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Incredible Imbecility
Albert Einstein. Photo: Wiki Commons.
JNS.org – “Those whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad.” — Euripides
“Two things are infinite: The universe and human stupidity, and I’m not sure about the universe.” — attributed to Albert Einstein
As the fighting in the Gaza Strip drags on into its third month, it appears that the Israeli leadership is determined to jettison common sense, past experience and logical reasoning. Indeed, Israel’s leaders seem to have set their sights on adopting the failed, fatally flawed formulae of the past for “the day after” the fighting finally subsides.
A collection of collaborators and traitors
For example, one of the most prominently cited “plans”—for want of a better word—involves transferring the post-war civilian administration of Gaza to various heads of clans not affiliated with Hamas, who would be responsible for different parts of the Strip.
Those with a longer historical perspective will be struck by the remarkable resemblance between this proposal and the past attempt by Israeli authorities in the late 1970s and early ‘80s to install an Israel-sanctioned Palestinian administration, known as the Village Leagues, as an alternative to the PLO. The initiative, which initially had support from both the Israeli and Jordanian governments, eventually petered out in 1983.
Although the details might differ, the underlying principles of the Village League and clan leadership plans are very similar. Accordingly, there is little reason to believe that the overall outcome of the current plan will be any different. Just as the leaders of the Village Leagues were treated with suspicion and hostility by much of the Palestinian population, it is more than likely that this will be the case with any future Israeli-approved clan-based civil administration. According to one analyst: The Village Leagues consisted of “a coalition of rural thugs … who had no standing in the community.” The Palestinians saw the Leagues as a collection of collaborators and traitors.”
It is thus hardly surprising that some of the village leaders were assassinated by disgruntled kinfolk; a fate that could well await any compliant clan leader who chooses to collaborate with the “Zionist invader.”
90% of Hamas committed no war crime?
The likelihood of such hostility is greatly enhanced by the pervasive approval of Hamas—and the carnage it committed—among massive sectors of the Palestinian population. In a survey conducted on Dec. 13, 2023, the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PSR) found that 72% of the Palestinian public believes that Hamas’s decision to launch the Oct. 7 massacre was correct. In addition, while a staggering 95% of Palestinians think Israel committed war crimes during the current hostilities, only 10% think Hamas was guilty of such crimes. Conversely, only 4% think Israel has not committed such crimes, while 89% think Hamas did not commit any post-Oct. 7 war crimes.
Clearly, under such conditions, any artificially appointed administration, formed specifically to stymie a return to power by Hamas, is likely to face widespread enmity and distrust from the very population over which it rules.
But beyond the a priori implausibility of the clan-based proposal, there are grave questions as to its long-term sustainability. How long will the population in each clan-controlled section be confined to that section? What will regulate movement between sections? Clearly, an arrangement whereby a local population is subject to an externally imposed civilian administration and a foreign security regime is not a sustainable political arrangement and is hardly likely to foster any amicable sentiments towards Israel in the future.
No initiative approved by Israel will be acceptable
Significantly, the failure of the Village League experiment was not the only instance in which a move by Israel to appoint/anoint a pliant Arab ruler failed to attain its intended outcome.
After Israel’s 1982 invasion of southern Lebanon following the assassination of its ambassador Shlomo Argov in London by Palestinian radicals, Israel essentially endorsed the candidacy of Bachir Gemayel for president of Lebanon. It did so under the assumption that he would be a more cordial ruler towards Israel than any other. Significantly, one Lebanese deputy accused Gemayel of reaching the presidency “on the back of an Israeli tank,” while a pro-Palestinian academic compared him with Phillipe Petain, the French marshal who, as head of the Vichy government, collaborated with the Nazis during World War II.
Shortly before Gemayal took office, he was assassinated in a bombing committed by a member of a pro-Syrian organization. Any notion of a Pax Israeliana (an Israeli-induced peace) was buried under the rubble.
As if anything further is required to consign the foolhardy clan-based scheme to well-deserved oblivion, the final nail in its coffin was hammered home by the prospective administrators themselves. The scheme was recently rebuffed with a caustic amalgam of utter rejection and universal ridicule.
According to sources in Gaza, “No initiative that Israel is behind will be acceptable.” In a gruff public statement, representatives of the Gaza clans rejected the Israeli plan, describing it as “ludicrous.” The statement went on to declare: “Talk by some of the leaders of the occupation that heads of clans will administer the civilian life in Gaza is utterly contemptible and totally unacceptable.”
