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Amid Anti-Jewish and Anti-Israel Persecution, We Can Find Hope in Our History
I have always tried to live my life by the Hanlon’s Razor rule: “Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.”
This pithy observation, attributed to Professor Robert J. Hanlon of Thompson Rivers University, is a modern, tongue-in-cheek derivative of its more famous predecessor, Occam’s Razor. The latter, a philosophical rule proposed by 14th-century English monk William of Ockham, states: “If an event has two possible explanations, the one that requires the fewest assumptions is usually correct.”
The problem is that this week, I find myself caught between the two. The seemingly stupid decision by the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to propose arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes, alongside Yihya Sinwar and two other Hamas leaders, is far too malicious to be adequately explained by stupidity.
While the simplest assumption should be that someone representing international law is solely interested in upholding justice, this decision by Karim Asad Ahmad Khan KC to tarnish the reputation of the leader of a democratic country — a country with a robust judiciary that has previously convicted both a prime minister and a president — suggests motivations other than justice. It certainly demands more than a blind assumption that Khan is fair-minded.
Is it simply a coincidence that just last week, Khan faced strong criticism at a UN Security Council meeting from Libya for not issuing arrest warrants for those responsible for alleged “massacres” in the Gaza Strip?
Denouncing Khan for his inaction, Libyan envoy Taher M. El-Sonni said, “The world wants you to discover those involved in the mass graves, mass crimes against children, the genocide, the ethnic cleansing perpetrated in the ‘holocaust’ of the 21st century, the Gaza holocaust.”
Just to be clear: Libya is a country where war crimes are perpetrated often, and where tens of thousands have died in the endless and brutal civil war that has raged since 2011. Yet now this country has become the impetus for an international legal body to issue spurious, unfounded accusations against Israel?
Does it make any sense that criticism from a country mired in its own atrocities has seemingly pressured the ICC prosecutor into targeting a democratic nation with a strong judiciary that is in the middle of a defensive war against self-declared genocidal terrorists?
And then, in an interview with Piers Morgan a day after the ICC prosecutor announced the arrest warrants, the ever-urbane President of Israel, Isaac Herzog, revealed that on the very day that Khan made his announcement, ICC representatives had been slated to arrive in Israel — with Israel’s ready agreement, despite not being part of the 1998 Rome Statute which binds countries to the ICC. But just hours before Khan publicized the warrants, Israel was informed that the ICC delegation wasn’t coming to Israel.
“It shocked all of us, because we act in good faith,” Herzog told Morgan. “We are willing to have a dialogue with any international body that is relevant, honest, and can have a dialogue.” But it would appear that Khan and the ICC fail on all three counts.
In early December, Khan issued a statement at the conclusion of his visit to the scenes of devastation in southern Israel and meetings with the Palestinian leadership in Ramallah. His opening sentence should have forewarned the world of his political position, and of where he was headed with his investigations: “I have just concluded my first visit to Israel and the State of Palestine.” [emphasis added]
Surely Khan knows that there is no “State of Palestine”? For him to use an official statement as the platform to promote a nonexistent entity, particularly during a conflict initiated by terrorists seeking exactly such concessions, was unconscionable.
So, notwithstanding Khan’s declaration that his visit had been “to ensure that the protection of the law is felt by all,” his sneaky inclusion of politically loaded terminology in the opening words of his statement said it all.
What is particularly galling is that Khan had been invited to Israel by family members and friends of Israeli citizens who were either killed or taken hostage by Hamas and other armed Palestinian groups on October 7th.
In his statement, Khan said that in both Kibbutz Beeri and Kibbutz Kfar Azza, as well as at the site of the Nova Music Festival in Re’im, he “witnessed scenes of calculated cruelty” and that it was clear that the terrorists who perpetrated these atrocities were guilty of “some of the most serious international crimes that shock the conscience of humanity, crimes which the ICC was established to address.”
Khan continued: “In my meeting with the families of the victims of these attacks, my message was clear: we stand ready to work in partnership with them as part of our ongoing work to hold those responsible to account.”
But with his decision to issue arrest warrants for Prime Minister Netanyahu and Defense Minister Gallant, Khan has betrayed those families, along with the memory of every victim who died or was kidnapped at the sites he visited.
