice in Palestine-instagram-12October2023
Brown University-Students for Justice in Palestine-instagram-12October2023
It is not so difficult to explain why so many students — many of whom would proudly describe themselves as “anti-fascist” — are so intolerant toward Jews and Israel.
Wall Street Journal columnist Barton Swaim described the scenes on American campuses as a product of the Marxist theories that have been taught for decades in higher education establishments:
And that is the crux of it: for American students, Israel and Jews are privileged, and privilege is the new original sin.
Found this article informative? Follow the HonestReporting page on Facebook to read more articles debunking news bias and smears, as well as others explaining Israel’s history, politics, and international affairs. Click here to learn more!
Photo credit: Simona Granati/Corbis via Getty Images
TOP
Shurat HaDin sues “Students For Justice in Palestine”
Shurat HaDin-tweet-3May2024-Shurat HaDin sues Students For Justice in Palestine
Victims of Hamas, represented by Israeli NGO Shurat HaDin, launch multi-million-dollar lawsuit against “Students For Justice in Palestine”.
https://israellawcenter.org/lawsuit-launched-against-sjp/
Shurat HaDin-tweet-3May2024-Shurat HaDin sues Students For Justice in Palestine
VICTIMS OF HAMAS TERROR LAUNCH MULTI-MILLION-DOLLAR LAWSUIT AGAINST “STUDENTS FOR JUSTICE IN PALESTINE” (SJP)
https://israellawcenter.org/lawsuit-launched-against-sjp/?twclid=2-71sk10rcadw839kzble9yna0o
Israeli NGO Shurat HaDin, representing the victims,: Extremist SJP is a front-cover for Hamas and provides material support to terrorism
(New York) Eight families of terror victims with 60 plaintiffs, among them victims of October 7th, have filed a multi-million-dollar lawsuit in the Middle District of Florida under the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) against Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), its affiliated network of student organizations and their leaders. The plaintiffs argue that SJP is a network established by Hamas and the ‘Muslim Brotherhood”, supported by the terror organization and directly provides Hamas with material support and resources – all in violation of American law.
The complaint demonstrated how Hamas has, over the last two decades, covertly extended its terrorist influence on college campuses in the United States. It furthermore showed how SJP has established a student arm of the terrorist group with the purpose of facilitating intimidation tactics, coercion policies, and spread its terrorist agenda among impressionable college students.
The plaintiffs are represented by attorneys Nitsana Darshan-Leitner of Tel-Aviv, Israel and Robert J. Tolchin of Brooklyn, New York.
The complaint described how SJP has been established as a successor for other organizations which have been designated as terrorist organizations by the Justice Department, such as The Holy Land Foundation, and how it was deliberately created as a “network comprising more than 200 university chapters of ‘Students for Justice in Palestine’ across the United States”, acting under national “terror-linked, violence-promoting” umbrella.
The complaint further elaborates how, by spreading Hamas’s terrorist agenda to the United States and establishing a student arm of Hamas to serve in the United States as its ‘alter‑ego’, SJP and its affiliated organizations have “knowingly conspired with and aided and abetted Hamas – a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization”. According to the complaint, SJP provided material support and resources to Hamas and “aided, abetted, and conspired with Hamas to commit international acts of terrorism.”
“It is time to uncover the true colors of SJP and to take off the masks that covered the faces of those who stand behind this blood thirsty and violence encouraging entity” said Nitsana Darshan Leitner, founder and President of the Shurat HaDin Israel Law Center, “These aren’t innocent, peaceful college student: it is the same terrorist conspiracy that butchered thousands of innocent people, tortured and raped men, women and children. If we don’t act urgently against these organizations, America will face the very real threat of its own October 7th.”
According to one a family member of one of the Negev kibbutz victims: “The cries of joy, rising from all over America’s campuses, on the very same day they butchered my son/daughter, the intimidating parades calling to murder what’s left from my family, the calls to annihilate Israel, the Jewish students that are repeatedly intimidated and attacked on campuses, the burning of the American flag – where do they think it will all end? I urge Americans to wake up, before so many will suffer the terrible fate my family did.”
Shurat HaDin is assisting the families to go on the legal offense against the extremist student groups who are simply instrumentalities of Hamas in Gaza.
TOP
StandWithUs legal Action against Antisemitism
StandWithUs
StandWithUs Supporting Israel
The StandWithUs Saidoff Legal Department has never been busier as we respond to the explosion of antisemitic events since the massacre by Hamas on October 7. In a given year, we typically receive around 270 requests for legal help. In the last few weeks, since October 7, we have received nearly 400 requests through our legal hotline.
In response, we are utilizing all legal tools at our disposal, including sending demand letters and preparing Title VI complaints against universities, filing discrimination complaints, building cases for potential lawsuits, holding campus police accountable for misconduct, and so much more.
While many of the cases are coming from StandWithUs-affiliated students, we are also seeing an influx of new students, professors, and community members who have never before reached out to StandWithUs. We are also utilizing the hundreds of lawyers in our pro bono network like never before. We are so grateful for the outpouring of support
from the legal community.