Merely sound political science
Clearly, it is time for Israel to bite the bullet.
Israel must forego its illusions that somehow the Arabs will deign to pull its chestnuts out of the fire. Its leaders must finally realize that the political solution to the Gaza conflict is to be found by the inexorable logic of an almost mathematical algorithm hitherto studiously and tragically ignored by Israeli policy-makers: The only way Israel can ensure who governs Gaza is for Israel to govern Gaza.
Significantly, the only obstacle preventing this outcome and frustrating the overt desire of many Gazans is the hard-hearted callousness of Egypt. Cairo seems bent on compelling the hapless masses, huddled against its sealed border gates, to suffer the travails of war and hunger, pestilence and pollution, rather than let them seek their salvation elsewhere, outside the confines of the hapless enclave.
This is not radical right-wing extremism. It is merely sound political science.
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Five Students Arrested After Unruly Anti-Israel Protest at Berlin University
Graffiti on the walls of Humboldt University in Berlin, where students defaced property with antisemitic slogans during an anti-Israel protest. Photo: Screenshot
German police arrested five students who participated in an anti-Israel protest at Humboldt University in Berlin, where they chanted antisemitic slogans and vandalized school property.
The unruly demonstration came as authorities in Germany continued to work to address the growing surge in antisemitism and pro-Hamas activism across the country.
On Wednesday, a group of students took over several buildings at Humboldt University, a public research university in central Berlin, and staged a demonstration against Israel’s military campaign in Gaza. They also called on the state government to halt the deportation of four Hamas sympathizers who participated in raucous anti-Israel protests and, according to German authorities, “pose a threat to public order.”
In the buildings, the students put up banners bearing slogans such as “You are complicit in genocide,” “There is only one state, Palestine 48,” and “Intifada until victory.”
They also defaced university property with banned slogans, including “Zionism is fascism” and “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” which the German government prohibited last year for promoting the ethnic cleansing of Jews from Israel.
Students held a pro-Palestinian protest at Berlin’s Humboldt University
Police forcibly detained at least 5 demonstrators as security forces moved in to disperse the crowd
pic.twitter.com/wQm8Kjz1FW
— Anadolu English (@anadoluagency) April 16, 2025
There were also around 40 to 60 people outside the buildings staging a demonstration and chanting slogans such as “Freedom for Palestine,” “Boycott Israel,” “No borders, no deportations,” “Germany is a fascist country,” and “Resistance is an international right.”
After the university administration requested the removal of the protesters, local police intervened and arrested at least five people.
The European Jewish Congress, the representative umbrella organization of European Jewry, condemned the incident, stating that “hate must never be normalized.”
“Such hateful and inflammatory rhetoric fosters an atmosphere where Jewish students feel unsafe, unwelcome, and targeted,” the group wrote in a post on X. “These aren’t just words on a wall, they contribute to a climate of fear and exclusion.”
“Hate must never be normalized. Not in our societies, and not in our universities.”
We are appalled by the antisemitic vandalism at @HumboldtUni, where slogans like “From the river to the sea” and “Zionismus ist Faschismus” were scrawled across university property.
Such hateful and inflammatory rhetoric fosters an atmosphere where Jewish students feel unsafe,… pic.twitter.com/M9s0Y8aaq3
— European Jewish Congress (@eurojewcong) April 17, 2025
Earlier this month, German authorities issued deportation orders for three EU citizens and one US citizen living in Berlin over their participation in several anti-Israel protests.
The four deportees, identified as Hamas sympathizers, have until April 21 to leave the country or risk being forcibly removed.
The German State Office for Immigration issued “residence termination notices” against the four individuals – two Irish citizens, a Polish citizen, and an American citizen – for their participation in pro-Hamas demonstrations, including a sit-in at Berlin’s central train station, a road blockade, and the occupation of a building at the Free University of Berlin (FU).
According to the deportation notice, they “pose a threat to public order” and “indirectly supported” terrorist groups like Hamas.
A spokesperson for the German Senate Department for the Interior announced that an appeal against the decision has been filed with the Supreme Court.