In the Haftarah for Parshat Behar, the prophet Jeremiah is confined within King Zedekiah’s royal compound, prophesying the destruction of Jerusalem and the exile of the Jewish people. Yet, even amidst these dire circumstances, God reveals to Jeremiah that his cousin Hanamel will offer him ancestral land, and instructs him to purchase it. Jeremiah follows God’s directive, transferring money and documenting the purchase in the presence of witnesses — even as he continues to predict doom and gloom.
Jeremiah’s transaction is laden with symbolism. Through Jeremiah, God proclaims that “houses and fields and vineyards shall be purchased again in this land” (Jer. 32:15) — a message of hope and redemption even as prevailing circumstances seemed dire. Despite the hardship, the Jewish people were assured that their land is and will remain theirs, and that no enemy could ever sever the irrevocable bond between the Jews and Eretz Yisrael.
Today, in the face of bias from prosecutor Khan and the ICC, and the relentless efforts of those who wish to undo any Jewish connection to Israel “from the River to the Sea,” we find strength in our proud heritage and in the powerful prophecies of Hebrew Scripture. Just as Jeremiah’s purchase symbolized hope amidst despair, so too does our presence in Israel as a Jewish sovereign state after two millennia of bitter exile represent a fulfillment of ancient prophecies and the unbreakable bond with our land.
Despite the challenges and the malign intentions of detractors and haters, our future — both short term and long term — is firmly rooted in the country of our heritage. In the darkest of times, the promise remains: “Houses and fields and vineyards shall be purchased again in this land.”
Kfar Aza, Beeri, Re’im, and Sderot — as well as the many empty towns on the northern border that have been evacuated to avoid Hezbollah rockets raining down from Lebanon — will flourish again soon, fully free of the terrorist threat that has caused and is causing so much suffering.
The Jewish story is one of resilience and unyielding hope, and it is this unwavering faith that will continue to guide us through the pain of unfounded accusations and unforgivable attacks, towards a future where our connection to our ancestral homeland remains unbroken and triumphant. This is not just hope; it is reality.
The author is a rabbi in Beverly Hills, California.
The post Amid Anti-Jewish and Anti-Israel Persecution, We Can Find Hope in Our History first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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As Gaza War Continues, Hamas Calls for Global Protests While Israel Marks Breakthroughs in Medical Innovation
A pro-Hamas march in London, United Kingdom, Feb. 17, 2024. Photo: Chrissa Giannakoudi via Reuters Connect
As the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas calls for global protests amid stalled Gaza ceasefire talks, Israel has broken new ground despite the ongoing conflict, achieving a major medical breakthrough in synthetic human kidney development.
The contrast illustrates a stark contrast between the priorities of Hamas, an international designated terrorist group that has ruled Gaza for nearly two decades, and Israel, the lone democracy in the Middle East that has long been a leader in tech and medical innovation.
On Wednesday, Hamas urged worldwide protests in support of Palestinians, calling on the international community “to denounce Israel’s genocidal war and starvation policy in Gaza.”
“We call for continuing and escalating the popular pressure in all cities and squares on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday … through rallies, demonstrations and sit-ins outside the embassies of the Israeli regime and its allies, particularly in the US,” the statement read.
The Palestinian terrorist group also called to expose what it described as “the terrorism of the Zio-Nazi occupation against defenseless civilians.”
Hamas’s latest move against Israel comes amid stalled indirect negotiations over a proposed 60-day ceasefire and hostage release deal, which collapsed last month after the group vowed it would not disarm unless an independent Palestinian state is established — rejecting a key Israeli demand to end the war in Gaza.
In its statement, Hamas demanded the opening of all border crossings to allow immediate aid into the war-torn enclave and urged a global condemnation of “the international community’s inaction on the Israeli crimes.”
Amid mounting international pressure to address the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, Israel announced new measures to facilitate the delivery of aid, including temporary pauses in fighting in certain areas and the creation of protected routes for aid convoys.
Israeli officials have previously accused Hamas of diverting aid for terrorist activities and selling supplies at inflated prices to civilians, while also blaming the United Nations and other foreign organizations for enabling this diversion.
Hamas’s statement also emphasized that the “global resistance movement must continue until Israeli aggression on Gaza ends and the siege on the coastal strip is lifted.”
Meanwhile, as Israel faces escalating hostilities and the heavy toll of war, the Jewish state continues to push the boundaries of innovation and resilience, achieving new medical breakthroughs while confronting ongoing challenges.
