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Israel Is Being Treated Worse After October 7 Than the US After September 11

The bodies of people, some of them elderly, lie on a street after they were killed during a mass-infiltration by Hamas gunmen from the Gaza Strip, in Sderot, southern Israel, Oct. 7, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Ammar Awad

News that the US will build a “temporary pier” in the Mediterranean Sea to facilitate transfer of humanitarian aid to the Hamas-occupied Gaza Strip should feel like déjà vu to anyone who was politically aware at the dawn of the 21st century.

After the worst terrorist attack against the US in its history on September 11, 2001, “the world” reacted sympathetically at first. But it didn’t last long. After the worst terrorist attack against Israel in its 75-year history on October 7, 2023, the world’s sympathy was as ephemeral as an Ivy League “pro-Palestine” hunger strike.

The US and Israel were consoled and pitied — until they fought back. Then they were suddenly portrayed as aggressive colonizing villains, each seeking to impose its version of “empire” on an oppressed “other” while meting out “collective punishment.”

“Nous sommes tous Américains” (“We Are All Americans”), said the French paper Le Monde on September 12, 2001. Parisians brought flowers to the US embassy, and sang the “Star Spangled Banner” outside Notre Dame Cathedral. One week later, French president Jacques Chirac became the first foreign leader to visit Ground Zero, where he said, “Today it is New York that was tragically struck, but tomorrow it may be Paris, Berlin, London.”

But soon, the French turned on the US and began to urge restraint. After October 7, the sick, weak antisemitic countries showed their usual glee over Israel’s suffering. Unalloyed contempt from Iran, Iraq, Qatar, and Syria, whose leaders blamed Israel for the Hamas pogrom, was predictable. Kuwait, a relative newcomer to the Palestinian cause, excused the October 7 attack as “a result of the continued violations and blatant attacks committed by the Israeli occupation authorities against the brotherly Palestinian people.” Saudi Arabia worried that the attack would jeopardize the “two-state solution” that it had been urging as part of a contemplated deal that would see Riyadh join the Abraham Accords.

From non-Muslim countries, Israel received only a fraction of the sympathetic fellowship showered on the US after 9/11, and the blowback came even quicker when the Jewish state went on the offensive against Hamas.

In European displays of sympathy, the Israeli flag was projected onto the Brandenburg Gate in Germany, the Berlaymontin Brussels, and the EU Parliament Building in Strasbourg. The Eiffel Tower was lit up in blue and white and the Star of David, but soon France and the rest of Europe were demanding that Israel stop fighting and accept a ceasefire that everyone knew would allow Hamas to regroup and rebuild.

French President Emmanuel Macron was criticizing Israel: “These babies, these ladies, these old people are bombed and killed,” he told the BBC, adding “there is no reason for that and no legitimacy. So we do urge Israel to stop.”

Early on Joe Biden expressed support, promising that the US would “not ever fail to have [Israel’s] back,” but soon he became critical, urging “restraint,” cautioning against “indiscriminate” bombing, and criticizing Israel’s conduct as “over the top.” When he rightly said that no one should believe Hamas’ statistics on casualties and deaths, the fringes of his party attacked him, so he apologized for telling the truth and promised “to do better.”

Unique among nations, only the US and Israel will simultaneously fight our enemies and feed those enemies’ children. After the Bush administration’s declaration of a “Global War on Terrorism,” preparations to root out and destroy Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan began. But the US fought the world’s first politically-correct war, dropping leaflets explaining that only Al-Qaeda and the Taliban would be targeted. Then the US dropped tons of food and other humanitarian supplies on Afghanistan long before dropping a single bomb or putting a single “boot on the ground.” But even that was not enough for critics of the “American Empire.”

After Israel declared war against Hamas, it decided to continue providing Gazans with electricity, potable water, and medicine, even as Hamas held Israelis (and Americans) hostage. Anyone who ridicules the claim that the IDF is the most moral army in the world is not paying attention to how it has prioritized the safety of Gazans over the safety of its own soldiers.

