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In-Depth Issues:
"Screams Before Silence" ( screams beforesilence.com)
In "Screams Before Silence," a one-hour documentary on the sexual violence committed by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, Sheryl Sandberg, former COO of Meta,
presents never-before-heard eyewitness accounts from released hostages, first responders, medical and forensic experts, and survivors of the Hamas massacres.
Despite the indisputable evidence, these atrocities have received little scrutiny from human rights groups and international organizations. Many have attempted to minimize or even deny that they occurred.
Watch "Screams Before Silence" - One-Hour Documentary - Sheryl Sandberg ( YouTube)
Watch "Screams Before Silence" - Two-Minute Trailer ( YouTube)
150,000-200,000 Palestinians Have Left Rafah Ahead of IDF Operation - Yonah Jeremy Bob ( Jerusalem Post)
150,000-200,000 Palestinian civilians have already left Rafah since April 7 as the military gets ready to move into the southern Gaza city, according to the IDF.
After the IDF withdrew from Khan Yunis on April 7, a significant number of civilians started to stream out of Rafah to Khan Yunis or to al-Muwasi on the southern Gaza coast.
New tent cities are being set up for civilians who evacuate Rafah.
U.S. Humanitarian Aid Pier in Gaza Comes under Fire - Lolita C. Baldor ( AP-Military Times)
An under-construction pier for a U.S.-led project to bring aid into Gaza came under mortar fire Wednesday, forcing UN officials to take shelter.
Hamas political official Khalil al-Hayya told AP on Wednesday that his group will resist any foreign military presence involved with the port project.
The UN World Food Program has agreed to lead the aid delivery effort.
Israel Approves Visits to Imprisoned Hamas Nukhba Force Terrorists - Itamar Eichner ( Ynet News)
Israel's Political-Security Cabinet decided Thursday to allow two British observers to visit imprisoned Nukhba Force terrorists who conducted the Oct. 7 massacre, after a British request which was presented as a condition for the continued transfer of military aid to Israel.
The two will be accompanied by an Israeli judge.
Officials in the UK said they wanted to check whether Israel observes international law in relation to the prisoners.
Iranian Women Sexually Assaulted and Beaten in New Morality Police Crackdown - Akhtar Makoii ( Telegraph-UK)
Iranian women are being sexually assaulted, tasered and beaten in a fresh morality police crackdown on those flouting Tehran's strict dress codes.
Multiple videos posted online show women being bundled into the back of vehicles for infractions as minor as wearing a coat that is too short or too colorful.
One woman recalled being approached by a group of plainclothes officers as she walked home. "One of them grabbed me by the hair and slammed me onto the ground."
She was dragged inside a white van a few minutes later. Four other girls, all crying, were already in the vehicle. They were then taken to a police station where they found dozens of other women.
Moroccan Asylum Seeker Guilty of Murdering Passerby in Britain "for the People of Gaza" - Duncan Gardham ( Sky News-UK)
Ahmed Ali Alid, 45, attempted to kill his housemate, a Christian convert, stabbing him in his bed as he slept.
He then went outside in Hartlepool and came across Terence Carney, 70, who was out for a morning walk, attacking him and stabbing him to death.
He told police the attack was "for the people of Gaza" and he had wanted to kill more victims.
At the end of his police interview, Alid attacked two female officers, yelling "Palestine" and "Allahu Akbar" as he grabbed one of them and wrestled her to the ground.
Alid was living in a state-funded accommodation while waiting for his asylum claim to be processed.
Alid's housemate, Javid Nouri, an Iranian asylum seeker, had alerted police on Oct. 13 that Alid was an "extreme Muslim" and would sit in the kitchen with a knife. Two days later, Alid stabbed Nouri in the chest.
The Company Making Millions by Taking Palestinians Out of Gaza - Venetia Menzies ( Sunday Times-UK)
A private Egyptian company, alleged to have strong links in the past to the state, has made a lucrative business out of ushering several hundred Gazans across the border into Egypt each day.
Hala Consulting and Tourism charges adults upwards of $5,000 to flee, with those under 16 paying $2,500.
Analysis by the Sunday Times of the daily lists to enter Egypt suggests that the company may have made at least $88 million since the beginning of March from evacuating more than 20,000 people.
