The defenders of free speech on campus are out in force. Far-left members of congress like Ilhan Omar and Jamaal Bowman defend the right of agitators to yell for the genocide of Jews and destruction of the Jewish State as a matter of “uncomfortable speech” that should be allowed. Lawyers debate what crosses the line when calling for killing a group of people generally as being protected speech in public spaces but similar language directed at individuals and/or what could be considered an immediate call for violence, which would be prohibited speech.
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) was spotted smiling at the anti-Israel encampment at Columbia University. (Photo: Reuters)
One would therefore imagine the free speech advocates easily standing alongside students drawing the Islamic prophet Mohammed on placards around campus, and most definitely, showing Mohammed in art classes, much the way paintings and statues of Jesus, Moses and David are discussed.
But the opposite has been the case.
Professors are being fired or intimidated to not show artwork with Muhammed. In Minnesota, Erika López Prater was fired from her position at Hamline University for showing a 14th-century painting depicting the Prophet Muhammad in a lesson on Islamic art. A student complained that she was upset and that it was blasphemous to show a depiction of the Islamic prophet and got the school to fire the professor. The professor had zero malicious intent and was simply reviewing artwork of religious figures but was nonetheless terminated.
The French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo often lampoons religions and has made cartoons of the Islamic prophet as well. Jihadi radicals were incensed when their prophet was the subject matter, and shot up the company’s offices in 2015. The Islamic killers then shot up a kosher supermarket which had nothing to do with the magazine, simply to kill Jews.
A couple of months later in 2015, Pamela Geller held a “Draw Muhammed contest” in Texas, and two Muslim extremists shot up the event but were themselves killed. Both the Geller and Charlie Hebdo events were lampooning religion and Islam specifically, but covered under American and French ideals of free speech.
It will be an interesting spectacle to watch campuses with anti-Israel protests have counter-protests with Mohammed featured prominently on their placards with such statements like “Would Muhammed endorse Hamas’s rape of women?” and “What would Muhammed say about Hamas’s shooting the elderly?” Will Ilhan Omar rise to the defense of actual peace advocates the way she defends supporters of genocide?
On May 1, 2024, a lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern Division of Virginia by a group of victims of the October 7 Palestinian Arab heinous terrorist attack, against American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) and National Students for Justice in Palestine (NSJP). The suit asserts that AMP and NSJP work in the United States as collaborators and propagandists for Hamas, a US foreign terrorist organization.
Far-left extremist Congressman Jamaal Bowman of New York’s 16th District thought that the date was an ideal time to leave his district, and go to Virginia to solicit support and money from those same terrorist supporters.
Through NSJP, AMP uses propaganda to intimidate, convince, and recruit uninformed, misguided, and impressionable college students to serve as foot soldiers for Hamas on campus and beyond. – Lawsuit filed May 1, 2024 against NSJP and AMP
So why would Bowman have supporters of Hamas terrorism headline a fundraiser? Why did Bowman leave his constituents in New York and fundraise in Virginia? Is this connected to Bowman’s refusal to attend a single event in a synagogue in Westchester since the October 7 massacre? Is it part of the rationale for his absence from attending the scene of an antisemitic hate crime in Scarsdale where his challenger Westchester County Executive George Latimer came and loudly rebuked antisemitism?
Through threats, violence, and vocal support for “globalizing” attacks against Jews and anyone who dares to support them, AMP and NSJP have intentionally instigated a mass culture of fear, threats, violence, and overt hatred to intimidate politicians and institutions for Hamas’s substantial benefit. – Lawsuit filed May 1, 2024 against NSJP and AMP
Bowman has decided to wear his Hamas shield proudly and fundraise from terrorist supporters outside of his district, while Americans and Israelis fight and sue for justice against the genocidal group.
The United States was alarmed and appalled at the “Unite the Right” mob march in Charlottesville, VA in August 2017. As right-wing marchers descended on a university holding torches, wearing Nazi symbols and yelling “Jews will not replace us,” the country watched a scene of racism and antisemitism unfold into a crime scene. PBS called it a “watershed moment for the white supremacist movement.”
The real life play is being revealed once again in real time, with a new set of actors and fashion brandished by radical jihadists and the alt-left, once again yelling “Jews will not replace us.”
