RSS
A Modern Lesson From the Torah: Stand Up, Be Proud, and Be Counted
University of California, Davis. Photo: Daderot / Wikimedia Commons.
Tucked into the flatlands of Northern California, somewhere between the political corridors of Sacramento and the tech utopia of San Francisco and the Bay Area, lies Davis. It’s not the kind of place you stumble into by accident. If you’re in Davis, it’s always on purpose — and that purpose is UC Davis.
Originally a sleepy agricultural outpost, Davis was transformed in the early 20th century when the University of California decided it needed a dedicated “Farm School.” That modest institution eventually grew into UC Davis — now a world-class research university with over 40,000 students, renowned for its cutting-edge work in agriculture, environmental science, and veterinary medicine.
But despite its academic pedigree, Davis has never lost its off-the-beaten-path charm. It’s quirky, a little rustic, and proudly so. Downtown boasts the Davis Food Co-op — a community-owned grocery store on G Street — and on any given Saturday, the most heated debate will likely be about compost bins or whether it will rain.
It’s the kind of place where you expect friendly farmers markets, earnest book clubs, and maybe a spirited debate over heirloom tomatoes. What you don’t expect are flag-waving fanatics calling for the destruction of the world’s only Jewish state.
So why am I telling you all this? Because earlier this week I hopped on a plane to Sacramento and made my way to Davis at the invitation of Dr. Amir Kol — a gentle soul and Israeli expat who teaches at the world-renowned UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine. In addition to teaching, Amir does groundbreaking stem cell research that could one day help cure life-threatening diseases.
Or at least, that’s how I see him. But to a growing chorus of campus agitators, Amir Kol isn’t a mild-mannered scientist. Oh no — he’s a war criminal. A former IDF soldier. A baby-killer. A genocide supporter. A full-blown villain in their warped worldview.
Before October 7th, Amir lived a quiet, unassuming life. Like most of us, he was aware that antisemitism existed, but it didn’t touch his day-to-day. He wasn’t political. He wasn’t an activist.
But after Hamas’s horrific October 7th massacre — and the grotesque reaction on campus that followed, with Jewish students harassed, Israeli flags torn down, and Hamas banners waved — Amir realized he could no longer stay silent. He began to organize Jewish get-togethers and to advocate to the administration for the pro-Israel community on campus.
Without meaning to, Amir soon became a lighthouse — a source of light for others who felt isolated and afraid. And believe me, many Jews at UC Davis feel exactly that. According to the campus Chabad shliach, Rabbi Mendel Greenberg, there are an estimated 2,000 Jewish students on campus.
Fewer than 20 showed up to hear me speak. I asked where the rest were. The answer came back in three categories: indifferent, intimidated, or — and this is the most disturbing — absorbed into the very protest movements that vilify Jews and demonize Israel.
It’s in this surreal context that I was introduced to something called the MAPA Report. No, it’s not a new brand of hummus. MAPA stands for Muslims, Arabs, Palestinians, and Allies — an acronym I’d never encountered before, now proudly formalized by the City of Davis Human Relations Commission in a 60-page document that makes George Orwell’s 1984 look like an optimistic fairy tale.
This “report” — and I use that term loosely — is built entirely on subjective anecdotes, unverified stories, and the worst kind of identity politics. It paints Davis — yes, sleepy, bike-friendly, compost-loving Davis — as a bubbling cauldron of Islamophobia and anti-Palestinian bigotry.
Seriously? Not only is there no verifiable data in the report, there’s no methodology. It’s just raw feelings, haphazardly compiled and amateurishly packaged as “findings” in a slickly designed deck.
Amir Kol sits on the Commission and was at the meeting where this nonsense was presented for adoption. He offered a sane, balanced critique. Public comment was no less scathing. But common sense didn’t stand a chance — the other six commissioners rubber-stamped the report anyway.
Meanwhile, over on campus, Chancellor Gary May and his administration are completely enthralled by the protesters. They call it “de-escalation.” But let’s be honest — it’s not de-escalation. It’s appeasement. UC Davis allowed protesters to set up illegal encampments for months — intimidating students, defacing property, glorifying Hamas — while the administration shrugged and claimed their hands were tied.
