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‘Keep Heads Down’: Chuck Schumer Recommended Columbia Administration Not Pay Attention to Antisemitism Criticism
US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) holds a press conference in the US Capitol in Washington, DC, April 23, 2024. Photo: Annabelle Gordon / CNP/Sipa USA via Reuters Connect
US Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) advised the Columbia University administration to “keep heads down” in response to criticism they faced for their handling of surging antisemitism on campus, according to a new report from the US House Committee on Education and the Workforce.
“Universities’ political problems are really only among Republicans,” Schumer reportedly said, suggesting Democrats did not have a problem with the way administrators were handling antisemitism on campus.
The report sparked backlash against Schumer because in the aftermath of Hamas’s Oct 7. attack on Israel, in which the Palestinian terrorist group killed 1,200 people and took 251 hostages, anti-Israel and oftentimes pro-terrorist activism exploded on college campuses across the US. In the weeks following last Oct. 7, dozens of videos of young people tearing down posters put up to cultivate awareness about the hostages went viral. Additionally, Students for Justice in Palestine chapters across the country came out in support of the terrorist attack, framing it as legitimate resistance.
When asked, Schumer and his staff indicated they did not believe it was necessary for the university’s leaders to meet with Republicans,” the congressional report stated.
One of Columbia’s board of trustees co-chairs, David Greenwald, wrote in a message to the school’s president that “if we are keeping our head down, maybe we shouldn’t meet with Republicans.”
The more than 300-page report found “a stunning lack of accountability by university leaders for students engaging in antisemitic harassment, assault, trespass, and destruction of school property.”
In a statement to the New York Post, Schumer spokesman Angelo Roefaro said the report was not accurate.
“Sen. Schumer regularly and forcefully condemned antisemitic acts at Columbia and elsewhere, saying ‘when protests shift to antisemitism, verbal abuse, intimidation, or glorification of Oct. 7 violence against Jewish people, that crosses the line.’ He conveyed this point publicly and to administrators privately,” Roefaro said.
He added, “It’s worthy to note here that Republicans are citing words from someone who is not Chuck Schumer. That is called hearsay.”
This incident reportedly occurred a few months into the Israel-Hamas war, and before “Gaza Solidarity Encampments” began to pop up on campuses across the country during the spring, and another wave of scrutiny followed.
The Algemeiner documented dozens of statements at Columbia just within the first week of the movement that were explicitly pro-terrorist.
Some encampments had to be forcefully removed after protesters got violent, invaded school buildings, and/or resisted the police when asked to disperse.
The response by universities to all of this was lackluster, claimed the report, which concluded that there was “a stunning lack of accountability by university leaders for students engaging in antisemitic harassment, assault, trespass, and destruction of school property.”
The post ‘Keep Heads Down’: Chuck Schumer Recommended Columbia Administration Not Pay Attention to Antisemitism Criticism first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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US to Deploy B-52s, Warships to Middle East as Aircraft Carrier Departs
Israeli Air Force F-15 fighter jets escort a US Air Force B-52 bomber through Israeli airspace on March 7, 2021. Photo: IDF Twitter.
The United States said on Friday it will deploy B-52 bombers, fighter jets, refueling aircraft and Navy destroyers to the Middle East, in a readjustment of military assets as the Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group prepares to leave the region.
The Pentagon said in a statement that deployments would take place in the coming months and demonstrated the flexibility of the U.S. military movements around the world.
“Should Iran, its partners, or its proxies use this moment to target American personnel or interests in the region, the United States will take every measure necessary to defend our people,” Pentagon spokesperson Air Force Major General Patrick Ryder said in a statement.
The United States has had as many as two aircraft carriers in the Middle East during the past year of soaring tensions since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in Oct. 2023.
The Lincoln’s withdrawal will create an aircraft carrier gap until another is cycled into the Middle East.
The latest adjustment in US forces in the region follows direct exchanges of fire in October between Israel and Iran. Israel is also fighting Iran-backed Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, and has carried out strikes in Yemen after coming under attack from Iran-aligned Houthi terrorists.
The United States has pledged to help defend Israel against attack and to safeguard US forces in the Middle East, who have been attacked by Iran-backed groups in Syria, Iraq, Jordan and off the coast of Yemen.
The post US to Deploy B-52s, Warships to Middle East as Aircraft Carrier Departs first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Delayed Gaza Polio Vaccinations to Resume on Saturday, Agencies Say
Palestinian child is vaccinated against polio during the second round of a vaccination campaign, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, October 14, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Ramadan Abed/File Photo
The third phase of a delayed polio vaccination campaign in Gaza will begin on Saturday, aid organizations said on Friday.
The polio campaign began on Sept. 1 after the World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed in August that a baby was partially paralyzed by the type 2 polio virus, the first such case in the territory in 25 years.
The humanitarian pause to conduct the campaign had been agreed but WHO and the U.N. children’s agency UNICEF said the area covered by the agreement had been substantially reduced from the previous pause in September, and would now cover only Gaza City.
The final phase of the campaign had aimed to reach an estimated 119,000 children under 10 years old in northern Gaza with a second dose of novel oral polio vaccine type 2 (nOPV2). However, achieving this target is now unlikely due to access constraints, the statement said.
COGAT, the Israeli army’s Palestinian civilian affairs agency, said it was helping to coordinate the three-day campaign and once it was complete, there would be an assessment to decide whether the schedule would be extended.
“This coordination will ensure that the population can safely reach medical centers where the vaccines will be administered,” it said in a statement.
The post Delayed Gaza Polio Vaccinations to Resume on Saturday, Agencies Say first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Rockets from Lebanon Wound 11 in Israel
A view of a house that was hit, following a projectiles attack from Lebanon towards Israel, amid cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel, in the central Israeli town of Tira, November 2, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Rami Amichay
Rockets fired from Lebanon wounded 11 people in central Israel on Saturday, Israeli emergency services said, after one of them hit a house, as prospects for a ceasefire dimmed.
Fighting has escalated between Israeli forces and the Lebanese Hezbollah terrorist group since September, and hopes that a US push this week for a ceasefire have faded.
“We went out and saw dust, children screaming, women screaming and everyone went to the house that was struck,” said Qasim Mohab, a resident of Tira, where the rocket hit. “We were able to evacuate and rescue those who were inside the house, and thank God we were blessed that there was no one killed.”
Around the time the rockets hit, Hezbollah said it had targeted a military base on the outskirts of Tel Aviv.
Israel’s ambulance service said that 11 people were hurt by shrapnel. Air raid sirens continued to sound in northern Israel as rocket fire and drone attacks from Lebanon continued, the military said.
On Friday, Lebanon’s health ministry said 52 people were killed in Israeli strikes on more than a dozen towns in the Baalbek region, which has UNESCO-listed Roman ruins.
The Israeli military said on Saturday it had killed two Hezbollah commanders in the area of Tyre on Friday. There was no immediate comment from Hezbollah.
Iran-backed Hezbollah began firing rockets at Israel in support of its Palestinian ally Hamas a day after Hamas terrorists attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages back to Gaza.
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