Radical Jihadists
Radical jihadists are typically located in Muslim-majority countries in the Middle and Far East including Iran, Qatar, Pakistan, Indonesia and Somalia. They believe that Islam should dominate the world, especially in any location which was once dominated by Islamists such as the land of Israel.
The jihadi extremists began to slowly migrate into Europe and the United States starting in the 1960s but accelerated their movement in 2015/16 as the “Arab Spring” and Syrian Civil War decimated their homelands. They came to Europe (2015) and the United States (in 2016) and brought much of their instilled antisemitism.
The United States also encouraged foreign students to attend American universities. In 2003, as the American War on Terror raged in mostly Muslim countries, the Kennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange and Study Program was launched. The goal was to bring “High school students from countries with significant Muslim populations [to] live and study in the United States for an academic year through the U.S.” In the 2015/6 academic year, 61,000 students from Saudi Arabia were at U.S. universities. That high figure represents 0.2% of the entire population of Saudi Arabia to a single country. By way of comparison, the ENTIRE American students abroad cohort all over the world is around 162,000, or 0.05% of the U.S. population.
The U.S. continues to push for foreign Muslim students at American schools. On September 12, 2023, the U.S. embassy in Israel posted an advertisement that the U.S. State Department “is seeking a group of Arab citizens of Israel secondary school students to participate in a Study- in-the-USA initiative for high school students during the 2024-2025 school year.” (bold in original). No Jewish students from Israel were invited to be part of the program.
And what do radical jihadists, faces covered in kaffiyehs, preach abroad and in the United States?
They consider the entire State of Israel to be an illegal project that must be terminated
Palestinian Arabs demand a “right of return” to towns where grandparents used to live along with an expulsion of Jews who refuse to live as second class “dhimmis.”
In short, radical jihadists are chanting that “Jews will not replace us!” in Palestine, as they seek to “Free Palestine” from the clutches of the Jews.
Alt-Left
The far-left cohort in America is seeking to end capitalism and pursue a broad redistribution of wealth and power. They have advanced the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) into schools and corporations that demand the minorities of preference (Blacks, Hispanics, LGBT) be given priority in admission, compensation, title and power before Whites or somehow “privileged” minorities such as Asians and Jews.
The alt-left considers Jews to be part of the uber elite class, occupying too many CEO, Supreme Court and political positions. They attribute Jewish success as a matter of Jews only looking out for themselves, and cheating or stealing from the labor of the working class, in classic antisemitic tropes.
When Black Israelites shot up a kosher supermarket in Jersey City, NJ in December 2019, several leaders of the Black community were clear that they felt the killers were only REacting as a form of self defense: “Black homeowners were threatened, intimidated, and harassed by I WANT TO BUY YOUR HOUSE brutes of the jewish community.”
Jews do not belong. In the housing or their jobs.
“Jews will not replace us!” rained down in a hail of bullets in Jersey City and in federal and state mandated DEI programs.
Alt-Right
The alt-right coined the phrase “Jews will not replace us!” but far from monopolized the theme.
The alt-right version of the phrase in many ways is the most preposterous. White supremacists believe that Jews are so powerful that they are advancing a program of importing millions of non-White and non-Christian foreigners to dilute the White Christian backbone of the country. How and why that would have any remote advantages for Jews is never explained.
Muslim extremists, woke progressives and White nationalists have very different philosophies but congregate around a belief that Jews are cheats and thieves who are robbing the rightful owners of land, money, jobs and prestige. And they are coming for this beleaguered minority-minority “by any means they deem necessary,” much as antisemites have done for centuries.
We are at a “watershed moment for the jihadi and alt-left movements” in the United States to destroy Judeo-Christian values, capitalism and the West. How the government’s leaders and population respond will set the tone for our future.
On April 30, 2024, while many pro-Hamas students at Columbia University chanted for an “intifada revolution” to destroy the Jewish State and kill diaspora Jews, and as other students broke into and took over one of the school buildings, the university issued a statement about the takeover being disruptive and “a noisy distraction that interferes with teaching.” In taking action, the university said “this is about responding to the actions of the protestors, not their cause.” The full statement is here:
Early this morning, a group of protestors occupied Hamilton Hall on the Morningside Campus. We regret that protesters have chosen to escalate the situation through their actions. Our top priority is restoring safety and order on our campus.
