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US Democrats Try to Stop Bills Designed to Punish Campus Antisemitism
US Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) speaks during a House Education and The Workforce Committee hearing titled ‘Holding Campus Leaders Accountable and Confronting Antisemitism’ on Capitol Hill in Washington, US, Dec. 5, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Ken Cedeno
Democrats in the US House of Representatives attempted to ensure legislation which would punish universities that fail to protect Jewish students against antisemitism would die in committee and never reach the floor for a vote, according to a new report.
Democratic members of the House Ways and Means Committee all voted against the University Accountability Act (UAA), which would levy a tax on universities found to have violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act by failing to prevent or respond to antisemitic hate incidents, Jewish Insider reported. They also voted against the Protecting American Students Act (PASA), legislation aimed at taxing the endowments of universities that admit more foreign students than American ones. It was prompted by reports that foreign students overwhelmingly contribute to antisemitism on college campuses.
“Universities — many of whom have ever growing foreign student populations and receive massive amounts of foreign funding — focus more on appeasing those with antisemitic views on their campuses than protecting all students, upholding their institutional values and holding those accountable who violate such policies and values,” Rep. Jason Smith (R-MO) said, commenting on the bill’s necessity.
Both bills were introduced by Republican lawmakers — including Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY), and Rep. Drew Ferguson (R-GA). Democrats denounced them as inane and potentially injurious to higher education, according to Jewish Insider (JI).
“This bill fails to address the issue head-on and focuses on punishing schools instead of working to improve them,” Rep. Brad Schneider (D-IL) said, as quoted by JI, railing against the UAA. “I’m concerned about this bill’s unintended consequence: the very real potential for creating a vicious cycle of aggressive and tendentious claims against universities.”
Malliotakis has said, however, that the UAA stands to prevent antisemitism and protect American taxpayers from funding colleges that refuse to address it.
“If these schools are receiving generous tax benefits from the federal government at the expense of American taxpayers, they should be doing more than simply giving a slap on the write to perpetrators of hate,” the congresswoman, alluding to the many times when students who committed antisemitic hate incidents eluded punishment, said earlier this month in a statement announcing the bill. “Our legislation seeks to hold these institutions accountable with lofty financial punishments that would encourage them to investigate and crack down on instances of antisemitism and help foster a safer academic environment for all students, regardless of their gender, race, or religion.”
The debate over the bill comes as many Democrats have hesitated or refused to acknowledge the antisemitic component of the anti-Zionist movement on the left, which opposes Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state.
Meanwhile, higher education experts and Jewish leaders have pointed to anti-Zionist activists’ own behavior and public remarks as evidence of anti-Jewish animus.
In April it was revealed that a principal organizer of pro-Hamas demonstrations at Columbia University, Khymani James, filmed himself proclaiming that Zionists, a category that includes a vast majority of Jews around the world, should be murdered and that they are fortunate that he has not begun killing them himself.
In September, one day before a high profile anti-Zionist event took place at the University of Pennsylvania, an unidentified male walked into the university’s Hillel building behind a staffer and shouted “F—k the Jews” and “Jesus Christ is king!” before overturning tables, podium stands, and chairs, according to students and school officials who spoke with The Algemeiner. Days earlier, just before the Jewish New Year of Rosh Hashanah, a swastika was graffitied in the basement of the university’s Stuart Weitzman School of Design.
In February, at the University of California, an anti-Zionist demonstrator spat on a Jewish student and called him a “Jew,” pejoratively. That incident was concurrent with an anti-Zionist mob’s descending on an event organized by the school’s Jewish community speakers, which forced the mostly Jewish audience to flee to a secret safe room.
Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY), a life-long progressive and steadfast supporter of Israel, has noted on social media numerous times that left-wing and right-wing anti-Zionists promote similar antisemitic tropes. Last month, he criticized blogger Briahna Joy Gray, who previously served as press secretary for Sen. Bernie Sanders’s presidential campaign, for tweeting that Israel trains dogs to “rape Palestinian prisoners,” an accusation which bears little to no difference from the antisemitic conspiracies promoted daily by neo-Nazi websites such as “The Daily Stormer.” Days earlier, he lambasted Nick Fuentes, a neo-Nazi who supports marrying teenage girls to older men, for trafficking in false claims of a “genocide” of Palestinians in Gaza, a falsehood that has been uttered many times by Democratic lawmakers such as Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and Jamaal Bowman (D-NY).
“Nick Fuentes is a racist and an antisemite, a white nationalist and a white supremacist to the core,” Torres tweeted. “When a liar tells you that there is a ‘genocide’ in Gaza, see it for what it is: a lie.”
