The New York Times writes:

In truth, there is probably no way to define antisemitism adequately in a few  sentences. Historically, no other hatred has been so adaptable and shifting. I recommend considering several different short definitions so we can see what  is  at stake. A good place to start is with Helen Fein’s well-regarded definition of antisemitism as

a persisting latent structure of hostile beliefs towards Jews as a collectivity manifested in individuals as attitudes, and in culture as myth, ideology, folklore, and imagery, and in actions—social or legal discrimination, political mobilization against Jews, and collective or state violence—which results in and/or is designed to distance, displace, or destroy Jews as Jews (Fein 1987, 67). 

In August, 2022, the well-known pro-Israel blogger Elder of Ziyon presented an alternative definition of antisemitism at a conference organized by the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy (ISGAP). He offered it as a kind of algorithm, a definition one could reliably use to determine whether a statement is antisemitic. It is less helpful in understanding complex bodies of antisemitic theory. He offers it as an elaboration of Natan Sharansky’s “3D” definition of the forms that antisemitism takes—delegitimization, demonization, and double standards. It has two columns. On the left are four types of antisemitism; on the right are their multiple targets: 

Each of the four categories of aggression on the left can be combined with any of the five Jewish targets on the right, so there are a total of twenty possible combinations. It’s a pretty good test, which is one of the things a definition can be. The IHRA Definition itself, however, doesn’t seek to be a test. It seeks to be a guide to analysis. Its authors also chose not to use the eleven examples to list all the malicious lies you can tell about Jews or Israel. 

While my definition is not a guide to analysis, it could be used as a springboard for a more focused analysis. For example, once an incident is defined as either antisemitic or not using my algorithm, the details can then be elaborated on as to why it is or isn't, as I do in my article that tests the definition against specific examples of incidents that some have called antisemitic. 

I'm happy that my definition is getting some recognition. And I still claim that for the purposes of defining antisemitism in places like campuses or governments, it is a far more useful and practical tool. When a specific event happens, it is more important to make a determination instead of endless arguments on whether it is or not, which only makes it easier for haters to try to cloud the issue. 

I hope more people consider the benefits of using my definition. 

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Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon! Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.  Read all about it here!

 

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Cambridge, MA, April 18 - Human rights activists warned today that the growing likelihood of the Jewish State holding new parliamentary elections this fall constitutes a blatant attempt to mask the dictatorial nature of the governmental system.

Harvard Fellow and former Executive Director of Human Rights Watch Kenneth Roth joined a number of colleagues to decry Israel's use of its democracy to distract from its lack of democracy and its oppressive, tyrannical state. In an open letter published in The New York Times and the Washington Post, the activists described Israel's Opposition Leader Benny Ganz's call for early elections "a transparent attempt to divert the world's attention from Israel's failure to uphold democratic norms."

Israel has held elections on average about every two years since about 2005, even though the standard legislative term lasts a little more than four years, owing to a fractured electorate that yields only the narrowest majorities for successive unstable coalitions. The writers called the democratic elections a mere cosmetic feature of the system, the same characterization that they gave Israel's independent judiciary, rule of law, religious freedom, freedom of expression, and other hallmarks of democratic societies.

"It has been clear for a long time that when Israel adheres to policies and institutions of democracy," the writers also wrote, "they do so not because it values democracy or those institutions, but only as cover for the nefarious depredations of Zionism and supremacy. This is a well-established principle in evaluating the legitimacy of Israel's behavior. Wherever one can posit a dark ulterior motive, it becomes the default assumption of what drives that behavior or policy."

Roth and his colleagues from Amnesty International, Médecins Sans Frontières, the International Committee of the Red Cross, the World Health Organization, and twelve other human and civil rights groups also cited the well-known model of "pinkwashing" as precedent: the established assumption on the part of activists that Israel's openness to, even celebration of, LGBTQ people - with Tel Aviv hosting by far the largest Pride Parade in the Middle East - stems not from genuine care and tolerance but from a desire to distract from the country's true evil nature.

"Given these axioms about Israel, the world must treat so-called Israeli democracy accordingly," the letter concluded. "Until Palestinians are free to replace Israeli democracy by whatever means necessary with a violent repressive homophobic misogynistic Islamist theocracy pursuing global genocidal Islamic supremacism, Israel cannot honestly call itself a democracy."

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon! Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.  Read all about it here!

In the wake of Iran's attack on Israel with hundreds of drones and missiles last weekend, Israel must decide how to calibrate its response. One part of Israel's response must be to stay the course in Gaza, despite tremendous pressure from the U.S. and others to retreat. That means entering the southern Gaza city of Rafah and eliminating the Hamas brigades and leaders based there.

In 2006, Hizbullah attacked Israel, and the George W. Bush administration, in which I was serving at the time, gave the Israelis strong support - but only for a couple of weeks, after which Washington pressured Israel to end the war by extending assurances that have never been met and never seemed likely to be.

UN Security Council Resolution 1701 of August 2006 included an end to arms transfers by any state to Hizbullah and total Lebanese army control of Lebanon's south. Neither stipulation has ever been enforced - a testament to the dangers of relying on a paper peace rather than conditions on the ground. That is why Israel is resisting international pressure, especially from Washington, for a ceasefire that would leave Hamas in control.

Israelis across the ideological spectrum agree that Hamas must be crushed because they see the fight as an existential conflict. All of Israel's enemies are watching to see whether Israel can fully recover from the Oct. 7 attack. If they conclude that it cannot, the Jewish state will find itself in mortal peril. Israel gained Arab partners in the region through demonstrations of strength, not acts of restraint.

Polls make it clear that both Israelis and Palestinians are highly unenthusiastic about and wary of the idea of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Gallup polls found that 65% of Israelis opposed the two-state solution and only 25% supported it. Among Palestinians, polls that Gallup conducted before Oct. 7 found that 72% of Palestinians opposed the two-state solution and only 24% supported it.

Moreover, the PA lacks the ability to lead a Palestinian state that would be free and democratic, have a decent and effective government, and build a prosperous economy. Palestinian nationalism still seems to be more about destroying the Jewish state than about building a Palestinian one. In addition, an independent Palestine would represent yet another route through which Iran would seek to attack Israel.

In last weekend's mammoth Iranian aerial assault, the Islamic Republic deployed hundreds of drones and rockets against Israel. Israelis understand that their country's long-term survival depends on reasserting deterrence by striking back: displaying resilience, determination, and military prowess.

Since Saturday night, U.S. officials and supportive commentators have played up the “international coalition” that came together to prevent Iran’s missiles from causing harm to Israel. This ad hoc group, which included Jordan and Saudi Arabia, it is said, are proof that Israel can depend on America and that if Israel follows Washington’s directives, it will enjoy peace and security even as Iran grows in power, and its proxies prevail, thanks to America’s protection.

But the truth is far different. The Saudis and the Jordanians are directly threatened by Iran. Unlike the children running U.S. policies, the Jordanians and Saudis were aghast at Iran’s assault, which they rightly understood was not a tit for tat, but an unprecedented escalation of Iran’s war. They realized that the attack was a sign that Iran believes that thanks to the Biden administration, it is now immune from counterattack, to the point where it dares to attack Israel directly. Their intervention wasn’t on Israel’s behalf, per se. It was self-defense, as officials from both countries have stated.

The U.S. posture in this war has rattled Israel and the U.S.’s Sunni allies to their core. Like Nasrallah, all of them now understand that while the United States is the most powerful actor in the region, it is also delusional. It fails to understand the reality of what is happening. Washington’s policies for contending with the war that Biden and his top officials refuse to acknowledge are just making things worse.

If Israel fails to defeat Hamas in Gaza, then there will no longer be any restraints on Iranian and Iranian-proxy aggression against Israel. And there will also be no restraints on Iran’s efforts to overthrow the regimes of Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt. If the United States successfully forces Israel to stand down in the face of Iran’s shocking attack, then that attack will be the baseline for future assaults—conventional and unconventional—against Israel and the Sunni Arab states.

Iran itself is so certain that this is the case that its top officials are now speaking openly about using nuclear weapons. As the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) reported, on April 7, Iranian nuclear scientist Mahmoud Reza Aghamiri said in an interview with Iranian television that Iranian dictator Ali Khamenei can change his religious ruling forbidding the production of an atomic bomb whenever he wishes. Aghamiri said that Iran’s nuclear capabilities “are high,” and that once a country has nuclear capabilities, making a nuclear bomb “is not complicated.”

The administration’s refusal to recognize the existential nature of the war Iran and its proxies are now waging against Israel places Israel in an existential dilemma.

Israel today is compelled to decide between two options. It can fight the war to win it, in Iran and Gaza, first and foremost, and risk a rupture of relations with the United States.

Or, it can lose the war and accept the position of a U.S. protectorate, with the full knowledge that the United States will not permit its protectorates to challenge Iranian hegemony.

In other words, if Israel fails to risk a rupture in relations with the United States, it will accept a position that will lead to its destruction.

In statecraft, defense without retaliation is exceedingly dangerous. It leads to a false sense of security. It emboldens the aggressor. This isn't academic international relations theory. This is Hamas 2024.

For over a decade, Israel believed it could disengage from the Gaza Strip by relying on its layered missile defenses and periodic "mowing the grass" air campaigns to degrade terrorist capabilities. The two-pronged strategy would hold Hamas in check. The promise of economic integration, with Palestinian workers crossing from Gaza into Israel, might even promote reform within the Strip.

Such was the logic behind the "Conceptzia" that governed Israeli policy toward Hamas.

The Conceptzia died on October 7. Land-based missile defenses such as the Iron Dome and David's Sling are remarkably effective. They have saved lives. But they haven't changed the nature, aims, and objectives of Hamas. They changed its tactics.

To protect its personnel and weapons from the Israeli air force, Hamas built a submerged state of tunnels and spider holes. Meanwhile, Hamas's leadership planned the surprise land, air, and sea attack that killed 1,300 Israelis, wounded thousands, and took hundreds captive.

You can shield your population from harm, but threats will remain until the source of the attacks is neutralized. That was the lesson of October 7. It should be the takeaway from April 13.

If Iran's attack goes unanswered, a new precedent will be set in the region. Fire whatever you want toward Israel, and so long as we intercept the projectiles, you won't pay a big price. Such an outcome would be a disaster. No sovereign state should be forced to accept such vulnerability. Yet that is precisely what will happen if Israel takes the "win" as President Biden suggests.

A real win would reestablish deterrence against Israel's and America's enemies. It would make Iran think twice before launching any more drones in Israel's direction. And the way to reestablish deterrence is to ignore the arms of the octopus and go straight for its head.

Take away something Iran's leaders hold dear—their nuclear program. By destroying Iran's nuclear infrastructure, you not only exact a heavy cost for the regime's malign behavior. You guarantee Israel's security.

After all, why did America come to Israel's defense but not to Ukraine's? Both nations are under assault. The difference is Israel's assailant has no nuclear weapons. Ukraine's enemy has thousands.

Would America coordinate a similar operation to defend Israel if Iran had nukes? Maybe a future president would do that. This president would not.

I understand Netanyahu's position. A superpower is not easily dismissed. Especially when that superpower—despite counterproductive rhetoric and diplomatic incoherence—continues to deliver unconditional military aid for operations against Hamas. Especially when that superpower helped Israel fend off the Iranian attack. Israel wants to keep America on its side, where America belongs.

Yet lines must be drawn. Leaving Iran to fight another day, and leaving Hamas intact in Rafah, weaken the state of Israel and diminish the future of the Jewish people. Talk all you want, Mr. President. But if you call this a win, God help us if we lose.

The representatives of 48 countries issued a joint statement on Wednesday condemning Iran's attack on Israel. "We unequivocally condemn the April 13 attacks by the Islamic Republic of Iran and its militant partners on the State of Israel, which involved launching several hundred ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and attack drones against multiple targets, and note this large-scale attack could have caused significant damage and loss of life."

"The weapons launched at Israel violated the airspace of several regional states, putting at risk the lives of innocent people in those countries, and appeared to traverse airspace near holy sites in Jerusalem....Iran's escalatory attack is the latest in a pattern of dangerous and destabilizing actions by Iran and its militant partners that pose a grave threat to international peace and security."

The joint statement was issued by the U.S., Albania, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Ecuador, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Moldova, Monaco, Montenegro, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Federated States of Micronesia, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Poland, Portugal, the Republic of Korea, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Ukraine, and the UK.

In a joint statement on Wednesday, the UN envoys of 🇺🇸🇬🇧🇦🇱🇦🇷🇦🇺🇦🇹🇧🇪🇧🇬🇨🇦🇭🇷🇨🇾🇨🇿🇩🇰🇪🇨🇪🇪🇫🇮🇫🇷🇩🇪🇬🇷🇭🇺🇮🇸🇮🇪🇮🇱🇮🇹🇯🇵🇱🇻🇱🇮🇱🇹🇱🇺🇲🇹🇲🇩🇲🇨🇲🇪🇳🇱🇳🇿🇳🇴🇫🇲🇵🇼🇵🇬🇵🇱🇵🇹🇰🇷🇷🇴🇸🇰🇸🇮🇪🇸🇸🇪🇺🇦 unequivocally condemned Iran’s Saturday attack on Israel, as well as its unlawful seizure of a Portuguese flagged commercial ship.…

— Iran International English (@IranIntl_En) April 18, 2024

48 countries that have signed a joint statement condemning Iran's attack on Israel:

🇦🇱 Albania
🇦🇷 Argentina
🇦🇺 Australia
🇦🇹 Austria
🇧🇪 Belgium
🇧🇬 Bulgaria
🇨🇦 Canada
🇭🇷 Croatia
🇨🇾 Cyprus
🇨🇿 Czechia
🇩🇰 Denmark
🇪🇨 Ecuador
🇪🇪 Estonia
🇫🇮 Finland
🇫🇷 France
🇩🇪 Germany
🇬🇷 Greece
🇭🇺…

— The Spectator Index (@spectatorindex) April 18, 2024

Iran's direct attack on Israel over the weekend was not "designed to fail" or an elaborately telegraphed de-escalatory overture. It was a radical and audacious assault on Israel, and its aim was to kill as many Israelis as possible. Over 300 munitions were expended in a coordinated assault on Israel by both the Islamic Republic and the constellation of terrorist groups it controls. It was an unprecedented event. It was intended to overwhelm Israeli air defenses and culminate in mass casualties. There can be no doubt that Iran's intent was the worst-case scenario.

By any rational interpretation of the laws of armed conflict, a state of war today exists between Israel and the Islamic Republic of Iran. Israel is obliged to respond to this attack in more than equal measure. Israel cannot afford to allow periodic direct Iranian attacks on its territory to become the background soundtrack to daily life. It certainly cannot establish a precedent whereby its allies have a veto over its ability to defend itself. The notion that Israel can simply absorb this attack so we can de-escalate and be done is fanciful to the point of delusion.

While the vast majority of the ordnance Iran launched at Israel didn't make it into Israeli airspace, ballistic missiles most certainly did. If any of those missiles were armed with nuclear warheads, Israel would face a genuinely existential disaster. From Jerusalem's perspective, there can be no living with an undeterred millenarian outfit like the Islamic Republic.

The Iranian drone and ballistic missile attack on Israel on April 13 was intended to deter Israel from punishing not only Iranian proxies for violent attacks on Israel, but also going after their Iranian masters.

For four decades, the mullahs have gathered, trained and armed proxy Islamist militias and used them as tools to advance Tehran's interests. As a result, Iran now effectively controls the entire land space between the Iraq-Iran border and the Mediterranean Sea. It has the capacity to paralyze shipping in the Red Sea/Gulf of Aden, on one of the world's key maritime trade routes.

The killing of Gen. Mohammad Reza Zahedi and six other Revolutionary Guard commanders in Damascus on April 1 was an indication that Israel, since Oct. 7, had begun to act to truly challenge the Iranian strategy. The polite practice of response against proxies alone was being dispensed with. Action against the patron was beginning.

Air defense, even of the most effective kind, cannot substitute for a forward strategy to counter a project of aggression. Passivity and reaction will not suffice against the Iranian project for regional domination, and for the destruction of Israel.

Biden told Netanyahu to be satisfied with the Iranian attack being fended off and count it as a victory.

Dodging a bullet is a highly desirable outcome when being shot at but it is not a victory, not if you aren't allowed to disarm the gunman.

The Americans and the British want to avert an Israeli retaliation because they fear it could destabilize the region. Yet much of the instability in the region can be traced back to Iran.

For Israel, as for any country threatened on multiple fronts, the only way to win is to win.

Yet its allies don't want it to hit Iran and they object to how it goes about hitting Hamas.

Source: White House Makes Fresh Push for Historic Deal to Forge Saudi-Israel Ties https://t.co/FOYfUthQME

— Joe Truzman (@JoeTruzman) April 18, 2024

The United States on Thursday announced new sanctions on Iran targeting its unarmed aerial vehicle production after its attack on Israel, and President Joe Biden said G7 leaders were committed to acting together to increase economic pressure on Tehran.

Biden said the United States and its allies had helped Israel beat back the April 13 missile and drone strike and were now holding Iran accountable with the new sanctions and export controls.

"The sanctions target leaders and entities connected to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Iran’s Defense Ministry, and the Iranian government’s missile and drone program that enabled this brazen assault," Biden said in a statement.

"And our allies and partners have or will issue additional sanctions and measures to restrict Iran’s destabilizing military programs," Biden said.

A Treasury Department statement said the U.S. measures targeted 16 individuals and two entities enabling Iran’s UAV production, including engine types that power Iran’s Shahed variant UAVs, which were used in the April 13 attack.

Treasury said it was also designating five companies in multiple jurisdictions providing component materials for steel production to Iran’s Khuzestan Steel Company (KSC), one of Iran’s largest steel producers, or purchasing KSC’s finished steel products.

Also targeted were three subsidiaries of Iranian automaker Bahman Group, which it said had materially supported Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

The statement said the Commerce Department was also imposing new controls to restrict Iran’s access to technologies, such as basic commercial grade microelectronics.

The Biden administration is under pressure from a coalition of outside advocacy groups to cut American funding to the United Nations over the international organization's appointment of Iran to several leadership positions.

"Following Iran's unprecedented attack on Israel, it is reckless for the United States to continue funding the United Nations while Iran abuses its position on several UN committees, conferences, and forums," a group of 20 foreign policy experts and think tanks wrote to the White House on Thursday, according to a copy of the letter obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.

Led by former vice president Mike Pence's Advancing American Freedom (AAF) advocacy group, the organizations argue that it is well past time to freeze more than $18 billion the United States provides to the United Nations each year.

In the days since Iran unleashed an unprecedented missile attack on the Jewish state, the United Nations has forwarded several measures blaming Israel for the violence and accusing the country of withholding humanitarian aid from the embattled Gaza Strip, where Hamas has been caught stealing much of the aid.

Iran, Hamas's chief patron, sits at the head of several key U.N. committees, even as its terror proxies conduct lethal operations against the United States and other Western nations operating in the region. Advancing American Freedom and its allies said the international organization should not be working alongside Iran at a time when the Islamic Republic is fomenting chaos in the Middle East.

Iran chairs the U.N. Conference on Disarmament and the U.N. Human Rights Council Social Forum and was elected as the rapporteur for the U.N. Committee on Disarmament and International Security—an appointment that came as Tehran marches closer to a nuclear weapon and blocks international inspectors from monitoring its enrichment work.

"In 2022, the U.S. was the largest donor to the UN, accounting for $18 billion and approximately one-third of the organization's budget," the advocacy groups write. "Withholding all funds to the UN would send an unmistakable message to the rest of the world that the U.S. stands with Israel and supports peace across the globe."

Iran’s Foreign Minister @Amirabdolahian has arrived in New York to attend a UN Security Council meeting on Palestine slated for April 18.
A video of his arrival shows him getting out of the plane after his Turkish counterpart @MevlutCavusoglu.
The @StateDept which was under… pic.twitter.com/BgLAG3J5B6

— Iran International English (@IranIntl_En) April 18, 2024

When Sen. Bob Casey cast a deciding vote for the Iran nuclear deal, the Pennsylvania Democrat insisted it would "enhance" Israeli and American national security. Instead, the Obama-era agreement unlocked billions of dollars that helped Tehran fund its "unprecedented" drone attack against Israel last week.

In 2015, Casey and fellow Democrat Sen. Chris Coons (Del.) were on the fence about whether to support the deal, which relaxed sanctions against Iran. Supporters claimed loosening sanctions would deter Iran from building a nuclear weapon.

But critics said the deal would free up money for Iran to use in other weapons programs and fund terrorist proxies including Hamas and Hezbollah. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the plan a "colossal mistake" that would provide a "cash bonanza" for Tehran.

Casey ultimately sided with the Obama-Biden administration in supporting the deal and touted it as a boon for American and Israeli national security. "I believe the agreement enhances our national security and also enhances the security of Israel and the region," Casey told PBS on Sept. 1, 2015.

Now, the nuclear deal—and Casey’s vote—is coming under fresh scrutiny in light of Iran’s launch of 300 drones against Israel. Tehran launched the attack in retaliation for Israel’s bombing of its embassy in Damascus, which killed senior Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander Mohammad Reza Zahedi. The White House condemned Iran’s "unprecedented air attack" and sanctioned the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, Iranian defense ministry, and its missile and drone program.

While Casey said the United States "must continue to stand with Israel," his political opponents have linked his deciding vote on the Iran deal to the current turmoil.

A measure circulating in the Republican-controlled House would block the Biden administration from spending taxpayer cash to rebuild the war-torn Gaza Strip amid mounting concerns this cash will empower Hamas to reestablish its network of tunnels beneath the territory.

The measure is set to be introduced on Thursday by Rep. Brian Mast (R., Fla.), a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and will be offered as an amendment to the foreign supplemental funding bill currently working its way through Congress, sources told the Washington Free Beacon. The funding bill includes emergency aid for Israel and Ukraine, and is a must-pass piece of legislation for House Speaker Mike Johnson (R., La.).

Mast’s measure, a copy of which was obtained by the Free Beacon, would ensure that "[n]o federal funds are authorized to be appropriated or otherwise made available to build or rebuild the Gaza strip." It comes as the Biden administration pumps hundreds of millions of dollars into Gaza-based humanitarian projects, including a massive pier off the territory’s coast that the U.S. military is using to funnel aid to the Palestinian people.

Mast’s amendment comes amid mounting concerns that U.S. aid dollars and humanitarian goods are bolstering Hamas as Israel’s military is on the cusp of eradicating the Iran-backed terror group. The lawmaker, like many Republicans, is worried that American aid will help Hamas reestablish its network of tunnels beneath the Gaza Strip that were used to infiltrate Israel on Oct. 7 and carry out the worst terror attack in the country’s history.

"Our priority should be supporting our ally Israel as it faces unprecedented attacks by Iran and works to free the 133 hostages still held by Hamas," Mast said in a statement provided to the Free Beacon. "Not one penny of American tax dollars should be used to fund hare-brained infrastructure schemes by Joe Biden and Antony Blinken that will only be used as staging grounds by Hamas for attacks on Israel."

The Gaza reconstruction effort is estimated to cost somewhere around $20 billion, and the Biden administration has pledged to be a key source of revenue for these projects.

Jordan's part in intercepting drones Iran launched at Israel marked a point where Amman was working in its own interest, which overlapped with Jerusalem's, rather than Jordan jumping to Israel's rescue, experts said. Iran has long worked to gain a foothold in Jordan and undermine the stability of its monarchy. Israel's 300 km.-border with Jordan is its longest frontier, and a stronger Iranian or Iran-backed presence in the country would pose a serious threat to Israel.

Hussain Abdul-Hussain, a research fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said, "Iran would like to replace [Jordan's monarchy] with any of their proxies or create a proxy inside Jordan." A week before the attack on Israel, Iranian media reported that Hizbullah is ready to arm 12,000 "Islamist resistance" fighters in Jordan to overthrow the monarchy. "This is about Jordan itself before it's about Israel. The sovereignty of Jordan is at stake....This means any kind of infringement on their sovereignty, big or small, will be fought."

There have recently been increasing calls in Jordan to revoke the peace agreement with Israel and completely sever the relations with it, and some even accused the Jordanian regime of treason for maintaining this agreement. These voices were heard at demonstrations and protests against the Gaza war that have been held in Jordan in the last few weeks, especially by the Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood movement.[1] They were also heard after Jordan helped thwart Iran's April 14 missile- and drone-attack on Israel by intercepting some of these threats, which passed through its airspace.[2]

Following the Iranian attack, Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Al-Safadi addressed the calls to revoke the peace treaty with Israel, saying that the treaty is a source of strength for Jordan, especially because it enables the kingdom to help the Palestinians and advance their cause and to protect Jerusalem and its holy places. Revoking this agreement, he emphasized, will not only fail to benefit the Palestinians, but will hurt them by preventing Jordan from supporting them. Other Jordanian officials likewise stressed that the peace treaty with Israel is "a strategic choice" of Jordan's that benefits the Palestinians. They also noted that Jordan signed this agreement with Israel only after the Palestinians themselves signed the Oslo Accords with it in 1993.

Similar arguments were made by Jordanian journalist Alaa Al-Qarala in his March 31 column in the state daily Al-Rai, in which he came out against the "populist" calls to cancel the peace treaty with Israel. He stated that the treaty benefits the Palestinians much more than it benefits the Jordanians, and that, were it not for this treaty, the Palestinian cause would have perished decades ago.

The following are translated excerpts from the statements by the Jordanian officials and from Al-Qarala's column.

Senior Jordanian Officials: Revoking The Peace Treaty With Israel Would Harm The Palestinians And Their Cause
In statements to Jordan's official news channel Al-Mamlaka on April 14, the day after Iran's attack on Israel, which Jordan helped to thwart, Foreign Minister Ayman Al-Safadi referred to the calls to revoke Jordan's peace treaty with Israel, saying: "The treaty actualized all our rights and served our interests. Revoking it would not be in Jordan's or the Palestinians' interest. If we thought even for a moment that revoking it would be in the interest of Jordan or of the Palestinians, we would have done so without hesitation... In actual fact, this would harm both Jordan and Palestine and greatly limit our ability to continue fulfilling our main and primary role in providing aid to the Palestinian people… The peace treaty is a source of strength for us and allows us to continue our role of aiding the Palestinian people while protecting our interests… The kingdom signed the peace treaty after the Palestinians signed the Oslo Accords with Israel and the entire Arab world was [involved] in negotiations towards a comprehensive and lasting peace."

Referring to the calls in Jordan to cancel the peace treaty with Israel, Al-Safadi stated that "we respect Jordanian public opinion," and added: "Back in 1994, when [the treaty] was signed, it protected our interests. We regained all our occupied lands, and the treaty enshrined Jordan's special role in administrating the places holy to Islam and to Christianity in Jerusalem. Were it not for this role, there would have been a vacuum, and Israel would have exploited this to impose its own sovereignty and administration on the holy places rather than granting them to the Palestinians." Al-Safadi contended that Israeli extremists, among them ministers in the Israeli government, "want to cancel the peace treaty, which would take us back to square one and the issue of the borders and the conflict, and cause us to lose our ability to fulfill our role…"[3]

Other senior Jordanian officials also expressed Jordan's commitment to the peace agreement with Israel in light of the calls in the kingdom to revoke it. In a March 29, 2024 interview with Sky News Arabia, Jordan's government spokesman Muhannad Mubaidin accused Hamas' leaders of populism and of inciting the Jordanian people against their leadership. These figures, he said, are trying "to force Jordan to choose different options," but "peace is our strategic choice and the peace treaty [with Israel] is what allows us to fulfill our role of easing the pressures on the people in the West Bank."[4]

In an April 3, 2024 interview with the Al-Mashhad television channel and digital platform, Jordanian Senate President Faisal Al-Fayez said that, after the signing of the Camp David Accords between Egypt and Israel, Jordan's monarch at the time, King Hussein, was pressured to sign a similar agreement with Israel, but "he did not succumb to this pressure. Only after the Palestinian Authority signed the [Oslo] Accords with Israel did the king sign the Jordanian-Israeli [peace] treaty. So don't brandish populist slogans based on our position…"[5]

Against the backdrop of Iran's April 14, 2024 missile and drone attack against Israel, senior Saudi journalist Tariq Al-Homayed, the former editor of the London-based daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, wrote that the attack was a strategic mistake by Iran and proved that this country is its own worst enemy. With this ineffectual attack, he wrote, Iran proved that it is a hostile actor that cannot be trusted even today, when it does not possess nuclear weapons, so imagine what would happen if it did possess them. Moreover, Iran showed that, contrary to its widespread image, it is not a patient and calculating country but a reckless and impatient one that cares more about its image than about its interests or the Palestinian cause it purports to defend.

Al-Homayed added that, without any help from its adversaries, Iran undercut all the arguments of those in the West, and especially in the U.S., who seek to defend it, and sparked concern and calls for restraint not just in the region and the West but even from its allies China and Russia. Most importantly, it "reminded the region that we must strive for peace and conclude defense agreements, and it has reaffirmed that allowing Iran to become a nuclear power would be a fatal mistake for which the entire world would pay a price."

"The Iranian regime’s comical retaliation against Israel was a costly strategic mistake that cannot be easily or quickly corrected. Tehran launched about 300 drones and a few missiles without inflicting significant damage. Its strategic mistake was to focus more on safeguarding its image than its political interests, thereby dealing itself a blow that none of its adversaries had managed to land since the Khomeini revolution.

"Iran’s retaliation to Israel's attacks on its consulate in Damascus, which led to the deaths of the Quds Force’s deputy commander and five others, showed the world that Iran is a malevolent actor that should not be trusted, even without nuclear weapons, let alone if it does! The regime affirmed this itself, not its adversaries.

"What Tehran did was reckless. It went against all the talk of strategic patience and carpet weaving, which promoted a narrative that Iranian politicians could remain patient for years and fight the urge to achieve swift results. Indeed, the feeble response showed that, despite the fact that the median age of its decision-makers is high, the Iranians are extremely anxious. The recklessness of the elderly is politically dangerous. “Beware of the old man in a hurry,” as the saying goes. Politically, it means that the senior leader no longer trusts his country’s institutions and its project, and that he seeks swift results and is willing to polish the regime's image at the expense of strategic goals.

Days after the Biden administration gave its blessing to a newly formed Palestinian Authority government in the West Bank, the PA handed out dozens of bonus payments for security forces who were involved in attacks on Israelis.

According to the PA's official news outlets, the Palestinian General Intelligence Service on April 4 provided a grant to 36 families of agency officials who died or were imprisoned as a result of their involvement in anti-Israel security crimes. The reports did not identify the recipients of the grant or its amount, but the purpose was clear.

"Service Director in Jenin Adnan Abu Aisheh said that the message of the service, under the instructions of its leader, Majed Faraj, is to emphasize what President Mahmoud Abbas has said again and again—that if we are left with one penny, it will be paid to the families of the martyrs and the prisoners," reported the PA's WAFA news agency and Al-Hayat Al-Jadida daily.

The grant is the latest blow to President Joe Biden's nascent peace plan, which involves empowering a "revitalized" PA to govern a future Palestinian state that can coexist alongside Israel. Officials in the Biden administration have demanded that the PA be reformed and then given administrative control over Gaza following Israel's war against Hamas, the rival Palestinian faction that rules the territory.

But since Hamas's Oct. 7 terror attack, which sparked the Gaza war, the PA has avoided condemning the atrocities of that day and has doubled down on its longstanding policy of paying generous salaries to terrorists and their families. The PA has committed to expanding the "pay for slay" annual budget by tens of millions of dollars to cover Palestinians who were killed or captured while carrying out Oct. 7 atrocities and the resulting war.

At least two ministers in the new U.S.-approved PA government have advocated terrorism against Jews, and a Palestinian official who oversees "pay for slay" has explicitly rejected Biden officials' claims that the authority is poised to significantly reform the program.

"The United States is undermining its own goals by funding the PA," Itamar Marcus, the director of Palestinian Media Watch, an Israeli watchdog group that flagged the grant, told the Washington Free Beacon. "And when you look at the security services, you see the perfect example."

ICYMI, my hometown newspaper -- @washingtonpost -- published a massive article Tuesday that provided a high-tech, moment-by-moment drama of the tragic deaths of a family of #Gaza civilians, with a special focus on the horrible story of 6-year-old #HindRajab.

Enormous sums — the…

— Robert Satloff (@robsatloff) April 18, 2024

Or maybe he didn’t forget about the hostages. Maybe that part is intentional. https://t.co/WfeWpUrQ6M

— Marina Medvin 🇺🇸 (@MarinaMedvin) April 18, 2024

The leader of Hamas says that when they say From the River to the Sea they mean genocide, no place for any Jewish state to exist.

Glad we can clarify what the chant means. Next. pic.twitter.com/jDWlZFVJM0

— Hen Mazzig (@HenMazzig) April 17, 2024

In April 2021, President Biden rescinded an executive order threatening sanctions on International Criminal Court if they attempted to assert jurisdiction over the United States or Israel.

Here we are in April 2024, and the ICC may be getting ready to indict Israeli officials…

— Richard Goldberg (@rich_goldberg) April 18, 2024

A spokesperson for the State Department said the US will be voting no during Thursday's vote on approving the Palestinian Authority as a member state of the United Nations.

The State Department has been clear that sustainable peace in the region can only be achieved through a two-state solution with Israel's security guaranteed, Deputy Spokesperson Vedant Patel said.

"It remains the department's view that the most expeditious path towards statehood for the Palestinian people is through direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, with the support of the United States and other partners who share this goal," Patel said. "Premature actions in New York, even with the best intentions, will not achieve statehood for the Palestinian people."

Patel also said there was not unanimity among the committee members as to whether the applicant meets the criteria of membership set forth in Article Four of the UN charter.

Specifically, Patel said there are unresolved questions as to whether the applicant can meet criteria to be considered as a state.

Hamas is a key obstacle
Patel noted that Hamas, a terrorist organization, is currently exerting power and influence in Gaza, which would be an integral part of the envisioned state in this resolution.

"And for that reason, the United States is voting no on this proposed Security Council resolution," Patel said.

🚨The Biden administration is setting the stage to resume UNRWA funding by legitimizing its "Rigged Review"

At yesterday's Security Council briefing, US Ambassador Robert Wood stated that the so-called Independent Review Group's review into UNRWA's terror ties – to be released… pic.twitter.com/DqV49U0Vr7

— Eitan Fischberger (@EFischberger) April 18, 2024

Full report: https://t.co/bDPzGOG78F

— The Mossad: Satirical, Yet Awesome (@TheMossadIL) April 18, 2024

Gilad Erdan, the Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, and Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner-general of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, or UNRWA, pointed the finger at one another at the United Nations Security Council on Wednesday.

Lazzarini, whose agency’s staff is accused of having close ties to Palestinian terror organizations, said on Wednesday that the Jewish state launched an “insidious campaign” to end the global body’s Palestinian-only aid and social services agency.

Erdan countered that UNRWA is “one of the weapons” used to “destroy the Jewish state.”

The U.N. Security Council met on Wednesday to discuss the plight of UNRWA, which is in disarray due to the war in Gaza and accusations from Israel that a dozen staffers took part in Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre. Some 16 donor countries suspended funding to UNRWA.

Some of UNRWA’s donors have returned, as others await the outcome of a pending investigation. UNRWA’s largest financial supporter, the United States won’t refund the agency until March 2024 at earliest, per a bill that U.S. President Joe Biden signed into law last month.

Erdan told the Security Council on Wednesday that UNRWA is “the U.N.’s single biggest obstacle to a solution,” stressing that the agency “is creating a sea of Palestinian refugees—millions of them—indoctrinated to believe that Israel belongs to them.”

UNRWA uniquely affords refugee status not only to those who fled war, but to all of their descendants in perpetuity until a “just solution” emerges regarding their status.

Critics say the goal is to artificially create mass numbers of “refugees” in order to permanently allow for a Palestinian majority in Israel, should those “refugees” be allowed to return to Israel upon a political settlement.

How is it possible that in 1949 there were about half a million Palestinian refugees and today (according to UNRWA’s distorted definition) there are about 5.6 million?? What other refugee group has a UN body whose purpose is to ensure that the refugees maintain their status? I… pic.twitter.com/48zp2pmhWG

— Ambassador Gilad Erdan גלעד ארדן (@giladerdan1) April 18, 2024

You failed them by siding with Hamas and turning your backs, as @UNRWA’s staff systematically took part in the massacre, rape, torture and abductions of Oct 7th. https://t.co/SWUwRbWaNH

— Arsen Ostrovsky 🎗️ (@Ostrov_A) April 18, 2024

🧵 Shame on @TIME for honoring the pro-terror Motaz Azaiza and parroting the lie that Gaza is the deadliest place on earth for journalists pic.twitter.com/jxWr56Ax9k

— Eitan Fischberger (@EFischberger) April 17, 2024

Here are some examples of Motaz Azaiza's handiwork. The Arabic text in his October 7th post says: “The Gazans entered the settlements!!!!!!!! With jeeps we see in the streets of Gaza.” pic.twitter.com/npVnZyIack

— Eitan Fischberger (@EFischberger) April 17, 2024

The Real Motaz Azaiza, "Hero" Gaza Journalists or International Spokesperson for Hamas?

Motaz Azaiza, an UNRWA refugee, turned "photo journalists" overnight, has been glorified by the international media and quoted as a 'witness' in various news outlets, including Al Jazeera,… pic.twitter.com/bGojIhVGlj

— Leslie Kajomovitz (@lkajomovitz) April 18, 2024

Over the past three decades, Israel has raced to develop its aerial-defense platforms, creating a multilayered system that features three different types of missile interceptor systems and fighter jets, including the $1 billion Oron, which uses thousands of advanced AI sensors reportedly with the ability to scan vast swaths of territory and gather large amounts of information at a considerable distance from multiple targets.

While the army would not confirm whether the Oron, which Israel unveiled at last year’s Paris Air Show, was deployed during Sunday’s operation, some media reported that it – and similar planes – were present, flying at high altitude and providing vital information to the defense batteries and fighter pilots on the incoming UAVs, rockets, and missiles.

The defense systems that were deployed – and which the IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi has commended for their efforts – included the long-utilized Iron Dome, which offers protection against drones and short-range surface-to-surface rockets; David’s Sling, which can intercept short-to-medium and medium-to-long-range surface-to-surface missiles fired from 100 km to 200 km (62 to 124 miles) away; and the Arrow-2 and Arrow-3 systems, which were developed with the Iranian threat in mind and can intercept longer-range ballistic missiles outside the earth’s atmosphere.

“It’s a multilayered defense system,” said Maj. Gen. (ret.) Nimrod Sheffer, a former air force deputy commander and the former CEO of Israel Aerospace Industries, a state-owned company that was involved in developing and producing the Arrow system.

He explained that since the mid-1980s, Israel has been developing those various systems, with the most sophisticated layer being “the Arrow family of missiles, which aim to defend Israel against long-range ballistic missiles,” followed by David’s Sling and the Iron Dome.

Each system, Sheffer told JI, has evolved and each has several different variations. Over the years, the systems have been tested both operationally and in the field, most notably the Iron Dome, which has intercepted thousands of rockets fired by Hamas from Gaza and Hezbollah from Lebanon.

“In the current conflict, we also saw the Arrow system and the David Sling system working against threats coming mainly from the south, from the Houthis in Yemen, but also from Hezbollah in the north,” he said. “We saw that each one worked very well as a stand-alone system.”

Sheffer said that the Iranian attack brought together all the systems to create a “system of systems,” and that it worked better than he ever expected.

“When I hear the IDF Spokesman Daniel Hagari saying that 99% of the threats were intercepted on the way and never hit any target, that is an unprecedented number,” he said, adding, “It is something that none of us could have ever dreamt about – not even me, despite knowing the technology very well as the CEO of Israel Aerospace Industries.”

Sheffer also noted that the success of Sunday’s defensive operation — which the army has named “Iron Shield” – was not only due to the innovative and effective intercepting systems that he had a hand in developing, but also due to the “command and control, which was orchestrated together perfectly.”

As for what might come next, Sheffer said that each generation of the system is improved, building on the previous round of fighting.

“It’s a defensive war game,” he said. “You develop something, then your enemy develops the answer, then you develop something that is a little bit better and gives a good answer to the enemy’s answer – this [is the] cycle that you always find yourself in.”

According to a report this week in Reuters, Israel’s interception systems cost between tens of thousands and millions of dollars to shoot down incoming threats. Israel is developing a laser-based system to neutralize enemy rockets and drones at an estimated cost of just $2 per interception.

Iran says it gave its Arab neighbors prior notice of the attack and even specified the time it would take place. These claims must be viewed with great skepticism.

"I find it hard to believe that they gave prior notice," says Maj.-Gen. (res.) Nimrod Sheffer, a former air force deputy commander and former head of the IDF Planning Directorate.

"Considering the scale of the Iranian attack, they clearly intended to cause major damage."

"They carried out a combined attack with a variety of weaponry - an attack that was calculated and synchronized in terms of the times the weapons would hit their targets. So, they clearly aimed to inflict vast damage on Israel and this was not just for show."

Iran fired 110 ballistic missiles with a 500-kg. warhead that can cause enormous damage if they strike their target.

The Iranian drones that carry warheads ranging from 40 to 100 kg. can also cause serious damage if they score a direct hit on buildings or runways.

Israel “badly miscalculated” the extent of the Iranian reaction to the alleged targeted killing of an Iranian general in Damascus on April 1, The New York Times reported on Thursday, citing anonymous U.S. officials.

“Even after it became clear that Iran would retaliate, U.S. and Israeli officials initially thought the scale of the response would be fairly limited, before scrambling to revise their assessment again and again,” the Times reported.

Iran, with the help of allies in the region, ultimately launched around 500 explosive drones and missiles at the Jewish state, 99% of which were intercepted by Israel’s and its allies’ defenses.

The Times cited internal Israeli defense records that it had viewed from March 22 approving the targeted killing of Brig. Gen. Mohammad Zahedi, a top commander in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps’ Quds Force.

The records discussed the possible Iranian responses to the attack, which included small-scale proxy attacks, and even a small-scale attack directly from Iran.

“None of the assessments predicted the ferocity of the Iranian response that actually occurred,” the Times said.

“The Israelis later acknowledged that they had badly misjudged the consequences of the strike, U.S. officials and an Israeli official said,” according to the paper.

In the lead-up to the attack, intermediaries relayed Iranian messages to the U.S. and Israel that it planned to hit military, and not civilian, targets, and would moderate its attack “so as not to elicit an Israeli counterstrike.”

In reality, Iran was building out its attack plans with the goal of penetrating Israeli defenses, Israeli officials said.

Iran's first direct attack on Israel on Saturday night demonstrated the country's military might and the advances of its domestic weapons program, analysts said, while also revealing the limitations of its arsenal. With more than 300 drones and missiles launched in a layered onslaught, it was Iran's largest-ever conventional show of force.

"Iran basically threw everything it had that could reach Israel's territory," said John Krzyzaniak, who studies Iran's missile programs at the Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control. Tehran "used some of every system they have." The firing of over 100 ballistic missiles in the space of a few minutes suggests Iran has at least 100 launchers, he added. "This shows that Iran has really faced no limitation in domestically producing missiles and launchers."

Iran's most significant previous use of ballistic missiles was in 2020, after a U.S. drone attack killed Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani. Iran launched more than a dozen ballistic missiles at two U.S. military bases in Iraq. There were no fatalities, but dozens of U.S. service members suffered traumatic brain injuries. Iran also used ballistic missiles in strikes this year on Pakistan, Syria and Iraq.

For two decades, Iran stayed in the shadows and relied on militias that it funded in its deadly fight with Israel. Its direct attack on Israel last weekend marked a strategic shift, and a major gamble. Iran's massive drone and missile strike on Israel marked a dramatic illustration of Tehran's shift away from accommodation with the West and toward open confrontation with the U.S. and its allies.

Iranian hard-liners has been calling for tougher action against Israel, as it inflicted heavy damage on Tehran's network of militias. "We have decided to create a new equation," said Maj.-Gen. Hossein Salami, the head of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. "From now on if the Zionist regime attacks our interests, assets, figures and citizens anywhere, we will reciprocally attack it from the origin of Iran," he told state television Sunday.

The shift bears enormous risks for Tehran, handing Israel an opportunity to change the conversation away from the war in Gaza and presenting a test for Iran's military capabilities that it may not be up for.

Expert Analysis
“Money is fungible. This money is budget support to the regime in Tehran, plain and simple. The relevant question is not whether this is sanctions relief — it is — but rather why the White House is so desperate to keep it going after October 7, three dead Americans in Jordan, and now Saturday night’s attack on Israel.” — Richard Goldberg, FDD Senior Advisor

“Joe Biden is Ali Khamenei’s Iron Dome. By not enforcing the sanctions and by offering Tehran unprecedented access to its currency reserve and export revenue, Biden is funding Ali Khamenei’s oppression at home and aggression abroad while he pressures U.S. allies not to retaliate against Tehran.” — Saeed Ghasseminejad, FDD Senior Iran and Financial Economics Advisor

Every Dollar Goes to ‘Violent Activity’
On April 9, Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo testified in Congress about the Islamic Republic’s spending. “What we’ve seen time and time from the Iranian regime is that they fail to feed their people, and they put the IRGC first,” Adeyemo said. “Any dollar they have will go towards violent activity before they deal with their people.” He added that “almost none of the humanitarian money has been used for humanitarian purposes because they don’t care about getting drugs and food for their people.” Yet Adeyemo claimed that the money covered by the waiver will never go directly to Iran.

Sanction Waivers Different Than Those of Trump Administration
The United States first issued the sanctions waiver in July, giving Iran access to funds that were in escrow in Iraq. Since then, the Biden administration has reissued the waivers in November and March — approximately a month and a half after Iran-backed Iraqi militias killed three U.S. servicemembers in Jordan. The State Department claims that the waiver allows Baghdad to continue purchasing electricity from Iran.

From 2018 to 2023, the State Department issued temporary sanctions waivers that allowed Iraq to import electricity from Iran on the condition that all payments remained in an escrow account in Baghdad, thereby denying Iran access to the revenue. Last summer, the Biden administration changed that waiver to allow Iraq to transfer $10 billion to Iran and to deposit future payments into Iranian bank accounts in Oman. The new policy also allowed Iran to convert the money from Iraqi dinars to euros and then process euro-based transactions for imports and debt payments out of those accounts.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu backtracked on a pre-approved military response to Iran’s massive drone and missile attack due to pressure by U.S. President Joe Biden, Israel’s Kan public broadcaster reported Wednesday.

Biden reportedly told Netanyahu during a phone call on Saturday that Washington would not participate in nor support an Israeli retaliatory attack.

According to the report, Netanyahu thereafter shelved a series of options that had already been approved by the Cabinet.

“The response won’t be what was planned, diplomatic sensitivities won out,” the report quoted a senior Israeli source as saying. Nevertheless, the source stressed that there would be some form of action against Iranian interests.

A U.S. official told ABC News on Wednesday that the Israeli response could now come after the Passover holiday, which begins Monday evening and ends April 30.

The ABC report cited Israeli officials as saying that Jerusalem on two occasions this week dropped imminent plans to strike Iran.

Overnight Saturday, Iran launched more than 300 missiles and drones at Israel. The IDF said it and its military allies intercepted some 99% of the projectiles.

On Wednesday, Netanyahu said that Israel would make its own decision on how to respond to Tehran’s unprecedented attack.

“I thank our friends for supporting Israel’s defense—support both in words and in deeds,” Netanyahu said ahead of a Cabinet meeting in Jerusalem.

“They also have all kinds of suggestions and advice. I appreciate those, but I want to make it clear: We will make our own decisions, and the State of Israel will do everything necessary to defend itself,” he added.

For years, we ignored the weakness of the government in Egypt, the corruption of the country's military elite, and the refusal to see how that enabled the arming of Hamas. In my decades of service in the Mossad and Military Intelligence, I visited Cairo hundreds of times for meetings at General Intelligence Service headquarters. We warned dozens of times about arms being brought into Gaza and that it will eventually lead to a war that will harm Israel and also endanger Egypt.

Since the beginning of the current war, countless antitank missiles have been fired at our forces, causing considerable casualties. These missiles came from Egypt. The government in Cairo is chiefly responsible for building up Hamas' military power. Egypt is not in control of Sinai. There are Egyptian policemen but their wages are low and they are bought with bribes. For $100, or less, they'll turn a blind eye to anything. The heads of the Egyptian military also benefit personally from the bribery.

Sinai is ruled by Bedouin gangs that transport weapons to Gaza by land and from the sea, at El-Arish. Egyptian intelligence officials knew about the arms smuggling and about the Hamas members who left Gaza to train abroad, but they thought that if they did not confront Hamas, they would buy peace cheaply. Big mistake.

If we want to solve the problem of Gaza, we must demand that the Egyptian government seal the tunnels under the border at Rafah and deal with the smuggling routes. Israel withdrew from Sinai on condition that it not become a territory that would threaten the existence of the state. That is the basis of the peace treaty. Egypt is not meeting this condition. Its inaction allowed Hamas to ready its attack against Israel.

Still going strong in Gaza 💪🏻

Over the past week, the 401st Brigade combat team and the Yahalom Unit, cleared and destroyed more than 100 terrorist infrastructure sites and eliminated more than 40 terrorists in close quarters combat and airstrikes.
Including a Hamas facility… pic.twitter.com/RlcTCGQOgo

— The Mossad: Satirical, Yet Awesome (@TheMossadIL) April 18, 2024

Expert Analysis
“The IDF continues to carry out precision raids and operations in northern and central Gaza in order to eliminate remaining Hamas terror threats. Hamas has attempted to return to northern Gaza and revive its terrorist networks and terrorist infrastructure. The IDF raids into areas such as Beit Hanoun are essential to keeping Hamas and other terror groups defeated and unable to pose a new threat to Israel.” — Seth J. Frantzman, FDD Adjunct Fellow

“While the apprehension of terrorists hiding in a hospital may not appear to be a significant military victory, there is a possibility that Israeli intelligence can glean valuable information from those captured. This information can then be instrumental in conducting extensive and more impactful operations, such as locating high-ranking members of Hamas or rescuing hostages held by terrorist groups.” — Joe Truzman, Senior Research Analyst at FDD’s Long War Journal

Senior Hamas Intelligence Officer Targeted
The IDF eliminated a senior Hamas intelligence officer in an airstrike, the IDF said on April 18. “The terrorist killed, Yussef Rafik Ahmed Shabat, served as a security officer in the military intelligence wing of Hamas’s Beit Hanoun Battalion. Shabat was responsible for investigations in Hamas’s Beit Hanoun Internal Security Department,” The Jerusalem Post reported. The strike on Shabat capped several days of operations in northern and central Gaza. An Israeli commando was wounded in the clashes in Beit Hanoun, The Times of Israel reported on April 17.

The IDF also said it eliminated 10 terrorists in another operation and struck a terrorist rocket launcher in the Rimal neighborhood. The clashes in central and northern Gaza come amid continued Israeli discussion about when the Jewish state may launch an offensive into the southern Gaza city of Rafah, which Hamas still controls.

An Israeli Air Force attack this week killed a senior Hamas terrorist responsible for intelligence gathering in the Beit Hanoun area of northeastern Gaza, the Israel Defense Forces said on Thursday.

Yussef Rafik Ahmed Shabat also served in the terrorist group’s Beit Hanoun Internal Security Department, the military added.

IDF troops, including the 162nd Armored Division’s 215th Artillery Brigade, working alongside Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) officers, directed the attack that killed Shabat. Nine other terrorists were also killed in the precision strike.

Following the IDF’s April 7 withdrawal of almost all ground forces from Gaza, the army shifted to a new phase in the war in which troops have carried out targeted raids into terrorist hotspots in the coastal enclave.

Earlier this week, the IDF announced the call-up of two reserve brigades to reinforce troops pursuing Hamas terrorists.

On Wednesday, Israeli fighter jets, acting on intelligence provided by the IDF Southern Command’s Fire Center, targeted a terrorist position in the Rimal neighborhood of Gaza City, the IDF said, noting that terrorists there had fired mortar shells at soldiers of the 162nd Division, also known as the Steel Formation.

The IDF has concluded a targeted operation against Hxmas in central Gaza, destroying over 100 sites linked to terror groups, eliminating around 40 operatives, and expanding the army's east-west corridor.

Led by the 401st Armored Brigade and other troops from the 162nd Division… pic.twitter.com/YhXZUoYrBj

— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) April 18, 2024

Initially thrilled by the sight of air force planes dropping 20 ₪ bills over Deir al-Balah, Gazans soon discovered the bills bore the image of Yahya Sinwar depicted as a mouse, with the inscription "Your money is with Sinwar." pic.twitter.com/1w8s1Vcvri

— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) April 18, 2024

Israel Defense Forces soldiers thwarted a Palestinian terror attack on Thursday outside Brukhin, located some four miles west of Ariel near the Samaria security barrier.

“A short time ago, IDF forces near the community of Brukhin in the Ephraim Brigade arrested a terrorist with a knife who was planning to carry out an attack,” the military announced on social media.

No casualties were reported in the incident and the suspect was detained for questioning, the IDF said.

Earlier on Thursday, Israeli authorities announced the arrest of a Palestinian man with ties to the Islamic State terror group who was planning to carry out a terrorist attack in the near future.

The suspect attempted to evade capture and grab a border police officer’s weapon before being detained in the town of Beitunia, located near Ramallah.

One of the Israelis wounded during Hezbollah’s missile and drone attack on Arab al-Aramshe continues to fight for his life after undergoing surgery, Galilee Medical Center said on Thursday.

In total, 19 victims are undergoing treatment in the Nahariya hospital, including three in serious but stable condition.

“We performed five surgeries overnight on severe and medium injuries, and there is no fear for their lives,” said Dr. Zvi Sheleg, the hospital’s deputy director. “Most of the injuries are shrapnel wounds and blast injuries; several of the injured have head wounds.”

At least 14 Israel Defense Forces soldiers and four civilians were among those wounded on Wednesday, according to a Channel 12 report.

The Hezbollah assault involved a two-pronged attack. First, two anti-tank-guided missiles were fired at the Bedouin town’s community center. When rescue workers arrived, Hezbollah launched a suicide drone towards the building.