As former Labor Party Knesset member and IDF intelligence officer Einat Wilf points out, “Israel has actually put its own soldiers at risk in order to ensure the ability of numerous civilians to evacuate to safety.”

After 9/11, the US attempted to win the “hearts and minds” of both the people who harbored Al-Qaeda and tolerated the Taliban, and the “international community.” We spent years walking the tightrope between dismantling and building a nation, between executing battles and peace-keeping missions. Sometimes the line between the two was hopelessly blurred.

After 10/7, Israel dropped leaflets warning civilians in Gaza of impending combat and “established safe corridors” for them to escape the fighting. (No such safe corridors were afforded to the free-spirits at Nova music festival to escape death and rape). Israel even continued providing electricity and water to its enemy after a brief cessation. It has also allowed medicine and food to enter Gaza. And it has been steadily pushed, especially by Secretary of State Antony Blinken, to recognize a Palestinian state — effectively rewarding Hamas for its assault on October 7.

Ultimately, the US project in Afghanistan must be judged a failure. Democracy could not take root in the tribal, Islamist setting. A Pashtun Thomas Jefferson did not spring from the soil to promote the inalienable rights of all Afghans. Today, the Taliban is back in control, and Afghanistan is again a failed-state, and a safe harbor for terrorist organizations. The engineers of that failure are now urging Israel to replicate the failure in Gaza.

In December, Biden sent US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin to advise Jerusalem how to “wind down” operations, as if the guy who oversaw the US “wind down” of operations in Afghanistan is qualified to advise anyone on how to succeed militarily.

At a press conference following the meetings, Austin claimed both that the US would “continue to stand up for Israel’s bedrock right to defend itself,” while also reminding Israel that the US would “continue to urge the protection of civilians during conflict and to increase the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza.”

Citing “the clear principles laid down last month by my friend, Secretary Blinken,” Austin pushed the two-state chimera, arguing that “it is in the interest of both Israelis and Palestinians to move forward toward two states, living side by side in mutual security.”

With the Biden administration pushing Israel to replicate the US’ failed Afghan war strategy in Gaza, how soon will it be until Antony Blinken announces a US-led, UN-supervised “loya Jirga” in Gaza?

Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT) Senior Fellow A.J. Caschetta is a principal lecturer at the Rochester Institute of Technology and a fellow at Campus Watch, a project of the Middle East Forum where he is also a Milstein fellow. A version of this article was originally published by IPT.

The post Israel Is Being Treated Worse After October 7 Than the US After September 11 first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Genuine Pro-Palestinian Demonstrations Should Call to ‘Free Gaza’ From Hamas, Says Israel’s Antisemitism Envoy

A pro-Hamas march in London, United Kingdom, Feb. 17, 2024. Photo: Chrissa Giannakoudi via Reuters Connect

Activists who truly care about the plight of the Palestinian people in Gaza should focus their energies on rallying against the ruling terrorist group Hamas, not opposing Israel, according to Israel’s special envoy for combating antisemitism.

“Genuine support for human rights means advocating for freedom from oppressive groups like Hamas and Hezbollah,” Michal Cotler-Wunsh told The Algemeiner in an exclusive interview during a recent trip to the United States, referring to the Iran-backed Islamist terrorist groups in Gaza and Lebanon, respectively.

Her comments came amid rising concerns over escalating hostility toward Jewish communities worldwide during the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.

The US is just one country among several that has experienced a surge in anti-Jewish hate crimes and demonstrations since the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’s invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, with university campuses emerging as a hub for antisemitism and pro-Hamas activism.

“If [these demonstrations] actually are pro-Palestinian and pro-human rights, they would be calling to free Gaza from Hamas, to free Yemen from the Houthis, to free Lebanon from Hezbollah, to free the people of Iran from the Islamic Republic,” Cotler-Wunsh said.