The US Department of Education didn’t buy it. After investigating multiple complaints of discrimination and harassment from UC students, they concluded that the UC hierarchy had failed to respond promptly or adequately to antisemitic incidents during the protests.
But Chancellor May thinks he deserves a medal. In his version of events, UC Davis achieved a monumental victory: “There were no protests at graduation.” That’s what he’s proud of. That’s what counts as success. Of course there were no protests — the protesters had already won. The administration was on their side.
In Parshat Bamidbar, God commands Moses to count the Israelites — not as a faceless crowd, but individually, by name. This wasn’t merely a census — it was an act of recognition. Each tribe, each family, each person was counted, acknowledged, and affirmed.
The message is unmistakable: in a vast and hostile wilderness, survival begins with identity. There is no other way to make it through. You need to know who you are, stand proudly in your place, and be counted as part of something greater.
What’s happening in Davis — and on campuses across America — is the exact inverse. Jews aren’t being counted — they’re being erased. Jewish identity isn’t recognized, it’s condemned. Jews are being recast as villains in someone else’s twisted narrative. Instead of being considered, they’re being canceled.
Instead of being allowed pride in their national heritage — a right now sacrosanct for every other group in every sphere of society — Jews are being told to sit down, stay silent – or worse, to join enthusiastically in their own erasure.
But Bamidbar won’t let us do that. The Torah says: Stand up. Be counted. Know your name, your tribe, your people. Don’t hide. And never — ever — apologize for existing. That’s what brave Amir Kol is doing. And that’s what those who showed up to hear me speak at UC Davis this week are trying to do, even if we were just a handful.
Because yes, it may be true that you don’t end up in Davis by accident. But if you’re Jewish — or unapologetically pro-Israel — you certainly won’t survive there, or anywhere, if you’re invisible.
The author is a rabbi in Beverly Hills, California.
The post A Modern Lesson From the Torah: Stand Up, Be Proud, and Be Counted first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Israel Blocks Ramallah Meeting with Arab Ministers, Israeli Official Says
A closed Israeli military gate stands near Ramallah in the West Bank, February 18, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ammar Awad
Israel will not allow a planned meeting in the Palestinian administrative capital of Ramallah, in the West Bank, to go ahead, an Israeli official said on Saturday, after Arab ministers planning to attend were stopped from coming.
The move, days after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing government announced one of the largest expansions of settlements in the West Bank in years, underlined escalating tensions over the issue of international recognition of a future Palestinian state.
Saturday’s meeting comes ahead of an international conference, co-chaired by France and Saudi Arabia, that is due to be held in New York on June 17-20 to discuss the issue of Palestinian statehood, which Israel fiercely opposes.
The delegation of senior Arab officials due to visit Ramallah – including the Jordanian, Egyptian, Saudi Arabian and Bahraini foreign ministers – postponed the visit after “Israel’s obstruction of it,” Jordan’s foreign ministry said in a statement, adding that the block was “a clear breach of Israel’s obligations as an occupying force.”
The ministers required Israeli consent to travel to the West Bank from Jordan.
An Israeli official said the ministers intended to take part in “a provocative meeting” to discuss promoting the establishment of a Palestinian state.
“Such a state would undoubtedly become a terrorist state in the heart of the land of Israel,” the official said. “Israel will not cooperate with such moves aimed at harming it and its security.”
A Saudi source told Reuters that Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud had delayed a planned trip to the West Bank.
Israel has come under increasing pressure from the United Nations and European countries which favour a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, under which an independent Palestinian state would exist alongside Israel.
French President Emmanuel Macron said on Friday that recognizing a Palestinian state was not only a “moral duty but a political necessity.”
Palestinians want the West Bank territory, which was seized by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war, as the core of a future state along with Gaza and East Jerusalem.
But the area is now criss-crossed with settlements that have squeezed some 3 million Palestinians into pockets increasingly cut off from each other though a network of military checkpoints.
Defense Minister Israel Katz said the announcement this week of 22 new settlements in the West Bank was an “historic moment” for settlements and “a clear message to Macron.” He said recognition of a Palestinian state would be “thrown into the dustbin of history.”