In a major medical breakthrough, scientists at Sheba Medical Center and Tel Aviv University have successfully grown a synthetic 3D miniature human kidney in a lab using specialized stem cells derived from kidney tissue — one of the most promising advances in regenerative medicine.
Dr. Dror Harats, chairman of Sheba’s Research Authority, described this achievement as a reflection of Israel’s leading role in global medical innovation.
“Despite growing efforts to isolate Israel from international science, breakthroughs like this prove our impact is both lasting and essential,” he said.
In a landmark study, a team from Sheba’s Safra Children’s Hospital and Tel Aviv University’s Sagol Center for Regenerative Medicine created synthetic kidney organs that matured and remained stable for 34 weeks — the longest-lasting and most refined kidney organoids developed to date.
Nearly a decade ago, the research team became the first to successfully isolate human kidney tissue stem cells — the cells responsible for the organ’s development and growth.
Previous attempts to grow kidneys in a lab using general-purpose stem cells were short-lived, typically lasting only a few weeks and often producing unwanted cell types that compromised research accuracy.
However, this Israeli research team used stem cells taken directly from kidney tissue — cells that naturally develop into kidney parts — allowing them to create a much purer and more stable model with key features found in real kidneys.
This medical breakthrough could have far-reaching implications, redefining the current understanding of kidney diseases and advancing the development of innovative treatments.
Researchers believe the model could help assess how medications impact fetal kidneys during pregnancy and move science closer to repairing or replacing damaged kidney tissue with lab-grown cells.
The discovery came days after researchers from Hebrew University of Jerusalem and international partners discovered a way to boost the immune system’s cancer-fighting ability by reprogramming how T cells, which are white blood cells critical to the immune system, produce energy.
The researchers explained in a study published in the peer-reviewed Nature Communications that disabling a protein known as Ant2 in T cells greatly enhances their effectiveness against tumors.
“By disabling Ant2, we triggered a complete shift in how T cells produce and use energy,” Prof. Michael Berger of Hebrew University’s Faculty of Medicine, who co-led the study with doctorate student Omri Yosef, told the Tazpit Press Service. “This reprogramming made them significantly better at recognizing and killing cancer cells.”
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Netherlands to Push EU to Suspend Israel Trade Deal but Won’t Recognize Palestinian State ‘At This Time’
Netherlands Foreign Affairs Minister Caspar Veldkamp addresses a press conference, in New Delhi on April 1, 2025. Photo: ANI Photo/Sanjay Sharma via Reuters Connect
The Netherlands is spearheading efforts to suspend the European Union-Israel trade agreement amid rising EU criticism of Israel’s actions in Gaza, while simultaneously refusing to recognize a Palestinian state, contrasting with other member states as international pressure mounts.
On Thursday, Dutch Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp announced that the Netherlands will push the EU to suspend the trade component of the EU-Israel Association Agreement — a pact governing the EU’s political and economic ties with the Jewish state.
This latest anti-Israel initiative follows a recent EU-commissioned report accusing Israel of committing “indiscriminate attacks … starvation … torture … [and] apartheid” against Palestinians in Gaza during its military campaign against Hamas, an internationally designated terrorist group.
Following calls from a majority of EU member states for a formal investigation, this report built on Belgium’s recent decision to review Israel’s compliance with the trade agreement, a process initiated by the Netherlands and led by EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas.
According to the report, “there are indications that Israel would be in breach of its human rights obligations” under the 25-year-old EU-Israel Association Agreement.
While the document acknowledges the reality of violence by Hamas, it states that this issue lies outside its scope — failing to address the Palestinian terrorist group’s role in sparking the current war with its bloody rampage across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
Israeli officials have slammed the report as factually incorrect and morally flawed, noting that Hamas embeds its military infrastructure within civilian targets and Israel’s army takes extensive precautions to try and avoid civilian casualties.
In a Dutch parliamentary debate on Gaza on Thursday, Veldkamp also announced that the government would not recognize a Palestinian state for now — a position that stands in sharp contrast to the recent moves by several other EU member states to extend recognition.
“The Netherlands is not planning to recognize a Palestinian state at this time,” the Dutch diplomat said.
“This war has ceased to be a just war and is now leading to the erosion of Israel’s own security and identity,” he continued.
This latest decision goes against the position of several EU member states, including France, which has committed to recognizing Palestinian statehood in September.
The United Kingdom has likewise indicated it will do so unless Israel acts to ease the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and agrees to a ceasefire.