At the start of April, the number of names on these lists increased from 295 to 475 daily, boosting the average daily revenue from a minimum of $1.25 million to $2 million.
Stop the Mideast Money Fueling Campus Anti-Semitism - Jonathan Pidluzny ( City Journal)
U.S. universities should stop letting foreign entities shape campus intellectual life.
Centers dedicated to the study of the Middle East, many receiving lavish foreign financial support, do more to promote anti-Zionist and pro-Hamas narratives than virtually any other force on campus.
In effect, U.S. campuses have been importing anti-Semitic propaganda for almost 50 years.
An AMCHA Initiative study of anti-Zionist and BDS-supporting faculty found that 70% are associated with ethnic, gender, or Middle East studies departments.
(These departments sponsor almost 90% of events containing anti-Zionist or pro-BDS rhetoric.)
Through their research, teaching, and the speakers they host, the centers demonize Israel and make anti-Semitic attitudes seem permissible, even respectable.
The presence of anti-Zionist faculty, in turn, is associated with significantly higher levels of student-on-student harassment involving Jews.
The NGO Network Orchestrating Antisemitic Incitement on American Campuses ( NGO Monitor)
In the wake of the Oct. 7 massacre of Israelis, the exponential rise in antisemitic violence, incitement, intimidation, and harassment on U.S. campuses is not the product of spontaneous protests of individuals.
Rather, they are tightly coordinated and well-funded by a network of radical and often antisemitic NGOs that have supported and justified the Oct. 7 massacre, including Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), Within Our Lifetime, U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights, and Samidoun.
Under the guise of human rights and justice, these NGOs work to undermine economic and military ties between the U.S. and Israel, and to besiege and divide the U.S. Jewish community.
Many of the NGOs are directly linked to U.S.-designated Palestinian terror organizations.
Antisemitism at Columbia University Is a Disgrace - Andrew M. Cuomo ( Wall Street Journal)
What is happening at Columbia University is a disgrace. That it is happening in New York, home to more Jews than any other city in the world, and at a supposed institution of higher learning, makes it incomprehensible.
I understand the right to free speech, but much of what is going on at Columbia isn't speech at all. Threats, terror tactics and menacing conduct don't warrant protection.
Many of the protesters aren't pro-Palestinian. They are pro-Hamas and brazenly support a terrorist organization.
The protesters are entitled to their opinions. They aren't entitled to threaten, harass and menace. That isn't protected speech; it's criminal conduct.
Jews are at risk on campus and are told not to come to class. Meantime, supporters of jihad take over university property. Seriously?
Regardless of one's views on Gaza, reasonable people need to open their eyes and understand this isn't about the Middle East; it is about America and our democracy.
It is time for education about the history of Jews, antisemitism, Israel and the origins of the Palestinian conflict.
It is time for New Yorkers to support our Jewish brothers and sisters and to demand that Columbia and others reject antisemitism and discrimination against Jews.
The writer, a Democrat, served as governor of New York, 2011-21.
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News Resources - North America, Europe, and Asia:
- President Biden, 17 Other World Leaders Call for Release of Hostages Held by Hamas - Michael Collins
In a joint statement, President Joe Biden and the leaders of 17 other countries whose citizens are being held by Hamas in Gaza called Thursday for the release of the hostages. The statement was issued by the U.S., Argentina, Austria, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Colombia, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Spain, Thailand and the UK.
The Biden administration has worked for months to secure a temporary ceasefire between Hamas and Israel that would allow for the release of the remaining hostages, but Hamas has rejected a deal that is on the table. A senior U.S. official said the fate of the deal rests with "one guy," Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, who has refused to accept it. (USA Today)
See also Joint Statement from the Leaders of 18 Countries Calling for the Release of the Hostages Held in Gaza (White House)
- Aid Flows to Gaza Are Rising, UN Says - Isabel Kershner
Israel has expedited the flow of aid into Gaza this month. Israel's efforts - which include opening new aid routes - have been acknowledged in the last week by the Biden administration and international aid officials. More aid trucks appear to be reaching Gaza, especially the north, where 100 trucks a day are now arriving, according to Israeli and American officials. The scale and efficiency of flour deliveries into northern Gaza have increased, with four bakeries reopening in Gaza City this month. The UN shared a video that showed bags of flour piled high in bakery storerooms.