Notably, the Ababil-type Kamikaze drone, sometimes called the Ababil-2 or Ababil-T, is similar to the type being used by Hezbollah. The same type of drone design was exported by Iran to other proxies and allies. Iraq, the Houthis in Yemen, and Palestinian terrorists also have them. The drone is easy to make and that’s what makes building it simple via blueprints and designs.

These types of drones in Yemen were seen as being part of the Qasef model, and they were often used against Saudi Arabia. They can be detected by radar and shot down by warplanes. However, they have a relatively small radar cross signature which may make them difficult to detect in some terrains.

It is not entirely clear how the Ababil’s guidance system works. Some versions of the Houthi drones have used gyroscopes. In essence, this made these drones not altogether more complex than the German V-1 rocket of World War II.

However, the drones have become more advanced and more precise in recent years. This makes them a deadly weapon system. Hezbollah has indeed demonstrated in the last two days that it can put these drones to use when targeting specific areas.

Hezbollah took responsibility for the attack on April 17 and claimed it targeted the IDF in the Arab region of al-Aramshe. This illustrates that the drones are being used in combination with Hezbollah’s latest information that it gathers, and also in combination with rockets and missiles in other attacks. Hezbollah is very careful in choosing targets and it often claims to be responding to Israeli attacks.

The range of the drones likely makes them a problematic weapon system even if Hezbollah does withdraw from the border. However, the Burkan heavy rocket that Hezbollah also uses has only a short range of up to 10km., and that means that if Hezbollah withdraws, it will not be able to use the Burkan or anti-tank guided missiles as effectively as before.

Hezbollah announces elimination 280.

Dropping like flies. pic.twitter.com/hjnLcXeL3I

— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) April 18, 2024

This is what a bottleneck looks like. We've been sitting at 500-700 aid trucks getting clogged in the system for the last week. The issue is not the amount of aid getting in, the issue is being able to handle, process, and distribute that aid on the gazan side. Focus the efforts… pic.twitter.com/gtVI9CST6x

— Avi Bitterman, MD (@AviBittMD) April 17, 2024

Even if we ignore the last two days, in which UNRWA stopped reporting the number of trucks collected on their side, it's still a 15% difference. https://t.co/tdne6eJHCy

— Mark Zlochin - מארק זלוצ'ין༝ (@MarkZlochin) April 18, 2024

#AidforGaza today, April 17:

🚚342 humanitarian aid trucks were inspected and transferred to Gaza today.
Via Kerem Shalom: 225 trucks
Via Nitzana: 100 trucks
Via the Northern Crossing: 17 trucks.

🪂 104 pallets airdropped over northern Gaza. pic.twitter.com/xUMP8IpmhB

— COGAT (@cogatonline) April 17, 2024

For the first time since the approval of the opening of the Ashdod Port and in accordance with government directive, 8 @WFP trucks of flour entered the Gaza Strip from the Ashdod Port today (Wednesday). pic.twitter.com/KoxSWZWoK7

— COGAT (@cogatonline) April 17, 2024

Expert Analysis
“Hamas faces no pressure at this moment to make any concessions. That will only change when it’s forced to stare down its end.” — Richard Goldberg, FDD Senior Advisor

“It should come as no surprise that Hamas has hardened its stance in the hostage negotiations. Hamas recognizes that international pressure, chiefly from Israel’s principal ally, the United States, is taking a toll on the Jewish state. The pressure on Israel has given Hamas and its partners in the Gaza Strip a new breath of life and an opportunity to try to end the war on their terms.” — Joe Truzman, Senior Research Analyst at FDD’s Long War Journal

Hamas Turns Down Five Ceasefire Offers
Hamas previously rejected ceasefire proposals in December and January. In February, the White House expressed hope that Hamas had scaled back its demands, but the terrorist group continued to dig in its heels. In late March, Israel agreed to pause its counteroffensive in Gaza for six weeks and release approximately 700 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for 40 Israeli hostages. Hamas rejected that offer on March 26. Hamas rejected another ceasefire proposal on April 4, refusing to compromise on its maximalist position. “We are committed to our demands,” Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh said. Those demands include a permanent ceasefire, Israel’s complete withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, the return of Palestinians displaced from northern Gaza, and an “honorable prisoner exchange deal,” Haniyeh said. Jerusalem has repeatedly made clear that any deal that leaves Hamas intact is unacceptable.

129 Hostages Remain in Gaza
Hamas released 81 Israeli hostages during a week-long pause in November in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners. Additionally, Hamas released 23 Thai nationals, one Filipino, and three Israeli-Russian dual citizens under separate arrangements with Bangkok, Manila, and Moscow. The pause collapsed on December 1, when Hamas refused to provide a list of the remaining women and children in captivity and resumed launching rockets at Israel. Israeli special forces rescued two hostages on February 12 and, on April 6, recovered the body of an Israeli hostage murdered by his captors in Gaza. Approximately 129 hostages remain in captivity, 33 of whom Israel believes are no longer alive.

This could have been done months ago. The fact is that the hostages have been needlessly left in Gaza and Hamas controlled the tempo of the talks for six months because they are hosted by a western ally. Israel owed it to its citizens to not outsource their lives to Hamas and a… https://t.co/ZEsZqhPf9j

— Seth Frantzman (@sfrantzman) April 18, 2024

I’m going to keep going. Further to what I mentioned in the video above, yes I predicted in this newsletter on Saturday that within a few days all the silent humanitarians who had nothing to say when the Islamic Republic of Iran declared war on Israel suddenly resumed status quo in the past day or two, and began to post all their Hamas propaganda again. I noticed this on a story of a typical fake feminist, who shared an obscene infographic from the UN Women account.

Three days after the Islamic republic of Iran sent 350+ ballistic missiles and drones and declared war on Israel, this is a despicable statement for @UNWomen to make.

No the war on Gaza is NOT a war on women. The war declared by Hamas on October 7 is a war on women, and… pic.twitter.com/HMCT44l0nn

— Eve Barlow (@Eve_Barlow) April 18, 2024

I will be transparent. This is evil.

Three days after the Islamic Republic of Iran sent 350+ ballistic missiles and drones and declared war on Israel, this is a despicable statement to make. No: the war on Gaza is NOT a war on women. The war declared by Hamas on October 7 is a war on women; a war that deployed sexual violence against women and children and used rape as a weapon of war – something that UN Women have failed to adequately recognize. The war on women is the fact that 134 hostages remain in Gaza, 19 of which are women and girls. The war on women is the war being waged by the head of the snake that controls Hamas - the Islamic Republic of Iran – who are the perpetrators of the war in Gaza, and whose Sharia Law currently prevents women from basic freedoms and human rights in Iran. The Islamic Republic of Iran intend to deny women freedoms in a city near you under a global caliphate should their war on Western democracies continue to gather pace. UN Women and all those who declare themselves “feminists” in support of this, I have to tell you something: you are a hypocritical stain on the notion of feminism, equality and the liberation of women worldwide. Shame on all of you.

We are living in a world of double-think, and I am trying to tell those who have the mind virus before it’s too late, despite the levels to which they seem to enjoy gaslighting people like me. Why? Well it’s better coming from me, an annoying Jew who won’t shut up, than it is being shoved down their throats by the Mullahs who have every intention of taking their dumb asses for a ride in the near future.

Hezbollah attacked Israel TODAY. The Islamic Republic of Iran continues to escalate the conflict in the Middle East via its proxies, and that is merely where they’re getting started. And yet all any of the loudest idiots can say is FREE PALESTINE. Or “Gaza is a feminist issue”. Or “Ceasefire Now”. They’re lethally stupid.

Times are not tough - they are maddening. Yesterday, the ADL released their 2023 report which revealed the largest annual rise in antisemitic incidents since records began in 1979. There were 8,873 incidents of antisemitic assault, harassment and vandalism, up 140% on the previous year and nearly 900% in a decade. It is, according to the head of the ADL Jonathan Greenblatt, an issue of national emergency.

Being a proud Jew is a radical act of resistance. It is punk. It’s counter cultural. It’s righteous as hell. It’s revolutionary. The popular stance is to hate Israel and the Jewish people because FREE PALESTINE. How boring to be a sheep following the brainless herd. We’re the thinkers of our time. We’re the intellects. We’re the brave and defiant. We’re fighting for us, and for them, too. If only that had that kind of courage to stand up in a historic moment against the crowd. I am so proud to be one of us.

"I'm not speaking, I'm screaming. I need help from the whole world."

Aviva Siegel was held alongside her husband for 51 days in Gaza until she was released. Her husband is still a hostage.

She describes the horrific conditions of her captivity; from beatings to being starved… pic.twitter.com/HEd4Ttq26o

— Hen Mazzig (@HenMazzig) April 17, 2024

6 months came and went, but every day we wake up to the same nightmare. We will shout it from the rooftop, for as long as it takes - bring them home!

My brother @MosheELavi reminding the @UN about 132 Israeli hostages and my Omri, who should all be here with us now 🎗️ pic.twitter.com/hRffS8h9QQ

— Lishay Lavi Miran (@LishayLM) April 18, 2024

Aaron Bours moved to Israel from Long Island when he was 19 to volunteer in the IDF. After serving in the Givati brigade he studied marketing, found a job in high tech, and eventually got married.

On October 7, 2023, when terrorists attacked, Aaron was travelling in the US. He… pic.twitter.com/MLHW6sKe4c

— Aviva Klompas (@AvivaKlompas) April 17, 2024

Budapest changed the name of a park to “The October 7th park”.

Heart warming, especially given our not so nice history… ❤️🙏🇮🇱💪✡️ pic.twitter.com/lCjUrxjDBq

— Hillel Fuld (@HilzFuld) April 18, 2024

Israel’s national artistic swimming team perform a beautiful routine in honor of the hostages. 🎗️🧡🧡#BringThemHome#StandWithIsrael

🎥 TheJewishFitnessCoach on IG pic.twitter.com/aNngPKo8QG

— The Persian Jewess (@persianjewess) April 18, 2024

Jerusalem: 5,000 flowers planted with a message to our hostages.

“We are waiting for you” 💔🎗️#LetThemGoNow

📸 @ArnonBossani, @Jlm_citypic.twitter.com/Ief5HxFYSy

— Israel ישראל 🇮🇱 (@Israel) April 18, 2024

This #Passover is so different for the #Jewish people. pic.twitter.com/RPnua9051T

— Roz Rothstein (@RozRothstein) April 18, 2024

Hosted by Abe Greenwald, Christine Rosen, John Podhoretz & Matthew Continetti
That’s the advice of podcast guest Liel Leibovitz, zooming in from Tel Aviv to discuss the Columbia hearings before the House yesterday and how the anti-Semitism revealed there has unmistakable echoes of past horrors—and threatens future horrors.

The UN is unwilling to condemn Hamas after a brutal massacre of torture, terror and weaponized rape of over 1200 innocent Israeli citizens.

Moreover, Hamas still holds over 100 hostages since October 7th, yet the UN is pursuing this.

Truly appalling and indefensible. pic.twitter.com/Ouok0ZigFN

— Senator John Fetterman (@SenFettermanPA) April 17, 2024

Australia is being urged to pursue more than a two-state solution to the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.

According to Sky News host Rita Panahi, the left is now calling for sanctions against Israel to punish them for what’s happening in Gaza.

“There is a definite anti-Israel, anti-Zionist sentiment in leftist parties in the West,” Ms Panahi said.

“In the UK, the US, right here in Australia.”

Ms Panahi was joined by ‘Together – Vouch for Each Other’ Association’s Yoseph Haddad to discuss the Australian government’s response to the war in the Middle East.

A massive drone explodes in Israel injuring 14 Israelis, did Joe Biden green light the Iran attack on Israel? And Turkey joins Hamas. This is a packed out show so make sure to watch until the end.

My opening statement from last night's debate. After confirming we all agreed Israel had a moral right and obligation to respond militarily in some form to October 7, the question remaining is only whether Israel has waged this just war morally. The answer is unequivocally yes. pic.twitter.com/rZ01Wy4HHR

— Batya Ungar-Sargon (@bungarsargon) April 18, 2024

I loved ⁦@bungarsargon⁩ ‘s closing statement to this debate. A debate that managed to be spirited and informative while also refreshingly collegial. Debates like this are what give me hope for a less polarized future. pic.twitter.com/OdoJuZ9WZP

— Jophus (@JophusR) April 18, 2024

They said that this whole war is about the "liberation of Al Aqsa", but it’s Israel that protects Al Aqsa sometimes from the occasional Hamas missiles and sometimes from Iranian regime missiles! pic.twitter.com/XUlTzfvVf0

— יוסף חדאד - Yoseph Haddad (@YosephHaddad) April 18, 2024

Saudi Arabia and Jordan defending Israel is wholesome. It‘s also a historical turnaround in the Middle East.

It says: “There is a place for Israel in the Middle East.”

The fight has always been: Peace and harmony v.s. War and destruction.

Which side are you on? https://t.co/WrDoO6jTv7

— Luai Ahmed (@JustLuai) April 17, 2024

Jake Tapper will be remembered as one of the journalists who dared call out Amnesty International for its madness during the Israel-Hamas war, as well as insisting on consistently covering the hostage crisis, despite most of world completely neglecting the issue. It’s an example… https://t.co/YFt3kB6E9Y

— Jotam Confino (@mrconfino) April 18, 2024

Van Jones is a more interesting person than many realize. https://t.co/fWLXQtnC36

— Abe Greenwald (@AbeGreenwald) April 18, 2024

He also doesn't believe in the existence of Israel. While writing for the Hezbollah mouthpiece Al Mayadeen, he would frequently refer to Israel with scare quotes to symbolize this belief.

In fact, he believes that the existence of Israel is terrorism. Great look @CNNpic.twitter.com/520OWpTU8r

— Eitan Fischberger (@EFischberger) April 17, 2024

Before I forget, yes, this is an old X account of his. Here's a video he posted of himself on it pic.twitter.com/tZjISfGMpp

— Eitan Fischberger (@EFischberger) April 17, 2024

Sure they do @UNLazzarini, did you or Hamas tell them to say this?

Because to me it looks like a case of don’t look at us look over there.

We all know you’re terrorists and complicit in the murder, rape and beheading of innocent children & adults.

GFY. https://t.co/FNFnvButma

— GnasherJew®גנאשר (@GnasherJew) April 17, 2024

A video of a Palestinian who was released from prison went viral when the guy claimed that he was severely beaten by the Israelis with "iron bars".
But crossing the same video with other videos from the same event makes it difficult for the guy's version, and indicates that it… pic.twitter.com/RMZoUbIhPL

— GAZAWOOD - the PALLYWOOD saga 🇮🇱 VS 🇵🇸 (@GAZAWOOD1) April 17, 2024

Following the release of the report, the world scoffed. "Samidoun is doing important work!" "How dare the Israeli government try to connect them to a designated terror organization with no proof!" pic.twitter.com/O5psYQJK1O

— The Mossad: Satirical, Yet Awesome (@TheMossadIL) April 18, 2024

2024: The masks are off.

Samidoun, a registered 🇨🇦 not-for-profit promises to distribute Hamas terrorist propaganda at their planned events Toronto that glorifies the Hamas massacre of 1,200 people on October 7. @DLeBlancNB@Safety_Canada@TorontoPolicepic.twitter.com/B6SNrOMWzu

— The Mossad: Satirical, Yet Awesome (@TheMossadIL) April 18, 2024

Well this is awkward @medeabenjaminhttps://t.co/Y18VauQSeipic.twitter.com/VcgPwcUGZZ

— Maccabi Lev-Ari (@Maccabi226km) April 18, 2024

Progressive activists met Saturday in Chicago to discuss their plans to march on the Democratic National Convention in August.

While they were meeting, Hatem Abudayyeh, national chairman for the U.S. Palestinian Community Network, announced that Iran had just launched its attack on Israel. The crowd cheered.

So much for the idea that the protests taking place across America are antiwar.

These people cheer drones and missiles directed at Israel, chant "Death to America," and never blame Tehran or Hamas for anything.

They don't even try to appeal to the hearts and minds of their fellow Americans.

Instead, they choose the most obnoxious way to push their message: menacing Jewish students on college campuses, interrupting congressional hearings, targeting a Christmas tree lighting.

Since Oct. 7, Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.), a true-blue progressive, has emerged as one of Israel's most stalwart and forceful defenders.

He told CNN on Sunday that Mr. Biden shouldn't "capitulate to the fringe."

Google’s response to the latest thuggery from pro-Hamas leftists suggests the adults are back in charge.

The search giant — a key player in the wokification of Big Tech — for years had a reputation as an early adopter of the pernicious DEI principles wreaking havoc on American society.

But when a clique of terror-loving Googlers staged a mega-tantrum in the company’s New York and California offices over work their employer does for — gasp! — Israel, the company responded swiftly and correctly by firing almost 30 staffers involved.

“They took over office spaces, defaced our property, and physically impeded the work of other Googlers. Their behavior was unacceptable, extremely disruptive, and made co-workers feel threatened,” said the company’s vice president of global security.

Darn right, and good for Google for taking action.

But in spirit, they’re no different from Hamasniks blocking the Golden Gate Bridge on Monday: striving to frighten and hinder people just trying to go about their day, all to cheer on a murderous cadre of Islamists.

Sure, the Google thugs used the usual canned language about “apartheid” and “genocide.”

These are the now-standard blood libels hurled by the global left against the Jewish state.

But as is always the case, “protests” like this are simple displays of power: Do what we say, or else!

Google has fired 28 employees over their participation in a 10-hour sit-in at the search giant’s offices in New York and Sunnyvale, California, to protest the company’s business ties with the Israel government, The Post has learned.

The pro-Palestinian staffers — who wore traditional Arab headscarves as they stormed and occupied the office of a top executive in California on Tuesday — were terminated late Wednesday after an internal investigation, Google vice president of global security Chris Rackow said in a companywide memo.

“They took over office spaces, defaced our property, and physically impeded the work of other Googlers,” Rackow wrote in the memo obtained by The Post. “Their behavior was unacceptable, extremely disruptive, and made co-workers feel threatened.”

In New York, protesters had occupied the 10th floor of Google’s offices in the Chelsea section of Manhattan as part of a protest that also extended to the company’s offices in Seattle for what it called “No Tech for Genocide Day of Action.”

“Behavior like this has no place in our workplace and we will not tolerate it,” Rackow wrote. “It clearly violates multiple policies that all employees must adhere to — including our code of conduct and policy on harassment, discrimination, retaliation, standards of conduct, and workplace concerns.”

Rackow added that the company “takes this extremely seriously, and we will continue to apply our longstanding policies to take action against disruptive behavior — up to and including termination.”

The fired staffers are affiliated with a group called No Tech For Apartheid, which has been critical of Google’s response to the Israel-Hamas war.

The group had posted several videos and livestreams of the protests on its X account — including the exact moment that employees were issued final warnings and arrested by local police for trespassing.

The protesters have demanded that Google pull out of a $1.2 billion “Project Nimbus” contract — in which Google Cloud and Amazon Web Services provide cloud-computing and artificial intelligence services for the Israeli government and military.

UPDATE: Google fired 28 of the protesting employees, according to a company wide memo by Google VP of global security Chris Rackow.

“If you’re one of the few who are tempted to think we’re going to overlook conduct that violates our policies, think again.” https://t.co/6FhPmK214Jpic.twitter.com/zjP25LzWnn

— Kassy Akiva (@KassyDillon) April 18, 2024

UPDATE: https://t.co/nt8uNZnugG

— Kassy Akiva (@KassyDillon) April 18, 2024

Meet Kate J. Sim, a policy advisor for child safety at @Google.

Kate likes to deny claims of rape on 10/7 in order to not offend “men of color”. But she is extremely worried about menstrual pads. pic.twitter.com/wLHqePpik5

— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) April 18, 2024

And then there is Monday’ newspaper.

“May it be a light to you in dark places, when all other lights go out.” — Galadriel https://t.co/CWhmPqjqeGpic.twitter.com/OkiI6J00Bl

— Shyam Sankar (@ssankar) April 17, 2024

Rebel News reporter Alexa Lavoie speaks with Independent member of Parliament Kevin Vuong.

Toronto: Straight out of the Hamas playbook, Hamas supporters with children in tow wear fake "suicide vests" & fatigues (same attire for the children). No hiding their genocidal intentions as they scream for the murder of Jews. pic.twitter.com/HwcAPXo4wT

— Canary Mission (@canarymission) April 17, 2024

If you got stuck in traffic because of these protests, it looks like you might be the victim of false imprisonment

If you got stuck on the bridge, contact the CHP with your story so they can charge the protestors and hold them to account https://t.co/M9ahlSlQelpic.twitter.com/XcIWVE5UeU

— Garry Tan 💥♻️ e/acc (@garrytan) April 17, 2024

💰 $500 CASH BOUNTY💰

⚠️ Help Identify This Hamas Terrorist For The @NewYorkFBI

📰 We are on the HUNT for an individual currently known as “The Eyebrow,” seen declaring ties to Hamas in attached video.

The goal is to present this to the FBI, allowing them to make a threat… pic.twitter.com/Oc1nGyh7to

— Shirion Collective (@ShirionOrg) April 18, 2024

London Marathon director, Hugh Brasher, has urged potential Pro-Palestine and Israel protesters not to disrupt the event this weekend.

More than 50,000 adult runners are expected to finish the annual race this Sunday, with more than 500,000 young people taking part in the Mini London marathon.

Mr Brasher has confirmed multiple security measures are in place to protect runners and spectators, but said he hoped the focus would be on 'coexistence and togetherness'.

He said: 'What we've always tried to do is bring people together. Coexistence and togetherness is what the London Marathon is all about,' according to the Evening Standard.

'And we hope that message will resonate with anyone who thinks it is a good thing to disrupt the race, because it isn't.'

He confirmed there are people running for both Palestinians and Israelis that have been affected by the Hamas attack on October 7 and the subsequent conflict in Gaza.

The London Marathon has been threatened by protesters before, including the supporters of the Tamil Tigers back in 2009 and Just Stop Oil in 2022.

The “Palestine Solidarity Campaign” has nothing but contempt for our political system and the rule of law.

“Those cowards in the House of Uncommons” were abused just last night.

“Bring this country to a standstill, make it ungovernable!”

“We know they're terrified of us!” 1/5 pic.twitter.com/hqFUafuhd5

— habibi (@habibi_uk) April 18, 2024

So did John McDonnell MP, who always has time for more Israel hatred. 3/5 pic.twitter.com/MmBVrAS4RP

— habibi (@habibi_uk) April 18, 2024

The Labour party just looks away as its MPs join these awful rallies.

MPs who do want to stand up to haters and terrorism supporters, by contrast, will have an opportunity to do so next week.

Parliamentary security will need to be ramped up on the day, of course. 5/5 pic.twitter.com/CjW6AIuYl3

— habibi (@habibi_uk) April 18, 2024

🚨 BREAKING - Croydon, London Barclays Bank broken into and trashed by Anti-Israel criminals last night. pic.twitter.com/96ZaOXey3k

— Kosher🎗🧡 (@KosherCockney) April 18, 2024

This is what happened yesterday to my friend Niyak, a pro-Israeli Iranian who lives in London and came to protest at a terrorist-supporting demonstration with a sign showing the very simple fact that Hamas is a terrorist organization...
While the police in London allowed the… pic.twitter.com/dq5ZjOcAL9

— יוסף חדאד - Yoseph Haddad (@YosephHaddad) April 18, 2024

🚨 WATCH

Watch as @RobertJenrick calls out the Met Police for their two-tier policing for arresting and dearresting @GhorbaniiNiyak on multiple occasions for holding a sign saying Hamas are Terrorists.

Brilliant, now let’s do something 👏🏼

Thread 👇🏼

pic.twitter.com/tVVYZHcv8V

— Kosher🎗🧡 (@KosherCockney) April 18, 2024

Seeing a pro-Hamas protester screaming in pain as people try to remove him from the concrete barrel he purposefully put his arm in on the Golden Gate Bridge might just be the most satisfying thing you see today. pic.twitter.com/CgDAwt0DW6

— Jaimee Michell (@thegaywhostrayd) April 17, 2024

Hash Tayeh is finally saying the quiet part out loud.

“No ceasefire until ALL of Palestine (aka Israel) is liberated.

The hate crime hoaxer whom the media gave a free pass is now calling for the annihilation of Jews publicly on the streets of Melbourne. https://t.co/73J4PN8S0g

— Avi Yemini (@OzraeliAvi) April 17, 2024

Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar’s daughter, Isra Hirsi, revealed Thursday she has been suspended from Barnard College over her involvement in anti-Israel protests on Columbia University’s campus.

“I’m an organizer with CU Apartheid Divest @ColumbiaSJP, in my 3 years at @BarnardCollege I have never been reprimanded or received any disciplinary warnings,” the 21-year-old wrote on X.

“I just received notice that I am 1 of 3 students suspended for standing in solidarity with Palestinians facing a genocide.”

Hirsi and the two other students – identified as Maryam Iqbal and Soph Dinu — received notice of their suspension from Barnard Dean, Leslie Grinage, first thing Thursday morning, the Apartheid Divest said in a statement.

“This decision is based on information received from Columbia University Public Safety that you have been involved in an unauthorized encampment on the Columbia University campus and you have not ceased participation in this unauthorized encampment despite repeated requests from Barnard and Columbia on April 17, 2024 that you do so,” the dean’s email read, according to the student group.

Hirsi’s suspension comes after at least three people were arrested overnight in connection with the ongoing tent protest on the Ivy League school’s Morningside campus.

Incidentally, can someone explain to me why @IlhanOmar is allowed to take part in the Congressional hearing without disclosing that in fact her own family member was actively taking part in and leading some of these vile antisemitic and pro-terror unsanctioned riots on campus?… https://t.co/P08IAWZdll

— Emily Schrader - אמילי שריידר امیلی شریدر (@emilykschrader) April 18, 2024

Columbia University on Thursday arrested and suspended anti-Israel students, one of them the daughter of Rep. Ilhan Omar (D., Minn.), in connection to a protest encampment on the university's lawn.

New York City police on Thursday morning arrested five student protesters demonstrating as part of the "Gaza Solidarity Encampment," according to videos posted on X. The encampment started at around 5 a.m. Wednesday, with hundreds of Columbia students demanding the university divest from Israel. The protesters set up tents on a campus lawn and shouted anti-Israel slogans such as "Israel bombs, Columbia pays,""free, free Palestine," and "death to the Zionist state." Video taken Thursday afternoon showed police arresting more demonstrators on the campus lawn.

Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine, a group that organized the encampment, said Thursday in a video post on Instagram that "a Columbia SJP organizer has been suspended and evicted alongside 2 other Barnard students for the Gaza Solidarity Encampment." Barnard College is a sister school and an official college of Columbia.

Columbia president Minouche Shafik issued a statement Thursday saying she "authorized the New York Police Department to begin clearing the encampment."

"The individuals who established the encampment violated a long list of rules and policies," Shafik said. "We updated our protest policy to allow demonstrations on very short notice and in prime locations in the middle of campus while still allowing students to get to class, and labs and libraries to operate. The current encampment violates all of the new policies, severely disrupts campus life, and creates a harassing and intimidating environment for many of our students."

Yesterday, the Columbia University
President affirmed her commitment to combat antisemitism on campus.

That same day, Columbia students chanted, "Oh Al-Qassam Brigades, You Make Us Proud, Kill Another Soldier Now! Israel Will Fall! Palestine Is Arab"pic.twitter.com/cOFKGlg5uE

— Eitan Fischberger (@EFischberger) April 18, 2024

Protesters starting to gather outside of Columbia University where students and activists have set up a "Liberated Zone" occupation and are refusing to leave. https://t.co/V8IzvUM6iYpic.twitter.com/hem0x71sB9

— Oliya Scootercaster 🛴 (@ScooterCasterNY) April 17, 2024

#NOW Israel Supporter continue to arrive outside of Columbia University where students and Pro-palestine activists have set up a "Liberated Zone" occupation and are refusing to leave, Palestine supporters also standing outside of the gate. pic.twitter.com/fpwSvzJwuG

— Oliya Scootercaster 🛴 (@ScooterCasterNY) April 17, 2024

"They are not coming back home because they are dead" - Israel Supporter chanting "Bring Them Home" interrupted by 'Crackhead Barney', referencing hostages taken by Hamas on October 7.

Pro-palestine protesters and Israel supporters are gathered outside of Columbia University… pic.twitter.com/5RjIJzi6HW

— Oliya Scootercaster 🛴 (@ScooterCasterNY) April 17, 2024

#NOW NYPD ARREST Pro-palestine protester with a Transgender / Palestine flag. Police told protesters on both sides to take down tall flag poles, the one person who did not take it down was arrested, as "Liberated Zone" continues to be held inside the Columbia University in NYC pic.twitter.com/O9vfXJebnF

— Oliya Scootercaster 🛴 (@ScooterCasterNY) April 17, 2024

"R#pe is not resistance! Bring them home!" - Israel supporters chant at Palestine Protest gathered outside Columbia University in NYC as students occupy the lawn inside.

Video by @yyeeaahhhboiii2 Desk@freedomnews.tv to license pic.twitter.com/xtE0F5EGM3

— Oliya Scootercaster 🛴 (@ScooterCasterNY) April 17, 2024

"Get the Fk out of our face! Now!" - Pro-palestine protester screams at Pro-Israel counter protesters who walked up to confront the group, "Why don't you arrest them?" Israel Supporter asked the police outside of Columbia University in NYC #HappeningNowpic.twitter.com/GNOAqLgdz6

— Oliya Scootercaster 🛴 (@ScooterCasterNY) April 17, 2024

#NOW New group of Palestine supporters have arrived from Union Square to Columbia University protest, police with bats and helmets is lined up in front of the.

Video by @yyeeaahhhboiii2 Desk@freedomnews.tv to license pic.twitter.com/RUlZvN22FY

— Oliya Scootercaster 🛴 (@ScooterCasterNY) April 18, 2024

"Kill yourself!" protester shouts as passerby confronts Pro-palestine protesters as they continue to gathered outside of locked gates of Columbia University where students and activists have set up a "Liberated Zone" occupied territory on the lawn.

Video by @yyeeaahhhboiii2… pic.twitter.com/Btk5yeJU5E

— Oliya Scootercaster 🛴 (@ScooterCasterNY) April 18, 2024

#NOW Pro-palestine protesters light up flares outside of Columbia University in NYC. Cops lined up in helmets all along the road.

Video by @yyeeaahhhboiii2 Desk@freedomnews.tv to license pic.twitter.com/qkYGi2mSvj

— Oliya Scootercaster 🛴 (@ScooterCasterNY) April 18, 2024

#NOW Pro-palestine Protest outside of Columbia University CONTINUES in support of 'Liberated Zone' occupation inside that is going for 24 hours now. Students inside have occupied the University Lawn and say they are staying untill all of their demands are met.… pic.twitter.com/usrevqmzqp

— FreedomNews.Tv FNTV (@FreedomNTV) April 18, 2024

The Columbia University encampment telegram is wild.

Take a look, “comrades.” pic.twitter.com/Ee9mzbrMZG

— Kassy Akiva (@KassyDillon) April 18, 2024

With all eyes on President Shafik, I wouldn't be surprised if we wake up to find the encampment raided during the night. If she lets this fester, I imagine she gets canned. pic.twitter.com/JHL5KqKKjo

— Stu (@thestustustudio) April 18, 2024

I was just forwarded the email Columbia sent out regarding the current situation. Universities are going out of their way to accommodate these protestors despite their often malicious content, but the protestors feel entitled to ignore all rules, disrupt the sane students, and… pic.twitter.com/GYNWDPhPpd

— AG (@AGHamilton29) April 18, 2024

#BREAKING Police in riot gear are lined up around Columbia University with handcuffs. NYPD placed a freeze zone on surrounding streets, it appears that raid and Arrests of 'Liberated Zone' Pro-palestine encampment inside may be imminent.

Video by Olga Fe Desk@freedomnews.tv to… pic.twitter.com/iGoEyxdHZX

— Oliya Scootercaster 🛴 (@ScooterCasterNY) April 18, 2024

Unbelievable scenes from Columbia University - the center of Jew hatred and terror support being led in part by none other than US Rep @IlhanMN's daughter (who thankfully has been suspended already). May every single one of these terror supporting monsters be expelled, arrested… pic.twitter.com/ZnIsLdbayB

— Emily Schrader - אמילי שריידר امیلی شریدر (@emilykschrader) April 18, 2024

🧵LAKE WASHINGTON SCHOOL DISTRICT, YOU HAVE A PROBLEM

Hamasniks at Redmond HS and Eastlake HS are planning anti-Israel walkouts for April 23

This is not the first time these students & activist parent have planned antisemitic events pic.twitter.com/yXOQnXwNIz

— Ari Hoffman (@thehoffather) April 17, 2024

As always, the sponsoring organization is a communist/Marxist organization

They're telling kids to challenge their administrators and hide their identities. They are admitting the point is "to be disruptive"

If you aren't doing anything wrong, you have nothing to hide pic.twitter.com/btbL3XrzAO

— Ari Hoffman (@thehoffather) April 17, 2024

A clip from back when SNL ridiculed the terrorist Islamic Regime instead of glorifying their genocidal rapist proxies.

Who would have thought a video satirizing a love affair between the LGBTQ+ community and Radical Islamists would end up reflecting reality? 🧐… pic.twitter.com/7N1lYwdLzt

— The Persian Jewess (@persianjewess) April 17, 2024

Investigators have determined that the likeliest explanation for the collision that destroyed the Francis Scott Key Bridge over the Patapsco River in Maryland involves not negligence or mere technical malfunction, but an Israeli plot to prevent the thoroughfare becoming the site of an anti-Israel demonstration, similar to the ones this week that snarled travel in several major metropolitan areas around the county, an FBI spokeswoman disclosed today.

Initial reports had blamed technical malfunctions on the boat that hit one of the bridge’s supports for the disaster on March 26.

“Nothing is conclusive,” cautioned Special Agent Pearl Clutching at a press conference this morning. “However, our most promising leads point to a sabotage operation of foreign provenance that, based on intelligence that Iran-backed agitators would block traffic in key cities nationwide, sought to forestall such developments by various means. In the case of the bridge collapse in Baltimore, agents have uncovered evidence that the failure to maintain the cargo ship’s steering and power systems only appeared externally as a failure, when in fact operatives were remotely piloting the craft into the bridge support the entire time.”

Agent Clutching noted that Israel has experience with hacking that disguises a system’s activities while it operates destructively. “We all remember Stuxnet,” she stated, referring to an Israeli operation that compromised the internal monitoring mechanism of numerous centrifuges used in Iran’s nuclear program, such that the data sent to the control room showed normal activity, when in fact the centrifuges had been spinning too fast for their own good, and many broke down.

Anyone ever ask them what they want to happen within their lifetimes? pic.twitter.com/zeiVCzSPsB

— The Mossad: Satirical, Yet Awesome (@TheMossadIL) April 17, 2024

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon! Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.  Read all about it here!

Columbia’s anti-Semitism problem is so advanced that today’s hearing was devoted solely to the esteemed former King’s College. The school’s representatives at the hearing were President Minouche Shafik, trustee cochairs David Greenwald and Claire Shipman, and its anti-Semitism task force head, law professor David Schizer (a one-time COMMENTARY contributor).

In December, the three school presidents failed to answer in the affirmative when they were asked if calling for the genocide of Jews violated their institutions’ policy on student harassment. Shafik and Co. were ready for that question today…but were unprepared for a host of others. Ironically, Stefanik saved Shafik from a late-hearing blunder regarding one of the most important questions of the entire proceeding.

It began when GOP Rep. Bob Good asked Shafik: “Have there been any anti-Islamic demonstrations on campus? Any anti-Muslim demonstrations on campus? Any anti-Arab demonstrations on campus?”

Shafik’s initial response, a telling indication of the warped worldview prevailing in academic spaces, was: “There have been many pro-Israeli demonstrations on our college campus.”

That was, by far, her worst answer of the day. Good stopped her and the two of them clarified together that as a matter of fact, there have been no anti-Arab or Islamophobic rallies on the Columbia campus.

That stands in contrast to the fact that the Columbia campus exists in an almost perpetual state of anti-Jewish agitation. That is true of plenty of other schools around the country as well. The key fact of the past six months in university life has been this: whether it be protests, harassment, intimidation by teachers and students, or administrative discrimination, no other group has been facing anything like what Jews have faced. University faculty, administrators, and student groups are guilty of no other organized campaign of out-group harassment. No other group is consistently told by campus security officials to hide evidence of their religion or ethnicity for their own safety. On the nation’s college campuses, nothing else exists that is comparable in any way, shape, or form to the campaign against Jews.

Many of Orwell’s comrades took his honesty about Soviet Communism as heresy, and he spent years afterward avoiding old Stalinists in pubs. An account of this time appears in a superb new biography by D. J. Taylor, Orwell: The New Life, which was published last year. Orwell’s publisher, Victor Gollancz, wouldn’t touch his book about Spain because of its anti-Soviet angle, as the biography recounts, and the New Statesman turned down his essay “Eye-Witness in Barcelona” for the same reason: it would “cause trouble.” The magazine’s editor, Kingsley Martin, explained later that though the article may indeed have been true, the editor’s decision must actually be based “on general public grounds, to the end that one side might win rather than the other side.”

All of this sounds as if it were drawn precisely from my own experience seven decades later working in the Western press in Israel, which left me with similar conclusions and ultimately led me to Orwell’s essays. It is obvious that the story in the Middle East and North Africa in our times is the rise of violent and conflicting strains of Islam and the move of these ideologies and their adherents into the West. A great deal of effort goes into obscuring this, even though the phenomenon is visible from Algeria through Syria and Yemen and Iraq to Afghanistan, and from the Twin Towers to the Bataclan theater to the Nice promenade and the Manchester Arena. For a reporter in Israel, the main local incarnations of the phenomenon are the Islamic Resistance Movement (known by the Arabic acronym Hamas) and Islamic Jihad among Palestinians and the more formidable Party of God militia (Hezbollah) in Lebanon, all allied to some extent with the Islamic Republic of Iran, all working to forge a new Islamic order, and all explicitly dedicated to erasing the unbearable pocket of Jewish sovereignty on 0.2 percent of the land of the Arab world.

This is depressing but not very complicated. However, during my time in the press, we were expected to tiptoe politely around Islam’s two billion adherents and pretend the region’s key story was a group of six million Jews oppressing a minority, the Palestinians, who only wanted a peaceful state beside Israel. Because this was mostly fictional, my colleagues and I were forced into increasingly ludicrous contortions as we “built emotional superstructures over events that had never happened,” in Orwell’s words, and buried much of what was actually happening—like Israel’s rejected peace offer of late 2008, for example, which we were instructed not to cover, or like the way Hamas followed Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza by methodically wiring the territory like a suicide bomber, building a system of tunnels under the entire civilian landscape and quite clearly condemning vast numbers to death in the holy war they promised was coming.

This all fits what Orwell understood about the way Western observers are guided chiefly by their own politics and imaginations. Atrocities in war, he wrote, “are to be believed in or disbelieved in according to political predilection, with utter non-interest in the facts and with complete unwillingness to alter one’s beliefs as soon as the political scene alters.” He would have understood the refusal by many observers in our times to believe the details of the Hamas murders, rapes, and kidnappings of October 7, while being eager to believe a few weeks later that Israel had purposely bombed a hospital—and also the unwillingness of some on my own side to admit any civilian suffering in Gaza, and the desire to dismiss anything that makes us feel bad as “Pallywood.”

Some elements of Orwell’s writing suggest he would grasp the nature of Israel’s dilemma. One example stands out in particular: a striking line from a 1938 article phrasing the horrific dilemma of modern industrial war, which I read for the first time in Taylor’s biography. “The only apparent alternatives,” Orwell wrote, “are to smash dwelling houses to powder, blow out human entrails and burn holes in children with lumps of thermite, or to be enslaved by people who are more willing to do these things than you are yourself.” He hated wars, nationalism, and the British Empire, whose rapaciousness and racism he’d seen up close while a young man serving as a colonial policeman in Burma. But when World War II came, he tried to join the British Army, was rejected because of poor health, and ended up an enthusiastic recruit to the Home Guard. A responsible person will have to choose among poor options or different kinds of evil.

We have recently been provided with fresh evidence of this moral collapse: Starting with the high priestess of progressivism, Judith Butler described Hamas as a progressive movement and the events of October 7th as acts of resistance. And it continues with the presidents of Harvard, Penn, and MIT, who shamefully failed to condemn the call to genocide of the Jewish People.

The events of October 7 brought antisemitism to new heights of insanity and hatred: blatant support for the rape and murder of innocent men, women, and children, the demonization of IDF soldiers and the state of the Jewish people, comparing them to Nazis, the distortion of the Holocaust, and the application of hypocritical double standards tailored to specifically target one people and one state alone.

Streets in Europe are once again unsafe for Jews, and many of its leaders, instead of showing courage, are demonstrating weakness.

Instead of standing with the truth, they align themselves with false Palestinian propaganda. Instead of supporting the victims of the attack, they choose to side with the aggressors.

This moral laxity may serve short-term interests, but make no mistake: The ultimate result will be the intensification and strengthening of radical Islam barbarism.

It is enough to see what is happening on the streets of London to understand where we are heading. Just recently, British MP and friend of Israel Mike Freer was forced to step down from his position due to threats on his life from Islamists after his office was set ablaze by Hamas supporters.

Freedom is waning in the country that brought the Magna Carta to the world, and people can no longer speak freely; even Churchill’s statue requires protection to keep it from being vandalized.

Freedom is waning here, in the capital of the European Union, as we are all currently experiencing at this important conference. With strong “progressive” forces, doing everything to not allow up to speak up and share our voice.

As the late Rabbi Jonathan Sacks reminds us: “What starts with the Jews never ends with the Jews.”

Those who turn their back on the righteous war we are fighting against absolute evil will eventually bring it to their doorstep.

Those who seek to deny us our historical rights in our eternal homeland will see their rights undermined.

The future belongs to those nations that will relegate political correctness and woke culture to the dustbin of history.

The future of the West hinges on courageous nations willing to swim against the current, and re-cultivate the values that Judeo-Christian civilization has brought to the world: the importance of tradition, the sanctity of the family, and the vitality of a robust community.

It depends on education that fosters a familiarity and appreciation of the past to comprehend the present and shape the future.

Dr. Chazoni, in one of your essential articles on conservatism, you wrote the following lines: "...The only forces that grant the state its internal consistency and stability are our national and religious traditions."

The unique national tradition is the foundation, and upon it is added the floor of individual freedoms and the limitation of executive authority, not vice versa. This is the essence of the conservative view.

This worldview is shared by a series of exceptional leaders, some of whom are with us here today, such as Prime Minister Victor Orban. Under his leadership and action, Hungary is one of the safest countries in Europe for its citizens and also for its small Jewish community that can express its identity in public freely without fear of harassment and violent attacks.

The leaders who stand firm on the right of Israel today do not do so because it is a startup nation, nor because of its cherry tomatoes.

They do it because they draw inspiration from the history of an ancient nation that has risen from the ashes and rebuilt its ruins. They are inspired by the eternal book that forms the foundation of our civilization.

They do so because of the values we share — human life, faith, family, and freedom. Eternal values that will survive both the storm of Jihadism that sanctifies death and the storm of "progress" that sanctifies nothingness.

This world is fundamentally good, this is our belief, which is why we bring sweet children into it even during difficult times, and why our anthem is "Hatikvah", The Hope.

Dearborn celebrated Ford in every conceivable way. Streets, schools and libraries were named for Henry Ford, the company’s founder. Its biggest shopping mall, the motel where the Mustang was created, the city’s largest social club, and two neighborhoods were named for his Fair Lane estate, a mansion in the center of town.

I grew up, naturally, on Fordson Drive and gradually became aware of another side of Dearborn the American Automobile Association didn’t promote in its brochures. Henry Ford had a troubling history of antisemitism. His publication of the Dearborn Independent, a weekly newspaper, served as a platform for crackpot conspiracies about the Jews. The city also wore racial prejudice on its sleeve, making a proud segregationist, Orville Hubbard, its mayor from 1942 to 1978.

Hubbard, Jim Crow and antisemitism seemed buried in Dearborn’s past as it caught up with the times. Its black population, approximately 3,554, is roughly 3,554 more than it had in 1969—except for the “15 or so live-in servants” then present, according to a New York Times report. Ford Motor Co., where I once worked, has gone to great lengths to repair relations with local Jewish communities and distance itself from its founder’s worst ideas. A statue of Hubbard was also removed from the Dearborn Historical Museum’s grounds in 2020.

Yet Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack revealed that Dearborn’s “progress” on such issues hadn’t progressed as expected. A rally for “an end to the Palestinian occupation” at the Ford Community and Performing Arts Center on Oct. 10 began the first of many denunciations of Israel emanating from Dearborn that have since escalated to the point of absurdity. The latest came on April 5, when activists held a rally outside Henry Ford Centennial Library for International Al-Quds Day, a brainchild of the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. There came the inspired chants for death to Iran’s Great and Little Satan, America and Israel respectively, which Rep. Rashida Tlaib refused to denounce when pressed about them last week.

Weeks earlier, Mayor Abdullah Hammoud demanded on CNN that Mr. Biden “come to Dearborn, come to this community, and let’s put the pen in both of our hands, and let’s co-govern and co-write what the policy should be moving forward.” As a child, I would have marveled at the notion the mayor of my small Midwestern city was of equal political status with the president. Today Mr. Hammoud’s comments evoke a Yiddish word: chutzpah.

There was much I liked about Dearborn, including the influx of Arabs and Muslims, who brought with them an entrepreneurial spirit that refilled decaying commercial streets with restaurants and pastry shops. They rejuvenated neighborhoods and repopulated schools that had been in a long period of decline. I made many friends in the Arab community. We played wallyball at 5:30 a.m. every weekday at the Fairlane Club, where disputes on the court often turned into heated swearing matches, whose words in Arabic I learned with their help. I would later run into my friends at local restaurants, where drinking was haram, except in the back room.

The Democrats consider Michigan absolutely pivotal to victory in 2024. They are convinced, given the polls of the past few months – where Trump is leading by a few percentage points – that they must do anything – everything! – to ensure a win in Michigan. Yes, even alienate the Jewish vote which traditionally votes 70 percent for the Democratic candidate. No matter what is happening in the Middle East, the sun rises in the East. Jews vote Democrat.

Therefore, they cleverly surmised – they have threatened not to vote for Biden if he continues to support (sic) Israel. And his knees, and those of his puppeteers who control his every move, have buckled.

Because no one dared to suggest that the emperor has no clothes.

So, let’s offer the last and most important fact: If the Democrats, including 100 percent of the Arabs of Dearborn, Michigan – where one finds as many signs in Arabic as there are in English – carry out their duplicitous threat not to vote for Biden, then Trump wins. Handily. If they opt to vote for one of the other, third-party candidates – either Robert Kennedy Jr, Jill Stein, or Cornel West – then Trump wins. Handily. Or, if they choose to sit out the election, as some have threatened to do – then Trump wins. Handily.

Those are the premises. So, let’s draw the proper conclusion.

It’s November 5, 2024. You are a progressive Democrat, angry at Joe Biden. You are a Muslim, angry at Joe Biden. You hate Israel. You support Gaza. Who do you vote for?

You vote for Joe Biden. Because you hate Israel. It’s really that simple, and no one seems to get it.

Laurence J. Peter, author of The Peter Principle, wrote: “Sometimes I wonder whether the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on or by imbeciles who really mean it.” One might more properly ask: “Sometimes we wonder whether the Democratic Party in Michigan is being run by smart people who are putting us on, or by imbeciles who relay mean it.” We believe the former.

There is another side to this coin, not lost on those willing to look. Few do.

That one should not conclude that the Biden foreign policy team was railroaded into its growing antipathy towards the Jewish State, one more important fact needs to be stated. The anti-Israel hostility is evidenced by something much greater than its pressure against Israel because of the myth of the Michigan vote – with the demands of a humanitarian pause, a lengthy cease-fire as a prelude to a complete cessation of military action against Hamas, and the ultimate trump card (note the lower-case t).

It’s all about that Holy Grail by which the Biden/Blinken/Sullivan/Austin/Power/Amr foreign policy hopes to memorialize its legacy. A 2-State solution.

The Hamas (read: Iranian) invasion of Israel on October 7 and the subsequent months of an Israeli response that has been hampered by an American stick in the wheels of the Israeli military spokes have brought the United States one step closer – where it always wanted to be – to former Undersecretary of State George Ball’s preferred American Middle East policy (April 1977): Saving Israel in spite of herself.

That is the greatest danger of all. It is why the progressive voters of Michigan will indeed vote for Joe Biden (or whomever the Democrats might wish to replace him with as we near November 2024).

All you need to know about Ben Rhodes: his nickname in the Obama White House was “Hamas” - per presidential historian @TeviTroy. https://t.co/RlYqPMemSw

— William Daroff (@Daroff) April 17, 2024

In a room full of 450 far-left activists, a leader with the Freedom Road Socialist Organization kicks off a chant: “Protest is a right—not just for the rich and white.”

“Have you heard that the Democratic National Convention is coming to Chicago?” Joe Iosbaker asks the crowd. “Are we going to let ’em come here without a protest? This is Chicago, goddamn it—we’ve got to give them a 1968 kind of welcome.”

In 1968, the Democratic Convention in Chicago was a bloodbath, with 600 arrests in one street battle that was broadcast all over the world. And the group that met here last Saturday, in the local headquarters of the Teamsters Union, wants to repeat history when Joe Biden is named the presidential nominee at the DNC this August. They oppose the president they call “Genocide Joe” for backing Israel in its war against Hamas.

“If we don’t get a permit, are we still going to march?” Iosbaker asked the crowd, who responded with a chorus of “Yeah!”

“Are we still gonna march within sight and sound? Are we gonna let Genocide Joe come here and not hear us and see us? No! From Chicago to Palestine, protesting is not a crime.”

Over a single day, the “March on DNC 2024” conference gathered 75 organizations to discuss how they plan to disrupt the convention. Speakers told the crowd how to flood the streets without getting arrested, how to spot members of the Secret Service, and how to say “Death to America” in Farsi. At one point, when news of Iran’s attack on Israel spread throughout the room, the crowd erupted in cheers.

Later that day, Jerry Boyle, an attorney and volunteer for the National Lawyers Guild, a nonprofit that says it acts “as the legal arm of social movements and the conscience of the legal profession,” gave a pep talk on how to “know your power” and overwhelm the police.

“My colleagues will be here later today talking about your rights,” Boyle told the crowd. “Think of it more about power and the risk you present to the police.”

He told attendees to look out for police carrying “mass arrest kits,” which he says contain supplies like “a bunch of flex cuffs and all the paperwork” for a bust.

“I’m not here to tell you what the law is,” Boyle told the crowd. “I’m here to tell you what you can get away with.”

The event attracted some unsavory characters. Four speakers have had their homes raided by the FBI for their alleged ties to terrorist groups, and one attendee, Jesse Nevel, was federally charged for “working on behalf of the Russian government.” One “anarchist” distributed his homemade magazine that included drawings of machetes and the essay “In Defense of Looting.”

Chicago’s streets have been roiled by pro-Palestinian demonstrators.

Now, these activists are planning “the biggest, baddest historical march” for when the DNC comes to town in August.

Read @Olivia_Reingold and @EliLake’s full piece here: https://t.co/gsj5n01uNJpic.twitter.com/n3Dd1mxdxz

— The Free Press (@TheFP) April 17, 2024

Yesterday, the president of Columbia University testified before Congress about anti-Semitism at her institution, and efforts to combat it. Among the faculty members Minouche Shafik was asked about was Joseph Massad, who has taught at the school since 1999 and who praised the October 7 massacres as “awesome.” Martin Kramer has been warning about the rot at Columbia, and Massad in particular, since the early 2000s, and his writings about the subject are worth revisiting. These include his 2014 article dissecting the use of the Holocaust inversion—the accusation that Israel is the true successor to Nazi Germany—by Massad and three of his Columbia colleagues.

When Massad—for whom hating Israel is a personal and professional preoccupation—was up for tenure in 2009, Kramer explained that he is not some sort of fringe extremist, but a representative of what Columbia, and Middle East studies, have become:
Joseph Massad is the . . . ultimate mutant in the Columbia freak show. . . . I once described Massad as “the flower of Columbia University,” a thoroughly Columbia creation. Columbia gave him his doctorate, Columbia University Press published it, and Columbia gave him his tenure-track job. Massad himself recognized that Columbia couldn’t disown him without somehow disowning itself.

At present, defenders of Massad and similar figures are loudly insisting that they are sticking up for freedom of speech, while condemning the supposed hypocrisy of conservative critics of cancel culture who, they allege, are now trying to cancel critics of Israel. But to Kramer the key problem with Massad is not his opinions about what should happen in the Middle East, or the way he may have treated Jewish students, but his belief that Israel is nothing more than a foreign, European colonialist presence in the Middle East—something that isn’t true:
The tragedy of the academy is that it has become home to countless people whose mission is to prove this lie. They do research, write books, and deliver lectures, all with the same purpose: to establish the truth of a falsehood. . . . The point that students should press at Columbia is this: we are tired of being lied to, even in a postmodern environment where truth is fungible. There is a pattern and a culture, and it does not just relate to classroom conduct. . . . This is a demand for truth, and this is what Columbia owes us.

Resolving Columbia’s crisis is a matter of practicalities. But these practicalities must be subordinate to principles. Advocacy teaching is antithetical to the truth-speaking mission of the university. Columbia has been compromised; it must now redeem itself. And it must do so not only by reaffirming its commitment to academic freedom, but by reaffirming its commitment to truth.

As Columbia University’s president insisted Wednesday that the Ivy League school was doing all it could to crackdown on rising antisemitism, the campus remains filled with a slew of professors who have a history of spewing controversial remarks.

Ranging from a politics professor who declared that the Oct. 7 terror attack on Israel was “awesome” to another who boasted “Yes, I’m with Hamas,” Columbia President Minouche Shafik was forced to address some of her faculty’s remarks as she was grilled by lawmakers in Washington DC.

At least three faculty members — Joseph Massad, Mohamed Abdou and Katherine Franke — were mentioned specifically by name during the congressional hearing. Others, though, have also been ripped over their history of remarks.

