09/18 Links Pt2: An Executive Order that Targets Jews; International donors are complicit in Hamas’ presence in Gaza – and key to its demise ~ Elder Of Ziyon

Posted on by Vaseline

From Ian:

An Executive Order that Targets Jews

The sanctions are being imposed on people who are neither settlers nor violent. The list of sanctioned entities includes Tsav 9, an organization that engages in nonviolent protest to prevent humanitarian aid from being captured by Hamas. You’d think that this administration, or any U.S. government, would have exactly the same goal: It can’t be a good idea to let Hamas capture humanitarian aid, because we know—as reported by Israeli TV again recently—that Hamas sells the aid, at exorbitant prices, to the Gazans to whom it’s directed, and then uses that money to fund Hamas terror operations.

The Israelis who are trying to right this obvious wrong are engaging in exactly the kind of protests we see all the time. When such tactics were used to protest judicial reforms, President Biden praised the riots as an “enduring protest movement that is demonstrating the vibrancy of Israel’s democracy.”

But the same tactics deployed by Israeli Jews against Hamas get a different response, and this administration is committed to stopping them even if they take place entirely in Israel, entirely among Israelis and are entirely nonviolent. What does this mean in practice? It means that the organization Tsav 9 and one of its organizers, a mother of eight living in a development town in Southern Israel, have been debanked.

As shocking as it is, this Executive Order didn’t come out of nowhere: Within weeks of President Obama’s first inauguration, IRS and State Department officials began considering whether they could deny or revoke tax-exempt status for organizations that provide material support to Jews living across the Green Line—the nonborder that delineates pre-1967 Israel from the territories Israel acquired in the Six-Day War. The theory was that a Jewish presence in those areas is inconsistent with U.S. policy. The IRS drew up lists of such organizations based on information from anti-Israel websites such as Electronic Intifada and Mondoweiss. A case successfully challenged that policy, with a federal appellate court opinion holding that the IRS couldn’t discriminate on the basis of viewpoint when processing applications for charitable status.

One of the most troubling things about this Executive Order is how it’s targeting Jews. There are plenty of Islamist terrorists operating in Judea and Samaria, and in fact the Palestinian Authority itself officially pays monthly stipends to the families of terrorists who have been convicted of killing Jews. (Those payments are an explicit violation of the U.S. law known as the Taylor Force Act, but the Biden administration doesn’t care and allows such payments.) Not one Arab individual has been sanctioned under this Executive Order.

The only sanctions “imposed” on any non-Jewish person or entity was the Lion’s Den terrorist cell in Nablus. But the terrorist cell is just that—a cell. It has no bank accounts or credit cards in its own name, and nobody else was sanctioned along with it—no individual people or leaders, no banks that service those people. And aside from this “sanction,” the Biden administration has done nothing under this Executive Order to sanction any non-Jew for any action, including the actual or attempted murder of Jews, which you can read about every few days in the newspaper.

As a matter of Constitutional law, the president has the authority to treat allies and enemies largely as he wishes, and it’s not illegal for the President to discriminate among different groups of people when none of them is a U.S. citizen. But it’s disappointing that Israel, which for the Biden administration is formally categorized as an ally, has its citizens subject to financial sanction while the people who are trying to kill them not only get virtual immunity, but also get paid with money provided as U.S. aid.

Seth Mandel: Hamas’s Fitting Embrace of a Nazi Symbol

Ambiguity is in the eye of the beholder. That seems to be the lesson of the quadrennial fight over political symbols in U.S. presidential elections. Four years ago, an inverted red triangle in some of the Trump campaign’s Facebook ads caused a scandal, and the ads were eventually taken down and replaced with triangle-free versions.

The Nazis had used the inverted red triangle—and triangles of other colors—on prisoners’ uniforms to sort them into categories. Since the Trump ads took aim at the pretend anti-fascist rioters who called themselves Antifa, and the red triangle in German camps represented Communist political prisoners, we were told the symbol was proof of Trump’s Nazi role-playing games.

“If your reaction is, ‘sometimes a cigar is just a cigar,’” wrote a contributor to Psychology Today, “consider also that the first sentence of the ads contained 14 words, and a total of 88 ads were purchased by the campaign to be run on Facebook.” Fourteen is the number of words in an alt-right slogan, she pointed out, and 88 is shorthand for “Heil Hitler,” since H is the eighth letter of the alphabet. (Remind me never to watch Sesame Street with this person.)