Across the US and Europe, prestigious universities such as Harvard and Columbia have drawn international attention for allowing raucous, unsanctioned, and sometimes violent anti-Israel demonstrations which have included calls for the murder of Jews and the destruction of the Jewish state. The protesters have largely argued their activism is in support of the Palestinian people and human rights.

“Silence, impunity, and false moral equivalency are fueling and normalizing this tsunami of antisemitism,” Cotler-Wunsh warned.

“We realize this is not about human rights or Palestinian advocacy, but reflects support for terrorism, antisemitism, and anti-Western ideologies,” the top Israeli official told The Algemeiner. “They are pro-terror, pro-antisemitism, pro-anti West protests.”

After taking office in January, US President Donald Trump has taken swift action to address antisemitism in higher education institutions. The US Department of Education is investigating dozens of schools and universities for potential civil rights violations related to their alleged failure to address campus antisemitism.

Last month, for example, the Trump administration canceled $400 million in funding to Columbia University, citing the school’s alleged failure to combat faculty, students, and staff from disciplinary action for anti-Jewish discrimination

According to Cotler-Wunsh, higher education institutions “have become platforms easily used for indoctrination, spreading dangerous ideologies.”

“Universities are facing a moment of reckoning: They must decide whether their mission is to teach students what to think or how to think critically,” she told The Algemeiner.

“There seems to be an inability, unwillingness, or lack of courage to enforce existing policies to combat antisemitism and hold those promoting such behavior accountable,” the special envoy continued. “Leadership has failed to understand that this is not a political issue, but rather it is an existential one for all who cherish life and liberty.”

Earlier this year, Trump signed an executive order that calls for “using all appropriate legal tools to prosecute, remove, or otherwise … hold to account perpetrators of unlawful antisemitic harassment and violence.”

In addition, the order authorizes the deportation of extremist “alien” student activists, whose support for terrorist organizations, both intellectual and material, such as Hamas, has contributed to fostering antisemitism, violence, and property destruction on college campuses.

In the wake of the Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel, Cotler-Wunsh argued that the rise of anti-Zionist protests worldwide reflects “the modern strain of ever-mutating antisemitism.”

She explained that anti-Zionism “denies the right of the Jew among nations to exist, stripping Jews and Zionists of their identity, and of the right to return to their ancestral homeland.”

“There’s a systematic dehumanization, delegitimization, and double standards that denies the Jewish state’s right to exist,” the Israeli official told The Algemeiner. “Zionism is integral to the identity of most Jews and many non-Jews who believe in Israel’s right to exist.”

Far from being limited to US colleges, the rise in anti-Jewish demonstrations and antisemitic rhetoric has skyrocketed worldwide since Hamas’s invasion of Israel.

“The mainstreaming and normalization of antisemitism is deeply concerning, not just for Jews, but as a historically reliable predictor of a major threat to humanity and freedom,” Cotler-Wunsh said. “Antisemitism, when legitimized and normalized in this way, becomes an existential threat.”

According to a report from the World Zionist Organization and the Jewish Agency for Israel, there has been a staggering 340 percent increase in antisemitic acts worldwide in 2024 compared to 2022.

The report showed a sharp rise in antisemitic outrages in North America and Europe, with the US up 288 percent, Canada increasing by 562 percent, and Britain seeing a 450 percent spike, with nearly 2,000 incidents recorded in the first half of 2024 in the UK.

The post Genuine Pro-Palestinian Demonstrations Should Call to ‘Free Gaza’ From Hamas, Says Israel’s Antisemitism Envoy first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Trump, Netanyahu Meet in DC, Talk Tariffs and Iran as White House Cancels Press Conference

US President Donald Trump meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, US, April 7, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Kevin Mohatt

The White House on Monday canceled a joint press conference planned for the afternoon with US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was in Washington, DC, to discuss a range of issues including the Trump administration’s new global tariff offensive.

There was no explanation for the surprise decision to nix the press conference moments before Netanyahu’s arrival. However, the two leaders took questions in the Oval Office from a smaller group of reporters.