The hateful and paranoiac quality of anti-Zionist activists’ rhetoric is reflected in the conduct of pro-Hamas protesters on college campuses, Asaf Romirowsky — an expert on the Middle East and executive director of Scholars for Peace in the Middle East — told The Algemeiner in May, explaining that the country is witnessing a synthesis of Marxism and fascism which cannot tolerate a liberal-democratic state in which Jews have an active role in public life nor the existence of a Jewish state in the Middle East.
“The protests are not about free speech. They are about supporting terrorism, about calling for a genocide of Jews,” he said. “They are violent, verbally and physically. People are ending up in the hospital with injuries. This is analogous to Nazi Germany, and that should be a wake-up call to the American people.”
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
The post US Democrats Try to Stop Bills Designed to Punish Campus Antisemitism first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Want to Talk to Your Friends About Jew Hatred? Read This Book
Noa Tishby. Photo: Courtesy
Considering the surge of Jew hatred in America today, two questions challenge the Jewish community: how did we get here, and where do we go next?
No single answer suffices, but a recently published book — Uncomfortable Conversations with a Jew by Noa Tishby and Emmanuel Acho — does an admirable job answering both questions. Their book is a chronicle of conversations between the two friends, one a white Jew, Noa, and the other a Black Christian, Emmanuel. In their dialogues, they explore the origins of the current surge of anti-Israel, anti-Zionist, and antisemitic sentiments in America today.
Noa explains that for millennia, the world shunned or exiled Jews wherever they landed, which forced them to adapt to diverse environments — physically, culturally, and spiritually. That’s how different Jewish ethnic communities evolved.
Although Jews are ethnically diverse, their detractors claim they gain an advantage because of their “whiteness.”
But Noa points out that this supposed whiteness has not protected them from antisemitic attacks in the past or in the present. Jews are a meager two percent of the American population, yet according to the FBI they are victims of more than 60 percent of all religion-based crimes.
Right-wing extremists do not consider Jews white; left-wing extremists consider Jews as privileged and white. The truth is Jews come in all colors and hues. There are white Ashkenazi Jews from Europe, and there are Jews of color from a variety of countries: Sephardic Jews from Spain, Beta Jews from Ethiopia, Cochin Jews from India, Kaifeng Jews from China, and Mizrachi Jews from the Levant and North Africa. Neither color nor DNA is a litmus test for Jewishness.
Noa deftly deflates the all-too-common canards about Jews: they are money hoarders, powerful, disloyal, cheats, bent on world domination, or greedy, dirty, evil, and race polluters.
She explains that when the dominant society holds those mistaken beliefs, regrettably it filters down to the targeted minority who begin to believe those falsehoods, and that leads to self-hatred. Although Jews have been champions for minority causes and supporters of the oppressed groups for decades, there is an absence of reciprocal support for Jews. In fact, the same groups that received help from Jewish allies have become antagonistic to the only Jewish State in the world, as well as to those who support her.
Noa and Emmanuel agree that the recent outrageous and disingenuous responses of university presidents, when asked if students and faculty calling for the genocide of the Jews is hate-speech, speaks volumes about their lack of moral clarity. The same lack of ethical values applies to the morally confused students and professors who justify and support the atrocities Hamas committed on Oct 7, while endorsing the terrorists’ call for the eradication of Israel.
Emmanuel was most curious to learn about the term Zionist, because it seemed to him to be the root of the tension between Jews and Palestinian Arabs.
Noa gave this succinct definition: “Zionism is the Jewish people’s right to have self-governance on parts of their ancestral land.” She added, “That’s it. It’s Israel’s right to exist.” And “anti-Zionism is the rejection of Jewish nationhood,” and that is a hallmark of antisemitism.
Emmanuel countered Noa’s explanation by saying that the Black community draws parallels between what they believe Jews did to the Palestinians, and what Americans did to Native Americans. Noa said that is not analogous, because indisputable archaeological evidence shows that the Land of Israel dates to antiquity and “the Jewish people are indigenous to the land.” In short, the Jewish people reclaimed their ancestral land.
On the other hand, when the first Europeans landed on the shores of America, they found Native Americans, but not a trace of English, Spanish, Portuguese, or French artifacts, language, or culture.
Noa asserts that today, the very countries who expelled the Jews over the centuries, are now trying to deny them the land of their ancestors. And the United Nations, which helped found the modern State of Israel, is determined to destroy its own creation.
As for for the effort to boycott Israel, Noa says that it is entirely antisemitic, because it started before the establishment of the modern State of Israel in 1948. In 1945, the Arab League called for a boycott of all Jewish products, not just Jewish products made in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, or Haifa — but all products made by Jews anywhere in the world. The boycott has never been about the land; it has always been about the Jews.