It was doubtful Trump or Facebook’s moderators understood the full implications of this—the campaign had seen the triangles in Antifa material and assumed the group had adopted it, which some actual anti-fascists did after World War II—but both were scolded for it and the ads were changed.

Contrast that with the chin-stroking over the inverted red triangle used by Hamas to indicate its battlefield targets.

Because its origins (in this context) lie in Hamas’s use of the triangle for one specific purpose, its meaning contains no ambiguity. But in the grand tradition of Western play-radicals who want to have their cake and eat it too, Hamas’s supporters have begun to reverse-engineer the symbol into vague respectability.

To understand the truly demented nature of this, you’d have to be in the unlucky position of having watched some of Hamas’s battlefield propaganda videos. At their tamest, they show the triangle hovering over an Israeli tank in the distance before the tank is shelled. Often these videos are a cross between a snuff video and a horror film, and glorify the execution of people.

The adoption of the red triangle by pro-Palestinian activists is a badge of derangement. This is not the watermelon, which is used as a stand-in for the Palestinian flag because of its similar color scheme. The triangle is a specific marker of vicarious violence.

Seth Frantzman: International donors are complicit in Hamas’ presence in Gaza – and key to its demise

It’s important to understand here how deeply Hamas has infiltrated all facets of life in Gaza. It infiltrates media and also healthcare workers. It exploits schools, universities, shelters and hospitals. For Hamas, all these NGOs and UN organisations are targets to be exploited, and each large civilian building is a potential hideout. Hamas conducts itself both as a terrorist group and a kind of mafia in this respect. The armed men that it sends to hijack aid convoys, for example, pretend to be there for “protection”. This is the kind of protection that the mafia also offers in other settings. It’s how cartels operate. Separating the civilians from the mafia-cartel aspect of Hamas is key to uprooting Hamas.

Gaza’s misfortune is to have an international community that has worked in Gaza for decades and been unwilling to confront Hamas. The NGOs and other groups that work there want to get their aid to local people. They see working with Hamas as a lesser evil than the aid not being delivered. They aren’t willing to condemn Hamas or monitor their aid convoys for the presence of gunmen, because it’s easier to look the other way and just let a system that is in place continue. As long as they can say aid came across the border, they can say it was delivered, even if it never reaches the people in Gaza and even if Hamas and armed gangs take the aid and sell it, fuelling the Hamas war machine. To separate Hamas from local people in Gaza, donor countries should mandate that any NGO or UN organisation working in Gaza must monitor and report on Hamas and other groups’ presence in institutions that receive funding. It’s not enough to call on “armed groups” not to enter schools. Monitoring Hamas, as the ruling power, is needed.

This can be done. Schools can set up CCTV cameras and they can provide transparent lists of who enters and exits the school. Convoys can track where aid goes and make sure it is not stolen. UN institutions are strong enough to have a special rapporteur tasked specifically with reporting on Hamas’s presence. Hospitals can monitor each floor and each room in their facility.

This can also be done by shifting the way organisations operate in Gaza. Rather than pretending Hamas doesn’t exist and calling it an “armed group” it should be named and monitored. NGOs and UN organisations know how to do this in other conflicts. They know how to keep armed men out of their facilities or report the presence of armed men in places such as eastern Congo. If the UN and NGOs can report armed men entering schools or hospitals or taking over aid in other places in the world, they can do it in Gaza.

Separating Hamas from civilians in Gaza and ending the exploitation and use of civilians as human shields is key to defeating Hamas. This starts at the level of donor countries who back the UN and NGO efforts in Gaza. They can mandate reporting on Hamas presence. After October 7 it is imperative that a paradigm shift takes place in how the international community relates to Gaza. The international community can also work toward a day without Hamas, and a day when Gazan children can attend school without Hamas men illegally occupying their classrooms.

Jonathan Tobin: The issue that isn’t being addressed in the campaign

The influence of ‘Settler/Colonialism’
Literary critic, poet and biographer Adam Kirsch provides a timely explanation for a lot of what has happened since Oct. 7 in his new and highly important book On Settler Colonialism: Ideology, Violence and Justice (Norton).

In his slim volume, he traces the origin of this woke ideology and puts it in the context of far-left beliefs that speak of the illegitimacy of all “settler” states such as the United States, Canada and Australia. The reason why Israel is the focus of so much of the left’s advocacy is simple.