During their second in-person meeting since Trump’s inauguration in January, Trump and Netanyahu discussed Iran’s nuclear program and the new US tariffs placed on the Jewish state, among other issues.

“We’re having direct talks with Iran” beginning on Saturday,” Trump said in the Oval Office while meeting with Netanyahu.

“We have a very big meeting, and we’ll see what can happen,” Trump said, adding that Iran is “going to be in great danger” if the direct talks don’t go well.

Trump recently threatened to bomb Iran if the regime does not agree to a deal to curb its nuclear program, which the US and Israel believe is ultimately meant to build nuclear weapons. Iran claims its nuclear activities are meant for peaceful, civilian purposes.

However, the primary topic of conversation on Monday was Trump’s newly unveiled tariff policy.

“I can tell you that I said to the president, a very simple thing — we will eliminate the trade deficit with the United States,” Netanyahu said. “We intend to do it very quickly. We think it’s the right thing to do. And we’re also going to eliminate trade barriers.”

The US announced last week that it will impose 17 percent tariffs on goods imported from Israel under a major new trade initiative that Trump announced. As part of Trump’s sweeping set of tariffs, the US will impose a 10 percent baseline tariff on all imports to the US and higher duties on some countries with which it has larger trade deficits.

Washington decided on the 17-percent figure for Israel because it is half of the 33 percent tariffs that the White House says the Jewish state has put in place for some American products. Israel and the United States — the Jewish state’s largest trading partner — completed $34 billion in bilateral trade in 2024. Of that, over $22 billion came from exports from Israel to the US, including diamonds, medications, and electronic devices.

While unveiling the slate of new tariffs on international trade partners, the White House cited a “lack of reciprocity in our bilateral trade relationships” that is “indicated by large and persistent annual US goods trade deficits.”

Trump’s announcement came one day after Israel removed all tariffs on US goods. Israeli officials had hoped that dropping the tariffs would prevent the White House from placing its own tariffs on the Jewish state. Jerusalem will reportedly launch efforts to convince the Trump administration to reverse its decision.

The short-notice meeting between Trump and Netanyahu appears to be part of such an effort.

While leaving Hungary on Sunday, Netanyahu revealed that he will be “the first international leader, the first foreign leader” to hold a discussion with Trump regarding the tariffs and that the planned meeting is reflective of “the special personal relationship and the special bond between the United States and Israel, which is so vital at this time.”

I believe this reflects the special personal relationship and the special bond between the United States and Israel, which is so vital at this time,” Netanyahu said. 

Following his arrival on Sunday, Netanyahu met with US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, the two masterminds behind the massive tariff plan that has plunged stock markets throughout the world. Trump’s proposed 17 percent tax on Israeli imports sparked frustrations within the Jewish state, with critics arguing that the proposal has the potential to destabilize the country’s economy.

In a post on X/Twitter, Netanyahu’s office said the prime minister’s meeting with Lutnick and Greer was “warm, friendly, and productive.”

The post Trump, Netanyahu Meet in DC, Talk Tariffs and Iran as White House Cancels Press Conference first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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ADL Issues Revised ‘Campus Antisemitism Report Card’ Grades

Pro-Hamas Columbia University students march in front of pro-Israel demonstrators on Oct. 7, 2024, the one-year anniversary of Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel. Photo: Roy De La Cruz via Reuters Connect

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has issued revised grades for over a dozen colleges and universities that received low marks in the organization’s recent 2025 Campus Antisemitism Report Card, which was released last month.

The “report card” listed grades based on two criteria — “what’s happening on campus” and “university policies and responsive action.” In total, the ADL assessed 135 colleges and universities across the US, only eight of which — Elon University, Vanderbilt University, University of Alabama, Florida International University, University of Miami, City University of New York’s (CUNY) Brooklyn College, CUNY Queens College, and Brandeis University — merited an “A” grade.

