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I’m a Jewish Student; President Trump Was Right to Cut Funding to Columbia
Anti-Israel agitators disrupting an Israeli history class at Columbia University, New York City, Jan. 21, 2025. Photo: Screenshot
In a move that is shaking up the academic world, the Trump administration has revoked $400 million in Federal funding from Columbia University. Announced on March 7, 2025, this decision is not just about financial penalties — it’s about setting a precedent. As a Jewish high school student preparing to apply to college, I see Trump’s funding cut as a powerful stand against the antisemitism that has been ignored for too long.
For years, Jewish students at Columbia have reported harassment, intimidation, and outright hostility. From professors pushing anti-Israel rhetoric to student groups targeting Jewish peers, the environment has become toxic. Yet, despite countless complaints, Columbia’s administration failed to act decisively. Policies weren’t enforced, and antisemitism was allowed to thrive unchecked.
This isn’t just about Columbia. It’s about elite universities becoming breeding grounds for hate, while hiding behind the shield of academic freedom. Jewish students across the country have felt abandoned, and left to fend for themselves in hostile environments where their safety takes a backseat to political agendas.
Some argue that cutting funding will hurt students, but the reality is that Columbia had every opportunity to fix this issue before it came to such drastic measures. Federal funding comes with responsibilities. Universities that take taxpayer dollars must ensure a safe learning environment for all students. If they refuse, they shouldn’t continue receiving government support.
This isn’t about censorship. Columbia still has the right to teach what it wants, host any speakers, and allow protests. But when hate escalates into harassment and threats, there must be consequences. If a university chooses not to protect its students, it doesn’t deserve Federal funding.
For Jewish students like me, this move is personal. I’ve watched friends hesitate before applying to certain colleges, worried that their faith will make them a target. I’ve seen Jewish students hide their identities out of fear. That is not the America we should live in. Yet, it has become the reality on far too many campuses.
That’s why Trump’s action is necessary. The administration’s decision makes it clear: universities that tolerate antisemitism will face real consequences.
Columbia isn’t the only school that should be worried. Other elite universities that have allowed antisemitism to grow unchecked should see this as a warning sign. If they continue tolerating hate, they too could lose funding. No institution is too powerful to be held accountable.
I’ve heard numerous commentators in the media call this move extreme. But what’s truly extreme is allowing Jewish students to be harassed, to be attacked verbally and physically, and made to feel unsafe in their own classrooms. What’s extreme is ignoring systemic antisemitism on university campuses.
As a high school student looking toward the future, this decision gives me hope. It tells me that someone in power is finally listening. That Jewish students won’t be ignored anymore. That universities will be forced to take real steps to protect all students.
The message is clear: if universities want Federal support, they must protect all students. No exceptions. No excuses. Columbia learned that the hard way. And hopefully, the rest of academia is paying attention.
Gregory Lyakhov is a high school student whose writing has been published by The New York Post and several Jewish news sites, he has also made appearances on Fox & Friends and Newsmax.
The post I’m a Jewish Student; President Trump Was Right to Cut Funding to Columbia first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Israel Accused of ‘Shattering’ Gaza Ceasefire — By the Same Media That Admitted It Already Expired
Palestinian terrorists and members of the Red Cross gather near vehicles on the day Hamas hands over deceased hostages Oded Lifschitz, Shiri Bibas, and her two children Kfir and Ariel Bibas, seized during the deadly Oct. 7, 2023, attack, to the Red Cross, as part of a ceasefire and hostages-prisoners swap deal between Hamas and Israel, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, Feb. 20, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Hatem Khaled
On Monday, the Israel Defense Forces resumed military operations against Hamas in Gaza, striking targets across the Strip and ordering the evacuation of civilians from at-risk areas.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed that the US had been consulted on Israel’s plans, stating: “As President Trump has made clear — Hamas, the Houthis, Iran, all those who seek to terrorize not just Israel but also the United States, will see a price to pay. All hell will break loose,” she told Fox News.
Her remarks confirmed what negotiators in Washington and Jerusalem had already stated: efforts to extend the previous ceasefire deal — agreed upon in January and expired on March 1 — had failed, as Hamas refused to accept the terms.
President Trump’s envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, had earlier reiterated that Hamas’ disarmament was a prerequisite for any long-term ceasefire: “A starter is Hamas demilitarizing, not rearming—leaving all their arms on the ground and leaving Gaza. We need a deadline for the second phase. The way the hostages are being held is unacceptable.”
Let’s be clear about what’s happening. Israel did not break the ceasefire; it ended two weeks ago.
Hamas tried to manipulate the news cycle by publicly accepting a hostage exchange offer that was NEVER on the table.
Hamas has months of food in storage but won’t release it…
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) March 18, 2025
A Permanent Ceasefire That Never Was
The ceasefire agreed to in January was never a permanent arrangement. It was a phased ceasefire, with an initial stage that included hostage-prisoner exchanges, humanitarian aid to Gaza, and a provision for further negotiations — negotiations that were supposed to begin 16 days into the first phase but never materialized.
Critically, the second phase — which neither Hamas nor Israel agreed to — was where the possibility of a permanent ceasefire would have been discussed. It never happened.
The media seemed to understand this just two weeks ago.
On March 3, the BBC reported: “Since 1 March, when stage one expired, the ceasefire has been in limbo. Stage two has not begun, and both sides are digging their heels in.”
Wire services — Reuters, the Associated Press, and AFP — reported on March 2 that Israel was blocking aid “after first phase of ceasefire deal expire[d].”