We Have Reached Out to Thousands of Universities Nationwide
In line with StandWithUs’ commitment to supporting students facing anti-Jewish bias, we’ve reached out to thousands of universities nationwide. We’ve reminded them of their legal responsibilities to Jewish and Israeli students and outlined specific actions they should take to align themselves with Title VI, civil rights laws, and criminal laws.
Read the letter here.
Click to download PDF file StandWithUs Letter to General Counsel and VP Student Affairs
Read an op-ed in Algemeiner about this initiative here or Below.
Reminding Schools of Their Legal Obligations During Anti-Israel Protests
In light of ongoing anti-Israel rallies and protests, the StandWithUs Saidoff Legal Department has written legal letters to universities and high schools. Sample university letters are UCLA and Pomona. For a high school sample letter, click here.
Click to download PDF file UCLA Letter re Nov 9 Event, Pomona Letter Re Nov 9 Event and StandWithUs Letter to High Schools Regarding Walkouts
Setting the Stage For Title VI Civil Rights Filings
Check out an example of one of StandWithUs Saidoff Legal Department’s recent demand letters to a university, setting the stage for a Title VI civil rights filing. This letter sheds light on the various challenges Jewish and Israeli students face on campus, including assault, disruptive protests, and illegal masking at George Mason University. Read the letter here, and explore other demand letters here.
Click to download PDF file George Mason University Letter from StandWithUs
Taking Action Against Medical Professionals Espousing Bias Against Israel and Jews
StandWithUs, in collaboration with Stop Antisemitism and the National Jewish Advocacy Center, is actively working to hold medical providers accountable for expressing antisemitism. Such expressions may interfere with their ability to provide proper care to Jewish and Israeli patients. Keep an eye on our newsletters for campaigns targeting medical providers in your area and learn how you can support these efforts.
StandWithUs Legal Hotline
To report an antisemitic incident:
https://www.standwithus.com/report-an-antisemitic-incident.
The Importance of Reporting Antisemitic Crimes
This new fact sheet from StandWithUs Legal explains how to report an antisemitic hate crime and how to interact with the police, including what information to give and ask for. See Matt Lebovics’s article HERE on the underreporting of antisemitic hate crimes, interviewing Yael Lerman, Director of the StandWithUs Legal Department.
Antisemitic Crimes Fact Sheet
https://www.standwithus.com/post/antisemitic-crimes-fact-sheet
Click to Download the Fact Sheet Antisemitic Crimes Fact Sheet
This fact sheet from StandWithUs Legal explains how to report an antisemitic hate crime and how to interact with the police, including what information to give and ask for. For any questions, please contact legal@standwithus.com.
TOP
Jewish Students are standing up to the Antisemites
The Persian Jewess-tweet-26April2024-Shofar Blast at UCLA
Shofar Blast as counter protest against the Pro-Hamas encampments at @UCLA.
🥹💙🇮🇱💙🥹
#AmYisraelChai
The Persian Jewess-tweet-26April2024-Shofar Blast at UCLA
Afshine Emrani MD FACC-tweet-26April2024-A UCLA professor being schooled by a Jewish student
A @UCLA “professor” being schooled by a Jewish student on the definition of “genocide”
These schools are infected by Islamist, Communist, Leftist feelings and emotions of rage based on no logic. 🤦
Afshine Emrani MD FACC-tweet-26April2024-A UCLA professor being schooled by a Jewish student
TOP
Jews on these campuses need to leave
Caroline Glick-tweet-5December2023-Jews on these campuses need to leave
Jews on these campuses need to leave. These Nazis are done with us. We need to be done with them — except for the lawsuits. Those need to be filed one after another, after another, until they are bankrupt. We can’t win them back. But we can make them poor.
Rep. Elise Stefanik-tweet-5December2023
🚨🚨🚨Presidents of @Harvard @MIT and @Penn REFUSE to say whether “calling for the genocide of Jews” is bullying and harassment according to their codes of conduct. Even going so far to say it needs to turn to “action” first. As in committing genocide.
THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE AND ANTISEMITIC. They must all resign immediately today.
Caroline Glick-tweet-5December2023-Jews on these campuses need to leave
TOP
Let’s Meet the Challenge of Rising Campus Antisemitism Through Legal Remedies
by Carly Gammill and Yael Lerman 9November2023 https://www.algemeiner.com/2023/11/09/lets-meet-the-challenge-of-rising-campus-antisemitism-through-legal-remedies/
Opinion
The surge in anti-Israel and antisemitic sentiment in response to Hamas’s October 7 massacre, especially its blatant celebration by people around the world, is cause for serious alarm. This is particularly the case on college campuses, where Jewish, Israeli, and Zionist students across the nation face incidents of ostracism, harassment, discrimination, threats, and violence in unprecedented numbers.
Of course, antisemitism and its glorification are not new phenomena. In 1939, for example, the freshman class at Princeton University voted Adolf Hitler the “greatest living person.” The following year’s freshman class repeated the vote with the same results, as, regrettably, did students at Georgetown University.
But we have two key advantages over our 1930s and 1940s counterparts. First, we know what happened the last time we hoped and waited for the antisemitic rhetoric rampaging universities to subside. Instead of being eradicated, it merely appeared to lay quiet for a few decades as it simmered and then exploded in the last few weeks, beyond any level we’ve previously experienced in the US.