(New York Times)
- European Parliament Condemns Iran over Attack on Israel in 357-20 Vote, Calls for Sanctions
In a resolution adopted on Thursday by 357-20, the European Parliament strongly condemned the April 13 Iranian drone and missile attack on Israel and called for further sanctions against Iran. MEPs reiterated their full support for the security of the State of Israel and its citizens and condemned the simultaneous rocket launches by Iran's proxies Hizbullah in Lebanon and Houthi rebels in Yemen.
Parliament expressed deep concerns over the destabilizing role that the Iranian regime and its network of non-state actors play in the Middle East. It welcomed the EU's decision to expand its current sanctions regime against Iran.
The resolution also reiterated Parliament's long-standing call to include Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on the EU list of terrorist organizations, stressing that such a decision is long overdue. It similarly called on the EU to add Hizbullah in its entirety to the same list.
(European Parliament)
News Resources - Israel and the Mideast:
- Israeli Civilian Killed in Hizbullah Missile Attack on Lebanon Border - Emanuel Fabian
Sharif Suad, a resident of the Bedouin town of Sallama in northern Israel, was killed in a Hizbullah anti-tank missile attack on the Mount Dov area on the border with Lebanon on Thursday night. Suad had been driving a truck as part of infrastructure work for the IDF to improve its defenses on the border.
(Times of Israel)
- Israeli Woman Seriously Wounded in Terror Stabbing in Central Israel - Emanuel Fabian
An Israeli woman, 19, was seriously wounded in the central Israeli city of Ramle in a terror stabbing on Friday. Israel Police central district chief Avi Bitton said the attacker stabbed the victim several times in the back before fleeing the scene. The attacker, Saed Abu Ghanem, from the nearby city of Lod, was chased by friends and relatives of the victim for about a kilometer to a second location where he attempted to stab another woman. He was then shot dead by one of those pursuing him.
(Times of Israel-Ha'aretz)
- IDF Kills 2 Palestinian Terrorists Who Opened Fire on Army Outpost in Samaria
Israeli soldiers on Saturday shot dead two 2 Palestinian terrorists armed with M-16 rifles who opened fire at an IDF outpost near the terrorist hotbed of Jenin in the West Bank.
(i24News)
Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis:
The Gaza War
- In War-Battered Gaza, Residents Grow Angry with Hamas - Claire Parker
More than six months into the war in Gaza, Palestinians are growing more critical of Hamas, which some blame for the conflict that has destroyed the territory - and their lives. In interviews with more than a dozen residents of Gaza, people said they resent Hamas for the attacks in Israel and - war-weary and desperate to fulfill their basic needs - just want to see peace as soon as possible.
Palestinians want leaders "who won't drag people into a war like this," said Salma El-Qadomi, 33. "Seventeen years of destruction and wars are enough."
A mother of three, 29, who did not want to be identified for fear of retaliation, said,
"We can't live like this anymore....We want the war to stop, whatever it takes."
Fedaa Zayed, 35, said, "In reality, we are in full retreat, the domestic front is destroyed."
In a poll conducted in March, a majority of Palestinians said Hamas' decision to carry out the Oct. 7 attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people was "correct."
But researchers at the Ramallah-based Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research said "support for the offensive does not mean support for Hamas." Instead, the results show 3/4 of Palestinians believe the attack refocused global attention on the conflict. At the same time, there was an increase in the percentage of Palestinians in Gaza who think Hamas will win the war and stay in power. (Washington Post)
- Gazans Vent Anger Against Hamas - Mai Khaled
Palestinians in Gaza are increasingly willing to voice their anger against Hamas, accusing the militant group of failing to anticipate Israel's ferocious retaliation for its Oct. 7 attack that sparked the devastating six-month war. As Israel's offensive has reduced the enclave to rubble, residents such as Nassim have begun speaking out against the Islamist group. "They should have predicted Israel's response and thought of what would happen to the 2.3 million Gazans who have nowhere safe to go. They [Hamas] should have restricted themselves to military targets."