Some of them may call the United States “Turtle Island,” a made-up name for the North American continent as it existed before the European discovery of America, and demand hypocritical and meaningless “land acknowledgments” as institutions speak of which Native American tribes lived there in the distant past before European settlers arrived with no intention of divesting themselves of their property. But no one, not even in the fever swamps of the far left, thinks there is the slightest chance the United States will be dismantled and all descendants of Europeans deported.

Israel is a different story. It is a tiny, vulnerable nation of fewer than 10 million people, as well as one whose Jewish majority is part of a people targeted by the world’s oldest hatred: antisemitism. Its destruction is something that can be imagined, and indeed, that is exactly what Palestinian Arabs who support Hamas and other terrorist movements, as well as the so-called moderates of the Palestinian Authority, dream about all the time.

That combination of vulnerability and the link to a widespread form of hatred makes Israel so attractive a target for the woke left. Although it is an integral part of a general war on the West that threatens the values and beliefs of most Americans, this ideology is what has also fueled the post-Oct. 7 surge in antisemitism and the emergence of supporters of Israel’s destruction as a voter group that one of our two major parties—the Democrats—must consider as it conducts its campaign and maps out foreign policy.

That’s why it is so depressing that antisemitism and its woke supporters and rationalizers are not being spoken of much or debated in the 2024 election campaign.

Indeed, this election—like almost every other one ever fought in this country—will be decided by the opinions of voters about which of the presidential candidates will best handle the economy and tame the inflation that has had a disproportionate impact on the ability of middle, working class and poor Americans to get by.

Other issues such as illegal immigration, health care and crime will also play a decisive role in determining the outcome, with more ideological concerns like abortion, racism and climate change ranking far below on the list of voter priorities. Worries about woke ideology rank even lower.

What the government can do about it
It is natural for Americans to worry first about their livelihoods, their ability to afford healthcare and whether our borders are overrun by illegal immigrants who are (regardless of whether we sympathize with their plight) having a devastating impact on many communities, as well as depressing the wages of working-class Americans. Still, the takeover of the U.S. education system, corporate America and the arts by woke bureaucrats will have as much, if not a greater, influence on what kind of a country we live in going forward.

There have been some successful examples of pushback against DEI culture among some universities, especially those in Florida, where the state government, led by Gov. Ron DeSantis, has played a key role in restoring sanity to public institutions.

Some elements of corporate America have also begun to realize that allowing their human resources departments to be run by woke commissars makes it harder for them to hire the best and most qualified candidates for jobs and promotions and creates potential legal liability if that results in lawsuits about discrimination based on race. While hopeful signs, these are more the exceptions to the rule of DEI dominance than anything else.

What could a new administration do about any of this? A great deal.

First of all, Biden’s executive orders should be rescinded. As important as that would be, the real priority would be for the Justice Department to unleash its civil rights division on any public institution that, in the name of DEI, is engaging in discriminatory practices as well as leading to, as has happened at so many colleges, to inaction against woke-inspired antisemitism.

If that were to happen—something that the controversial and much-lied-about Project 2025, produced by the Heritage Foundation, actually calls for—then the woke tide could be rolled up in relatively short order. DEI pledges, required for being hired as a college professor in many institutions, would be placed in the dustbin of history along with the much-despised McCarthyite pledges of the 1950s.

This would do more to counter the increasing wave of Jew-hatred than the entire contents of the toothless “U.S. National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism” promulgated last year by the Biden administration.

This would be a political winner for either party that implemented it, but the political left wants no part of a rollback of its animating ideology. As a New York Times feature published this week made clear, leftist academics want no part of anything that would strip them of their dominance. That’s especially true if it made viewpoint diversity rather than obsessions about race a staple of our education system.

An issue that is so important to the future of this nation and the fight to preserve the values and the history of America and Western civilization, as well as that against antisemitism, deserves more attention as we choose a president and a new Congress.

If those who wish to make permanent the left’s imposition of woke indoctrination are allowed to prevail, then the consequences for all Americans, and especially Jews, are incalculable.

Harris ‘entirely supportive’ of hold on large munitions while standing by Israel’s right to self-defense

At the start of a six-minute exchange about Israel and the war in Gaza, Harris asserted that “this war has to end,” and that the only way for the violence in the region to end “is by getting a hostage deal and the cease-fire deal done.”

