Author Archives: First.One.Through

Zionism Was A Dream. Israel Is A Reality

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Henri Dunant (1828-1910) was a humanitarian who created the International Red Cross in 1863 which helped lead to his selection as the first winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1901. He is also known (although such mention has been stripped from Wikipedia) for being a strong Christian Zionist, as far back as 1866 when he advocated for “the re-settlement of Palestine by the Jewish people.” His advocacy led Theodore Herzl to invite him to the first Zionist Congress in Basel, Switzerland in 1897.

The dream of Jews returning to their homeland gathered momentum in the second half of the 19th century, despite the Ottomans making it hard for Jews to move to Palestine. In 1800, Jews made up about 3% of the region of Palestine, growing to 8% by 1882 and nearly 14% by the close of the Ottoman period in 1914.

Jews have moved to the land of Israel in far greater percentages than either Christians or Muslims since 1800

This predated the Balfour Declaration of 1917, when the British government appreciated the Zionist Federation’s appeal to reestablish their national home in Palestine.

“His Majesty’s Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavors to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.”

Despite Zionism being about the GOAL of creating a Jewish national home in Jews’ historic homeland, the term continues to be used decades after the modern State of Israel was established in 1948.

Gil Troy, a historian and author of “The Zionist Ideas,” explained that Zionism has three principle components: that Jews are a nation; that Jews have ties to their particular homeland in the land of Israel; and that Jews have a right to establish a state in that homeland, much like other people have rights to their own country. The first two principles are simple facts while the third is a matter of rights, not aspirations. Such definition makes Zionism an ongoing principle rather than that a mission which was accomplished in 1948.

Pro-Israel books using “Zionist”

The view of Zionism as a relevant reality or historical ideology arises in the national anthem, “Hatikvah”, written in 1877 as the Zionist movement gathered initial momentum.

“As long as within our hearts / The Jewish soul sings, / As long as forward to the East / To Zion, looks the eye / Our hope is not yet lost, / It is two thousand years old, / To be a free people in our land / The land of Zion and Jerusalem”

Today, some object to the lyrics speaking of Israel from a purely Jewish perspective when 25% of the population is not Jewish. Others do not like the fact that it has no religious foundation and only speaks of being “free” in the land. I would add that the text is inherently dated with words like “our HOPE” and “TO BE a free people” when Israel has long been a reality.

Israeli flag at the Western Wall in the Old City of Jerusalem (photo: First One Through)

Significantly, discussions around “Zionism” have continued in political fora as if the world is still debating the FORMATION of Israel.

  • In November 1975, the United Nations General Assembly passed Res. 3379 which stated “zionism is a form of racism and racial discrimination,” by lumping it into a category of trespasses including “colonialism and neo-colonialism, foreign occupation, apartheid and racial discrimination.” The resolution was rescinded in 1991 through the efforts of the United States.
  • Keith Ellison, Minnesota’s attorney general and one-time member of Congress once said “Zionism, the ideological undergirding of Israel, is a debatable political philosophy,” making the foundation of the Jewish State a questionable endeavor.
  • Linda Sarsour, a member of the anti-Israel Democratic Socialists of America said that “nothing is creepier than Zionism,” invoking the old UN resolution that Zionism is a form of racism.
  • Steve Erlander wrote in The New York Times that “Zionism was never the gentlest of ideologies. The return of the Jewish people to their biblical homeland and the resumption of Jewish sovereignty there have always carried within them the displacement of those already living in the land,” repeating the stale U.N. slander.
  • Israel’s enemies continue to call it a “Zionist entity”, refusing to mention the name of the country, as if to do so recognizes its existence or right to exist.

The continued use of the word “Zionism” today by anti-Israel agitators is not a theoretical review of Jewish aspirations to return to their homeland in the 19th century and early 20th century, but a concerted effort to demonize and/or destroy Israel today.

For starters, by attempting to define Zionism as a form of racism, people mark Israel as a racist and apartheid state regardless of its actions. While it is the most liberal country in the entire Middle East, if Israel’s underpinning ideology was built on “colonialism” and “racial discrimination,” then its existence is a continuation of the racist ideology, permeated by original sin.

Secondly, if Israel is not viewed as a functioning liberal and democratic reality but merely a vehicle of “Zionism,” its existence entails the continued “displacement of those [Arabs] already living in the land.” When Rep. Rashida Tlaib introduced a resolution in Congress about the “Ongoing Nakba,” she was not discussing 1948 history but a belief in the “ongoing ethnic cleansing of Palestinians for illegal settlements.” She imagines the entire history and ongoing reality of the reestablished Jewish State as a “catastrophe.”

Further, anti-Israel people believe that when JEWS use of the word “Zionism,” it means that the goals of the Jewish State are far from completed. Not only does Israel seek the land east of the 1949 Armistice Lines (E49AL/ “West Bank”) and Gaza, but it seeks “Greater Israel” encompassing “the area from the Nile to the Euphrates,” as speakers at the United Nations contend. It means Jews want to see a third Temple built on the Temple Mount in place of the Dome of the Rock.