Here’s are Columbia’s most controversial professors and their incendiary remarks:

A professor of modern Arab politics and history, Massad has been teaching at the Ivy League school for the past 25 years. Massad, who earned his PhD at Columbia in 1998, teaches within the university’s Department of Middle Eastern, South Asian and African Studies (MESAAS), according to his bio.

The tenured academic has faced widespread calls to be fired ever since he referred to the Oct. 7 attack inflicted by Hamas terrorists as “awesome” and a “stunning victory of the Palestinian resistance.”

“The sight of the Palestinian resistance fighters storming Israeli checkpoints separating Gaza from Israel was astounding,” Massad penned in a 1,800 word essay published 24 hours after the bloodshed.

“Perhaps the major achievement of the resistance in the temporary takeover of these settler-colonies is the death blow to any confidence that Israeli colonists had in their military and its ability to protect them.”

A student-led petition calling for him to be axed over those remarks has received more than 78,000 signatures.

Massad, who once called Israel “a racist state”, has also previously come under fire for allegedly spewing anti-Israeli remarks in class and for comparing Hamas aggression against Israel to the Warsaw ghetto uprising against the Nazis during WWII.

Abdou was brought on as a visiting Columbia scholar for the spring 2024 semester and teaches a weekly class on “Decolonial-Queerness & Abolition.”

The bio on Columbia’s website describes Abdou as “a North African-Egyptian Muslim anarchist interdisciplinary activist-scholar of Indigenous, Black, critical race and Islamic studies, as well as gender, sexuality, abolition and decolonization.”

Just days after the Oct. 7 attack, Abdou controversially declared on social media, “Yes, I’m with Hamas and Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad.”

Columbia University president Minouche Shafik gave congressional testimony Wednesday on the explosion of campus anti-Semitism. Facing questions from the Republican-led House Education Committee, Shafik said that "anti-Jewish protests" have not taken place at Columbia—then reversed course.

"You were asked, 'Were there any anti-Jewish protests?' and you said no," said Rep. Elise Stefanik (R., N.Y.), noting that there have been chants of "Jews out" on Columbia's campus.

"So, the protest was not labeled as an anti-Jewish protest, it was labeled as an anti-Israeli government protest … but anti-Semitic things were said," Shafik responded.

"I'm not asking what it was labeled. … It is an anti-Jewish protest, you agree with that? You change your testimony?" Stefanik said.

"Anti-Jewish things were said at protests, yes," Shafik responded after pausing and shuffling in her chair.

Shafik also said the school's "current rules" do not consider the chant "globalize the intifada" to be "not acceptable." She pledged to ensure "faculty do not cross the line in terms of discrimination and harassment" and condemned a Middle Eastern studies professor, Joseph Massad, who called Hamas's Oct. 7 terror attack on Israel "awesome" and "astounding."

Shafik nonetheless confirmed that Massad remains on Columbia's faculty.

"He has been spoken to," she said. "In his case, he has not repeated anything like that ever since."

My statement on @Columbia University's failure to combat antisemitism following the inconsistent and unacceptable testimony from their campus leadership:

“Today's hearing of Columbia University president and board members epitomizes the failed leadership on "elite" college…

— Elise Stefanik (@EliseStefanik) April 17, 2024

Thank you @ShaiDavidai for your brave work to combat antisemitism. You are correct that this is about protecting students and delivering accountability to university leadership who refuse to act.

I commend you for continuing to speak out despite the radical, hateful antisemitic…

— Elise Stefanik (@EliseStefanik) April 18, 2024

Very emotional scene playing out in the streets of the UWS of Manhattan adjacent to @Columbia campus right now.@ShaiDavidai who has helped lead the charge in the battle against institutional antisemitism at his home campus and proud pro Israel (yes Zionist!) students and… pic.twitter.com/4100CZP0PT

— Matthew Tyrmand (@MatthewTyrmand) April 17, 2024

As we at @V24Investigates were aware Mohamed Abdou has still been on campus which @ShaiDavidai confirms.@Columbia President Minouche Shafik lied to @RepStefanik& the House of Representatives @EdWorkforceCmte about radical terrorist faculty member Abdou’s termination.… https://t.co/KIIcMdwkaF

— Matthew Tyrmand (@MatthewTyrmand) April 17, 2024

"The same Jew hate that drove my family to the US has become normalized here."

WATCH Eden Yadegar recount the experience of Jewish students on campus at @Columbia University. pic.twitter.com/GG4XEL7TSu

— Rep. Burgess Owens (@RepBurgessOwens) April 16, 2024

.@RepBurgessOwens: "How does this work?"

International students:

-pay @Columbia $90,000 a year
-skip classes to demonstrate
-bully Americans
-burn American flags
-stop traffic
-shout "Death to America"

And somehow still get a degree? pic.twitter.com/HZ54KwJrBu

— House Committee on Education & the Workforce (@EdWorkforceCmte) April 17, 2024

Are mob chants "FROM THE RIVER TO THE SEA... & LONG LIVE THE INTIFADA" antisemitic, asks @RepLisaMcClain.

Took a while to get to a "yes" ...
@Columbia must confront antisemitism aggressively & unequivocally. Students deserve a safe learning environment. pic.twitter.com/EfBCR4Xif6

— House Committee on Education & the Workforce (@EdWorkforceCmte) April 17, 2024

"It should be hard academically at Columbia but it shouldn't be hard to walk across campus. And it is." -@RepAaronBean

There shouldn't be a stigma for Jewish students who proudly wear clothes that display their heritage and traditions, yet there is.

Shame on @Columbia. pic.twitter.com/gmi4wu5PWo

— House Committee on Education & the Workforce (@EdWorkforceCmte) April 17, 2024

Why is it so hard for Columbia's President Shafik to say anti-Jewish protests have occurred on Columbia's campus?

Watch her exchange with @RepStefanik⤵️ pic.twitter.com/48Z9llg38K

— House Committee on Education & the Workforce (@EdWorkforceCmte) April 17, 2024

During an orientation at @Columbia School of Social Work, students were given a glossary containing the term "Ashkenormativity" defined as "a system of oppression that favors white Jewish folx."

The term was removed following the 12/5 hearing but @RepJimBanks has the receipts⤵️ pic.twitter.com/SkFavPmdsa

— House Committee on Education & the Workforce (@EdWorkforceCmte) April 17, 2024

Professor Joseph Massad glorified the terror of Oct 7. This is just the latest in a long string of virulently antisemitic behavior that has gone unchecked.

President Shafik confirmed Massad is still in the classroom, holding power over the academic future of Jewish students. pic.twitter.com/fNKExyjEiq

— Rep. Tim Walberg (@RepWalberg) April 17, 2024

When Universities can't come to a consensus on whether a wildly anti-Semitic chant is against school policy, we have a massive problem.

Columbia is no different than any school across the U.S. and shouldn't be thinking twice about protecting Jewish students from hate. pic.twitter.com/wCGLkcQxSw

— Representative Lisa McClain (@RepLisaMcClain) April 17, 2024

Columbia’s school of social work orientation glossary defines “Ashkenormativity” as a “system of oppression that favors white Jewish folx.”

The radical Left has turned our universities into hotbeds for antisemitism. pic.twitter.com/OeYQIIve5q

— Jim Banks (@RepJimBanks) April 17, 2024

The experience of Jewish students at @Columbia reminds me of my own experiences with hatred, denigration, and bigotry in the 1960s deep south. Campus leaders need to stand up to pro-Hamas activists and stand for a safe learning environment for ALL students. pic.twitter.com/I83rVe6iJx

— Rep. Burgess Owens (@RepBurgessOwens) April 17, 2024

The lack of moral clarity from university leaders in denouncing anti-Semitism is deeply troubling. Our committee is committed to bringing accountability and reforming higher education. pic.twitter.com/ysMUmTYMqq

— Rep. Kevin Kiley (@RepKiley) April 17, 2024

You forgot to include Elise Stefanik’s follow up to your manipulative questioning.

It’s cool, I took care of editing your video for you.

PS: Tell your handlers to RETURN THE HOSTAGES! #AntizionismIsAntisemitismhttps://t.co/EMfnhRLGP0

— The Persian Jewess (@persianjewess) April 18, 2024

#BREAKING Ilhan Omar’s daughter has been suspended from Barnard College for her involvement in anti-Israel protests on @Columbia University’s campus.

— Aviva Klompas (@AvivaKlompas) April 18, 2024

This seems like a clear violation of Congressional ethics. @IlhanMN has *direct* links to the antisemitic, pro-Hamas student organizations at @Columbia.

She should be immediately removed from any congressional committee on the topic. @virginiafoxx@EliseStefanik…

— Shai Davidai (@ShaiDavidai) April 18, 2024

According to the NY Post, Ilhan Omar’s daughter, Isra Hirsi, was suspended from Barnard College (part of Columbia University) over her anti Israel activity.

Seems the apple 🍎 doesn’t fall very far from the tree. pic.twitter.com/mAUmSPecNe

— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) April 18, 2024

I'm shocked that @adidas -- founded by a Nazi and the former home of Kanye -- would partner with Ilhan Omar's pro-Hamas daughter, making her a "community mentor" for her "ability to make positive change." Via @zach_kesselhttps://t.co/4GIvuqaZD3pic.twitter.com/fCp4FhBJyJ

— Philip Klein (@philipaklein) April 18, 2024

Dear @Columbia President Minouche Shafik,

YOU FAILED YOUR JEWISH STUDENTS.

STEP DOWN, NOW!#EndJewHatredpic.twitter.com/csXw7XKcdB

— Adar Rubin (@rubin_a1) April 17, 2024

When you enrolled your child at Columbia University, did you envision their professor being the head of PR for the PLO, a known terrorist organization?

Did you picture rampant pro-Hamas rallies that disrupt learning, encourage chaos, and end in arrests?

Did you imagine that… pic.twitter.com/wtKqUyUNuE

— (((Yuval David))) (@YuvalDavid) April 18, 2024

A York University faculty committee has recommended that the school henceforth define any acknowledgement of Israel’s existence as evidence of “anti-Palestinian racism.”

According to an April 5 “recommendations report” leaked to National Post, an official committee within York’s Department of Politics has proposed that any defence of Israel be viewed as “anti-Palestinian, Islamophobic, and anti-Arab.”

The document cites York University’s official pledge to take “proactive steps to fight racial inequity,” and concludes that this can’t be done unless administrators actively seek to isolate and destroy the Zionist “settler colonial project.”

“The struggle for Palestinian self-determination will support the liberation of all humans and non-humans from colonial oppression,” it reads.

The nine-page document was released by the Department of Politics Palestine Solidarity Committee. In a preamble, the body writes that they were created with faculty approval on Nov, 14, 2023 with a mandate to draft “a departmental definition of anti-Palestinian racism.”

“It is the systematic and structural denial of the Palestinian right to self-determination and national liberation, and the collective existence of the Palestinian people, while upholding Zionism,” reads the final definition.

It adds, “Zionism is a settler colonial project and ethno-religious ideology in service of a system of Western imperialism that upholds global white supremacy.”

The committee complains that York University is becoming a landscape of “surveillance, fear, intimidation and repression” for anybody advocating “Palestinian liberation.” As one example, they say that faculty members “should not be pressured to condemn Hamas.”

“More students have expressed or reported feeling that the university has become an unsafe environment,” it reads.

The document makes several references to the importance of “academic freedom” and “free speech.” “Academic freedom allows us to comment and critique on historically and philosophically relevant topics in context and allows for the pursuit of truth and fulfillment of university objectives,” it reads.

However, it is made very clear that these principles should not apply to anybody supportive of Israel, working with Israeli academics, or having any peripheral connection to Israel whatsoever.

The document advocates “severing ties with Zionist departments and institutions” and imposing a total commercial boycott on anything Israeli.

Voice your concerns to FIT President Dr. Joyce Brown: Joyce_Brown@fitnyc.edu pic.twitter.com/6rE4lloN3o

— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) April 18, 2024

I am the only Orthodox Jew at Harvard Divinity School. I am the President of the Harvard Divinity School Jewish Student Association. Its Dean, Marla Frederick, refuses to combat antisemitism or even meet with me. Please share your thoughts with her: hdsdeansoffice@hds.harvard.edu pic.twitter.com/BKi7KafbV9

— Shabbos Kestenbaum (@ShabbosK) April 18, 2024

A Holocaust research center founded by Steven Spielberg has gotten embroiled in a drama over campus Israel speech that is dividing the University of Southern California, where it is housed.

The USC Shoah Foundation is downplaying its role in the school’s academics after the university’s valedictorian, a pro-Palestinian student who earned a minor in “resistance to genocide,” touted her ties to the center.

After USC announced last week that Asna Tabassum would be the valedictorian, pro-Israel groups mounted a campaign against her, citing content on her Instagram page harshly criticizing Israel and Zionism. On Monday, USC’s provost barred Tabassum from delivering a commencement address, a move the campus head of security said was related to specific threats that people would attempt to disrupt the event if she spoke.

In a statement decrying the decision, Tabassum, who majored in biomedical engineering, highlighted one specific aspect of her academic career.

“I am a student of history who chose to minor in resistance to genocide, anchored by the Shoah Foundation, and have learned that ordinary people are capable of unspeakable acts of violence when they are taught hate fueled by fear,” she wrote. “And due to widespread fear, I was hoping to use my commencement speech to inspire my classmates with a message of hope. By canceling my speech, USC is only caving to fear and rewarding hatred.”

The foundation says that it wasn’t involved in her minor.

Campus controversies
“Despite suggestions to the contrary, our Institute is not an academic unit within the university and we do not play a formal role in the degree path of any student,” a representative for the USC Shoah Foundation told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in a statement Tuesday. “Recent claims of association with the USC Shoah Foundation are inaccurate and have led to confusion about our role, values, and mission.”

The uproar at USC is the latest in a series of lightning-rod campus controversies related to the Israel-Hamas war that broke out on October 7. North America’s biggest and most prominent universities have struggled to respond to inflamed tensions between pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian students and faculty. Critics have claimed that campus administrations have frequently buckled to pressure to silence speech on the topic. The president of Columbia University, whose responses to pro-Palestinian protests have frequently made headlines, will testify before Congress on Wednesday.

The USC valedictorian whose speech was cancelled by USC after a link she promoted on her Instagram called for the "complete abolishment" of Israel repeatedly dodges the question of whether she endorses that idea, saying "I think a yes or a no would be an injustice to the issue." https://t.co/AR2Iun8HEp

— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) April 17, 2024

She was not canceled because she is “pro-Palestinian” she was canceled because she supports Islamist terrorist groups like Hamas and holds deeply antisemitic views. Shame on the media for this lazy journalism. https://t.co/LbkHu3aMly

— Emily Schrader - אמילי שריידר امیلی شریدر (@emilykschrader) April 18, 2024

The so-called "Jewish Voice for Peace" released its annual Passover Haggadah today.

In it, they platform Palestinian "poet" Refaat Alareer, who is on record stating that "most Jews are evil." Can't make this up pic.twitter.com/zhORTj1d0g

— Eitan Fischberger (@EFischberger) April 18, 2024

"Jewish" pic.twitter.com/zo4FxjYePA

— Eitan Fischberger (@EFischberger) April 18, 2024

A few examples of his output on X. pic.twitter.com/kzkx2BJl9I

— GnasherJew®גנאשר (@GnasherJew) April 18, 2024

🚨 This Arab lady is pissed off because other Arabs don't give a damn about boycotting Starbucks.

She's literally raging at random families in public. These people are so unhinged and aggressive. pic.twitter.com/AwRnxL5mRk

— Nioh Berg ♛ ✡︎ אסתר (@NiohBerg) April 17, 2024

Basel Othman is a senior controls engineer for Walt Disney Imagineering.

Basel Othman also:
- refers to Zionists (aka 95%+ of Jews globally) as parasites
- claims Americans are enslaved & controlled by Zionists
- wants the focus to shift from antisemitism to "Jewish crimes"

We… pic.twitter.com/Ga3vVDIK2g

— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) April 17, 2024

You thought the valedictorian fiasco at USC was bad?

Check out Maysara Hamada, a USC graduate student who defends Hamas terrorists, denies they are against Jews, and claims mass rapes during 10/7 didn't occur.

USC students and staff beware. pic.twitter.com/uLhvENDGPQ

— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) April 17, 2024

A nonprofit dedicated to combating antisemitism on Wednesday rebuked a Washington Post story that claimed the group had "upended" the lives of anti-Israel figures.

Calling the story both "disturbing and ironic," StopAntisemitism executive director Liora Rez suggested that The Washington Post often voices support for those who expose rhetoric critical of marginalized groups but has now become sympathetic to Hamas apologists and those who push Jewish conspiracy theories.

"It appears that this particular reporter and his editors only have qualms when Jews defend themselves and take antisemite rhetoric and bring it to the forefront. So, our question is, why are you aligning yourself subconsciously with pro-terror, antisemitic views? That's what we want to know," Rez told Fox News Digital.

On Tuesday, Washington Post reporter Pranshu Verma published a piece that included the stories of several individuals who faced real-world consequences after criticizing Israel or expressing support for Hamas.

It included the story of Dani Marzouca, who said in an Instagram livestream that "radical solidarity with Palestine means … not apologizing for Hamas."

Marzouca was fired shortly after StopAntisemitism posted the video to its X page.

"Hamas is a U.S.-designated terror organization, and we have this woman essentially spewing pro-terror propaganda, stating that if you want to be pro-Palestinian, you have to be pro-terrorism. It's insanity," Rez said.

The StopAntisemitism executive said her group applauds Marzouca's employer for taking swift action.

"If I personally was working with somebody who wanted my demise, the death of myself as a Jewish woman, I wouldn't want to be working with somebody like that," Rez added.

An editorial in the New York Times — published online over the weekend as Iranian missiles and drones were about to head for Israel and in print the morning after the attack — called for US President Joe Biden to “consider pausing military transfers to Israel.”

“America cannot continue, as it has, to supply Israel with the arms it has been using in its war against Hamas,” the Times editorial board said.

In addition to being tastelessly timed, the editorial was rife with factual and logical errors.

One of the most glaring mistakes came in the third sentence of the editorial, which referred to “the US commitment to Israel — including $3.8 billion a year in military aid, the largest outlay of American foreign aid to any one country in the world.”

In fact, according to ForeignAssistance.gov, an official US government site, Ukraine got $16.7 billion in 2023 and $12.4 billion in 2022, while Israel got $3.3 billion in both 2022 and 2023.

Even if the Times‘s $3.8 billion figure, perhaps reflecting missile defense expenditures or a boost in post-Oct. 7 emergency assistance, was accurate for Israel, the Ukraine sums were still significantly larger.

I emailed the New York Times to ask whether it would correct that error. The Times opinion editor, Kathleen Kingsbury, wrote back directly to tell The Algemeiner, “We have reviewed and stand by the piece as it stands. The reference is to the fact that Israel is cumulatively the largest recipient of American foreign aid, even as Ukraine has surpassed it on an annual basis in recent years.”

The editorial said, “[Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu has ignored his obligations to provide food and medicine to the civilian population in the territory that Israel now controls. In fact, Israel has made it difficult for anyone else to provide humanitarian aid to Gaza.”

It’s not accurate that Netanyahu has “ignored” that obligation; to the contrary, he’s devoted considerable resources to inspecting aid shipments going into Gaza and to reopening border crossings, even while knowing that a portion of the aid would be stolen by Hamas once it entered Gaza. The Israeli government has said that out of 5,893 aid trucks it inspected in the past month, it denied entry to only 29. Even the Times itself conceded that Hamas “bears a major share of responsibility for the suffering inflicted on the people in whose name it purports to act.”

In 2021, when Shahana Hanif was elected to represent Brooklyn’s 39th Council District, progressives throughout the district were excited and optimistic. A Kensington-born daughter of Bangladeshi immigrants, Hanif was the first Muslim woman elected to the City Council, with a promise and commitment to represent every resident of the district. Two-and-a-half years later, however, many of her Jewish constituents feel abandoned, betrayed and endangered.

Well before Hamas murdered around 1,200 people and kidnapped another 240 hostages on Oct. 7, Hanif tweeted direct calls to violence like “Globalize the Intifada,” a Hamas terrorist campaign of suicide bombings that killed close to 2,000 Israelis. Later, Hanif was one of only two councilmembers to vote against a City Council resolution to “end Jew-hatred.” Her weak excuse for voting “no” left many saddened and angered.

However, it is since the events of Oct. 7, that Hanif has made her true views and agenda known. Her silence, words, and actions since Hamas’ mass murder and rape have made her constituents, Jews and non-Jews, feel unsupported and unsafe.

Many Jewish residents in Hanif’s district have friends and relatives among those murdered, raped, and kidnapped on Oct. 7. Some of us awoke on that day to follow in real-time, through WhatsApp messages and desperate calls, the brutal murder of loved ones. While elected officials across the world immediately condemned Hamas’ brutality, our councilmember remained silent for five days and offered no support or assistance to the Jews in her district.

Hanif’s first public comment came on Oct. 12, when she published a tweet blaming Israel for the bloodshed. She has participated in demonstrations in which genocidal chants like “From the River to the Sea” were commonplace, not once disassociating herself from them. She hasn’t condemned the antisemitic graffiti or vandalization of property in her district, nor the ripping of hostage posters.

In a city in which antisemitic hate crimes increased 170% between the end of 2022 and the end of 2023, Hanif’s attitude is a blatant dereliction of duty. To add to the harm, Hanif is given cover by fringe anti-Zionist Jewish groups, which do not represent the Jewish community, allowing her to ignore, if not condemn, the 95% of Jews who believe Israel has a right to exist.

In the spirit of constructive dialogue, a multi-racial and ideologically diverse group of 16 Jewish community leaders from her district recently met with the councilmember to express our frustration and dismay. Most of us have been public critics of Israeli policies and have vocally supported Palestinian rights.

We explained our new reality in which Jews who have outward signs of Jewishness have been physically and verbally assaulted. A new reality in which we need to warn our children to hide their Stars of David or not wear a yarmulke in public.

Unmoved by our plight, Hanif’s callous response left us shocked, rattled, and more afraid than before. During that meeting, the councilmember outright stated that she refused to condemn Hamas, she refused to say whether Israel had a right to exist, and told us that she was generally fine with the anti-Israel graffiti.

Almost 140 MPs and peers including former cabinet ministers from all the main political parties have written to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to demand that his government finally takes action to proscribe Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organisation.

The letter says that in the wake of the IRGC-led drone and missile attack on Israel last weekend, the need to proscribe the IRGC, which the government has been considering since the start of last year, is “more crucial and pertinent” than ever.

However, earlier this week Sunak’s spokesman said that the government did not intend to take this step, and that he considered that the UK sanctions levelled against the IRGC as an entity and some of its commanders were sufficient. He repeated the argument that has been made by the Foreign Office since early 2023, that proscription would lead to the closure of the British embassy in Tehran, so depriving Britain of the opportunity to engage diplomatically with the Iranian regime and cutting off the flow of valuable intelligence.

“The IRGC has never posed a greater threat within the UK,” says the letter, which was delivered on Thursday morning. “A range of their activities have been publicly disclosed, causing significant concern across our nation. These include assassination plots uncovered and foiled by MI5, intelligence gathering on British-Jewish targets by UK-based criminal networks, intimidation of journalists including Iranian journalists, and radicalisation in British Islamic centres.

“Additionally, the group has held British citizens as hostages and perpetrated numerous killings. Similar patterns of malicious behaviour have been observed by our European allies, including terror attacks in Germany and thwarted plots in Greece and France. Last month, IRGC thugs reportedly even carried out a stabbing against an Iran International journalist outside his home in Wimbledon” – a reference to the attack on the Iranian dissident TV presenter Pouria Zeraati.

The 137 signatories include Lord Walney, the government’s independent adviser on political violence and disruption, and span a wide political spectrum, running from the Labour left-winger Baroness Chakrabarti, an ally of Jeremy Corbyn, to the right-wing former Home Secretary Suella Braverman, who was known to support proscription before she was sacked by Sunak in November.

BREAKING: 134 Parliamentarians including 54 @Conservatives MPs have written to Prime Minister @RishiSunak calling for the proscription of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps #IRGCpic.twitter.com/mxh0xXvuy1

— CFoI (@CFoI) April 18, 2024

Canada stands with Israel, Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly said Monday, living up to the Trudeau government’s tradition of empty rhetoric and meaningless bromides.

Joly and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau have been spouting such banality since the horrendous Oct. 7 massacre.

Yet if the Trudeau government stood with Israel, it wouldn’t have supported an NDP motion to ban arms exports to Israel. And it wouldn’t have agreed to restart funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees.

But it most certainly would have listed the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist entity — something that Trudeau and Joly voted to do six years ago.

The Economist might have had the Liberals in mind when, last month, it published a piece saying that western allies were becoming estranged from Israel.

Featuring a cover headlined, Israel Alone, and illustrated with a solitary Israeli flag waving amid a grim desert scene, The Economist lamented Israel’s “estrangement from the West” and the Gulf Arab states.

And yet, at the moment of Israel’s military need, it wasn’t so alone after all.

As Iran fired more than 300 drones, ballistic and cruise missiles at Israel last weekend, a strange alliance came to its aid.

The Wall Street Journal describes the making of that coalition in an in-depth piece titled, How the U.S. Forged a Fragile Middle Eastern Alliance to Repel Iran’s Israel Attack.

While Jordanian involvement in shooting down Iranian drones and missiles aimed at Israel is well-known, the WSJ makes clear that Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates also played a part.

Tom Friedman has an understanding of the Middle East that a drunk hedge fund manager who corners you at an Upper East Side cocktail party to share his brilliant thoughts does.

Way too many people have told him he’s smart, which has led to columns like this one.… pic.twitter.com/8JpUfVKAwb

— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) April 17, 2024

Those at the heart of the Palestinian movement hate America

Palestinians themselves overwhelmingly hate America and the West (although they’re happy to take their money)

They celebrated 9/11

They are a jihadist society - which makes them an enemy of western civilisation pic.twitter.com/mvcdT5jJjg

— leekern (@leekern13) April 17, 2024

Freshly impeached Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas deflected to fears of “domestic violent extremism” Wednesday when asked if the nation is threatened by overseas violence as Iran and Israel engage in open conflict.

“Is there an increased risk in America of some sort of an attack tied to sympathies in the Middle East?” CBS Mornings co-host Tony Dokoupil asked Mayorkas.

“We have seen an increase in antisemitism,” Mayorkas replied. “We have seen an increase in Islamophobia following the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks.”

There is “no question” sentiments including antisemitism and Islamophobia have placed the security of the United States in a precarious position, according to Mayorkas.

“As Director Wray of the FBI and I have expressed publicly, we are in a heightened-threat environment,” he said. “What we worry about is an increase in what we call domestic violent extremism, the radicalization of individuals already here, driven to violence based on an ideology of hate.”

Still, Mayorkas did not confirm any known credible threats against the nation.

House Republicans delivered two articles of impeachment against Mayorkas Tuesday to the Democratic-controlled Senate, where a fiery trial is set to take place.

Tlaib “stormed out” of Dem meeting over support for Israel legislation: https://t.co/enO2udYQUA

— Josh Kraushaar (@JoshKraushaar) April 18, 2024

The PA is incredibly effective at brainwashing people across the generational spectrum to believe that achieving Martyrdom, i.e., dying for Allah, is of supreme value.

Official Palestinian television broadcasts this messaging regularly, making it difficult to miss. On the Moons of Palestine program, which focuses on promoting Martyrdom, Hussein Fawaqa reminisced about how his terrorist brother, Muhammad, would tell his mother from a young age that she would miss him after he dies as a Martyr:


Hussein Fawaqa, brother of terrorist Muhammad Fawaqa: “Praise Allah’s name, He chose [Muhammad Fawaqa], and He chose a path for him that everyone wishes for but not everyone achieves. Ever since he was little he always would talk about Martyrdom: ‘I will die as a Martyr and you will miss me’…He wished for it and he achieved it…”

[Official PA TV, Moons of Palestine, April 9, 2024]

Fawaqa’s mother not only expressed pride about her son’s desires but prayed that her son’s request to die as a martyr would be granted:
“Um Hussein,” mother of terrorist Muhammad Fawaqa: “He would always tell me: ‘I want to be a Martyr, pray for me, mom, that I will die as a Martyr.’ I would tell him: ‘You’re making a precious request of me’; the truth is I prayed for him [that he be granted Martyrdom].”

[Official PA TV, Moons of Palestine, April 9, 2024]

350,000 Gazans exited Gaza via Egypt & Israel from Jan-June 2023; 76,000 traveled the world via Egypt with their PA passports or ~7% of the population annually. This "open air" prison lie is stated as a key reason why Hamas had no choice but to do 10/7.https://t.co/MP4qSE7EoV

— Aizenberg (@Aizenberg55) April 18, 2024

Important thread: Palestinian writes about his sister who just arrived from Gaza to Egypt.

“It appears that reducing the number of those who actively radicalize their families and neighborhoods does not create more terrorists. Therefore, having fewer terrorists might be a good… https://t.co/WTiqs3fXjS

— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) April 18, 2024

As the U.S. and other countries pressure Israel to increase food aid to Gaza, Israeli officials say Gaza has been overwhelmed by food aid.

"There is no food shortage in Gaza, and there never was," says an Israeli official.

"The stores are full, the markets are bursting with goods, fruits, vegetables, shawarma, pitas - there is everything. Do you know why they no longer loot convoys? Because there is no shortage. The quantities entering are not normal."

"There is no need to open a passage in northern Gaza, no need to open the port of Ashdod, and also no need for an air corridor in Gaza - because there is no lack of food."

"The air corridor is a crazy operation, the airdrops are unnecessary - they are expensive and the quantities are small, but they photograph well. The UN cannot distribute what enters, so why would more be needed?" an Israeli official said.

In Israel, they believe that the way senior U.S. administration officials express themselves echoes the false claims of Hamas supporters as if genocide is taking place in Gaza.

Market scenes in northern Gaza yesterday, April 17 pic.twitter.com/bI4DTWMLwa

— COGAT (@cogatonline) April 18, 2024

Selling humanitarian aid is the norm in Gaza
But let's not film it. We don't want the west to know pic.twitter.com/TYmI8AKKgx

— Hamas Atrocities (@HamasAtrocities) April 18, 2024

Just to make it clear
This water bottle is FREE AID water bottle from Israel

— Hamas Atrocities (@HamasAtrocities) April 17, 2024

The starvation is getting so bad in Gaza that the aid trucks are bringing in cigarettes. Historically speaking, free Marlboros have been part of most genocides.#GazaGenocidehttps://t.co/HuSao58sAX

— Noah Pollak (@NoahPollak) April 18, 2024

Ashtray with a portrait of Sinwar
The text says:
"Turned Gaza into ashes"

IDF soldiers handed these out in the Askar refugee camp in Nablus, West bank, after a series of arrests

The message is clear:
FAFO! pic.twitter.com/bGoF6ba8ST

— Hamas Atrocities (@HamasAtrocities) April 18, 2024

Lebanese MP Ghada Ayoub: Hizbullah Occupies Christian Lands, Stations Airport, Rocket Launching Pads in Them; If We Don’t Remove Hizbullah from the Border with Israel, that Area Will Become a Second Gaza @DrGhadaAyoub#Lebanon#Hizbullahpic.twitter.com/kXvr9WmyQt

— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) April 18, 2024

Tehran calculates that it stands to gain more in terms of sanctions relief and future negotiations by dangling the threat of the bomb than actually building it.

It has carefully cultivated a network of proxies such as Hezbollah and Hamas across the Middle East as part of a “forward defence” strategy to contain Israel. Iranian officials have begun talking of their “deterrent”, jargon associated with nuclear bombs, and suggesting that they have the ability to build a bomb when they want to.

Weaponising would be dangerous. Far better instead to leverage the status of a threshold nuclear power.

Escalation carries significant risk to the regime, which explains why the April 13 attack was so clearly telegraphed and more performative than intent on serious damage.

But if Israel retaliates, Tehran could decide it needs the bomb for its own security and has already shown a taste for danger.

“While the recent Iranian attack was ultimately ineffective, it illustrates that the regime in Tehran is deeply reckless, and seemingly comfortable with the risk that one drone or missile strike could have hit a densely populated urban target and completely changed Israel’s response,” Mr Coningham said.

“Iran will pay a steep price for developing nuclear weapons, so it will not make that decision lightly,” Ms Davenport told The Telegraph.

She added: “Escalating tensions between Israel and Iran increases the risk of Tehran determining that nuclear weapons are necessary for its security, particularly if Israel responds to the April 13 attack with a counterstrike on Iranian territory.”

Mr Barnes-Dacey said: “The intelligence suggests they don’t want to weaponise at the moment but that could change on a dime.

“Iran could decide, particularly given the worsening regional situation, that actually ultimately a nuclear deterrent is precisely what it needs in the context of a more aggressive Israel and the prospect of Trump coming back into power.”

Iran could review its “nuclear doctrine” amid Israeli threats after Tehran’s unprecedented missile and drone attack, says a senior commander in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, according to the semi-official Tasnim news agency.

“A review of our nuclear doctrine and politics as well as considerations previously communicated is entirely possible,” says Ahmad Haghtalab, the IRGC commander in charge of nuclear security.

Tehran has long claimed its nuclear program was for civilian purposes. Israel has accused Iran of wanting to acquire an atomic bomb, and has said that it will not allow it to happen.

Iran launched more than 300 drones and missiles at Israel overnight from Saturday into Sunday morning in its first direct attack on Israeli territory.

The barrage came in retaliation for an alleged Israeli airstrike on what Tehran said was an Iranian consular building in Damascus, that killed seven IRGC soldiers, including two generals.

Israel and its allies shot down the vast majority of the drones and missiles and the attack caused only one injury, but concerns about a potential Israeli reprisal have nevertheless stoked fears of all-out regional war.

When Biden was elected Iran's nuclear program was in a box. No enrichment above 5%, no cascading of advanced centrifures, etc. Biden dismantled nuclear and economic pressure and let them get within reach of a nuclear arsenal. Now they're threatening to go nuclear to constrain…

— Omri Ceren (@omriceren) April 18, 2024

As Mary Jane Rein prepared to publicly exit her role as executive director of Clark University’s Holocaust center, she attended a local fundraiser for Catholic schools.

After 20 years, she was leaving her job at Clark on bad terms. A member of the Holocaust and Genocide Studies Ph.D. program had heckled her at a public event while she prepared to introduce an Israeli military reservist. The university, in her view, had failed to support her, she wrote in a Wall Street Journal essay recounting the episode.

Now, Rein was about to assume a new role overseeing a center for “civic dialogue” at Assumption University. The Catholic gala was her first public outing in that job.

Clark is a private nonsectarian school with a reputation for producing Holocaust scholarship; Assumption, where Rein had previously directed the fundraising program, is Roman Catholic. But though Rein is very involved in her Worcester, Massachusetts Jewish community, she felt a sense of belonging at the Catholic gala event. The gala that night honored a Jewish person, and a cardinal joined via video chat to discuss tikkun olam, the Jewish concept of repairing the world.

“I felt, this is just a message from God telling me I’ve made the right decision,” Rein told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency this week.

Rein’s career change reflects two trends: the inhospitality some Jewish employees, students and faculty feel on secular campuses around Israel, and the efforts Christian colleges are putting in to woo Jews looking for a safe space from rising campus antisemitism - something that began prior to October 7 but has taken on new energy. Christian schools made up the lions’ share of a coalition last year that signed an open letter declaring “We stand with Israel against Hamas” and “the fight against Hamas is a fight against evil.” Some have also offered expedited transfers for Jewish students, even at schools like Franciscan University of Steubenville in Ohio, which has almost no Jewish life to speak of.

Switzerland's parliament on Wednesday approved a motion to ban the Nazis' swastika emblem as part of a crackdown on extremist symbols in the neutral country.

The lower house of parliament voted to prohibit one of the most infamous symbols of Adolf Hitler's National Socialist regime following concerns about rising antisemitism.

The number of antisemitic incidents in Switzerland has leaped since the October 7 massacre and the ensuing Gaza war, according to a report last month.

"Racially discriminatory, violent, extremist and especially National Socialist symbols have no place in our society and should not be used in public," Justice Minister Beat Jans told parliament.

The legal commission of the lower house recommended a speedy implementation of the ban, which has already been approved by the Swiss upper house.

The cabinet must now draft legislation that makes it illegal to wear, publicly display or spread racist, violent, or extremist symbols. The ban would extend to propaganda materials, gestures, slogans, and flags.

The draft legislation would then require final approval by both houses of parliament.

Antisemitism in Malmo, Sweden is so out of control that the Shin Bet told Eden Golan, Israel's Eurovision singer, not to leave her hotel room aside from performances and official events. pic.twitter.com/xbMu9cgim4

— Aviva Klompas (@AvivaKlompas) April 18, 2024

StandWithUs is offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the woman caught on video toppling a menorah at a synagogue in Sunny Isles Beach, Florida. She is also believed to be responsible for scrawling an antisemitic message on a nearby bus…

— StandWithUs (@StandWithUs) April 18, 2024

“The People of Israel live” is a political statement.

At least according to staff at a Central London branch of headwear retailer @lids.

Lids staff refused to embroider the words “Am Israel Chai” on a hat ordered by Holocaust remembrance activist @MrJonnyDaniels, despite him… pic.twitter.com/E6IiwczY1n

— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) April 18, 2024

Former New York City mayor and philanthropist Michael Bloomberg convened a roundtable discussion of Israeli mayors in Tel Aviv on Thursday to launch a recovery and repair innovation initiative for the hardest-hit cities in Israel amid the war; it was unveiled exclusively to The Jerusalem Post.

The initiative, under Bloomberg Philanthropies, intends to provide both support and expertise based on vast experience in other conflict zones to the most affected communities across Israel that suffered following the massacre on October 7 and during the subsequent war. Committed to providing support for Israel during the war

“I know this continues to be an extremely difficult time for everyone – and for Israel – and that’s why I’m here,” Bloomberg said in his opening remarks. “I have great confidence in Israel’s future – because I believe in the power of those values.

“Those values have been attacked before – and they will be attacked again. But time and again, we have seen the power of people who believe in those values to overcome the worst in human nature. That is America’s story – it is Israel’s story – it’s the story of the free world and it endures because it connects to something deep within the human spirit that no government, and no terrorist group, can kill.”

Seated at the roundtable were mayors from all sectors, Jewish and Arab alike, including Tzvika Brot of Bat Yam; Rafik Halabi of Daliat al-Carmel; Miriam Fierberg of Netanya; Mazen Ghnaim of Sakhnin; Rotem Yadlin of Gezer Regional Council; and Raed Daka of Baka al-Gharbiya.

The group gathered at the Bloomberg Sagol Center for City Leadership at Tel Aviv University to discuss a “new program that will help bring world-class expertise to support 65 localities,” according to Bloomberg.

Tel Aviv University President Prof. Ariel Porat said, “The Israeli government failed to provide its citizens with all kinds of different services. The municipalities could and should play an important role.”

Breaking news: The real story of the Jewish exodus from Egypt by CNN

Barbra Streisand will release a new single for the Peacock series The Tattooist of Auschwitz.

Peacock announced in a press release Wednesday that Streisand recorded the song “Love Will Survive” for the upcoming adaptation.

“Love Will Survive” will play during the end title of the show. The song is Streisand’s first for a TV series and will be released April 25 ahead of the show’s premiere.

Hans Zimmer composed “Love Will Survive” in collaboration with Kara Talve and Walter Afanasieff, with lyrics by Charlie Midnight. Zimmer and Talve also composed the original score for the show.

The Tattooist of Auschwitz is based on the Heather Morris novel of the same name. The show is inspired by the true story of Lale Solokov, a Holocaust survivor who met his wife, Gita, during his time at Auschwitz. Solokov was assigned to tattoo fellow prisoners at the concentration camp.

Harvey Keitel plays an older Lali, who recounts his story to a novice writer (Melanie Lynskey) 60 years later. Jonah Hauer-King and Anna Próchniak play a young Lali and Gita.

“Because of the rise in antisemitism around the world today, I wanted to sing ‘Love Will Survive’ in the context of this series, as a way of remembering the six-million souls who were lost less than 80 years ago. And also to say that even in the darkest of times, the power of love can triumph and endure,” Streisand said in a statement.

Some hope does remain even in these dark times for Jewish poetry. A handful of Jewish poets noted a catalytic effect of the new climate on their creativity and resolve. The poet Matthew Lippmann spoke of a new resolve: “In my experience since Oct. 7 there has been a much more robust need and desire to get poems with/of Jewish content (about the war and about matters around being Jewish) out there, published. […] If anything, it has amped up my desire to send work out that has Jewish content as if to say to the literary community, Hey people, we ain’t going nowhere.”

A Jewish poet who has not personally had negative experiences defined the moment as “an important one to reaffirm my Jewish identity in my work, and I’ve been grateful for the welcome it has received” from the poetry community. Another Jewish poet, who has “published with some non-Jewish sources successfully,” expressed “hope, that it’s not the entire literary world who is gaslighting us.” The poet Clint Margrave had “both positive and negative experiences”: “A lot of the negative experiences come from what I’ve read online by extreme factions of the community. I know a number of poets/editors in the real world who are more thoughtful, nuanced, and supportive. […] I think the decent members of the community, no matter their stance on Israel/Palestine, have all been appalled by the rise of antisemitism. But sadly, the louder, more extreme voices in the community seem to win out online.”

Several Jewish poets resorted to poignant historical or literary parallels to explain their understanding of the post-Oct. 7 atmosphere. Jewish poets refer to Orwellian language in employ of those in the poetry community who stand against Israel. The poet David Biespiel referenced Soviet literary culture as he assessed the conduct of many American poetry institutions and organizations since Oct. 7:
The literary community in the United States, like other communities, moves as a swarm moves. Not true for every entity. But it’s not sad so much as, worse, predictably sad that some communities have gone full Union of Soviet Writers over and over again in reaction to complex, painful national and world news: absolute party and state control in the field of literature, obligatory fealty to the point of denial of opportunities for publication, and slavishly tendentious (to borrow that old Union of Soviet Writers word). I like to think this will pass, for good or for ill.

Almost a third of the 70 respondents emphasized the role of Jewish publications and Jewish literary spaces post-Oct. 7. Conceived back in 2017 as a gathering platform and a tabernacle for Jewish poets, and featuring a series of online resources and an extensive database of Jewish poets, Yetzirah runs poetry readings and features publications by Jewish poets. It held its first conference in the summer of 2023. The poet Maya Bernstein, who is on Yetzirah’s board, summed up the role of the organization: “I think that Yetzirah’s existence […] was born from feelings of unfriendliness/antisemitism/unreceptiveness to Jewish poetry, and that Oct 7th has magnified this tremendously. We’re trying to make space for Jewish poetry and poets in this climate.” By and large, Jewish poets view such Jewish venues as open and tolerant, although a fraction of the respondents voiced concerns that even Jewish spaces do not—or may not welcome—poems that are “too Jewish” or too Judaic.

Yet success stories aside, one of the realizations one makes in surveying American Jewish publications is that the space for Jewish poetry has catastrophically shrunk—even though Jewish poets and readers alike need Jewish publications where works by Jewish poets and, moreover, works with Jewish poetic content, regularly appear. Some of the Jewish periodicals that used to publish poetry almost in every issue have closed down, as Midstream did in 2013, whereas others got out of the poetry business. Others, such as Moment, do not publish poetry in every issue. Of the old guard of American Jewish periodicals, only Lilith, the “independent, Jewish & frankly feminist magazine,” still publishes poetry with regularity—in a feature edited by the poet Alicia Ostriker.

Of Jewish periodicals with sizable audiences, Tablet regularly publishes articles on poetry and poets, with a lesser emphasis on publishing Jewish poetry. The Forward does not publish poetry, although in its Yiddish incarnation it was famously a home for great Jewish writers. Jewish Currents does publish poetry, but this Menshevik magazine caters to an audience of anti-Zionist Jews and regards the arts in general as an adjunct to its political program.

Perhaps the most damaging impact of the wave of anti-Jewish and anti-Israel feeling that has swept through the landscape of American poetry is on the very state of Jewish poets, who feel themselves called on either to affirm or to reject the political frameworks being imposed on them by Jew-haters and Israel-haters. In an atmosphere of aggressively politicized, career-ending hate, it becomes harder for poets to be poets.

In the post-Oct. 7 climate, Jewish poets feel ever more acutely the urgent need for literary publishing spaces with a dedicated Jewish mission and without a prescriptive hostility to Israel. One would be remiss here not to acknowledge the post-Oct. 7 periodicals and projects, of which there are bound to be more, with an overtly Zionist and pro-Israel mission. Here I will highlight three such initiatives, all of them launched in early 2024: Green Golem: The Zionist Literary Magazine, founded by the American Jewish writer Alex Horn, Iron Words Israel War Stories, founded by Hila Bar, a South African Jew who made aliyah and lives in Israel, and OfTheBook, founded by the British Jewish writer and translator Susie Gordon.

These post-Oct. 7 literary venues seek poets who aspire to go beyond what we have become so good at after centuries of living in non-Jewish societies: the art of Jewish apologia.

Patton is one of the great American films, featuring George C. Scott as the brilliant, flawed, and exceedingly idiosyncratic general who believed in reincarnation and insisted he had himself been present at all of the great battles in human history. Toward the beginning of the film, Patton is driving with another general, Omar Bradley, in the Morocco desert, when he spies a battle site from the Punic Wars. He insists that they pull over, and the very modern general is suddenly transported to a scene two millennia earlier. He says to Bradley: “It was here. The battlefield was here. The Carthaginians defending the city were attacked by three Roman Legions. The Carthaginians were proud and brave, but they couldn’t hold. Two thousand years ago. I was here.”

The point is to stress the strangeness of a man who personally identifies with a battle that took place nearly two dozen centuries earlier. Patton had himself written some terrible things about the Jewish people; but for Jews, this scene in particular should not be that odd. We remember, commemorate, and mourn moments that took place in the ancient past, some of them intimately involving defeats at the hands of the very same Romans themselves.

This was brought home to me over the past few months, as I have been teaching a seminar on Josephus’s The Jewish War at Yeshiva University’s Stern College for Women. Josephus’s history chronicles the Jewish rebellion against Rome that broke out in 66 C.E., which concluded with the Romans burning Jerusalem and its Temple, in the year 70. The seminar is conducted in an old-fashioned way. Laptops are prohibited, and the text is studied in print, with members of the class taking turns reading from it aloud. The English translation, composed in the 19th century, contains phrases that students have rarely seen, such as descriptions of troops that “sally” forth from the city; this lends a greater feeling of antiquity to the subject.

But not only antiquity. The course is one of many offered by Yeshiva’s Straus Center for Torah and Western Thought, which focuses on the great works of Judaism and the West, and which includes Aristotle and other classical works in its curriculum. Yet this course is different, for its subject is simultaneously ancient and intimate.

If one were to teach a seminar to American students on the Punic or Peloponnesian Wars, one would have to describe a geography utterly unfamiliar to the students. But these young women are entirely aware of the sites being discussed. If I describe where a specific battle around Jerusalem took place, I merely refer to a current location in the Old City, where these students have been many times. Similarly, when the rest of the Holy Land is described, they have a sense of the layout of the land. If we read of a journey by Titus’s troops from Caesarea to Jerusalem, it is a trip many have taken themselves. If we learn of Vespasian beginning the war in the Galilee and then proceeding south, we are following a journey toward the center of the country that they have all experienced. The students can, in other words, read of battle sites in an ancient text and say of those sites Patton’s words: I was there.

This intimacy makes the material more emotionally affecting, bridging past and present. The story would, of course, be depressing at any time; Josephus describes both the internecine conflict that plagued Jerusalem within, and the havoc wrought on Jews by the siege that Titus established without. But our engagement of the text has taken on a particular pertinence, I think, by the terrible parallels in our own news in the past months. To read of Romans rampaging through Jewish streets, murdering men and women, is to be reminded of Jews murdered in the same way in the past year. Descriptions of piles of Jewish corpses, of the torture of Jews at the hands of the enemy, have dreadful relevance.

The students further perceive, hovering over the text, an impending sense of doom. In synagogue, they have mourned, every year, the ancient events that Josephus describes. I wryly remarked to students, who have told me that they share what they are learning with their families around the Shabbat table, that the material they present every week is progressively more depressing. We all know how the story ends.

I was asked about “Zionist colonialism”, so here’s the history of Jews and Zionism in 3 minutes:
(Speaking with students at University of Michigan.) pic.twitter.com/dwC2SoKxgu

— Naftali Bennett נפתלי בנט (@naftalibennett) April 18, 2024

A long Seder table installation was unveiled outside Downing Street today featuring 133 empty chairs and posters each bearing the face of a hostage who still remains in Gaza six months after October 7 @bringhomenowpic.twitter.com/S3qLNij9IO

— Daniel Ben-David (@DannyBenDavid) April 17, 2024

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon! Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.  Read all about it here!

By Daled Amos 

This interview was done before Israel's response to Iran's attack this morning. It outlines an approach that in fact appears to be the one adopted by Israel in Syria and Iran.

"Israel continuing undeterred to attack Iranian interests as before, would frustrate the Iranian attempt to stop Israeli action against Iran and their proxies"
Irwin Mansdorf, Ph.D., fellow at the Jerusalem Center of Public Affairs specializing in political psychology 

Dr. Irwin J. Mansdorf

In your recent article, To Respond or Not to Respond: Is That the Real Question? you discuss the issue of Israel's deterrence of Iran, in light of Iran's direct attack on Israel. From a psychological standpoint, what is the definition of deterrence? How is its success measured?

Deterrence is simply reducing the probability, frequency, or intensity of an action. For Iran, deterrence is directed at Israel’s actions against Iranian interests in Syria, Lebanon, and in Iran proper. For Israel, deterrence is targeted against Iranian aggression against Israel.

Israel has been attacking Iranian targets both in Syria and in Iran itself for years now. What do you think Israel's goal has been, and has it been successful?

Israeli actions in Syria differ from Israeli actions in Iran. Most of the activity in Syria was directed against arming Iranian proxies who fight Israel. Action on Iranian soil was directed largely at thwarting Iranian nuclear ambitions. Measuring success is relative, and since the motivation for attacking Israel and developing nuclear capability still exists, we can only talk about suppressing behavior as opposed to eliminating it.

As a psychological tool, does Israeli deterrence rely only on the 2 opposing parties, or is there a message there for Israel's "allies" in the West and the Gulf as well?

To the degree that Israeli interests align with that of “allies,” the message is the same. But for each “ally”, there are domestic considerations, and those considerations can determine how far any country will go in their cooperation with Israel or the United States against Iran.

You indicated in your article that the debate of whether Israel needs to retaliate has overlooked Iran's purpose in launching their barrage of drones and missiles. What was Iran's intent? How does that goal affect Israel's calculation of whether to retaliate immediately? What do you think Israel should do?

The immediate goal of Iran was to “punish” Israel for the strike that killed several top IRG commanders. This was a public humiliation for the Iranian regime that they apparently felt they needed to respond to. By launching such a massive response, they hoped for success, which would be a reduction in Israeli activity against Iran. However, Iran’s ultimate intent is to destroy Israel. That has been made clear time and time again. I don’t think there was an expectation that the drone and missile attack would destroy Israel, but it certainly was a test of their weaponry and an exercise that was aimed at convincing Israel to restrain attacks against Iranian interests.

Since Iran’s goal was to reduce Israeli military and covert operations against Iranian interests, Israel needs to continue according to a plan that demonstrates that the Iranian attack did not achieve that goal.

You write:

Considering the success of Israel in its defensive stance, any future Iranian actions in response to Israeli initiatives should be viewed as a failure in Iran’s stated goal of deterrence, viz. Israel

Can you elaborate?

I don’t think that Iran expected that their drone and missile attack would fail to produce more damage than it did. That reduced the deterrent effect of their action. Considering the scale of their attack, they would be risking an even greater loss of deterrence should a subsequent attack produce similarly limited results.

Business as usual -- Israel continuing undeterred to attack Iranian interests as before -- would frustrate the Iranian attempt to stop Israeli action against Iran and their proxies. While a larger-scale "show" attack would certainly make waves, we need to keep in mind that Iran's purpose in their attack was to stop the current Israeli policy, and an approach that counters those goals would appear to be most effective, and, given the international support at the moment, the most functional and practical for Israel to take.

In 2006, Kissinger wrote:

A modern, strong, peaceful Iran could become a pillar of stability and progress in the region. This cannot happen unless Iran's leaders decide whether they are representing a cause or a nation — whether their basic motivation is crusading or international cooperation. The goal of the diplomacy of the Six should be to oblige Iran to confront this choice.

Hamas sees itself more as a cause than as a nation, claiming that the defense of Gazans falls to the UN and Israel. Would that explain in part why deterrence has not worked?

Absolutely. Hamas is an abbreviation for the “Islamic” resistance movement, and “Palestine” is not even part of their name. Their motivation may include nationalistic goals, but their primary purpose is a religious one—and that sort of ideology is much more resistant to change

“Deterrence” is temporary. Within Islamist philosophy, temporary breaks in fighting are acceptable so long as the goal of ultimate victory can be resumed at a later stage. The religious ideology of Iran’s leadership will not be deterred, in the conventional sense, from moving towards their ultimate goal. While they may make temporary concessions that, to Western eyes, may appear to be steps toward accommodation, this is only a “break in action” until the circumstances and conditions are ripe for them to take the next step toward their goals. Iran may seem to accept “moderation” as a temporary and functional step, but their ideology will always keep its goals against Israel and the United States on “standby” until they are able to take action.

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon! Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.  Read all about it here!

The West’s admonishments of Israel certainly cannot be put down to simple wavering on Joe Biden’s part. Despite his oft-professed claim to be a staunch supporter of Israel, he has been equivocal in backing Israel in its war against Hamas. Crucially, he has also avoided discussing the Hamas-Iran connection despite it being transparently clear. As Gadi Taub, a veteran Israeli journalist, noted last year: ‘From the get-go, the US denied Iran’s fingerprints on the Hamas attack. National-security adviser Jake Sullivan said there was no “direct” evidence of Iranian involvement.’ That was despite the fact there was ample evidence, including public statements by Hamas leaders thanking Iran for its support.