Mohammed, another Gazan, blamed Yahya Sinwar - the leader of Hamas in Gaza and the mastermind of Oct. 7 - for the devastation. "I pray every day for God to punish the one who brought us to this situation. I pray every day for the death of Sinwar."
Khalil Shikaki, director of the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, said, "There is no doubt support for Hamas is declining in Gaza because more and more people feel it has some responsibility for the pain they are enduring."
"The role of the resistance is to protect us civilians, not to sacrifice us," said Samia, one of those displaced to Rafah. "I don't want to die and I didn't want my children to witness what they've seen and to live in a tent suffering from hunger, cold and poverty."
But even with anger rising against the group, analysts say that Hamas can count on the core support of about 20-25% of the population. "There's a bloc which backs Hamas and the resistance, whatever they do, and they are ready to pay the price," said Azmi Keshawi, Gaza analyst at the International Crisis Group. (Financial Times-UK)
- Humanitarians Should Want Hamas' Human-Sacrifice Strategy to Fail - Douglas J. Feith and Lewis Libby
Though Hamas battalions remain entrenched near Gaza's border with Egypt, the Biden administration is pressing Israel to stop fighting. Yet the president does not say Hamas has been sufficiently dismantled. A prolonged ceasefire will preserve Hamas' bloody oppression of Gaza and make future wars with Israel inevitable. Hamas' ultimate aim is to spark a regional war to obliterate Israel and, as Hamas leaders steadfastly maintain, fulfill a Koranic vision of killing all Jews.
In its Oct. 7 war plan, Hamas calculated it could survive a war against a superior Israeli force and energize enemies of Israel around the world. The key was arranging for grievous Palestinian civilian losses. To this ends, Hamas worked for a decade and a half to put military assets in and near schools, hospitals, mosques, and residences - and to build a dense network of tunnels underneath Gaza's cities.
Someone who uses human shields is usually hoping to deter enemy attack, not to kill the shields. Hamas is employing a human-sacrifice strategy, intentionally increasing civilian casualties among its own people to fuel international demands for Israel to halt its offensive prematurely.
Hamas' hiding among civilians is a war crime against the people of Gaza. Perpetrators of such immorality would under normal circumstances be widely condemned. In Gaza, however, people speaking in the name of humanitarianism are working to reward Hamas for this crime. Hamas has mastered the diplomatic alchemy that converts corpses of Gazan babies into worldwide support for the regime that arranged for the death of those babies.
America, if provoked as horribly as Israel has been, would not stop its war against a terror group on its border until it completely destroyed the group. It is in the interests of America and the civilized world to reject Hamas' scheme of ensuring civilian suffering in Gaza and then taking advantage of that suffering. Allowing Hamas to remain in power would reward the gravest of war crimes. if Hamas wins, Iran wins. That would make losers of the U.S., Israel, and Iran's Arab enemies. The president should recommit the U.S. to Hamas' destruction.
Douglas J. Feith, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, served as U.S. Undersecretary of Defense for Policy. Lewis Libby, a Distinguished Scholar at the Hudson Institute, was formerly Chief of Staff and National Security Adviser to Vice President Dick Cheney.
(Commentary)
- The Israel Defense Forces Are the Most Moral Soldiers in the World - Zoe Strimpel
Slippage into coverage of Israel of slurs like "genocide" and "famine" in much of the mainstream broadcast media are not remotely accurate descriptions for what is going on in Gaza. Israel, unlike Hamas, does not conduct warfare with freewheeling sadism.
There is a tendency to always assume the worst of the IDF. A version of the ancient anti-Semitic trope of Jews drinking the blood of the innocents appears to have structured many people's views of Israel's war in Gaza and, indeed, long before.
The urge to portray the IDF as an immoral army is almost a religion in itself. But it's wrong. In fact, the IDF has a strong claim to being the most moral army in the world.
The IDF's morality is seen in its actions. It is currently trying to dismantle probably the most extensive, cunning terrorist infrastructure ever known, one that is highly likely to have been built with the help of hundreds of millions of Western taxpayer money, UN and other "aid" funds. Israel uses a great deal of precision technology to limit the bloodshed. But it's difficult. Hamas' whole strategy revolves around using civilian shields. Yet, journalists and Twitter armies lap up the idea that Israel is going after "women and children."