The battle against systemic antisemitism and systemic racism forged a natural bond joining Noa and Emmanuel. Emmanuel quipped, “Your career is what you are paid for, and your calling is what you were made for.”
In that sense Noa and Emmanuel “were made” to co-author this book, which is not for the faint of heart. But it delves into issues that polite company prefers to ignore, because it is easier to ignore this hatred of Jews than face the truth of the situation.
Since retiring from IBM Steve Wenick has served as a freelance book reviewer for HarperCollins Publishing and Simon & Schuster. His reviews and articles have appeared in The Times of Israel, The Jerusalem Post, The Algemeiner, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and The Jewish Voice of Southern New Jersey. Steve and his wife are residents of Voorhees, New Jersey.
The post Want to Talk to Your Friends About Jew Hatred? Read This Book first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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As Threat of Hezbollah War Rises, Here’s What You Should Know About Israeli-Lebanese Relations
Mourners carry a coffin during the funeral of Wissam Tawil, a commander of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan forces who according to Lebanese security sources was killed during an Israeli strike on south Lebanon, in Khirbet Selm, Lebanon, Jan. 9, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Aziz Taher
Israel’s relations with Lebanon have historically been less hostile than with some of its other neighbors — despite having no formal diplomatic ties. Today, however, the Israeli-Lebanese border is an extremely dangerous place, with widespread concerns about a major war breaking out in the near future.
So, how did we get here?
Israel’s War of Independence began in 1947 as a civil war between Palestinian Arabs, supported by irregular Arab forces from across the region, and Jews. After David Ben-Gurion declared the Jewish state on May 14, 1948, the armies of five neighboring states, including Lebanon, attacked Israel. The pretext was to “protect Palestine” — but they had their own agendas, which was to destroy Israel and grab as much land as they could.
After the war, Israel reached an armistice agreement with Lebanon on March 23, 1949. Israel’s armistice agreements with Arab states were not final peace treaties, because Arab leaders still refused to accept the Jewish State’s existence.
For decades, Israel heard little from Lebanon, the only neighbor that did not attack Israel during the 1967 Six-Day War. One reason Lebanon was the least antagonistic was its significant Christian population, which made the Lebanese leadership less susceptible to the anti-Israel hostility in other parts of the region.
The 1970s were a terrible era for Lebanon, for a myriad of reasons. The country effectively lost its independence and became dominated by Syria, a Soviet client state. Making matters worse, Yasser Arafat’s Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) settled in Lebanon after being expelled from Jordan.
The PLO wreaked havoc in various ways, including targeting Israeli communities near the border with rocket fire and other attacks. This provoked the devastating 1982 Lebanon War between Israel and the PLO, which was fought on Lebanese territory.
While the IDF was successful in compelling Arafat and the PLO to leave Lebanon for Tunisia, a new force filled the vacuum in southern Lebanon: Hezbollah, a terrorist group and proxy of Iran’s extremist regime.
Hezbollah wasted no time creating terror locally and internationally. On October 23, 1983, just a year after the conclusion of Israel’s war with the PLO, a Hezbollah suicide bombing at an American Marine barracks in Beirut murdered 241 American service members. The attack is just one of several devastating suicide bombings that have been carried out by Hezbollah.
Hezbollah’s suicide bombing murdered 85 people at a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires on July 18, 1994. That Argentina has never successfully prosecuted anyone for the crime is indicative of the depth of Hezbollah’s penetration in South America.
As the culmination of meetings beginning with the Declaration of Principles in September 1993 and the Oslo Accords, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and PLO Chairman Yassir Arafat met at the Camp David Summit in July 2000, to negotiate an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Arafat ultimately rejected a proposed two-state solution that would have established an independent Palestinian state in all of Gaza and almost all of the West Bank — a decision President Clinton called a “colossal historical blunder.”
Two months earlier, the IDF withdrew from southern Lebanon, after spending nearly two decades keeping terrorist threats away from Israel’s northern border. Some analysts believe Israel’s unilateral disengagement played a role in stiffening Arafat’s resolve to reject a final peace agreement. Wait long enough, his thinking went, and the Israelis will simply abandon territory. The upside of Israel’s withdrawal was that withdrawal fulfilled UN Security Council Resolution 425.
The next major flashpoint in Israeli-Lebanese relations was in 2006, when Hezbollah kidnapped and killed three Israeli soldiers while simultaneously launching rockets into Israeli communities as a diversion. This aggression sparked a 34-day conflict between Hezbollah and Israel that was also fought in Lebanon, and constituted the most recent major escalation in the area, until October 7.