CNN, NBC News, and Sky News also acknowledged that the ceasefire had expired.
Yet, remarkably, these same outlets are now accusing Israel of violating a supposed permanent ceasefire by launching strikes in Gaza.
Sky News announced in its Monday night headline: “Explosive end to Gaza ceasefire as bodies pile up in their hundreds following Israeli strikes.” [Nothing “explosive” about an outcome that had been repeatedly forewarned.]
Politico, using AP copy, similarly framed Israel’s operation as a massacre, asserting that airstrikes had killed “at least 200” in what it called “the heaviest assault in the territory since a ceasefire took effect in January.”
Notably, the report omitted any attribution for the rapidly reported casualty figures — numbers that, as always, originated from Hamas.
Meanwhile, The Guardian saw fit to print Turkey’s absurd claim that Israel had committed a “massacre” — a striking choice, given that the same Turkish government has spent the past week supporting Syrian army forces massacring thousands of Alawites in Syria.
The Turkish-backed Syrian National Army has massacred over a thousand people, mainly Alawite civilians, in the past week.
Yet Turkey has the gall to accuse Israel of a “massacre.”
But @guardian amplifies anyone who buys into its anti-Israel narrative, no matter the hypocrisy. pic.twitter.com/74buXOyNDZ
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) March 18, 2025
CNN declared that the ceasefire had been “shatter[ed] as Israel pounds Gaza with wave of deadly strikes,” opening with Hamas’ accusation that Israel had “overturn[ed] the nearly two-month-long ceasefire agreement” and was “putting the captives in Gaza at risk of an unknown fate.”
NBC News reported that “more than 400 Palestinians” were killed after “Hamas said Israel had violated the ceasefire agreement.” The outlet also included Hamas’ claim that Israel was “exposing the prisoners in Gaza to an unknown fate” in its bullet point summary of events — yes, “prisoners” in this case refers to the Israeli hostages who were abducted on October 7.
Here are the salient points:
- The first stage of the graduated ceasefire agreement expired on March 1.
- Hamas repeatedly refused to agree to an extension or any of the prerequisites for a second stage.
- Two weeks ago, the international media seemed fully aware of these facts.
So what changed?
Certainly not the facts. But the media’s narrative? That did.
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 Israel Accused of ‘Shattering’ Gaza Ceasefire — By the Same Media That Admitted It Already Expired first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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The Media Reports Hamas Propaganda, and Hamas Still Implicitly Threatens Them
A Palestinian Hamas terrorist shakes hands with a child as they stand guard as people gather on the day of the handover of Israeli hostages, as part of a ceasefire and a hostages-prisoners swap deal between Hamas and Israel, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, Feb. 22, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ramadan Abed
Western media outlets simply ignores that everything that comes out of Gaza is pre-approved by Hamas, and anyone who breaks their rules is threatened.
All of the information that the media is reporting from Gaza this week is what Hamas wants them to say. The only source for the death toll counts and the allegation that most of the dead are women and children come from Hamas and no one else.
One Telegram message from the Al Qassam Brigades makes this explicit.
Although Israeli airstrikes targeted some Hamas leaders, the terror group warned journalists not to report on their names until they get permission:
Urgent Directive and Warning:
We call on activists and media professionals to stop circulating the names of individuals involved in the attacks carried out by the occupation in the Gaza Strip, and to adhere to the statements issued by official authorities.
When a group that wears ski masks and carries weapons gives a directive, it is a threat, not a suggestion.
The main reason that the media doesn’t report on Hamas’ complete control of the media is exactly because it is a threat, not a suggestion. They do not want to appear cowardly or to admit that they are following Hamas rules, so they simply do not report on things like this.
That means that the truth is withheld from readers, and that false information is provided as fact — as a means to damage Israel and advance Hamas’ agenda.
The post The Media Reports Hamas Propaganda, and Hamas Still Implicitly Threatens Them first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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‘Moderate’ Palestinian Authority Tells Its People That Jews Poison the Water
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas addresses the 79th United Nations General Assembly at United Nations headquarters in New York, US, Sept. 26, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
The Palestinian Authority (PA) has once again used medieval blood libels of Jews, saying that Jews poison the wells. Such libels are meant to justify hatred and terror against Jews, just as they did in Europe in the Middle Ages.
After Israeli police helped return a flock of sheep stolen from Israelis by Palestinians, a PA official said the following on television:
Advisor to Head of The Committee to Resist Settlements and the Wall Ayed Morrar: “There was an attack on the village of Ras Al-Auja, and they [settlers] took all the livestock they could find, between 800-1,500. Some claim that a total of 1,500 animals were stolen … Moreover, they poisoned the water to kill the Palestinians’ livestock.” [emphasis added]
[Official PA TV, Palestine This Morning, March 9, 2025]
Ayed Morrar has a history of antisemitism. Just three months ago, he spread the libel that Jews are only in the Land of Israel because it is good for them financially and they would do anything for money.
Official PA television regularly features officials and reporters repeating the well-poisoning libel, such as when a columnist said that Israel was “liable to poison the water” and a reporter said that Jewish rabbis “permit poisoning water wells.”
This recurring libel is patently false because both Israelis and the Arabs of Judea and Samaria drink water from the same Mountain Aquifer.
Ephraim D. Tepler is a contributor to Palestinian Media Watch (PMW). Itamar Marcus is PMW’s Founder and Director. A version of this article originally appeared at PMW.
The post ‘Moderate’ Palestinian Authority Tells Its People That Jews Poison the Water first appeared on Algemeiner.com.