We made it very clear yesterday the work of the University cannot be endlessly interrupted by protesters who violate the rules. Continuing to do so will be met with clear consequences. Protesters have chosen to escalate to an untenable situation–vandalizing property, breaking doors and windows, and blockading entrances–and we are following through with the consequences we outlined yesterday.
Students occupying the building face expulsion.
Protesters were informed that their participation in the encampment violated numerous university policies. We gave everyone at the encampment the opportunity to leave peacefully. By committing to abide by University policies, they would be allowed to complete the semester.
Students who did not commit to the terms we offered are now being suspended. Those students will be restricted from all academic and recreational spaces and may only access their individual residence. Seniors will be ineligible to graduate.
This is about responding to the actions of the protesters, not their cause.
As we said yesterday, disruptions on campus have created a threatening environment for many of our Jewish students and faculty and a noisy distraction that interferes with teaching, learning, and preparing for final exams, and contributes to a hostile environment in violation of Title VI.
The safety of our community remains our top priority.
As we prepare for a commencement to honor our students’ achievements, we continue to urge the protesters to remove the encampment and voluntarily disperse so as to not deprive their fellow students of this momentous occasion.
We have followed through on our very clear warnings of consequences and are initiating disciplinary action against those who continue to violate our rules.
An “Intifada” banner waves over Columbia University after students seize Hamilton Hall on 116th Street in New York City, April 30, 2024. (photo: JESSICA SCHWALB)
Imagine the university downplaying racism if students chanted that gay people should be kicked off campus or Hispanics should be sent to wherever they came from. What if people chanted that Muslims are pathological killers and the United States should bomb Iran and neighboring Muslim countries out of existence. Imagine thousands of students denying that Black people were ever slaves in America and inventing an entire new origin story for African-Americans in the center of campus.
Would protestors’ free speech rights be prioritized? Would the university’s statements be packed with excuses that the school does not have any issue with the protestors chants? Or would the university clearly denounce the slogans and give priority to the mental health of the targets of the venom?
Columbia University well understands mental health and has a page on its website devoted to it called CopeColumbia. One section is devoted towards “Racism, Stress and Coping.” It discusses systemic racism faced by African-Americans, and impacts on health outcomes. It is copied here – except edited to address rampant Jew-hatred taking place at Columbia today – to show the disparity in how little the universe has extended itself for its Jewish faculty and student body.
The stress and trauma of racismantisemitism in our society for communities of colorJews is informed by a long history of violence and social injustice. Provided here are resources centered around racialreligious disparities and promoting healing, growth, and avenues for change.
The COVID-19 pandemic has accentuated significant health disparities for Black and LatinxJewish communities in the U.S. Populations of colorhave been vilified as having caused and profited fromcontracted COVID-19 at higher rates than White individuals; with greater morbidity and mortality.1,2 We are learning that systemic racismantisemitism is a major factor in these disparate outcomes: a disproportionate number of African-American and LatinoJewish individuals work in settings in the medical professionthat are high risk for exposure, and they are more likely to be accused of profiting from the pandemic and medical treatment rather than thanked for efforts to turn back the global scourge oflack medical insurance, the means to be tested for coronavirus, to be adequately treated for underlying conditions, or to receive early treatment for COVID-19.2
The stress and trauma of racismantisemitism in our society for communities of colorfaith is informed by a long history of violence and social injustice. The effects of systemic racismantisemitism, especially on African-AmericansJews in our country, permeates our society with consequences including negative outcomes for physical and mental well-being. Images, media portrayals and public discourse have triggered post-traumatic stress symptoms across in many of us, with the heaviest toll being that on racialthe very small Jewish minorities. Protests have sparked a discussion most feel is long overdue to address the effects of oppression on African-AmericansJews after the senseless murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylorin the Pittsburgh Tree of Life Synagogue, Poway Synagogue and kosher store in Jersey City. We are aware that these conversations, although emotionally charged, are necessary for change; take courage and bravery to achieve a more raciallyreligiously just society.
The mentalemotional health effects of racismantisemitism are vast. The inability for communities of colorfaith to access mental healthprotective resources creates a barrier to basic safetythe path of treatment and recovery. Lack of resourcesa sizable population coupled with diminished political cloutdistrust of the medical field due to past transgressions towards African-Americans, in particular, and the stigma associated with mental health treatment in communities of color create a perfect storm for untreated intergenerational mental healthphysical and emotional illness.”