In short, when anti-Israel people use the term “Zionism,” they are discussing more than a philosophy but an evolving reality. Anti-Israel activists seek a future which resembles 1947 or 1917, when there was no Israel and no international support for a Jewish State. When those same people hear Jews use “Zionism,” they believe that Jews want a future which looks like 2,000-plus years ago, with a Jewish Temple and sprawling Jewish kingdom.

In other words, Zionism is not just a highly charged word for some, but conjures up the perception of ongoing goals as opposed to actual present facts.

The facts are that Israel is the most pluralistic society in the Middle East where Arabs have more rights and a higher standard of living than in neighboring Arab countries. Israel has shown its willingness to SHRINK its borders for peace. Israel has proven that it can create a viable, functioning economy and society, despite regional actors refusing to accept its existence.

The plain truth is that Israel is a model state to be replicated, while cast as a Zionist ideology to be terminated.

Zionism was a dream and Israel exists. The transition was marked in the last line in Israel’s Declaration of Independence, “the realization of the age-old dream – the redemption of Israel.” Israel supporters should acknowledge Israel’s declaration and stop calling themselves “Zionists” as it enables anti-Israel fanatics to whitewash their desire to destroy the Jewish State.

A proud “Zionist” woman at the Celebrate Israel parade in New York City in 2019 (photo: First One Through)

People are pro-Israel, anti-Israel or Israel-ambivalent today. Do not let those who seek the destruction of Israel to hide behind a “debate” about the “political philosophy” of Zionism.

Related articles:

Anti-Zionist Hypocrisy Ignoring The Will Of Inhabitants (May 2023)

Names and Narrative: Zionist Entity and Colonial Occupier (May 2019)

I am a Zionist. A Deep Zionist. An Amazed Zionist. A Loud Zionist. (April 2018)

Columbia Syndrome

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The sorry state of Columbia University’s treatment of Jews is apparent to all. The administration, teachers and student-led groups have participated in the harassment, intimidation and assault on Jews and Jewish life on campus before the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led massacre and very significantly thereafter.

It is now manifest that graduates of the school – including some Jews, remarkably – have bonded with Hamas and rationalized its barbarism and whitewashed its antisemitism.

Consider anti-Israel Jewish alum Anna Baltzer. According to her Wikipedia page, Baltzer has written a number of books, and it seems that Noam Chomsky is a fan of her 2014 book “Witness in Palestine,” which details “Palestinian resistance” against the existence of Jews in the land of Israel. On November 12, 2023, shortly after the Hamas-led massacre, she wrote on the socialist-jihadi site Common Dreams an opinion piece titled “Hamas Didn’t Attack Israelis Because They Are Jewish,” in which she attempted to argue that Hamas killed Israelis because Israeli Jews are White supremacist colonial invaders, not because of their religion.

It is willful and blind stupidity.

Hamas’s foundational charter makes very clear that it views the conflict as a religious war against Jews:

  • “Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it.” (Opening)
  • “Our struggle against the Jews is very great and very serious.” (Preamble)
  • “raise the banner of Jihad in the face of the oppressors, so that they would rid the land and the people of their uncleanliness, vileness and evils.” (Article 3)
  • “Moslems fight the Jews (killing the Jews)… there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him” (Article 7)
  • “Nothing in nationalism is more significant or deeper than in the case when an enemy should tread Moslem land” (Article 12)
  • “In face of the Jews’ usurpation of Palestine, it is compulsory that the banner of Jihad be raised…. the Palestinian problem is a religious problem, and should be dealt with on this basis.” (Article 15)

The Charter would go on to spin a bunch of Jew-hatred conspiracy theories lifted from the forgery Protocols of the Elders of Zion, which has NOTHING to do with the conflict in the land.

  • “In their Nazi treatment, the Jews made no exception for women or children… [Jews] attack people where their breadwinning is concerned, extorting their money” (Article 20)
  • “With their money, they took control of the world media, news agencies, the press, publishing houses, broadcasting stations, and others. With their money they stirred revolutions in various parts of the world with the purpose of achieving their interests and reaping the fruit therein…. They obtained the Balfour Declaration, formed the League of Nations through which they could rule the world. They were behind World War II, through which they made huge financial gains by trading in armaments, and paved the way for the establishment of their state. It was they who instigated the replacement of the League of Nations with the United Nations and the Security Council to enable them to rule the world through them. There is no war going on anywhere, without having their finger in it.” (Article 22)
  • “The Zionist invasion is a vicious invasion… using all evil and contemptible ways… infiltration and espionage operations on the secret organizations… aim at undermining societies, destroying values, corrupting consciences, deteriorating character and annihilating Islam. It is behind the drug trade and alcoholism in all its kinds so as to facilitate its control and expansion…. Israel, Judaism and Jews challenge Islam and the Moslem people.” (Article 28)
  • “the ferocity of the Zionist offensive and the Zionist influence in many countries exercised through financial and media control.” (Article 30)
  • “The Zionist plan is limitless. After Palestine, the Zionists aspire to expand from the Nile to the Euphrates. When they will have digested the region they overtook, they will aspire to further expansion, and so on. Their plan is embodied in the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion”, and their present conduct is the best proof of what we are saying.… here is no way out except by concentrating all powers and energies to face this Nazi, vicious Tatar invasion. The alternative is loss of one’s country, the dispersion of citizens, the spread of vice on earth and the destruction of religious values… fight with the warmongering Jews.” (Article 32)

