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Here’s the Climate on Campus and in the Wider World as Students Return to School
Demonstrators take part in an “Emergency Rally: Stand With Palestinians Under Siege in Gaza,” amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, US, Oct. 14, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Brian Snyder
The end of the summer was dominated by allegations of “genocide” and “famine” thrown against Israel and its supporters. These collapse under even causal examination, but have been coupled with relentless campaigns, particularly on the far right, to legitimize antisemitism. Similarly, the impact of ill-conceived European recognition of a Palestinian state predictably backfired, but further imperiled Israel’s position and that of individual Jews.
Attacks against individual Jews and Jewish institutions have become so numerous that only a sample may be listed here. A few notable examples include:
- The beating of a visibly Jewish man in Montreal in front of his children. One individual was arrested;
- Pro-Hamas protestors appeared outside the home of Rev. Johnnie Moore, head of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. Moore’s home was vandalized and he reported death threats;
- In Atlanta a couple confronted the father of Sgt. Elisheva Rose Ida Lubin, who was stabbed to death by a terrorist in Jerusalem in 2023, calling him a “kike” and saying she deserved to die;
- An anti-Israel protest and encampment was held outside the headquarters of Microsoft, ostensibly by employees. After the protest was dispersed and resulting arrests, it was revealed that most were not employees. Protestors later occupied the president’s office and demanded the company cut ties with Israel. Two employees were fired;
- In St. Louis, vehicles belonging to a local resident who was a veteran of the Israeli military were burned and “death to the IDF” was painted on the street;
In a major development, Australia expelled the Iranian ambassador after investigations revealed that the country had orchestrated and financed a series of antisemitic attacks including the firebombing of a synagogue in 2024. The Australian government has been under pressure from the Jewish community to address increasingly frequent attacks, but has also become increasingly hostile towards Israel.
The revelation of Iranian involvement again raises the question of state sponsorship of antisemitic attacks globally. Links have also now been documented between Hamas representatives in Italy and far left parties, which have been instrumental in organizing anti-Israel protests.
More evidence also continues to accumulate in the US that many local protestors are being paid, including by the Chinese Communist Party backed People’s Forum.
The reality that pro-Hamas protests are not grassroots manifestations but being staged as part of influence operations aimed at American politics has not yet been appreciated by the public, media, or law enforcement. But the reality puts the 2024 FBI hate crime statistics — which show Jews remain the most targeted religious group — into a new light.
Finally, the horrific attack on a Catholic school by a transgender individual, Robert (aka Robin) Westman, which killed two children, had clear anti-Israel and antisemitic connections.
On the university front, the Trump administration continues to pressure colleges and universities, forcing monumental realignments in many areas including finances. The ostensible reason is the treatment of Jewish students, but the real focus appears to be eliminating discriminatory DEI programs in admissions and hiring, and to reduce the number of foreign students.
The State Department announced that it had revoked 6,000 student visas for overstays and crimes including assault, burglary, and DUI. Of these, 200-300 were accused of support for terrorism. New regulations were also proposed to reduce student visa abuse, including overstays.
As part of their settlements with the US government, Columbia, Penn, and Brown agreed to pay fines to the government and to Jewish students and faculty, and to release data on race based admissions and hiring.
While universities and their supporters have decried financial settlements as “extortion,” these are similar to penalties levied against other types of corporations.
Reports continue to indicate that Cornell University and Harvard University are negotiating deals with the Federal government which would restore grants and ability to enroll foreign students in exchange for dismantling DEI and protections for Jewish students. In one threat to Harvard, the Trump administration announced it would investigate patents Harvard filed on the basis of Federally-funded research with an eye toward seizing them. Some analysts have claimed that the combination of new taxes, loss of research funding, and cuts to foreign enrollment could result in Harvard’s endowment shrinking up to 40%.
The Federal government also announced it was seeking a 1$ billion settlement with UCLA. A new report has shown that from 2021 to 2025, UCLA received some $4.3 billion Federal grants, which, among other things, directly supported its DEI initiatives and numerous anti-Israel faculty members.
Meanwhile, layoffs continue through the higher education industry including at wealthy institutions such as Stanford University. Pressure from the Trump administration and the basic need to preserve campus security, has also prompted more schools to crack down on pro-Hamas protestors. George Washington University and the University of Wisconsin announced they were suspending SJP chapters. The Iowa University placed a cease and desist order on its Palestinian Solidarity Committee chapter, and Adelphi University put its chapter on probation for a year. The University of Washington also announced it would file criminal charges against protestors who occupied a building and caused over $1 million in damages.