Despite this near-impossible battlefield, the IDF seems to have managed to keep its ratio of civilians to combatants killed lower than almost any other army ever has. In this war, Israel has sacrificed some of its objectives in order to limit civilian deaths. The IDF operates in a manner light years away from that of all the terror groups and militias that hate Israel, currently being cheered on college campuses.
(Telegraph-UK)
Iran
- Iran Has Built a Global Financial Network to Bypass Sanctions - Gianluca Pacchiani
Udi Levy, former head of the Mossad's financial division, spent decades researching the money flows that allow the survival of terrorist groups and regimes with animosity toward Israel - chiefly Hamas, Hizbullah and Iran. He said in an interview that Israel should harness the coalition that came together to repel the recent direct attack on Israel by Tehran in order to halt the global money flows that constitute the lifeline of the Islamic Republic and that allow it to bypass U.S. and international sanctions.
"These are exactly the players that we need if we want to achieve a strategic result against Iran - not just to punish it, but to change the situation in the Middle East by applying economic warfare." They should actively cooperate "to dismantle the network that Iran has built to finance terror around the Middle East....The Iranians built an unbelievable infrastructure to circumvent sanctions and be able to move money around the world to continue to finance all the terrorist infrastructure in all the Middle East - and their nuclear project."
Sanctions against Iran have largely been ineffective because they remained on the declarative level but were often not implemented, he said.
"Wikiran has revealed the whole infrastructure - how [Iranians] are moving the money from the central bank to the money changers in Iran, and from there to cover companies in China, Hong Kong and elsewhere. They open bank accounts in China and then move the money from there, especially to the Emirates."
"We have the bank account numbers, the names of the companies, the names of the people, we have everything. And this is all happening with the full cooperation of the banking system in Western countries, even in the United States. Money has been transferred and used freely, without any disturbance."
"Now, we have the opportunity to do something together. Israel's partners need to freeze the assets, confiscate them, and close the companies....The Iranians have no alternative infrastructure. It would take them years to rebuild it. It would be a disaster for them." (Times of Israel)
- Sanctions? Don't Make the Iranians Laugh - Sever Plocker
Under severe and comprehensive economic sanctions, the Iranian regime shows higher growth rates (11.5%) than the U.S. (7.3%), per IMF data for the years 2023 to 2025, thanks to ties with China, Russia, India, Indonesia, Turkey and the UAE, countries that do not see themselves bound by the sanctions regime. Iran had a surplus in its international balance of payments averaging $18 billion annually. In contrast, the U.S. faced a persistent deficit in its international balance of payments.
The statistical evidence clearly underscores the profound failure of sanctions. There is considerable doubt that the bombastic announcements of additional U.S. and European sanctions heard last week will change the situation. Challenging and blocking Iran's Middle Eastern imperial aspirations with another round of sanctions is unlikely to be effective.
(Ynet News)
Anti-Israel Protests
- Selective Racism - Prof. Sam Lehman-Wilzig
The vast majority of contemporary Westerners protesting against Israel today are selective racists. "Racist" in that skin color does count for them (big time!). "Selective" because they ignore the number of victims.
Sudan is undergoing a humanitarian crisis of monumental proportions, starting a year ago. Airstrikes have hit civilian centers on an ongoing basis. In many regions, hospitals and health services hardly function. Thousands of civilians have been killed, including massacres that are clear war crimes. The UN reports that 3,000,000 Sudanese children are malnourished. World Food Program trucks have been blocked, hijacked, attacked, and looted. Yet not a peep is heard from Westerners.
In Myanmar, an estimated 50,000 have been killed since the military coup in 2021, and over two million displaced. Most of this is due to the military junta's blanket use of air strikes and shelling of mostly civilian targets. Here, too, one would be hard pressed to find any protests.
Since 2000, the Ethiopian conflict has led to 350,000 civilian fatalities. According to the UN, close to 30,000,000 people now require emergency food aid. Have you seen any protests at Harvard or Columbia regarding such mind-boggling suffering?