We therefore have a duty to ensure that university administrators are on clear notice of their legal obligation to protect their Jewish and Israeli students from a pervasively hostile campus environment. And if they deliberately ignore our warnings, it is our duty to hold them accountable.
This is where our second advantage comes into play. We now have a powerful legal tool in Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VI). A cornerstone of American anti-discrimination law, Title VI prohibits discrimination based on race, color, or national origin in programs receiving Federal financial assistance. Recipients who fail to comply with their responsibilities under Title VI risk the loss of their Federal funding. While there is no confusion that the “national origin” category of Title VI covers Israeli students, the US Department of Education has repeatedly affirmed that its protections also extend to groups based on real or perceived shared ethnicity or ancestry, including Jews.
Click to Download UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION-OFFICE FOR CIVIL RIGHTS-antisemitism-dcl
In accordance with the lessons of history and the longstanding commitment of StandWithUs to support students in the face of anti-Jewish bias and bigotry, on November 6, 2023, our Center for Combating Antisemitism and the StandWithUs Saidoff Legal Department wrote to university general counsels and vice presidents for student affairs across the nation to remind them of their legal duties to Jewish and Israeli students and identify specific actions they should take to align themselves with the requirements of Title VI and other civil rights laws. As explained in the letter:
(1) While students generally have the right to express their views on campus, academic departments, student government bodies, and registered student groups, do not have the right to misuse university resources — such as official school social media accounts and access to email listervs — to propagate hatred or incite violence. Such actions run afoul of professional standards, violate university policies, and create a hostile environment for Jewish and Israeli students.
(2) Universities have the responsibility to ensure that hateful speech does not escalate to harassment, discrimination, or criminal conduct on campus. If and when it does, it is not protected by academic freedom or freedom of speech, and the university administration is obligated to take the necessary steps — including punitive measures — to remedy the harm caused and deter such conduct from recurring.
(3) It should be self-evident that Hamas’ massacre, dismemberment, rape, beheadings, and kidnapping against anyone, let alone children, babies, the disabled, and the elderly, can never be justified. Yet moral clarity on these matters appears to be lacking within higher education institutions. University administrators should set the tone on their universities by using their voices to unequivocally condemn such acts of terror. This would clarify the university’s position as opposed to allowing the appearance by student groups who are pro-Hamas to represent the university.
(4) University administrators must ensure that faculty are unable to misuse their class time (including cancelling classes) for political indoctrination, especially when it may serve to marginalize Jewish students and support or promote terrorism.
(5) While the right to protest is generally protected under the First Amendment, allowing outside community members, who may harbor antisemitic intentions, to participate in student protests on university grounds is not necessarily protected. Administrators should do all in their power to limit non-student access to student events, check for valid student identification, and address unlawful behavior — including by making arrests where appropriate — to help protect the safety of all students.
(6) To the extent permissible under applicable law, universities should prohibit the wearing of masks during demonstrations. They should also ensure robust enforcement of laws prohibiting the wearing of a mask to conceal one’s identity during the commission of a crime. These actions can help prevent violence and harassment on campus and protect the safety of all students.
Universities today once again find themselves torn between asserting their inclusive values and acting on them. This time, we have the benefit of hindsight and the legal tools to protect students. It is the obligation of college and university administrators to apply both. And it is our organization’s mission to ensure that they do.
Carly Gammill is the director of the StandWithUs Center for Combating Antisemitism. Yael Lerman is the director of the StandWithUs Saidoff Legal Department.
TOP
Massive class action lawsuit just filed against Columbia University
Shelley G-tweet-29April2024-Massive class action lawsuit just filed against Columbia
Massive class action lawsuit just filed against @Columbia 🚨
The plaintiffs are seeking relief for the Jewish students at Columbia who have been harmed and displaced by the rampant antisemitism on campus.
https://files.edelson.com/CS_Columbia_Complaint.pdf
Click to download PDF file
Click to download the file CS_Columbia_Complaint
Shelley G-tweet-29April2024-Massive class action lawsuit just filed against Columbia
TOP
A guide to the chants at ‘pro-Palestinian’ rallies:
Please send this to anyone at a School, College or University. Parents, Students, Administrators and Teachers. These are Felony Death Threats. This violates Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/antisemitism-dcl.pdf
This is not free speech.
Click to download PDF file UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION-OFFICE FOR CIVIL RIGHTS-antisemitism-dcl
Elder of Ziyon logo http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/
Elder of Ziyon-tweet-29October2023-A guide to the chants at ‘pro-Palestinian’ rallies
Re-upping this meme for those who witnessed the disgusting worldwide demos on Shabbat.
Elder of Ziyon-tweet-29October2023-A guide to the chants at ‘pro-Palestinian’ rallies:
A guide to the chants at ‘pro-Palestinian’ rallies:
TOP
Arab Funding of American Universities: Donors, Recipients & Impact
Daniel Pipes-tweet-24October2023-
I just rediscovered @MitchellGBard’s Nov. 2021 study, “Arab Funding of American Universities: Donors, Recipients & Impact.”
According to @USEdGov figures, colleges and universities in 1986-2021 “received nearly $8.5 billion from [official] Arab sources.”
