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Kamala Harris Says Young Anti-Israel Protesters ‘Showing Exactly What the Human Emotion Should Be’ in Response to Gaza
US Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during the Constitutional Convention of UNITE HERE, the nation’s largest hospitality workers’ labor union, in New York City, US, June 21, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
US Vice President Kamala Harris said in a new interview that young anti-Israel protesters are showing “exactly what the human emotion should be” as a response to the ongoing Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
In the interview with The Nation for a profile in the progressive magazine, Harris was asked about her stance on Israel, the war in Gaza, and whether she is further left on the issues politically than US President Joe Biden.
The interview had particular importance in light of growing questions regarding Biden’s mental fitness for office, whether he will stay in the race after a poor debate performance, and what a Harris presidency may look like.
Harris initially called for an “immediate ceasefire” before Biden and has often used more pointed language when discussing the war, Israel, and the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
However, “the difference is not in substance but probably in tone,” one of Harris’s advisers told The Nation.
Harris explained how she approaches the conflict.
“Listen, I strongly believe that our ability to evaluate a situation is connected to understanding the details of that situation … OK, the trucks are taking flour into Gaza. But here’s the thing, Joan [the interviewer]: I like to cook. So I said to my team: You can’t make s—t with flour if you don’t have clean water. So what’s going on with that? I ask questions like, What are people actually eating right now?”
“Similarly,” Harris added, “I was asking early on, what are women in Gaza doing about sanitary hygiene. Do they have pads? And these are the issues that made people feel uncomfortable, especially sanitary pads.”
The interviewer then noted that she believed the young people protesting against Israel were “unlikely to be mollified by these answers,” asking for Harris’s reply.
“They [young anti-Israel protesters] are showing exactly what the human emotion should be, as a response to Gaza,” Harris said. “There are things some of the protesters are saying that I absolutely reject, so I don’t mean to wholesale endorse their points. But we have to navigate it. I understand the emotion behind it.”
The protests Harris was referring to included demands for a ceasefire to end the war in Gaza. They also included calls for violence such as an “intifada revolution,” images glorifying Hamas and other US-designated terrorist organizations, and calls for “death to America” and “death to Israel.”
In many cases, the organizations behind the anti-Israel demonstrations that have erupted in major cities around the world in recent months have expressed support for Hamas’ violence and called for the destruction of the Jewish state, often drowning out the voices of protesters primarily concerned about the humanitarian situation in Gaza.
In April, The Algemeiner compiled a list of disturbing statements and chants made during the first week of Columbia University’s anti-Israel encampment. They included comments such as “We say justice, you say how? Burn Tel Aviv to the ground!” and “Let it be known that it was the Al-Aqsa Flood [Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel] that put the global intifada back on the table again. And it is the sacrificial spirit of the Palestinian freedom fighters that will guide every struggle on every corner of the earth to victory.”
The Algemeiner also compiled a non-comprehensive list of violence and explicit calls for violence that took place at the student encampments.
At Columbia, for example, students violently took over a campus building, held janitors against their will, and destroyed much of the inside of the building. Later, police found weapons and a “death to America” poster in the building.
“Somebody is radicalizing our students,” New York City Police Department Deputy Commissioner of Operations Kaz Daughtry said.
In some cases, anti-Israel protesters calling for an end to the war in Gaza have held demonstrations in front of Holocaust museums, leading Jewish leaders and other critics to express outrage.
The post Kamala Harris Says Young Anti-Israel Protesters ‘Showing Exactly What the Human Emotion Should Be’ in Response to Gaza first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Canadian dispatches from Israel: Aron Heller on his year of living under the threat of missiles
With all the trauma and turmoil that has engulfed this country after more than a year of war, it seems almost trivial to describe the plight of daily life in […]
The post Canadian dispatches from Israel: Aron Heller on his year of living under the threat of missiles appeared first on The Canadian Jewish News.
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In an Era of Con Artists, the Torah Instructs Us to Hold Onto Our Integrity
A Torah scroll. Photo: RabbiSacks.org.
The year was 1820, and London’s high society was abuzz with the arrival of a dashing new personality.
General Gregor MacGregor, a Scottish war hero with a chest full of medals and a gifted raconteur, had swept into the city and taken it by storm.
Clad in a sharp military uniform and flashing a charming grin, MacGregor regaled audiences with stories of his daring exploits alongside Simón Bolívar during the Venezuelan War of Independence. But what truly captivated the elites wasn’t his charisma or battlefield glory, it was his claim to be the ruler — “cazique” — of a tropical Central American paradise called Poyais.
Poyais, MacGregor declared, was a land of unparalleled riches. Its soil was so fertile that the finest crops grew with barely any effort, its rivers sparkled with gold, and its friendly native tribes were eager to welcome British settlers. It was an investor’s dream and a settler’s utopia. And MacGregor, the benevolent ruler, was more than willing to share his paradise — for a price, of course.