“Stepping back, Oct. 7, 1,200 Israelis were slaughtered, and actually, some Americans, by the way, in that number. Slaughtered. Young people who were attending a concert. Women were horribly raped. And yes, so I have said, Israel has a right to defend itself. We would,” said Harris. “How it does so matters, and far too many innocent Palestinians have been killed.”

Harris’ comments reflected the same position she has staked out since the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks last year, and that she has recently articulated as the Democratic presidential nominee: support Israel’s right to defend itself, call for a two-state solution, stand with Biden’s diplomacy in the region and condemn the killing of civilians in Gaza.

Harris touted her role in discussions with Israeli and Arab leaders about the “day-after scenario” in Gaza, restating the Biden administration’s position that Gaza should not be reoccupied, that the borders of Gaza remain unchanged and that all people in the region are secure.

“Let us also recognize,” added Harris, “that Iran is not empowered in this whole scenario in terms of the peace and stability of the region.”

The questions from Harris’ interviewers — NPR host Tonya Mosley and Politico Playbook author Eugene Daniels — focused only on what the U.S. can do to pressure Israel to end the war. They did not ask about Hamas.

Mosley suggested that Israel had moved beyond defense into “aggression,” asking Harris where she sees “the line between aggression and defense.” Later, Mosley asked if it is “even possible as Israel’s ally” for the U.S. to support Palestinian self-determination. Support for a two-state solution has been U.S. policy for decades.”

Kamala Harris Delivers Word Salad on Israel, Spars With Black Journalists During Panel Discussion

Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris sat down with the National Association of Black Journalists for a Tuesday panel discussion, during which she struggled to convey her position on the Israel-Hamas war and repeatedly sparred with the friendly moderators.

During one exchange, moderator Tanya Mosley of Philadelphia radio station WHYY asked Harris where she draws “the line between” Israel’s “aggression and defense.” After saying there was “a lot to unpack” in the question, Harris touted her belief that the Jewish state “has a right to defend itself.” Mosley pressed Harris to answer the question. Harris did not take it well.

“No, no, let me finish,” she responded. “It’s important to put it in context, which is what I’m doing, and I’ll get to that.”

“There must be stability and peace in that region, in as much as what we do in our goal is to ensure that Israelis have security, and Palestinians in equal measure have security, have self-determination, and dignity,” Harris said. “That there be an ability to have security in the region, for all concerned, in a way that we create stability, and—let us all also recognize—in a way that ensures that Iran is not empowered in this whole scenario in terms of the peace and stability in the region.”

Harris touts role in holding up 2,000-pound bombs to Israel

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, in her first solo interview, said she had supported the Biden administration’s decision to pause the delivery of certain munitions to Israel amid the country’s 11-month war with Hamas in Gaza.

Speaking to the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) in Philadelphia on Tuesday, the Democratic presidential nominee said that “one of the things that we’ve done that I’m entirely supportive of is the pause that we put on the 2000-pound bombs.”

She offered this as an example of a concrete action the White House had taken to pressure Israel to agree to a ceasefire deal. “So, there is some leverage that we have had and used,” she said.

“I absolutely believe that this war has to end, and it has to end as soon as possible,” she added.

In mid-June, in a video posted to social media, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu voiced his frustration with the Biden administration’s actions, calling it “inconceivable” that the White House was withholding weapons and ammunition to Israel during a war.

“During World War II, Churchill told the United States, ‘Give us the tools, we’ll do the job.’ And I say, give us the tools and we’ll finish the job a lot faster,” he said.

Harris targets digital ads spotlighting her words about ‘human suffering in Gaza’

Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign is running new digital spots targeting voters in heavily Arab American neighborhoods in the Detroit area, emphasizing Harris’ saying she “will not be silent about human suffering in Gaza.”

The ads, which began running Tuesday on Snapchat and Google, according to records made available by the companies, include clips of Harris sympathizing with the people of Gaza. They mark a new stage in a microtargeted back-and-forth in the area over the Biden administration’s handling of Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza, with a GOP-aligned group running digital ads in similar areas stressing Harris’ support for Israel, apparently in a bid to drive voters there away from her.

The super PAC Future Coalition PAC also ran other ads that highlight the Jewish faith of Harris’ husband, Doug Emhoff, including ads that have leaned on antisemitic “dual loyalty” tropes about Jewish Americans.

The ads appear to be the first Gaza-related paid advertising from the Harris camp, showing how her campaign is trying to reach out to critics of the administration on the issue.