Lebanon hasn’t been a fully independent state since the 1970s due to Syrian and Iranian (Hezbollah) interference. In their effort to destroy Israel, outside forces largely destroyed Lebanon.
To this day, more than 60,000 Israelis are internally displaced from their homes in the north due to over countless thousands of rocket, missile, and drone attacks in northern Israel, the vast majority of which were fired by Hezbollah, since October 7.
This is the picture that the American public should familiarize itself with as all-out war between Israel and Hezbollah looms.
The lack of historical context, media bias, and disinformation on social media has created mass confusion during this escalation, just as it has during the October 7th war. With a 24/7 news cycle bringing content without context, understanding this history is necessary to properly understand what Israel is up against in the region.
The post As Threat of Hezbollah War Rises, Here’s What You Should Know About Israeli-Lebanese Relations first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Despite Vast Evidence to the Contrary, Media Is Still Pushing Lies About Food Availability in Gaza
Aerial view shows a World Central Kitchen (WCK) barge loaded with food arriving off Gaza, where there is risk of famine after five months of Israel’s military campaign, in this handout image released March 15, 2024. Photo: Israel Defense Forces/Handout via REUTERS
We’ve been through this before.
In June, the IPC Famine Review Committee said there is no famine in the Gaza Strip as of yet. The UN subsequently acknowledged the IPC’s latest report. HonestReporting has also done its due diligence to understand what is really happening in Gaza.
But now, UN special “experts” are still claiming there’s “no doubt” that there is a famine:
With the death of these children from starvation despite medical treatment in central Gaza, there is no doubt that famine has spread from northern Gaza into central and southern Gaza.
They also despicably repeated the lie that Israel is committing a genocide, even after though the biased International Court of Justice (IJC) decided that Israel’s fight against Hamas in Gaza is not considered a genocide.
To begin with, UN officials or those claiming to be UN experts cannot just declare an accusation of this nature in an unofficial capacity. Second, it’s all just opinion.
That’s all it took, however, for the media take the lead. They apparently think that it’s impossible to understand the inference that there must be a famine if bodies like the IPC put out real data reports every few months over whether or not there is evidence of a famine in Gaza.
But who cares about logic, right?
Journalists understand very well how the public consumes information, and they know how it views bodies like the UN — that people take their word as an official authority. Yet, the media continue to publish articles, irresponsibly portraying the statement of these UN “experts” as if it is an official UN one.
Or take this CNN piece, which makes it seem like the claim of a famine is an official UN statement:
The recent deaths of more Palestinian children due to hunger and malnutrition in the Gaza Strip indicates that famine has spread across the entire enclave, according to a United Nations statement, citing independent experts.
These “experts” are part of UN Special Procedures, and they are volunteers, not official UN staff.
Therefore, many of these people are public about their own personal opinions, like one UN special rapporteur, antisemite Francesca Albanese.
Francesca Albanese has previously apologized after antisemitic posts on her personal social media profile were uncovered and has likened the Jewish state to Nazism.
More on Albanese’s deeply compromised background from @UNWatch‘s @HillelNeuer. https://t.co/XEa5xr6BFm
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) July 10, 2024
One of Albanese’s most recent offenses was being caught lying about Gaza casualty figures via her X account (formerly Twitter) by making false claims about the contents of a letter in The Lancet, which made a careless estimation that 186,000 deaths could be “attributed” to the Gaza toll — even though this hasn’t happened or been proven by any body.
Another “expert,” Michael Fakhri, has a history of allowing his bias to cloud his judgment.
Michael Fakhri. As @SimonPlosker noted in 2021 in @Jerusalem_Post, the UN’s Special Rapporteur on the right to food spent his time promoting the boycott campaign against Israel while ignoring human rights abuser states that let their people starve. https://t.co/oZXwA0r8dv
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) July 10, 2024
Some of the UN special rapporteurs signed off at the bottom of the letter seem to even have little relevance outside their volunteer work at the UN. Nonetheless, when one sees “UN experts” in the headline, they don’t realize that these people don’t represent the UN in an official capacity.
The public also doesn’t know that some, like Albanese and Fakhri, have an anti-Israel agenda. The biggest question then remains: when will the media take caution before spreading the propaganda of agenda-driven “UN experts?”
The author is a contributor to HonestReporting, a Jerusalem-based media watchdog with a focus on antisemitism and anti-Israel bias — where a version of this article first appeared.
The post Despite Vast Evidence to the Contrary, Media Is Still Pushing Lies About Food Availability in Gaza first appeared on Algemeiner.com.