Columbia University understands that Jewish students on campus are deeply traumatized not only by the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust on October 7 in Israel, but that the barbarity is celebrated by Columbia faculty and students who gleefully taunt them as they try to attend class. While the school makes efforts to systematically change the school’s culture and curricula to address the mental and emotional impacts of racism, it dismisses vulgar antisemitic slogans as “a noisy distraction that interferes with teaching, learning, and preparing for final exams.“
Antisemitism is so deeply entrenched in America’s universities, they cannot even pause to recognize Jewish trauma even as they haul away protestors looking to destroy the Jewish State.
One of the major primaries being discussed in the media is the race in New York’s 16th Congressional District between Rep. Jamaal Bowman of the far-left “squad” and Westchester County Executive George Latimer, a seasoned progressive. The media has portrayed this as a “microcosm of party split over Israel-Hamas conflict,” but that misses the mark.
This is about NY-16 being redistricted from a mix of northern Bronx and some of lower Westchester in 2020, to a predominantly Westchester district with a nub of the Bronx in Co-op City in 2024.
Bowman won the seat in 2020 securing the seat with many votes from the Bronx and some liberals in Westchester looking for a change and progressive voice. When the 2020 census moved NY-16 into more of a Westchester-focused population in 2022, two Westchester Democratic contenders fought to challenge Bowman, Westchester County Legislature Catherine Parker and Westchester County Legislature Vedat Gashi. Parker and Gashi split the anti-Bowman vote who had proven himself to be a radical with his chant to “Defund the Police” and vote against the Infrastructure Bill and then lying to his constituents that he actually supported it.
As soon as Bowman won the 2022 Democratic primary, people in Westchester started planning on who to run against him. This website, PrimaryBowman.com, posted ideas and articles including Beating Bowman, which called for finding a popular Westchester politician EARLY, to avoid splitting the vote again.
THAT WAS IN SEPTEMBER 2022.
Many local people in Westchester got involved to draft George Latimer to run against Bowman. It was not AIPAC, Democratic Majority for Israel or any other group. It was a grassroot effort of people who thought that Latimer had years of providing quality service to Westchester constituents, and while a liberal, appealed to the more centrist District 16 residents than the extremist Bowman.
The conversations with Latimer began in earnest in April of 2023 and people expected him to make a decision by June. Being a methodical politician, Latimer spent time canvassing the district to see if there was broad support for ousting a sitting Democrat, especially a Black man since Latimer is White. The responses were nearly universal: Bowman is detested in wide swaths of Westchester and politicians and the local Democratic establishment were going to back Latimer.
All of this was months before the barbaric October 7 Hamas attacks against Israel.
Latimer was quick to raise lots of money from inside Westchester, which is more affluent than the Bronx former-constituents who had voted for Bowman in 2020. Latimer raised almost twice as much money as Bowman in both the fourth quarter of 2023 and the first quarter of 2024. Even more telling, Bowman did not even have 10% of his donations from inside the district.
Sensing his vulnerability, Bowman latched onto the fundraising of Rep. Rashida Tlaib who is hauling in money from pro-Palestinian groups. Running unopposed, she funnels the excess money to Bowman, essentially buying a district hundreds of miles and four states away from her district in Michigan, cashing another anti-Israel vote.
Rep. Rashida Tlaib and her tool, Jamaal Bowman
Bowman is faithfully serving his Palestinian money master. He had anti-Zionists at his launch party, voted against Israel in all congressional votes, defended Tlaib’s gross antisemitism on the floor of congress, and refused to loudly condemn antisemitism on college campuses at a congressional hearing. Further, he would not attend a rally when antisemitic graffiti showed up on Jewish stores in his district, nor would he attend Jewish rallies in synagogues.
Latimer attended all of them.
Westchester County Executive George Latimer at a bipartisan Westchester Jewish Council dinner. Bowman was invited and did not attend (Photo: PrimaryBowman.com)
Do Westchester Jews favor Latimer over Bowman because of Israel? Absolutely, but not solely. Bowman has years of earning his disrespect, including collecting a bipartisan censure from congress for pulling a fire alarm.