London’s elites fell over themselves to get in on the opportunity. They bought Poyaisian land grants, invested in its government bonds, and dreamed of lounging on their sprawling estates in this New World Garden of Eden. Ships were chartered, and hundreds of eager pioneers boarded them, ready to embark on the adventure of a lifetime.
The problem? Poyais didn’t exist. It was nothing more than a figment of MacGregor’s fertile imagination. The settlers who arrived at the site where Poyais was supposedly located found only a mosquito-infested untamed jungle on the Honduran coast. There was no infrastructure, no resources, and no welcoming natives. Many succumbed to disease and starvation, and the few survivors returned to Britain with harrowing tales of betrayal and disaster.
And MacGregor? He simply shrugged, pocketed the fortune he’d amassed, and moved on to his next scheme. Astonishingly, despite orchestrating one of the most audacious frauds in history, he never faced justice. Instead, he retired to Venezuela, where his earlier association with Bolívar earned him accolades as a war hero. He lived out his days in comfort, unpunished and unrepentant.
It’s hard to imagine anyone matching MacGregor’s sheer chutzpah, but remarkably, he was far from the only 19th-century con artist to leave a trail of devastation in their wake. Fast forward to the late 1870s, and another fraudster — a woman this time — was weaving her web of deceit.
Sarah Howe was the very picture of respectability: impeccably dressed, articulate, and gifted with a knack for making lonely, vulnerable women feel seen and valued. She seemed the perfect person to lead the Ladies’ Deposit Company, a savings bank in Boston catering exclusively to unmarried women.
Howe’s pitch was as appealing as it was bold. Not only did she promise financial security, but she also guaranteed a monthly return of 8% — an eye-popping figure, particularly in an era of economic uncertainty. The deposits poured in. Hundreds of women from across the country entrusted their life savings to Howe, believing they were supporting a visionary cause that promised to give women equal footing in a male-dominated society.
But behind the veneer of benevolence lurked a classic Ponzi scheme. Howe wasn’t investing a penny; she was simply shuffling funds from new deposits to pay earlier investors while skimming off a hefty share to fund her own extravagant lifestyle.
When the scheme inevitably collapsed in 1880, the fallout was catastrophic. Many of Howe’s clients were left destitute. The betrayal stung even more because Howe had presented herself as a champion of women’s empowerment.
And Howe herself? Like MacGregor, she managed to slip through the cracks. After a brief stint in jail, she faded into obscurity, leaving behind a cautionary tale about misplaced trust.
But Howe was far from the most brazen con artist of the late 19th century. If there were an Olympic medal for sheer audacity, James Reavis would have taken the gold. Known as the “Baron of Arizona,” the meticulously groomed and impressively mustached Reavis orchestrated a con so elaborate it could have been plucked straight from a Hollywood script. In the 1880s, he claimed ownership of over 18,000 square miles of land across Arizona and New Mexico — a territory larger than some European countries.
Reavis backed his astounding claim with an intricate web of carefully forged documents, detailed maps, fantastic family legends, and fabricated genealogies, all purporting to trace his land rights to a Spanish land grant awarded to his wife’s family in the 18th century.
For years, Reavis collected rents and fees from settlers, railroads, and even the US government, ultimately pocketing over five million dollars. Few dared to challenge him, convinced that this phony aristocrat held legal dominion over their homes and businesses.
But as with all great frauds, the truth eventually came to light. A team of sharp-eyed government investigators uncovered the forgeries that formed the foundation of Reavis’s empire, and his house of cards collapsed. In 1896, he was convicted of fraud and sentenced to Federal prison — a fitting end for one of history’s most audacious schemers.
Of course, the 19th century wasn’t unique in terms of fraudsters, con artists, and greedy chancers who claimed virtue while ripping people off. After all, wherever there’s money, or even the promise of it, there’s always someone ready to steal it.
The Torah recognizes this timeless truth, and one of its earliest and sharpest examples is Ephron the Hittite in Parshat Chayei Sarah, whose greed and duplicity make him the devilish forebear of MacGregor, Howe, and Reavis.
At first glance, Ephron appears to be the very picture of generosity and goodwill. Abraham is mourning the loss of his wife, Sarah. He approaches Ephron to purchase the Cave of Machpelah as a place to bury her.
Ephron, playing to a hastily gathered audience of hangers-on, theatrically offers to give Machpelah to Abraham for free. “What is 400 shekels of silver between me and you?” he says magnanimously, as though the money were a mere trifle.
But Ephron’s true colors are soon revealed. His offer to gift the burial site is nothing more than a charade. Behind the grand gestures and flattering words lies a shrewd and duplicitous businessman intent on exploiting Abraham’s grief.
Ephron not only charges Abraham the total inflated price of 400 shekels, but insists that the payment be made in the highest quality silver. Ephron epitomizes the timeless brand of voracious greed cloaked in the guise of generosity.