Last month, the Biden administration approved a sanctions waiver worth $10 billion to Iran – a nation it has publicly declared to be a state sponsor of terrorism. America could have chosen to suspend or discontinue this waiver in the wake of Iran’s assault on Israel, but it has not done so. That it remains in place is all the more remarkable given that a drone attack by an Iranian-backed group recently killed three American soldiers and injured 30 others in Jordan. You don’t have to support the sanctions to notice the wide gap between America’s words and its deeds when it comes to Iran.

Biden’s relatively soft stance on Iran is actually in line with a political realignment among Democrats dating back to the Obama administration, when Biden was vice-president. As Michael Oren, a former Israeli ambassador to Washington, has noted:

‘Those policies began in the week after President Barack Obama’s inauguration in January 2009. In one of the 44th president’s first acts of foreign diplomacy, Obama sent an offer of reconciliation to Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. That June, in his historic Cairo speech, Obama became the first president to refer to Tehran’s regime as the Islamic Republic of Iran – legitimising the oppressive theocracy – and stood aside while that republic’s thugs beat and shot hundreds of Iranian citizens protesting for their freedom.’

There are two distinct motivations for America’s long-term attempt to tilt away from Israel and towards Iran. The first is geopolitical and the second lies in the sphere of domestic politics.

Where geopolitics is concerned, the Democrats are keen to draw the Islamic Republic, a regime that has condemned America as the ‘Great Satan’, closer into the US’s orbit. Officially, the US has not had diplomatic relations with Iran since 1980, the year after the Islamists took power in the Iranian Revolution. They have instead tried to maintain relations by other means. These have included the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), unofficially known as the Iran nuclear deal, promoted by Obama and later by Biden.

This is all part of a broader US strategy known as the pivot to Asia. The aim is to reorient American foreign policy away from the Middle East and towards East Asia. Its priority is to contain China.

The Biden administration’s hope is that defusing tensions with the hostile forces in the Middle East will make its pivot to Asia easier. Yet since the pivot was announced, the US has found itself dragged into further conflicts in the Middle East, including in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria. America has also found itself reluctantly drawn into the periodic conflicts between Israel and Hamas. Biden wants to untangle America from this bitter strife as much as he possibly can. This means downgrading its commitments to Israel.

What’s more, the Biden administration, like Obama before it, is increasingly influenced by domestic identity politics. Many grassroots US Democrats see the conflicts involving Israel in simplistic black and white terms. Israel is today portrayed as a regional bastion of privilege – supposedly akin to those who enjoy privilege at home in America – with the Palestinians representing the oppressed. The involvement of Islamist movements in the region, which have pledged to destroy Israel, is ignored or at least downplayed. The activists who hold this view have placed considerable pressure on Biden to withdraw support for Israel.

There are also notable overlaps between the Islamist worldview and the woke worldview. Both tend to see Israel representing the side of evil. Both fail to distinguish between the Palestinian people and Hamas, with its goal of an international Islamic order. And both also tend to downplay or even dismiss the role of anti-Semitism as a key motivating force in the current conflict.

Today, Israel faces not just the wrath of its genocidal enemies – from Hamas to Iran and its other proxies. It also has to contend with its increasing isolation from the West. This is a dangerous moment.

The Islamic Republic of Iran is not just a failed regime, economically ruined, disavowed by its youth, women, and its living elements, revealed to have the force of a paper tiger.

It’s also a country that—like the USSR of recent times, where there coexisted both a real country devastated by economic misery and public demoralization, and decoupled from that, an ultramodern military-industrial complex able to compete with the United States—established a secret but effective nuclear industry.

It’s a country whose programs in that area have only grown and prospered as America changed course, over the last 15 years, oscillating between Obama’s ineffectual and misbegotten policy of détente and, under Trump, ineffectual ranting.

And, as for Iran’s nuclear programs, their sites have been moved and often buried over the years; their centrifuges have become capable of producing enough enriched uranium to build stockpiles 22 times above the limit authorized by the 2015 nuclear deal; IAEA inspectors no longer have meaningful access to them. These sites have become giant black holes, off the radar, from which the world could learn, in six months, in a year, suddenly, that Iran has been allowed to join North Korea and Russia in the club of dictatorships capable of setting the planet on fire …

I’ll add that the same Iranian drones that, with the exception of a young girl in the south of the country, systematically missed their targets are the very ones that Putin has used, for two years now, to ravage Ukraine.

And I’ll add that the same Iran that was mocked, this Monday morning, for its pathetic failure in the face of the solidity of the Iron Dome, recently engaged, in the Persian Gulf, in joint naval maneuvers, largely unnoticed, with the Russian and Chinese navies.

Let’s imagine, then, that the Iranian regime emerges unharmed from this adventure.

Let’s imagine that it sees this adventure not as a lamentable defeat, but as a dress rehearsal. And let’s suppose that they repeat it, six months, a year from now, with faster and more accurate drones and missiles, equipped with operational nuclear warheads.

That, for Israel and, beyond, for the region, is a terrifying prospect. It is a clear existential threat.

And that is why it feels unreasonable to me that “cowardly relief” reigns among Israel’s allies and dictates, everywhere, the same recommendation for “de-escalation” and “restraint.”

Iran has declared war.

There is no other choice, alas, but to retaliate.

Before the Biden appeasement of Iran, the Trump administration had isolated and nearly bankrupted Tehran and its proxies. Its Revolutionary Guard terrorist planners proved to be easy targets once they operated outside Iran.

Iran’s only hope is to get a bomb and, with it, nuclear deterrence to prevent retaliation when it increases its terrorist surrogate attacks on Israel, the West, and international commerce.

Yet now Iran may have jumped the shark by attacking the Israeli homeland for the first time. It is learning that it has almost no sympathetic allies.

Does even the Lebanese Hezbollah really want to take revenge against Israel on behalf of Persian Iran, only to see its Shia neighborhoods in Lebanon reduced to rubble?

Do all the pro-Hamas protestors on American campuses and in the streets really want to show Americans they celebrate Iranian attacks and a potential Iranian war against the United States?

Does Iran really believe 99 percent of any future Israel barrage against Iranian targets would fail to hit targets in the fashion that its own recent launches failed?

Does Iran really believe that its sheer incompetence in attacking Israel warrants them a pardon—as if they should be excused for trying, but not succeeding, to kill thousands of Jews?

In sum, by unleashing a terrorist war in the Middle East and targeting the Israeli homeland, Iran may wake up soon and learn Israel, or America, or both might retaliate for a half-century of its terrorist aggression—and mostly to the indifference or even the delight of most of the world.

Israel attacked deep in Iran early Friday morning, reportedly targeting a military facility close to the city of Isfahan, some 930 miles from the Jewish state.

Three Iranian sources confirmed to The New York Times that an airbase in Isfahan was targeted, while anonymous Israeli and U.S. officials were cited by outlets as saying that the IDF conducted the strike.

Iranian media denied any Israeli missile attack, claiming that the Islamic Republic had shot down drones in its airspace. Iran’s nuclear facilities were not hit, according to the U.N.’s atomic watchdog.

An Israeli official told The Washington Post that the assault “was intended to signal to Iran that Israel had the ability to strike inside the country.”

Jerusalem reportedly told the United States on Thursday that it planned to retaliate within a 24- to 48-hour window for Tehran’s massive drone and missile assault last weekend.

There was no immediate comment from the Israel Defense Forces or the Prime Minister’s Office.

The U.S. embassy in Jerusalem issued an alert to government employees and their families restricting travel to the Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Beersheva regions out of “an abundance of caution following reports that Israel conducted a retaliatory strike inside Iran.”

According to various reports, early this morning (April 19), on Ayatollah Khamenei's 85th birthday, an air strike took place near the city of Isfahan. According to the reports, this is an Israeli response to the Iranian attack on Israel on April 14. According to some, the Air… pic.twitter.com/49a2kwnHXL

— Israel-Alma (@Israel_Alma_org) April 19, 2024

Video purportedly from Isfahan, Iran, documenting anti-aircraft fire. pic.twitter.com/hutwIQVKLK

— Joe Truzman (@JoeTruzman) April 19, 2024

Judging by initial Iranian and international media reports, the airstrike on a target near the central city of Isfahan early on Friday was likely designed to hit an important military site, while avoiding escalating already soaring tensions with the Islamic Republic.

This isn’t the first time that reports have surfaced about a mysterious strike in this location.

On Feb. 2, 2023, Iran accused Israel of launching a drone attack on a Defense Ministry facility in the city. This past January, Iran executed one of four suspects it accused of being behind that attack, after claiming they acted on behalf of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency.

Isfahan is also home to Iran’s largest missile assembly and production site, according to the Nuclear Threat Initiative, a Washington-based think tank. The facility has reportedly been used to develop a range of threats, including Shahab ballistic missiles, which can hit Israel. There are also four small nuclear research facilities in the city, according to The New York Times.

In May 2021, a blast of unknown origin struck a complex north of Isfahan that was reportedly linked to Iran’s unmanned aerial program.

While it is difficult to know at this stage what was hit at Isfahan, it is clear that Tehran is making strenuous efforts to downplay the attack. If Israel indeed attacked it on Friday, it may have given the Islamic Republic a sphere of sufficient deniability to de-escalate the situation.

It is also reasonable to assume that Israel’s War Cabinet concluded that it has more pressing priorities, such as pushing ahead with an operation to dismantle Hamas’s last battalions in Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah, as well as contending with the six-month-long assault by Hezbollah in the north, which has displaced more than 60,000 Israelis.

Iran, for its part, may want to return to its long-term strategy aimed at taking over the Middle East and leading to Israel’s destruction.

That strategy envisions Iran surrounding Israel with a ring of terror armies and breaking through to nuclear weapons capabilities to provide an umbrella for its increasingly aggressive proxies.

Iran likely also wishes to improve its conventional missile and UAV capabilities, especially after Israeli air defenses, fighter jets and partner militaries intercepted 99% of the drones and rockets launched from Iranian territory at Israel on April 14.

Israel targeted the defense system of the Natanz nuclear facility in Iran during its strikes Friday morning, ABC quoted a senior American official as saying.

The Israelis were targeting an air defense radar site near Isfahan that’s part of the protection of the Natanz nuclear facility," ABC said, in the name of the official.

"The first assessment is that the strike took out the site, but assessment hasn’t been completed, the official said."

The official noted, however, that the strike was meant to send a signal to Iran about Israeli capabilities, but not to escalate the situation.

Iran has downplayed the attack's significance
The attack, which Israel has not claimed credit for, was launched in response to the aerial barrage of ballistic missiles and attack drones that Iran sent to Israel last Saturday night following an airstrike in Damascus, widely attributed to Israel, that killed a senior officer in Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).

The officer was connected to Hezbollah, the Iranian proxy that has been attacking Israel almost daily since Hamas's attack on October 7.

In the hours since the strikes in Iran Friday morning, Iran has downplayed their effect and significance, declining to directly point the finger at Israel and announcing that no damage was done to any nuclear sites. The International Atomic Energy Association (IAEA) also reported that no damage was done to nuclear sites, and there were no reported casualties.

Nobody knows exactly how the operation was carried out but seems that it was in a creative manner. It is good that a question mark hovers over the question of what exactly Israel did. Let’s keep them wondering. It is good for deniability and good for keeping the enemy uncertain.

The way it was executed was very professional. It has kept everybody satisfied. Nobody wants to see an escalation, so the strike was conducted in a way that doesn’t have to lead to escalation. That is not something our partners should be worried about, neither the Americans, Europeans or the Arab states.

The fact that we chose targets that were in the vicinity of a major nuclear facility but were linked to the Iranian missile and airforce was a good message. It communicated that we can reach other targets as well but as we don’t want escalation, we chose targets nearby that were involved in the attack against Israel.

I think it sends the message that if we want to, we can send a stronger message. Israel is not seeking escalation at the moment. The main mission on our agenda is to finish the war in Gaza. We have hostages to release. We have Hamas to destroy. We must focus on that.

At the same time, however, the strike indicates that our option are open to take further action at the time of our choosing.

Israeli official security and governmental sources told The Jerusalem Post on Friday: "An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. Israel retaliated where they were attacked.”

That said, officially, Israel will not accept responsibility for this attack for strategic reasons. Sources explain that the Iranians claim it was an “explosion at a factory” because they wish to avoid escalation. Israeli sources told the Post that it's unclear why the Pentagon disclosed to the American media that Israel was involved; they could have remained silent, they say. They could have preserved Iran's dignity and avoided escalating the situation on their own.

At the Kirya base in Tel Aviv, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the entire security and diplomatic leadership have been present for 24 hours, coordinating with regional partners in Jordan, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia.

That said, Israel does not yet accept responsibility.

In recent hours, countries in the region have conveyed messages to Israel that if Iran attacks, they are here to help.

A senior US official also confirmed this on Friday morning of the attack, stating that "We were not surprised," while also telling Walla that Israel informed the US in advance of the strike.

A Bloomberg report said that Israeli officials notified the US on Thursday that they planned to launch a strike in the next 24-48 hours.

Multiple sources confirm White House was aware and accepting of the Israeli target set. Administration may deny that for Iranian eyes and ears, but notable Israel synchronized with US in advance.

— Richard Goldberg (@rich_goldberg) April 19, 2024

Or… https://t.co/KRYkp0ZlNr

— Seth Frantzman (@sfrantzman) April 19, 2024

Former IDF Spokesperson and FDD Senior Fellow Lt. Col. (Ret.) Jonathan Conricus delivers timely situational updates after an alleged Israeli strike in Iran. He is joined by former Head IDF Intelligence Research Division and Director General of Israel's Ministry of Strategic Affairs Brig. Gen. (Res.) Yossi Kuperwasser.

Caroline Glick interviews Iranian journalist and activist Vahid Behesti about the horrors of the Iranian government and why now is the time to topple the regime once and for all.

The apotheosis of the Obama-Biden Middle East "realignment" was the terrible Iran nuclear deal of 2015, laundered to a skeptical American people by failed novelist-turned-Obama White House apparatchik Ben Rhodes via a cynical, astroturfed "echo chamber" of a P.R. campaign. In 2016, Obama secretly delivered $400 million in wooden pallets of cash to the mullahs—on the same day the nuke deal went into effect. More recently, the Biden administration agreed to cough up a whopping $6 billion in return for five illegally detained U.S. citizens—just weeks before the Iran-sponsored Hamas pogrom of Oct. 7. And just last month, Biden approved a fresh $10 billion sanctions waiver for Iran.

There are too many other examples to count. But it is all in service of the Obama-Biden doctrine: Punish America's allies in the Middle East and reward its enemies.

Just as bad, the Iranian regime has also shown itself capable of infiltrating and co-opting America's corridors of power: Last September, Semafor scooped emails revealing an Iranian regime-supported intelligence operation seeking to influence high-ranking government offices, think tanks, and academic institutions in the U.S. The man at the center of it all? Robert Malley, Obama's lead negotiator for the 2015 nuke deal and Biden's now-suspended special envoy for Iran. Most recently, Iranian reporter Vahid Beheshti just revealed a stunning internal Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps document that inculpates the Iranian regime in helping to orchestrate America's day of anarchic, crippling, pro-Hamas "demonstrations" on Monday.

The Trump administration, something of an interregnum between the two "realignment" presidencies, pursued the precise opposite policies: Punish America's enemies and reward its friends. That is what basic logic would dictate, and the results were historic: new peace deals forged between Israel and the UAE, Bahrain, and Morocco under the umbrella of the Abraham Accords. It turns out that the obvious thing is often also the best thing.

The Hamas pogrom and the ensuing war in Gaza was the first real test for the Accords—and the Iran-containment coalition they represent. Crucially, none of the Arab signees have severed relations with Israel. Even more remarkably, Saudi Arabia—not part of the Accords—acknowledged on Monday that it assisted the U.S.-led coalition that foiled Iran's weekend attack.

All of this is a tribute to the statesmanship of former President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who shepherded the Accords across the finish line. And it is a glimmer of hope that more peace—and less Iran-emboldening Obama-Biden foolishness—might be just around the corner.

The Israeli response to Iran stood in stark contrast to the United States’ own retaliation for the deaths of three American servicemembers in Jordan in January 2024.

US officials hesitated to even raise the prospect of a counterattack on Iranian soil, ultimately aiming at IRGC-linked facilities in Iraq and Syria, which are disposable for Tehran. This extreme risk-aversion on the part of the Biden administration extended to the lack of any consequences – apart from sanctions, statements and indictments – even after multiple Iranian assassination and kidnapping plots on US soil. This is despite the fact that the US dwarfs Israel in terms of military power.

The same logic applies to the United Kingdom, where the IRGC has tried to kill or harm Iranian dissidents who are British nationals. Most recently, for example, journalist Pouria Zeraati was stabbed on the streets of London by an Eastern European criminal gang working for Tehran. Iranian officials calculate the benefits of such operations – striking fear in the Iranian diaspora – outweigh the absorbable costs.

Like Israel, Pakistan also did not hesitate to cross the Iranian red line and strike inside its territory in January 2024 after Tehran launched airstrikes on what it claimed were militant bases in Pakistan. While Islamabad did not target the regime, its lack of reservations about undertaking military action within Iranian borders coupled with Israel’s own mission are striking indictments of American restraint. This self-deterrence has only emboldened Iranian leaders to endanger US interests.

The response from the G7 to an unprecedented attack on Israel was thoroughly precedented. It featured a joint press statement, a slate of piecemeal sanctions, but nothing more.

Western capitals appear afraid of even proscribing the IRGC as the terrorist organisation that it is. And Khamenei was betting on this restraint. He demonstrated Tehran’s capabilities of reaching Israel with drones and missiles (although most were intercepted); deflected criticism from his base over a series of non- or underwhelming responses after Israeli targeted killings; and was able to exploit Operation True Promise for propaganda and psychological warfare purposes.

This all happened without Washington and its allies taking any risks in their reply to him all the while Iran’s missiles threatened the thousands of Western nationals residing in Israel. While Khamenei may lay low for now, this asymmetry in risk-taking will continue to incentivise Iran’s regional strategy.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s standing as “Mr. Security” suffered a serious blow in the wake of the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7. But one of the keys to that reputation has been his decades-long focus on the Iranian threat.

Now, after a reported limited Israeli strike in response to Iran’s weekend attack on Israel — the first direct Iranian attack on Israel in history — Netanyahu is being put to the test on his flagship issue.

Netanyahu has never made a secret of the priority he gives to the Iranian file, making several memorable speeches about it: at the U.N. General Assembly with a Looney Tunes-style bomb cartoon in 2012; when he infuriated then-President Barack Obama by giving a speech against the Iran nuclear deal before a joint session of Congress in 2015; and his 2019 presentation of the nuclear archive smuggled out of Iran by the Mossad, in a gambit to convince then-President Donald Trump to pull out of the Iran deal. But long before that, in 2002, he told Congress that Iran was seeking nuclear weapons and developing ballistic missiles that could reach the U.S.

One section of Netanyahu’s 2022 memoir, Bibi: My Story, illustrates how his position on containing Iran has trumped all else, including his long-held positions on other matters of national security. Netanyahu recounted a conversation in 2011 with his then-senior adviser and current Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer about freeing 1,027 Palestinian prisoners – including Yahya Sinwar, who currently leads Hamas in Gaza – in exchange for captive IDF soldier Gilad Shalit, despite Netanyahu’s past opposition to such exchanges. One of his arguments: “Do you see any other way to quickly gain the public support we’ll need for an operation against Iran?”

His former chief of staff, Ari Harow, told Jewish Insider on Thursday that when the Obama administration pushed for a settlement freeze in 2010, “Netanyahu’s rationale for agreeing to the Obama freeze was Iran. I was in a meeting with him and the Yesha Council [umbrella organization of settlements], and he was able to tell them that while he doesn’t want to hurt [them], we have this existential threat we’re facing and we need Obama on our side.”

Israelis remember a turn of phrase that became an often-repeated political punchline after being used by Netanyahu in 2015. When asked about the cost of living at a press conference ahead of that year’s Knesset election, the prime minister said that the more important matter was “life itself.” And what he meant by “life itself” was that “the greatest challenge to our lives at the moment is Iran arming itself with nuclear weapons,” Netanyahu said.

“Netanyahu prided himself on being the one to have identified [the Iranian nuclear threat] and brought it to the attention of the world at a very early stage,” Harow said.

My appearance on @CNN.

I discuss why target military assets near Isfahan, the symbolism of Khamenei’s failed strike on an Israeli air base and Israel’s successful strike on an Iranian air base, and why Khamenei should be worried about his air defenses. https://t.co/Nh34IRiKAt

— Mark Dubowitz (@mdubowitz) April 19, 2024

Going to bed but here’s my final takeaway for the evening on the Israeli strike.

1️⃣ Israel did more with less
2️⃣ Israel can operate anywhere
3️⃣ Iran’s sky is open for Israel
4️⃣ it’s not too painful so MAY limit escalation — for now.
5️⃣ US was aware of strike, didn’t try to stop.

— Mark Dubowitz (@mdubowitz) April 19, 2024

My fellow witnesses and I remarked that this was THE MOST productive and LEAST partisan hearing on Iran in a long time.

Lots of good ideas shared by @dstroul and Behnam Ben Taleblu @FDD.

My full testimony --> https://t.co/4uUW0WdpMY

Full video --> https://t.co/0I64g7z26v

— Gabriel Noronha (@GLNoronha) April 18, 2024

The current scene in Gaza is a strong indication that the longer it takes to pull the trigger on a Rafah operation leading to the war’s end game, the more unnecessary suffering will be enabled by the West’s indecision. No matter President Biden’s intentions, he isn’t helping the people of Gaza.

The Wall Street Journal reports on the ever-descending-but-never-landing famine in the Strip: “Weeks after deadly strikes against World Central Kitchen aid workers spurred Israel into action, affordable vegetables and freshly baked bread are now available in northern Gaza for the first time in months. Israel in recent days has enabled more aid trucks to reach Gaza, has opened a crossing into the north directly from Israel and has approved more flour destined for the strip through its port of Ashdod.”

Sounds like they’re making real progress. Now that it’s clear that the problem isn’t Israel supposedly preventing food from getting into the Strip, the United Nations has adjusted the goalposts accordingly. “The problem is not just about food,” UN aid coordinator Andrea De Domenico told the Journal. “It’s much bigger than simply bringing in flour and baking loaves of bread or pita. It is much more complex.”

If you’re wondering why you can sense disappointment in De Domenico’s statement, it’s because we’ve passed the part of this crisis that can be plausibly blamed on Israel. You see, De Domenico isn’t exactly wrong that feeding Gazans is more complex than providing pita bread. In February, a riot around an arriving aid truck, followed by a hijacking by Hamas militants, killed more than a hundred Gazans. Hamas has also hired its own proxies to take deliveries, and it executes those who attempt to distribute food aid independent of Hamas. There is an extended inspection process for UN trucks because the UN’s Gaza agencies had become an arm of Hamas before and during the war.

Notice how often the word “Hamas” comes up? That’s because the weaker Hamas is, the more Palestinians eat. That’s not much of a surprise—Hamas has been starving the Strip for years by hoarding food and supplies and spending all infrastructure cash on Hamas-only tunnels underground. And because Hamas had so thoroughly coopted UNRWA, there was no international aid agency focused on helping the actual Palestinian civilians.

For most Gazans, even when there is no hot war, Hamas’s dictatorship is a nightmarish tyranny. Hamas rule features the torture and murder of regime opponents, official corruption, extremist indoctrination of children and misery for the population in general. Hamas diverts foreign aid and other resources from proper uses; instead of improving life for the mass of the people, it uses the funds to fight against Palestinians and Israelis. Hamas’s goals are to overshadow the Palestinian Authority, win control of the West Bank, and establish Hamas leadership over the Palestinian revolution. Hamas’s 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.

When Hamas provokes hot wars with Israel, which it does periodically, the suffering of ordinary Gazans intensifies. Perversely, Hamas intends this result because it knows it can exploit that suffering for strategic purposes.

Hamas planned for corpses of Palestinian babies and mothers to serve as the mainspring of its October 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 to both aims was arranging for grievous Palestinian civilian losses. If successfully blamed on Israel, the dead Gazan noncombatants might spur uprisings by Arabs and Muslims everywhere and would fuel demands for a ceasefire that would allow Hamas to claim victory.

To these ends, Hamas worked for a decade and a half to put military assets in and near schools, hospitals, mosques, and residences—and to build its enormous, dense network of tunnels underneath Gaza’s cities. That network extends over 350 miles, within Gaza’s narrow 141 square miles. It is longer than London’s famed Underground, which serves an area more than four times the size. The network includes an estimated 5,700 vertical shafts, many of which emerge in ordinary homes.

Senior Hamas official Mousa Abu Marzouk, in an October 27, 2023 television interview, explained that Hamas built underneath civilian homes and businesses not to safeguard civilians, for “it is the job of the United Nations to protect them,” but because “We are fighting from inside the tunnels,” and Hamas fighters have “no other way of protecting ourselves.”

To defend itself, Israel had to reach Hamas fighters in the tunnels. To do that, it had to devastate civilian life in Gaza, just as Hamas intended. Hamas counted on these deaths to fuel international demands for Israel to halt its offensive prematurely. Hamas, saved, would emerge successful.

The human-shield strategy that Biden decries would be bad enough. But someone who uses human shields is usually hoping to deter enemy attack, not to kill the shields. What Hamas is doing is worse. It is employing a human-sacrifice strategy, intentionally increasing civilian casualties among its own people.

Hamas’s hiding among civilians is a war crime against the people of Gaza. We make this point not to be legalistic but to stress the scheme’s immorality. Perpetrators of such immorality would under normal circumstances be widely condemned. Regarding the war in Gaza, however, people speaking in the name of humanitarianism are working to reward Hamas for this crime.

As expected, the United States vetoed the Palestinian bid for full U.N. membership during a vote at the U.N. Security Council on Thursday afternoon.

Of the 15 members of the council, 12 voted for a Palestinian state, including Japan, South Korea, France and Slovenia which don’t currently recognize a Palestinian state. The United Kingdom and Switzerland abstained on the Algeria-drafted resolution.

As one of the five permanent members of the council, Washington has veto power.

Washington has “long been clear that premature actions here in New York, even with the best intentions, will not achieve statehood for the Palestinian people,” Robert Wood, deputy U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, told the Security Council on Thursday.

Wood cited the failure of the council’s committee on new members to reach a consensus on the issue. He also questioned whether the Palestinians meet the basic criteria for U.N. statehood—questions that prevented the committee from reaching consensus on the original application for full Palestinian U.N. membership in 2011.

“We have long called on the Palestinian Authority to undertake necessary reforms to help establish the attributes of readiness for statehood and note that Hamas—a terrorist organization—is currently exerting power and influence in Gaza, an integral part of the state envisioned in this resolution,” Wood said.

The Palestinians became the first membership applicant to be turned away by a council vote since Vietnam when the United States voted against its membership in 1976 before relenting the next year.

By U.S. law, full membership for Ramallah at the United Nations outside a political settlement with Israel would automatically terminate U.S. funding for the United Nations.

“For Washington, they do not deserve to have their own state,” Vassily Nebenzia, Russia’s U.N. envoy, said of the Palestinians. “They are only a barrier on the path towards realizing the interests of Israel.”

Latest Developments
The United States on April 18 vetoed the Palestinian bid to gain full membership at the United Nations. Twelve members of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) supported the measure, two abstained, and the United States opposed it. U.S. Alternative Representative at the UN Robert Wood explained that “premature actions here in New York … will not achieve statehood for the Palestinian people.” He cast doubt on whether the “applicant meets the criteria to be considered a state” and said that peace “will only come from direct negotiations between the parties.” Israeli Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan recently said that “recognizing a Palestinian state at such a time not only gives a prize to terror, but also backs unilateral steps which are contradictory to the agreed upon principle of direct negotiations.”

Expert Analysis
“The administration did the right thing in vetoing a resolution meant to provoke and incite rather than promote peace. What’s appalling, however, is that so many supposed allies voted to reward terrorism and put a democratic ally at further risk. That’s a moral failure on their part and a diplomatic failure for the U.S. mission.” — Richard Goldberg, FDD Senior Advisor

“Granting the Palestinians statehood recognition at the UN would create paper gains that disincentivize Ramallah from negotiating a two-state solution with Israel. Moreover, the timing would elevate Hamas’s standing by showing that the war it launched on Israel benefited the Palestinians internationally.” — David May, FDD Research Manager and Senior Research Analyst

Abbas Continues ‘Palestine 194’ Campaign
Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas attempted in 2011 to have the UN welcome the “State of Palestine” as its 194th member state. The UNSC failed to reach a consensus on the matter then, and it was never put to a vote. Instead, UNESCO, the UN’s cultural organization, granted full-member status to the “State of Palestine” in 2011, triggering statutory American defunding of that body. The UN General Assembly in 2012 granted the Palestinians non-member observer state status. In 2014, Abbas began joining dozens of international treaties to bolster his statehood bid.

‘State of Palestine’ Is Not a ‘Peace-Loving State’
To begin the process of UN acceptance, a state must submit an application to the secretary-general, who places it before the members of the Security Council. The UNSC typically refers the application to a UNSC committee for review, though the council can still vote on whether the applicant is a “peace-loving state” independent of the committee’s findings. Nine members of the UNSC must support the bid — without any of the five permanent members exercising their veto — and then two-thirds of the members of the UN General Assembly must approve the statehood application. On April 16, the committee reviewing the bid did not render a unanimous decision on the application’s merits.

Consensus failed to emerge in the 2011 bid over whether the “State of Palestine” constituted a “peace-loving state.” Hamas, a terrorist group that has launched multiple wars as part of its commitment to destroy Israel, controls roughly 40 percent of the territory and population that the PA claims for a state. Also raising doubts about Palestinian intentions is the PA’s “pay to slay” policy, whereby the PA incentivizes and rewards Palestinians who murder Israelis. The PA’s lack of control of the territory it claims — Hamas controls Gaza and the PA exerts only limited control over the West Bank — also undermines the Palestinians’ statehood claim.

Today, I called on the Security Council to oppose the unilateral recognition of a Palestinian terrorist state and made clear: the Palestinian Authority is a terror supporting entity that does not deserve any status in the UN‼️

The only thing a forced and unilateral recognition… pic.twitter.com/qgdVnxY4tb

— Ambassador Gilad Erdan גלעד ארדן (@giladerdan1) April 18, 2024

I strongly criticized the presence of the Iranian Foreign Minister in the Security Council and explained that this is further proof that the UN has become a refuge for dictators and terrorist regimes to cover up their crimes. It’s a joke!
I asked the ambassadors: Did it not occur… pic.twitter.com/tQS9x0fFGV

— Ambassador Gilad Erdan גלעד ארדן (@giladerdan1) April 18, 2024

The day will come when the UN will be shuttered because it failed to prevent wars and protect human rights. And when that day comes, your support for the forced establishment of a Palesti-Nazi state will be remembered as a factor that hastened the collapse of the UN. The… pic.twitter.com/G9izwb9qOa

— Ambassador Gilad Erdan גלעד ארדן (@giladerdan1) April 18, 2024

Important update: I have now left the Security Council after it voted in favor of recognizing a Palestinian state. The United States vetoed the Council’s destructive move. 𝗜 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗸 𝘁𝗵𝗲 @USUN𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗣𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗕𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗻 @POTUS𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗼𝘁𝘁𝗼𝗺 𝗼𝗳… pic.twitter.com/B3FhkhTJAm

— Ambassador Gilad Erdan גלעד ארדן (@giladerdan1) April 18, 2024

I fully support the U.S. veto of Palestinian's UN membership at the @UN Security Council. This was a dangerous ploy & would have disastrous consequences. The PA should be focusing on reforms & ending pay for slay instead of political games at the UN.

— Senate Foreign Relations Committee Ranking Member (@SenateForeign) April 18, 2024

This is a Senior United Nations official calling for Israel 🇮🇱 to be removed from the @un because the United States 🇺🇸 vetoed a vote!

He’s not calling for 🇮🇷 Yemen 🇾🇪 North Korea 🇰🇵 or Russia 🇷🇺 to be expelled just Israel.

The antisemitism runs deep at the UN @antonioguterreshttps://t.co/jb41ojnHeE

— GnasherJew®גנאשר (@GnasherJew) April 19, 2024

A Saudi official said the state is ready to accept a 'verbal agreement' from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he would be willing to renew talks for Palestinian statehood as part of the normalization process between the two countries, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.

The statement came amid reports that the Biden administration as been increasing pressure on both countries to come to a normalization agreement.

US to Saudi: recognize Israel, and you get a Palestinian state, more military support from the US, and civilian nuclear power.

Saudis: Uh, verbal assurances on Palestine are fine. Tell us more about the other stuff.

Palestine is a priority of western leftists, Arabs don’t care. pic.twitter.com/xqMrQ5tafs

— Richard Hanania (@RichardHanania) April 18, 2024

Champions of the UN in 2024:
🇨🇳 China sits on the UN Human Rights Council
🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia chairs the UN Women's Rights Commission
🇮🇷 Islamic Republic of Iran chairs the UN Disarmament Commission

Latest @UNWatch cartoon by Moshik Gulst pic.twitter.com/ArOANwanQY

— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) April 19, 2024

Jerusalem is concerned that the International Criminal Court in The Hague could soon issue arrest warrants against senior officials, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, over the Israel Defense Forces operation against Hamas, Channel 12 News reported Thursday.

According to the report, an emergency meeting was held at Netanyahu’s office on Tuesday in the presence of Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer, Justice Minister Yariv Levin and Foreign Minister Israel Katz.

The four decided to take “urgent action with international authorities” to prevent the arrest of Israelis abroad, Channel 12 added.

The Palestinian Authority has already declared its acceptance of the jurisdiction of the ICC over alleged crimes committed by Israel. However, Israel does not recognize ICC jurisdiction over the so-called matzav, or political and military “situation” regarding its conflict with the Palestinians.

The United States has also voiced strong objections to the Palestinians joining the ICC, with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken previously expressing “serious concerns about the ICC’s attempts to exercise its jurisdiction over Israeli personnel.”

South African Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor has said that the ICC should have already issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu “for war crimes committed against Palestinians in Gaza.”

Following a visit to southern Israel in the wake of Hamas’s Oct. 7 attacks, ICC chief prosecutor Karim Ahmad Khan said that the massacre of more than 1,200 people represented “some of the most serious international crimes that shock the conscience of humanity.”

Commenting on Israel’s military operation in the Gaza Strip since the terrorist attacks and the kidnapping of more than 250 people, Khan noted that the Israel Defense Forces “has trained lawyers who advise commanders and a robust system intended to ensure compliance with international humanitarian law.”

I am putting ICC officials on notice:

If you side with Hamas and Iran (allies of Putin) and enter the political battlefield against Israel, you will be sanctioned.

Get your dollars out of the U.S. now and say goodbye to ever visiting America again.https://t.co/9r8mdrSs2Y

— Tom Cotton (@TomCottonAR) April 18, 2024

Antisemitic kangaroo courts are not new. For centuries European states pulled Jews into courts on trumped up charges and found them guilty.

Of course the Jews can be worried. Why wouldn't we be. This isn't about truth or justice. Never was.https://t.co/NGiFWZHeW6

— David Collier (@mishtal) April 19, 2024

"The only thing, standing between Gazans and a ceasefire, is Hamas"@SecBlinken lays it out planely - Hamas is the problem, always has been.

Via @YaariCohenpic.twitter.com/Z9C18OPr6R

— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) April 19, 2024

GAZA FRONT UPDATE:

- Israeli aircraft targeted 25 sites in Gaza, including Hxmas buildings, observation posts, and rocket launch sites.

- IDF artillery responded to a rocket attack in Ashkelon by shelling the launch site in Beit Lahiya, Gaza.

- Strikes continue as Nahal… pic.twitter.com/5n92Ghh4F4

— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) April 19, 2024

Palestinian media outlets are reporting that Muhammad Jaber (aka Abu Shuja'a), PIJ commander in Tulkarem, was killed this morning in clashes with the IDF. pic.twitter.com/5IOCgAJHuQ

— Israel War Room (@IsraelWarRoom) April 19, 2024

The contents of more than 700 humanitarian aid trucks remain on the Gazan side of the Kerem Shalom crossing after undergoing thorough security inspections and are waiting to be collected and distributed by UN agencies to the civilians of Gaza: pic.twitter.com/3QtBdypq6T

— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) April 19, 2024

Of all the pathological lies from the UN, Jens Laerke's (@JensLaerke) truly takes the cake. 🧵

Here he claims that "trucks that go in screened by COGAT are typically only half full. That is a requirement that they have put in place for screening purposes"

The reason this lie is… pic.twitter.com/vSRAVgPrrj

— Avi Bitterman, MD (@AviBittMD) April 19, 2024

Hosted by Abe Greenwald, Christine Rosen, John Podhoretz & Matthew Continetti
Jonathan Schanzer joins the podcast for an immediate after-action report on the details of the Israeli strike on Iran, whether deterrence has been reestablished, and how last night might represent the most significant game-changing moment in recent Middle Eastern history. And what’s this? Columbia University throws the book at the Hamas-supporting tent city on its campus and has the NYPD arrest more than 100 people? Is this a game-changer too?

I sincerely thought I'd never witness members of my party refuse to condemn Iran—one of the world's leading terrorism sponsors—after launching hundreds of drones against our special ally, Israel.

No words. pic.twitter.com/xXznz9cQwj

— Senator John Fetterman (@SenFettermanPA) April 18, 2024

The House votes 404-14 to condemn Iran’s attack of Israel last weekend
13 Democrats voted no. The lone Republican nay was from Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY).

The Democratic noes were Reps. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY), Cori Bush (D-MO), Greg Casar (D-TX), Jonathan Jackson (D-IL), Pramila…

— Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) April 18, 2024

If this were any other country, any other minority group, any other religion, or anyone in the LGBTQIA world Jayapal would have voted for it

Because it is about an attack on Jews @RepJayapal sides with terrorists who hate the people she claims to represent https://t.co/Z61Qq0xTax

— Ari Hoffman (@thehoffather) April 18, 2024

Most elected Democrats are prepared to support Iranian proxy terrorists now, that’s how deep the appeasement is on the left.

These are the same Iranian backed terrorists firing missiles and drones at American warships and sailors. 🇺🇸 | HT @Gus_802pic.twitter.com/QGRAGrFNSh

— Ron M. (@Jewtastic) April 18, 2024

HamaSquad members @RepCori and @RepRashida submitted an amendment to ban aid to Israel until the hostages are released.
Yes, you read that right. They want to effectively give Hamas a VETO on US aid to Israel and make sure the hostages are never released. pic.twitter.com/8O3WeRclrr

— Israel War Room (@IsraelWarRoom) April 19, 2024

There’s an amendment that prohibits Israel from receiving foreign aid until several conditions are met. One of those conditions is the release of the hostages.

The amendment essentially empowers Hamas to prevent Israel from receiving US foreign aid simply by never releasing the…

— Ritchie Torres (@RitchieTorres) April 19, 2024

Pro-Hamas protestors have hounded me for weeks. I’ve listened to their opinions and have offered mine: I support Israel 🇺🇸🇮🇱 pic.twitter.com/gSfsQj1VGA

— Rep. Marc Molinaro (@RepMolinaroNY19) April 18, 2024

Every Jewish citizen around the world has a right to live, love & exercise their faith peacefully outside of fear.

I joined @Cornell students in condemning the ongoing hate towards the Jewish community & students on campus. Antisemitism has no place in this world. pic.twitter.com/EwTpSLL7aM

— Rep. Marc Molinaro (@RepMolinaroNY19) April 18, 2024

Eli Lake, The Remnant’s resident bloodthirsty war hawk, returns to the pod to break down the situation with Israel and Iran. The two get into why America has no strategic vision on Iran, the growing alliance of left- and right-wing isolationists, and how Tucker Carlson has become so unhinged.

Show Notes:
—Eli’s profile at The Free Press
—Eli’s piece on Tucker Carlson and Russia
—Eli's piece on the FBI
—The Remnant with Nancy French

Piers Morgan gives his thoughts on Iran's attack on Israel before speaking to Professor Seyed Mohammad Marandi in Tehran, who says he thinks it "was a major defeat for the Israelis and the Americans."

Another Piers Morgan Uncensored panel debate then ensues with the show joined by Outgoing Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem and Special Envoy for the Foreign Ministry of Israel and host of The Quad on JNS, Fleur Hassan-Nahoum, Member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, Mustafa Barghouti and journalist and comedian Francesca Fiorentini.

00:00 - Piers Morgan's monologue on Iran's attack on Israel
01:39 - Professor Seyed Mohammad Marandi gives his view from Tehran
06:03 - "The genocide began long before October the 7th"
09.50 - "Do you condemn Hamas?"
12.25 - "Hamas were proud of what they did"
14.50 - Were the Iran attacks pointless?
18.30 - Why did Israel bomb Damascus?
20.20 - "The Israeli regime are always lying"
22.40 - "Nothing is going to distract the world from the Holocaust in Gaza"
25.25 - "Piers, you have been misleading people for years over Ukraine"
27.50 - "I experienced what the west does to the non-western world"
29.25 - Panel gives their response to Marandi
35:05 - "Netanyahu wanted to provoke Iran"
38.28 - "My tax money went to funding a genocide"
45.25 – Does Netanyahu have to go?
54.11 - "You don’t believe Israel has any rights"

But he’s only an anti-Zionist, of course https://t.co/aux5VeE95A

— Lahav Harkov 🎗️ (@LahavHarkov) April 19, 2024

hasan debated a 16 year old on palestine , lost , and hasans discord mod is doxing him lol

would be so sick if twitch got rid of this freak and his supporters pic.twitter.com/2mP4hKUS1z

— Wyatt (@locksneedshartn) April 19, 2024

An Israeli soldier educates the public on what really happens in #Gaza Watch video from @Facts_For_Peace
Those who are really interested in truth will always listen. #Gaza#Hamaspic.twitter.com/9NfliHzTYV

— Michal/Michele -מיכל✡️ 🟦 (@MichalSabra) April 19, 2024

The United Nations on Thursday was accused of spreading pro-Hamas propaganda through one of its online newsletters, including links to websites that organized protests to block roads in American cities on April 15 in violation of U.S. law.

The allegation came from a group called Human Rights Voices, which backed up its charges with screenshots of the U.N.’s “NGO Action News” online newsletter.

NGO Action News is a weekly newsletter produced by the United Nations Information System on the Question of Palestine (UNISPAL). The newsletter links to various Internet posts containing information related to the Palestinians and the war in Gaza, almost all of them strongly critical of Israel.

In the April 11 edition of the newsletter, one of the entries points to a post from a group called U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR) entitled “Stop Arming Israel: 5 Ways to Take Action for Tax Day.”

“Tax Day” was April 15, the deadline for filing U.S. income tax returns. Pro-Palestinian activists used the day to stage demonstrations against American funding of Israel. Some of those demonstrations included illegal, destructive, and dangerous activities such as blocking high-traffic roads, bridges, and airports. Dozens of protesters were arrested in cities across the country.

The U.N. newsletter apparently had no problem with USCPR calling for “a coordinated economic blockade in cities around the world.” The post linked from the U.N. publication explicitly called for disruptive activities and linked to an even more provocative website created by the group that organized the illegal Tax Day protest actions, A15 Action.

“The United Nations is distributing, through its global online network, alerts and links to events in the U.S. that break U.S. law. Detailed announcements and invitations to participate in such illegal activities are found on third party websites,” Human Rights Voices charged.

Human Rights Voices noted that the NGO Action News publication includes a disclaimer that the U.N. is “not responsible for the content of any linked site,” but the U.N. does exercise editorial judgment over the newsletter.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai broke his silence on Thursday regarding the firing of 28 employees who occupied an executive’s office in California and protested in the company’s New York building to demand the company terminate a contract with Israel.

“Ultimately we are a workplace and our policies and expectations are clear: this is a business, and not a place to act in a way that disrupts coworkers or makes them feel unsafe, to attempt to use the company as a personal platform, or to fight over disruptive issues or debate politics,” Pichai said in a company-wide email on Thursday.

“This is too important a moment as a company for us to be distracted,” he added. “When we come to work, our goal is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful. That supersedes everything else and I expect us to act with a focus that reflects that.”

Email by Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar where he addresses the anti-Israel protests at the company.

The termination of the employees was announced in a company-wide memo on Wednesday by Google vice president of global security, Chris Rackow who described their actions as “unacceptable” and “extremely disruptive.”

Several of the employees were seen being arrested on their livestream after refusing to leave the offices for more than eight hours.

The protests were announced in internal emails to employees that shared a list of demands, including that Google drop its $1.2 billion contract with Israel for Project Nimbus, a cloud-computing project of the Israeli government.

Grammy-Award-winning Palestinian-American producer DJ Khaled is facing mounting pressure from left-wing activists, fellow music artists, and his own cousin to express opposition to Israel’s self-defense operations in Gaza following the harrowing Hamas attacks of October 7.

Cousin Fadie Musallet, the head of a charity organization in Dubai called The Giving Family and presence on the first season of the Netflix reality series Dubai Bling, told the Emirati newspaper The National on Wednesday that he does not believe DJ Khaled would be welcome in the Palestinian territories if he attempted to visit, as locals “really feel like they have been let down.”

Writing this month, Palestinian journalist Maysa Mustafa compiled disappointed messages from Palestinians on social media who declared DJ Khaled “the worst Palestinian in the world” and lamented that the ostentatious hip-hop artists has used his online presence to post videos boasting of his prodigious wealth, including a widely ridiculed video in which he appears to use bodyguards to carry him to prevent his expensive sneakers from getting dirty.

DJ Khaled is a Palestinian-American DJ, producer, and hip-hop artist known for his collaborations with rappers such as Drake, Jay-Z, and Rick Ross. His parents are Palestinian immigrants who settled initially in New Orleans; DJ Khaled moved to Florida and has remained a fixture in the Miami celebrity scene since achieving stardom.

At press time, the artist has yet to make any public comments on the situation in Israel following the October 7 Hamas attack. He has often discussed his identity as the son of immigrants and expressed pride in his family, but not made any overtly political statements taking a stance either in favor or against Palestinian terrorist activity against Israel.

The anti-Israel crowds are cheering "Iran, Iran, make us proud" when the Islamic Republic of Iran's attack on Israel ended up hurting only one person, a 7-year old Muslim girl.

"Iran, Iran, make us proud" – are they making you proud by harming a 7-year old girl? https://t.co/05qnNWagv3

— Luai Ahmed (@JustLuai) April 18, 2024

A Metropolitan Police officer threatened to arrest the head of an anti-racism campaign group for being visibly Jewish at a Gaza rally in central London last weekend.

A video from last Saturday’s march shows the policeman physically block Campaign Against Antisemitism Chief Executive Gideon Falter from crossing a street over his “openly Jewish” appearance.

The policeman threatened Falter with arrest citing “a breach of peace with all these other people” and told him he was not safe on the streets of London.

Falter had been walking through central London after a Shabbat service, wearing a yarmulke and carrying a prayer bag, when he was stopped on Aldwych and told his presence would “antagonise” crowds and lead to him being attacked.

Falter told the policeman: “I’m just a Jew in London trying to cross the road”.

The officer responded: “You are quite openly Jewish. This is a pro-Palestinian march. I am not accusing you of anything, but I am worried about the reaction to your presence.”

Later in the video, Falter was threatened with arrest if he did not leave the area: “There’s a unit of people [police officers] here now and you will be escorted out of this area so you can go about your business, go where you want freely. Or if you choose to remain, because you are causing a breach of peace with all these other people, you will be arrested.”

One anti-Israel protester told Falter, “The police ain’t going to help you in this scenario” and threatened to follow and film him.

“You are quite openly Jewish. This is a pro-Palestinian march. I am not accusing you of anything, but I am worried about the reaction to your presence.”

Enough is enough. It is time for a major change.

On Saturday 27th April — the next anti-Israel march — we are asking you,… pic.twitter.com/lfJr7UZnif

— Campaign Against Antisemitism (@antisemitism) April 18, 2024

Later, a different officer told Falter that he could either be escorted away or face arrest. ‘If you choose to remain here’, he said, ‘because you are causing a breach of peace… you will be arrested. Your presence here is antagonising a large group of people.’

Certainly, many protesters did seem agitated by Falter’s presence. In the video, they can be heard shouting ‘scum’ and ‘Nazi’ at him.

Hang on a second. Aren’t these marches supposed to be about the plight of civilians in Gaza? Indeed, the Metropolitan Police have themselves gone to great lengths to try to assure the public that these weekly demos are merely peaceful expressions of solidarity with innocent Palestinians. When former UK home secretary Suella Braverman dared to describe these protests – accurately as it turns out – as ‘hate marches’, Met commissioner Mark Rowley seemed completely baffled by the suggestion. He pretended not to know what she meant.

Now the police have tacitly admitted that these pro-Palestine demos are indeed hotbeds of hatred. Officers know all too well that the mere presence of a visibly Jewish man is enough to infuriate the marchers. But instead of defending London’s Jews, the police have decided to appease these anti-Semitic elements – by threatening a man with arrest for being visibly Jewish and refusing to move along.

Can the Met sink any lower?

It’s not right that one group of people cannot exercise their rights to enjoy London peacefully in order to allow another group to express their hatred and intimidation freely.

That’s striking the wrong balance. 2/4

— Suella Braverman MP (@SuellaBraverman) April 19, 2024

Finally, the police acknowledged that my arrest was due to displaying the banner "Hamas is a terrorist organization."

Here's the story: Yesterday, with permission from the court granted to display the "Hamas is a terrorist organization" placard at a Palestinian supporters'… https://t.co/mhh8j6iX9Tpic.twitter.com/JaMYNUtq4Z

— Niyak Ghorbani (نیاک) (@GhorbaniiNiyak) April 18, 2024

Protesters at last night's "Palestine Solidarity Campaign" rally outside Parliament were treated to a wonderful "spoken word" piece.

Did you know that Zionism "runs the world"? No? Well, now you do.

Oh, and "resistance is not terrorism". pic.twitter.com/1rPqL7PVy3

— habibi (@habibi_uk) April 18, 2024

Greens MP Gabrielle de Vietri was spotted addressing a rally at Melbourne's Federation Square on Thursday, alongside accused kidnapper Mohammad Sharab.

Despite claims from a Greens spokesperson that Sharab was not a scheduled speaker, his presence raised eyebrows, especially considering his alleged involvement in a violent kidnapping incident earlier this year.

The event, which also featured figures like controversial feminist Clementine Ford and Burgertory restaurant owner Hash Tayeh, drew attention due to Sharab's connection to an ongoing criminal case.

Hash Tayeh is finally saying the quiet part out loud.

“No ceasefire until ALL of Palestine (aka Israel) is liberated.

The hate crime hoaxer whom the media gave a free pass is now calling for the annihilation of Jews publicly on the streets of Melbourne. https://t.co/73J4PN8S0g

— Avi Yemini (@OzraeliAvi) April 17, 2024

Sharab, a familiar face at anti-Israel gatherings, stands accused of being part of a group that violently abducted and assaulted a Melbourne man in February. His co-accused, Laura Allam, allegedly orchestrated the kidnapping.

During her speech, De Vietri accused the government of complicity in "genocide" and criticised its environmental stance.

This isn't the first time De Vietri has courted controversy regarding the Israel-Hamas conflict, having previously been involved in a anti-Israel stunt at the parliament earlier this year.

Wacko woman at @Harvard asks me what I think “Never Again” means.
After I answered her, she totally imploded.

The hecklers and supporters also came by…

Watch and share: 👇 #StandWithIsrael#AmYisraelChaipic.twitter.com/dgcZwkUR4e

— The Flag Guy (@TheFlagGuy_) April 18, 2024

In Iran they've chanted "Death to America" for 50 years.

How do American anti-Zionists respond? By chanting "Iran you make us proud" 🤦‍♂️ pic.twitter.com/SRL5xrcR1a

— Israel Advocacy Movement (@israel_advocacy) April 19, 2024

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon! Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.  Read all about it here!

Considering the overwhelming evidence that sexual assault took place, despite the inherent challenges in collecting such evidence in wartime, it’s difficult to fathom why so many on the anti-Israel left continue to deny that it occurred or cast doubt on its significance.

The most obvious explanation is that by questioning what happened on October 7, activists hope to undercut the rationale for Israel’s military campaign in Gaza. Showing that systematic sexual abuse didn’t happen would, they believe, demonstrate that Israel is engaged in a mass public deception to justify killing Palestinians.

But some experts I spoke with see other factors at play.

The charge that Jews have exaggerated and weaponized their suffering has long been the basis for Holocaust denialism, said Amy Elman, a professor of political science and Jewish studies at Kalamazoo College who has written extensively on anti-Semitism and women’s rights. Now that same claim is being used by anti-Semites to portray efforts at justice for October 7 as “part of a larger nefarious scheme to harm Palestinians.” “Rape denialism is absolutely consistent with Holocaust denialism,” Elman said, and “this rape denialism is another form of anti-Semitism.”

One of the more troubling aspects of the left’s response to October 7 has been to cast the struggle between Israelis and Palestinians in simplistic terms: Palestinians are the oppressed, dark-skinned minority population; Israelis are the white oppressors. Never mind that Israel is a diverse, multiethnic society. (Most American Jews trace their origins to immigrants from Europe, but the majority of Israeli Jews descend from those who came, most often as refugees, from the Middle East and North Africa.) This reductionist binary has also made it easier to explain the conflict to a younger generation unfamiliar with Arab-Israeli history but well versed in the American civil-rights movement.

Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, a historian at the New School, says that this black-and-white framing has led to a distorted view of what happened on October 7—one that is informed by a reductive view of modern feminism. “There is a very powerful and understandable resistance on the left,” she told me, “to centering ‘white feminism’ or white womanhood in understanding the experiences of women and the purpose of feminism, domestically and internationally.” By this logic, white feminism is inherently “problematic”—and because many on the left see Israelis as white, she says, they “see any defense of Israeli women as some sort of capitulation to ‘white feminism.’”