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/arabs/Arab-Funding-1121.pdf
Daniel Pipes-tweet-24October2023-Arab Funding of American Universities Donors Recipients Impact
Click to download PDF file Arab Funding of American Universities: Donors, Recipients and Impact
TOP
‘Dark Money Nightmare’: How Qatar Bought the Ivy League
by Robert Williams
31December2023 https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20265/qatar-bought-ivy-league
Testimony by three Ivy League university presidents
The hapless testimony by three Ivy League university presidents from Harvard, MIT and the University of Pennsylvania before the U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce can be traced to Qatar and its insidious campaign to buy itself influence in US academia.
Qatar, oil-rich and with an estimated population of only 2.5 million, is the largest foreign donor — that we know about — to American universities, with at least $4.7 billion donated between 2001 and 2021. Many of those billions went unreported to the Department of Education, according to research done by the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy (ISGAP). Under federal law, colleges and universities that receive donations from foreign sources that total at least $250,000 must disclose such transactions to the Department of Education.
Qatar is far from the only authoritarian nation that donates to American universities. According to a Department of Education report from April 2023, American universities and colleges have received $19 billion from unreported sources, more than half of which has come from authoritarian and antidemocratic Middle East governments.
Flouting the law by failing to disclose foreign donations to universities has been declared a “dark money nightmare.”
Former Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos wrote in February 2023:
To assess properly the damage that Qatari influence in the US is causing, it is important to understand what Qatar stands for and promotes. Qatar has for decades cultivated a close relationship with the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood, whose motto is: “‘Allah is our objective; the Prophet is our leader; the Quran is our law; Jihad is our way; dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope.” Its aim appears to be ensuring that Islamic law, Sharia, governs all countries and all matters.
Hamas, an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, has enjoyed Qatar as its main sponsor, to the tune of up to $360 million a year, and was until recently the home of Hamas’ leadership. In 2012, Ismail Haniyeh, head of the terrorist group’s political bureau, Mousa Abu Marzook, and Khaled Mashaal, among others, moved to Qatar for a life of luxury. This month, likely because of Israel’s announcement that it will hunt down and eliminate Hamas leaders in Qatar and Turkey, the Qatar-based Hamas officials reportedly fled to other countries.
Qatar was also home to Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood who was exiled from Egypt, until his death in September 2022. According to the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center:
Qaradawi also founded many radical Islamist organizations, which are funded by Qatar. These include the International Union of Muslim Scholars, which released a statement that called the October 7 massacre perpetrated by Hamas against communities in southern Israel an “effective” and “mandatory development of legitimate resistance,” and said that Muslims have a religious duty to support their brothers and sisters “throughout all of Palestine, especially in Al-Aqsa, Jerusalem, and Gaza.””
Qatar also still is home to the lavishly-funded television network Al Jazeera, founded in 1996 by Qatar’s Emir, Sheikh Hamad ibn Khalifa Al Thani. Called the “mouthpiece of the Muslim Brotherhood,” Al Jazeera began the violent “Arab Spring,” which “brought the return of autocratic rulers.”
In 2017, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt, made 13 demands of Qatar: “to cut off relations with Iran, shutter Al Jazeera, and stop granting Qatari citizenship to other countries’ exiled oppositionists.” They subsequently cut ties with Qatar over its failure to agree to any of the demands, including ending its support for terrorism, the Muslim Brotherhood and Al Jazeera.
The Saudi state-run news agency SPA said at the time:
This is the kind of influence that US universities and colleges are more than happy to see on their campuses in exchange for billions of dollars in Qatari donations. According to ISGAP:
In November 2023 ISGAP published a report, “The Corruption of the American Mind: How concealed foreign funding of higher education in the United States predicts the erosion of democratic values and antisemitic sentiment on campus.” It found that there is a direct correlation between antisemitism and censored speech on campus and undocumented contributions from foreign governments, notably Qatar. According to the report:
Qatar makes it possible for Ivy League universities to claim that they receive no funds from the Qatari state, because the donations are funneled through the Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development, a not-for-profit organization established in 1995 by the Emir of Qatar. This ensures that the foundation can identify itself as a private organization, which enables Qatar to conceal its state funding as private donations.
In a report published this month, “Networks of Hate: Qatari Paymasters, Soft Power and the Manipulation of Democracy,” ISGAP wrote:
The issue of Qatar on US campuses, as serious as it is, is only part of a larger picture of Qatari influence in the US and the rest of the West.
Qatar funds US think-tanks, such as the Richardson Center for Global Engagement and the Brookings Institution, and infiltrates US media. In 2021, Qatar pledged that it would invest $10 billion in US ports. According to the US State department:
In February 2022, former Qatari Prime Minister Hamad bin Jassim said in an interview, according to MEMRI, that Qatar had many journalists “in different countries” on its payroll.
Robert Williams is a researcher based in the United States.
TOP
Cornell Hillel Posts Warning After Threats To Jewish Students, Kosher Dining Hall
“Cornell Police Department is on site and monitoring the situation…. We advise that students and staff avoid the building out of an abundance of caution.”