Faculty
As the semester begins, faculty members continue to find themselves caught between their institutions and the new political and economic realities being established by the Trump administration. A petition signed by 10% of the members of the Association of American Geographers called on the group to boycott Israel and to disclose any investments related to Israel. A special member meeting to vote on the resolution has been scheduled for October. A similar petition in the American Philosophical Association called on the group to condemn Israel and the “genocide unfolding in Palestine.”
The impact of both the small minority of anti-Israel faculty and the widespread naturalization of post-colonial and other intellectual frameworks was seen in a study of publicly available syllabi, showing that left-wing authors dominate assigned readings.
Texts that depict Israel as illegitimate predominate, as do texts that denigrate the West, both its history and traditional structures.
The sudden visibility of genocide scholars such as Omer Bartov and Dirk Moses condemning Israel for “genocide” by redefining the term also bears noting. While many fields and publication platforms have been slowly reconfigured to focus on Israel as a unique evil, the circumstances of the Gaza war have provided a perfect opportunity for otherwise obscure academics to leverage professional authority in mass markets.
Anti-Israel and anti-Jewish discrimination continues to be covered up by universities. In one case, the University of Oregon Law Review continues to refuse to address an incident where an article by an Israeli professor was rejected on the basis of her national origin, even as that explanation was put in writing. The faculty member responsible continues in her role.
In another example, an Israeli dance scholar is suing UC Berkeley after being denied a guest teaching position on the basis of pressure from graduate students and faculty. Yael Nativ’s complaints notes that the department head had revoked the promised job stating in note, “My dept cannot host you for a class next fall. Things are very hot right now and many of our grad students are angry. I would be putting the dept and you in a terrible position if you taught here.” While an internal investigation supported her discrimination claims, neither an apology or restored position ensued.
Finally, in an incident that shows the connection between DEI personnel and antisemitism, reports showed that Derron Borders, DEI director of the Cornell Johnson Graduate School of Management, called Hamas acts of terror “resistance.”
Students returning to campus this Fall face a dramatically different social and political environment. Recent polls also suggest students routinely lie about their progressive beliefs in order to appease left-wing faculty and to survive socially. This may indicate that the public marginalization of extremist students and faculty could shift some campus environments away from overt hostility towards Israel and Jews, as well as Christians.
K-12
The Fall semester will likely see teachers unions and pro-Hamas activists digging in over “ethnic studies,” which characterize Israel as a uniquely evil “settler-colonialist” state and Jews as the ultimate examples of “white supremacy.” These now foundational concepts have also been given support by essays in the academic journal Educational Philosophy and Theory, in which among other things “Gaza” is equated with “Auschwitz.”
Over the summer, a variety of school districts and teachers unions have redoubled their efforts to target Israel and Jews. Examples include:
- Philadelphia public schools have partnered with CAIR, which among other things will offer workshops on “American Jews and Political Power: Myth or Reality;”
- Teachers in the UCLA K-12 Ethnic Studies Certificate Workshop used the book “Teaching Palestine,” aimed at elementary school students;
- “Teaching about Palestine” is a central pillar of education in Toronto from elementary schools onward as children are taught about the “nakba,” the “Israel Occupation Force,” and “genocide;”
- The 2025 ArabCon held in Dearborn (MI) sponsored by the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee featured presentations by leading BDS figures and a panel of K-12 educators that “explore how classrooms can remain spaces of courage, resistance, and transformation, including the right to teach about Palestine.”
As a response to growing antisemitism within New York City’s United Federation of Teachers, several dozen Jewish members held a protest outside the union’s headquarters. Protest leaders reported that more than 150 Jewish teachers have or will opt out of membership. They demanded the union adopt the IHRA definition of antisemitism, provide training on antisemitism to members, and retract the endorsement of Zohran Mamdani.
Toronto schools have been particular hotbeds of antisemitism, which has been defended by the school board’s adoption of “anti-Palestinian racism,” which formally enshrined the Palestinian narrative such as the “nakba” as unassailable — and deems challenges as racist. The Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario has passed a similar “anti-Palestinian racism” resolution.
The author is a contributor to SPME, where a completely different version of this article was published.
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Israel Strikes Hamas Leadership in Qatar Amid Gaza War
A damaged building, following an Israeli attack on Hamas leaders, according to an Israeli official, in Doha, Qatar, Sept. 9, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa
Israel has carried out a strike targeting Hamas leadership in Qatar, marking an expansion of Jerusalem’s efforts to dismantle the Palestinian terrorist group as the war in Gaza continues.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and Shin Bet security agency confirmed a “precise strike” in Doha targeting Hamas’s senior leadership, who orchestrated the Oct. 7, 2023, invasion of and massacre across southern Israel and directed the Islamist group’s operations for years.
“The IDF and ISA [Israel Security Agency, or Shin Bet] will continue to operate with determination in order to defeat the Hamas terrorist organization responsible for the Oct. 7 massacre,” the two organizations said in a statement.