Bowman’s calling Westchester Jews “racist” for backing a White challenger is offensive and yet another sign of his moral failures. District 16 Jews support neighboring NY-15’s Rep. Ritchie Torres, a Black-Latino gay politician, for standing up the mob destroying property at Columbia University and for inciting violence against Jews, while Bowman supports the anarchists. Lower Westchester elected Mondaire Jones, a Black gay progressive in 2020 when the district lines put lower Westchester into NY-17.
Tweets on April 30, 2024 by Reps. Torres and Bowman about the pro-Hamas / anti-Israel violence at Columbia University
New York’s 16th Congressional District has sought to replace Bowman as their representative since lines were redrawn to cover most of lower Westchester in 2022. Bowman’s latest anti-Israel antics are disgusting appeals to get money from anti-Zionists outside of the district. Even if October 7 never happened, lower Westchester would still rally to unseat the unpopular extremist Bowman.
Some pro-Palestinian protestors have attempted to market their chants for “Free Palestine” as a call for everyone to live in peace, security and dignity. They claim that they harbor no antisemitic feelings and just want a civil society for everyone.
So here are three questions to test their assertion:
Are they in favor of Jews living throughout the land, including eastern Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza? If Arabs can live everywhere “from the river to the the sea”, a call for mutual humanity would demand that Jews have those same rights. Are they in favor of abolishing United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334 in a one-state scenario?
Are they in favor of open Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount? Millions of Muslims get to visit the al Aqsa Compound every year but Jewish visitation is limited. Worse, Jews are not allowed to pray at their holiest site, a glaring denial of their basic human rights. Are they in favor of allowing millions of Jews onto the Temple Mount and to openly pray at their holiest site?
Are they in favor of turning the Dome of the Rock into a Jewish Temple? Muslims have a holy shrine on the al Aqsa Compound – the al Aqsa Mosque. In an effort to achieve common dignity and humanity, Jews should build their Third Holy Temple nearly, at the site of the Dome of The Rock which sits on the location of the prior Jewish temples. Are they in favor of a new Jewish Temple on the Jewish Temple Mount?
If people calling to “Free Palestine” support the rights of Jews to live everywhere, to ascend en masse to the Temple Mount and pray openly at a newly built third Jewish Temple, I concede that they are not antisemitic and can join them in their chant. However, if they deny Jews common rights and dignities in the Jewish holy land, they are revealed as Muslim supremacists out to destroy the only Jewish State.
The Israeli government once again allowed tens of thousand of Muslim Arabs onto the Jewish Temple Mount / al Aqsa Compound during Friday prayers of Ramadan on April 5, 2024. The reported 65,000 Muslims who came to pray dwarfed the 50,000 Jews who visited the site OVER THE ENTIRE YEAR OF 2023, none of whom were allowed to pray at Judaism’s holiest site.
Despite Israel allowing access for tens of thousands of Muslims to pray at the site, eight people were arrested on charges of inciting terrorism to the crowd. According to sources, Arabs were shouting “In spirit and blood we will redeem you al-Aqsa.”
The Israeli police were out in force as many Muslims declared the last Friday of Ramadan to be “International Al Quds Day.”
The police noted that the Arab Muslims were all residents of Israel in a statement which said “these vile instigators and supporters of terrorism are residents of the State of Israel who take advantage of a religious occasion and use a holy place of prayer for incitement and support for terrorism and terrorists.”
Despite the problem arising from ISRAELI Arabs, the Palestinian Authority and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) weighed in.
According to the official PA news site Wafa, the OIC condemned Israel for the situation. OIC claimed that thousands of Muslims were prevented from visiting the site and decried the arrest of worshippers. Wafa added that the OIC “slammed such restrictions and assault as a flagrant violation of international laws and norms and called upon the international community to oblige Israel, the occupying power, to halt all recurrent violations of the freedom of worship and desecration of the holy sites while stressing the need to preserve the longstanding historical and legal status at the mosque.”
The statement is a farce on so many levels.
Firstly, “the need to preserve the longstanding historical and legal status quo” of banning Jewish prayer at Judaism’s holiest site while also demanding “freedom of worship” are in direct conflict. At least, as it relates to Jews.