The first two clips in ad come from Harris’ remarks after her meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in July, four days after President Joe Biden announced he wouldn’t seek another term in office. The ad plays a declaration by Harris saying, “I will not be silent,” followed by a quick cut into a second clip from that address, in which she says, “About the scale of human suffering in Gaza, including the death of far too many innocent civilians.” Harris also said in those and other remarks that she also supports Israel’s right to defend itself, but those comments don’t feature in the digital ads.

In another clip from a Harris address in March, she addresses the situation in Gaza by arguing: “Our common humanity compels us to act.”

A second ad sounds a similar note, quoting Harris in the July address saying, “What has happened in Gaza over the past nine months is devastating,” and adding, “We cannot allow ourselves to become numb to the suffering, and I will not be silent.”

The ads target nine ZIP codes around Detroit, including Dearborn, a city with a high concentration of people of Middle Eastern or North African descent, where Muslim and Arab American political leaders have voiced criticism of Israel’s handling of the war. Biden officials met with leaders there amid the criticism this year, and frustrated critics led a push to get Democrats to vote “uncommitted” on the presidential primary ballot as a way to voice disapproval of the administration’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war and its military funding for Israel.

The majority of the nine ZIP codes in the Harris ad campaign are represented in Congress by Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib. Tlaib, who is Palestinian American, endorsed that protest vote in February, and she hasn’t specifically endorsed or said she’d oppose Harris in the general election.

State Department let Rob Malley access classified material after suspension, per report

The U.S. State Department’s internal inspector general determined that suspended Special Envoy for Iran Robert Malley was improperly allowed to access classified materials after his suspension, the Associated Press reported Wednesday.

According to a report obtained by the AP, the department “deviated” from its standard procedures in handling the case and created “significant confusion as to what work Mr. Malley was authorized to do following the suspension.”

“The department failed to consistently notify employees who regularly interacted with Mr. Malley that he was no longer allowed to access classified information,” the report said. “These conditions likely led to special envoy Malley engaging on issues outside the limited scope of issues on which he was authorized to work.”

Malley was allowed to participate in a classified White House call on Iran one day after his suspension was enacted but before he was informed about it, according to the report. Senior State Department officials also successfully restored access to his suspended, unclassified email account.

The inspector general report was circulated within the department on Tuesday and delivered to Congress on Wednesday.

Malley has been on leave without pay from the State Department since June 2023, when media reports revealed that he was under FBI investigation for potentially mishandling classified information. In August 2023, Malley accepted a visiting professorship at Princeton University and a senior fellowship at Yale University despite still being listed by the State Department as its special envoy for Iran.

State Department says Houthis should not be redesignated as a foreign terrorist organization

The State Department is continuing to rebuff bipartisan pressure from lawmakers to redesignate the Houthis as a Foreign Terrorist Organization, despite the Iran-backed group’s continued attacks on Israel and shipping lanes in the Red Sea.

The Houthis struck central Israel earlier this week, using what the group described as a new hypersonic missile, after striking within feet of a U.S. diplomatic facility in Tel Aviv in July.

In a letter to Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) on Tuesday, a State Department official said the administration opposes reimposing the FTO designation on the Houthis, saying that doing so could be an impediment to groups that may have to do business with the Houthis to provide basic supplies inside Yemen.

“An FTO designation triggers a criminal prohibition on knowingly providing material support or resources to an FTO, which cannot be mitigated by Treasury licenses,” the letter reads. “The Houthis control ports and distribution access, thus an FTO designation would have major implications on food security and basic needs of the population because approximately 90 percent of products to meet basic needs in Yemen are commercially imported.”

Torres wrote to the administration about the issue in response to the July attack in Tel Aviv.

The Specially Designated Global Terrorist designation, which the administration imposed on the Houthis, includes sanctions on the group, although the administration has also granted various waivers. The FTO label grants additional sanctions authorities.

The official also emphasized the administration’s goal of avoiding “harming and alienating Yemeni civilians.”

‘We Are Disgusted’: Foxx and Stefanik Slam Harvard for Stonewalling DA Probe Into Anti-Israel ‘Die-In,’ Request Internal Docs

Harvard University is facing pressure from Reps. Virginia Foxx (R., N.C.) and Elise Stefanik (R., N.Y.) to turn over internal documents on the school’s investigation—or lack thereof—into the October “die-in” protest that led to assault charges against two students who accosted an Israeli classmate.