The IDF and ISA conducted a precise strike targeting the senior leadership of the Hamas terrorist organization.
For years, these members of the Hamas leadership have led the terrorist organization’s operations, are directly responsible for the brutal October 7 massacre, and…
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) September 9, 2025
According to circulating media reports, senior Hamas officials — including leader Khalil al-Hayya — were targeted in the strike in Doha, though their deaths have not been confirmed.
A Hamas spokesperson said the group’s negotiating team was also targeted in the attack.
In its statement, the IDF assured that precautions were taken to limit civilian harm ahead of the strike, “including the use of precise munitions and additional intelligence.”
Qatar’s Interior Ministry said a member of the country’s Internal Security Force was killed and that other security personnel were injured.
Shortly after Israel claimed responsibility for the attack, Qatar denounced the operation, warning that “it will not tolerate this reckless Israeli behavior and the ongoing disruption of regional security, nor any act that targets its security and sovereignty.”
“The State of Qatar strongly condemns the cowardly Israeli attack that targeted residential buildings housing several members of the Political Bureau of Hamas in the Qatari capital, Doha,” Majed al-Ansari, a Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesperson, said in a statement.
“This criminal assault constitutes a blatant violation of all international laws and norms, and poses a serious threat to the security and safety of Qataris and residents in Qatar,” he continued.
The State of Qatar strongly condemns the cowardly Israeli attack that targeted residential buildings housing several members of the Political Bureau of Hamas in the Qatari capital, Doha. This criminal assault constitutes a blatant violation of all international laws and norms,…
— د. ماجد محمد الأنصاري Dr. Majed Al Ansari (@majedalansari) September 9, 2025
Alongside the United States and other regional powers, Qatar has served as a ceasefire mediator during the nearly two-year Gaza conflict, facilitating indirect negotiations between the Jewish state and Hamas.
However, Doha has also backed the Palestinian terrorist group for years, providing Hamas with money and diplomatic support while hosting and sheltering its top leadership.
According to media reports, Washington, which officially classifies Qatar as a “major non-NATO ally,” knew about the strike beforehand and gave it the green light, though the US did not participate in carrying it out.
The US Embassy in Doha issued a shelter-in-place order for all American citizens.
Earlier this year, the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism Policy released a report exposing the extent of Qatar’s far-reaching financial entanglements within American institutions, shedding light on what experts described as a coordinated effort to influence US policy making and public opinion in Doha’s favor. The findings showed that Qatar has attempted to expand its soft power in the US by spending $33.4 billion on business and real estate projects, over $6 billion on universities, and $72 million on American lobbyists since 2012.
In a joint statement, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz confirmed they had ordered security agencies to target Hamas leadership following attacks in Jerusalem and Gaza.
They said the strike targeted Hamas in retaliation for the Oct. 7 atrocities, Monday’s terrorist attack in Jerusalem, which left six Israelis dead and several more injured, and a separate attack on an Israeli tank in northern Gaza that killed four soldiers
Yesterday, after the murderous attacks in Jerusalem and Gaza, Prime Minister Netanyahu directed all security elements to prepare for the possibility of striking the Hamas leadership. The Defense Minister fully supported this initiative.https://t.co/dQDySUqQJv
— Prime Minister of Israel (@IsraeliPM) September 9, 2025
This latest strike came just two days after the Trump administration unveiled its newest proposals for a ceasefire to end the war in Gaza.
On Monday, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said that Israel accepted the new deal, which calls for the release of all remaining hostages and the disarmament of Hamas.
Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump gave Hamas what he called a “last warning” to agree to this latest proposal.
The terrorist group said it was ready to negotiate the release of all remaining Israeli hostages still held in the war-torn enclave in exchange for “a clear declaration to end the war, a full withdrawal from Gaza, and the formation of a committee of Palestinian independents to manage Gaza.”
However, senior Hamas official Bassem Naim said on Monday that the group will not accept disarmament — one of Israel’s core demands for ending the war, thus seemingly rejecting Trump’s ceasefire plan for Gaza.
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‘No Basis in Truth’: Authorities Reject Claim by Gaza-Bound Flotilla That Boat Struck by Drone at Tunisian Port
A Global Sumud flotilla vessel floats in the waters as Tunisian Maritime National Guard boats conduct an inspection in Sidi Bou Said, Tunisia, Sept. 9, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Jihed Abidellaoui
Tunisian authorities have rejected as false a claim by the Global Sumud Flotilla (GSF) for Gaza that one of its main boats was struck on Tuesday by a drone at a port in Tunisia.
Tunisia’s interior ministry said that reports of a drone hitting a boat at its Sidi Bou Said port “have no basis in truth,” and that a fire broke out on the vessel itself. The flotilla had said that all six passengers and crew were safe despite the alleged strike.