But what makes this story so powerful is Abraham’s response. He could have called Ephron out for his hypocrisy, haggled the price, or used his considerable status to demand better treatment. Instead, Abraham insisted on paying the full price without argument, ensuring the transaction was utterly transparent and entirely irreversible. In doing so, he maintained his integrity, even in the face of Ephron’s dishonesty.
The story of Abraham and Ephron teaches a timeless lesson: in a world teeming with chicanery, the most important thing is to hold fast to your principles. Abraham’s insistence on honesty and transparency ensured his purchase would stand the test of time.
Thousands of years later, the Cave of Machpelah remains a holy site of the Jewish people, a symbol of Abraham’s righteousness, in stark and enduring contrast to the fleeting gains of fraudsters like MacGregor, Howe, and Reavis. Like Ephron’s, their names are remembered as cautionary tales, while Abraham’s legacy inspires a commitment to values that truly last.
The author is a rabbi based in Beverly Hills, California.
The post In an Era of Con Artists, the Torah Instructs Us to Hold Onto Our Integrity first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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IAEA Board Passes Iran Resolution as West Pushes Tehran Towards Talks
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi arrives on the opening day of the agency’s quarterly Board of Governors meeting at the IAEA headquarters in Vienna, Austria, Nov. 20, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Lisa Leutner
The UN atomic watchdog’s 35-nation Board of Governors passed a resolution on Thursday again ordering Iran to urgently improve cooperation with the agency and requesting a “comprehensive” report aimed at pressuring Iran into fresh nuclear talks.
Britain, France, Germany, and the United States, which proposed the resolution, dismissed as insufficient and insincere a last-minute Iranian move to cap its stock of uranium that is close to weapons-grade. Diplomats said Iran‘s move was conditional on scrapping the resolution.
Iran tends to bristle at such resolutions and has said it would respond in kind to this one. After previous criticism at the International Atomic Energy Agency’s Board, it has stepped up its nuclear activities and reduced IAEA oversight.
China, Russia, and Burkina Faso voted against the text, diplomats in the meeting said. Nineteen countries voted in favor and 12 abstained.
The IAEA and Iran have long been locked in standoffs on a range of issues including Tehran‘s failure to explain uranium traces found at undeclared sites, its barring last year of most of the agency’s top uranium-enrichment experts on the Iran inspection team, and its refusal to expand IAEA monitoring.
The resolution seen by Reuters repeated wording from a November 2022 resolution that it was “essential and urgent” for Iran to explain the uranium traces and let the IAEA take samples as necessary. The resolution in June of this year did the same.
The new text asked the IAEA to issue “a comprehensive and updated assessment on the possible presence or use of undeclared nuclear material in connection with past and present outstanding issues regarding Iran‘s nuclear program, including a full account of Iran‘s cooperation with the IAEA on these issues.”
Western powers hope that report, due by spring 2025, will pressure Iran into negotiations on fresh restrictions on its nuclear activities, albeit less far-reaching ones than in a 2015 deal with major powers that unraveled after then-President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from it in 2018.
With Trump due to return to office in January and Iran having taken its uranium enrichment far beyond the deal’s limits, it is far from clear whether Trump would back negotiations aimed at setting new limits before the 2015 deal’s ones are lifted on “termination day” in October of next year.
If no new limits are agreed before then, the report could be used to strengthen the case for so-called “snapback”, a process under the 2015 deal where the issue is sent to the UN Security Council and sanctions lifted under the deal can be re-imposed.
Last week IAEA chief Rafael Grossi visited Tehran, hoping to convince new Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, who is seen as relatively moderate, to improve Iran‘s cooperation with the agency.
IRANIAN REACTION
Grossi formally reported to member states on Tuesday that “the possibility of Iran not further expanding its stockpile of uranium enriched up to 60 percent U-235 was discussed” in his meetings with Iranian officials, and that the IAEA had verified Iran had “begun implementation of preparatory measures.”
Iran already has enough material enriched to that level, close to the roughly 90 percent purity that is weapons grade, for four nuclear weapons if enriched further, according to an IAEA yardstick. It has enough material enriched to lower levels for more bombs, but Iran denies seeking nuclear weapons.
Grossi said on Wednesday he had asked Iran to cap that stock of 60 percent material and Iran had accepted his request.
He told a news conference that day that it was “a concrete step in the right direction,” suggesting that he felt a resolution could undermine that progress.
With the resolution passed, Iran is likely to respond.
Moments after the vote, Iranian state media cited a joint statement by the foreign ministry and the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran saying Iran‘s nuclear chief Mohammad Eslami has issued orders for measures like activating various new and advanced centrifuges, machines that enrich uranium.
“If there is a resolution, it [Iran] will either increase its activities or reduce the agency’s access,” a senior diplomat said before the vote.
The post IAEA Board Passes Iran Resolution as West Pushes Tehran Towards Talks first appeared on Algemeiner.com.