So how does this Ivy League-educated anti-Israel Jew deal with these facts? She pointed to Hamas’s revised charter of 2017 which says in Article 16 “Hamas affirms that its conflict is with the Zionist project not with the Jews because of their religion. Hamas does not wage a struggle against the Jews because they are Jewish but wages a struggle against the Zionists who occupy Palestine. Yet, it is the Zionists who constantly identify Judaism and the Jews with their own colonial project and illegal entity.”

If this were true, why did Palestinians throw a 69 year old wheelchair bound American Jew war veteran off a ship when he wasn’t an Israeli? Why did Palestinians shoot up a synagogue in Rome? Why did Palestinians separate Jewish passengers who weren’t Israelis to be hostages when the Arabs hijacked planes?

The list of Palestinian anti-Jewish non-Israeli physical attacks is long.

Hamas and its leaders have long denigrated Jews, calling them “the brothers of apes and pigs,” and told their followers that “Jews are a people who cannot be trusted,” among many other insults.

The list of Palestinian anti-Jewish non-Israeli verbal attacks is long.

Surely Baltzer knows all of this. So why make an argument that is plainly untrue, and why do it to fellow Jews?

While not all Jews are pro-Israel (or eat kosher, live in Israel, celebrate Jewish holidays or a variety of things that are inherently Jewish), some – like Baltzer – are anti-Israel. They may hate some government policies, the entire government, or the entire state. They may actually not hate Israel but are eager to see local Arabs achieve a state of their own.

Yet one needn’t be pro-Israel to acknowledge that Hamas is a deeply antisemitic genocidal jihadist death cult.

So how can people like Baltzer willfully ignore the deep Jew-hatred of Hamas? How and why do they try to convince fellow Jews that despite everything Hamas says and does, its radical views of Islam and jihad are somehow not toxic to Jews everywhere?

It’s a variant of the Stockholm Syndrome. In the case of Stockholm, an abused person develops a strong bond with their abuser and defends their actions in a strange twist of empathy. In this iteration, which I call the Columbia Syndrome, the root source is not purely from the ABUSER’S actions, but from the desire of someone to purge a part of their identity.

In an effort to rid oneself of a component of the Jewish collective – Israel in this case – a person bonds with someone who similarly attacks that element (Hamas, here). The fact that the abuser is not solely focused on that narrow element, or gives some soft talking points as cover to mask the general hatred in order to enlist people to the cause, is excused. The person suffering from Columbia Syndrome wants to expunge a core association so profoundly, that they will empathize with groups or people who despise them completely.

Columbia University did not originate this phenomenon and the phenomenon is not confined to anti-Israel Jews. People like Peter Beinart (Yale alum) have long been attempting to shield antisemites like Rep. Rashida Tlaib of charges of Jew-hatred. Brown University held a panel discussion about antisemitism which included Jews and non-Jews that echoed each other that Jews are not indigenous to the land of Israel, and to combat antisemitism one needed to be anti-Israel. Student groups like Jewish Voice for Peace and IfNotNow routinely link arms with those with extensive antisemitic credentials.

But Columbia stands above the rest.

Home to Edward Said and Rashid Khalidi, the school has long served as a fountain of denial of Jewish history and heritage. Today it is home to Joseph Massad, who celebrated the October 7 massacre of Jews and said that the Jews of the Old Testament are really “Palestinian Hebrews.”

Columbia is a campus where people yell “we are all Hamas!” and student leaders say “be grateful that I am not going out and murdering Zionists.”

Columbia is where students hoist banners calling for an “intifada” and point to Jews to be the next victims for Hamas.

Columbia is where socialist-jihadi politicians come to fawn on students harassing Jews.

Rep. Ilhan Omar at Columbia “encampment”

And Columbia is located in the largest Jewish diaspora community in the world, New York City. The university has the largest percentage of Jews of all the Ivy League schools, according to Hillel, and likely the largest Jewish alumni network of the Ivies.

Jews on campus and Jewish alumni witness the vocal anti-Israel fervor and must make a decision of how to respond: fight, flight, join or ignore. Many students worked very hard to gain admission to the institution to get a good education, and are loathe to leave the school or exert the physical and mental energy required to fight the tide of hatred. The majority of Jewish students are left with the choice to either listen to the toxicity or join the seemingly popular horde.