Moreover, claims of sexual assault against white women have historically been used to justify racial violence, which has, according to Elman and Petrzela, led some pro-Palestine activists to compare Hamas to Emmett Till, who was accused of whistling at a white woman in the Jim Crow South before his brutal murder. It’s “unhinged,” Petrzela said, “but in some ways totally predictable.”

Jonathan Freedland, a columnist for The Guardian, suggested to me that left-wing rape denialism is, in effect, a refusal to believe that Hamas could stoop so low as to engage in sexual violence. On the surface, this sounds bizarre. Hamas massacred more than 1,100 Israelis, the majority of whom were civilians, and has a long history of massacring Jewish civilians, including children. How could any crime be considered worse than murder? But Freedland says that there are leftists who are prepared to countenance “armed resistance” but cannot do the same for sexual violence. “You can see why it would be essential for them to say that Hamas was ‘only’ guilty of killing and not guilty of rape.”

Freedland noted that Hamas itself has consistently denied that its fighters committed sexual crimes, perhaps in an effort to retain its standing among devout Muslims. “Hamas would be nervous of being seen not as warriors for Palestine but as a bunch of rapists who bring shame on Islam,” he said. Indeed, as Sulitzeanu pointed out to me, some Israeli Arabs who have stood in solidarity with the victims of October 7 have also refused to accept that their Palestinian brethren could commit such heinous, un-Islamic crimes.

Yesterday’s protests at Columbia highlighted a key difference between the left-wing protests of generations past and the current demonstrations: While both cheer America’s enemies, the 2024 version is ostentatiously, undeniably pro-war.

I used to shake my head when people would accuse others of being “warmongers,” because the term was so often reserved for people who very obviously did not fit the bill. If you want to know what a warmonger actually is, check out those who have for six months cheered rabidly for the very concept of war itself. Anti-war protesters usually lose interest when the U.S. isn’t involved. But personal interest has no role here; these protesters live vicariously through any fascist with a gun, drone, or rocket launcher.

“Never forget the 7th of October,” they shouted at Jews at Columbia last night. “That will happen not one more time, not five more times, not 10 more times, not 100 more times, not 1,000 more times, not 10,000… The 7th of October is going to be every day for you.”

This kind of enthusiasm for the biggest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, complete with sexual torture and the dismemberment of young children, is important to note for several reasons, only one of which is that it highlights these protestors’ uncontrollable urge for the Mideast war to go on forever. It’s also notable because it’s honest: The Hamas-a-thons all around the country have been clear about what their participants want. Screeching bloodlust so explicit it would have made Nazis blush has become the ticket to ride in progressive activist circles.

“Iran, you make us proud!” they cheered in New York City, after the Islamic Republic launched hundreds of ballistic missiles and drones from its territory aimed at Israel, in what was an unprecedented region-wide act of war.

In January, another chant became popular at such gatherings: “Yemen, Yemen, make us proud; turn another ship around!” This was a reference to the Iran-aligned Houthis in Yemen who declared war on civilian ships traversing the Red Sea. Though the Houthis talk mostly about their hatred for Jews and America, their victims so far have been Vietnamese and Filipino. The Iran attack, lauded by Khamenei fans in New York City, badly injured one person: a young Arab girl. But it doesn’t matter to these psychos whose blood you draw so long as you pair your war strikes with demented comments about Jews.

Iran’s case is different, and yet the principle – that aggression contains the seeds of its own defeat – applies to it all the same.

Iran’s aggression is unique both technically and substantively. Technically, unlike Germany and Japan, it is endowed with natural resources, and in this regard resembles the Soviet Union. However, unlike the other great aggressors, all of which were driven by secular ideas, Iran is driven by religion.

The ayatollahs believe Iran should dominate the Middle East, Shi’ism should dominate Islam, and Islam should dominate the world. This is what made Tehran spend billions on the creation of militias that destabilize the Middle East, this is what made them dispatch terrorists from Buenos Aires to Bangkok, and this is what now makes them help Russia confront the West in Ukraine.

The free world’s response to this aggression is the same as it was in all three previous cases: strategic reluctance and psychological denial.

It’s easy to say this in hindsight, but the fact is that Germany’s aggression could have been preempted militarily, had the free world not lied to itself that Hitler’s appetite begins and ends in the Sudetenland. Similarly, in May 1939, when Soviet and Japanese armies clashed in Mongolia, the democratic powers could have sided with Moscow, and thus prevented the following summer’s Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, and also the subsequent attack on Pearl Harbor.

That, of course, is not how democratic statecraft works. Just like for fascists war is a national value, a moral ideal and a political weapon of first resort, for us democrats it is anathema, trauma, and a weapon of last resort.

That is why the free world in 1956 abandoned Hungary to its Soviet masters’ devices rather than help its anti-Soviet revolt, even after Budapest declared its desire to join NATO.

That is why there was nothing surprising about this week’s pleas to Israel from both Europe and America to avoid a grand retaliation against Iran.

It’s a time-honored tradition in which everyone plays their part: the aggressors keep upping the ante, the free keep denying aggression’s threat, and history, while leading the aggressor to its dustbin, keeps raising freedom’s price.

So yes, the Islamic Republic of Iran, like Imperial Japan, Nazi Germany, and Soviet Russia, will sooner or later collapse. The only question is whether that will happen because of the free world’s conduct, or despite it.

This year, with dozens of hostages remaining in captivity in Gaza, the Jewish holiday of Passover has an especially poignant meaning, activist and actress Noa Tishby told Fox News Digital.

Tishby is a New York Times bestselling author as well and Israel's former Special Envoy for Combating Antisemitism and Delegitimization. She is based in Los Angeles.

Passover, said Tishby, is "the holiday of Jewish national liberation."

This year, it begins on the evening of Monday, April 22.

As detailed in the Book of Exodus, "more than 3,000 years ago, the bodies and souls of our Hebrew ancestors were oppressed by the pharaohs of Egypt," she said.

The Jewish people were led out of Egypt by Moses, and were led to the "Promised Land" of Israel.

In the modern era, "Jewish tradition instructs us to view this suffering and redemption as if we experienced it ourselves at our annual festive – and instructive – meal and gathering, the Seder, when we recount the Exodus from Egypt," said Tishby.

But in 2024, the celebration of Passover has a much different tone.

"Next week, at millions of homes in America, our Seders will be bittersweet, as our hearts are in the terror tunnels beneath Gaza where our fellow Jews are being violated and tortured daily," she said.

Passover is the annual commemoration of Moses leading the Jewish people out of slavery in Egypt. (iStock)

Discussing the situation in the Middle East "isn't a comfortable conversation," said Tishby — something that Moses, the "Passover hero" was all too familiar with, she said.

Israel’s Jerusalem Affairs Minister Meir Porush has sent a letter to the United Nations demanding that the world body work provide the 133 hostages still being held by Hamas in Gaza with matzah and wine for the Passover seder.

“Unfortunately, not all of the people of Israel will be able to celebrate the seder night according to the tradition of their ancestors,” Porush wrote in a letter to U.N. Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Tor Wennesland.

“133 of our brothers and sisters are not with us and are being held captive by the Hamas terrorist organization, which has been holding them by force since the murderous attack on Simchat Torah,” he added.

Porush insisted that while Jerusalem hopes that all hostages would be freed before the holiday, which starts at sundown on April 22, the United Nations must step in to assist if they won’t be.

The haredi, or ultra-Orthodox, Israeli official made the demand so that the remaining hostages “can at least symbolically observe the holiday, in the hope that this will uplift their spirits and enable them to endure their difficult situation until their swift release.”

On April 11, a mock seder to demand the return of the hostages was held by family members in Kibbutz Nir Oz. In a statement, the families demanded the release of their loved ones before the holiday.

“Last Shabbat marked six months since they were cruelly kidnapped from their home. Six months, and it feels as if they have been forgotten there,” said Ofri Bibas-Levy, the sister of Yarden Bibas, who was abducted during the Oct. 7 attacks along with his wife and two young children.

“Will they be granted the freedom so cruelly taken from them? Hasn’t the time come for the whole world to also shout for Ariel and Kfir? A shout for justice, for humanity, for an end to this nightmare. Let my family go! Let our people go!” Bibas-Levy added.

FBI director Christopher Wray on Wednesday said his agency is on alert for anti-Semitic hate crimes ahead of Passover, a week-long Jewish holiday that starts next Monday.

"Today, we at the bureau remain particularly concerned that lone actors could target large gatherings, high-profile events, or symbolic or religious locations for violence—particularly a concern, of course, as we look to the start of Passover on Monday evening," Wray said at a Wednesday event hosted by Jewish security organization Secure Community Network.

The director, who was appointed by then-president Donald Trump in 2017, said the FBI’s investigations of anti-Semitic hate crimes have surged following Hamas’s Oct. 7 terrorist attack on Israel.

"Between Oct. 7 and Jan. 30 of this year, we opened over three times more anti-Jewish hate crime investigations than in the four months before Oct. 7," Wray said. "And of course, that’s on top of what was already an increase from the previous year."

According to an Anti-Defamation League report released Tuesday, the number of anti-Semitic incidents in 2023—more than 8,800—was the highest ever recorded in a single year, marking a 140 percent increase overall and a 320 percent surge on college campuses compared with 2022.

The ADL report showed the Oct. 7 attack and the ensuing war in Gaza exacerbated anti-Semitic sentiments across the United States: The majority of the anti-Semitic incidents in 2023—around 60 percent overall and more than three-fourths of incidents on college campuses—occurred after Oct. 7.

"Anti-Semitism is nothing short of a national emergency, a five-alarm fire that is still raging across the country and in our local communities and campuses," ADL’s CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said.

Pennsylvania Democratic Sen. John Fetterman will keep talking about the hostages until every last one is accounted for and brought back home, he said in a video posted on social media where he's seen sitting in front of a wall in his office covered with posters of the hostages.

He said their posters will stay there until they are brought home.

"With a somber Passover approaching, I remain committed to speaking about this travesty and acknowledge there can't be true lasting peace until the hostages are home," Fetterman posted with the video.

"We have to do this"
Fetterman said he'll never understand why people are not talking about the hostages and why there's not more stories about them in the media.

"We have to do this," Fetterman said. "And remember that if Hamas would just send everybody home and surrender all of the death, destruction and misery and Gaza would end right now. Our office will never stop talking about this."

With a somber Passover approaching, I remain committed to speaking about this travesty and acknowledge there can't be true lasting peace until the hostages are home.

We must never forget Hamas owns this entire catastrophe and can end this.

Send them all home and surrender. https://t.co/3gxjnetJ8cpic.twitter.com/6Ov701x6xW

— Senator John Fetterman (@SenFettermanPA) April 19, 2024

The world wants you to forget what happened on October 7th.

Our play, October 7th, will share the verbatim stories of the victims and their families.

We must never forget what happened on OCTOBER 7. https://t.co/ezkwOzZ1srpic.twitter.com/6RxEVTcpH1

— Unreported Story Society (@AP_Unreported) April 18, 2024

We must focus on the HOSTAGES!!! A small group of us went to the Qatar Embassy, spoke the names of all the hostages, sang the Hatikvah, and will continue to fight, yell, and beg if needed for their return. pic.twitter.com/pCbYZNr8z4

— MichaelRapaport (@MichaelRapaport) April 19, 2024

Former hostage Maya Regev was shot before being captured on October 7.

The Hamas monsters performed surgery on her without anesthesia and then reattached her bones in the wrong position.

Here she is on her recovery journey.

Beautiful. #AmYisraelChaipic.twitter.com/7gh2mGxwoy

— The Persian Jewess (@persianjewess) April 18, 2024

Human chain along Israel’s beaches today. Few days before Passover.
Bring them home 🎗️🎗️🎗️🎗️🎗️ pic.twitter.com/GTsp4pIlcP

— Iris (@streetwize) April 19, 2024

A property developer and donor to the Green Party, Mashni was threatened with legal action last October under the Racial and Religious Tolerance Act. A leading Australian barrister argued that Mashni could be guilty of incitement to hatred, after he organised rallies in his home city of Melbourne where speakers called for an ‘intifada’ against Jews. The rallies also featured harrowing chants in Arabic, recalling the massacre of Jews in 7th-century Saudi Arabia. So far, however, no case has been brought against Mashni.

Before 7 October, an operator like Mashni – who talks of the ‘Western imperialist’ ‘power structures’ that ‘all focus on [Israel]’ and openly calls for the ‘decolonisation of Palestine and the ending of Zionism’ – would have been treated with the contempt his poisonous views deserve.

But not anymore. After 7 October, Mashni has appeared on ABC’s prime-time current-affairs show, Q+A. He has even featured on the official Instagram of foreign-affairs minister Wong herself, who he met with at Parliament House 10 days after 7 October. ‘I shared my deepest condolences with Nasser Mashni from the Australian Palestinian Advocacy Network following the devastating explosion at the Gaza City hospital’, wrote Wong at the time, apparently unaware that, according to her own security agencies, misfired rockets from Islamic Jihad were responsible.

Mashni is far from an irascible, insignificant outlier. Other, more significant Palestinian organisations are similarly relaxed about Hamas continuing to rule over Gaza. Last Thursday, the head of the General Delegation of Palestine in Australia, Izzat Abdulhadi, hosed down any suggestion Hamas could be removed from Gaza. ‘I mean, you can’t remove Hamas from Gaza. You can weaken their military capabilities, but Hamas is a part of the Palestinian people’, Abdulhadi told ABC Radio. ‘Hamas is a philosophy. Hamas is an idea’, he said. It’s hard to imagine these activists saying this about any other murderous, fascistic group.

In other quarters, people have expressed outright Jew hatred. In the wake of October’s attacks, leaked videos from multiple Sydney mosques exposed a strain of anti-Semitism that, until recently, was simply not tolerated in Australia. In November, a cleric at the Roselands Mosque beseeched Allah to kill ‘Jewish Zionists’ ‘one by one’. In February, an imam at Lakemba’s As-Sunnah Mosque called for the restoration of Palestine in place of Israel ‘through jihad for the sake of Allah’. The Al Madina Dawah Centre in Bankstown has provided a pulpit for similarly graphic calls for violence. Well-known cleric Abu Ousayd has called Jews ‘descendants of pigs and monkeys’.

Before 7 October, we Aussies might have thought that these horrific views were marginal. Now, I’m not so sure. Apologism for the anti-Semitic butchers of Hamas and, in some cases, outright anti-Semitism now seem all too prevalent in Australian public life.

We need to take a far harder stand against these poisonous worldviews, before it’s too late.

Spiked editor Tom Slater explains the unholy alliance of the Left with militant Islamism, and criticises the Leftist championing of Hamas. #antiwoke #heretics #islamism

Chapters:
0:00 Tom Slater Highlights
1:00 The Islamo-Left & French Intellectualism
4:00 Labour the Left’s ‘British National Party’
5:40 What Attracts The Left To Islamism
7:35 White Man’s Burden
9:00 Israel Pulled OUT of Gaza in 2005
11:30 Jews Changing Their Minds on Left
15:00 Cranky End of Extreme Right (Candace Owens)
17:55 Double Standards on Israel
20:00 Ireland’s Hypocrisy
22:20 Islamophobia vs Anti-Semitism
24:00 Sharia Law & Militant Islamism
27:00 What politicians should do
29:00 Muslims Don’t WANT This
32:30 Can You Be Woke & Against Islamism
34:00 Are Humans Just Rubbish?
37:25 The Loss of Enlightenment Values
40:00 Death of Democracy
42:00 Brexit Turned Elites Insane
47:00 Teaching Bad Leftist History
51:00 Self-Deprecation or Hating the Poor
54:00 Elite Tribes
56:08 A Heretic Tom Admires

Not long after Kurt Campbell started his new job as the No. 2 official at the State Department in February, the Asia expert and now-deputy secretary of state began a series of listening sessions with staff members at Foggy Bottom.

The informal meetings appeared on staffers’ calendars with no additional information; they weren’t framed as being only about the war in Gaza. But these meetings, and others like them held by senior department officials with lower-level employees, have often devolved into venting sessions about U.S. policy toward Israel and Gaza, three department employees told Jewish Insider. All of them requested anonymity to speak candidly about internal department matters.

“It was overwhelmingly calls, including from people I respect, [that] we need to do more to sanction Israel, we need to do more to punish Israel, we need to be more seriously considering ways in which we can sanction them, condition aid, cut off aid, reduce weapons flows,” said one foreign service officer with two decades of Middle East experience who sat in on a recent meeting with Campbell. “There were people whose issues don’t have anything to do with the conflict … who were making the case for why we need to do more to bash Israel.”

From universities to Fortune 500 companies to the federal government, few institutions have avoided the political fallout of the violent conflict in the Middle East that was sparked by Hamas’ Oct. 7 terror attack in Israel.

The State Department — where thousands of diplomats and civil servants are tasked with implementing President Joe Biden’s foreign policy, which has maintained support for Israel in its goal of defeating Hamas — is not immune from that rancor. Dozens of department employees reportedly signed onto “dissent cables” to Secretary of State Tony Blinken in the fall, and at least two officials have resigned in protest of Biden’s support for Israel.

What stood out to some department employees at recent listening sessions was senior leaders’ unwillingness to defend Biden’s support for Israel’s security, particularly in response to a chorus of employees seeking a harsher stance toward the Jewish state. One result of their reticence is that other lower-level employees who stand by Biden’s support for Israel also do not speak up in those meetings.

The senior foreign service officer who spoke to JI described a “failure of leadership in the U.S. Department of State right now to reinforce internally what the policy is and why the president has taken it, to put into context what Israel is dealing with, whether it’s Hamas’ tactics on the ground, or the fact that it’s actually a two-front war, with Iran lurking in the background.”

The U.S. Treasury Department announced new sanctions on two Israeli charities and an Israeli citizen for supporting “violent extremists in the West Bank” on Friday.

The Mount Hebron Fund and Shlom Asiraich (“The Well-Being of Your Prisoners”) raised the equivalent of $140,000 and $31,000, respectively, in crowdfunding campaigns for Yinon Levi and David Chai Chasdai.

The crowdfunding campaigns were removed from their respective websites, and the funds for Levi were “withheld by a local financial institution,” according to Treasury.

Shlom Asiraich previously raised money for Yigal Amir, who assassinated former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1995.

The Biden administration sanctioned Levi and Chasdai in February along with two other Israelis that it accused of engaging in “extremist settler violence” and “undermining peace, security and stability in the West Bank.”

The U.S. State Department added Ben Zion (“Bentzi”) Gopstein to that list on Friday. Gopstein was convicted of incitement to racism by an Israeli court in January.

“The Department of State is today designating Ben Zion Gopstein, the founder and leader of Lehava, an organization whose members have engaged in destabilizing violence affecting the West Bank,” said State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller. “Under Gopstein’s leadership, Lehava and its members have been involved in acts or threats of violence against Palestinians, often targeting sensitive or volatile areas.”

The congressional "Squad" is on the ropes as its most vulnerable members find themselves outraised and outpolled by their pro-Israel primary challengers.

Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D., N.Y.), who initially dismissed reports of Hamas terrorists raping Israelis as "propaganda" in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 attacks, was drastically outraised by his primary opponent during the first three months of 2024, Federal Election Commission filings show. Westchester County executive George Latimer raked in $2.2 million from January through March and ended the quarter with over $3 million in his campaign war chest. Bowman raised just $1.3 million, and has less than $1.5 million on hand heading into the June 25 primary.

Latimer launched his campaign to unseat Bowman after the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks and has garnered support from major pro-Israel groups including the Democratic Majority for Israel Political Activity Committee and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which is expected to spend $100 million in 2024 to unseat anti-Israel politicians.

Bowman has remained unrelenting in his opposition to Israel even as Latimer has a massive 17-point polling lead against the "Squad" member. Bowman was one of 14 House lawmakers on Thursday to vote against a resolution condemning Iran for its drone and missile attacks against Israel last weekend and reaffirming the United States’ commitment to supporting Israel through weapons assistance.

Bowman was joined in voting against the resolution by his fellow "Squad" member Rep. Cori Bush (D., Mo.), who faces her own formidable primary challenge from St. Louis County prosecuting attorney Wesley Bell. Bell launched his campaign after the Oct. 7 attacks and has frequently attacked Bush for her steadfast opposition to Israel.

Bell, who has also secured support from pro-Israel groups in his campaign, leads Bush by 22 points, according to a recent poll. Bell raised $954,000 during the first three months of 2024, compared with Bush’s $608,000. He also has a significant cash-on-hand advantage over Bush, ending the quarter with over $1.1 million. Bush, meanwhile, has just $528,000 on hand heading into the August 6 primary.

Israel is a new state established in 1948 unlike the ancient Arab countries that are part of the Arab League:

Algeria 1962
Bahrain 1971
Comoros 1975
Djibouti 1977
Egypt 1922
Iraq 1932
Jordan 1946
Kuwait 1961
Lebanon 1943
Libya 1951
Mauritania 1960
Morocco 1956
Oman 1650
Qatar…

— Mark Dubowitz (@mdubowitz) April 18, 2024

Guido understands that the Labour Party have suspended Khuram Majid, Labour’s council candidate for the Elland Ward in Calderdale from the local elections following Guido’s story on his social media posts suggesting that Israel should not have been “surprised” about the “inevitable” Hamas bombings. Another one bites the dust…

He’s now pending an investigation, with no party support for his campaign. With the local elections less than two weeks away, as with Azhar Ali in the Rochdale by-election, Majid has to remain on the ballot. Apparently Labour central HQ were made aware of Majid’s questionable views early doors, though are being very slow in releasing an official statement. History does repeat itself…

Ghassan Abu Sittah is a PFLP fanboy.

He is not an anti-war campaigner and has a history of celebrating terrorists.

So stop lying.https://t.co/043S8vuv8T

— David Collier (@mishtal) April 19, 2024

Not China. Not Russia. Not Nigeria, Pakistan, the DRC, Sudan, Syria, Libya or Afghanistan.....

Just the Jewish state. Israel.

If you still think these people aren't antisemites you're deluding yourself. https://t.co/mjugmC3lvD

— David Collier (@mishtal) April 18, 2024

Belgium to Palestinians: gang rape works. https://t.co/bU4FdCRydd

— Eylon Levy (@EylonALevy) April 19, 2024

A decades-old interview is adding to a widening scandal involving a former high-ranking Iranian official and controversial Princeton professor. Seyed Hossein Mousavian is accused of endorsing Hezbollah and Hamas in a 1997 German newspaper interview.

The new revelations about Mousavian’s pro-Hamas and pro-Hezbollah interview in a German paper, coupled with what some claim was an endorsement of an Iranian regime fatwa (religious order) ordering the assassination of British-American author Salman Rushdie, comes at a time when the Ivy League professor is the subject of a congressional probe. Mousavian is currently facing a U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce investigation for allegedly advancing the interests of Iran.

In November, Fox News Digital exclusively reported on the investigation into Mousavian’s ties to the world’s worst state-sponsor of terrorism, the Islamic Republic of Iran. The investigation is ongoing, and the congressional committee has not issued any findings.

In an interview back in 1997 with the left-wing German daily paper Taz, Mousavian, who was Iran’s Ambassador to Germany at the time, was asked if Iran supports groups like Hezbollah and Hamas. Mousavian seemed to put his support behind Hamas. "If by that you mean that we supply Hamas with weapons: No, we do not. But if you mean that we support the Palestinians in their struggle, yes, we do."

When asked by the paper if Iran provides Hezbollah support materially or financially, Mousavian said "We support Hezbollah morally and not by supplying weapons."

The U.S. Middle East Media Research Institute first translated Mousavian’s German language interview earlier this month on its website and provided background material on his alleged role in stoking terrorism in Europe, including the assassination of Kurdish dissidents in a Berlin restaurant named Mykonos in 1992.

Mousavian, a Middle East security and nuclear policy specialist at Princeton University, was hosted by the Obama administration, according to the Washington Free Beacon, at least three times at the White House, and invited to speak at an important U.S. STRATCOM military event in August 2023 during the Biden administration

Columbia University professor Joseph Massad emerged on Wednesday contradicting claims made by the school's president earlier that day before a congressional panel.

Massad told the Electronic Intifada that, contrary to Shafik's claims, he is not to his knowledge under any investigation by university officials, nor has he been removed from his post as chairman of the school's Academic Review Committee.

"I remain the chair of the Academic Review Committee, a one-year position, for the next few weeks, which is the normal end of my chairmanship," Massad said. "Indeed, I just had a meeting with the committee staff yesterday [16 April] and informed them that I will miss the next and final meeting on 8 May, due to my travel schedule. No one has contacted me at all from the university with regards to my current chairmanship. I will also remain a member of the Academic Review Committee next year, which is a three-year appointment."

Massad's statement contradicts Shafik's testimony to the committee, during which the university president said Massad is "under investigation" and was "spoken to" over an Oct. 8 op-ed he published in the Electronic Intifada. Massad in the op-ed lauded Hamas's Oct. 7 terror attack on Israel as "incredible" and "awesome." Shafik said that she was "appalled" by the op-ed and that Massad was told the language in his piece was "unacceptable."

Shafik also suggested Massad was removed from his role as the chairman of the Columbia Arts and Sciences Academic Review Committee, which conducts reviews of the school's departments and guides "administrative decisions." After Rep. Elise Stefanik (R., N.Y.) informed Shafik that Columbia's website still listed Massad as the chairman of the committee, Shafik backtracked from the claim and pledged to remove Massad from the chairmanship.

The discrepancies could spell trouble for Shafik, given that the House committee's Republican members said they would not hesitate to hold another hearing should they deem one necessary. The committee is in the process of obtaining internal documents related to Columbia's response to campus anti-Semitism.

In his interview with the Electronic Intifada, Massad said he has not been informed of any university investigation into him and met last week with Columbia's provost, Angela Olinto, who "conveyed to me her support."

https://t.co/xajwcyPpPW

— Canary Mission (@canarymission) April 18, 2024

https://t.co/Yn0RvJl3XA

— Canary Mission (@canarymission) April 18, 2024

https://t.co/uLPsrqP0rd

— Canary Mission (@canarymission) April 18, 2024

Never in my career have I seen things as horrific as what is going on Columbia University campus…The question is, what are the consequences?

From my interview on @FoxNews alongside @noatishbypic.twitter.com/pEi0DMjj7Q

— Brooke Goldstein (@GoldsteinBrooke) April 18, 2024

Pro-Hamas activists “do not want mass support for Palestinians” because it would ruin their chance to “feel morally superior,” explains Newsweek Opinion Editor Batya Ungar-Sargon.

“The truth is they are moral idiots – they are moral imbeciles,” she told Sky News Australia host James Morrow.

“Most of the activism is happening on college campuses and they are deeply, deeply unpopular.

“People cutting off traffic to an airport are not people who are trying to create a vast movement with a lot of support.

“They do not want mass support for Palestinians among Americans because they want the right to feel morally superior.”

Jewish students aren't actually made "unsafe" from these nincompoops with their silly tents and gross chants. These are fundamentally unserious people. Let's not succumb to hysteria.
Thank you @kilmeade@LawrenceBJones3@ainsleyearhardt@SteveDoocy for having me @foxandfriends! pic.twitter.com/3djSs6dzGV

— Batya Ungar-Sargon (@bungarsargon) April 19, 2024

These brainwashed students trash America, but don’t realize the terrorists they praise would happily deny them the right to exist. pic.twitter.com/5LiOi2AJzG

— Rep. Brian Mast (@RepBrianMast) April 19, 2024

Part of interview today with my friend @jakejakeny on @NEWSMAX .
Message to terrorist supporters: Go to hell. We’re not afraid! They are sick people who want to destroy America as much as they want to Destroy Israel pic.twitter.com/fK6K7DxzE7

— Dov Hikind (@HikindDov) April 18, 2024

.@virginiafoxx's response to the antisemitic protests engulfing @Columbia University’s campus after President Shafik testified before the Committee on Wednesday: pic.twitter.com/XhQGsfFQRU

— House Committee on Education & the Workforce (@EdWorkforceCmte) April 18, 2024

Longer video pic.twitter.com/O5Nj8ubZ7M

— Eitan Fischberger (@EFischberger) April 19, 2024

#NEW Three Columbia University students who are participating in organizing the encampment on University Lawn - have been suspended. pic.twitter.com/XAyUXDrOZs

— Oliya Scootercaster 🛴 (@ScooterCasterNY) April 18, 2024

This video about Columbia University turns out to be more accurate with every minute that passes. pic.twitter.com/oMsFjkOrot

— REAL JEW (@THEREALJEW613) April 19, 2024

An Arab-Israeli journalist was forced to cancel his Thursday speech at Columbia University after campus agitators pushed him, punched him in the face, and told him to kill himself.

Yoseph Haddad was on his way to meet a Columbia Public Safety officer and a member of campus group Students Supporting Israel (SSI) when he encountered a group of what he called "pro-terrorist protesters." One of the agitators wore a keffiyeh over his head, a Palestinian flag around his neck, and waved a bloodied and tattered Israeli flag in Haddad's direction, a video of the encounter shows. Another repeatedly told the journalist to "take a gun to your head,""kill yourself," and "shoot yourself."

Haddad told the group that they "have no idea what's going on" and that he would "keep telling the truth about all of you." At that point, a keffiyeh-clad individual pushed and then punched Haddad, according to the video.

"I was physically attacked by pro-terrorist protesters before my lecture at Columbia University," Haddad said. "Instead of a lecture, I went to file a police complaint."

The incident occurred shortly before Haddad was scheduled to speak to a group of students on Columbia's campus. SSI, which organized the event, said the assault shows that the "situation on campus has become utterly and categorically untenable."

"Weeks ago, SSI planned an event with Israeli-Arab journalist Yoseph Haddad," the group said in a statement. "On his way to meet a Public Safety officer and members of SSI, Yoseph was shoved and punched in the face by an anti-Israel protester while walking through the protest outside of the 116th street gates."

"Following the assault, Yoseph voluntarily went to the precinct with local law enforcement and is pressing charges. The event had to be canceled."

I was physically attacked by pro-terror protesters before my lecture at Columbia University. Instead of a lecture, I had to file a complaint with the police. They may have drawn blood but these cowards will never stop me. pic.twitter.com/X3G0zXSsVx

— יוסף חדאד - Yoseph Haddad (@YosephHaddad) April 19, 2024

This is my attacker - Essa Ejelat, 31, from New York. During the demonstration he was bare-faced and just before he attacked me he made sure to cover his face immediately after he ran away... a coward and a disgrace! He thought we wouldn't reach him...
He is trying to disguise… pic.twitter.com/CIhncbZI36

— יוסף חדאד - Yoseph Haddad (@YosephHaddad) April 19, 2024

Hi @Reuters,
I am not a pro-Palestinian protestor
I am an Israeli Arab who is surrounded by policemen to protect me after I was attacked at a demonstration by terror supporters, I am on the way to file a complaint about the attack...
And one more thing you forgot to mention -… pic.twitter.com/xIEwXVJwCU

— יוסף חדאד - Yoseph Haddad (@YosephHaddad) April 19, 2024

This is the man we saw attacking @YosephHaddad simply for standing with the people of #Gaza against #Hamas terrorists. pic.twitter.com/kg7vFGGFdh

— Amjad Taha أمجد طه (@amjadt25) April 18, 2024

"Anytime people come together to fight for justice it's a beautiful thing" - Cornell West spoke after joining the now raided 'Liberated Zone' at Columbia University. Hundreds of students are now rallying on the lawn with a small counter protest.

Video by Olga Fe… pic.twitter.com/0YAln665xT

— Oliya Scootercaster 🛴 (@ScooterCasterNY) April 18, 2024

Dr. Cornel West is egging on the "liberated zone" protesters at Columbia University. pic.twitter.com/X787EVbnXR

— Stu (@thestustustudio) April 18, 2024

See? They don’t believe they will actually face any consequences.

The level of entitlement is astounding. https://t.co/YDtyjTkFJC

— AG (@AGHamilton29) April 18, 2024

The stunning and insightful @marthamaccallum pointed out on Fox News that these 50+ tents setup are all the same color and make, someone funded and organized this entire ‘event’ in NYC - just in case you thought all these deliberate disruptions were organic. https://t.co/bhuzOzY01T

— Ron M. (@Jewtastic) April 18, 2024

#TODAY Columbia University students continue to camp on the second University Lawn and are staying in "Gaza Solidarity Encampment" untill their demands are met.

Video by Olga Fe Desk@freedomnews.tv to license pic.twitter.com/LT6f3yaj8k

— Oliya Scootercaster 🛴 (@ScooterCasterNY) April 19, 2024

Cover of today’s @nypostpic.twitter.com/U76I6KAOIT

— Aviva Klompas (@AvivaKlompas) April 19, 2024

#NOW chants "Free Free Palestine!" as students occupying Columbia University Lawn are brought out in handcuffs by the NYPD

Video by Olga Fe Desk@freedomnews.tv to license pic.twitter.com/1DjLJ9Nk2G

— Oliya Scootercaster 🛴 (@ScooterCasterNY) April 18, 2024

"We feel unsafe" - press conference held outside of Columbia University After the encampment raid "You have to at least call for Ceasefire"

/2 pic.twitter.com/RhFIeCfkvp

— Oliya Scootercaster 🛴 (@ScooterCasterNY) April 19, 2024

"Columbia has illegally sent the New York Police Department to surveil Union activity, breaking federal law" - spoke president of Student Workers of Columbia following the encampment raid.

/4 pic.twitter.com/cGnYkrMGSX

— Oliya Scootercaster 🛴 (@ScooterCasterNY) April 19, 2024

“We don’t want a two state. We want 48.”

“We don’t want a two state. We want all of it.”

This is reportedly at Columbia today: pic.twitter.com/c9T8q60lWv

— Steve McGuire (@sfmcguire79) April 19, 2024

While messed up kids can go from any background, when you’re the child of whatever weird incestuous, adulterous Islamist-Socialist grift, Rep. Ilhan Omar has going on, the odds are against you.

So whether it’s nature or nurture, Isra Hirsi, Omar’s daughter, has a sickle and hammer in her profile and evil in her heart.

Yes, that’s what she was doing on Oct 7.

Now, Isra Hirsi was suspended as part of the pro-Hamas events at Columbia University as an organizer with the SJP hate group.

The media and the Left are full of claims that “peaceful students” were arrested in a peaceful protest. Here’s what some of those peaceful students looked like.

Rep. Ilhan Omar's daughter, Isra Hirsi, was suspended from her college today for refusing to leave the "Gaza Solidarity Encampment" at Columbia University.

Her social media likes/RTs on the day of Hamas's massacre and the time after is really telling. pic.twitter.com/Pb1AxuAiYc

— Kassy Akiva (@KassyDillon) April 18, 2024

New York Democratic congressman Jamaal Bowman rallied to the defense of Rep. Ilhan Omar's (D., Minn.) daughter after she was suspended from school for her role in an anti-Israel protest that took the form of an Occupy Wall Street-style tent city at Columbia University.

Omar’s daughter, Isra Hirsi, was suspended from Barnard College on Thursday for her role in the unsanctioned tent encampment—which the protesters called an "indefinite occupation" of school property. The protesters were repeatedly warned that they were violating Columbia's rules.

The suspension came a day after Omar questioned Columbia president Minouche Shafik during Wednesday’s House Education and Workforce Committee hearing. Omar on Wednesday asked Shafik about Columbia’s freedom of expression regarding the Israel-Hamas war on campus. Bowman on Thursday claimed Hirsi’s suspension was the result of retaliation, rather than punishment for breaking the rules.

"The day after [Omar] questioned Columbia leadership's commitment to free academic expression, the school suspended her daughter? It's clear what is happening here. Our educational institutions should not be in the business of political reprisals," Bowman wrote in a post.

I'm shocked that @adidas -- founded by a Nazi and the former home of Kanye -- would partner with Ilhan Omar's pro-Hamas daughter, making her a "community mentor" for her "ability to make positive change." Via @zach_kesselhttps://t.co/4GIvuqaZD3pic.twitter.com/fCp4FhBJyJ

— Philip Klein (@philipaklein) April 18, 2024

The New York Times wants to be the Washington Post so bad it's laughable but I don't know.

It sort of feels like they're doing 2017 Harry Potter Dumbledore's Army resistance in an era of BLM burning down cities and anti-Jewish riots on US campuses. It's almost a little quaint. pic.twitter.com/7CHW2rXJ8w

— Omri Ceren (@omriceren) April 19, 2024

#NOW Workers are clearing out the camp left over from 'Liberated Zone' encampment inside Columbia University.

Hundreds are rallying and counter protesters are now waving Israeli flags

Video by Olga Fe Desk@freedomnews.tv to license pic.twitter.com/txkz5OXrUo

— Oliya Scootercaster 🛴 (@ScooterCasterNY) April 18, 2024

Muhammad El Kurd is definitely not a Columbia university student.

Why is Mr ‘normalize massacre’ and ‘I want to hijack planes’ allowed to spread his terrorism indoctrination at @Columbia ?@FBI@DHSgovhttps://t.co/gWKJC5wXoU

— Clark_A 🎗️ (@clarkA418) April 18, 2024

“We will honor all the martyrs. All the children, sons and daughters.
We will honor all the martyrs.
All the parents, fathers, daughters.”@Columbia today. This is how the elite Ivory Tower student body now looks en masse. Visible and vocal solidarity with jihadis who bomb,… pic.twitter.com/UE6iDg55ej

— Matthew Tyrmand (@MatthewTyrmand) April 18, 2024

As many of you know I was assaulted twice @Columbia protest yesterday.
But physical violence is not an issue ever for a bobsledder, what is appalling and fearsome is that these are your future leaders. These are the stewards of society. Imagine a future in which these are the… pic.twitter.com/fxIwBFw5PH

— AJ Edelman, OLY, MBA (@realajedelman) April 19, 2024

Here is a sample of what Mohamed Abdou was teaching students: https://t.co/uI2WJBpfRX

— V24_Investigations (@V24Investigates) April 19, 2024

The office door of @ProfKFranke of @ColumbiaLaw.

Recall Franke was mentioned multiple times at the @EdWorkforceCmte hearing on Wednesday within the context of the “discriminatory statements” she has made, so acknowledged by @Columbia University President Minouche Shafik under… pic.twitter.com/Vn6NQ3KOqH

— V24_Investigations (@V24Investigates) April 19, 2024

Pro-Israel students singing “God Bless America” at Columbia: pic.twitter.com/tHgzFtz73c

— Steve McGuire (@sfmcguire79) April 18, 2024

https://t.co/MdcuIZXevr

— Canary Mission (@canarymission) April 19, 2024

Strossen detailed how "even the strongest champions of free speech" would consider many of these infamous viral incidents we have seen not to be protected speech due to it posing "an emergency by directly causing or imminently threatening certain specific serious harm."

Strossen… pic.twitter.com/Qo6AQR8eED

— Stu (@thestustustudio) April 19, 2024

It was also interesting to hear @PamelaParesky point out how so few people understand Free Speech on College Campuses.

"Even the presidents of colleges and universities don't understand what constitutes free speech and if the presidents don't understand surely the students don't… pic.twitter.com/phxhNrJKO9

— Stu (@thestustustudio) April 19, 2024

Gill's arguments are inspired by Samir Amin, a Marxist Economist, and Frantz Fanon, a Marxist political philosopher and psychologist.

Amin argues that Imperialism walks on two legs, one economic and the other militaristic.

"My view, it's the military leg, that is first very… pic.twitter.com/HIFyjlY81L

— Stu (@thestustustudio) April 18, 2024

Also my previous reporting on Dr. Gill can be found here https://t.co/FMiBVws3yp

— Stu (@thestustustudio) April 18, 2024

The march through campus followed a series of calls for her speech to be re-instated.

A letter from 130 faculty members said canceling her speech 'stifles open communication' while dozens of student groups signed a separate letter saying they were 'outraged and ashamed' by the decision.

The scandal started after pro-Israel groups slammed Tabassum's selection for valedictorian, accusing her of anti-Semitism after it emerged the 21-year-old had made posts questioning the Israel-Hamas conflict.

A link in her Instagram bio led to a third-party page which said 'Zionism is a racist settler-colonialist ideology'.

The college then removed Tabassum, who is a Muslim, from their graduation ceremony lineup stating that 'tradition must give way to safety'.

After she was banned from the talk, Tabassum told ABC7 she stands by her views, saying: 'I stand by exactly what I stand by.

'I don't believe it is ironic for me to minor in something called resistance to genocide, and then speak out on it and then be revoked because I'm penalized for something that people have an issue with.'

Following the outrage, the university hinted this week that they would be canceling single-person valedictorian speeches in the future.

At @EndJewHatred, we commended USC’s decision to disallow Asna Tabassum a platform to speak at this year’s commencement ceremonies, which unfortunately left Ms. Tabassum to react with a very public tantrum. Tabassum showcases a complete lack of remorse for peddling the same views… pic.twitter.com/NfivVWSxxH

— Brooke Goldstein (@GoldsteinBrooke) April 18, 2024

Somehow, Sally Kornbluth is still president at @MIT despite her abysmal testimony at the @EdWorkforceCmte hearing on campus antisemitism in December.
Four months later, it seems Jewish students still aren't safe on MIT's campus. https://t.co/VKct5xPHta

— Israel War Room (@IsraelWarRoom) April 19, 2024

Anti-Israel activists at the University of Melbourne have sparked controversy by disrupting classrooms and photographing students to gauge their views on the Israel-Gaza conflict.

The university's arts faculty has been particularly affected, prompting Dean Lesley Stirling to address the escalating complaints from students. In an email to staff, Professor Stirling highlighted the distress among students.

The dean urged caution in expressing views on the war, particularly in classrooms, citing instances where activists have entered classrooms and taken photographs after requesting students to indicate agreement with their statements.

The practice, reportedly carried out by individuals with anti-Israel views, has led to concerns among students, with some feeling unsafe on campus.

One Jewish student revealed they had resorted to online learning after being photographed without consent. Similar concerns have been raised at other universities in Melbourne, with students reporting the proliferation of antisemitic and anti-Israel materials on campus.

Activists have organized numerous anti-Israel protests and meetings across Melbourne, prompting calls for university leaders to prioritise the safety of Jewish students.

Maheen Iqbal (USC PhD student) - all Israelis are bloody terrorists, deranged animals … Allah mutilate, obliterate Israelis

Also Maheen Iqbal: lab head is Israeli

What is going on with the antisemites on your campus @USC@PresidentFolt? pic.twitter.com/H1E1MWLkG5

— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) April 19, 2024

A typical day at the cesspool known as @Concordia. Masked jihadists occupying the Hall building while calling for terrorism against Israel.

Make no mistake, @Concordia President Graham Carr, VP Michael Di Grappa & the new Dean of Students enable and/or support this behavior. pic.twitter.com/fMNBt1djsf

— Lawrence Muscant (@LawrenceMuscant) April 18, 2024

Perhaps they are doing their best Hebrew Yoda (the words are out of order) pic.twitter.com/jg7E5BKQCb

— David May (@DavidSamuelMay) April 18, 2024

Here is Refaat Alareer, who said Jews are evil. pic.twitter.com/QJlJVdpxGl

— David May (@DavidSamuelMay) April 18, 2024

Not to be confused with al-Puah Hospital pic.twitter.com/cGM7yYWLgq

— David May (@DavidSamuelMay) April 18, 2024

I realize I forgot to clarify that JVP stands for Jewish Voice for Peace, not Jewish Voice for Pharaoh.

If it did stand for the latter, it would explain their chant:

From the (Nile) River to the (Red) Sea, Return the Jews to Slavery!

— David May (@DavidSamuelMay) April 18, 2024

I thought I’d seen it all but @jvplive’s exact parallel of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising and the Palestinians storming the apartheid fence on October 7th was just perfect 🇵🇸🥰🥳 pic.twitter.com/JpvJi8qb86

— Rabbi Linda Goldstein (🇵🇸🍉I/P Commentary) (@realrabbilinda) April 19, 2024

One of the sponsors is the Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network which advocates for convicted terrorists to be freed from jail

The group helped organize the 1st Hamas rally at@UW days after terrorists raped & tortured over 1,400 civilianshttps://t.co/Zo7JzjQeVo

— Ari Hoffman (@thehoffather) April 18, 2024

Avanti HS & Capital HS in the Olympia School District as well as Newport, Evergreen, Eastlake, Sammamish have joined Redmond and Issaquah in pledging for students to walk out to support terrorists pic.twitter.com/5XMWjwa9af

— Ari Hoffman (@thehoffather) April 18, 2024

UJS will always defend Jewish students in every corner of the student world, but it is time to accept - NUS Conference is broken beyond repair. pic.twitter.com/sTGOysW7qK

— Union of Jewish Students (@UJS_UK) April 19, 2024

A Lesson in Skewing Stats
First, the headline of Kuperman’s piece claims “civilian deaths in Gaza rival those in Darfur,” which misleadingly implies there has been an equivalent death toll. But in the piece, Kuperman fails to state the overall number of civilian deaths in Darfur, instead referring to the average number of people who died during an undefined period from the start of the Darfur conflict.

He states that the Gaza death toll reached 33,000 in the six months since the war began (an average of 5,500 per month). However, he then claims that the “killing rate of civilians” matches that of Darfur, where 10,000 were killed from “late 2003 to early 2004.” Misleadingly, he is actually comparing the first two months of the October 7 war, during which 20,000 people in Gaza were killed. Of these, 7,000 were confirmed as Hamas terrorists, resulting in a civilian death count of 13,000.

Additionally, Kuperman does not provide the metrics necessary for a thorough comparison. We do not know the exact timeframe of the deaths in Darfur, nor the population sizes of Gaza and Darfur at the time.

In 2003, Darfur’s population was 6 million, three times larger than Gaza’s 2 million. Furthermore, no information is given about the geographical landscapes of the conflicts. Israel is fighting terrorists in Gaza, a densely-populated enclave of 141 square miles, while Darfur consists of rolling plains stretching over 170,000 square miles.

Interestingly, if one applied Kuperman’s “killing rate of civilians” calculation to support a claim of genocide, it would reveal that the October 7 massacre, which resulted in 1,200 victims slaughtered over 12 hours—or a rate of 100 people per hour—has the highest death rate of all.

Kuperman closes the piece with an appeal for people to consider the “facts” before defending Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.

What a shame he didn’t take his own sage advice to heart before rushing out such a misleading article.

Harrowing footage distributed by Israeli media on Wednesday, April 17, showed Palestinian cameramen filming the violent abduction of Yarden Bibas into Gaza on October 7.

While their identity remains unclear, their presence amid a blood-thirsty mob of terrorists proves a disturbing truth: Gaza-based journalists covering Hamas atrocities that day did not bravely risk their lives, as declared by institutions that recently granted them awards, but operated easily without any objections from the perpetrators.

In the video, a professional camera hovering over a Palestinian mob can be seen as its operator nonchalantly tries to focus on the terrified Bibas, who is tightly held on a motorbike in the middle of the chaotic scene.

34-year-old Bibas — whose wife Shiri and two young sons Ariel and Kfir have been abducted in a separate incident — is seen surrounded by armed men, bloodied, beaten, abused, and yelled at.

But the cameraman, as well as whoever films the video footage and others who hold up their phones, care only about capturing Bibas’s suffering, most likely in order to sell the footage to local and international news outlets.

Cherry-picking and chronological trickery isn’t how journalism works. Not good journalism, at least. But as CAMERA has previously documented, the Wall Street Journal is far from the only outlet to brazenly manipulate statistics in recent months. The examples are worth revisiting:

To help make the case that the Gaza war “has been unlike any other in the 21st century,” the Washington Post compared the number of munitions dropped in Gaza to the relatively limited 2014 Iraq war, but ignored the 2003 Iraq war whose pace of bombing, as noted above, far exceeded that in Gaza.

The Associated Press made the same comparison, and the same elision.

The Lawfare blog compared 29,000 bombs Israel dropped on Gaza “during the first six weeks of war” to the 29,199 the US dropped “during the entire Iraq war in 2003.” As mentioned, the “entirety” of the Iraq war they describe was a good deal less than six weeks.

Instead of munitions, the New York Times compared casualties “in less than two months” in Gaza to the 7,700 civilians killed by US-led forces “in the entire first year” of the 2003 war. But as with munitions, so were casualties — an overwhelming majority of the newspaper’s number was killed in the few weeks of invasion phase.

The Washington Post reported that while Israel dropped 6,000 bombs on Gaza in the days after the Hamas attack, “the highest number of bombs and other munitions dropped in one year during the war in Afghanistan was just over 7,423.” In fact, the US dropped 17,500 munitions in just 76 days of war.

The New York Times once claimed that “Gazan civilians are dying at a faster rate than civilians did during the most intense US attacks in Afghanistan or Iraq.” They were not.

It announced that “Israel has killed more women and children than have been killed in Ukraine,” but relied on figures for Ukraine that were, according to the source of the figures, a “considerable” undercount.

Before being corrected, a Wall Street Journal map dramatically exaggerated Gaza damage.

The Wall Street Journal piece discussed above had also included a wildly exaggerated map of destruction in Gaza.

The Associated Press took Scher and Van Den Hoek’s estimate of “likely damaged or destroyed structures” and described them all as “destroyed” structures.

A New York Times headline announced that Gaza deaths surpassed “any Arab war losses in 40 years.” It certainly had not.

The Washington Post claimed displacement in Gaza was “the largest” in the regions since 1948. It certainly was not.

Some of the above distortions have been corrected. Some remain unchanged. Others we haven’t listed above. Regardless, the pattern is clear — and should be disturbing to all who hope for an honest, impartial, and informative news media.

How much food is entering the Gaza Strip? This question has been the subject of much discussion, and even more misinformation, given the political significance of the answer. South Africa, for example, tried to use claims of a “famine” in Gaza at the International Court of Justice to try and force Israel, by judicial decree, to halt its operation to defeat Hamas and rescue the hostages.

It’s thus critically important that journalists covering this question are careful with the facts. Unfortunately, a recent CNN piece falls short in this regard. An April 17 article by Tamar Michaelis, Tim Lister, and Kareem Khadder, entitled “Israel again accuses UN of “excuses” on aid for Gaza — but UN says deliveries facing major checkpoint delays,” errs by presenting inaccurate data alongside misleading data to advance a narrative.

The errors can be found in a graphic supposedly depicting the daily average number of aid trucks entering the Gaza Strip both before and after October 7.

A screenshot of the graphic included in the CNN article.

The graphic, and the preceding text, suggest that the daily average number of trucks bringing food into Gaza now (73) is less than half of what it was before October 7 (150).

In fact, the truth is precisely the opposite. Substantially more trucks are bringing food into Gaza today than were a year ago.

As will be detailed below, the pre-war figure of 150 average daily trucks is unsupported by the actual data, and the real figure is about half that number. Meanwhile, the figure for trucks after October 7 is seriously misleading in that it dramatically understates the number of trucks currently bringing food into Gaza.

Inaccurate Pre-War Data
The CNN graphic cites as its sources UNRWA and the World Food Programme. However, the only source this author could track down for the figure of 150 average daily trucks during the first nine months of 2023 is a report by an organization called the IPC Global Initiative, affiliated with a handful of UN and other aid agencies.

The report claims, “Between January and September 2023, a daily average of 150 food trucks entered the Gaza Strip. Between 8 October 2023 and 9 March 2024, this number decreased to an average of 65 trucks per day.”

"Psychological treatises will one day be written on the moral degeneracy which has taken hold of so many Western minds, which credulously take the word of Hamas, a terrorist organization, as true whilst regarding anything said by Israel, a democratic nation state, as by definition false," wrote Stephen Pollard, editor-at-large of the Jewish Chronicle, in a December op-ed about the atrocious British media coverage of the war.

Among the worst offenders has been Sky News. To cite just a few examples:
Sky News presenter Anna Botting abandoned any pretense of objectivity or even of journalistic curiosity in her hostile interview with Israeli spokesperson Mark Regev in the aftermath of the Al-Ahli hospital explosion in Gaza in October. Botting was viscerally angered by Regev's denial of Israeli responsibility for the blast, a denial that was of course later vindicated when evidence emerged that it was a Palestinian Islamic Jihad rocket that struck the hospital area.

In mid-November, their reporter Mark Stone retweeted someone falsely claiming that 'all ICU patients' died at al-Shifa hospital in Gaza in the aftermath of an IDF raid. The story was so blatantly false that even the PIJ affiliated Quds backtracked and deleted their tweet which initially made that same claim.

In late November, their International Affairs Editor Dominic Waghorn posted a Tweet suggesting that, contrary to all accounts, Hamas was treating the Israeli hostages well. We've of course since learned that at least some of the hostages have been sexually assaulted and tortured – on top of those who have been murdered by the terrorist group.

Now, let's turn to more recent events.

Within 48 hours of Iran's unprecedented drone and missile attacks on Israel on the night of April 13, which included at least 170 attack drones, 30 cruise missiles and 120 ballistic missiles, Sky News's international editor, their Middle East correspondent, and one their most high profile presenters effectively came to the defense of the Islamist regime.

@DominicWaghorn has just offered an on-air correction for ‘misspeaking’ yesterday.

Not sure what the last part was all about.

Damage already done but there we go https://t.co/PvmzbusfjDpic.twitter.com/uXddW5Q9zG

— We Stand With Israel (@SussexFriends) April 19, 2024

Readers are not informed that Iranian sources have claimed that one of the IRGC commanders killed in the April 1st strike in Damascus was directly involved in the planning and execution of the October 7th attack or that – as recently revealed by The Times – there is evidence of Iranian financing of Hamas to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars.

“According to the Times, the money, in cash, arrived from Iran to Beirut, where Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) officers handed it over to Hamas.

Mentioned in the letters as the source of the funds is Saeed Izadi, referred to as Haj Ramadan. He runs the Palestinian division office in Iran’s Quds Force, one of five branches of the IRGC, and coordinates funding with Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other Palestinian terror groups.

His direct commander was Brig.-Gen. Mohammad Reza Zahedi, who was killed in the April 1 airstrike in Damascus.”

Berg, Spender and Beale conclude their report with promotion of a claim from a think tank employee:

“The strikes were certainly calibrated, directed to military installations with the aim of not inflicting too much damage or hurting anyone.”