The Portuguese-flagged boat, carrying the flotilla‘s steering committee, sustained fire damage to its main deck and below-deck storage, the GSF said in a statement.
In tandem with the denial from Tunisian authorities, video circulated on social media apparently showing that the fire was caused by a crew member misfiring a flare that landed back on the boat, not by a drone.
BREAKING: New footage from Greta’s boat shows a crew member misfiring a flare, which lands back on the boat.
These people lie for sport. There was never any drone. pic.twitter.com/GSSSvjy23I
— Eyal Yakoby (@EYakoby) September 9, 2025
The flotilla is an international initiative seeking to break Israel’s naval blockade and deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza using civilian boats supported by delegations from 44 countries, including Swedish activist Greta Thunberg and Portuguese left-wing politician Mariana Mortagua.
A video posted by the GSF on X purportedly showed the moment “the Family Boat was struck from above,” capturing a luminous flying object hitting the vessel with smoke rising soon after.
After the incident, dozens of people gathered outside the Sidi Bou Said port, where the flotilla‘s boats were located at the time, waving Palestinian flags and chanting “Free Palestine,” a Reuters witness said.
Israel has imposed a naval blockade on the coastal enclave since Hamas took control of Gaza in 2007, saying it aims to stop weapons from reaching the internationally desgnated terrorist group.
The blockade has remained in place through the current war, which began when Hamas attacked southern Israel in October 2023, killing 1,200 and taking about 250 hostages.
In June, Israeli naval forces boarded and seized a British-flagged yacht carrying Thunberg, among others. Israel dismissed the aid ship as a propaganda stunt in support of Hamas.
The GSF also said an investigation into the drone attack was underway and its results would be released once available.
“Acts of aggression aimed at intimidating and derailing our mission will not deter us. Our peaceful mission to break the siege on Gaza and stand in solidarity with its people continues with determination and resolve,” the GSF said.
The United Nations’ Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese, who was at the port, told Reuters: “We do not know who carried out the attack, but we would not be surprised if it was Israel. If confirmed, it is an attack against Tunisian sovereignty.”
Albanese has been widely accused by critics of using her position to denigrate Israel and justify Hamas’s use of terrorism against Israelis.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli side.
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Britain Concludes Israel Not Committing Genocide in Gaza
A picture released by the Israeli Army says to show Israeli soldiers conducting operations in a location given as Tel Al-Sultan area, Rafah Governorate, Gaza, in this handout image released April 2, 2025. Photo: Israeli Army/Handout via REUTERS
Britain has concluded that Israel is not committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza but criticized “utterly appalling” civilian suffering there, in a government letter, ahead of a meeting between Prime Minister Keir Starmer and the Israeli president.
Israel has been accused of perpetrating genocide in Gaza despite its military campaign there targeting the ruling terrorist group Hamas, which openly seeks the Jewish state’s destruction and started the current war with its Oct. 7, 2023, invasion of and massacre across southern Israeli communities.
Jerusalem rejects the accusation, citing its right to self-defense following the Oct. 7 attack, in which Hamas-led Palestinian terrorists killed 1,200 people and kidnapped 251 hostages.
Israel also says it has gone to unprecedented lengths to try and avoid civilian casualties, noting its efforts to evacuate areas before it targets them and to warn residents of impending military operations with leaflets, text messages, and other forms of communication.
Another challenge for Israel is Hamas’s widely recognized military strategy of embedding its terrorists within Gaza’s civilian population and commandeering civilian facilities like hospitals, schools, and mosques to run operations and direct attacks.
Starmer is due to meet Israeli President Isaac Herzog, a leader who has a largely ceremonial role, at Downing Street on Wednesday, his spokesperson said.
The Gaza war has strained Britain-Israel relations. The Israeli government is enraged by Britain‘s plan to recognize a Palestinian state and block Israeli officials from attending its biggest defense trade show this week.
Starmer is facing criticism from some of his Labour lawmakers for agreeing to meet Herzog.
Asked whether the government’s legal duty to prevent genocide had been triggered, David Lammy, Britain‘s foreign minister until Friday, wrote in a Sept. 1 letter to a parliamentary committee that the government had carefully considered the risk of genocide.
“As per the Genocide Convention, the crime of genocide occurs only where there is specific ‘intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group,’” he said in the letter seen by Reuters.
“The government has not concluded that Israel is acting with that intent.”
Lammy was foreign secretary from mid-2024 until Friday when he was replaced by Yvette Cooper and appointed deputy prime minister as part of a reshuffle.
His letter added: “The high civilian casualties, including women and children, and the extensive destruction in Gaza, are utterly appalling. Israel must do much more to prevent and alleviate the suffering that this conflict is causing.”
The long-held British government position has been that genocide should be determined by courts.