The Columbia environment echoes the school curricula of UNRWA, the temporary United Nations agency to care for descendants of Palestinian Arabs who left Israel at its founding. They are lied to that Jews are “colonialists” and “invaders” who “stole the land” from local Arabs. They are taught that all of Israel is an illegal “Zionist project” which should be terminated and handed to the stateless Arabs of Palestine (SAPs).

In such framework, Columbia Jews hear teachers and students echo the Democratic Socialists of America who argue that every Israeli Jew cannot be considered a civilian and is fair game for Palestinian Arabs “deploying violence to liberate themselves.”

Israeli Jews are no longer victims and Palestinians can longer be considered terrorists in such mindset. Even Arab men stabbing children to death while they slept, as happened in 2011, was supported by 51% of Arabs in Gaza. Some Columbia allies of SAPs may find the actions and associated support for killing children abhorrent but believe it has context for which Israel is solely to blame.

The depravity is appalling but it is part of the culture; it is deeply embedded in the Palestinian historical narrative at this point. The “allies” of SAPs have ingested the toxicity, including anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian Jews. What may have begun as just wanting SAPs to have freedom or an objection of Israeli policies, became a marriage made in hell.

Anti-Israel Jews try to cleanse Palestinian terrorists of antisemitism to rationalize their allegiance and to get fellow Jews to join the self-immolation. Rather than rethink the dangerous dynamic, the anti-Israel Jews affix themselves to people who want to see them dead – after they help destroy Jewish relatives.

People suffering from Columbia Syndrome are not only convinced that they are acting rationally but also morally. Like Jews who push for laws to ban the ritual slaughter of meat or circumcision, they concoct moral arguments for such actions. Driven by their profound desire to amputate part of their ethnicity and culture, they embrace people and movements which want to decapitate them.

Too many Jews are suffering from Columbia Syndrome in which they join forces with Hamas and other vicious antisemites to amputate any tinge of Zionism in their comportment. While Stockholm syndrome is understood by society to develop from a trauma-related experience, unfortunately, Columbia syndrome is viewed by a socialist-jihadist culture as a form of moral awakening.

What Would Be The Rights Of Palestinian Jews?

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Ireland and eight other countries decided to recognize Palestine in 2024. Should the borders of Palestine follow the contours of the 1949 Armistice Lines that Israel agreed to with Transjordan and Egypt, there would be roughly 720,000 Jews inside Palestine, of which 220,000 would be in “East Jerusalem” and 500,000 in communities east of the 1949 lines, commonly referred to as the “West Bank.”

What do Ireland and the other countries think should be the rights of these 720,000 Palestinian Jews?

  • Should they be allowed to become full Palestinian citizens with all relevant rights? Should they be allowed to take on permanent residency status? Should they be forced to renounce their Israeli citizenship?
  • Should they be allowed to live in the homes they purchased and live in? To keep the schools and synagogues open for education and prayer?
  • Should Palestinian Jews have their guns confiscated? Should the protective fences around their communities be dismantled?
  • Should they be forced to abandon their homes and property in East Jerusalem? Should they be evicted from the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem?
  • Should Jews be allowed to pray freely on the Jewish Temple Mount? To rebuild their holy Temple?

On December 28, 2016, departing US Secretary of State John Kerry said “Does anyone here really believe that the [Jewish] settlers will agree to submit to Palestinian law in Palestine?” He made it sound like there was no way Jews could accept Palestinian rule because Palestine would be ruled as a radical Islamic state which would subjugate Jews.

Are Ireland, Spain and Norway recognizing a radical jihadist State of Palestine which will subjugate and torment Jews? A government which will support October 7-type massacres again-and-again against Palestinian Jews inside its new borders?

When Norway recognized the Palestinian unity government which included Hamas in 2007, it urged “Palestinian authorities to respect basic international standards as regards compliance with previously concluded agreements, renunciation of violence and recognition of Israel’s right to exist.” Will it similarly demand that all Palestinian Jews be afforded every basic human right?

When Spain voted in favor of United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334 in 2016 making it illegal for any Israeli Jew to live in the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem, did it support ethnically cleansing all Jews from the Old City or did it imagine that all of the Jews would be free to live there and worship on the Temple Mount under Palestinian rule?

When countries vote in favor of a Palestinian State, they should make clear what rights – if any – nearly three-quarters of a million Palestinian Jews should have in such new country. If they deny Jews the right to live and pray everywhere in this new Palestine, their recognition of Palestine in the shadow of the October 7 slaughter is a noxious endorsement of jihad. If there is any justice in the world, that jihad should swallow their countries first.

Related articles:

Palestinians View Jews Like The French Viewed Nazis (August 2023)

Palestinian Jews and a Judenrein Palestine (December 2016)

Jimmy Carter Started The “Outside In” Approach To Middle East Peace

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On September 15, 2020, the Trump Administration announced the Abraham Accords which included the normalization of relations between Israel and both Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates. Within a few weeks, Israel normalized relations with Sudan, and then with Morocco.