Posted by William A. Jacobson 29October2023 https://legalinsurrection.com/2023/10/cornell-hillel-posts-warning-after-threats-to-jewish-students-kosher-dining-hall/
Cornell Hillel Warning Threats-10-29-2023
104 West is the home of Cornell’s Kosher Dining Hall, and is also next to the Center for Jewish Living.
Cornell Hillel has posted a warning on Facebook that the dining hall is on lockdown after online threats:
Cornell Hillel Warning Threats-10-29-2023
These apparently are some of the online threats:
Isaac de Castro-tweet-29October2023-There’s more.
Isaac de Castro-tweet-29October2023-There’s more.
[See referenced Tweet next.]
Annie Vail-tweet-29October2023-
Currently on a @Cornell discussion forum, the kosher dining hall (104 west) is now on lockdown and Jewish students are scared to leave their rooms. @GovKathyHochul @HenMazzig
Annie Vail-tweet-29October2023-Currently on a @Cornell
discussion forum, the kosher dining hall (104 west) is now on lockdown and Jewish students are scared to leave their rooms. @GovKathyHochul
@HenMazzig
I have warned the Board of Trustees about the antisemitism problem on campus, but have been ignored, “Cornell did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Jacobson’s call to evaluate antisemitism on campus”.
MORE TO FOLLOW
We don’t know yet the source or seriousness of these threats, or who is behind them. (I should also add that at Legal Insurrection we have covered here a long line of campus hate hoaxes, so we can’t rule that out until more is known.)
But anti-Israel activists have been getting more and more aggressive, Anti-Israel Graffiti Appears on Campus at Cornell University.
Israel War Room-tweet-25October2023-Amid increasing Jew-hatred and several pro-Hamas rallies on campus
The President of Cornell issued this all campus email at approxiately 7 p.m. tonight (emphasis in original):
TOP
Why Was It So Hard For Elite Universities To Condemn Hamas Terrorism?
by Tyler Durden, 21October2023 – https://www.zerohedge.com/political/why-was-it-so-hard-elite-universities-condemn-hamas-terrorism
Authored by Marc Zvi Brettler & Michael B. Poliakoff via RealClear Wire,
America’s leading universities have an antisemitism problem—and it starts at the top. This past week, university presidents and deans across the country wrote to their students and faculties to express concern in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on Israel by Hamas. What they said, and what they did not say, provides a window into the culture of intellectual and moral rot and cowardice that reigns at these once-great institutions.
Those who attack Jews or Israel are all too often exempt from their excoriation. Hamas terrorists massacred some 1,300 Israelis, took approximately 200 hostages, most of them civilians, and left an additional 3,200 injured, but you would not know it from some university leaders’ missives this week.
At Harvard University, President Claudine Gay has issued three muddled statements, under pressure, on the horrific events. Her first statement was a tepid confession of “heartbreak” that implied an equivalence between the Hamas attacks and Israel neutralizing the terrorists. This embarrassment was signed by all the university’s senior deans. Only after a barrage of online criticism—and threats by donors—did she muster the strength to condemn the child killers. Not content to leave it alone, she has issued another statement, but still without criticizing the 30-odd student groups who professed to “hold the Israeli regime entirely responsible” for the murder, rape, kidnapping, and torture of Jews, referring instead to the principle of freedom of speech. Let us be clear that these students have freedom of speech, but so does Claudine Gay. She has the right to condemn their words. In 2022, Harvard denounced in no uncertain terms “the capricious and senseless invasion of Ukraine.” Harvard knows how to speak clearly about Ukrainian victims but not, apparently, about Jewish victims.
Columbia University President Minouche Shafik offered a masterfully slippery statement: “I was devastated by the horrific attack on Israel this weekend and the ensuing violence that is affecting so many people.” While all lives matter, the mention of “ensuing violence” is a reference to Israeli targeting of terrorists—putting it on a par with raping and pillaging by Hamas. She implied moral equivalence.
The moral lassitude and obscurantism of Shafik’s statement trickled down. Columbia College Dean Josef Sorett emitted the following: “The events in Israel and Gaza over the past several days have shocked the world and impacted many of our students.” Dean Sorett’s “events in Gaza” are, of course, Israeli military operations undertaken in self-defense and in an effort to kill murderers, which he places on par with the door-to-door murder of civilians in Israel.
The dean of Columbia Law School did not outclass her colleague. Gillian Lester wrote to her students and faculty, “The violence that erupted in Israel and Gaza this past weekend is nothing short of tragic,” again implying a moral equivalence between the enemies of the Jewish people and their victims.
At Middlebury College, the senior leadership wrote to “acknowledge the untold pain, suffering, and loss of life unfolding from the violence happening now in Israel and Palestine.” President Laurie Patton seems unclear about who is making the violence “happen.” She goes on to warn against “hate, racism, ethnic discrimination, antisemitism, or Islamophobia.” The equivalence is complete, and we can move on to meet the real threat: Islamophobia. Compare this muddle to the perfect clarity of Middlebury’s official response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine: It “wreaked untold havoc in the lives of innocent civilians. Russia’s aggression against its democratic neighbor is a violation of international law, made only more egregious by its escalation in the face of international condemnation. I join that condemnation in solidarity with our Middlebury community.” How easy it would have been to revise that statement ever so slightly to say that Hamas “wreaked untold havoc in the lives of innocent civilians. Hamas’s aggression against its democratic neighbor is a violation of international law, made only more egregious by its escalation in the face of international condemnation. I join that condemnation in solidarity with our Middlebury community.”