On Friday, the ADL announced that more “A” grades are warranted due to several universities — Arizona State University, Purdue University, and the University of Georgia — enacting fresh policies for addressing antisemitism after learning they had not been judged as positively as they had hoped. Purdue University, the ADL noted, was upgraded from a “B” to an “A” after creating a “standing committee” on Jewish life and offering “expanded” educational programming on antisemitism. It also “re-affirmed” its low opinion of the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel, vowing never to adopt it.

The University of Georgia was equally responsive following the report’s release, forming an “advisory council on antisemitism” and sharing with the ADL previously unknown information about efforts to combat and raise awareness of anti-Jewish discrimination. Arizona State University also earned its revised grade by alerting the ADL of programming it holds to foster civil discourse and a balanced understanding of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

“The consultations ADL has engaged in with universities and colleges are part of our commitment to fostering safer and more inclusive environments for Jewish students and all members of the campus community,” ADL vice president of advocacy Shira Goodman, who also leads the Ronald Birnbaum Center to Combat Antisemitism in Education (CCAE), said in a press release. “Addressing antisemitism on campuses across the United States is one of our top priorities, and the willingness of many schools to engage with us after the release of our report card shows this is a priority for them as well. We hope this continues and that more schools will continue to engage, take action, and see their climate improve.”

Other schools saw their grades lifted from barely passing to average, with the University of Houston, University of Boston, and Stanford University going from a “D” to a “C.” The of Minnesota, which had been given an “F,” now holds a “D.”

“It is encouraging to see that a significant number of schools have decided to take action right after we released the 2025 Report Card a few weeks ago to improve the campus experience for Jewish students,” ADL chief executive office Jonathan Greenblatt said in a statement. “These important steps and policies send a clear message that antisemitism will not be tolerated on campus. We now urge consistent enforcement of the new polices and recommendations to ensure meaningful impact.”

As previously reported by The Algemeiner, the Ivy League received the poorest marks in the 2025 Campus Antisemitism Report Card.

No Ivy League institution — save Dartmouth College, which notched a “B” grade — earned better than a “C,” a mark given to Brown University, Cornell University, Harvard University, and the University of Pennsylvania. Princeton University, Yale University, and Columbia University rated lowest, scoring “D” grades.

Harvard’s receiving a “C” came amid a period described by observers as a low point in its history. The institution, America’s oldest and arguably most prestigious, had recently settled a merged lawsuit in which two groups accused it of refusing to discipline an allegedly antisemitic professor and other perpetrators of anti-Jewish discrimination, hate speech, and harassment. For months, the university’s legal counsel strove to dismiss the complainant’s charges, arguing that they lacked legal standing. Meanwhile, its highly reputed Law School saw its student government issue a defamatory resolution which accused Israel of genocide; its students quoted terrorists during an “Apartheid Week” event held in April; and dozens of its students and faculty participated in an illegal pro-Hamas encampment attended by members of a group that had shared an antisemitic cartoon.

Now, the Trump administration is reviewing $9 billion worth of federal grants and contracts awarded to Harvard University, jeopardizing a substantial source of the school’s income over its alleged failure to quell antisemitic and pro-Hamas activity on campus.

Princeton University’s partnerships with the federal government have been suspended as well, and $400 million of taxpayer funds due to be paid out to Columbia University were nixed as, the federal government said, “a response to their continued failure to end the persistent harassment of Jewish students.”

Brown University’s federal funding may soon be canceled soon, according to a report which said that its alleged failure to mount a satisfactory response to the campus antisemitism crisis, as well as its embrace of the diversity, equity, and, inclusion (DEI) movement — perceived by many across the political spectrum as an assault on merit-based upward mobility and causing incidents of anti-White and anti-Asian discrimination — prompted the pending action.

“US colleges and universities benefit from enormous public investments funded by US taxpayers,” Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in March. “That support is a privilege, and it is contingent on scrupulous adherence to federal antidiscrimination laws.”

Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.

The post ADL Issues Revised ‘Campus Antisemitism Report Card’ Grades first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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