While legal representatives and experts have expressed concerns that the deportation orders violate civil liberties for EU citizens in Germany, as neither individual has been convicted of a criminal offense, German law does not require a conviction for deportation.
Germany has experienced a sharp spike in antisemitism amid the war in Gaza. In just the first six months of 2024 alone, the number of antisemitic incidents in Berlin surpassed the total recorded for the entire previous year, according to Germany’s Federal Association of Departments for Research and Information on Antisemitism (RIAS).
The figures compiled by RIAS were the highest count for a single year since the federally funded body began monitoring antisemitic incidents in 2015, showing the German capital averaged nearly eight anti-Jewish outrages a day from January to June last year.
According to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), police registered 5,154 antisemitic incidents in Germany in 2023, a 95 percent increase compared to the previous year.
The post Five Students Arrested After Unruly Anti-Israel Protest at Berlin University first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Speeding Brooklyn Woman Indicted on Manslaughter for Car Crash That Killed Jewish Mother, Two Daughters
An overturned auto in a car crash flipped on its roof landing on a mother and her three children, killing two children on March 29, 2025, in Brooklyn, New York. The family was crossing the street when the crash happened. Photo: ZUMA Press Wire via Reuters Connect.
A Brooklyn woman was indicted on reckless manslaughter and other charges on Wednesday for a car crash late last month that killed a Jewish mother and her two children who were crossing the street on Shabbat.
Miriam Yarimi, 32, was arraigned on Wednesday by Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Danny Chun on an indictment that charged her with multiple counts of second-degree manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide, second-degree assault, and other related counts. The resident of Midwood, Brooklyn, was ordered held without bail and her next court date is set for June 11. She is facing a maximum sentence of five to 15 years in prison if convicted for the fatal car accident that took place around 1 pm on March 29.
Yarimi pleaded not guilty during her first in-person court appearance on Wednesday. Earlier this month, she appeared in court virtually from her room in NYU Langone Hospital-Brooklyn, where she was undergoing a psychological evaluation.
“This horrific fatal crash was one of the worst I’ve seen in over 25 years as a prosecutor,” said Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez. “It wasn’t an accident. This defendant’s unconscionably dangerous driving wiped out a family. The consequences of her flouting traffic laws and commonsense were disastrous, and we will now seek to hold her fully accountable for this criminally reckless behavior.”
Gonzalez said video surveillance shows Yarimi drove her car through a steady red light a block before the crash, “narrowly avoiding other cars,” before she approached the site of the car accident at the intersection of Ocean Parkway and Quentin Road. Yarimi was also going almost triple the speed limit before she crashed her car into an Uber that was waiting for four Jewish pedestrians to finish crossing the street. When the Jewish family was just “a step or two from the sidewalk,” Yarimi’s car sped through the intersection against the light, smashed into the back of the Uber and plowed through the victims as her car rolled over, the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office said. According to evidence obtained from the black box, Yarimi’s car was traveling at about 68 mph – in a 25-mph speed zone – “was at full throttle (suggesting the gas pedal was floored) and zero brake was applied.”
Natasha Saada, 34, and her daughters – eight-year-old Diana and five-year-old Deborah – were killed at the scene. Her four-year-old son Philip suffered serious injuries, including skull fractures and brain bleeding, and also had a kidney removed. He is in a medically induced coma and “is still fighting for his life,” Gonzalez told reporters outside of the courtroom on Wednesday after Yarimi’s indictment was announced. The Uber had five occupants – the Uber driver, a mother, and her three kids – all of whom sustained minor injuries. Yarimi’s car was upside down and had to be cut to get her out. The single mother, who is also Jewish, suffered minor physical injuries.
At the time of the crash, Yarimi was driving with a suspended license. Her car also reportedly had 99 parking and camera violations between August 2023 and March 2025, including 21 speed camera tickets and five red light tickets.
The post Speeding Brooklyn Woman Indicted on Manslaughter for Car Crash That Killed Jewish Mother, Two Daughters first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Mural Honoring Holocaust Survivors in Milan Gets Vandalized Again With Swastikas, ‘Nazi’ Messages
A mural by AleXsandro Palombo that was vandalized in Milan. Photo: AleXsandro Palombo
Another mural in Milan celebrating Holocaust survivors by Italian contemporary pop artist AleXsandro Palombo has been targeted in an antisemitic attack, this time being vandalized with a swastika and Nazi-related messages.