The University of California–Berkeley, which spends $36 million annually on its Division of Equity & Inclusion, may be the most openly antisemitic campus in the country. Its law school is under federal investigation for discriminating against Jews. Student organizations there expressed their “unwavering support” for the Hamas pogrom. The president refused to condemn this statement. Instead, he expressed his heartbreak at “the violence and suffering in Israel and Gaza,” pointedly comparing Israel’s self-defense to the terrorist attacks themselves, gesturing, like too many others, to the “complex history” of the situation.
In reality though, no complexity is so great as to obscure the distinction between the intentional slaughter of innocents and targeted strikes against terrorists. Some schools eventually issued careful statements—but their initial reaction—or lack of reaction—is most telling, especially when contrasted with quick and decisive past declarations of outrage.
At Stanford University, the administration has covered itself in special disgrace by adding dishonesty to cowardice, despite finally acknowledging the horror. Criticized for its silence about the weekend’s slaughter, Stanford claimed in an unsigned statement that it “does not take positions on geopolitical issues and news events.” But when Russia invaded Ukraine, Stanford’s president released this statement: “The unprovoked, full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russia, and the attack it represents on democracy, is beyond shocking.” He continued, “It has been remarkable to witness the courage and resilience of the Ukrainian people.” Stanford also commented when a child’s skipping rope was found in a tree in 2021, where it had been tangled for some years, officially denouncing it as a “a potent symbol of anti-Black racism and violence that is completely unacceptable under any circumstances.” Stanford discovered the principle of institutional neutrality, it seems, just in time for the Sabbath assault on Israeli civilians.
Under the principle of institutional neutrality, colleges and universities should indeed refrain from speaking corporately on contemporary social or political issues, unless they transcend the institution’s values as a whole (such as the wanton taking of innocent life by terrorists). Higher education’s mission is to encourage diversity of thought. But condemning brutality and savagery, whether the murder of George Floyd under the knee of a policeman, or the civilian carnage Hamas wrought, is not a political statement. No one has asked presidents to endorse Zionism or the two-state solution or anything vaguely geopolitical. They needed only to affirm human decency without which the university is a place of moral chaos.
However serpentine the ongoing contortions of these administrators, what is revealed in these official reactions by colleges is a cancerous moral rot and intellectual confusion. Bothsidesism is a symptom; the root cause is worse. They were perfectly able to rush to condemn the murder of George Floyd, the seedy depravities uncovered by the #MeToo movement, and the brutal invasion of Ukraine—as they should. They pronounce vocally and volubly on the events of January 6, 2021, and on horrible killings at houses of worship. They take flamboyant public positions on everything from affirmative action to climate policy to marriage equality. So why is it so hard to condemn the slaughter of Jewish babies? Why is it so hard to offer proper support and empathy to their grieving Jewish students?
The University of Pennsylvania’s president had no word of censure for Penn’s Palestine Writes festival, which ran between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur and featured Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters, notorious for exhibitionist antisemitism. Then came the anemic initial response of Penn’s president to the Hamas atrocities. Jon Huntsman, a Penn graduate and donor and a former governor of Utah, pinpointed the cause of his alma mater’s failure: “Moral relativism has fueled the university’s race to the bottom.” If only Penn’s administration possessed such moral (and pedagogical) clarity.
To be fair, some universities have offered proper statements that unambiguously condemn the pogrom of Hamas. But these are few and far between. The United States used to lead in higher education, but now we need to look for leadership abroad, for example in the exemplary statement of the German Rectors’ Conference that noted quickly, clearly, and unambiguously:
We are deeply shocked and appalled by the terrorist attack of Hamas on Israel, the terrible massacres, and the kidnappings.
On behalf of all German universities, I would like to express our sincerest condolences and heartfelt sympathy. We are deeply saddened by the senseless loss of life. Our thoughts are with those killed and injured, those still in danger, and their families and friends.
As the German Rectors’ Conference, the voice of German universities, we stand in solidarity with the Israeli universities and academic colleges and all their members. We would be grateful if you could share this message of sympathy and solidarity with your member institutions.
Educational institutions have a responsibility to educate and lead—not only in subject matters but in basic issues of morality. Those who fail to condemn the slaughter of children and fail to show empathy to their students who identify with this slaughter, are failing their mission at the most basic level.
TOP
Antisemitic NGOs justify terror in three stages – opinion
It is incumbent that the audiences for NGO propaganda – diplomats, UN officials, journalists, academics and the government allies and funders of these NGOs – firmly reject lies and fictitious claims.
By DANIEL SEGAL
20OCTOBER2023 https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-769333
It must be difficult to be a pro-Palestinian propagandist these days. After all, how can you possibly defend the gruesome slaughter of over 1,400 innocents, torture, rape, defiling corpses?! Yet there is a network of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that are doing their best to justify the unjustifiable.
For the past week, my colleagues and I at NGO Monitor have carefully examined the output of NGOs that claim human rights agendas, many funded by European governments, and analyzed their claims and argumentation. We have identified a three-staged process by which NGOs work to erase the heinousness of Hamas crimes and fuel the international demonization of Israel.