The agreements were mocked by socialist-jihadi media, including Al Jazeera and Vox. They maintained that regional agreements without addressing Palestinian Arabs were destined to fail. So eager to discredit Republicans Donald Trump and his champion for normalization in the region, Jared Kushner, they forgot that Democratic presidents started the “outside-in” approach, with Jimmy Carter spearheading peace between Israel and Egypt in 1979, and Bill Clinton bringing Israel and Jordan together in 1994.

Egypt’s Anwar Sadat, US Jimmy Carter, Israel’s Menham Begin
Israel’s Yitzhak Rabin, US Bill Clinton, Jordan’s King Hussein

Even as the latest Palestinian war against Israel rages, the various peace and normalization agreements Israel struck with nearby Arab countries has held, to the dismay of the socialist-jihadist platforms like Time Magazine which urge the cancellation of the Abraham Accords.

Israel has repeatedly shown that it can compromise for peace while the Stateless Arabs from Palestine (SAPs) have shown themselves incapable of breaking from their toxic narrative that Israel doesn’t deserve to exist, making it an impossible negotiating party.

Democratic and Republican administrations have shown leadership in bringing Israel into the regional community withhold being held hostage to the intransigence of inept Palestinian Arab leadership. Hopefully the next Trump administration will continue to build on viable paths to stability.

Related articles:

A 2024 Nobel Peace Prize Shortlist Mocks The Death Of Jews (October 2024)

Coexistence Runs Through UAE, Anti-Semitism Through UN (February 2023)

Opposing Unity Bonds In The Middle East (March 2022)

Importing Peaceful Ideas to the West Bank (February 2021)

Denied No More (September 2020)

Considering Carter’s 1978 Letter Claiming Settlements Are Illegal (November 2019)

The Many Lies of Jimmy Carter (November 2016)

NY Times Blames Israel For Lebanon Being A Failed State

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Lebanon has been a failed state for years.

It has allowed the Iranian-backed terror group Hezbollah to run a massive distinct army for decades and to sit in its parliament. It’s currency has been in freefall since the COVID pandemic and Hezbollah’s weaponry in the Beirut port exploded in 2020.

It then let Hezbollah launch a war against Israel, together with Hamas on October 7, 2023, further putting strain on its economy, even before Israel retaliated.

Currency exchange of Lebanon lira to US dollar, with spikes in February 2023 and February 2024

Yet The New York Times opted to paint the sorry state of Lebanon as a direct cause of Israel’s decimation of Hezbollah.

On December 30, 2024, the Times ran an article with a headline “Lebanon’s Economy Reels From War: ‘We Are Starting From Zero'” with a sub-title that pinned the matter on “the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.”

NY Times article on December 30, 3024

Israel is surrounded by failed states with Iranian-backed militant jihadi groups waging war on the Jewish State. Even as Israel tries to live in peace and defend itself from genocidal neighbors, the New York Times falsely describes Israel as causing hardship to those around it.

Banning Qatar’s Al Jazeera Is Only News Sometimes

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In the middle of a multi-front war that Israel was fighting against Iranian proxies, the Jewish State decided to ban Qatar’s Al Jazeera media because of its positive depictions of Hamas and Palestinian terrorists groups, and negative stories about Israel. The New York Times ran many stories about Israel’s ban.

Last week, the Palestinian Authority also acted to ban the Hamas-supporting news company, as the PA began to arrest various terrorist groups in the West Bank in an attempt to show that it can be a trusted party to rule in Gaza. The story was picked up in a few publications, including Reuters, Variety, The Jerusalem Post, JNS and many other organizations such as i24News, Haaretz and the New Arab.

Yet The New York Times has still not covered the story, despite heavily covering Israel’s ban.

Al Jazeera has long tried to inflame a global jihad against Israel and instigate a Shiite-Sunni war in the Middle East, under the veneer of a legitimate news agency. Perhaps the New York Times is trying to both support the anti-Israel propaganda – which the grey lady echoes – by not covering the PA’s ban of Al Jazeera which would further delegitimatize AJ, and to paint Israel as anti-freedom of the press, which no one bothers to consider for the PA.

Columbia University Sets New Standards For Free Speech

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Satire?

Columbia University is all about “constructive dialogue.” It believes in a “learning environment” infused with “civility, tolerance and respect.”

The school’s Gay and Lesbian Studies section of the English Department has a professor who has written extensively on the deep mental illness of transgender people, and another who has written several books with heroes who butcher lesbians, despite protests from the LGBTQ+ community.

Columbia’s African American and African Diaspora Studies Department has one professor who denies that there ever were slaves in the United States, another who has given speeches on the valuable lessons learned by African slaves in the South and another who teaches that today’s African Americans who were descended from slaves are incapable of learning or being productive members of society. While Black students were incensed, the school was adamant about showcasing a range of viewpoints.