Secondly, Israel allowed more Muslims to the site on a single morning than all Jews have been able to visit their holiest site during the entire year. Still, the OIC lambasted Israel preventing some Muslim radicals from visiting the site and inciting violence. Freedom to visit and pray must be limited to those who don’t advocate violence, and that includes banning agitators and facilitating the entry of tens of thousands of peaceful Jews onto the holy platform.
Third, the arrests were of Israeli Arabs, not Palestinians. Why did the PA issue statements about an internal matter? Is it because it not only believes that Israel has no rights in Jerusalem and the Temple Mount despite it agreeing to such in the Oslo Accords, but also believes that there are no such things as Israeli Arabs because Israel is illegitimate?
As Jews celebrate Passover, one of the three central holidays in Judaism in which Jews are called to visit the Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem, one cannot find a single article about Jews visiting their holiest site. The media lockdown is meant to keep tensions down as Israel continues to prosecute its defensive war against the political-terrorist group Hamas.
During Ramadan, Israel allows hundreds of thousands of Muslims onto the Temple Mount for prayers, some who shouted about killing Jews in an attempt to start a global jihad. On Passover, an unknown (but certainly very small) contingent of Jews visit the site and no one hears a single thing lest Muslims become angered.
Such is Islamic privilege: the ability for massive Muslim pilgrimage to the Temple Mount complete with antisemitic chants, while a paltry number of Jews silently visit the site, lest Muslims become upset. There is no equality or dignity for Jews, as made abundantly clear over Ramadan and Passover 2024.
Kosher food is eaten by Jews and non-Jews. Some Jews don’t eat kosher food and prefer non-kosher items. But “kosher” is definitely Jewish, as defined in the Bible outlining which foods are permissible and not permissible for Jews.
Many Jewish men get circumcised at eight days old in a “bris.” A small percentage of Jewish boys are not circumcised because the parents do not like the custom. But a “bris” is definitely Jewish, a commandment laid out in the Bible.
Many Jewish homes have a menorah as do many synagogues. They are lit on the holiday of Chanukah per rabbinic tradition. Some Jews do not own or light a menorah, but it is definitely a Jewish religious article.
Religious married Jewish women go to a ritual bath, a “mikvah,” once a month. Most Jewish women are not Orthodox or do not have regular menstrual cycles and do not visit the mikvah. But a mikvah is definitely a Jewish bath and has been for thousands of years.
Roughly 45% of world Jewry lives in the land of Israel, while the majority do not live there. But the land of Israel is central to Judaism, the “promised land” to the Jewish forefathers of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and their descendants. It is central to the Jewish Bible and for Jews for 3,700 years.
Jews visiting the Jewish Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem
Whether a person keeps kosher, had a bris, visits a mikvah, lights a menorah, or lives in the land of Israel, has nothing to do with those items being integral parts of Judaism. Similarly, a person may never read the Talmud, but such action is irrelevant to the tractates inherently being a fabric of Jewish tradition.
So when a Jewish person says Jews shouldn’t live in Israel, it doesn’t negate that the land of Israel is central to Judaism; it just means that that particular person doesn’t believe it.
The next time you see members of Neturei Karta yelling that Zionism is terrible and the Jewish State should be destroyed, whisper in their ears that you are working to ban kosher meat and circumcision in America, as a gentle reminder that just because they may not appreciate how some people express their Judaism, they shouldn’t fight to ban it for others.
Members of ultra-Orthodox Neturei Karta protesting a march combating antisemitism, January 2020 (photo: First One Through)
The land of Israel, the city of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount are deeply Jewish locations and have been for thousands of years. It makes absolutely no difference what any Jew or non-Jew says, and whether they are one side or the other of the Israeli-Hamas war. Parading “AsAJews” who fight against Zionism before cameras does nothing to negate the reality that Israel is an essential component of Judaism, much like keeping kosher and a bris.
The magnification of fringe anti-Jewish views held by Jews is a noxious tool used by Jew-haters to splinter the beleaguered minority-minority to become easier fodder for extinction. Shame on the media for making a deliberate point of doing so in these days of toxic antisemitism.
As reported in the press, “Columbia University has announced that classes at its main campus will be held remotely for the final weeks of the semester — as critics blasted the “weak” administration for allowing anti-Israel student protesters to shut down the college “in essence” and called on parents to seek tuition refunds.”