Justifying and celebrating attacks
The first stage is open justification and celebration of the attacks as “resistance” against a “settler-colonial state.” For example, the 150-member Palestinian NGO Network (PNGO) “saluted this honorable image that our people are sketching,” having faced, “for more than 75 years, a racist, fascist occupation,” and stated that “the Palestinian people… are resisting this with all valor and sacrifice.” BADIL, a Palestinian “return” NGO, wrote, “resistance is the most human and legitimate act” because “the Palestinian people have been suffering for 75 years of colonial-apartheid regime, ethnic cleansing, forcible transfer/displacement.”
Similarly, an advocacy officer from Defense for Children International-Palestine (DCI-P) referred to “Palestinians resisting Israeli colonization & trying to take back their land.”
These and other examples demonstrate how the initial NGO responses celebrated the “accomplishments” of Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terrorist groups, i.e. the mass killing, abduction, and other heinous crimes against thousands of civilians.
Whataboutism and shifting focus
Next, NGOs moved on to stage two: trying to shift media and political focus by inventing Israeli atrocities that are similar to the actual brutality of Hamas. Palestinian NGOs have always delegitimized Israel’s right to self-defense and denied the existence of Palestinian terrorism, which they invariably decorate as “resistance.”
Israel’s military response targeting terror infrastructure in Gaza provided another opportunity to accuse Israel of committing the worst crimes. For example, a joint statement from the PFLP’s NGO network – Al-Mezan, Bisan, Al-Haq, DCI-P, Addameer, Union of Palestinian Women’s Committes (UPWC), and others – demanded that the EU “fully denounce Israel’s indiscriminate military reprisals…and intervene to protect the Palestinian people against Israel’s incitement to genocide.”
In another statement, Al-Haq accused Israel of “targeting male and female civilians and civilian objects in such a way that amounts to acts of genocide.” Zakaria Bakr, who heads the Union of Agricultural Work Committees’ Gaza Fisherman Committee, wrote, “We are living through an action of ethnic cleansing and genocide accompanied by starvation…what we are living through is more powerful and stronger than the holocaust which the Zionists talk about.” Palestinian Medical Relief Society Director Mustafa Barghouti published a statement referencing an Israeli “plot…to carry out the ethnic cleansing of the Gaza Strip.”
Of course, all these NGOs, primarily funded by their European government patrons under the facade of “human rights,” were entirely silent on Hamas’s genocidal violence. Stage three is reminiscent of a standard tactic employed by those caught red handed – deny, deny, deny. As they recognized the need to salvage international support for the Palestinian cause, some NGOs began denying that the atrocities and crimes against humanity perpetrated by Hamas actually happened. Good Shepherd Collective, which describes itself as “an anti-Zionist, anti-colonial organization,” alleged that “zionists” (sic) were sharing “AI generated images, trying to convince us that Palestinian resistance fighters simply must be the barbarians they believe them to be.”
An official of Al-Haq, described as a “highly respected Palestinian NGO,” claimed that the Israeli Air Force bombed Israeli cars – burning the occupants – and that an Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs video of the aftermath was “deceptive and misleading.”
Denying Israel’s claims as honest
This third stage is particularly pernicious, since it is often accompanied by the notion – sometimes explicitly, sometimes implied – that Israel orchestrated the deception to fool the world into a permissive attitude towards war crimes in Gaza.
These three stages might be familiar. They are the same tactics used by antisemites who deny the Holocaust and its magnitude, e.g., claiming that only “a few hundred thousand were killed.” Or by those who suggest that Jews were persecuted because of their economic status, because “they engaged is usury,” or for their “social behavior.” And then there are conspiracy theorists like Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas who declare that Zionists cooperated with the Nazis or that Jews were behind the Holocaust.
The NGO propaganda playbook is not unique to the political dimension in the war to eliminate Israel or even to centuries of antisemitism against the Jewish people. But now, it a central front in a deadly conflict involving a heinously brutal terrorist group. It is incumbent that the audiences for NGO propaganda – diplomats, UN officials, journalists, academics and the government allies and funders of these NGOs – firmly reject their lies and fictitious human rights claims.
The writer is a researcher at NGO Monitor (www. ngo-monitor.org), a Jerusalem-based research institute.
TOP
VIDEO: Israel Complies With The Law Of Armed Conflict When Defending Against Terrorists Hiding Among Civilians
Proportionality relates to loss of civilian life “which would be excessive in relation to the concrete and direct military advantage anticipated…. So there is some requirement of proportionality in international law, but it’s not proportionality between the casualties on your side and the casualties on the other side….’
Posted by William A. Jacobson 14June2021 https://legalinsurrection.com/2021/06/video-israel-complies-with-the-law-of-armed-conflict-when-defending-against-terrorists-hiding-among-civilians/
LIF-How Israel Implements The Law Of Arme Conflict In Targeting Terrorists Hiding Among Civilians-Speaker
On Wednesday, June 9, 2021, the Legal Insurrection Foundation held an online event on How Israel Implements The Law Of Armed Conflict To Defend Against Terrorists Hiding Among Civilians.
The event was a reaction to the outrageous lies, misinformation, and disinformation spread regarding Israel’s conduct in the May 2021 conflict initiated by Hamas firing thousands of rockets at Israeli cities.