In a letter sent Wednesday to president Alan Garber, Foxx and Stefanik admonished Harvard for “wilfully obstructing the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office from investigating” the ongoing criminal case. They were referencing a Sept. 4 Washington Free Beacon report, which revealed that prosecutors repeatedly delayed the case because Harvard’s police department “was asked to do a follow up investigation and has not.” That decision, the lawmakers said, shows Harvard “believes protecting its campus antisemites is more important than providing a safe learning environment to all its students.”

“In all our years of public service, we have never encountered a situation in which a law enforcement agency has affirmatively refused to cooperate with a prosecutor’s investigation—much less done so in such an open and brazen manner,” Foxx and Stefanik wrote. “Yet, that is precisely the situation we have here.

“This incident is the latest chapter in Harvard protecting antisemites. We are disgusted by the continued disregard that Harvard has shown towards the Jew hatred erupting on its campus.”

The ordeal marks an early hurdle for Garber, who took over for Claudine Gay after she resigned in disgrace earlier this year. Toward the end of Gay’s tenure, the House Committee on Education and the Workforce—which Foxx chairs and Stefanik serves on—launched an investigation into Harvard’s handling of campus anti-Semitism. It subpoenaed the school to compel the production of internal documents in February.

The Wednesday letter, which requests “any and all documents related to Harvard’s decision not to cooperate with the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office,” is part of that investigation. “These documents are also responsive to the Committee’s subpoena served to Harvard earlier this year,” the letter states. “We request that these documents be produced by September 30, 2024.”

Michigan Officials From Whitmer to Slotkin Silent In Wake of Assault on Jewish Student

Days after a group of young men attacked a University of Michigan student after overhearing him say he was Jewish, most of the state’s top elected officials have yet to utter a word on the brazen anti-Semitic act.

Just two of Michigan’s congressional representatives—Reps. Haley Stevens (D.) and Tim Walberg (R.)—had addressed the Sunday incident, which occurred just a block from the university’s Jewish Resource Center, by Tuesday morning. Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer (D.), Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D.), and Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D.), Elissa Slotkin (D.), Hillary Scholten (D.), and Bill Huizenga (R.), have not addressed it and did not respond to requests for comment. Slotkin is running to replace Stabenow in the Senate.

Rep. Debbie Dingell (D.), who represents Ann Arbor, where the attack took place and is being investigated as a hate crime, did not address it until after publication of this article. In a statement sent Wednesday morning, Dingell said that “violence, hatred, and discrimination have no place on campus, in our community, or anywhere in our country” and called on “this responsible for this awful attack” to be “held fully responsible for their actions.”

Sen. Gary Peters (D.) took a different approach. While his office did respond to a request for comment, it sent a statement attributable on background to an unnamed “Peters aide,” rather than Peters himself. “Senator Peters condemns this attack and all violence based on hate,” the statement reads. Peters’s office did not respond to follow-up questions on why the senator did not address the attack earlier and why he opted to send the statement through an aide who asked not to be identified.

Peters has been vocal about combating Islamophobia in the past. In Feburary, he condemned a Wall Street Journal column that called attention to pro-Hamas officials in Dearborn, Mich. as “anti-Muslim.” Whitmer also responded to this article, calling it both “cruel and ignorant” and Islamophobic. Her statement on Hamas’s Oct. 7 terrorist attack, meanwhile, did not mention the words “Jewish,” “Israel,” or “Hamas.”

“I have been in touch with communities impacted by what’s happening in the region. It is abhorrent,” Whitmer wrote. “My heart is with all those impacted. We need peace in this region.”

Stabenow has historically portrayed herself as an ally of the Jewish people. Tlaib has not. Last week, she condemned charges levied by Michigan attorney general Dana Nessel against anti-Israel protesters at the University of Michigan.

Though they have not commented on the anti-Semitic attack, Whitmer, Stabenow, and Peters all released statements on Sunday and Monday commemorating the beginning of National Hispanic Heritage Month, as did Scholten and Slotkin.

Walberg, the Republican who sits on the House Education and Workforce Committee, commented on the attack Monday morning.

“Antisemitism, especially violent antisemitism, cannot be tolerated,” he wrote before calling on the perpetrators to be punished.