The post Israel Blocks Ramallah Meeting with Arab Ministers, Israeli Official Says first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Gaza Aid Supplies Hit by Looting as Hamas Ceasefire Response Awaited
Palestinians carry aid supplies which they received from the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in the central Gaza Strip, May 29, 2025. REUTERS/Ramadan Abed
Armed men hijacked dozens of aid trucks entering the Gaza Strip overnight and hundreds of desperate Palestinians joined in to take supplies, local aid groups said on Saturday as officials waited for Hamas to respond to the latest ceasefire proposals.
The incident was the latest in a series that has underscored the shaky security situation hampering the delivery of aid into Gaza, following the easing of a weeks-long Israeli blockade earlier this month.
US President Donald Trump said on Friday he believed a ceasefire agreement was close but Hamas has said it is still studying the latest proposals from his special Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff. The White House said on Thursday that Israel had agreed to the proposals.
The proposals would see a 60-day truce and the exchange of 28 of the 58 hostages still held in Gaza for more than 1,200 Palestinian prisoners and detainees, along with the entry of humanitarian aid into the enclave.
On Saturday, the Israeli military, which relaunched its air and ground campaign in March following a two-month truce, said it was continuing to hit targets in Gaza, including sniper posts and had killed what it said was the head of a Hamas weapons manufacturing site.
The campaign has cleared large areas along the boundaries of the Gaza Strip, squeezing the population of more than 2 million into an ever narrower section along the coast and around the southern city of Khan Younis.
Israel imposed a blockade on all supplies entering the enclave at the beginning of March in an effort to weaken Hamas and has found itself under increasing pressure from an international community shocked by the increasingly desperate humanitarian situation the blockade has created.
The United Nations said on Friday the situation in Gaza is the worst since the start of the war began 19 months ago, with the entire population facing the risk of famine despite a resumption of limited aid deliveries earlier this month.
Israel has been allowing a limited number of trucks from the World Food Program and other international groups to bring flour to bakeries in Gaza but deliveries have been hampered by repeated incidents of looting.
At the same time, a separate system, run by a US-backed group called the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation has been delivering meals and food packages at three designated distribution sites.
However, aid groups have refused to cooperate with the GHF, which they say is not neutral, and say the amount of aid allowed in falls far short of the needs of a population at risk of famine.
“The aid that’s being sent now makes a mockery of the mass tragedy unfolding under our watch,” Philippe Lazzarini, head of the main U.N. relief organization for Palestinians, said in a message on the social media platform X.
NO BREAD IN WEEKS
The World Food Program said it brought 77 trucks carrying flour into Gaza overnight and early on Saturday and all of them were stopped on the way, with food taken by hungry people.
“After nearly 80 days of a total blockade, communities are starving and they are no longer willing to watch food pass them by,” it said in a statement.
Amjad Al-Shawa, head of an umbrella group representing Palestinian aid groups, said the dire situation was being exploited by armed groups which were attacking some of the aid convoys.
He said hundreds more trucks were needed and accused Israel of a “systematic policy of starvation.”
Overnight on Saturday, he said trucks had been stopped by armed groups near Khan Younis as they were headed towards a World Food Programme warehouse in Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza and hundreds of desperate people had carried off supplies.
“We could understand that some are driven by hunger and starvation, some may not have eaten bread in several weeks, but we can’t understand armed looting, and it is not acceptable at all,” he said.
Israel says it is facilitating aid deliveries, pointing to its endorsement of the new GHF distribution centers and its consent for other aid trucks to enter Gaza.
Instead it accuses Hamas of stealing supplies intended for civilians and using them to entrench its hold on Gaza, which it had been running since 2007.
The post Gaza Aid Supplies Hit by Looting as Hamas Ceasefire Response Awaited first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Hamas Seeks Changes in US Gaza Proposal; Witkoff Calls Response ‘Unacceptable’
US President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy-designate Steve Witkoff gives a speech at the inaugural parade inside Capital One Arena on the inauguration day of Trump’s second presidential term, in Washington, DC, Jan. 20, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Carlos Barria
Hamas said on Saturday it was seeking amendments to a US-backed proposal for a temporary ceasefire with Israel in Gaza, but President Donald Trump’s envoy rejected the group’s response as “totally unacceptable.”
The Palestinian terrorist group said it was willing to release 10 living hostages and hand over the bodies of 18 dead in exchange for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons. But Hamas reiterated demands for an end to the war and withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza, conditions Israel has rejected.