When one realizes the disparity between the number of Gazan fatalities (a bit over 30,000 if the Hamas-based numbers can be believed - not to mention that at least 10,000 of these are terrorists) and the humongous numbers around the globe, it becomes clear that selective racism is certainly a factor in singling out Israel when the devastation and humanitarian crises are far worse elsewhere. Israelis are racist? The protesters should look in the mirror. Their avoidance of the greatest political-human tragedies in the world today constitutes the real racism.
The writer, Academic Head of the Communications Department at the Peres Academic Center (Rehovot), is former Chairman of the Political Studies Department at Bar-Ilan University.
(Times of Israel)
- Today's Antisemitic Protesters Are Violating Civil Rights Laws - Jason L. Riley
After Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, antagonism toward Jewish students on college campuses escalated. It worsened further after Iran, Hamas' state sponsor, fired ballistic missiles at Israel on April 13.
After hundreds of demonstrators set up encampments at
universities, the White House issued a statement on Sunday condemning the violence and intimidation as "blatantly antisemitic, unconscionable, and dangerous." It's also illegal. Unauthorized protests violate school policy, while trespassing, blocking traffic, engaging in disorderly conduct, causing a disturbance and refusing police orders to disperse are all crimes.
In 1957, white mobs in Little Rock, Ark., in defiance of the landmark 1954 Supreme Court decision, were preventing black students from safely attending school.
President Dwight Eisenhower decided to do something about it. "Mob rule cannot be allowed to override the decisions of our courts," he said. Then Eisenhower sent in the 101st Airborne Division.
The particulars then and now may differ, but the same principle is at stake. The federal government was obligated to come to the aid of an ethnic minority group being threatened by mob violence. Jews in 2024 deserve no less protection than blacks in 1957.
(Wall Street Journal)
- Jewish Leaders Accuse Columbia University of Cowardice for Not Evicting Anti-Israel Protesters - Judy Maltz
Leaders of Jewish organizations on Friday urged university administrators to suspend, expel and even arrest the students at Columbia University, as well as dozens of other campuses across the country, who have refused to dismantle their unauthorized "Gaza Solidarity" encampments and continue intimidating Jewish students. "Rules, including codes of conduct, are there to keep students and faculty and staff safe," said Ted Deutsch, CEO of the American Jewish Committee.
Adam Lehman, president and CEO of Hillel International, said his organization had already documented 1,400 instances of campus antisemitism since Oct. 7, "and they are growing at a rapid rate." "Universities have got to step up and enforce their policies. This is not complicated. Do your job. You are there to actually prevent the anarchy and chaos we are seeing on far too many campuses."
"I cannot walk around my campus looking visibly Jewish without preparing myself for the possibility that someone might spit on me and attack me," said Noa Fay, a student at Barnard College. She called on the administration to "discipline those that continue to call for the death of my friends and family. Deal with these antisemites."
Jillian Lederman, from Brown University, said, "All of us have had to choose between disavowing Zionism - a core aspect of Jewish identity for so many of us - or facing backlash and exclusion from many of our peers. This has become our new normal."
Brian Cohen, who has been in charge of the Columbia Hillel chapter for 12 years, said, "I tried working with the university for months behind the scenes, and they have consistently failed to address the crisis on campus....There is one clear step we are calling on administrators to take today: Uphold your codes of conduct, enforce your rules and hold students who violate them accountable in real and consequential ways." (Ha'aretz)
- Message from a Gazan to Campus Protesters: You're Hurting the Palestinian Cause - Hamza Howidy
At U.S. college campuses, students are occupying campus spaces in the name of Palestinian rights. Sadly, not everyone who purports to support Palestinians is truly interested in safeguarding our rights. As a Palestinian from Gaza, I cannot be silent about what I am seeing. The manner in which many gather to voice their support for Palestinians does more to hurt our cause than help it.
You know what would help the Palestinians in Gaza? Condemning Hamas' atrocities. Instead, the protesters routinely chant their desire to "Globalize the Intifada." They should be speaking up for the innocent victims of Hamas - both Palestinian and Israeli. Instead, they endorse Hamas' ideology, effectively glorifying Hamas' Al-Qassam brigades.
I saw the LGBTQ flag frequently flown among people chanting lines from Hamas' charter, and I wanted to warn them that the group they are honoring would most likely toss them from the top of a building. Hamas harasses women who don't cover their heads. Hamas tortures those who demonstrate against their authoritarian rule, as they did me when I protested.