In other words, these three BBC journalists would apparently have their readers believe that the Islamic regime in Iran somehow knew in advance that, in unprecedented operations, Israel and its allies were going to manage to intercept the hundreds of ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and suicide drones that it launched on the night of April 13th– 14th. Even a Sky News reporter was not persuaded by such entirely unevidenced claims:
“In a military base near the coast, we were shown the fuel tank for an Emad or ‘Pillar of Strength’ missile intercepted as it entered Israeli airspace that night.

It is 11 metres long, but with a warhead the size of a small car, it would have been even bigger at launch.

It has a range of 1,000 miles, a payload of half a tonne of explosives, is accurate to 10 metres and on Saturday was fired by the dozen at Israel.

Standing next to it, suddenly the claims that Iran’s attack was in any way a token effort or symbolic seem absurd.

If any one of those ballistic missiles had reached an Israeli population centre it would have been devastating.”

The absurd notion that the Iranian regime launched at least 170 attack drones, 30 cruise missiles and 120 ballistic missiles at Israel “with the aim of not inflicting too much damage or hurting anyone” has also been rejected by the United States and military experts.

Nevertheless, that is the takeaway message that these three BBC journalists sought to communicate to their readers worldwide.

Contrary to Gardner’s claim, that ‘axis of resistance’ – which includes the Syrian government, Hizballah, the Houthis, the Islamic resistance in Iraq and the Palestinian terrorist organisations Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad – is not motivated by “Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories” but, like the Iranian Islamic Republic itself, by opposition to Israel’s very existence.

By misrepresenting that shared ideology, Gardner steers listeners to the erroneous view that it is Israel’s actions – rather than its existence – which lie behind the attacks against it.

Later in the item (from 2:15:25) Burden asks Gardner about the “situation in the region at the moment”.

Referring to a “ladder of escalation” that he had also presented in a written article the previous day and once again describing the April 1st strike in Damascus as having taken place at the “Iranian consulate”, Gardner notes that the region was “already a tense region because of October the 7th” and goes on to describe the unprecedented events of that day merely as “the Hamas raid on Israel”. Gardner then refers to “the subsequent conflict in Gaza that’s killed over 33 thousand Palestinians – mostly civilians”.

Neither Gardner nor anyone else has been able to verify the casualty figures supplied by Hamas and yet he failed to inform listeners of the source of the figure he cited (which even Hamas admits is based on incomplete data), of the fact that it has not been independently confirmed or that his claim that most of the people killed were civilians is taken from information provided by the terrorist organisation that initiated the current war.

In other words, members of the audience who presented questions to this programme did not receive answers based on accurate and impartial information, but rather on narratives promoted by Hamas and Iran.

It took two days and three tries for the BBC to identify the flying “objects shot down from the sky” as missiles. Good job, @BBCNews. Third time’s the charm. pic.twitter.com/Gem9xo7IBb

— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) April 18, 2024

Here is Miko Peled tweeting that Jews have a reputation for being "sleazy thieves" https://t.co/bthvM3aXbrpic.twitter.com/fZL0yIK6Z3

— Dave Rich (@daverich1) April 19, 2024

Here is Miko Peled speaking at a meeting of the conspiracy group Keep Talking, organised by Holocaust denier Nick Kollestrom https://t.co/o60HlxQrKH

— Dave Rich (@daverich1) April 19, 2024

Australian Jewish Association Facebook page receives ‘sanctions’ by Meta - Andrew Bolt, Sky News

AJA President Dr David Adler appeared on the Bolt Report with Andrew Bolt to call out censorship in Australia.

The appearance follows censorship of social media posts made by the… pic.twitter.com/F53ohXdMgn

— Australian Jewish Association (@AustralianJA) April 19, 2024

Another terror propaganda NGO manipulating @StateDept press briefings to promote vicious #antisemitic blood libels. Detailed documentation on this group at @NGOmonitorhttps://t.co/CerklSp3rL

— Prof Gerald M Steinberg (@GeraldNGOM) April 18, 2024

The kicker of course is that this very tactic has been used by Hamas in Gaza to lure Israeli soldiers 2/2 pic.twitter.com/G0fUaGb138

— CAMERA UK (@CAMERAorgUK) April 18, 2024

Sabah Haniyeh, the sister of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, is expected to be indicted in an Israeli court Sunday on serious security offenses after being arrested earlier this month, Maariv reported.

Sabah Haniyeh, 57, an Israeli citizen who resides in the southern Bedouin town of Tel Sheva, was arrested on April 1 on suspicion of contact with a foreign agent, sympathizing with terrorism and incitement.

During a raid on her home, security forces confiscated documents and other material indicating her association with Palestinian terrorists, leading the Beersheva Magistrate’s Court to extend her detention.

According to WhatsApp messages from the morning of Oct. 7 obtained by Israel’s Channel 13, Sabah Haniyeh wrote to a family group, “The war has arisen” within minutes after Hamas terrorists breached the border. Another relative wrote, “Good morning, what missiles did they send.”

Some 1,200 people were murdered on that day, thousands more wounded and 253 taken hostage, with 133 still in Gaza after 195 days.

Ismail Haniyeh currently resides in Qatar, which sponsors and shelters the Palestinian terror group’s top leaders.

2/
Raisins - 240g for 5 shekels ($1.30) pic.twitter.com/9K3HMNyJIE

— Imshin (@imshin) April 19, 2024

Another staged photo of "breakfast among the rubble", this time in North Gaza.
This rich breakfast refutes the lies about food shortages and starvation in North Gaza.
Many American children have never been fortunate enough to eat such a nutritious breakfast.#TheGazaYouDontSee… pic.twitter.com/AVdsyetXQa

— Imshin (@imshin) April 19, 2024

Good news from Gaza City, north Gaza Strip: Jarjawi grilled chicken restaurant on Wehda St. has reopened after 6 months it was closed due to war! A whole grilled chicken currently costs 85 shekels ($22.60). #TheGazaYouDontSee
https://t.co/jQvHJnnmxxpic.twitter.com/dP8ypPPl9B

— Imshin (@imshin) April 19, 2024

Per UN data, in Aug & Sept 23, just before Gazans supposedely "broke out" of prison, 37,000 Gazans traveled the world via Egypt. That's 222,000 people annually or ~10% of Gaza. Another 94,000 entered Israel via Erez Crossing for business & other activities (564,000 annualized). pic.twitter.com/gZHs7YRS1v

— Aizenberg (@Aizenberg55) April 19, 2024

Tokyo Rose speaks. https://t.co/W0VkxIKt8O

— John Podhoretz (@jpodhoretz) April 18, 2024

Latest Developments
Iran has sought to leverage its militias and proxies, including Lebanese Hezbollah, to destabilize Jordan, reported the pan-Arab newspaper Asharq al-Awsat on April 16. There are “intensive Iranian efforts to target security in the kingdom over the last few months,” an unnamed Jordanian source said. The report accused Iran-backed militias of engaging in arms and drugs trade along the Jordan-Syria border.

Illicit smuggling by Iran-backed militias in Jordan is not the only threat facing the Hashemite Kingdom. Following Hamas’s October 7 terrorist attack, Iranian-backed militias have attempted to carry out infiltration operations inside Jordan to support Palestinian terrorist groups, Asharq al-Awsat noted. The Jordanian army thwarted these attempts when it conveyed “serious threats to shell” terrorist groups active on its border with Iraq, subsequently forcing militias to retreat 40 kilometers (about 24.85 mi) into Iraqi territory.

Separately, Iran threatened Jordan with retaliation if the Hashemite Kingdom intervened during the April 13 Iranian drone and missile attack on Israel. Despite the warning, Jordan’s cabinet stated that “objects” in its airspace were intercepted by the kingdom on the night of April 13.

Expert Analysis
“Iran has sought to increase its influence in the Kingdom of Jordan in the wake of the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7. It wants to exploit divisions in Jordan by using Iraqi-based militias that are supported by Iran. Tehran prefers that Jordan be destabilized so that Iran can then operate through Jordan to support Palestinian terrorist groups in the West Bank. In recent years, Iran has sought to traffic weapons to the West Bank and has worked with drug smugglers in Syria who have threatened Jordan. It is essential that Iran’s attempts to destabilize the kingdom be prevented as part of a wider effort against Iran’s increasing support for terrorist groups in the region.” — Seth J. Frantzman, FDD Adjunct Fellow

“It has been a tried-and-true practice for Iran to identify potential areas in the region to exploit. Through its militias in Iraq, Iran is attempting to undermine the ruling authority in the Hashemite Kingdom by threatening to arm Jordanians to aid Palestinian terrorist groups. Make no mistake, those weapons will eventually be turned on the kingdom, posing a significant threat to its stability.” — Joe Truzman, Senior Research Analyst at FDD’s Long War Journal

Iraqi Militia Threatens to Arm Jordanians for Attacks Against Israel
On April 1, Iran-backed Iraqi militia Kata’ib Hezbollah threatened to retaliate against Israel for its airstrikes in Damascus and its operations in Gaza. Abu al-Askari, the spokesperson for Kata’ib Hezbollah, a U.S.-designated terrorist organization, attributed the deaths of two Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) generals and five other officers in Syria to a “Zionist-American attack.”

Al-Askari said that the Islamic Resistance of Iraq, an umbrella organization for Iranian proxy militias, can arm 12,000 members of the “Mujahideen of the Islamic Resistance in Jordan” with “light and medium weapons, anti-armor launchers, tactical missiles, millions [of rounds] of ammunition, and tons of explosives.” These arms would be used “in the defense of our Palestinian brothers” and “revenge for the honor of Muslims” killed by Israel, al-Askari said. The spokesman also discussed the prospect of “cutting off” the land border between Jordan and Israel as soon as the group receives approval from Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

Former Iranian Diplomat Amir Mousavi: Iran May Use Strategic Missiles and UAVs, as Well as Operations Similar to October 7, If Attacked by Israel #Iran#Israelpic.twitter.com/yWbffqmf7P

— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) April 19, 2024

👋@ErinBurnett, we’ve heard you’ll be interviewing the Islamic Republic’s Foreign Minister Amir-Abdollahian on @CNN at 7 PM ET.

We hope you’ll ask him about:

- His regime’s crimes against humanity
- His regime’s war on Iranian women
- His Holocaust denial
- His regime’s… pic.twitter.com/g1lDH0yhPD

— National Union for Democracy in Iran (@NUFDIran) April 18, 2024

An Iranian athlete who posted criticism online of Iran’s April 14 attack on Israel has reportedly been arrested, and her whereabouts have been unknown since Wednesday, according to media reports.

Iranian national volleyball team player Mobina Rostami posted on her Instagram account: “As an Iranian, I am truly ashamed of the authorities’ attack on Israel, but you need to know that the people in Iran love Israel and hate the Islamic Republic.”

She was reportedly arrested shortly afterwards.

One of the comments on her post came from an account associated with Iranian security forces, stating: “We will shove you in a bag.”

“Only God knows what fate awaits her,” her friends posted on social media.

This is Mobina Rostami, an Iranian volleyball player.

After Iran’s attack on Israel, she posted on social media "As an Iranian, I am truly ashamed of the regime's attack on Israel, but you need to know that the people in Iran love Israel and hate the Islamic Republic."

Now her… pic.twitter.com/yOFLTgMM8Z

— Aviva Klompas (@AvivaKlompas) April 18, 2024

I’ll add to this: there’s a perverse inversion of victim and perpetrator here, whereby Gaza becomes a feminist issue because women are the “primary victims”. If that is proven to be the case, and that’s a big if, then who is to blame? Hamas. Hamas prioritise women and children… https://t.co/Gr3QhOswVo

— Eve Barlow (@Eve_Barlow) April 19, 2024

Amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict, antisemitism and acts of hate against Jews have skyrocketed.

The Anti-Defamation League reported this week that recorded antisemitic incidents were up 120% in 2023 from the year prior (8,873 in total). Perhaps the most jarring was that there were 1,009 bomb threats against synagogues and other Jewish institutions last year versus 91 in 2022.

Prominent Jewish members of the sports community have been outspoken since Oct. 7, when Hamas terrorists from Gaza crossed into Israel and killed some 1,200 people. Minnesota Vikings kicker Greg Joseph wore cleats that read, "I Stand With Israel," and Auburn's men's basketball coach Bruce Pearl has consistently spoken about the conflict.

New England Patriots wide receiver Julian Edelman, who is Jewish, also showed his support during his playing days. On several occasions, he donned an Israeli flag, and shortly after the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting of 2018, he wore specialized cleats that read the names of all the victims.

Edelman also invited ex-NBA player Meyers Leonard to a Shabbat dinner after the latter used a Jewish slur during a live stream.

With antisemitism increasing, Edelman said it's a "sad moment right now, what the world is going through."

"The hate that is out there for Jews, for everyone. The antisemitism, it's gnarly right now, and it's pretty hurtful," Edelman told Fox News Digital in a recent interview.

But he is thankful that he does not have it like those overseas.

"There's a lot of hate going on in other places. War is terrible on so many levels. It's a sad time, like I said. The one thankful thing you have is we're not experiencing that here in our country. War is brutal, war is disgusting."

Max Azzarello’s Instagram👇 pic.twitter.com/ydALjOANbp

— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) April 19, 2024

This is more of Sharmila Sengupta’s output, whilst tweeting under the premise of being a “Jewish socialist” pic.twitter.com/e5EQCkEAdO

— GnasherJew®גנאשר (@GnasherJew) April 19, 2024

Important update!@lids owners Lawrence Berger and Michael Rubin personally called @MrJonnyDaniels and apologised for the incident!

Here is a short video statement from
Jonny Daniels about the incident and his thoughts on the incident! pic.twitter.com/eEVAXbxPCM

— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) April 19, 2024

Having an “Am Yisrael Chai” is not against our company policy.

The store associate made an error, and we are actively investigating it.

We truly are sorry. https://t.co/obpFWLibSD

— Lids (@lids) April 18, 2024

In the wake of the massacre of over 1,200 Israelis and others on October 7th, the Jewish community of Porto has released a film showing the massacre of three thousand Jews in Lisbon in 1506.

“1506 – The Lisbon Genocide” was officially released on Friday April 19th, the anniversary of the date when the rampage against the Jews began, with thousands of Jews of all ages being hunted, decapitated, burned and mutilated, with victims being paraded in the streets, in scenes eerily reminiscent of the massacre on Simchat Torah in communitiesin the south of Israel.

“The film aims to show that the October massacre did not happen in a vacuum, as stated by UN Secretary General António Guterres, who is also Portuguese,” declared Gabriel Senderowicz, President of the Porto Jewish community.

“No one who is not Jewish can understand the feeling of the Jewish community on October 7th, because no one else experienced similar massacres in Alexandria, Granada, Seville, Madrid, Toledo, Barcelona, Basel, Überlingen, Strasburg, Cologne, Worms, Erfurt, Metz, York, Norwich, Trent, Troyes, Bern, Paris, Odessa, Moscow, Hebron and elsewhere.”

“The film was made as short as possible, about 20 minutes long, so that it may be seen by everyone of all ages, even those who prefer not to watch long movies,’’ he explained.

The film was launched online in English, Hebrew, French, Spanish and Portuguese.

The documentary film was produced by the Portuguese director Luís Ismael and involved the participation of hundreds of actors. Research for the film was undertaken by the Community’s historical research center and reviewed by the “Alberto Benveniste” Chair of Sephardic Studies of the University of Lisbon”.

Ahead of the film release and following a premier showing at ANU, the Museum of the Jewish People, a special panel discussed the similarities between the 1506 Lisbon and October 7th massacres, the history and development of Antisemitism, and how to fight the war of narratives mobilized against the State of Israel.

It’s the first night of Passover in the early spring of 2022. My husband and our two adult children are gathered around our dining-room table along with my mother, Agnes. In the center of the table is our seder plate, the matzah wrapped in a silvery woven cloth, and a small bowl of salty water for dipping our parsley.

On the sideboard, out of the corner of my eye, I can see a familiar envelope. My mother brought it from Toronto to our home in Montclair, New Jersey, with the sole purpose of giving it to me just as her mother had given it to her. I had no idea this was her plan, but I know full well the chilling, yet holiday-appropriate, content that lies within it.

We each read from our wine-stained Passover Haggadah, retelling the story of the Exodus. We were slaves for 400 years before God rescued us and called us to be in our own land. As Jews, we are commanded to tell the story of how we fled slavery at the hands of the Egyptians so that future generations will remember.

I’d heard this story every Passover since I was a child. And I know that, for our family, slavery is not a thing of the biblical past. Our history lies within that protective plastic envelope on my sideboard. It contains five postcards. Although I am not exactly sure what they say, their existence has captivated me for my entire life, especially on this holiday.

For Passover is also close on the calendar to Yom Ha’Shoah, designed to commemorate the approximately 6 million Jews and others murdered by Nazi Germany and its collaborators, and the heroism of the survivors and rescuers. The two holidays are intertwined with each other and with my life.

After the blessings over the first cup of wine and after we explain the symbolism of each element on the seder plate, we soon reach that familiar passage: “We were slaves to Pharoah in Egypt…” As my husband begins to recite the story of our enslaved forebears, my thoughts drift to a more recent story of slavery and one person in particular—my maternal grandfather, László Braun.

Almost 80 years ago, in 1943, the Nazis made him a slave when they sent him to the copper mines of Bor, Serbia. He never returned. For Elizabeth, his wife and my grandmother, the trauma of losing her beloved László drove a permanent wedge into her heart. Although I would sometimes see a smile on her Revlonned red lips, it always quickly faded. It pained me that my mother, Agnes, affectionately known as Ágika, had never met her father.

Today is the 81st anniversary of the outbreak of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.

More than 1000 lightly armed Jews took to arms to fight back against Nazi Germany after having witnessed deportations to death camps for months pic.twitter.com/QnwXXeBwbj

— Eye On Antisemitism (@AntisemitismEye) April 19, 2024

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon! Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.  Read all about it here!

Just as troubling is the willingness of many in the chattering classes to defend the protesters and pretend that expressions of antisemitism are a matter of free speech rather than hate. The Guardian’s Moira Donegan attacked Shafik in a column for what she described as “colluding with the far right” by calling in the police to enforce the university’s rules. She treated the entire idea that antisemitism was present as a right-wing talking point rather than an awful reality for Jewish students, whose plight interested her not at all.

The Times’ Michelle Goldberg sounded a similar theme in her denunciation of both the House committee investigating antisemitism and Shafik.

Both quoted comments by Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), a committee member whose questions were aimed at denying the antisemitic nature of the mobs that had transformed Columbia into a hotbed of Jew-hatred. That someone who has been censured by the House for her own repeated antisemitic rhetoric should sit on such a committee (or in Congress itself) is an irony completely lost on leftists. Both Donegan and Goldberg thought it was an outrage that Omar’s daughter—a junior at Barnard College—was among those participating in the pro-Hamas demonstration and rightly suspended from the school, though that piece of information was not generally known when Omar was trying to sabotage the hearing.

As with the rest of the debate about whether the antisemitism being vented on college campuses in the six months since Oct. 7 should be protected free speech, most of the arguments in defense of these mobs are disingenuous. The notion that the pro-Hamas activists are defending free speech is risible considering that most of their efforts are focused on silencing defenders of Israel and the Jews. These are not idealists acting out their sympathy for Palestinian victims but, rather, ideologues who have embraced the cause of a terrorist war to destroy the Jewish state.

What must also be acknowledged is that the crusade on the part of much of the liberal commentariat to defend or rationalize this epidemic of antisemitism is profoundly illiberal. This applies to those who, like the Times’ foreign-policy columnist Nicholas Kristof, have sought to mainstream blood libels against Israel. Their goal is to change the conversation about the war against Hamas from a necessary campaign to eradicate terrorists to an effort to legitimize a genocidal movement and its Western apologists.

The saddest aspect of this debate is the way it has been politicized by the left to make it appear that the fight against antisemitism is a Republican issue. It is deeply unfortunate that much of the liberal activist base of the Democratic Party that has been captured by advocates for critical race theory and intersectionality has taken sides against Israel in the war against Hamas. It’s also true that—as the daily drumbeat of incitement against Israel and its Jewish supporters in the Times, The Washington Post and MSNBC show—left-wing journalists are doing their utmost to legitimize anti-Jewish hate.

The effort to curb the surge of antisemitism in this country should not be conducted along party lines. Democrats and Republicans, liberals as well as conservatives, should be lining up against those who agree with Omar and her cheering section that antisemitic mobs are principled idealists rather than self-entitled hate-mongers. All decent Americans should—if not agreeing with Cotton about roughly preventing illegal protesters from taking over our public squares—be actively seeking to treat these antisemitic agitators with the disdain and punishment they deserve. If the defenders of the mobs prevail, the alternative is a nation where antisemitism is mainstreamed and Jewish safety a thing of the past.

The most famous here are perhaps the Neturei Karta, a fringe group whose members appear at anti-Israel events worldwide.[10] They are ideal for Jew-washers, since, in their ultra-orthodox appearance, they are quite visibly Jews—and what could better exonerate an Israel-hater from charges of antisemitism when such clear Jews hate Israel too? Yes, they are a small group, but they are real, and they do derive their anti-Israelism from their Judaism: the Hebrew Bible as they read it teaches that Jews will legitimately re-form their political collective in the Land of Israel only by divine means, upon the coming of the Jewish Messiah. The contemporary State of Israel, then, is a religious abomination. The fact that the state and its overall culture are largely secular—surely only worse. No wonder they have 3-D hatred toward it.[11]

But does the existence of Neturei Karta successfully exonerate the non-Jewish anti-Israelist from the charge of antisemitism? (Henceforth we focus only on the “invoking authority” mode of Jew-washing.)

To see why not, consider a distinction made by former Harvard University President Lawrence Summers, who famously described campus attempts to boycott and divest from Israel as “antisemitic in effect if not intent.” Effective antisemitism will roughly be any position, policy, or behavior that de facto discriminates in some negative way against Jews, whatever its actual content or intent. Intentional antisemitism is much harder to define, but doing so should not be necessary for our purposes. Suffice to note that sometimes a person’s intentions can absolve even his effective antisemitism from counting as antisemitism simpliciter.[12]

Neturei Karta’s ideology does seem to be effectively antisemitic, after all, for it discriminatorily denies to the Jewish people (pre-Messiah) the same right to political self-determination in their ancestral homeland that presumably all other peoples enjoy in theirs. Members of the group themselves may escape the charge of being intentional antisemites (or antisemites simpliciter), however, since they sincerely derive their position from bona fide Jewish principles.

But the same is simply not true for the non-Jewish Israel-haters who Jew-wash with Neturei Karta. They share the group’s effectively antisemitic doctrine that the Jewish state is illegitimate while not sharing precisely those intentions that would exonerate their antisemitism.[13]

So Jew-washing with Neturei Karta fails. Neturei Karta provide an illusory cover for Israel-haters’ antisemitism, but they do not remove it.

We turn in the next part to what we might call “ultra-non-orthodox Jewish anti-Israelism.”

Calls for a cease-fire in Gaza may be well-intentioned, but a halt to the current fighting will not repair the enduring rift between Israelis and Palestinians. That can only happen once the Palestinians abandon an ideology that rejects the legitimacy of a sovereign Jewish state, said Israeli political scientist Einat Wilf ’96.

During a conversation Friday with Tarek Masoud, Ford Foundation Professor of Democracy and Governance and faculty director of the Middle East Initiative at HKS, Wilf spoke about the war in Gaza and why she thinks there’s been so little progress reaching a resolution over the years. The talk was the fifth in an ongoing Middle East Dialogues series at Harvard Kennedy School, organized by Masoud, which aims to showcase a range of viewpoints on the current crisis and promote informed dialogue.

Describing herself as “the poster child of the Israeli Two-Stater Left,” Wilf served in the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, from 2010 to 2013 as a member of the Labor Party, which supports the creation of an independent Palestinian state. She said she still favors such a goal, but no longer believes the conflict between Palestinians and Israelis is just about land.

“I voted for [Yitzhak] Rabin; I voted for [Ehud] Barak,” she said of the former Labor prime ministers. “I was euphoric in the ’90s, like many Israelis … when Barak goes to Camp David,” she said. “I believed in the vision of a new Middle East.”

But in 2000 and again in 2008, she watched Palestinian leaders refuse the terms of proposals from the Israelis for a state in the West Bank in Gaza.

“And I began to ask myself, ‘What is going on? What do the Palestinians want — because it’s clearly not a state,’” said Wilf, a former intelligence analyst. “They could have had that, and they walked away” without being criticized by the Palestinian people.

She came to that realization after conversations she’s had with many highly educated, moderate Palestinians over the last 20 years. “They basically tell me things like, ‘The Jewish people are not a people. You’re only a religion. This idea that you have a connection to this land, you invented it to steal our own,’” she said.

“And I realized from the conversations with them that how they think about the conflict, and how I think about it, don’t even meet. For them, the very existence of a sovereign Jewish state is illegitimate.”

Israel’s presumed counterstrike against Iran has proved Joe Biden and David Cameron wrong in their insistence that Israel should just “take the win”. Instead, it fought back – and yesterday Iran was trying to pretend that nothing had happened.

This was a profound humiliation for the ayatollahs who just days ago were saying they would deliver punishing retaliation for even the slightest Israeli strike; now they seem to be saying they will do nothing. We don’t yet know what happened at the targets. To save face, the Iranians are unlikely to admit there was any damage. For strategic reasons, Israel has not accepted responsibility and therefore has not made known its damage assessment.

The main target seems to have been Iran’s third city, Isfahan. The Hastam Shikari airforce base is there: it was involved in the April 14 drone and missile attack against Israel. There are drone production factories at Isfahan.

Of perhaps greater significance, the city is at the heart of Iran’s nuclear programme with a research site as well as a processing facility, including stockpiles of highly enriched uranium. Although the International Atomic Energy Agency has made clear that no damage was caused to the nuclear site, Israel’s apparent ability to penetrate Iran’s most heavily defended sites will have triggered enormous concern in Tehran as it gets ever closer to obtaining a nuclear weapons capability.

It is possible there may be a pause in the nuclear programme so as not to provoke further attacks until defences can be significantly enhanced. Perhaps Iran may be deterred from launching further direct strikes against Israel as it realises the extent of its vulnerability.

It was vital for Israel to launch a response to Iran’s aggression quickly to avoid an impression of weakness in a region where strength is everything. But among Israel’s calculations on how to calibrate its response will have been the need to build on the international defensive coalition that formed so quickly last week. This is of strategic importance given the range of threats in the Middle East, foremost of which is the array of 150,000 or more missiles in Lebanon, pointing at Israel.

The alleged Israeli strike overnight Thursday-Friday on Iranian air defenses near the Natanz nuclear site used a high-tech missile that was able to evade Iran’s radar systems, in a move “calibrated to make Iran think twice” before launching another direct attack on Israel, The New York Times reported on Saturday.

Two unnamed Western officials cited by the newspaper said the missile aimed to show Tehran that Israel is able to dodge and neutralize its defenses.

Two Iranian officials said the strike hit a Russian-made S-300 air defense system. They told the newspaper that Iran had not detected intrusions into its airspace from drones, missiles or aircraft.

The newspaper said the missile was from a warplane fired “far from Israeli or Iranian airspace.”

The report also said that neither the plane nor the missile entered Jordanian airspace — a calculated move to keep Amman out of any potential ramifications for the reprisal strike, after it helped shoot down some of the hundreds of drones and missiles fired by Iran at Israel last weekend.

Satellite imagery seen by the Times of Israel showed damage to the radar of an S-300 system at the Eighth Shekari Air Base in Isfahan, said to be part of an array defending the nearby top-secret Natanz nuclear site. The imagery was not immediately permitted for publication, per the policy of the agency that took the photo.

Additional synthetic aperture radar satellite images taken Friday also showed evidence that the radar site was targeted.

The New York Times said the strike was deliberately designed to send a message on how a wider attack could look, with Israel able to penetrate Iranian defenses undetected.

US defense officials also told The New York Times that there was concern the precedent set by the nations’ direct exchanges of blows this week could encourage further rounds of violence in the future.

Other effects could be an Iranian effort to better protect its nuclear assets and make them harder to attack, as well a potential push to move weaponry closer to Israel in case of another confrontation, experts told the paper.

The Palestinian Authority will reconsider bilateral relations with the US after Washington vetoed a Palestinian request for full United Nations membership this week, PA President Mahmoud Abbas said Saturday in an interview with the official WAFA news agency.

The threat, which Abbas has previously made during US President Joe Biden’s tenure without following through, was published in Arabic by the PA’s news agency but wasn’t included in an English translation of what Wafa called an exclusive interview.

“While the world agrees on the application of international law and stands by the Palestinian right, America continues to support the occupation, refusing to compel Israel to stop its genocidal war,” Abbas was quoted as saying. “It provides Israel with weapons and funds that kill our children and destroy our homes, and it stands against us in international forums, in positions that do not serve security and stability in the region.

“The United States has violated all international laws and abandoned all promises regarding the two-state solution and achieving peace in the region,” he added.

The PA leader also accused the Biden administration of having “reneged on its promises and commitments… by remaining silent on [Israel’s] theft of Palestinian funds” while saying there won’t be regional stability without a “just” resolution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict.

You’ve seen it.
We’ve all seen it.
All of Tik Tok has seen it.

That map of Palestine that’s magically disappearing … or is it?

Watch 👀 pic.twitter.com/GmyJLheDVu

— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) April 19, 2024

And for those who prefer consuming their content in podcast form, here I am in conversation with @ShMMor about the Arab cycle of ecstasy and amnesia that keeps leading them into predicable disasters. https://t.co/5oeghap6Q5

— Eylon Levy (@EylonALevy) April 20, 2024

There must be something in the water.

HT @AdinHaykin1pic.twitter.com/HUWE9f2gWq

— Eylon Levy (@EylonALevy) April 20, 2024

In a historic first, the United States is set to sanction a unit of the Israel Defense Forces.

According to three sources speaking with Axios, Secretary of State Antony Blinken will announce sanctions against the IDF’s 97th Netzah Yehuda Battalion. Notably, the sanctions are not due to any actions during the war in Gaza, but rather human rights abuses committed in the West Bank before Oct. 7, 2023. This photo released by the Israeli military on Thursday, Nov. 2, 2023, shows ground operations inside the Gaza Strip. (Israel Defense Forces via AP)

The battalion is made up of ultra-Orthodox Jews with an emphasis on accommodating their religious practices. Following the low enlistment rates among ultra-Orthodox Jews, the battalion recently began to accept far-right youth who were rejected from other combat units. It has not been involved in active combat operations in Gaza.

Among the human rights abuses cited was its involvement in the death of elderly Palestinian American Omar Assad, who died after he was handcuffed, gagged, and forced to lie on his stomach for an extended period. Israel launched an investigation into the incident but decided against pursuing criminal charges against anyone involved, choosing only to “reprimand” one of the commanders.

The sanctions against the unit will prohibit it from receiving any U.S. military aid, participating in activities receiving American funding, and taking part in training with the U.S. military.

Several other units were investigated by the U.S. for abuses but cleared after remedying the behavior. The sanctions against the Netzah Yehuda Battalion will be removed if they are seen to have taken credible moves to remedy the problem as well.

The unit was moved from the West Bank to the Golan Heights after reports of widespread abuses against other Palestinian civilians.

BREAKING:

Axios reports that U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is about to announce sanctions against the Haredi IDF battalion "Netzah Yehuda" for alleged human rights violations in the West Bank.

It would be the first time the U.S. sanctions an Israeli military unit. pic.twitter.com/clyRrSaXiE

— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) April 20, 2024

A US move to sanction Netzah Yehuda will be a move to sanction the IDF. It will be an open breach of relations with Israel and Israel should respond in kind. If the unit is sanctioned, Israel should
-Ban all US embassy personnel from entering Judea and Samaria.
-Ban the… https://t.co/P9XNI4b6ru

— Caroline Glick (@CarolineGlick) April 20, 2024

The U.S. House of Representatives on Saturday with broad bipartisan support passed a $95 billion legislative package providing security assistance to Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan.

The legislation now proceeds to the Democratic-held Senate, which passed a similar measure more than two months ago. The Senate is expected to pass the measure next week, sending it to Biden to sign into law.

The bills provide $60.84 billion to address the conflict in Ukraine, including $23 billion to replenish U.S. weapons, stocks and facilities; $26 billion for Israel, and $8.12 billion for the Indo-Pacific, including Taiwan.

The four-bill package also includes a measure that would give TikTok's Chinese owner, ByteDance, a year to sell the video sharing app or face a ban.

Recent months have seen progressive Democrats express anger with Israel's government and its conduct of the war in Gaza. Saturday's vote, in which the Israel aid was passed 366-58, had 37 Democrats and 21 Republicans in opposition.

On the Republican side, Reps. Andy Biggs (Ariz.), Lauren Boebert (Colo.), Tim Burchett (Tenn.), Andrew Clyde (Ga.), Eli Crane (Ariz.), Warren Davidson (Ohio), Scott DesJarlais (Tenn.), Matt Gaetz (Fla.), Bob Good (Va.), Paul Gosar (Ariz.), Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.), Andy Harris (Md.), Thomas Massie (Ky.), Troy Nehls (Texas), Cory Mills (Fla.), Ralph Norman (S.C.), Scott Perry (Pa.), Matt Rosendale (Mont.), Chip Roy (Texas), Tom Tiffany (Wisc.), and Ryan Zinke (Mont.) voted against aid to Israel.

Biden, who had urged Congress since last year to approve the additional aid to Ukraine, said in a statement: "It comes at a moment of grave urgency, with Israel facing unprecedented attacks from Iran and Ukraine under continued bombardment from Russia." The vote on passage of the Ukraine funding was 311-112. 112 Republicans opposed the legislation, with only 101 in support.

Here’s who voted no on military aid to Israel:

DEMOCRATS:

Reps. Becca Balint (D-VT), Don Beyer (D-VA), Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), Jamaal Bowman (D-NY), Cori Bush (D-MO), Andre Carson (R-IN), Greg Casar (D-TX), Joaquin Castro (D-TX), Judy Chu (D-CA), Mark DeSaulnier (D-WA), Lloyd… https://t.co/wRmk1ApFBm

— Israel War Room (@IsraelWarRoom) April 20, 2024

J Street's "public champion" @RepDonBeyer is voting NO on President Biden's vital emergency aid request for Israel.

197 straight days under attack, and he opposes aid to help Israel protect its families.@jstreetdotorg is many things, but it's not pro-Israel. https://t.co/e4I88a3dwHpic.twitter.com/j0Gk0ccy9P

— AIPAC (@AIPAC) April 20, 2024

Among the so-called innocent "civilians" who Hamas claims have been killed by Israel, there are thousands of guilty and complicit civilians without whose assistance Hamas could not have succeeded in their barbarisms.

When Hamas provides its self-serving numbers of those allegedly killed by Israel, they refuse to distinguish between combatants and civilians. They certainly do not identify complicit "civilians," nor do they indicate how many were killed by the "friendly fire" of Hamas and other terrorist groups, whose rockets routinely misfire and land within Gaza. In a deliberate effort to mislead, Hamas instead purports to list the number of women and children who have been killed. But they include terrorists under the age of 19 as "children" and female terrorists as "women."

All in all, the number of absolutely innocent Gazans — babies, children and adults who are not complicit in Hamas crimes — is a fraction of those claimed by Israel's enemies, including so-called human rights groups.

It is time for a thorough and objective investigation of the actual status of all those allegedly killed by Israeli military actions. The results will show that Israel has achieved a remarkably low and unheard of ratio of combatants and complicit civilians to innocent civilians.

Brett McGurk, Biden's coordinator for the Middle East speaking about the ceasefire/hostage negotiations:

I'll be frank about where this stands. There is a deal on the table that would lead to a ceasefire and release of hostages.

Hamas just has to release the women, elderly,… pic.twitter.com/tXIoro82rG

— Aviva Klompas (@AvivaKlompas) April 19, 2024

A poll conducted by Jewish Federations of North America documents how popular opinion on the war in the Gaza Strip has shifted in recent months but still shows a majority supporting Israel.

The group released its findings on Thursday after surveying 1,901 American Jews and 4,143 non-Jewish Americans from Feb. 23 through March 11. Weighing the data to mirror the U.S. population, researchers found that 28% of Americans want an unconditional ceasefire, enabling the Hamas terrorist organization to continue to control Gaza and plot future Oct. 7-style attacks. It shows an increase from 20% during the initial weeks of the conflict. The total number of American Jews who advocate this position has reached 11%.

“Americans understand that Israel’s fight against terrorism is also our fight,” said Eric Fingerhut, president and CEO of the Jewish Federations of North America. “They know that a ceasefire without the return of the hostages and the eventual defeat of Hamas is wrong for Israel, wrong for Americans and wrong for the free world.”

The survey also asked about fear for personal safety, discovering that Jews were nearly twice as concerned (58%) as non-Jews (32%). Jews who wore visibly Jewish clothing or religious items reported feeling almost three times as likely to worry for their safety.

While a majority of Jews (79%) expressed an emotional connection to Israel and that it made them proud to be Jewish (72%), nearly a third of Jews (29%) described discomfort in publicly expressing support for Israel with 68% of them naming antisemitic targeting as why.

The poll also revealed that the 5% of those polled who identified as Hamas supporters feel much more confident in expressing their views publicly (83%) than pro-Israel advocates (69%) and those who sympathize with “Palestine” (63%).

A greater proportion of young Americans sympathize with the Palestinian people and government than with the Israeli people and government, while almost one in five sympathize with Hamas and a growing number want the US to end or reduce its alliance with the Jewish State, according to a new poll.

The national poll — released by the Institute of Politics at Harvard University’s Kennedy School — was of Americans aged 18-29. It found that while 52 percent of young people sympathize with Israelis, 56 percent sympathize with the Palestinian people.

The story remained the same when it came to governments: 32 percent of respondents said they sympathize with the Palestinian government, and only 29 percent said they sympathize with the Israeli government. The question did not make clear whether it was referring only to the Palestinian Authority (PA), which exercises limited self-rule in the West Bank, or both the PA and Hamas, the Islamist terrorist group that rules Gaza.

According to the poll, 17 percent of young Americans said they support Hamas; however, when asked with the added context that Hamas is an “Islamist militant group,” support dropped to 13 percent.

Meanwhile, 29 percent said they believe the US should either no longer be an ally of Israel or reduce its allyship toward the Jewish state, and 32 percent said Israel’s response to Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre — when the terror group invaded southern Israel, murdered 1,200 people, and took more than 250 hostages — was not justified. For both of these questions, though, a plurality of respondents said they were unsure.

Notably, support for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza was strong among young people — with 51 percent supporting it and just 10 percent opposing it. Only 6 percent of Democrats said they do not support a permanent ceasefire.

Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba reported an improvement on Saturday in the condition of a seven-year-old girl who was seriously wounded by shrapnel during the Iranian missile and drone attack on Israel last weekend.

The girl, Amina Hassouna, from a Bedouin town near Arad, was breathing on her own on Saturday, according to the hospital, which still listed her in serious condition. Despite her slight improvement, the girl remained in pediatric intensive care.

Hassouna was injured when shrapnel from an intercepted ballistic missile fell directly on her family’s home early Sunday.

Iran had launched more than 300 drones, rockets and missiles, the vast majority of which were struck down by Israel and its allies in its first-ever direct attack on Israeli territory.

Hassouna was the only serious casualty in the attack.

“I don’t know what happened,” her father Mohamed told Channel 13 on the night she was injured. “We were all asleep. We have no bomb shelter and no protection. We heard sirens and then something hit the house and her mother noticed that she was wounded.”

Amina is now able to breath on her own, but is still in serious condition. She was the one Israeli casualty of Iran's attack last weekend. https://t.co/dDIu6ez3hC

— Aviva Klompas (@AvivaKlompas) April 20, 2024

The Israel Defense Forces on Saturday continued a counter-terrorism operation in the West Bank’s Nur Shams refugee camp, the military said on Saturday afternoon.

The raid, near Tulkarem, has been ongoing for more than 40 hours.

Amid the operation, the IDF said troops killed at least 10 gunmen and detained another eight wanted Palestinians.

The troops also discovered and destroyed a bomb-making lab; seized firearms, including assault rifles; and used bulldozers to rip up roads where bombs were suspected to have been planted, the military said.

Eight soldiers and a Border Police officer were wounded as of Saturday afternoon amid clashes with Palestinian gunmen and rioters. Their injuries were listed as light and moderate conditions.

Palestinian media outlets reported that senior Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist Muhammad Jaber, known as Abu Shuja’a, was among those killed by troops.

I suspect evidence will emerge demonstrating that some or all of the other Palesrinians killed were members of terror groups or affiliated with them.

— Joe Truzman (@JoeTruzman) April 20, 2024

A section of the PMF's Kalsu base targeted by an airstrike overnight in Babil. pic.twitter.com/hmQNjNnU2w

— Joe Truzman (@JoeTruzman) April 20, 2024

A section of the PMF base was destroyed by an overnight strike in Babil. pic.twitter.com/r5Dd4SfoDv

— Joe Truzman (@JoeTruzman) April 20, 2024

IDF: IDF troops struck a launching pit in the area of Beit Hanoun shortly after launches were identified from the area toward the city of Sderot yesterday (Friday)

Yesterday (Friday), IDF troops in cooperation with IAF aircraft struck terror targets including a launching pit in… pic.twitter.com/2yj5v86h0n

— Israel War Room (@IsraelWarRoom) April 20, 2024

At least three members of the Hezbollah terror group were killed in an Israeli airstrike in southern Lebanon on Saturday, as skirmishes on the border continued.

The Israel Defense Forces said it had carried out strikes on Hezbollah operatives in Ayta ash-Shab and Kfar Kila in the morning hours, after they were spotted entering sites belonging to the terror group.

Later in the day, the IDF said reservists of the Etzioni Brigade spotted several more Hezbollah operatives at one of the group’s sites in Jebbayn before fighter jets struck the building. Hezbollah announced that three of its members were killed in the strike in Jebbayn.

Their deaths brought the terror group’s toll amid the war in the Gaza Strip to 285.

Since October 8, Hezbollah has attacked Israeli communities and military posts along the border on a daily basis with rockets, drones, anti-tank missiles and other means, saying it is doing so to support Gaza amid the war there.

Sirens sounded in northern Israel throughout Saturday, warning of rocket attacks and possible drone infiltrations, some of which were later deemed to be false alarms.

The IDF said it targeted Hezbollah members and the group's infrastructure in the area of Jebbayn, southern Lebanon. pic.twitter.com/ENU449l53Q

— Joe Truzman (@JoeTruzman) April 20, 2024

Hezbollah announced the elimination of four of its terrorists.

This brings the total to 285 https://t.co/MmSaN6ehJBpic.twitter.com/6Zqh84lrNb

— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) April 20, 2024

ISRAEL EMPLOYED GAZANS AS A PRICE FOR PEACE

*** BRILLIANT explanatory video postulates the confronting proposition that the outcome in Arab Palestinian folklore will be portrayed for generations as a Hamas victory.

A must watch, highly recommended. pic.twitter.com/5yRZHBtHjL

— Australian Jewish Association (@AustralianJA) April 20, 2024

A trailer was released on Wednesday for a play opening in New York next month that is comprised entirely of eyewitness accounts of Hamas’ Oct. 7 terrorist attacks in Israel using only the actual words of survivors and families of victims.

The play, titled October 7, was produced by Phelim McAleer and Ann McElhinney, two Irish documentary filmmakers, screenwriters, New York Times best-selling authors, and veteran investigative journalists. The married couple traveled to Israel in November to interview those affected by the deadly massacre in southern Israel, in which roughly 1,200 people were slaughtered by Hamas terrorists who also took more than 200 others as hostages back to the Gaza Strip. McAleer and McElhinney traveled throughout Israel for roughly three weeks, speaking to survivors and also families of victims about how they went about their day on Oct. 6 and how their lives changed the following morning.

“We’ve covered many shocking stories but nothing comes close to what the men, women, and children of Israel faced [on Oct. 7],” McElhinney said in the trailer for the play, which provides first-hand witness accounts of what happened in their own words, without editing. “The world wants you to forget about what happened that day. The day that everything changed. We refuse to let that happen.”

McAleer added: “We’ll bring you the truth they don’t want you to hear.”

The filmmakers debuted the trailer for October 7 during the Wednesday episode of their podcast, The Ann and Phelim Scoop. McAleer also explained their desire for wanting to make the play.

"I have two holes in my foot and a million in my heart and they'll stay there always."

Or was shot at the Nova Festival massacre and survived to tell her story.

🎥: Alon Asaf Jorji https://t.co/lODanCdB54.tell pic.twitter.com/fTkQ7UIF4o

— Embassy of Israel to the USA (@IsraelinUSA) April 20, 2024

Remarkable Channel 12 news interview with two Yemenite Jewish brothers, Daniel and Neriyah Sharabi, whose heroism wound up saving around 30 people from Hamas terrorists at the Nova Festival on October 7. pic.twitter.com/gGpgLDg9eY

— ~Jachnun Supremacist~ נפתלי בן מתתיהו (@JachnunEmpire) April 20, 2024

On 7 October, Hamas crossed the Gaza border in divisional strength. I’m going to use military jargon as this was not a rag-tag rabble. The numbers of trained and organised Hamas fighters were more than double the number of personnel the British sent to retake the Falklands in… pic.twitter.com/JRwKLwDYXF

— Andrew Fox (@Mr_Andrew_Fox) April 19, 2024

There was an impressive level of logistics. Hamas brought comprehensive med packs with them. Very quickly, cab ranks of empty vehicles lined up outside homesteads ready to receive hostages.

The attack had been preceded by years of deception to persuade Israel that Islamic…

— Andrew Fox (@Mr_Andrew_Fox) April 19, 2024

This is the home of David Karol. He was a cancer survivor in his 70s. He was tortured and murdered. We know he was tortured because his neighbours heard his screams. His attackers then torched his house. This small pile is all that was left of his belongings. 6/ pic.twitter.com/ehWaZNCSAN

— Andrew Fox (@Mr_Andrew_Fox) April 19, 2024

I had lunch with a gracious Bedouin family in Rahat. Our host, Ouahid Elhazil, spoke to us about the life of Arabs in Israel and the idea of apartheid. He also spoke to us about the Bedouin community members who were killed and kidnapped on Oct 7th.#BringThemHome🎗️ pic.twitter.com/D7FAGBxXFc

— Yasmine Mohammed 🦋 ياسمين محمد (@YasMohammedxx) April 20, 2024

Compare the massacres of Jews on October 7 in Israel with August 7 in Algeria.

In 1934, Arabs slaughtered hundreds of Algerian Jews. Look at how they killed them.

“A scene of utter desolation and horror, of Jewish girls with their breasts cut off, of little children with… pic.twitter.com/hYCSYiHIh9

— Marina Medvin 🇺🇸 (@MarinaMedvin) April 20, 2024

Israel just struck back at Iran. The limited strike was designed to show Iran that Israel has the capacity to strike wherever it wants, including nuclear facilities, thus re-establishing deterrence. 🧵 pic.twitter.com/pMA3V4L5VB

— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) April 19, 2024

But "Saudi officials have privately indicated to the U.S. that they might accept verbal assurances from Israel that it would engage in new talks on Palestinian statehood to secure the other parts of the deal of more interest to Riyadh." LMAO: a verbal commitment for future talks.…

— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) April 19, 2024

The Saudis want to be a part of a regional anti-Iranian coalition led by Israel. So it will happen sooner or later. All Joe Biden has to do is get the hell out of the way.

— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) April 19, 2024

WATCH: Professor Morris explains the concept of FAFO 👇🏽

This one is a classic 🔥 pic.twitter.com/eVOLT1DUVn

— Adam Albilya - אדם אלביליה (@AdamAlbilya) April 20, 2024

Hosted by Richard Epstein & Tom Church
Richard Epstein discusses Israel and Iran trading missiles, Columbia University’s decision to arrest protestors, and how far protests are allowed to go.

How did college campuses like Columbia become the source of so much hate?

The FP’s @Olivia_Reingold travels to America’s most elite colleges to find the origins of campus antisemitism. pic.twitter.com/uvMZTnLlTj

— The Free Press (@TheFP) April 19, 2024

The anti-Israeli student protest at @Columbia is organized by radicals.

Students for Justice in Palestine & WoL are behind much of the chaos in NYC.@ChayaRaichik10 of @libsoftiktok speaking about how the network of anti-Israel organizations hide the sources of their financing pic.twitter.com/xT57Xdb4rm

— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) April 20, 2024

366-58
🇮🇱🇺🇸 https://t.co/FThIX8OIxspic.twitter.com/fgNGBNiF5K

— Israel War Room (@IsraelWarRoom) April 20, 2024

Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) continued to call for Hamas to release its hostages, six months after operatives kidnapped them from southern Israel.

Since the Oct. 7 attack, Fetterman has displayed the photos of all the hostages Hamas took on his Senate office walls. The terrorist organization is holding over 100 hostages, according to Israel Defense Forces, though exact numbers are unclear with Hamas’s recent announcement they did not have 40 hostages who fit the criteria for a deal with Israel. At least 30 hostages have died in captivity.

“With a somber Passover approaching, I remain committed to speaking about this travesty and acknowledge there can’t be true lasting peace until the hostages are home,” Fetterman wrote in the caption of a video on X.

“And I’ll never understand why we’re not talking about that more and why there’s not more stories about that in the media,” Fetterman says in the video. “It’s very clear that we always make sure that we always talk about this and demand that and make sure until every last one is accounted for and brought back home.”

The House and Senate will pass this to stand for democracy.

The lunatic fringe of both parties would betray our key allies and should be relegated to history as autocratic or theocratic apologists. pic.twitter.com/ffjiwnJ8nM

— Senator John Fetterman (@SenFettermanPA) April 20, 2024

This week, I'm voting—again—to deliver aid for Israel with no conditions & reject the slander of this UN Hamas apologist. pic.twitter.com/5yWXfwWvmf

— Senator John Fetterman (@SenFettermanPA) April 20, 2024

Condemn Iran >>> Condemn Universities for suspending protesters pic.twitter.com/iupOXP6C5c

— Senator John Fetterman (@SenFettermanPA) April 19, 2024

It's worth noting that despite CCP efforts to prevent forced divestment and the pro-Hamas caucus' desperation to protect the Islamic Republic, this passed with overwhelming bipartisan majorities. https://t.co/CHifSl5bXX

— AG (@AGHamilton29) April 20, 2024

It’s not model behavior.

Luxury real estate developer Mohamed Hadid — father of nepobaby models Bella and Gigi — has spent months bombarding Rep. Ritchie Torres with dozens of racist and homophobic messages, according to screenshots obtained by The Post.

The progressive Democrat apparently become a target for Hadid in the wake of his outspoken defense of Israel after Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre.

The Hadids are Palestinian and Mohamed is reportedly living in a $4.5 million “cottage” in Beverly Hills.

“You worse than the rats of New York sewage system. They have bigger brains than you. You might get a job as bouncer at gay bar,” Hadid, 75, told Torres in an Instagram direct message sent from his verified account — adding the Congressman was a “slave to whites.”

“Make sure you dress as KKK to hide that ugly gray colored face of yours,” the developer added. “I know about Bronx.”

Torres, 36, made history in 2021 when he became the first openly gay African American, and first openly gay Hispanic member, of Congress.

“You are just unusual Black and colorful mouth for Israeli and AIPAC and looking for payday of over 500K,” Hadid saId in another message, referring to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a pro-Israel lobbying group.

Granddaughter of literal Nazis makes an immoral comparison between her country’s past & Israel’s present.

She clearly hasn’t learned the appropriate lessons. Perhaps she should sit this one out.https://t.co/X3F7gpcqL8pic.twitter.com/pYaB95OKqK

— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) April 20, 2024

Oh! @Byoussef dislikes Jews. Surprising because I thought that he loves the Joos and only hates the Zionists who are committing a daily genocide on the Balestinian Beoble. https://t.co/kPxnXwuVvw

— Gad Saad (@GadSaad) April 19, 2024

WATCH: Rabbi @ElhananMiller goes in depth to rebut @Byoussef's nonsense perversion of what Jews actually believe. pic.twitter.com/b6KVyEswxe

— Israel War Room (@IsraelWarRoom) April 19, 2024

I was curious as to what exactly Chelsea Handler did to be on the radar for these activists. Turns out Chelsea Handler is Jewish. A few months back she even teamed up with @noatishby to battle misinformation about Israel.

It is also of note that these protesters are likely… pic.twitter.com/Iu1xse4ZMT

— Stu (@thestustustudio) April 20, 2024

Welcome to New York, Miss Israel.

A beauty queen who has been serving on the front lines of the Israel-Hamas war since the Oct. 7 massacre was assaulted during a pro-Hamas protest in Times Square, The Post has learned.

Noa Cochva, who was crowned Miss Israel in 2021, was smashed in the face with the butt of a protest placard during the March 30 rally, video showed.

Cochva, 25, had been in the Big Apple for several weeks speaking and doing advocacy work for Israel and was in Times Square that day with fellow Israel advocates — who had come to demonstrate as well.

“We just saw a huge pro-Palestinian rally, and we wanted to go and do our own thing . . . And then they recognized us when they saw our flag and they threw down our flag . . . and they came down and one of the guys hit me.

“I had a black eye, I have never had a black eye before,” she said.

Cochva, who is a combat medic in her homeland, received treatment in an ambulance after the assault.

Police on the scene told the beauty queen “we can’t do anything,” she said.

“I feel like if you’re a police officer, and you see a woman get hit in the face, you should probably find the guy because that’s your job.”

After first letting the issue go, she decided to press charges on April 10.

After initially saying it had no report on file, the NYPD eventually confirmed the details of the incident to The Post, adding that there had been no arrests and the investigation was “ongoing.”

Cochva competed in the Miss Universe pageant in 2021, which was held in Eilat, Israel.

When she’s not cutting ribbons and waving to fans, she’s on the front lines — serving just outside Gaza treating wounded soldiers.

Yesterday, @PressSec was asked what the president's position was on radical left-wing protestors chanting, "We are all Hamas, long live Hamas." She responded by talking about Charlottesville pic.twitter.com/ogaXNYOUjz

— Eitan Fischberger (@EFischberger) April 20, 2024

THE BOUNTY PROGRAM WORKS!

ℹ️ Attached images are an example of what we usually see. He is going to give up the identity of the Marxist Nazi shown for the $500 cash bounty.