The wide range of scholarship sought by this Ivy League institution includes tenured professors in Islamic Studies who have written extensively about the barbarism in Islamic culture, including genital mutilation, forced marriages of young girls, honor killings, and the cutting off ears and noses of women who embarrass men. One tenured professor has written many articles on the violent nature of religious imams who teach jihad against infidels. Some authors who are apostates – have left Islam for Christianity – are the most frequent visiting lecturers. The department hopes to host Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Salman Rushdie to teach about the underpinnings of Islam. Elsewhere, the art department is hosting a symposium about the depiction of the Islamic prophet Mohammed in the arts through the centuries, over the objections of the Muslim student body.

When some gay, Black and Muslim students complained about teachers who are openly hostile to their communities, Columbia assured them that all was fine since the courses are not mandated for graduation.

If that sounds too ridiculous or far-fetched to comprehend, I suggest you review the official Columbia University statement about its professor Joseph Massad who referred to the October 7 rape and massacre of 1,200 people and taking of 250 hostages as a moment of “Jubilation and awe.” He’s called the Jews in the Bible “Palestinian Hebrews” denying Jews their history and heritage. He has done this to strip any claims of Jewish indigeneity in the Jewish holy land (35:00).

Columbia University statement about Joseph Massad on December 17, 2024

If Columbia truly believes that denying Jews their history and heritage, as well as celebrating their massacre is a sign of “civility, tolerance, and respect,” one should expect to see Andrew Tate give a class on Women’s and Gender Studies, and David Duke to lecture about the history of Blacks in America.

Related articles:

Considering Campus Antisemitism (November 2023)

Should The KKK Open Chapters In Every American University, What Say You? (October 2023)

The Most Antisemitic Thing (August 2023)

For Holocaust Remembrance Day, Deny There Was Black Slavery (April 2022)

Brooklyn Chanukah Donut Crawl 2024

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​Our crew brought out a minivan for the Brooklyn Chanukah Donut Crawl for 2024, as we added two new people to the crawl. Going on Christmas day meant some of the bakeries had lighter staffs, and going later in the day meant some stores had run out and donuts were not at their peak freshness.

We added several new destinations based on people’s Instagram posts. Let me share that some of the IG posts may be paid advertisements (this blog takes no money or ads- please just get friends to subscribe on topics covering Jews, Judaism and Israel) since some were quite weak and overpriced. We also added a nice new bakery based on conversations with people we met at the stores. The list for 2024 is (in the order we visited them):

  • Oneg Bakery, 188 Lee Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11211 [Williamsburg]
  • Almah Cafe, 87 Utica Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11213 [Crown Heights]
  • Ricotta Coffee, 513 Albany Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11203 [Crown Heights]
  • Schreiber’s Homestyle Bakery, 3008 Avenue M, Brooklyn, NY 11210 [Flatbush]
  • Pita Sababa, 540 Kings Hwy, Brooklyn, NY 11223 [Flatbush]
  • Maison Valero, 501 Avenue M, Brooklyn, NY 11230 [Flatbush]
  • Sesame – Flatbush, 1540 Coney Island Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11230 [Flatbush]
  • Taste of Israel, 1322 Avenue M, Brooklyn, NY 11230 [Flatbush]
  • Ostrovitsky Bakery, 1124 Avenue J, Brooklyn, NY 11230 [Flatbush]

For those familiar with Brooklyn, you will note that these are a bit scattered, but there is a method to the madness that you will see in the descriptions below.

Oneg Bakery

We’ve skipped Oneg over the last couple of years since Williamsburg bakeries do not, in general, stand out. Oneg is the exception. It is famous for its babkas which are among the very best in NYC. You should pick one up (do not get overwhelmed by the size which looks prepared for a synagogue kiddush; they will cut it in sections. Note that they freeze very well.) You can order from Goldbelly if you do not want to visit in person.

Oneg is small “Old World” bakery and has a small staff during Christmas. Here, a worker prepares dough for their apple strudel

There is not a large selection of donuts at the small store, and they didn’t have frittle when we visited as they were short-staffed on Christmas. Some of our tasting crew thought the plain jelly donut was “fantastic!” and others really enjoyed the Boston cream.

Oneg’s jelly, custard, caramel and sprinkle donuts

Almah Cafe

Almah is a new addition to the donut crawl, being flagged on Instagram. We decided to taste some of their other baked goods like the olive and mushroom focaccias, which were great. It’s a small and fantastic place to visit for brunch. However, I would NOT suggest going for the sufganiyot. They are small, very expensive at $7 each, and not that tasty. We tried two, including strawberry cheesecake. There was little filling and the flavor is so subtle to be virtually non-existent.

Ricotta Coffee

Ricotta Coffee is a pretty new establishment that doesn’t even have signage on the doors. The small place was packed with people eating lunch which looked very fresh. Unfortunately, we did not know that you have to order in advance, so please do so at (347) 365-5177, the day before you plan on picking up donuts. We were very fortunate to meet a Chabad rabbi and his wife that we know who very generously gave us their order of three donuts, as they lived nearby and were able to pick up another order the next day. So nice!!