The Biden-Harris Justice Department Has Failed American Jews

Over the weekend, a Jewish student at the University of Michigan was reportedly approached by a group of men who asked if he was Jewish. When he replied in the affirmative, they physically attacked him. This and other incidents suggest that the new school year will see as much harassment of Jewish students as the last. The federal government, along with local police, could be doing much more to crack down on these abuses, writes David E. Bernstein. For instance:

The Ku Klux Klan Act prohibits conspiracies to deprive Americans of their civil rights. This act could be invoked against student groups that are blocking Jewish students from traversing their campuses, as at UCLA, and against groups that blockade public roads, depriving people of their right to travel. The act has been invoked in private lawsuits, but the Justice Department has not brought a single case.

The FACE Act prohibits “the use of physical force, threat of physical force, or physical obstruction to intentionally injure, intimidate, interfere with or attempt to injure, intimidate, or interfere with any person who is exercising or trying to exercise their First Amendment right of religious freedom at a place of religious worship.” Hillel buildings serve as houses of worship, and various campuses have seen acts of intimidation of and interference with those students trying to enter or exit Hillel buildings. No one involved in these incidents has been charged under the act.

Various complaints and lawsuits against universities have documented threats and assaults against Jewish students in violation of their civil rights. The Justice Department has not brought any criminal or civil charges against the perpetrators, with the exception of a Cornell student who threatened to kill Jewish students. Lower-level and less well-publicized threats, harassment, and assaults have not attracted Justice Department intervention.

Seth Mandel: The ‘Anti-Semitism Isn’t Enough’ Hearing

Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin, the committee chair, opened the hearings this way: “Since the horrific Oct. 7 Hamas attacks on Israel, we have seen an increase in attacks on Jewish Americans, Palestinian Americans, Arab Americans, and Muslim Americans.” So Jews are in the top four victims of the pogrom and its aftermath, according to Durbin. Quite the start to this morning’s festivities.

Durbin then played a video of two attacks he believed were representative of the topic: the 2018 Tree of Life synagogue shooting, which took place five years before Hamas’s attacks, and the murder of a young Palestinian boy in Illinois in mid-October.

Durbin’s seething resentment at being asked to talk about the threat of anti-Semitism was on display from one of his party’s two witnesses as well: Maya Berry, executive director of the Arab American Institute. She was made to look like a fool because she did exactly what Democrats asked her to do and said what they asked her to say. Her performance was atrocious from a moral standpoint but perfect from an “understood the assignment” perspective. Her main point was that focusing on any one group undermines the fight against all hate, a demonstrably false and frankly ridiculous belief.

But the key moment came during the witnesses’ questioning by Republican ranking member Lindsey Graham. Quoting the director of national intelligence regarding the pro-Hamas protests, Graham said: “We have observed actors tied to Iran’s government posing as activists online, seeking to encourage protest, and even providing financial support to protesters.” He asked if any of the three witnesses doubted the veracity of that report, and no one did. Graham then asked each witness the following: “Is it Hamas’s goal to destroy the Jewish state? Is it Hezbollah’s goal to destroy the Jewish state? Is it Iran’s goal to destroy the Jewish state?”

Two of the three witnesses—Kenneth Stern and Rabbi Mark Goldfeder—answered in the affirmative. All three entities mentioned in Graham’s question, after all, have said they want to destroy the Jewish state without shame or ambiguity. Which is what made Berry’s response so odd. “I think these are complicated questions,” she said—immediately earning a shake of the head from Graham and conjuring memories of the catastrophic answer given by several college presidents when asked before Congress if genocidal anti-Semitism counts as harassment: It depends on the context.

“If you think it’s complicated to figure out that Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran want to kill all the Jews,” Graham responded, “I should not listen to anything else you’ve got to say. And I won’t.” And with that, Graham moved on to the next witness.

Berry was rattled. Though Graham left the hearing soon after, Berry referenced that exchange at least twice more with other senators, signaling that she’d realized how poorly her comments made her look and desperately trying to claw back some credibility.

The bad news for Berry was that she could not undo the damage. The good news was that she would eventually provide another quote that might make people forget about the first quote, if only because it was potentially even worse. Asked by Sen. Josh Hawley about the inherently violent implications of the phrase “Long live the intifada,” Berry argued for the slogan’s ambiguity. “‘Long live the intifada’ can mean different” things, she said, catching herself before she got to the word “things” but far too late to avoid the rest of the ridiculous comment, which was tailor-made for the sound-bite politics of congressional hearings.