⚠️ 100% Anonymity Guaranteed for All Tips.

✅ Payment Flexibility: Receive your bounty through Cash App,… pic.twitter.com/o9tKfPIz9m

— Shirion Collective (@ShirionOrg) April 20, 2024

An asylum seeker who fatally stabbed a pensioner in the street after shouting 'Free Palestine' has told jurors he felt unwell and that he might faint when he did it.

Ahmed Alid, 45, is charged with murdering Terence Carney, 70, in Hartlepool town centre, minutes after repeatedly knifing his sleeping housemate Javed Nouri, 31, in his bed.

The prosecution at Teesside Crown Court has said Alid, from Morocco and who moved with family to Algeria, was motivated out of 'revenge' for the Israel-Palestine conflict.

Both men were stabbed six times in the early hours of October 15, eight days after the Hamas attacks on Israel, and Mr Nouri survived after fighting off his attacker.

Alid admits he stabbed them both and agrees it was wrong, but denies he intended to cause either serious harm or that he was 'responsible' for their injuries.

The Metropolitan Police has apologised and retracted a statement saying sorry for the actions of an officer who threatened to arrest a man he described as being 'openly Jewish' after the communication was slammed as 'appalling victim blaming'.

London's police service issued a statement on Friday afternoon apologising after Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) boss Gideon Falter was stopped from walking through a pro-Palestine march last Saturday by a Met officer.

The Met's initial statement accused counter-protesters at the regular rallies of being 'provocative' by filming themselves as they turned up on the routes to express their views. Mr Falter maintains he was 'going for a walk' after attending synagogue.

But after the CAA furiously accused the force of 'abject victim blaming' it pulled the statement, replacing it with a further apology for causing further offence which added: 'Being Jewish is not a provocation'.

And following the first Met bulletin the campaign group issued further footage of exchanges between the officer and Mr Falter in which the policeman says that his Jewish faith is 'part of the factor' as to why he can't cross the road during the march.

In the footage, which the group had not released as part of the earlier clip, the officer says: 'I'm sure there are an awful lot of people of all sorts of faiths and creeds who want to go where they want, but unfortunately today is different.'

Mr Falter then asks: 'So basically because I am Jewish, I can't cross the road today?'

The officer replies: 'Because of the march, that is part of... unfortunately part of the factor.'

Sharing the new statement, the Met said: 'Earlier we posted a statement about a video released on Thursday evening by the Campaign Against Antisemitism.

'That statement has now been removed. We apologise for the offence it caused.'

The statement read: 'The use of the term "openly Jewish" by one of our officers is hugely regrettable. We know it will have caused offence to many. We reiterate our apology.

'We have reflected on the strength of the response to our previous statement. In an effort to make a point about the policing of protest we caused further offence.

'This was never our intention. We have removed that statement and we apologise.

'Being Jewish is not a provocation. Jewish Londoners must be able to feel safe in this city.

'Our commitment to protecting the public extends to all communities across London. It's important that our public statements reflect that more clearly than they did today.'

The CAA labelled the earlier statement 'atrocious' and claimed the Met was not outlining how it would protect Jewish people in London.

🎥Message from the constabulary regarding openly Jewish people. pic.twitter.com/bEFdRWOfkw

— Andrew Lawrence (@andrewlawrence) April 20, 2024

There is some important missing “context” here.

The now-deleted statement was issued by the Assistant Commissioner. It was atrocious.

The incident that it concerns happened a week ago.

The Met has yet to say what it will actually do to protect Jews.

In fact, as these… https://t.co/2EfxHeLHCZpic.twitter.com/Cz4To2pC7j

— Campaign Against Antisemitism (@antisemitism) April 19, 2024

The time has come for Sir Mark Rowley to go.@GideonFalter, Chief Executive of CAA, said: “Sir Mark Rowley must resign or be removed by the Mayor of London, @SadiqKhan, and the Home Secretary, @JamesCleverly.

“What happened to me was a disgrace. Imagine what it felt like to be… pic.twitter.com/ERUiR4flfk

— Campaign Against Antisemitism (@antisemitism) April 20, 2024

For the first time since October, there are more counter protesters than the main protesters at the Islamist rally in London. pic.twitter.com/vV4dUWLjSv

— Mahyar Tousi (@MahyarTousi) April 20, 2024

Two pro-British protesters went into the middle of a pro-Palestine rally in Portsmouth, England holding a Union flag. Unlike the biased @metpoliceuk in London, the police there do not remove the men for engaging in a lawful counter-protest. pic.twitter.com/gs0Hog8q8F

— Andy Ngô 🏳️‍🌈 (@MrAndyNgo) April 20, 2024

Chanting for racist terrorists bent on genocide for the Jews.

"Resistance is justified!"

Cardiff, earlier today. pic.twitter.com/53v37sQ3t3

— habibi (@habibi_uk) April 20, 2024

The "Palestine Solidarity Campaign" creeps really do think they should be allowed to enter businesses to hurl abuse, with no consequences.

Well, that's what forces around the country normally let them do.

But today, finally, there were arrests in Ilford.

Note the NEU banner. pic.twitter.com/if9gMe7wEk

— habibi (@habibi_uk) April 20, 2024

Rebel News was informed that some parents at the Grove Community School in Toronto have been removing their elementary-age children on certain days to stage pro-Hamas demonstrations. We visited the school last Tuesday and did not witness such a demonstration. However, Rebel News has obtained photographs of previous pro-Hamas protests by the pint-sized set, some of whom were brandishing Palestinian flags.

A two women and a man who are believed to have attended a Palm Sunday Free Palestine rally in Melbourne allegedly assaulted a pair of men, hitting one of them in the face with a megaphone > https://t.co/kGdTAzkGHdpic.twitter.com/v6ms1svme8

— Herald Sun (@theheraldsun) April 19, 2024

The Metropolitan Police has admitted it gave councils the wrong advice on the hanging of Palestinian flags on public property and now says express permission must be sought from local authorities for the displays.

The Met had previously said that the flags could be put up on street furniture such as lamp posts unless the council clearly forbade it.

Responding to a letter from campaign group UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI), the force said it recognised this advice had been incorrect.

“We accept that this is inaccurate and that the correct position is that unless a local authority actively consents to the affixing of flags in the street then a person is not entitled to do so and they may be committing an offence,” it wrote.

“Our position remains that the local authority has primary responsibility for enforcing any such offences. Following receipt of your letter, we have reviewed the position paper and decided to withdraw this and the ‘comms’."

Following October 7, Palestinian flags have been displayed in large numbers in some areas of the UK.

While those who put up the flags say they act out of solidarity with those suffering hunger and bombardment in Gaza, many in the Jewish community remember the celebrations that took place at several sites across London on October 7 where Palestinian flags were waved as an apparent tribute to the Hamas massacres.

Speaking to the Daily Mail, one Jewish parent said: “I am the mother of a boy who goes to primary school in the ­borough.

“We have lived here for four years but we are leaving, even to go abroad, before he goes to secondary. This week, 11 flags hung outside his school. There is graffiti calling for a boycott on ‘apartheid Israel’ on a wall nearby.”

Comedian Paul Currie has walked back on earlier claims he was set to perform at Glastonbury Festival after bosses said he had not been booked for the 2024 event.

The comic, who faced a row in February amid claims he 'hounded' Jewish man Liahav Eitan out of a London gig because he 'refused to applaud' a Palestinian flag, now claims he has been 'cancelled' after 13 years of Glasto gigs.

In a post on Instagram on Friday evening, Currie - who has been explicit in his support of Palestinian people - said the Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) had put 'pressure' on Glastonbury organisers not to book him again.

But festival bosses told MailOnline earlier today that he had not been booked to perform at all for 2024.

Currie's new post, however, was phrased to suggest that he believed he had been booked but that the offer was subsequently withdrawn. MailOnline has contacted the comedian for further clarification.

C’mon @elonmusk@lindayaX@Safety how is this not a violation of your ‘Dehumanization’ policy? pic.twitter.com/K9EK1Y9Vr3

— Israel War Room (@IsraelWarRoom) April 19, 2024

A woman was reportedly screaming d**th to J**s during a 'pro-Palestine' Nazi demonstration a couple of days ago, and this is the result...

📍Germany pic.twitter.com/6MfZSYPTdc

— Adam Albilya - אדם אלביליה (@AdamAlbilya) April 19, 2024

In 1957, I moved to Berkeley, California: a bastion of American liberalism that squarely aligns with my progressive values, and a hub of American scholarship that nurtured my academic quest and professional growth. I came here for advanced studies in microbiology and genetics. Since then, I have lived, worked as a scientist and retired in this community.

Over the 65 years that I have called this beautiful area home, I have occasionally encountered antisemitism, but these one-off incidents never succeeded in destroying my spirit. When I was four years old, Nazis burst into my bedroom and sent me and my family to Dachau, the first Nazi concentration camp. We were soon released and I was smuggled out of Germany by a Christian woman. After this harrowing experience, not much in the Bay Area could scare me.

But since the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel, the hatred towards Jews that I have seen in Berkeley terrifies me more than anything I have experienced while living here. I am still reeling from being called a liar at a Berkeley City Council meeting, where I asked for a proclamation to mark Holocaust Remembrance Day and spoke about October 7. The Jews at that meeting were circled and called “Zionist pigs” by menacing protesters.

We are approaching the holiday of Passover, which commemorates the freedom of the Israelites from Egyptian slavery and our formation as a free Jewish people in our own land. But this Passover is like no other in recent history, with scores of hostages still held in Gaza and Jews worldwide fearful for our future — including Jews in the US. We are facing the worst global antisemitism since the Holocaust and while it is not state-sanctioned as Nazism was, it is a threat going unchecked in California’s East Bay.

It is incredibly painful to see my neighbors vilify Jews, tear down posters of Jewish hostages in Gaza and not believe Jewish rape victims. In this hotbed, hatred and hostility have become normalized. Families have moved their children out of public schools. Jewish businesses have been vandalized and boycotted. And lies about Jews and Israel have gone unchecked and unchallenged in our public forums. Our local Jewish community is both horrified and petrified.

This onslaught of Jewish hatred cannot become the new normal. This epidemic must be treated as seriously as all other hatreds that our society is confronting, such as racism and homophobia. We need more education about Judaism and how the long, sordid history of antisemitism ties into other forms of hatred in our public schools.

We need colleges and universities to unequivocally denounce hate speech and actions directed at Jews. We need public officials to urge mutual respect, understanding and civil discourse during city council and town hall meetings.

Last spring, my Arabic language instructor instituted a policy that non-Muslim students refrain from eating or drinking in class during Ramadan. When I objected to this rule, she told me that the problem with Americans is that we “care too much about our rights.” As such, I was very surprised to see her name appear on an open letter demanding that the administration “defend academic freedom, freedom of speech, and the right to peaceful assembly” in the context of advocacy for “Palestinian liberation.”

As a liberal and near free speech absolutist, I was hopeful that free speech defenses of pro-Palestine advocacy would prompt campus progressives to reckon with the value of free speech. Perhaps, in a situation where progressive voices were on the receiving end of censorship of expression, then free speech might become more widely accepted as an apolitical principle. Unfortunately, the recent controversy surrounding Charter Club has demonstrated that progressive voices on campus have failed to recognize the value of free speech beyond its usefulness as a political instrument. Thus, as a community, we must work to foster an ideologically-free understanding of free speech.

The aforementioned incident occurred following a lunch between professor Robert P. George and his student in the club. Soon afterwards, a policy was instituted that mandated approval from “undergraduate officers, club staff, and the alumni Board of Governors” before bringing non-family or friend visitors. After coverage and controversy, this policy has been revoked — but the fact that it was even imposed in the first place signals the presence of fundamental misconceptions and hypocrisy about free speech.

Indeed, the idea that students eating their lunch at Charter may have felt uncomfortable by professor George’s presence is not difficult to understand. Professor George maintains several conservative viewpoints on topics ranging from same-sex marriage to abortion. The deeply personal and controversial nature of these issues will likely breed discomfort for many students. Even I have felt uneasy when encountering his arguments against ideas that I — who was raised in a liberal suburb — believed to be accepted facts.

In another episode of "Never Miss an Opportunity to be Antisemitic," @Harvard will send students on a summer program to Birzeit University near Ramallah to be briefed on “settler colonialism” that called for “glory to martyrs” after Oct. 7. https://t.co/DsPgc9lfV1pic.twitter.com/Gat0GdUADl

— Canary Mission (@canarymission) April 20, 2024

An extremist anti-Zionist group on Thursday was prevented by local police from marching to the Ronald W. Reagan Presidential House at Florida International University (FIU), which is the home of school president Kenneth A. Jessell.

According to the campus newspaper Panther Now, Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) planned the action as part of “Palestinian Prisoner Day,” an event held by the group to honor terrorists who are detained in Israel. As the demonstrators approached Jessell’s home, a blockade of police formed to obstruct their path.

Despite the aggression displayed in marching a mob to someone’s residence, the students complained that the police’s response was disproportionate to any threat they may have posed.

“Take a look over there. Do you know how many cop cars are there? All these cops for a bunch of students who are just chanting,” SJP co-president Zuhra Alchtar was quoted by Panther Now as saying when the police arrived on the scene. “The ivory tower gets so shaken when a bunch of people speak. They can’t stand it. They have to call the big guns; they have to call the priority response team.”

The demonstration came as anti-Zionist students across the US have been recently crossing the line from peaceful expressions of free speech to riotous behavior, flagrantly violating school rules, disrupting business, and even exposing Jewish students to racist and antisemitic rhetoric unlike any uttered publicly in the US since the 1950s.

Earlier this month, Vanderbilt University suspended and expelled several protesters who occupied an administrative building and proceeded to relieve themselves and perform other private functions inside. To infiltrate the building, the students “assaulted a Community Service Officer” and “pushed” officials who suggested having a discussion about their concerns, according to school officials.

Columbia University students are calling on the school’s president, Minouche Shafik, to restore order as chaotic protests and violent clashes near campus plague the Ivy League institution.

Columbia students wrote in a Friday letter that they do not feel safe amid ongoing protests that began Wednesday, when Shafik testified to Congress on her response to campus anti-Semitism. Protesters have refused to leave a "Gaza Solidarity'' tent encampment, prompting suspensions and arrests, and violent confrontations have taken place just outside the school.

"We, students at Columbia University, feel categorically threatened by unaffiliated protesters on and off campus," the students wrote. "Further, the large, unrelenting protests surrounding campus obfuscate and limit access to campus. We do not feel safe walking to nor around campus as a result."

The students said masked protesters unaffiliated with the school have been let into buildings on campus without showing identification cards, prompting safety concerns.

"Yet despite campus access being limited to CU ID holders, these masked protesters have been seen entering campus through various entry points. One non-affiliate was recorded saying ‘honestly a lot of people who are here aren’t even students,’" the students wrote.

"Those of us living on and off campus cannot come and go from our homes to campus as we please without fear of being threatened, harassed, or assaulted. As such, we urge the administration to allow us to attend classes virtually until the situation has entirely de-escalated."

Columbia University was less than welcoming when Likud Knesset Member Dan Illouz came to speak on campus this past week at an event arranged by the Hasbara Fellowship.

Illouz was in New York from April 11-16, the last stop on his US tour, which included talks in Washington and in Miami.

The Israeli lawmaker managed to speak at the scheduled Columbia University event set for April 15, but only after his staff had to leap through multiple hoops and obstacles placed by the university’s administration.

Approval for the talk was finally given on April 12, the Friday morning prior to the talk. Signup began only Sunday (April 14), when most students were unavailable due to the weekend, and registration was only permitted through the Columbia University email system, an Illouz staff member told JewishPress.com.

Adding fuel to the fire, the university then closed the registration altogether on Monday morning. Entry was barred to all who had not managed to register in time.

“The administration in Columbia did everything possible to stop us from talking on campus, making the bureaucratic process for approval of the event impossible,” Illouz told JewishPress.com.

“We only got approval one business day in advance, with very limited time for students to sign up for the event,” he noted.

Nevertheless, the university brass did not succeed in discouraging the Israeli lawmaker from connecting with interested students.

It takes privilege to protest at Columbia.

The 114 anti-Israel protesters who were busted at Columbia on Thursday include members of the upper crust: an intern for New York State Attorney General Letitia James — and the daughter of a prominent UPS executive who killed an elderly couple with her truck as a teenager and got off with a slap on the wrist.

A Post deep-dive into the backgrounds of the protesters shows many list multimillion-dollar mansions as their home addresses, according to sources, and come from wealthy and powerful families.

Many are students at Barnard College, Columbia University’s liberal arts sister school.

Others are career activists with multiple arrests under their belts.

Minnesota congresswoman and “Squad” member Ilhan Omar’s daughter, Isra Hirsi, a Barnard student with a long history of civil disobedience, was among those cited for trespassing and taken into custody.

She was released a few hours later and declined to speak to The Post.

Also cuffed and removed from the Columbia campus was Isabel Jennifer Seward, daughter of high-ranking UPS executive William J. Seward.

In 2020, at the age of 16, Isabel veered her Toyota Tacoma pickup truck across a double yellow line on US Route 7 in Charlotte, Vermont, killing Chet and Connie Hawkins, a married couple in their 70s, according to a report by the Barre Montpelier Times Argus.

She pleaded no contest to a civil traffic ticket for “driving on roadways laned for traffic” and was issued a $220 fine — which her mother paid, according to the Rutland Herald.

This Barnard student who complained about getting kicked off campus for participating in the encampment at Columbia is a freshman with 23 incidents on her record. https://t.co/YdUgRCr4VFpic.twitter.com/ioP5WH3sww

— Steve McGuire (@sfmcguire79) April 20, 2024

The dean of students at Northwestern University attended an anti-Israel protest this week targeting Hillel, the school’s Jewish student community center, to defend the demonstrators’ "right to free speech."

Dean of Students Mona Dugo said she showed up at the rally on Monday to support anti-Israel activists’ "right to protest" and to "protect the right to free speech," according to the Daily Northwestern.

Protest organizers demanded that the university end its relationship with Hillel, a 100-year-old nonprofit group that operates Jewish community centers on campuses around the world, including Northwestern. The protest took place during Northwestern’s Admitted Students Day, which seeks to introduce incoming students to campus life.

"[Hillel] is one of the many ways in which this university is complicit in infusing Jewishness with Zionism," one protest organizer said in a speech at the rally.

A leaflet handed out by protesters accused Northwestern of "funneling Jewish students into Hillel, the Zionist ‘foundation for Jewish life.’" It also claimed the school "weaponizes claims of anti-Semitism on campus to silence pro-Palestinian activism."

Protesters also accused Israel of "genocide" and called on Northwestern to end any relationships with "Zionist companies."

The protest comes as alumni have accused Northwestern president Michael Schill of allowing anti-Semitism to proliferate on campus, where anti-Israel protesters have raised the Hamas flag at student demonstrations. During Northwestern’s Martin Luther King Jr. memorial ceremony in February, a speaker accused Israel of "genocide" as Schill sat silently in the audience, the Washington Free Beacon reported.

Earlier this year, the Department of Education opened an investigation into alleged anti-Jewish incidents at the school. Last month, Jewish students also urged Congress to launch an inquiry into the university.

This week’s University of Southern California valedictorian speech controversy, where university officials canceled their anti-Zionist, pro-Palestinian speaker due to security concerns, is more than a mere news item — it’s a foreshadow things to come.

As parents and loved ones gear up for the annual dose of pomp and circumstance, this spring’s commencement season promises to be chaotic, loud and nasty.

There isn’t a space too sacred, an event too significant that pro-Palestinian “river to the sea” chanters won’t co-opt for their cause.

Witness the worshippers harassed as they leave synagogue, the city council and board of ed meetings ambushed, the rush-hour traffic brought to a standstill.

Make no mistake, they are licking their lips in anticipation.

Here’s a glimpse of what that will look like: in late March, the University of Michigan abruptly ended its Honors Convocation, an annual tradition that recognizes the school’s top academic performers, after a hundred or so protestors interrupted the proceedings with shrieks, chants, and banners demanding the university divest from Israel.

They shouted down university president Santa Ono midway through his remarks, forcing him to retreat from the stage.

Instead of calling security, the school scrapped the rest of the program and asked parents to leave. One shocked father captured the mayhem on Instagram.

“This is an honors ceremony,” he said incredulously. “Why are they kicking us out?”

The University of Michigan’s lack of response illustrates higher education’s usually feckless appeasement strategy, which always seems to come at the expense of everyone but the agitators.

Ilhan Omar is trying to conceal hate crimes against Jews in order to pretend her daughter is a hero. pic.twitter.com/INUPY3O4IG

— Marina Medvin 🇺🇸 (@MarinaMedvin) April 20, 2024

Ohhhh how you shall lose https://t.co/PKagFzFWrR

— John Podhoretz (@jpodhoretz) April 20, 2024

Here are some accounts from the hunger strikers as well. Very Very interesting... pic.twitter.com/a5qwayl565

— Stu (@thestustustudio) April 19, 2024

Rep. Jamaal Bowman, who is up for election, campaigned with Finkelstein https://t.co/aqDefqiAtw

— Daniel Greenfield - "Hang Together or Separately" (@Sultanknish) April 20, 2024

except - and I could be wrong of course, -as memory serves I dont recall Warsaw ghetto fighters raping and mutilating civilian women, murdering children and taking hostages https://t.co/uf8EbhEYqA

— Simon Schama (@simon_schama) April 20, 2024

Ohhhh how you shall lose https://t.co/PKagFzFWrR

— John Podhoretz (@jpodhoretz) April 20, 2024

I am so immensely proud of the thousands of Jewish alumni of @Columbia University.

I will keep fighting for your alma mater. https://t.co/NiB9mhfoHZ

— Shai Davidai (@ShaiDavidai) April 20, 2024

More footage from the illegal encampment at @Columbia.

I can't comment as to whether this organizer is saying peaceful content or not, but she seems angry. Can someone please translate this speech? https://t.co/MAvlpcJ55G

— Shai Davidai (@ShaiDavidai) April 20, 2024

I'm being publicly attacked by Jonathan Brown - a @Georgetown Professor of Islamic Studies at the school of Foreign Services (@georgetownsfs).

Just so you know, this guys' father in law *plead guilty* for providing material support to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (!).

He has… https://t.co/ts3fjPUh55

— Shai Davidai (@ShaiDavidai) April 19, 2024

“Writers Against the War on Gaza” posted a flyer last night threatening to burn down Columbia University.

They should be arrested and banned from social media, before someone gets killed. pic.twitter.com/nO9QgrgVaU

— Jason Curtis Anderson (@JCAndersonNYC) April 19, 2024

🚨COLUMBIA NOW: Deep Hatred of Jeff Bezos.

👉 Follow @ShirionOrg for updates.

⚠️ Pop Quiz: What do Jeff Bezos and billionaires have to do with “Free Palestine”?

👇Please comment below if you have the answer.

ℹ️ Students are still camped out on the lawn. pic.twitter.com/jCZwQS71fW

— Shirion Collective (@ShirionOrg) April 19, 2024

🚨 Notorious Arab Antisemite @OmarBaddar Blames Zionists for Global Anti-Semitic Acts.

⚠️ @ShirionOrg is relentless in exposing the ‘Free Palestinian’ facade—used to mask violence under the guise of victimhood.

✅ And it genuinely scares the “Free Pali” crowd like little Omar… https://t.co/7iG88vUa5Upic.twitter.com/g4PjCCnMcC

— Shirion Collective (@ShirionOrg) April 20, 2024

#NYC Items removed during Columbia University raid on 'Liberated Zone' are offered to be returned to the protesters.

University announced that they did not dispose of things collected from the raided encampment and that students can pick it up 1 block east of campus parking lot.… pic.twitter.com/Mf52ywIDuj

— Oliya Scootercaster 🛴 (@ScooterCasterNY) April 20, 2024

This effort appears to be coordinated along with some of the leading pro-Palestinian groups in the US.

I'm sure more will release statements soon, but all of these ones endorsed NSJP's move within 30 minutes of it launching pic.twitter.com/gF3lARzWEq

— Eitan Fischberger (@EFischberger) April 20, 2024

Welcome to the Church of Hamas of Latter-Day Antisemites.

Cheering the mass rape and mass slaughter of Jews is turning into a proper Ersatzreligion, complete with pious congregations dutifully repeating the incantations of the prayer leaders. https://t.co/1srDE09Uuo

— Daniel Schwammenthal (@DSchwammenthal) April 20, 2024

The Susan Sarandon Choir featuring @AvivaKlompashttps://t.co/OT4sTQ1qoMpic.twitter.com/S6nbSmrzgB

— MichaelRapaport (@MichaelRapaport) April 19, 2024

I’m organizing an aid convoy to the @Columbia campus. We need:

1. Glamp Tents;
2. Volunteer Baristas;
3. Oat Milk;
4. Keffiyeh’s;
5. Canada Goose Jackets; and
6. Alo Leggings

Thank you 🙏🏼❤️🇵🇸💪🏽

— Rabbi Linda Goldstein (🇵🇸🍉I/P Commentary) (@realrabbilinda) April 18, 2024

This footage is from the University of North Carolina where the administration told students that camping out in tents on campus violates school policy.

UNC SJP said, "In an attempt avoid their tents from being seized, students put their tents on chairs as to “comply” with… pic.twitter.com/1S3i1pKTo4

— Stu (@thestustustudio) April 20, 2024

Bonus - Some pictures from UNC SJP's Solidarity event

Note the tents on chairs to stay in compliance with school policy. pic.twitter.com/6t0Tx0JYVn

— Stu (@thestustustudio) April 20, 2024

Modern Day Hitler Youth Rally at @OhioState

A mob of keffiya-clad antisemites shout "Zionists have got to go!"

"Zionist" is a dog whistle used by antisemites to refer to Jews.pic.twitter.com/jMu82Wbh6O

— Shelley G (@ShelleyGldschmt) April 20, 2024

#NOW"F*ck Hamas" tshirt wearing counter protester attempts to film the encampment occupation and protest at Yale University, he is offered water by the group but is blocked from filming. Another man ran up screaming "No Jobs for Palestinians!" pic.twitter.com/V9Xv6MZ2VV

— Oliya Scootercaster 🛴 (@ScooterCasterNY) April 20, 2024

MIT’s finals are less than a month away and its anti-Israel students are disrupting classes to protest today. pic.twitter.com/62Uk2zYf7J

— Kassy Akiva (@KassyDillon) April 19, 2024

“Long live the intifada”

Outside Columbia University pic.twitter.com/d7WIIbSmf2

— Kassy Akiva (@KassyDillon) April 19, 2024

A Seattle high school teacher previously accused of berating a student for describing himself as “straight” has been suspended for making pro-Hamas comments – including that the terror attack on Israel was justified and questioning whether women were raped.

Ian Golash, social studies chairman at Chief Sealth International High School, was placed on administrative leave on April 11 after Accuracy in Media, a conservative group that exposes antisemitism on campuses, distributed a video interview with him, the Seattle Times reported.

Adam Guillette, president of AIM, asked Golash whether what happened to the Jewish state on Oct. 7 was justified. The teacher told him it was.

When asked whether the rape of women at the Nova music festival in the Negev desert also was justified, Golash responded: “Where is the evidence that there was rape?”

Guillette then asked him whether women were murdered at the festival and whether their deaths were justified.

“Yes,” Golash replied.

“The murder of innocent women just attending a music festival, that was justified in your opinion?” Guillette asked him.

“No, I think resistance against Israel is justified, yes,” the teacher said.

Updated with a new statement from Google regarding claims that non-protesters were fired too:

“Every single one of the twenty-eight people whose employment was terminated was personally and definitively involved in disruptive activity inside our buildings. We carefully confirmed…

— Kassy Akiva (@KassyDillon) April 19, 2024

A Dutch-Palestinian photographer won the most prestigious journalism award in the Netherlands for a series of photos where some titles refer to dead jihadist terrorists as “martyrs.”

Occurring amid a debate about the ethics of journalists covering the October 7 onslaught, Sakir Khader’s prize, announced in February, has prompted criticism by watchdog groups on antisemitism and Dutch Chief Rabbi Binyomin Jacobs. They warned that honoring Khader’s work can be construed as a dangerous endorsement of his rhetoric amid rising antisemitism in the Netherlands.

Khader, 33, was awarded the Silver Camera prize, which the Silver Camera Association has bestowed upon distinguished photojournalists for the past 75 years. He was recognized for a series titled “Life in the West Bank Before October 7,” the day that some 3,000 terrorists invaded Israel from the Gaza Strip, killing about 1,200 people and abducting another 253, among other war crimes and atrocities.

A spokesperson for the Silver Camera judges’ panel rejected the criticism, downplaying the significance of the titles the photographer gave the award-winning works.

On his official website, Khader titled one of the photos of the winning series “Portrait of a Martyr.” It shows the body of Mahmoud Khaled Ar’arawi, who died in a firefight with Israeli soldiers in Jenin in September. Ar’arawi was wearing a headband emblazoned with the logo of the Islamic Jihad, a Palestinian terrorist group that the European Union last week slapped with new sanctions along with Hamas for their operatives’ systemic rape of women during the October 7 onslaught in Israel, among other atrocities.

Legal activists on Tuesday called on X owner Elon Musk and X CEO Linda Yaccarino to investigate American Communist influencer Jackson Hinkle for fake social media engagement ahead of the 2024 American elections.

Zachor Legal Institute alerted Musk and Yaccarino that Hinkle, who routinely posts false information about the Israel-Hamas War and content in favor of dictatorships, that his account "can be used to manipulate American public opinion by using fake engagements to amplify posts with misinformation, hate speech, and other forms of harassment, in violation of X’s rules and policies."'Zionist hit piece'

The institute cited a New York Times report last Thursday on how Israeli research company Cyabra had found that from a sample of 12,510 of Hinkle's followers, roughly 40% were fake. Hinkle's popularity on X had skyrocketed by 1.2 million followers in the first 19 days of the war, which the Zichron letter suggested was fueled by fake engagement.

Another Israeli research company, Next Dim, according to the Times said that a network of pro-China accounts had boosted Hinkle's content at the beginning of the war. Hinkle called the Times article a "zionist hit piece."

"We therefore urge you to investigate the claims of inauthentic activity surrounding Hinkle’s account and to suspend any fake accounts that follow him and amplify his posts inauthentically," said Zichron.

Zichron gave examples of Hinkle posting provocative false information such as claims on Sunday that "Russian President Vladimir Putin has declared that Russia will support Iran if the United States attacks Iran's soil in support of Israel." Hinkle called on followers to rate the community note paced on his report as incorrect.

Zichron also referred to his claims that an image of a child killed by Hamas during the October 7 Massacre was AI generated, and posted images from Syria and presented them as being from Gaza.

The claims in this piece are so outlandish and silly, that’s it’s a waste of time addressing them.

But still kind of cool to have made it into Wired.

P.S: @paolomossetti - I love the fact you edited the V24 cover image to make it look more “nefarious”.

It’s cute you use Canva! pic.twitter.com/CsBSHMAY6n

— Stefan Tompson (@StefanTompson) April 19, 2024

Indeed, Dweeb (aptly named) is the son of Khaled Khalil Dhuwaib Abu Khalil, who was one of the leaders of Hamas in Bethlehem pic.twitter.com/fQAHFg8PAx

— Eitan Fischberger (@EFischberger) April 19, 2024

Oddly, the Committee to Protect Journalists' Program Director @cmdelaserna stated that Dweeb's arrest was "unacceptable."

Why is it unacceptable? Is there no chance that Mr. Dweeb was engaged in acts of terror?

It's abundantly clear that Dweeb is a member of Hamas. The speed… pic.twitter.com/IOujIu98lI

— Eitan Fischberger (@EFischberger) April 19, 2024

Why does this @CBSNews article (https://t.co/NtKxhlaKQf) refer to the IDF as "the Israel Occupation Forces"?

🤔 pic.twitter.com/yr5rPOvZ3C

— CAMERAorg (@CAMERAorg) April 20, 2024

I wonder @onelpeleg if the frequent mistakes and wrong reportings of #NRK on #Israel are result of lack of knowledge or intentional.
The fact that too many times they were reluctant to correct wrong reporting even when proven wrong, makes it clear that at least sometimes it is… https://t.co/H4BcwoHBY7pic.twitter.com/vd3ilunvh1

— Avi Nir-Feldklein (@avraham_nir) April 19, 2024

Shortly after Hamas’s October 7 terror attack on Israel, the leadership of the South African Jewish community requested a meeting with President Cyril Ramaphosa to discuss rising antisemitism.

The meeting took place in December, and the course it took surprised the South African Jewish Board of Deputies: Instead of discussing the safety concerns of his Jewish constituents, the board’s leader said, Ramaphosa spent most of the meeting attacking Israel, which he accused of committing genocide. He later cited the meeting when South Africa charged Israel with genocide at the International Court of Justice.

“It was a complete betrayal of the community,” Wendy Kahn, the Board of Deputies’ director, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in an interview this week.

Ramaphosa had scheduled the meeting for December 13, after the launch of the country’s summer holidays, so a number of the seven Jewish officials who attended had to cut into summer travel plans to make the meeting in the capital city of Pretoria.

The inconvenience seemed worth it, Kahn said. Antisemitism had spiked in South Africa and the parliament’s overwhelming vote to cut diplomatic ties to Israel and shutter its embassy was creating problems for the South Africans with family in Israel.

Yet instead of focusing on those issues, according to Ramaphosa’s office, the South African president used the meeting to accuse Israel of genocide. His statement following the meeting does mention his government’s “denunciation of antisemitic behavior towards Jewish people in South Africa, including the boycott of Jewish-owned businesses, and Islamophobia.”

But most of the statement concerns South Africa’s criticism of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza against Hamas. It says Ramaphosa explained that his government “condemns the genocide that is being inflicted against the people of Palestine, including women and children, through collective punishment and ongoing bombardment of Gaza.”

🚨 Elected MP George Galloway delivers televised speech at a 𝗛𝗼𝘂𝘁𝗵𝗶 Conference event along with 𝗛𝗮𝗺𝗮𝘀 and 𝗛𝗲𝘇𝗯𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗮𝗵 representatives.

This happened after he was elected. [Source article in comments below]

Why is an elected UK MP speaking at Houthi event that… pic.twitter.com/3XzHErwSwx

— Kosher🎗🧡 (@KosherCockney) April 20, 2024

Trust the resolutely unprincipled Lib Dems to line up with disgusting George Galloway. https://t.co/D9eFZSt86j

— habibi (@habibi_uk) April 20, 2024

Imam Hassan Qazwini in Dearborn Heights Friday Sermon: I Unequivocally Condemn the "Death to America" Chants by a “Bogus Individual” Who Doesn’t Represent Our Community; This Was a Gift to the Zionists, Fox News pic.twitter.com/qrpEIY1dOi

— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) April 19, 2024

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday urged Palestinians to unite for “victory” amid Israel’s war in Gaza, following hours-long talks with Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh in Istanbul, his office said.

Erdogan, who has called Hamas a “liberation group” and Israel worse than the Nazis, has tried and failed to establish a foothold as a mediator in the Gaza conflict that has roiled the region.

Erdogan said Palestinian unity was “vital” following the talks at the Dolmabahce Palace on the banks of the Bosphorus strait, which Turkish media reports said lasted more than two and a half hours.

“The strongest response to Israel and the path to victory lie in unity and integrity,” Erdogan said, according to a Turkish presidency statement.

Hamas — designated a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union and Israel — is a rival of the Fatah faction that rules the semi-autonomous Palestinian Authority in the West Bank.

Amid fears of a wider regional war, Erdogan said recent events between Iran and Israel should not allow Israel to “gain ground” and that “it is important to act in a way that keeps attention on Gaza.”

Foreign Minister Israel Katz condemned the meeting, writing on X: “Muslim Brotherhood alliance: rape, murder, desecration of corpses and the burning of babies. Erdogan, shame on you!”

Hamas was founded by members of the Muslim Brotherhood in 1987.

Antisemitic birds of a feather stick together.

Erdogan, leader of @NATO member Turkey, hosts leadership of genocidal Hamas proxy of the murderous Islamic mullah regime in Iran.

While antisemitism may start with the Jews, it NEVER ends with the Jews.#NeverAgainIsNowpic.twitter.com/odN73q3HgJ

— מיכל קוטלר-וונש | Michal Cotler-Wunsh (@CotlerWunsh) April 20, 2024

On the left: Starving Gazans. pic.twitter.com/CSxMtaXQLi

— The Mossad: Satirical, Yet Awesome (@TheMossadIL) April 20, 2024

The sister of Russian-Israeli researcher Elizabeth Tsurkov, who was abducted last year in Baghdad and has been held in captivity since, heckled Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani at an event in Washington on Friday, saying he is not doing enough to secure her release.

“She’s held hostage in your country,” Emma Tsurkov shouted at Sudani during the Atlantic Council event in the US capital.

“You are not doing anything to save her. And you can’t, because they are your government’s partners. They are Iraqi government employees, and you should be ashamed of yourself that you’re not doing anything to help her and save her,” Tsurkov added. “She’s innocent and you know it.”

“How dare you come here pretending to be a legitimate leader when what you’re doing is enabling a bunch of terrorists… My sister has been held hostage for 13 months and you don’t care!”

Tsurkov has long said Sudani has the power to secure her sister’s release, but has chosen not to act.

Two weeks ago, US lawmakers sent a letter to US President Joe Biden urging him to secure Elizabeth Tsurkov’s release.

Emma is heroic here. It is a shame on the audience they are not applauding here but rather trying to hide. There was a time when people would stand up and applaud and demand the release of Tsurkov who is illegally kidnapped in Iraq. What a shame. A shame on the audience. It… https://t.co/DqoH2ko3V8

— Seth Frantzman (@sfrantzman) April 19, 2024

Contrary to what many experts claim, Israel’s muted strike on Thursday in retaliation for the Islamic Republic of Iran’s unprecedented drone and missile attack last weekend actually makes all-out war between the two countries much less likely. This should suit the Islamic Republic’s interests, as it is facing an existential crisis brought on by decades of repressing its own people. Proxy wars — through Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis — allow the regime to project a veneer of strength without risking a crisis at home.

But a crisis has been long brewing. The government and people of Iran can no longer tolerate each other. The symbol of a young Iranian girl, Mahsa Amini, murdered by the “morality police” in 2022 reignited the revolutionary attitudes of many Iranians who no longer wish to live under a totalitarian theocracy. A few years before, in November 2019, the regime suppressed another country-wide uprising by killing thousands of civilians. And two years before that, a government crackdown on protesters killed hundreds more.

There is a basic rule that any dictatorship follows: do not arm the people you are oppressing. In recent years, with those regular mass uprisings, the regime may have realized that its biggest enemies are the Iranian youth, who, thanks to internet and satellite TV, along with years of witnessing corruption, incompetence and economic decline, do not buy the government’s narrative anymore.

The regime’s existential problem is that the biggest demographic of these anti-regime protesters, young men under 25, is the same group that is conscripted in the armed forces and the police. So the question becomes: in a direct war, would it make sense for the regime to put guns in their hands, knowing that many of those guns might be turned against the regime itself?

If your answer is no, then it would be safe to assume that the regime would want to avoid a direct all-out war. So logically, the Islamic Republic of Iran will be forced to rely even more on its proxies, all of which are armed and controlled by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’s (IRGC) international operations arm, the Quds Force.

With such problems at home, for a successful proxy war strategy, the regime needs to create an aura of invincibility, so no one dares attack it directly. That is why the Islamic Republic of Iran has been trying to build a nuclear bomb for decades, and that is also why it markets the IRGC as its greatest weapon.

A colourful history lesson. Iranians/Persians aren’t Arabs & Iran’s history predates Islam…by around 1,000 years. My Farsi is pretty good but even I learnt a new phrase 🫢 https://t.co/o44w6UgByP

— Rita Panahi (@RitaPanahi) April 20, 2024

A 35-year-old man from Reseda, Calif., who called for the genocide of Jews, was sentenced to 57 months in federal prison on Friday for illegally possessing ammunition and eight devices that make semi-automatic guns work like automatic ones, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California stated.

“This violent extremist not only made numerous threats to kill Jews but also was amassing weapons capable of carrying out acts of violence,” stated Martin Estrada, the U.S. attorney for the Central District of California.

“Hateful behavior of this sort has no place in our society, and we will continue to use all the tools available to protect the community from violence driven by racially motivated ideology,” Estrada said.

A convicted felon, Ryan Scott Bradford associates with a “racially motivated violent extremist group,” per the U.S. Justice Department. On Jan. 11, Bradford pleaded guilty to one count each of possessing ammunition and machine guns as a felon.

On July 27, 2023, law-enforcement officials found 116 rounds of ammunition and items with swastikas and other Nazi symbols. Per the Justice Department, he also called for mass murder and genocide of Jews.

According to Candace Owens, Germans were the real victims of WWII. Her ignorance really knows no bounds. pic.twitter.com/9puAvtqyyK

— Arsen Ostrovsky 🎗️ (@Ostrov_A) April 20, 2024

A Toronto synagogue had its windows smashed by a coward covering his face.

I can say with certainty that Israel's war cabinet does not run the war from this tiny synagogue in a Toronto suburb, and so the vandalism was a clear hate crime meant to intimidate Canadian Jews for no… pic.twitter.com/rE2NROEOAn

— Aviva Klompas (@AvivaKlompas) April 20, 2024

We investigated @notinmyname1994 who posts under the @ of “Jewish Socialist” & it’s associated with UK citizen Sharmila Sengupta. The acc’s previous handle was hitlerosama1994!

Sharmila is also an antisemite, who likes to call Jews “Fake” & she uses Neo Nazi language. pic.twitter.com/Dddu0OR1jL

— GnasherJew®גנאשר (@GnasherJew) April 19, 2024

Patriot Candle Co. is owned by L.O.G. Enterprises, LLC, a North Carolina registered business. According to information in the public domain, the founder is Ariel Ellis Collazo Ramos. That company sells reprehensible products. Report him for hate crime.

Meet the neo-Nazi 👇… https://t.co/CfqHYPOaZ5pic.twitter.com/TIDgfTjgCi

— GnasherJew®גנאשר (@GnasherJew) April 20, 2024

There was something about the story of the murder of a mother and two daughters during the Passover holiday last year that imprinted itself on the consciousness of the nation and catapulted Rabbi Leo Dee, the grieving husband and father, to international prominence.

On April 7, 2023, Lucy Dee and her daughters Maia, 20, and Rina, 15, were driving to Tiberias over Hol Hamoed, the intermediate days of the week-long festival. Their vehicle was rammed off the road by terrorist gunmen, who shot all three women. Maia and Rina were killed on the scene, and Lucy passed away from her wounds two days later.

In a private ceremony exactly one year later, Rabbi Leo Dee and his daughters Keren and Tali and son Yehuda (now 19, 18 and 15 years old) dedicated a new social hall in their community of Efrat in Lucy’s memory.

Later that evening, a standing-room-only crowd of 700, plus 2,400 who watched the ceremony online, gathered in the newly dedicated Shirat Lucy (Lucy’s Song) Hall above the Mishkan Tziporah synagogue in Efrat to remember the three women and to draw inspiration from their lives.

During the annual Tel Aviv Night Run, participants illuminated the event with glowing bracelets and wore yellow clothing while raising their hands in the air to shed light on the plight of 133 hostages still in Hamas captivity in #Gaza.
None of us are whole until they are home.… pic.twitter.com/Oh1QYUzJY0

— StandWithUs (@StandWithUs) April 19, 2024

Ruth F. Lansing, who aided in the prosecution of leaders of the Third Reich and Nazi Germany at the Nuremberg trials, died on April 5. She was 105 years old.

She was born on Nov. 13, 1918, in a small town outside of Dusseldorf, Germany, to Friederike (“Ricka”) and Sigmund Oberlander.

On the night of Nov. 9-10, 1938, while visiting family in Dusseldorf proper, Lansing witnessed Kristallnacht (“The Night of Broken Glass”), when Jews across Germany and in parts of Austria were brutally attacked, and their stores and synagogues ransacked and burned.

Her sister Lucy and her husband were able to leave for the United States soon after that. Lansing later managed to get passage to England with the help of family–a move that would save her life. At the age of 18, she emigrated to British Mandatory Palestine.

In 1988, she recounted her experiences on Yom Hashaoh, Holocaust Remembrance Day, that “two stormtroopers came to arrest my host” and that “I believed they were going to shoot him then and there,” according to The Buffalo News.

Lansing’s parents were rounded up and taken to Auschwitz in 1942. Another sister, Gerti, was taken to the same concentration camp years later, in 1945. All were murdered there.

Following World War II, Lansing returned to occupied Germany and became a civilian employee for the U.S. Army, working as a translator during the world-famous Nuremberg trials of Nazi war criminals. She eventually managed to join her sister in the United States, moving there in 1948, where she met Eric Lansing, They married the next year and settled in Buffalo, N.Y., working for 20 years in real estate while raising their two children.

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon! Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.  Read all about it here!

The protests came against Project Nimbus, a $1.2 billion joint contract with Amazon to provide the Israeli government with AI and cloud services. In its statement, No Tech cited a recent Time Magazine report that found Google had built custom tools for Israel's Ministry of Defense, and contracts with the Israeli Occupation Forces.

"Israeli Occupation Forces" is the disparaging name that Israel haters use for the Israel Defense Forces.  The phrase is used by Arab, Iranian, Russian and far-left progressive media.

And now, by CBS News.

It appears that the writer of the article rephrased the press release from "No Tech for Apartheid" which said:

Google continues to claim, as of today, that Project Nimbus is “not directed at highly sensitive, classified, or military workloads relevant to weapons or intelligence services.” Yet, reporting from TIME Magazine proves otherwise: Google has built custom tools for Israel’s Ministry of “Defense,” and has doubled down on contracting with the Israeli Occupation Forces, since the start of its genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. 

Was this ignorance or malice? The reporter, Kate Gibson, is a business reporter who might not be familiar with the war of phraseology that is part of the cognitive war against Israel, and her editor Anne Marie Lee likewise specializes in business stories. 

The article has been up for three days now.  CAMERA pointed this out to CBSNews over a day ago. Nothing has changed as of this writing. 

---

---

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon! Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.  Read all about it here!

 

In recent weeks, massive amounts of humanitarian aid have entered Gaza in hundreds of trucks. Around 500 trucks are entering the strip daily. What is particularly irksome to Israelis is the fact that this abundance is being showered on the Gazans, who democratically chose Hamas, have never revolted against it, and still support the horrific massacre - all while our captives languish in Gaza's tunnels, enduring unimaginable torture.

According to Israeli experts, Gaza is receiving far more than it needs, and the Americans know this down to the smallest details. The Israeli Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) has presented data to the Americans that 21 bakeries are operating in southern and central Gaza and another three in the north. They bake millions of pitas daily. The amount of water produced in the strip exceeds 5 gallons of drinking and cooking water per person per day. There have been 3,350 coordination efforts made between the IDF and aid organizations to facilitate the entry of aid.

This picture is well known to the official American representatives. Yet, they are hounding the Israeli leaders with endless demands. Everyone dealing with the issue knows that Israel is allowing far more than Gaza can absorb. "The Americans are driving Minister Ron Dermer crazy 24/7 with all these things, knowing there's no need for them. The UN inside Gaza is failing to distribute what's coming in. So why is more needed?" asks an Israeli who is privy to the data.

The American pressure results in an increasing burden for the IDF. Soldiers are required to secure the massive supply convoys, the construction of the seaport on the Gaza coast, the laying of a new water pipeline to the strip, and the opening of a crossing in the north. Defense Ministry inspectors spend nights and days examining the contents destined for the enemy, even though the enemy itself doesn't need it.

Meanwhile, the U.S. administration is tacitly endorsing, and sometimes explicitly using, the blood libel about "starvation in Gaza." Yet its officials are well aware that there was never any danger of starvation. Israel has been monitoring the humanitarian situation in Gaza from day one and would never allow this. Yet, the official and deliberate U.S. message is "immediate risk of starvation" - a lie that fuels the anti-Israel propaganda machine, which has been spreading the falsehood of "genocide in Gaza" around the world for months now.

One Israeli official said, "In direct conversations with the Americans, you see they are well-versed in the data. We, inside the room, wonder where they're getting these statements from. They know what's happening. They have an interest in not presenting what they know, and not affirming what Israel is saying. They should be saying, 'There is no starvation in Gaza, and Israel is doing everything it can to get food in. The bottleneck is not its fault.' But they choose not to say that."

Sinwar took this strategy to a new level by building a massive underground city that would suck Israelis into killing Palestinians. Armaments, missile launchers, and terrorist command posts were positioned under hospitals, schools, mosques, and residential buildings, forcing Israelis to kill civilians, whether by airstrikes or in any conceivable ground operation if they were ever to stop the attacks. Sinwar, whose life was saved by Israeli medical intervention during his time in prison, knows that Israel does not execute even convicted murderers of Jews. His goal in provoking Israel into retaliation was to create and keep worsening Gaza’s “humanitarian crisis” and the toll of civilian casualties, thereby eliciting liberal sympathy for the Palestinians and international calls for an advantageous ceasefire while, most crucially, demoralizing the Israelis who must sacrifice their soldiers in a war they would have done anything to avoid.

Has the genius of Israel met its match in the genius of evil? Other commanders in the history of war have been known to sacrifice tens of thousands of their soldiers rather than surrender, but no invader ever turned his enemy into his primary weapon. Sinwar intends never to surrender, hoping that Israel will be forced to kill most of the population of Gaza in order to stop Hamas. The genocide of Jews that he undertook to engineer has already been equalized to a genocide by Jews against the innocent, harmless Hamas electorate.

When Golda Meir famously told Anwar Sadat, “We can forgive the Arabs for killing our children. But we can never forgive them for forcing us to kill their children,” she divulged Israel’s greatest weakness. Coexistence is to Judaism as conquest has been to Islam, requiring the former to seek accord from the latter. Hamas was first to fully to exploit this political contrast. Liberal democracies are generally loath to go to war, but a look at the Middle East map shows why Israel—when you can find it there—has the ultimate disincentive for military action against neighbors whose acceptance it seeks. As a minority by choice, Jews have always been at the mercy of imperial powers, of which Iran with its proxies is currently the most threatening. To succeed, the aggressor has learned—and demonstrated—that he must come in the form of a victim.

Meir was wiser when she said, “Peace will come to the Middle East when the Arabs love their children more than they hate us.” The defeat of Hamas is the necessary precondition for that day, though not yet its guarantee.

And now that sizable numbers of pro-Hamas sympathizers and belligerents are already active in this country, testing its freedoms and liberal virtues, we are seeing whether Americans learn enough from the war in Israel in time to prevent the brewing war against them.

People can be excluded from refugee status if they violate the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, per UNHCR’s Resettlement Handbook.

More specifically, those about whom there are “serious reasons” to believe they committed a “crime against peace, a war crime or a crime against humanity” or a “serious non-political crime outside the country of refuge” prior to being admitted to that country as a refugee or who have “been guilty of acts contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations,” can be excluded.

Elsewhere in the handbook, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees notes that most acts of violence commonly called “terrorism” qualify, “particularly if they indiscriminately endanger or harm civilians.”

The 1951 convention, which the handbook cites, states that “This convention shall not apply to persons who are at present receiving from organs or agencies of the United Nations other than the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees protection or assistance.”

The United Nations has come to interpret that clause very broadly to include Palestinian “refugees” as “not only persons displaced at the time of the 1948 and 1967 hostilities, but also the descendants of such persons.”

Funding terror
“If UNRWA were truly applying universal principles, they would certainly remove anyone who belongs to Hamas from their employment from their staff but, in addition, deny them refugee status,” Neuer, of U.N. Watch, told JNS. “I’m not aware that’s ever happened.”

UNRWA has only suspended or removed an employee for belonging to Hamas in very rare instances, according to Neuer.

“I’ve never heard of anyone, though, including some of the chief terrorists, who are denied refugee status or denied aid,” he said. “We can assume that many, if not all, of the Hamas leaders are on the rolls as UNRWA refugees and are receiving funding in one form or another from UNRWA.”

The Gaza Hamas front
First of all, there is an interview that Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh gave to Turkish media. I it is highlighted by Al-Mayadeen because of its messaging. Hamas’ leadership visited Turkey over the weekend to cement ties with Ankara and get more support. Haniyeh said in his interview that "if the enemy decides to go to Rafah, our people will not raise the white flag, and the resistance is ready to defend itself." He also said that Israel has not agreed to a ceasefire or to start the war. He appeared to claim there would be no hostage deal. Hamas has stalled on a deal for months. Hamas is hosted by US ally Qatar, which the US and Israel rely on to broker the hostage talks.

Hamas leadership in Doha is now indicating how closely they coordinate with Hamas leadership in Qatar on discussions about Rafah and the “day after” in Gaza. “Regarding the issue of the day after the war in Gaza, and who will assume governance of the Strip, Haniyeh reaffirmed the need for ‘the management of the Gaza Strip to be carried out with Palestinian will,’” the report said.

The northern Hezbollah front
In Lebanon, Hezbollah continues to say it is carrying out precision strikes on Israel. Hezbollah has increasingly said it is targeting Israeli military sites. For instance, last week, the group claimed to target an IDF division and brigade headquarters. It also claimed to target the IDF in the village of Arab al-Aramshe, wounding 14 soldiers. Over the weekend, Hezbollah said that it had “targeted a building used by Israeli occupation soldiers in the ‘Shomera’ colony with appropriate weapons,” according to al-Mayadeen. This is the wording that Hezbollah uses. It claims to use proportional responses to attack Israel using specific weapons, as opposed to arbitrary attacks.

In addition, Hezbollah said on April 20 that “the resistance announced that it had targeted two buildings used by Israeli occupation soldiers in the ‘Matula’ settlement, and two others in the ‘Shlomi’ settlement, with appropriate weapons.” In another statement, Hezbollah claimed it targeted a Humvee using an anti-tank guided missile. “Hezbollah [also] destroyed the spy equipment in Hanita,” Al-Mayadeen reported.

Israel will inflict “painful blows” on Hamas in the coming days in an attempt to free the remaining 133 hostages held by the terrorist group in the Gaza Strip, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday.

“Why is this night different, citizens of Israel? That on this night, 133 of our dear brothers and sisters are not at the Seder table and are still held captive in the inferno of Hamas,” Netanyahu said in his Passover remarks.