For its part, Germany said it was not planning to recognize a Palestinian state in the short term, and Italy argued that recognition must occur simultaneously with the recognition of Israel by the new entity.
Spain, Norway, Ireland, and Slovenia all recognized a Palestinian state last year.
Israel has been facing growing pressure from several EU member states seeking to undermine its defensive campaign against the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas in Gaza.
On Thursday, European Commission Vice President Teresa Ribera strongly condemned Israel’s actions in the war-torn enclave, describing the situation as a “grave violation of human dignity.”
“What we are seeing is a concrete population being targeted, killed and condemned to starve to death,” Ribera told Politico. “If it is not genocide, it looks very much like the definition used to express its meaning.”
Until now, the European Commission has refrained from accusing Israel of genocide, but Ribera’s comments mark one of the strongest European condemnations since the outbreak of the war in Gaza.
She also called on the EU to take decisive action by considering the suspension of its trade agreement with Israel and the implementation of sanctions, while emphasizing that such measures would require unanimous approval from all member states.
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Graduate Student Unions Promoting Antisemitism, Reform Group Says
Students listen to a speech at a protest encampment at Stanford University in Stanford, California US, on April 26, 2024. Photo: Carlos Barria via Reuters Connect.
Higher-education-based unions controlled by United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers of America (UE) are rife with antisemitism and anti-Zionist discrimination, according to a new letter imploring the US Congress’s House Committee on Education and the Workforce to address the matter.
“Tracing its roots to communism in the 1930s, the UE is a radical, pro-Hamas labor union that has a long history of antisemitism,” the National Right to Work Foundation (NRTW), one of the US’s leading labor reform groups, wrote on July 30 in a message obtained by The Algemeiner. “The UE openly supports the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement, which is designed to cripple and destroy Israel economically. Today, the UE furthers its antisemitic agenda by unionizing graduate students on college campuses and using its exclusive representation powers to create a hostile environment for Jewish students. The hostile environment includes demanding compulsory dues to fund the UE’s abhorrent activities.”
NRTW went on to describe a litany of alleged injustices to which UE members subject Jewish student-employees in the US’s most prestigious institutions of higher education, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to Cornell University. At MIT, the letter said, “union officers” aided a riotous group which illegally occupied a section of campus with a “Gaza Solidarity Encampment,” participating in the demonstration and even denying access to campus buildings. UE members at Stanford University, meanwhile, allegedly denied religious accommodations to Jewish students who requested exemption from union dues over that branch’s supporting the BDS movement. And Cornell University UE was accused of denying religious exemptions in several cases as well and followed up the rejection with an intrusive “questionnaire” which probed Jewish students for “legally-irrelevant information.”
The situation requires federal oversight and intervention, NRTW said, including Congress’s possibly clarifying that student-employees are not traditional employees and are therefore afforded protections under sections of the Civil Rights Act which apply to the campus.
“These continuing patterns of antisemitism are illegal, immoral, and must be stopped,” the letter continued. “We encourage you to do all that is in your power to investigate and help bring an end to the UE and its affiliates’ nonstop harassment and intimidation of Jewish students … The Trump administration can also use tools available to it under Title VI and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act against colleges who work with unions to create a hostile environment for Jewish students.”
July’s letter is not the first time NRTW has publicized alleged antisemitic abuse in unions representing higher education employees.
In 2024, it represented a group of six City University of New York (CUNY) professors, five of whom are Jewish, who sued to be “freed” from CUNY’s Professional Staff Congress (PSC-CUNY) over its passing a resolution during Israel’s May 2021 war with Hamas which declared solidarity with Palestinians and accused the Jewish state of ethnic cleansing, apartheid, and crimes against humanity. The group contested New York State’s “Taylor Law,” which it said chained the professors to the union’s “bargaining unit” and denied their right to freedom of speech and association by forcing them to be represented in negotiations by an organization they claim holds antisemitic views.
That same year, NRTW prevailed in a discrimination suit filed to exempt another cohort of Jewish MIT students from paying dues to the Graduate Student Union (GSU). The students had attempted to resist financially supporting GSU’s anti-Zionism, but the union bosses attempted to coerce their compliance, telling them that “no principles, teachings, or tenets of Judaism prohibit membership in or the payment of dues or fees” to the union.
“All Americans should have a right to protect their money from going to union bosses they don’t support, whether those objections are based on religion, politics, or any other reason,” NRTW said at the time.
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.