Hamas has held 2 million Gazans captive for more than 17 years. Why didn't the protesters speak out about the fact that Hamas led Gazans into this conflict?
Where were they when Hamas' failed missiles claimed the lives of hundreds of Gazans, or when Hamas murdered people in order to steal aid and resell it to Gazans at massively inflated prices? They are not concerned with protecting Palestinians. They are out in their tents because of a hatred of Jews and Israelis.
All of these foolish dreams about eradicating Israel are disgusting - and will never be achieved. Both of us - Palestinians and Israelis - are here to stay. (Newsweek)
- The West Has No Future If Our Youth Are Taught to Hate Our Civilization. - Allister Heath
We live in the freest, wealthiest, healthiest, fairest and most technologically advanced polities in history, and yet millions of young people are being taught to hate the West, to despise the liberties that make their lifestyles possible.
This madness has culminated in the explosion of anti-Semitic hatred on campuses across America, in scenes that should not be acceptable in any civilized country. They include the harassment of Jewish students, blockades, threats of violence, and pro-Hamas and pro-Iran sloganeering by activists camped out in tents.
This ideology promotes anti-white hatred and Israelophobia. Its supporters loathe the West and automatically back our enemies. They demonize successful minorities as "white adjacent." They virtue-signal about inclusion and diversity but don't mean it.
A movement that claims to be feminist refuses to condemn mass rape by terrorists. The movement is happy to embrace Islamist chants, or calls to wipe Israel off the map. A movement that pretends to be anti-racist is willing to chase away Jewish students, condones anti-white and anti-Asian racism, and rejects Martin Luther King's color-blind vision. The hypocrisy is unconscionable. (Telegraph-UK)
- Columbia Is Beyond Reform - Liel Leibovitz
At Columbia University, 800 students put up dozens of shiny new camping tents and renamed the campus the Gaza Solidarity Encampment. The American flag outside of what once was Dwight D. Eisenhower's office was replaced with the green flag of Hamas. Students with loudspeakers chanted, "There's no God but Allah, and Allah loves martyrs." Jewish students were told to "go back to Europe."
What we're seeing on college campuses is the result of decades of deliberate planning by a network of administrators, lawmakers, NGOs, and media outlets. The throngs occupying Columbia's manicured lawns are the ones whom the university had indoctrinated into hating Israel and the Jews. And they are the ones who are now simply doing what they've been for so long instructed to do.
Maybe it's time to let Columbia, Yale, and other elite schools become what they already basically are: finishing schools for the children of Chinese, Qatari, and other global elites. And let anyone interested in America's future pursue education elsewhere. The message out of Columbia is that there's nothing left on campus but fanatics awash in foreign funds. Let's waste no more time trying to reform the unreformable. (City Journal)
Observations:
- On the first night of Passover, Jewish families around the world read the Haggadah, which tells the story of our people's Exodus from Egypt and the beginning of our history as a free people. The conclusion that emerges is that we will always have to fight for our freedom each day and in each generation.
- When I attended my first seder in Moscow 50 years ago, everyone gathered was a product of the Soviet regime. We all began as assimilated Jews, disconnected from and ignorant of our heritage. Yet soon we began to study Hebrew and Jewish traditions in secret. Many of us had KGB "tails," agents assigned to monitor and report our activities to the authorities. We didn't know that the end of our story would be as spectacular as the Exodus itself and helped bring down the Iron Curtain, allowing millions of Jews to return home to Israel.
- This year when we gathered to read about those who aspired to kill us, we thought about Hamas. We recalled the hostages, who have spent more than six months in captivity, enduring horrors that civilized minds refuse to imagine. We recalled
American universities, where professors and students have celebrated the terrorists' Oct. 7 massacre.
- Yet reviewing our millennia-long journey strengthened our determination and optimism. If we stand strong in defending our rights as free people in our land, our persecutors will be carried away by the floods of history, as Pharaoh's army and the Soviet empire were before it.
The writer, a former political prisoner in the Soviet Union, former minister in Israeli governments, and former Chairman of the Executive of the Jewish Agency for Israel, is chairman of the advisory board of the Combat Antisemitism Movement.
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