We found the raspberry donut to be okay and the pistachio to be interesting- it is much saltier (like salted pistachios you might normally eat) with bits of pistachios in the filling. It’s a much more crunchy, saltier version than Sesame which is creamier and sweeter.

Schreiber’s Homestyle Bakery

We visit Schreiber’s each year to get their lace cookies, which they do to perfection (I know that it’s a simple cookie but we love places that perfect things).

The sufganiyot were all in the back and they have simple jellies for about $2, and fancy ones for $5. They have a nice selection of packaged donuts for quick takeaway or you can select the ones you want. We bought one pretzel and one graham cracker donut. Both were good, not too sweet.

At this point, we had our first sugar rush. We broke for sushi at Sushi Meshuga, 1637 E 17th Street. The sushi was fine, and helped cleanse our palates for the second half of the donut crawl.

Pita Sababa

As a non-Brooklynite, (and non-Sefaradi) I did not know Pita Sababa, a large Moroccan bakery. I heard about the bakery from a woman on line at Almah who told me she absolutely loved the bakery. It seems so do many others!

The bakery was totally sold out when we visited. Tal, who runs the store, told me he thought he’d sell 10,000 donuts on Christmas! He expects to sell closer to 5-7,000 on the other days of Chanukah. One needs to order in advance on the website. We decided to try a sfenj which is a Moroccan donut. It’s basically just fried dough, somewhat like a churro. It was straight out of the oven, warm and delicious.

Sfenj

You can also pre-order at sabababakery.com or with the QR code below. There are just a few flavors, including chocolate ($48/dozen), custard ($42/dozen) and jelly ($42/dozen). They also sell mini donuts in smaller sizes.

Maison Valero

Some of the smaller bakeries only cook in the morning (as opposed to larger one’s like Sesame and Pita Sababa which bake all day). As such, one needs to come early to get donuts at the smaller shops, and this store was closed by the time we arrived in the afternoon.

Sesame

Sesame has a well-earned reputation for excellent donuts so the few bakery locations are packed. Because they bake all day, people stand around and clamor over the next flavors to emerge from the ovens, shouting “lotus!” and “white chocolate!” Pareve flavors include Oreo, Halvah, Lotus, Pistachio, Peanut Butter, Lemon and classic jelly. Dairy varieties include White Chocolate, Nutella, Caramel and Cheese. All of the fancy sufganiyot were about $5.25.

Crowd standing outside of Sesame bakery in Flatbush waiting to fill in boxes of donuts with the next great flavor to emerge from the kitchen next door to the retail store

Note that these sufganiyot and large and have very rich flavor. We suggest cutting them in quarters so you can try from their wide variety. All are excellent. We ordered a dozen and brought them to friends for dinner.

If you are not planning on eating them for a while and not so particular of the flavors you get, consider picking up packaged Sesame donuts at stores like Sprinkles. We met people at the Oneg bakery who had done just that.

Inside Oneg bakery, people show the Sesame sufganiyot they purchased at Sprinkles. Many people like to sample baked goods from several bakeries

Taste of Israel

Taste of Israel is small general store, but you can order sufganiyot in advance at (347) 554-8133. They have eight varieties ranging in price from $4 to $6, and all are very good. We bought another dozen here to bring to people.

Ostrovitsky’s Bakery

Ostrovitsky’s was cleared out of their fancy sufganiyot (Rosemarie, Chocolate Mousse…) when we arrived around 4pm. We tried a custard donut which was just okay. Dough gets heavy as the day goes on which weakens the experience.

Summary

If one budgets $2-$4 for a donut, look for simple jelly donuts or custard which are usually quite good at most locations (including Pomegranate). The more expensive varieties run $5-$6 each. There is absolutely no reason to spend $7 for a small donut at Almah.

Sufganiyot are much, much better fresh. If one is planning to eat them at the time of purchase, go early to the smaller bakeries which only bake in the morning. The larger locations like Sesame and Pita Sababa can be visited at any time and recommended if one is planning on having them at dinner.

Some places require ordering at least a day in advance, including Pita Sababa, Ricotta Coffee and Taste of Israel. It is very unlikely that you will be able to get any if not ordered early. However, I imagine that it will get easier on the last few nights of the holiday.

Sesame sufganiyot
Taste of Israel sufganiyot

Lastly, talk to people! We discovered Sababa from talking to a woman in line and got gifted donuts at Ricotta from speaking to a Chabad rabbi. People are out enjoying the holiday and you should view the bakery hop as an experience to enjoy with everyone, and not just picking up donuts because pictures looked pretty on Instagram.

BONUS: Latkes (Pomegranate and Essen Deli)

We sampled latkes from Pomegranate (across from Sesame-Flatbush) and Essen Deli (not far from there, next to Ostrovitsky’s). Pomegranate had a few flavors like potato, sweet potato and zucchini which were flat and wide. Essen had potato which were very crunch and thick. The Essen latkes were a bit saltier and people preferred them to Pomegranate’s which candidly, did not look as appetizing when placed side by side.