A Hamas official described the group’s response to the proposals from Trump’s special Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff as “positive” but said it was seeking some amendments. The official did not elaborate on the changes being sought by the group.
“This response aims to achieve a permanent ceasefire, a complete withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, and to ensure the flow of humanitarian aid to our people in the Strip,” Hamas said in a statement.
The proposals would see a 60-day truce and the exchange of 28 of the 58 hostages still held in Gaza for more than 1,200 Palestinian prisoners and detainees, along with the entry of humanitarian aid into the enclave.
A Palestinian official familiar with the talks told Reuters that among amendments Hamas is seeking is the release of the hostages in three phases over the 60-day truce and more aid distribution in different areas. Hamas also wants guarantees the deal will lead to a permanent ceasefire, the official said.
There was no immediate response from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office to the Hamas statement.
Israel has previously rejected Hamas’ conditions, instead demanding the complete disarmament of the group and its dismantling as a military and governing force, along with the return of all 58 remaining hostages.
Trump said on Friday he believed a ceasefire agreement was close after the latest proposals, and the White House said on Thursday that Israel had agreed to the terms.
Saying he had received Hamas’ response, Witkoff wrote in a posting on X: “It is totally unacceptable and only takes us backward. Hamas should accept the framework proposal we put forward as the basis for proximity talks, which we can begin immediately this coming week.”
On Saturday, the Israeli military said it had killed Mohammad Sinwar, Hamas’ Gaza chief on May 13, confirming what Netanyahu said earlier this week.
Sinwar, the younger brother of Yahya Sinwar, the group’s deceased leader and mastermind of the October 2023 attack on Israel, was the target of an Israeli strike on a hospital in southern Gaza. Hamas has neither confirmed nor denied his death.
The Israeli military, which relaunched its air and ground campaign in March following a two-month truce, said on Saturday it was continuing to hit targets in Gaza, including sniper posts and had killed what it said was the head of a Hamas weapons manufacturing site.
The campaign has cleared large areas along the boundaries of the Gaza Strip, squeezing the population of more than 2 million into an ever narrower section along the coast and around the southern city of Khan Younis.
Israel imposed a blockade on all supplies entering the enclave at the beginning of March in an effort to weaken Hamas and has found itself under increasing pressure from an international community shocked by the desperate humanitarian situation the blockade has created.
On Saturday, aid groups said dozens of World Food Program trucks carrying flour to Gaza bakeries had been hijacked by armed groups and subsequently looted by people desperate for food after weeks of mounting hunger.
“After nearly 80 days of a total blockade, communities are starving and they are no longer willing to watch food pass them by,” the WFP said in a statement.
‘A MOCKERY’
The incident was the latest in a series that has underscored the shaky security situation hampering the delivery of aid into Gaza, following the easing of a weeks-long Israeli blockade earlier this month.
The United Nations said on Friday the situation in Gaza is the worst since the start of the war 19 months ago, with the entire population facing the risk of famine despite a resumption of limited aid deliveries earlier this month.
“The aid that’s being sent now makes a mockery of the mass tragedy unfolding under our watch,” Philippe Lazzarini, head of the main U.N. relief organization for Palestinians, said in a message on X.
Israel has been allowing a limited number of trucks from the World Food Program and other international groups to bring flour to bakeries in Gaza but deliveries have been hampered by repeated incidents of looting.
A separate system, run by a US-backed group called the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, has been delivering meals and food packages at three designated distribution sites.
However, aid groups have refused to cooperate with the GHF, which they say is not neutral, and say the amount of aid allowed in falls far short of the needs of a population at risk of famine.
Amjad Al-Shawa, head of an umbrella group representing Palestinian aid groups, said the dire situation was being exploited by armed groups which were attacking some of the aid convoys.
He said hundreds more trucks were needed and accused Israel of a “systematic policy of starvation.”
Israel denies operating a policy of starvation and says it is facilitating aid deliveries, pointing to its endorsement of the new GHF distribution centers and its consent for other aid trucks to enter Gaza.
Instead it accuses Hamas of stealing supplies intended for civilians and using them to entrench its hold on Gaza, which it had been running since 2007.
Hamas denies looting supplies and has executed a number of suspected looters.
The post Hamas Seeks Changes in US Gaza Proposal; Witkoff Calls Response ‘Unacceptable’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
You must be logged in to post a comment Login