She also defended “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” a call for all Jews to be cleansed from the land.

Senate hearing on antisemitism thrown into chaos as anti-Israel agitators shout obscenities

The Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on hate crimes devolved into chaos on Tuesday, with members engaging in partisan shouting matches over the hearing’s broad focus amid repeated disruptions by anti-Israel agitators in the crowd.

The crowd at Tuesday’s hearing, which was the first hearing in the Senate addressing antisemitism since Oct. 7, was largely made up of people in keffiyehs, several of whom had to be escorted out by Capitol Police officers for shouting profanities. One man shouted “F*** Israelis” and that he did not care about “f***ing Jews” during Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-TX) questioning of witnesses, saying that lawmakers should talk about the “dead Palestinians.”

“I would make a note for the record. This hearing is about hate. It includes antisemitism as well as hatred toward other people,” Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), the chairman of the committee and the No. 2 Senate Democrat, said after the incident disrupted the hearing.

“Who gets up and yells ‘F***ing Jews’ at an antisemitism hearing? I think it proves our point,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), the top Republican on the committee, remarked to Jewish Insider just after proceedings concluded.

“I don’t know why they did it. They would have been better off not to have done the hearing,” Graham added of Democrats, who control the upper chamber and organized the hearing.

Republicans and Democrats repeatedly sparred over the latter’s refusal to allow for a focused hearing solely on antisemitism, despite hate crimes against Jews surging to rates that one of the Democratic witnesses, Maya Berry, the executive director of the Arab American Institute, acknowledged had exceeded other religious and ethnic groups in the last year.

‘F—king Jews’: Protester Interrupts Hate Crimes Hearing at US Capitol Over Focus on Antisemitism

Seth Mandel: Wikipedia Was Never Better Than This

Gallant: Northern border is becoming the main front of war

Four soldiers KIA in Gaza, bringing IDF death toll to 713

1st female soldier to fall in Gaza since 10/7

Israeli air, artillery strikes pound Hezbollah in southern Lebanon

‘Defender of Israel Award’ goes to three men who willingly put their lives on the line on Oct. 7

New book about October 7 tells ‘100 human stories’ behind the horror

Thousands Chant ‘Bring Them Home’ for Hamas Hostages at Packed Ishay Ribo Concert in Madison Square Garden

How Jewish refugees helped persuade this ex-SJP protester to change her mind

MEMRI: Head Of Youth Section At Hizbullah’s Cultural Mobilization Department Calls For Forming ‘Palestine Force’ Of ‘Resisting’ Students, Professors Worldwide, Including In The U.S., UK, Germany, Italy, Australia, Who Will ‘Carry The Spirit Of The Mujahideen’ In Online International Student Seminar; Adds: ‘We Are In A Historic Moment… Wherever We Are Present, We Must Influence Young People’

CBC Report Covers Israeli Strike in Gaza, Totally Ignoring Deaths Of Nine Hamas Terrorists, Including 3 Current And Past UNRWA Employees

CBC Report On Canada’s Arms Embargo On Israel Quotes Exclusively Anti-Israel Activists

Sky News Blames Israel for Palestinian Terrorism

BBC WS RADIO PROMOTES ‘GENOCIDE’ MISINFORMATION YET AGAIN

BBC PLATFORMING OF UNRWA TALKING POINTS AND ALLEGATIONS

AP, LOS ANGELES TIMES FALSELY REPORT ACTIVIST RACHEL CORRIE WAS TRYING TO BLOCK HOME DEMOLITION

MEMRI: Palestinian Journalist Urges Jordan’s King: Outlaw All The Islamic And Palestinian Organizations In Jordan, For They Endanger Your Kingdom

PMW: The PA covers up murder, while Hamas celebrates it and congratulates the murderer

MEMRI: The Iranian Regime Explains The Delay In Its Direct Revenge Against Israel For The Assassination In Tehran Of Hamas Political Bureau Head Ismail Haniyeh

MEMRI: Iran’s Supreme Leader Khamenei: We Must Master All Layers Of Artificial Intelligence Technology Before An IAEA-Like International Regulator Is Established And Forces Us Ask Permission

Jewish Mass Grave Uncovered in Belarus

It’s ‘been a nightmare,’ says man moving Milwaukee tattoo shop due to landlord’s antisemitic mural

Former Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman laments post-Oct. 7 damage to Israeli farming

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism  today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424. 

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