“We have already freed 124 of our hostages and we are committed to returning them all home—the living and the fallen,” continued the premier.

“And what is not different about this night? In every generation, they rise up to destroy us, but the Holy One, Blessed be He, delivers us from their hands,” he said, adding: “This time, too, we will overcome those who seek our lives, thanks to our faith, the courage of our soldiers and our unity.”

Comparing Hamas to the biblical villain Pharaoh, Netanyahu noted that Hamas is the only obstacle to reaching a ceasefire-for-hostages deal. “It hardens its heart and refuses to let our people go; therefore, we will bring it more painful blows—and it will happen soon,” he said.

The premier vowed to “increase the military and diplomatic pressure on Hamas, as this is the only way to free our hostages and achieve victory.”

“Together we will fight, and with God’s help, we will win. A kosher Passover to all of the Jewish people,” concluded Netanyahu’s remarks.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Hamas has refused all the proposals put forth by mediators to release the hostages in Gaza. Netanyahu adds that in the coming days, Israel will increase political and military pressure on Hamas in order to free the hostages. pic.twitter.com/rSjnnENml2

— Joe Truzman (@JoeTruzman) April 21, 2024

The Shin Bet denied a report on Sunday by the British Daily Mail that intelligence gathered by Israel’s internal security service is leading to fears that only 40 hostages out of the 133 being held by Hamas in Gaza are alive.

According to the report from the London-based tabloid, a dwindling number of captives have survived after 253 were kidnapped during the Hamas-led rampage across the northwestern Negev on Oct. 7. The report cites the Shin Bet and anonymous sources to make the claim.

“The publication in question is not true and does not represent the opinion of the Shin Bet,” the agency said. “The numbers mentioned in the article are based on the writer’s opinion only and are not based on information from the Shin Bet.”

The IDF has confirmed that 34 of those taken to Gaza on Oct. 7 are dead, and others are feared to be no longer alive. A total of 1,200 mostly civilians were murdered and thousands of others were wounded during the attack, which included widespread atrocities.

A truce reached last November saw 105 captives released, with three other hostages freed in military rescue operations and four freed separately. The bodies of 12 hostages have been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the Israeli military.

Negotiations to release the rest of the hostages have been going on for months. They have been mediated by the Americans, Egyptians and Qataris with the involvement of the Israelis and the Hamas terrorist group and have taken place in Cairo, Doha and Paris.

President Biden and his national-security team watched with mounting alarm on April 13 as monitors in the White House Situation Room showed 30, then 60, then over 100 Iranian ballistic missiles streaking toward Israel. Iranian cruise missiles and a swarm of drones were already in the air, timed to arrive at the same time as the missiles. The scale of Tehran's direct attack on Israel matched U.S. spy agencies' worst-case scenarios, U.S. officials said later.

Biden's top aides watched Iran remove missiles from storage and put them on launchers. When the attack began Saturday night, U.S. officials in the Situation Room and at the Pentagon tracked the three waves of weapons that left Iranian airspace, crossing Iraq and Jordan, racing toward Israel. The scale of the barrage was a shock, administration officials said. "This was on the high end, I think, of what we were anticipating," a senior official said.

No one had ever tried to intercept so many ballistic missiles at once. Washington thought its and Israeli forces could handle 50 ballistic missiles, but more than 100 was unknown territory. Israel's Arrow system intercepted most of the ballistic missiles, while two American destroyers in the eastern Mediterranean downed several others.

The rulers in Tehran know they were able to cross a red line by attacking Israel directly a week ago. Israel and its friends had to expend considerable resources to intercept nearly all of the more than 300 missiles and drones in that attack. And Iran is paying no significant price for it.

The new sanctions announced by the U.S. this week are largely meaningless. They target Iranians involved in the missile program who don't have foreign bank accounts. Iran retains the ability to strike Israel, either on its own or via proxies, at the time of its choosing. Most important, it will also continue to make secret progress on its nuclear-weapons program.

The G-7 foreign ministers called on Iran on Friday "to stop the continuing uranium enrichment activities reported by [the IAEA] that have no credible civil justification and pose significant proliferative risks. Tehran must reverse this trend and engage in serious dialogue." You can imagine the smiles with which those "must reverse" and "engage in serious dialogue" commands were received in Tehran.

An Israeli weapon deployed in a retaliatory strike against Iran on Friday damaged a defense system responsible for detecting and destroying aerial threats near Natanz, a central Iranian city critical to the country's secret nuclear weapons program, according to two Western officials and two Iranian officials. The strike, the Western officials said, was calculated to deliver a message to Iran that Israel could bypass Iran's defense systems undetected and paralyze them, using a fraction of the fire power Iran deployed last week when it launched hundreds of drones and missiles at Israel.

Officials confirmed that Israel had deployed aerial drones and at least one missile fired from a plane far from Israeli or Iranian airspace that included technology that enabled it to evade Iran's radar defenses. Neither the missile nor the aircraft that fired it entered Jordanian airspace.

Israel's use of drones launched from inside Iran and a missile that it could not detect was intended to give Iran a taste of what a larger-scale attack might look like. The attack was calibrated to make Iran think twice before launching a direct attack on Israel in the future.

Israeli deterrence is usually about massive use of offensive military force, but this time was different. When Iran launched a missile and drone barrage last weekend, the reported destruction of 99% of Iran's incoming munitions by Israel and its allies was an astonishing display of missile defense. When the Israeli response came early Friday, it was muted, sending a message that it can penetrate Iranian air defenses and hit strategic targets when it chooses.

Israel wanted the last word in this exchange, and it seems to have succeeded. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Friday, after talks with officials in Tehran, that "Iran does not want an escalation."

Israel is behaving like the leader of a regional coalition against Iran. In its measured response, it appeared to be weighing the interests of its allies in this coalition - Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Jordan - which all provided quiet help. It's playing the long game. Israel has allies. That's the new shape of the Middle East. After absorbing Iran's missile assault so deftly, Israel is seen at once as a victim of attack and a master of high-tech defense.

According to an exclusive report from DailyMail.com, the US Air Force has quietly deployed a new type of missile that can destroy the electronics of Iran's nuclear facilities using high-power microwaves, without causing any fatalities.

The missiles, known as the Counter-Electronics High Power Microwave Advanced Missile Project (CHAMP), were developed by Boeing's Phantom Works for the US Air Force Research Laboratory. After successful testing in 2012, around 20 of these microwave missiles became operational and were deployed to various locations around the globe in 2019.

As DailyMail.com reports, the CHAMP missiles are air-launched cruise missiles fitted with an electromagnetic pulse cannon that generates a concentrated beam of high-power microwave energy. This energy can fry the computer chips and electronic systems of targeted facilities, rendering them inoperable.

"We hit every target we wanted to," said Boeing's CHAMP Program Manager Keith Colman after the successful 2012 test, adding "Today we made science fiction into science fact."

Mary Lou Robinson, former chief of the Air Force's High Power Microwave Division, confirmed to DailyMail.com that the missiles are "ready to take out any military target, including nuclear facilities."

The key advantage of these microwave weapons is that they can penetrate buried bunkers and command centers through electrical and communications connections, disabling electronics without causing structural damage or loss of life. "The beauty of the HPM missile is that its microwave beam can penetrate bunkers where facilities are hidden without harming humans inside," DailyMail.com reports.

They also have the ability to disable defensive radar systems, striking their targets undetected. "Most amazing of all, the missile renders inoperable any radar that might detect it as it flies to and from a target. Thus, a country cannot take out CHAMP before it strikes and has no way of knowing why its facilities have suddenly gone dead," according to DailyMail.com.

Satellite images published over the past 24 hours show damage to an air base near the central Iranian city of Isfahan following an Israeli strike carried out early Friday morning.

Two images of the Shikari Air Base analyzed by the BBC show that part of an air defense system was damaged. BBC Verify analyzed optical and Synthetic Aperture Radar satellite imagery captured over Isfahan on Friday.

The United States said that Israel carried out a missile strike, while Tehran said that the attack involved three small drones that were neutralized. Jerusalem has not officially confirmed the attack.

According to a Kan News report, the Israeli-made “Rampage” air-to-surface missile was used in the attack. The 4.7-meter (15-foot) projectile can travel at supersonic speed (Mach 1.0–Mach 1.6), making it difficult for air defense systems to counter.

Shikari is located close to the Natanz nuclear site and is reportedly supposed to protect the facility.

The New York Times reported on Saturday that a high-tech missile hit a Russian-made S-300 air defense system at Shikari, citing two Iranian officials. Western officials told the newspaper that the strike was intended to show Tehran that Israel could break through Iran’s defense systems undetected and paralyze them.

The image – taken by SkyWatch on 20 April 2024 – shows an air defense system in Eighth Shekari Air Base, about 20 km northeast of Isfahan and 150 km south of the nuclear facility at Natanz, the central part of which seems to have been hit in Israeli raid.https://t.co/XrXwAP7Fha

— Iran International English (@IranIntl_En) April 21, 2024

As President Joe Biden and his Democratic colleagues continue to undermine the U.S.’ longtime strategic alliance with Israel, a recent event saw top faith leaders, Republican lawmakers, and conservatives gather to underscore a unified stance against the failed two-state solution, while promoting the idea of Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) as integral to Israel, grounded in a religious and political opposition to Palestinian statehood.

A Tuesday event of the Keep God’s Land organization in Washington, DC, brought together 150 top Christian, Jewish, and conservative leaders to “make their voices heard in opposition to the Biden administration’s push for a unilateral decision of a two-state solution.”

The Leadership Reception, hosted by the Heritage Foundation, featured an array of special guests, including Sen. Rick Scott of Florida, Republican Congresswoman Claudia Tenney, Heritage Foundation President and Army veteran James Carafano, Family Research Council President Tony Perkins, Israel365 founder Rabbi Tuly Weisz, Knesset Member Ohad Tal, and Trump’s faith adviser Pastor Paula White.

David Friedman, ambassador to Israel under president Donald Trump who serves on the leadership of Keeps God’s Land, rejected the proposed two-state solution, citing widespread Palestinian support for recent attacks on Israel, and arguing for peaceful coexistence for those willing to accept Israel’s sovereignty.

“There is no pathway to statehood for people who feel that way,” he said. “God gave this land to the Jewish people, and the Jewish people can’t give it away.”

“And by the way, not only will the Jewish people prosper in the land of Israel, but those who are willing to live in this land who are non-Jewish people, who are Christian people, who are Muslim people, who are Palestinian — if they accept God’s sovereignty over this land, they will prosper as well,” he added.

💀 https://t.co/EsriwhyTrhpic.twitter.com/WdFe9vA2qP

— Adin - עדין (@AdinHaykin1) April 20, 2024

The Israel Defense Forces is not aware of possible U.S. sanctions against its Netzach Yehuda Infantry Battalion but is monitoring the situation, the military said Sunday, responding to reports that the Biden administration intends to blacklist the unit for alleged human rights abuses.

The army added that Netzach Yehuda soldiers are currently fighting Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip “with courage and professionalism while upholding the values and spirit of the IDF and the principles of international law.

“Over the past years, the battalion’s troops have been at the core of operational activities, working around the clock to maintain the security of the citizens of the State of Israel, in addition to being a leading battalion that integrates haredi soldiers in the IDF,” added the military.

If and when the White House announces sanctions, the IDF will “investigate any unusual event in a matter-of-fact manner and in accordance with the law.”

Netzach Yehuda is an exclusively male, ultra-Orthodox battalion that, until late 2022, served in the Jordan Valley and Samaria. It has faced accusations of abuse, most notably in the case of 78-year-old Palestinian-American Omar As’ad, who in 2022 died after being detained by the battalion.

Under the reported sanctions, Netzach Yehuda would be barred from receiving U.S. weaponry, training with American soldiers or taking part in any activities funded by Washington. If the administration sanctions the unit, it would be the first time the U.S. has taken such a step against the Israeli military.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lashed out at the U.S. for its plans to sanction the IDF's Netzah Yehuda Battalion, some of whose soldiers have in the past been accused of mistreating Palestinians. "At a time when our soldiers are fighting terrorist monsters, the intention to sanction a unit in the IDF is the height of absurdity and a moral low," Netanyahu wrote on X on Saturday evening.

"In recent weeks, I have been working against the leveling of sanctions on Israeli citizens, including in my conversations with senior American government officials. The government I head will act by all means against these moves. Sanctions must not be imposed on the Israel Defense Forces!"

Former Defense Minister and IDF Chief-of-Staff Benny Gantz, a member of Israel's War Cabinet, wrote on X that "The Netzah Yehuda battalion is an inseparable part of the Israel Defense Forces. It is subject to military law and is responsible for operating in full compliance with international law. The State of Israel has a strong, independent judicial system that evaluates meticulously any claim of a violation or deviation from IDF orders and code of conduct, and will continue to do so."

"I have great appreciation for our American friends, but the decision to impose sanctions on an IDF unit and its soldiers sets a dangerous precedent and conveys the wrong message to our shared enemies during wartime. I intend on acting to have this decision changed."

By the standards Biden is applying to IDF - imposing sanctions based on a few unclear and questionable incidents narrated by far-left, terror-supporting groups - the US would have to cut funding to the entire U.S. military.

— Eugene Kontorovich (@EVKontorovich) April 21, 2024

Thank you @RepStefanik. I respectfully ask that you also investigate US training and funding and arming of the Palestinian Authority Security Forces that are directly engaged in terrorist attacks against Israelis. Since Feb 29, the majority of attacks have been carried out by… https://t.co/5o5WWTlDCa

— Caroline Glick (@CarolineGlick) April 21, 2024

The ‘Netzah Yehuda’ battalion is an inseparable part of the Israel Defense Forces. It is subject to military law and is responsible for operating in full compliance with International law.

The State of Israel has a strong, independent judicial system that evaluates meticulously…

— בני גנץ - Benny Gantz (@gantzbe) April 20, 2024

“A recent ProPublica report documented that despite recommendations of the State Department's "Leahy Vetting Forum" to sanction Israeli military units, including one unit whose abuses DAWN documented, Secretary Blinken has acted alone in refusing to impose the legally required,…

— Richard Goldberg (@rich_goldberg) April 21, 2024

Here’s the NGO Monitor dossier on another group being cited as a source

“Numerous individuals with alleged ties to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a terrorist organization” https://t.co/w8WyRZIUY2

— Richard Goldberg (@rich_goldberg) April 21, 2024

DAWN is a US-based tax-exempt organization that has intensified its legal attacks against Israeli officials since October 7. DAWN has officials connected to the Muslim Brotherhood, as well as to the most notorious antisemitic and anti-Israel groups.https://t.co/7B0f3YcM5C

— NGO Monitor (@NGOmonitor) April 21, 2024

This! Thank you @amjadt25 for your moral clarity and speaking the plain truth! https://t.co/Mq2gJMLhcC

— Arsen Ostrovsky 🎗️ (@Ostrov_A) April 20, 2024

A reliable source informed us, though it's not yet verified: #Hamas has proposed to #Turkey that its leaders are willing to relocate to Istanbul, relinquish all heavy weapons to a third party—not #Israel—and transform into a purely political party, conditional on Israel leaving…

— Amjad Taha أمجد طه (@amjadt25) April 21, 2024

The Iron Sting, developed at Elbit Systems, is the world's only mortar munition that becomes a target-guided missile, so that its impact is lethal and smart and reaches the precision level of a room in a house.

"No [other] mortar munition can provide destruction at this level," says Dr. A., 73, who has managed the warhead field at Israel Military Industries (IMI) for 35 years. (IMI has now been acquired by Elbit.)

Elbit VP L. says, "I was an infantry and mortar instructor in the army....I became head of the mortar section responsible for certifying and training infantry fighters for mortars and their operation. Elbit took me on from the army. I've been in the field for 25 years."

"Like Dr. A. is known as Ms. Warheads, I'm known as Ms. Mortars. Any commander with a mortar problem in Gaza will call me directly from the field....They know me from the army from when I was their mortar instructor. Who else would they call?"

With Iron Sting, "a soldier can hit a target with a single mortar in under a minute and, for the first time...there's precise weaponry integrated into the existing system that the soldiers already know how to operate."

Z., 52, said, "I've been involved in Iron Sting from the development stage and I'm now responsible for our production. We've been working hard these past few months and we've been very much part of the war."

The Bloomberg television network revealed overnight into Saturday that in the attack attributed to Israel at the Iranian consulate in Syria, the entire command hierarchy responsible for the activities of the Revolutionary Guards in Syria and Lebanon was killed. According to the report, "the senior officers were pivotal for Hezbollah's activities in the region."

According to the reports, General Mohammad Reza Zahedi and his deputy, Mohammad Hadi Rahimi, along with other officers who were killed, were certain that the consulate building next to the embassy was "the safest" in Damascus and that Israel would not dare to attack the site.

Before the airstrike on the consulate building in Damascus, the residences of the ambassador and the consul were supposed to be transferred to a new apartment complex further down the same street, where the two brothers of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad also live. Shortly before the attack, the senior ranking officials of the IRGC in Syria met on the second floor of the consulate building and decided to stay there.

Iran investigates the Syria attack
The strike at the Iranian consulate in Syria led Iran, for the first time, to respond directly and attack Israel. Immediately after the assassination, Iran began suspecting that groups in Syria were involved in several assassination cases of IRGC personnel in the country over the past few years.

Iran’s suspicion focuses on 18 commanders who were assassinated over a short time in attacks that were attributed to Israel. This is according to a Syrian defector who opposed the Assad regime, who claims to have spoken with an Iranian official.

Terrorists in Lebanon fired barrages of rockets towards northern Israel on Sunday morning, lightly injuring one Israeli, local media reported.

Iran-backed Hezbollah launched two rockets at Moshav Dovev in the Eastern Galilee, with the projectiles striking open areas. No casualties were reported. No warning sirens sounded during the attack.

Earlier in the morning, air raid sirens sounded in communities in the Western Galilee near the Lebanese border, including Shlomi and Rosh HaNikra.

Hamas in Lebanon claimed in a statement that it had launched 20 Russian-made Grad rockets towards an Israeli army position near Moshav Shomera.

A 36-year-old man was lightly wounded in the Rosh Hankara area as a result of being hit by the tip of a rocket. He was evacuated to Galilee Medical Center in Nahariya.

Overnight Saturday, Israeli Air Force fighter jets struck several Hezbollah terrorist targets in Lebanon, including an observation post in the area of Odaisseh and two military structures in the area of Khiam, the military said on Sunday morning.

Israel Defense Forces Maj. (res.) Dor Zimel, a deputy company commander in Battalion 8103 of the 6th Etzioni Brigade, succumbed to wounds he sustained in a Hezbollah aerial attack on Wednesday.

Zimel, 27, from Even Yehuda, just outside Netanya, was reportedly set to marry his fiancée next month. He was posthumously promoted to the rank of major.

Nineteen people, including 14 soldiers, were wounded in the missile and drone attack on the northern Bedouin town of Arab al-Aramshe.

The Hezbollah assault involved a two-pronged attack. First, two anti-tank-guided missiles were fired at the town’s community center. When rescue workers arrived, Hezbollah launched a suicide drone towards the building.

We are heartbroken to report on the death of another @IDF soldier: 27-year-old Major (res.) Dor Zimel has succumbed to his wounds after sustaining a severe injury from a #Hezbollah drone attack in northern #Israel on April 17th.
May his memory forever be a blessing. 🕯️ pic.twitter.com/XtpxTvNxPg

— StandWithUs (@StandWithUs) April 21, 2024

An IDF reservist who was home on temporary leave was lightly wounded after kicking a Palestinian flag in Kochav Hashahar, in the West Bank, and setting off an explosive charge that was implanted under it, Israeli media reported on Sunday.

Initial reports claimed that an Israeli resident of Binyamin, in the West Bank, was lightly wounded.

The IDF later confirmed the Israeli was an IDF solder in reserve who was on vacation.

The military further stated IDF troops were searching the area for suspects.

This attack came shortly after an attempted stabbing and shooting attack on IDF soldiers north of Hebron.

Additionally, on Sunday, there was an attempted shooting attack at Kibbutz Meirav on Mount Gilboa. No injuries were reported, while a compound sustained minor damage, according to the IDF.

Here he is. Twas but a scratch.

"No one will beat us. Am Israel chai." pic.twitter.com/EuMZDLEowN

— The Mossad: Satirical, Yet Awesome (@TheMossadIL) April 21, 2024

It's important to note Al-Jazeera publishes some Hamas videos before an official version is released by the group. The example below, like many others, strongly indicates a relationship between Hamas, a designated terrorist entity, and Al-Jazeera, with the aim of publishing acts… https://t.co/m8YBCFARox

— Joe Truzman (@JoeTruzman) April 21, 2024

Maybe you should stop turning your premises into headquarters for Hamas? Just a thought @UNLazzarini@UNRWA… https://t.co/X2HotYmaTg

— Arsen Ostrovsky 🎗️ (@Ostrov_A) April 21, 2024

Pick your word, @unrwa - this is a falsehood. An untruth. A lie.

One doesn’t need a PhD in statistics to see through this PR stunt. 1 child killed every 10 minutes equals 6 per hour and 144 per day - a rate that amounts to a total of 28,512 over the 198 days since October 7.… https://t.co/VtwZYcHqMi

— Robert Satloff (@robsatloff) April 21, 2024

Are we being mass manipulated? @GalG_IL with a very thoughtful take on what is and is not going on in Gaza today. 👇 https://t.co/EwwD1q1HT2

— Lt. Col. (R) Peter Lerner (@LTCPeterLerner) April 21, 2024

Palestinian Activist Ramzi Awda: Hamas Is Stealing the Aid Coming into Gaza and Re-selling it at Exorbitant Prices; It Rejects Any Political Solution for Gaza that Involves Its Removal from Power pic.twitter.com/n24dLTuDOi

— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) April 21, 2024

The media is about to make noise about Mohammed Awad Musa, a Palestinian PARAMEDIC who was supposedly killed during a confrontation with Israelis today.

But get this: Hamas has already claimed Musa — again, a paramedic — as a member of the terror group. H/T @Natsecjeffpic.twitter.com/B0u4aHA6yt

— Eitan Fischberger (@EFischberger) April 20, 2024

Humanitarian aid we facilitated over the last week👇 pic.twitter.com/1JUEguKs1i

— COGAT (@cogatonline) April 21, 2024

Here are some details you forgot mention:

All 12 coordinations requested were approved, but only 10 were carried out upon YOUR decision.

The 2 not fullfilled were due to construction on the humanitarian route, done at your request to better the traffic of humanitarian aid. https://t.co/MOaz7S6mob

— COGAT (@cogatonline) April 21, 2024

This Gazan laughs at aid thieves that aren't making much money from stealing aid from aid trucks these days, because a carton of food aid is currently sold in the market (in south Gaza Strip) for just 20 shekels ($5).#TheGazaYouDontSeehttps://t.co/GS1g61NKTzpic.twitter.com/llfhVeibql

— Imshin (@imshin) April 21, 2024

Our Intergenerational Divergence series is sponsored by our friends Sarala and Danny Turkel.
In this special episode of the 18Forty Podcast, we talk to Rachel Goldberg-Polin—whose son, Hersh, was kidnapped by Hamas and is still held hostage in Gaza—about heading into Passover with our loved ones still captive.

Normally, Intergenerational Divergence feels like something of a choice. But now, Jewish families have been split apart by force. In this episode we discuss:

How do we foster a continued connection to the members of our family who are missing?
What difficult thoughts and questions will we bring to the Seder table this year?
What does it mean to express hope via the Pesach Seder amid these bitter times?
We hope wholeheartedly that this conversation about missing our children at the time of Passover will be made irrelevant and the hostages will soon return home.

St Kilda, Melbourne, Australia - “Let My People Go”

A powerful mural depicting the Bibas family - cruelly taken hostage by Hamas terrorists on 7 Oct

It’s time to bring Shiri, Kfir & Ariel home#BringThemHomeNow@jccvic@ZionistFedAus@ECAJewry@NSWJBD@AustralianJA@AUJSpic.twitter.com/ci5iJn7iiW

— Menachem Vorchheimer (@MenachemV) April 21, 2024

You asked, we delivered. Our pal Batya Ungar-Sargon enters the octagon to (politely!) fight the Globalist Fifth on trade, Trump, robots, unions, automation, and a bunch of other stuff. But we also agree on lots of other things! Hear Batya talk about her wild Israel debate on Zerohedge, how her last book foresaw the NPR madness, and why perverse incentives have created a boring media echo chamber.

Spiked Online Chief Political Reporter Brendan O’Neill has criticised the “woke left” for becoming “cheerleaders for Iran”.

US President Joe Biden told Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that America would not support an Israeli counterattack on Iran after Iran launched its first direct attack on its neighbour this month.

“The woke left have become cheerleaders for Iran; they’ve become cheerleaders for one of the most regressive regimes in the world – a regime where women don’t have freedom,” Mr O’Neill told Sky News Australia.

“Because Iran is standing up against the ‘evil Jewish state’ – which is how the left tends to view Israel – they’re on the side of Iran.

“I think it really demonstrates how crazy people have been driven by Israelophobia.

“They hate Israel with such a passion that they are willing to take the side of Iran, even Hamas.”

'Not so innocent' ANZACs under attack

The 'Free Palestine' crowd have launched an ugly attack on our ANZACs, calling them 'not so innocent.'

Yet another reminder that these activists hate Australia almost as much as they hate Israel and Jews.

AJA pays our respect to our brave… pic.twitter.com/2k3Ext7e9V

— Australian Jewish Association (@AustralianJA) April 21, 2024

He’s a chauvinist Islamist pig who got slapped down by yours truly. Must’ve hurt his feelings to be schooled by a Zionist woman. 😂 @YasMohammedxx
pic.twitter.com/tHWBvn2dVwhttps://t.co/ZAup2hcrc6

— Emily Schrader - אמילי שריידר امیلی شریدر (@emilykschrader) April 21, 2024

"You cannot allow half of the remaining #Jewish people in the world to be bombarded by #Iran."
WATCH: American Political Analyst @VanJones68 emphasizes the threat that the Iranian regime poses not only to the people of Israel, but to all of Western civilization and to humanity as… pic.twitter.com/5GpFj9IOht

— StandWithUs (@StandWithUs) April 21, 2024

Hasan debates a 16 year old Israeli chatter and then debates a supercut of Destiny...

hasan debated a 16 year old on palestine , lost , and hasans discord mod is doxing him lol

would be so sick if twitch got rid of this freak and his supporters pic.twitter.com/2mP4hKUS1z

— Wyatt (@locksneedshartn) April 19, 2024

For the thought crime of supporting Israel in the wake of October 7th, I have been the target of racist rhetoric from Mohamed Hadid.

If you have the audacity to be a person of color AND Pro-Israel, you become fair game for racist hate and harassment. pic.twitter.com/6BpZvUavCn

— Ritchie Torres (@RitchieTorres) April 21, 2024

Gigi and Bella Hadid's Palestinian-American father has apologized for a slew of hateful messages he sent to New York Congressman Ritchie Torres.

Mohamed Hadid, 75, offered a tepid walk back of his attack on Torres, where he began: 'I need to apologize. Not for the anger I feel but for the words I used to express that anger.'

'I intended to express how Mr. Torres is a shill being used by Israel,' the real estate developer added, echoing much of the sentiment in the rest of his apology.

His remarks followed a report by the New York Post detailing how Hadid has spent the past few months targeting Torres online for the congressman's support for Israel following the October 7 Hamas attacks.

In texts to Torres, Hadid branded him 'worse than the rats of the New York sewage system'.

Torres, who is gay, was also told by the model's father that he 'might get a job as a bouncer in a gay bar', and that he should 'dress as KKK to hide that ugly gray colored face of yours.'

In the face of backlash to the messages being published, Hadid issued an apology for his language, but took the opportunity to throw a few more insults Torres' way.

He said that Torres is a 'shill' for Israel, 'a state that not only 'mistreats black and brown people but pinkwashes their atrocities using their projected gay rights as a shield for their human rights violations.'

'My feeling after 76 years of being a refugee from the country where I and my ancestors were born and watching a genocide unfold are at an all time high,' he continued.

'I am watching United States politicians work as AIPAC [American Israel Public Affairs Committee] messengers of genocide.

'I used the wrong words to express this anger but the anger is warranted. To send black and brown and other marginalized communities to do the dirty work of two countries who have never respected them is wrong.

'I apologize to my community for directing the conversation to this. And even for a minute away from Palestine. All eyes on Palestine. Free Palestine.'

What kind of an apology calls the person victimized by disgusting hate speech a “Shill?”

“Shill” is a derogatory term for con-man or hustler.

Hadid is apologizing for calling Torres a “slave to whites” by calling him a criminal used by Israel. 🤨#AntizionismIsAntisemitismpic.twitter.com/tdhSnbjdN9

— The Persian Jewess (@persianjewess) April 20, 2024

Eventually the normie voices grow fewer and quieter, and all you're left with is the moonshine of antisemitism and Hamas love.

— Noam Blum (@neontaster) April 21, 2024

The Community Security Trust (CST) in the United Kingdom, which monitors antisemitic abuse and attacks, has revealed some alarming data following Hamas’s pogrom in Gaza. They recorded a total of 1,330 anti-Jewish incidents in the UK just in October, with the majority committed by offenders described as non-white.

The hatred of the Jew is prevalent in Muslim societies, and with millions of Muslims moving to Europe and North America, their attitudes toward the Jews continue to be part of their mindsets. My former London-Doha journalist colleagues at Qatari media outlets and Al Jazeera vigorously deny they are antisemites, but rather they are anti-Zionists, for whom, Israel, the only Jewish state, has no right to exist.

In reality, the words “Jews,” “Zionists,” and “Israelis” are used interchangeably, imputing what they conceive as the evil of the one to the nature of the other.

Since the Arab Spring, Al Jazeera has lost considerable credibility among Arab audiences in Morocco, Egypt, Jordan, the Gulf monarchies, and among Sunni Arabs in Iraq, Lebanon, and Yemen, with many accusing the channel of being a mouthpiece of Iran’s ayatollahs and its army of proxies, e.g., Hamas and Hizbullah.

Since October 7, I have had numerous discussions with young UK-based Muslims, who sing praises of Hamas and the so-called “heroic resistance,” yet in the same sentence, they deny their “heroes” were rapists, murderers, and kidnappers of babies and elderly. The level of historical distortion and ignorance is beyond a pandemic.

The United Kingdom has seen a drastic surge in antisemitic incidents, and the Henry Jackson Society’s 50-page detailed report, “British Muslims and General Public Attitudes Polling,” shows that “old” antisemitic tropes are widespread among British Muslims. One of the most alarming findings is the legitimizing of Hamas’s cruel brutality against Israeli civilians on October 7. Politicians, like journalists and civil society activists, are frightened to “touch” the subject for fear of being labeled as racist or Islamophobic.

The U.K. Board of Deputies of British Jews will meet later this week with Mark Rowley, commissioner of London’s Metropolitan Police, after requesting an urgent meeting “to repair a grievous loss of confidence” over his mishandling of anti-Israel protests in the capital, The Sunday Times reported.

“The Metropolitan Police have made a series of high-profile errors in their responses to these demonstrations,” the Board of Deputies said after the leader of a group that fights antisemitism was stopped from crossing a street by a Metropolitan Police officer for appearing “quite openly Jewish.”

“The entirely avoidable mistakes have had a devastating effect on the previously high level of trust held by the U.K.’s Jewish community in the police,” the Board of Deputies said.

On April 13, Gideon Falter, who heads the U.K.-based Campaign Against Antisemitism was prevented by a policeman from crossing a street as an anti-Israel protest passed.

“This is a pro-Palestinian march. I am not accusing you of anything, but I am worried about the reaction to your presence,” the officer told him in a video Falter’s group posted to X on April 18.

“I don’t want to stay here. I want to leave,” Falter explained to the officer, who nevertheless blocked him when he attempted to get by.

Another officer told Falter he would be arrested if he remained in the vicinity “because your presence here is antagonizing them.”

The time has come for Sir Mark Rowley to go.@GideonFalter, Chief Executive of CAA, said: “Sir Mark Rowley must resign or be removed by the Mayor of London, @SadiqKhan, and the Home Secretary, @JamesCleverly.

“What happened to me was a disgrace. Imagine what it felt like to be… pic.twitter.com/ERUiR4flfk

— Campaign Against Antisemitism (@antisemitism) April 20, 2024

The front page of tomorrow's Sunday Telegraph:

'Met chief urged to resign over treatment of Jews'#TomorrowsPapersToday

Sign up for the Front Page newsletterhttps://t.co/x8AV4Oomrypic.twitter.com/6wzkfIFkby

— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) April 20, 2024

Tonight, CAA’s @GideonFalter spoke to @SkyNews about why the time has come for Sir Mark Rowley to go.

Enough is enough. It is time for a major change.

On Saturday 27th April — the next anti-Israel march — we are asking you, Jewish or not, to stand up for the tolerance and… pic.twitter.com/mnZDtyKrvv

— Campaign Against Antisemitism (@antisemitism) April 20, 2024

Footage obtained by @SkyNews shows this remarkable exchange:@GideonFalter: “If I take this [skullcap] off and turn this [prayer shawl bag] around, will you let me cross the road?”@MetPoliceUK: “No Sir, because I don’t have any confidence that you won’t put them back on.”… pic.twitter.com/zdaqaiiJi6

— Campaign Against Antisemitism (@antisemitism) April 21, 2024

Here is footage of a senior @MetPoliceUK officer shouting to other officers that if @GideonFalter returns to the area whilst being “quite openly Jewish” they will put him in some sort of a “pen”. pic.twitter.com/0mKHesmigs

— Campaign Against Antisemitism (@antisemitism) April 21, 2024

Pro-Palestine protesters have targeted the London Marathon by demonstrating along the route of the event in the capital.

Activists have been seen waving Palestinian flags as they gathered at the security barriers which line the 26.2-mile course this morning.

Organisers had urged pro-Palestine and Israel demonstrators not to disrupt the Marathon and to focus on 'coexistence and togetherness' amid the conflict in the Middle East.

Large numbers of police officers were seen in central London ahead of the event this morning, where 50,000 professional and amateur runners have taken to the streets of the city for the ultra-endurance test.

Photos taken in the early hours of Sunday morning showed police securing the route with sniffer dogs in operation, as well as stewards congregating before the first race got underway at 9.05am.

Yet again we see these “Free Palestine” “ceasefire” protests are not about peace or human rights. They are celebrating the mass slaughter, rape, torture, and kidnapping of Jews. https://t.co/VC5Me0aWl7

— Anne Herzberg (@AnneHerzberg14) April 21, 2024

They’re undeterred. https://t.co/ERzmXHjDgh

— Marina Medvin 🇺🇸 (@MarinaMedvin) April 21, 2024

The Palestine Solidarity Campaign is not a genuine solidarity campaign. It is full of local groups that have, for decades, been furiously disseminating clear and explicit, antisemitic propaganda. https://t.co/wnSBEhCv4y

— David Hirsh (@DavidHirsh) April 21, 2024

Several national anti-Israel groups have threatened to "seize" universities across the United States to force them to adopt Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions policies on Saturday, raising the specter that encampments and protests like those seen at Columbia University could be replicated across the continent.

"The supposed power of our administrators is nothing compared to the strength of the united students, staff, and faculty committed to realizing justice and upholding Palestinian liberation on campus," National Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) wrote on social media. "

In the footsteps of our comrades at Rutgers-New Brunswick SJP, Tufts SJP, and Columbia SJP, we will seize our universities and force the administration to divest for the people of Gaza! Join the Popular University, take back our institutions!"

SJP and the Palestinian Youth Movement published a similar call to action on Friday, telling chapters across the US to be prepared for internal communications for further action. The graphics showed tents with the banner "liberated zone," as appeared in the occupation of campus grounds at Columbia. The graphic was titled "From Columbia to our universities."

At the same time as SJP made the Saturday call to action, other national pro-Palestinian and left-wing activist groups endorsed the call to action.

Within Our Lifetime, responsible for many of the major protests that have caused major disruptions in New York City, made nearly identical statements to the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights and Jewish Voice for Peace in which they said they were "committed to supporting and aiding them in their actions and demonstrations."

Democratic Socialists of America and Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, allegedly associated with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine terrorist group, joined with graphics that stated "we are all SJP."

The U.S. Department of Education lists schools under investigation for antisemitism:
- ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY
- CARNEGIE MELLON
- COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY
- COOPER UNION
- CORNELL UNIVERSITY
- CUNY BROOKLYN COLLEGE
- CUNY HUNTER COLLEGE
- CUNY SCHOOL OF LAW
- DUKE UNIVERSITY
-…

— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) April 20, 2024

Calls for violence and terrorism at the Columbia University encampment protests continued to surface on Sunday in footage published by pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian activists.

“[Izz ad-Din] Al-Qassam [Brigades], make us proud, take another soldier out,” anti-Israel demonstrators chanted on Friday night in a video published on social media by pro-Palestinian activist ThizzL. “We say justice, you say how? Burn Tel Aviv to the ground. Go Hamas, we love you. We support your rockets too.”

On Wednesday, in another video published by ThizzL, activists called for Hamas's military wing to "kill another soldier now."

During a speech live streamed by the Palestine Solidarity Working Group on Saturday night, a protest leader said in a speech, "Let it be known that it was the Al-Aqsa Flood that put the global intifada back on the table again. And it is the sacrificial spirit of the Palestinian freedom fighters that will guide every struggle on every corner of the earth to victory."

"Remember that militancy breeds Resistance," said the speaker. "Thousands upon thousands of students around the world have been moved to rebel because of your militancy."

My full statement on Columbia University’s Failed Leadership:

“While Columbia’s failed leadership spent hundreds of hours preparing for this week’s Congressional hearing, it clearly was an attempt to cover up for their abject failure to enforce their own campus rules and protect…

— Elise Stefanik (@EliseStefanik) April 21, 2024

.⁦@EliseStefanik⁩ -thank you! President Shafik of Columbia:Get the hell out of the way. Resign immediately. "Never Again" is a lie! pic.twitter.com/Zcj1t6S2on

— Dov Hikind (@HikindDov) April 21, 2024

Of course the @UN had to come out and protect the domestic terrorist of @Columbia. What's new?🙄🤦‍♀️ https://t.co/9oi3KOUhZG

— Leslie Kajomovitz (@lkajomovitz) April 21, 2024

In which Edward Said implicitly and unavoidably concedes Zionism's central argument while trying to assure Jews Zionism is unnecessary. https://t.co/4pOYYb0aXU

— Haviv Rettig Gur (@havivrettiggur) April 21, 2024

A prominent rabbi at Columbia University took the drastic step Sunday of warning Jewish students to go home and not return to campus because of “extreme antisemitism” at the Ivy League school.

The dire directive followed yet another night of virulent anti-Israel protests on campus — which included one protester holding up a sign suggesting that students waving Israeli flags should be the next target of Hamas terrorists.”

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,” Rabbi Elie Buechler told students Sunday morning over WhatsApp.

“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,” he said. “No one should have to endure this level of hatred, let alone at school.”

Jewish students who showed up on campus Saturday night to protest antisemitism at the prestigious university carried Israeli flags and sang “One Day,” a song of peace by reggae singer and rapper Matisayhu — only to be promptly attacked by hate speech and threatened with calls to violence, witnesses told The Post.

This is the Chabbad Rabbi (!) and a group of Jewish students being scared off of @Columbia's campus. pic.twitter.com/VdAlJ5G3V1

— Shai Davidai (@ShaiDavidai) April 21, 2024

A rabbi at Columbia told Jewish students to go home. They’re not safe on campus any more. pic.twitter.com/oNHLVNEo1S

— Eve Barlow (@Eve_Barlow) April 21, 2024

I never imagined seeing this in America. @Columbia’s cowering to antisemitic hate has let terrorist sympathizers take over campus & threaten Jewish students.

We must pass @SenatorTimScott& my Stop Antisemitism on College Campuses Act & pull all federal funds from Columbia NOW. https://t.co/IJvLYjoNjV

— Rick Scott (@SenRickScott) April 21, 2024

Columbia long-held antisemitic values are extremely well represented in the media colonized by its graduates. https://t.co/NeAzlIxqZY

— LoLNothingMatters (@DastDn) April 21, 2024

Dude with Palestinian flag doesn’t know that he’s making the slam dunk case for Zionism. https://t.co/Mm7FoNy77F

— Hussain Abdul-Hussain (@hahussain) April 21, 2024

They even set up a memorial area for *convicted PFLF, Hamas, and Islamic Jihad terrorists*!

These two people murdered Israeli civilians and guided suicide bombers

This will FOREVER be a stain on @Columbia University.

SHAFIK and SCHIZER - SHAME ON YOU pic.twitter.com/ne64TOZ2n2

— Shai Davidai (@ShaiDavidai) April 21, 2024

America we have a problem

“Al-Qassam, you make us proud, take another soldier out”

“We say justice, you say how? Burn Tel Aviv to the ground”

“Hamas, we love you. We support your rockets too”

Extremists at @Columbia chant in support for Hamas terror.

pic.twitter.com/htdDoqWL7i

— David Saranga (@DavidSaranga) April 21, 2024

BREAKING: The Gate of Columbia University is currently locked, but with protesters inside and outside of the gate calling for the lock to be broken and with the ominous message of "The gates of Al-Aqsa were made of iron" pinned in the Instagram Live, I bet it won't be for… pic.twitter.com/9Fkufdhd1F

— Stu (@thestustustudio) April 21, 2024

And somehow Nerdeen Kiswani showed up despite the campus being locked down. What is Columbia doing? pic.twitter.com/Pq9GO48S2B

— Stu (@thestustustudio) April 21, 2024

Woman detained appears to be the one taunting police earlier https://t.co/DTYWgKibx0

— Oliya Scootercaster 🛴 (@ScooterCasterNY) April 21, 2024

Part 14: RETWEET THIS FOR ALL TO SEE. Violence against Jews on Columbia campus.

A group of what I suspect are Jewish students are caught in the middle of the jihadi supporting protest at Columbia.

The mob throws bottles at their heads and screams:

“Zionist!”
“Genocidal… https://t.co/cb304ubKR5pic.twitter.com/jPzF10uuVh

— LAWYERGONEROGUE (@lawyergonerogue) April 21, 2024

#NOW"I belive that we will win!" Pro-palestine protesters chant as they descend onto YALE University grounds to support the occupation encampment that was set up last night. pic.twitter.com/I6BaoeIWyc

— Oliya Scootercaster 🛴 (@ScooterCasterNY) April 20, 2024

Some more clips from 'Liberated Zone' in Yale University, occupied in Solidarity with Columbia University

Full story https://t.co/CrzcdvOYWMpic.twitter.com/NDfAw4366V

— Oliya Scootercaster 🛴 (@ScooterCasterNY) April 21, 2024

A mob of Yale students shout "VIVA VIVA PALESTINA" as they tear down an American flag on campus, cheering when it hits the floor.

(Oh, and university cops do nothing in response. Nor does the administration) pic.twitter.com/4aghYw1NBo

— Sahar Tartak🇮🇱🇺🇸 (@sahar_tartak) April 21, 2024

Meet Thomas Kinservik, the @Yale student in the right side photo.

(https://t.co/005Abgxo4A)

He is #SeekingFame. Help him! https://t.co/C102LjLUUE

— Corrected Media (@correctedmedia) April 21, 2024

If you need to catch up https://t.co/KKPgOsNkAm

— Stu (@thestustustudio) April 21, 2024

Another Counter Protester has showed up with an American Flag. "Safety marshals" try to block his path and take the American flag from him to no avail. pic.twitter.com/yzgrcfblSK

— Stu (@thestustustudio) April 21, 2024

If you have been following, Yale's Administration gave the Beinecke Plaza Occupiers until 11:30 to leave. As you can imagine, Yale did absolutely nothing to enforce this.

However, Yale's inaction gave this man a chance to counter protest the Yale Occupation! pic.twitter.com/r4hcXgaYVg

— Stu (@thestustustudio) April 21, 2024

"I'm sorry that you feel the way you feel" - Pro Palestine Protesters confront a man in "F*ck Hamas" Tshirts at the 'Liberated Zone' occupation at Yale University as he attempts to film, "So sad to see a man afraid of a 22-year old with an opinion" protester added. pic.twitter.com/RLwVEFgfhx

— Oliya Scootercaster 🛴 (@ScooterCasterNY) April 20, 2024

✅ Chutzpah Unleashed!

👕 Rocks entitled narcissists at Yale with a “Fuck Hamas” T-shirt.

💪 Love it!

👀 Watch as they desperately try to bait him into a fight by assaulting him.

(See his original post for the full videos) https://t.co/pLQnU5hxMDpic.twitter.com/9C3MX9Vsfv

— Shirion Collective (@ShirionOrg) April 20, 2024

A Jewish Yale University student was jabbed in the eye with a flag pole by an anti-Israel protester on Saturday night, Sophomore Sahar Tartak told The Jerusalem Post.

Tartak, a history student and editor-in-chief of the Yale Free Press, had attempted to film the pro-Palestinian protest encampment set up on the campus.

The visibly religious Jewish student and her friend were immediately met with a wall of five activists each, who did not allow them to pass.

“One of them takes their Palestinian flag and waves it in my face and then jabs it in the face,” said Tartak.

Tartak reported the assault to campus police, but she is unaware of any action taken besides calling an ambulance for her. She was discharged from the hospital and will not suffer permanent damage. Mentally, however, Tartak said, she was in an “awful” state.

Returning to campus has become a daunting prospect, as she says, “All these students know who I am.”

A Chassidic Jewish student was blockaded by protest organizers at a violent Yale rally last night. They followed his every move, and did the same to me. Obviously, this happened to no one else pic.twitter.com/YIrbiv5sJE

— Sahar Tartak🇮🇱🇺🇸 (@sahar_tartak) April 21, 2024

Yale: Jewish student told by protest organizers blockading me at a violent anti-Jewish rally that he can only join the rally on the "outskirts" and "outside." Jews can't get too close—when I tried to walk forward, they blockaded. Then I got stabbed in the eye by a 🇵🇸 flag pic.twitter.com/lhKnOirJJv

— Sahar Tartak🇮🇱🇺🇸 (@sahar_tartak) April 21, 2024

After I was stabbed in my eye by a protester at a Yale rally, organizers blockaded me from running after my assaulter. Instead of helping me find him swiftly, one organizer told me: "I want you to think about what do you really want to get out of this." pic.twitter.com/5Ll4A4Q6b2

— Sahar Tartak🇮🇱🇺🇸 (@sahar_tartak) April 21, 2024

Hamasniks are hilarious.@AbbyChavaStein posted 2 videos of the larpers singing Jewish songs.

The first asks for G-d to have Mercy on Zion.

The second asks for G-d to protect us from the hands of evildoers.

The songs are explicitly pro-Israel and anti-Hamas. Like Judaism. pic.twitter.com/sPsfodJrNT

— Rabbi S Litvin (@BluegrassRabbi) April 21, 2024

#BREAKING: @Penn's SJP chapter (known as "Penn Students Against the Occupation") has had its status as a registered student organization revoked for failing to comply with school policies "despite repeated efforts" by the administration to work with the group to resolve issues. pic.twitter.com/TT0RRN3aBG

— Israel War Room (@IsraelWarRoom) April 21, 2024

The student at USC was not prohibited from speaking because she’s Palestinian, she was not allowed to give her speech because she supports genocide against the Jewish people and refused to condemn it when given ample opportunity even in the national news. USC is acting correctly… pic.twitter.com/meDtmweQ7d

— Brooke Goldstein (@GoldsteinBrooke) April 21, 2024

OXFORD UNI: SCRAPS ST GEORGE'S DAY EVENT, ADDS EID DINNER

Banquet to mark end of Ramadan replaces formal celebration of England’s patron saint which ‘stretched back decades’.

Magdalen College had held an annual formal dinner to remember England’s patron saint, attended by dons,… pic.twitter.com/x73c8P1Q9t

— Australian Jewish Association (@AustralianJA) April 21, 2024

Maria Bamieh is obsessed with Israel & Jews, spreading well known, debunked conspiracy theories across social media. Like many left leaning Pro Palestinian supporters she is comfortable with Nazi level eugenics & spreading white supremacist propaganda. https://t.co/rYWtZYnslO

— GnasherJew®גנאשר (@GnasherJew) April 21, 2024

And what Mo left out here is that Hamas responded to Gazan protests against the terrorist organization last summer with a brutal crackdown that included busting protesters at night at their houses, arrests, and torture. https://t.co/wP2Jo3kagz

— Hussain Abdul-Hussain (@hahussain) April 21, 2024

ISIS has killed more than 20 Palestinian fighters of the pro-Assad Al-Quds Brigade in an ambush attack in the Syrian province of Homs province.

Via @Natsecjeffpic.twitter.com/KGLTA1ahH7

— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) April 21, 2024

Mark Dubowitz, CEO of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, says he has tried for years "to make the case that the Islamic Republic is a threat to the region, its own people and the U.S., and that it needs to be dealt with, not wished away."

After Iran's April 13 attack, "At least temporarily - very temporarily - Israel got out of the penalty box and Iran has gone in."

Iran keeps breaking through red lines on its nuclear program "and things that would've been intolerable 10 years ago are tolerable today."

The West once thought Iranian enrichment of uranium was intolerable. "Now, they're enriching uranium to 60%, which is a stone's throw away from weapons-grade."

Of Israel's airstrike in response, Dubowitz said, "'Our air defenses worked, your expensive S-300 didn't. You targeted our air force base, we hit your air force base,' using much less to do much more damage," and near a nuclear facility.

Adding insult to injury, the strike came on Mr. Khamenei's 85th birthday.

Moreover, the strike "reaffirms to the Saudis that Israel is the only country with the will and capabilities to take on Iran."

"I have been led to believe that Iran's weaponization activities have begun. After a long pause during which Iran's nuclear enrichment and missile program advanced, Iran is now taking preliminary steps that will help build a warhead."

"That is headline news, because it contradicts the longtime U.S. intelligence consensus, and it suggests the Iranians are even closer to a deliverable nuclear weapon than we had thought."

"I don't get a straight answer in Washington, but I got a straight answer in Israel: 'We have evidence, we have intelligence. They have begun preliminary work on the weapon.'"

The Department of Energy (DOE) funded energy-related research involving a scientist from an Iranian university linked to the country’s nuclear program.

The DOE’s Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO) is listed as the funding agency for a study on advanced technology that could help power grids go green. One of the seven researchers credited as an author of the study, Mohammad Hasan Ravanji, is a professor of electrical engineering at Iran’s Sharif University of Technology (SUT), a university that has been sanctioned by several Western countries for its advancement of Iran’s nuclear program and connections to the country’s military.

The Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers published the study, titled “Grid-Forming Inverter-Based Resource Research Landscape: Understanding the Key Assets for Renewable-Rich Power Systems,” in their Power and Energy Magazine on February 23.

“The issue here is that a U.S. federal agency is apparently collaborating with a widely-sanctioned university which is one of the worst actors in Iran’s academic space,” Daniel Roth, the director of research for United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “Regardless of whether this explicitly has been used to advance Iran’s nuclear centrifuges is beside the point … This shouldn’t have happened in the first place. And we’re not talking about a collaboration on James Joyce or English literature. It’s about science and technology, and obviously, those often have dual uses.”

American tax dollars should never help arm Iran. pic.twitter.com/HS5AmVp4Wx

— Joni Ernst (@SenJoniErnst) April 17, 2024

The DOE announced in 2021 that it would distribute $25 million in taxpayer funds to bankroll a “Grid Forming Research Consortium” based in Golden, Colorado. Several other papers are funded by the same award — number 38637 — and a document published by the DOE-funded consortium references the award number as well.

Ravanji was based at STU from 2013 to 2020 as a researcher and PhD student before spending approximately two years at Australia’s Monash University, according to his LinkedIn profile. He then returned to STU to become an assistant professor there in January 2023, more than a year before the DOE-backed study crediting him was published.

Parts or all of STU have been sanctioned by the U.S. and other Western governments.

#BREAKING The US House on Saturday passed the 21st Century Peace through Strength Act which includes several Iran-related sanctions bills especially the MAHSA Act which requires @POTUS to make a determination with respect to introduction of sanctions on the offices of Iran’s… pic.twitter.com/but6Ap9qS6

— Iran International English (@IranIntl_En) April 20, 2024

A court in Tehran has ruled that the US government should pay over one billion dollars in damages for what it called "US support for the Pahlavi dynasty."https://t.co/QXqakiKqaM

— Iran International English (@IranIntl_En) April 21, 2024

Greenville, NC Friday Sermon by Imam Khadem AbuZain: Allah Decreed Friday Sermons in Order to Inspire Our Youth to Raise the Banner of Jihad; We Have Been Numbed to the Nature of the Jews Because We Lived in “So-Called” Peace with Them pic.twitter.com/yWp0gnD3Uy

— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) April 21, 2024

https://t.co/GJrXiNCtqD

— Canary Mission (@canarymission) April 21, 2024

Juden.

The writing on the wall.

In tsunami of normalized lethal hatred of ‘just anti-Zionism’ antisemitism, in ‘context’ of war crimes & crimes against humanity in 10/7 massacre & war of genocidal terror proxies & Islamic regime in 🇮🇷.

In Toronto 🇨🇦 too. #NeverAgainIsNowhttps://t.co/6QNM2gxOBd

— מיכל קוטלר-וונש | Michal Cotler-Wunsh (@CotlerWunsh) April 21, 2024

“People hate us because we’re the best.”

Do you think they’d be so quick to hate Jews if we were impoverished, broken, and pitiful? Yeah, me neither. @yohaysponder dropping truth bombs. 🔥#AmYisraelChaipic.twitter.com/gtzOvzDeAJ

— The Persian Jewess (@persianjewess) April 20, 2024

Humbled to perform "OK (We Are Not OK)" at Hostage Square, in Tel Aviv, hours before Iran's attack on Israel. There are no words to express the meetings I had with hostage families. May we hold them in our hearts as well as all innocents suffering due to the evil that is Hamas. pic.twitter.com/pq9K6auLyO

— John Ondrasik (@johnondrasik) April 21, 2024

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon! Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.  Read all about it here!