Israel Law of Armed Conflict-speakers screenshot
The original event post has full biographies of the speakers. You know me and Kemberlee, and we were honored to be joined by two experts in the fields of international law and the law of armed conflict:
PROF. EUGENE KONTOROVICH
COL. ELI BAR-ON, IDF, RET.
The presentations by Prof. Kontorovich and Col. Bar-On contain many interesting and important visuals:
Israel Law of Armed Conflict-Legal Input into IDF Operations
Israel Law of Armed Conflict-Target Spreadsheet
HIGHLIGHT REEL
Israel Complies With Law Of Armed Conflict – Highlights
Read More HERE
Israel Complies With Law Of Armed Conflict – Full Program
TOP
Calls for Israel to restrain itself are ILLEGAL | The Caroline Glick Show
Posted 15October2023 JNS TV:
Is Israel really violating international law in the war against Hamas?
The Biden administration, the EU, the UN, Arab nations and others have begun to wage a campaign to restrain Israel’s efforts to destroy Hamas in Gaza. The campaign is based on allegations that there is a contradiction between Israel’s military operations and the laws of war.
To understand the nature of these claims, and what the laws of war require from Israel, as well as from the nations waging this campaign against Israel, Caroline spoke with Prof Avi Bell. Bell is a world expert on the laws of war and international humanitarian law.
TOP
Elder of Ziyon logo http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/
Better Question: What Does International Law Require The Rest of The World To Do About Hamas? (Daled Amos)
18October2023 https://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2023/10/better-question-what-does-international.html
daled amos
By Daled Amos
These days, when people talk about what International Humanitarian Law requires in the aftermath of the Hamas massacre of Israeli citizens, the discussion falls first on what limitations need to be placed on Israel. Almost as an afterthought do a few people ask what international law requires of Hamas.
That in itself demonstrates an odd sense of priorities among the global community.
But a third topic in international law is being ignored, namely: what are the obligations of the international community in the face of this terrorist attack. By merely sitting back and focusing on Israel’s obligations, the nations of the world run the risk of themselves violating international law.
First of all there is the Genocide Convention. It was approved for ratification by the UN General Assembly in 1948 and went into effect in 1951. According to Article I:
The convention addresses an act committed with the intent to destroy, even in part, a
Genocide includes — among other things — killing members of the group, causing serious bodily or mental harm and deliberately inflicting conditions with the intent to cause the group’s physical destruction in whole or in part. In addition to being directly involved in the genocide, this law also applies to conspiracy, incitement, complicity and even the mere attempt to commit genocide. In addition, the convention not only rulers but also public officials and private individuals liable for punishment.
Then there is UN Security Council Resolution 1373 (2001), which was passed in response to the jihadist attack on 9/11, making this resolution especially relevant to the current situation, given the obvious similarities. It was passed under Chapter 7 of the UN Charter, making it binding on all UN members, unlike other UN resolutions.
According to Article 2, All States shall:
According to Article 3, All States shall:
Furthermore the resolution
On Sunday, Caroline Glick spoke with Professor Avi Bell — an expert in International Law — about the legal obligations of the rest of the world in response to the Hamas terrorist attack, and how nations are violating those obligations. Some of his insights are summarized in a JNS article published yesterday.
Bell makes reference to UN Security Council Resolution 1373, and illustrates how some of its requirements are being violated. For instance:
This puts the claims of the obligation to provide humanitarian aid to Gazans in a different light, considering how Hamas terrorists are sure to take – and have taken – the aid for themselves.
Professor Bell also points out how Qatar’s involvement, supported by the Biden administration, is also in violation of Resolution 1373:
Like Resolution 1373, article VII of the Genocide Convention also addresses the issue of extradition:
This becomes relevant because CDR David Levy writes about Hamas Leadership and America’s Extradition Option for The Begin-Sadat Center For Strategic Studies:
Levy writes that the fact that the US does not have an extradition treaty with Qatar does not have to make it impossible to get that country to hand over the terrorist leaders:
The article details examples of the US “holding those responsible for the deaths of its citizens accountable” and Levy brags that this is part of a long-standing US tradition. The article would be more convincing if we had not seen the failure of multiple administrations to apply the necessary leverage to get Jordan to hand over the mastermind of the Sbarro massacre, responsible for 16 deaths, including 2 Americans.
If a country like the US will not apply international law for itself, what are the odds we will see any country apply international law for others?
TOP
Women in Islam
Sana Ebrahimi-tweet-2May2024-Women in Islam
I hope our peanut brain students, especially the girls, know what they are advocating and own the second-class citizenship that Islam has given to them as women.
When praying with Muslims:
– Women should fully cover their hair.
– Women should also cover their bodies, revealing only the hands up to the wrists, the face up to the hairline, and the feet.
– Women stand behind men during group prayers. Because in Islam, you are not equal to men. You are less than.
– Ritual washing is required before prayer. Women who are menstruating can not be cleaned and are not allowed to pray during this time.
– If you have consumed any alcohol in the last 40 days, you are considered unclean and should not participate in prayer.
Amateur Jew-tweet-2May2024-Women in Islam
Sana Ebrahimi-tweet-2May2024-Women in Islam
Amateur Jew-tweet-2May2024-Women in Islam
Women in Islam
TOP