Wishing you and your families a very wonderful Chanukah!

If Jesus Were Alive…

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If Jesus were alive in the 7th century, he would have been murdered by invading Muslim Arabs from the Arabian Peninsula.

If Jesus were alive in 1949, we would have been ethnically-cleansed from Bethlehem and the region by the Transjordanian army because he was a Jew.

Jews ethnically cleansed from the Old City of Jerusalem in 1949 by invading Arab Muslim armies

If Jesus were alive today, he would be banned from praying on the Temple Mount because it offends Muslims.

If Jesus were alive today, he’d be hiding in a bomb shelter from the “axis of resistance.”

If Jesus were alive today, Hamas would call for his rape and murder.

If Jesus were alive today, his dead body would be paraded through Gaza, where the local Arabs would gather to spit on him.

If Jesus were alive today, he would be a hostage in Gaza, and his picture would be ripped down in the streets of major U.S. cities.

If Jesus were alive today, his synagogue would be vandalized.

If Jesus were alive today, the United Nations would call him a “settler.”

If Jesus were alive today, Democratic Socialists would call him a “colonizer.”

If Jesus were alive today, he would be harassed and intimidated on college campuses.

If Jesus were alive today, Ireland would boycott him.

If Jesus were alive today, he would be fighting in the IDF.

If Jesus were alive today, he’d be lighting the first light of Chanukah, celebrating the rededication of the Jewish Temple in Judaism’s holiest city of Jerusalem.

The New York Times Absolves United Nations-Hamas Gaza Partnership And Lambasts Israel For Hungry Gazans

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The United Nations’ operation in Gaza is almost completely staffed by local Arabs. Since Hamas’s takeover of the coastal strip in 2007, UNRWA, the UN agency which runs schools and hospitals in the area, have operated in tandem with Hamas. The school circula is approved by the US-designated terrorist group and its facilities operate with Hamas’s oversight.

After Hamas invaded Israel on October 7, 2023 and butchered 1,200 people, Israel sought to bring the perpetrators to justice, to save the 250 hostages stolen by the Gazans militant groups, and ensure that the terrorist groups could never attack again, as they had promised to do.

As Israel has been decimating Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and other terrorist groups and their infrastructure in Gaza, local armed Arab gangs have been stealing aid being delivered into the strip.

The New York Times blames Israel for making Gazans hungry.

When nearly 100 trucks were seized by local Arab gangs in November, the NYTimes refused to state clearly that Palestinian militants were stealing the aid and placed the blame on Israel. In a December 23, 2024 article, the Times finally made clear that armed Gazans were stealing the aid but still placed the onus on Israel.

December 23, 2024 New York Times article about looting in Gaza

The article squarely put blame on Israel for: 1) its “bombardment and invasion of Gaza”; 2) its limiting flow of goods around Gaza; and 3) not putting a new government in charge of Gaza.

How absurd.

Hamas launched the invasion, not Israel. Hamas took hundreds of captives into Gaza, demanding Israel’s counter-invasion. Hamas’s history of importing and moving vast weapons of war and terrorists around Gaza necessitates Israel’s control of goods and people.

And it is the Palestinian Authority that is supposed to govern Gaza, not Israel. The world demands that Israel leave the strip so how does it simultaneously demand that its should put in place a new government?

The Times shared that UNRWA decided that it would no longer deliver aid through one of the major entry points into Gaza, and that relief is piling up at the crossings. It acknowledged that the Gaza police force is an arm of Hamas but they are rarely seen in Gaza these days.

The Times inadvertently highlighted the farce of the entire situation stating that “The United Nations does not allow Israeli soldiers to protect aid convoys, fearing that would compromise its [the UN’s] neutrality.” Unsaid, is that only under the protection of Hamas and other Gazan terrorist groups can UNRWA operate freely, showing that the UN group has always been extremely biased.

The article moved beyond the lawless areas without Hamas or Hamas’s police ruling the area to sectors “fully controlled by the Israeli military. UN agencies have been able to avoid looters and deliver some relief.” However, not enough according to the UN: “‘There is continued tolerance by the Israel Defense Forces of unacceptable amounts of looting.”

According to the article, Israel is responsible for the entire situation in Gaza. Not the Gazans who are doing the actual looting. Not Hamas which refuses every ceasefire and to return all the hostages. Not UNRWA, the joint venture between the United Nations and Hamas, which teaches Gazans that Israel is an illegal entity which should be destroyed and replaced with a purely Arab Palestine.

UNRWA collapsed because Hamas is defeated. Local Arab gangs steal humanitarian relief because Iran, Turkey and others have been smuggling in vast amount of weaponry into the region, despite the official Israeli and Egyptian blockade of the terrorist enclave.

Gazans are hungry today DESPITE the efforts of Israel, and because of the toxic policies of the United Nations and local Arab warlords for the past decades.