This comes as Jewish students at the New York City school have faced unrelenting harassment and intimidation from students and professors. An Orthodox rabbi at Columbia/Barnard told his community that Columbia clearly “cannot guarantee Jewish students’ safety in the face of extreme antisemitism and anarchy,” and Columbia provost Angela Olinto seemed to agree, as demonstrated with the announced shift to an off-campus schedule.
Jews have long been the most persecuted group in terms of the number of hate crimes in the United States, exceeding the rates for Blacks, LGBT, Muslims and any other minorities, well before the current spike in Jew hatred.
Leading institutions and the U.S. government seem to think that the best solution is for Jews to stay home and hide.
Consider that on May 21, 2021, the Biden Administrations’ Jewish engagement director, Aaron Keyak, tweeted “It pains me to say this, but if you fear for your life or physical safety take off your kippah and hide your magen david (Star of David).“
We are seeing the ramifications of electing antisemitic politicians who refuse to protect Jews, as open warfare against Jews permeates college campuses. During this election season, it is critical to oust the elected officials in Democratic primaries who have fostered this environment that Jews are fair game for assault.
ACTION ITEM
In NY-16, extremist Rep. Jamaal Bowman is being challenged by Westchester County Executive George Latimer. Donate to Latimer here.
In MO-1, extremist Rep. Cori Bush is being challenged by public defender Wesley Bell. Donate to Bell here.
In MN-05, extremist Rep. Ilhan Omar is being challenged by Minneapolis City Council member Don Samuels. Donate to Samuels here.
Write to the White House and your local politicians to provide protection for Jewish institutions and students.
The Palestinian Arabs sought and failed to be recognized as a new state by the United Nations Security Council on April 18, 2024, as the United States vetoed the resolution, insisting that Israel and the Palestinian Authority need to hammer out the contours of a deal before they would recognize a state. As the U.S. is a permanent member of the UNSC, its veto is an effective block.
In responding to the event, Ziad Abu Amr, the Palestinian representative to the UN made an opening statement that contains a twisted narrative which is arguably the best place to understand the core of the conflict.
According to the Palestinian representative to the UN, the “plight” of the “Palestinian people” started “over a century ago” and, what’s more, it “is still ongoing.”
“Over a century ago”: meaning the conflict is not rooted in the 1967 War in which Israel took over Gaza and the West Bank in a defensive war. Instead, he claims it started with the Balfour Declaration in 1917 and the accelerated move of Jews to their historic homeland. Palestinians are not fighting about getting a state in the West Bank and Gaza, they are fighting about the presence of Jews and the existence of a Jewish State.
“Palestinian people”: A century ago, Palestinians included both Jews and Arabs. Both were residents of the Ottoman-controlled region. By suggesting that “Palestinian people” of a century ago are only Arabs is an ahistorical lie. Jews were Palestinians, and the “plight” that they have endured is the persistent attacks by local Arabs.
“Is still ongoing.”: Yes, Jews still live and continue to move to the land of Israel, and the Jewish State still exists. That Palestinian Arabs view the presence as a source of their “plight” shows their xenophobia, antisemitism and refusal to coexist.
The Palestinian representative, unashamed by his admission of xenophobia and antisemitism, continued to air more lies that “We” (meaning local Arabs) “have made every possible genuine effort… to achieve a peace that is based on the two state solution.”
Rejecting two-states in 1947, 1948, 1967, 2000, 2008, 2014 and launching wars slaughtering thousands of Israeli civilians is hardly an effort towards peace. The heinous attacks of October 7 and broad support by Palestinians for the attack show the desire of local Arabs to seek the destruction of Israel and murder of Jews.
Palestinian Arabs voted the antisemitic jihadi terrorist group Hamas to 58% of parliament and continue to support the group which controls Gaza and over 2 million people. In what alternative reality does anyone think that Palestinian Arabs support a two-state solution when the Hamas charter specifically states it will never accept a Jewish State? Why would any United Nations’ country vote to admit a State of Palestine that is still devoted to the mass slaughter of Jews and destruction of the Jewish State?
The Palestinian Authority lied to the United Nations that Jews have no rights nor history in the holy land and that the Jewish presence causes Arab suffering. That’s how little they’ve advanced in coexistence over the past century.
First One Through 