The mural features real-life Holocaust survivors Liliana Segre, Sami Modiano, and Edith Bruck as characters from “The Simpsons.” Above their heads, vandals spray painted in black the message “Israeliani Nazis,” which is Italian for “Israeli Nazis.” Vandals also defaced the mural by spray painting a Star of David and equating it with a Nazi swastika. The mural additionally depicts Pope Francis holding a sign that says, “Antisemitism is everywhere.” His face was spray painted over and the words on his sign were defaced as well.
The vandalism took place shortly after a national pro-Palestinian demonstration in Milan.
“In Milan, people protest the war in Gaza with vandalism throughout the city, shouting every possible antisemitic insult and even defacing a pop artwork that honors three of the last great Holocaust witnesses and symbols of peace,” commented Palombo after the latest vandalism of his artwork. Several of his murals depicting Holocaust survivors have been repeatedly vandalized in antisemitic attacks, some even completely painted over.
The latest vandalism took place days after the April 7 inauguration of another of Palombo’s murals, “The Star of David,” which features Bruck. The original mural was vandalized in January in another act of antisemitism but was recently restored and has now been acquired for the permanent collection of the Shoah Museum in Rome. It is displayed alongside “Anti-Semitism, History Repeating” — another mural by Palombo featuring Segre and Modiano, that was also vandalized last year and acquired by the museum in January. Both artworks are now exhibited in Rome’s Jewish Ghetto, in front of a synagogue and the archaeological site of the ancient Portico of Octavia, built under Emperor Augustus.
The European Jewish Congress (EJC), Ambassador of Israel to Italy Jonathan Peled, European Parliament Vice President Pina Picierno, and other Italian leaders have condemned the latest vandalism of Palombo’s mural in Mulan.
“We are appalled by the antisemitic vandalism in Milan,” the EJC said in a post on X. “This mural paid tribute to Liliana Segre, Sami Modiano, and Edith Bruck, three survivors who have dedicated their lives to Holocaust remembrance and education. We stand with them. We will not stay silent.”
“Those who deface art think they are offending us. Instead, they only strengthen our resolve and unity around the project of memory,” said Noemi Di Segni, president of the Union of Italian Jewish Communities (UCEI). “This is a commitment we undertake as citizens for the future of our country.”
Picierno expressed solidarity with the Italian Jewish community after the lastest antisemitic vandalism of Palombo’s artwork. “Sadly, we are witnessing ongoing acts of intolerance and the trivialization of the Shoah,” he noted. “It is our duty to continue fighting antisemitism and all forms of hatred in society.”
“Antisemitism is spreading in Milan,” stated Minister for Regional Affairs of Italy Roberto Calderoli. “Just four months ago, I was appalled by the repeated defacement and removal of a mural dedicated to Segre and Modiano. Today I am further horrified by this latest act of defacement with the words ‘Israeli Nazis’ — targeting yet another mural by aleXsandro Palombo. This antisemitic trend in Milan is increasingly alarming and troubling. I’m also appalled by the consistent and complicit silence from the city’s leadership. I stand in full solidarity with Senator Liliana Segre, Edith Bruck, Sami Modiano, the Jewish community under attack for months, and the State of Israel.”
Senate Vice President Anna Rossomando called the vandalism “yet another deplorable act of antisemitism.” He added, “The escalation is concerning, and targeting Holocaust survivors makes the act even more vile.”
Over the span of 30 years, Palombo has created numerous artworks that condemn antisemitism and Hamas and honor Holocaust survivors – all of which have been vandalized in antisemitic attacks. They include the artworks “Simpsons Go to Auschwitz” at Milan’s Holocaust Memorial; “Anne Frank crying,” which depicts the teenage Holocaust victim and diarist wearing a concentration camp uniform and holding the Israeli flag; a mural of a Palestinian girl burning the Hamas flag; and the “Warsaw Ghetto boy,” which is a recreation of a hostage of Hamas terrorists. Palombo also created a mural featuring Vlada Patapov, nicknamed the “girl in red,” who survived the Nova music festival attack on Oct. 7, 2023. It was displayed at the University of Milan but was also defaced when Patapov’s head in the image was decapitated.
The post Mural Honoring Holocaust Survivors in Milan Gets Vandalized Again With Swastikas, ‘Nazi’ Messages first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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