RSS
Jew Haters & Terrorist Apologists: A Campus Perspective
Like many Jews, I always took pride in identifying as a “liberal.” Over the last few years — and especially the last three months — things have changed. I have watched as my “liberal” peers champion profoundly anti-liberal ideologies, and parrot hate-laden slogans. Most emblematic of this hypocrisy is how my “liberal” peers treat Jews and Israel, the Jewish state.
On October 7, even as Hamas terrorists were still perpetrating their barbarous crimes against innocent Israelis, including rape, murder, and torture, these “liberals” wasted no time in showing the world how much they hate Jews.
Instead of condemning the rape of women, decapitation of babies, and murder of entire families, my “progressive” peers, without a moment’s hesitation, rushed to condemn the victims. Some of these “progressives” openly celebrated the murder, abuse, and abduction of Jewish women, children, and men.
For these virtue-seekers, the violence was justified because they believe Jews are “colonialist oppressors,” even though Jews are indigenous to the land, and “white oppressors,” even though half of Israelis would be considered BIPOC in the United States, and that Hamas had full control over Gaza before Oct. 7, and the Palestinian Authority runs most of the West Bank.
My “liberal” peers are not liberals. They are deeply illiberal. Their support for Hamas savagery represents an ideology rooted in hatred — an ideology that resembles Islamo-fascism and Nazism.
On my own campus, these “progressives” vandalized our Hillel, spray-painted buildings, ripped down posters of hostages, disrupted traffic, shouted genocidal slurs on loudspeakers during final exams, hung massive anti-Israel banners, slapped “Sabra Feeds Genocide” stickers on hummus containers, and staged “die-ins” while shouting bloodthirsty slogans — slogans so ugly that many participants hid behind masks.
Since 2005, when Israel unilaterally removed every single civilian from Gaza, Hamas has done nothing but wreak havoc on Arabs and Israelis alike.
Instead of building civilian infrastructure when it seized power in 2007, Hamas built underground terror tunnels; instead of building a profitable economy, Hamas made its leaders billionaires; instead of providing food to its civilians, Hamas stole it for itself; instead of protecting civilians, Hamas did everything to increase civilian deaths; instead of teaching kids to want peace, Hamas taught them to hate Jews and to idolize martyrdom.
While Israel allows tens of thousands of Gazans to work in Israel, Hamas denies opportunities. While Israel celebrates LGTBQ Pride, Hamas kills, tortures and jails gay people.
Hamas terrorists are not “freedom fighters.” They are blood-thirsty murderers. They are rapists. They are barbarians. They are the enemies of all decent people.
These facts do not get in the way of my “liberal” classmates. Jews are assumed to be prosperous, so Israelis must be the “oppressors.” Jews are considered “white,” so Israelis must be “colonial oppressors.”
If Hamas were to lay its weapons down today, and free the hostages, there could be peace. If Israel laid its weapons down today, the Jewish state would be wiped off the map.
Many progressives envy Jews, but also hate them. They have even succeeded in intimidating and brainwashing some Jews into trying to fit in with the fashionable climate of Jew-hatred. These are not new phenomena. There have always been Jews making desperate and ultimately futile attempts to gain acceptance from the very people who want to kill them by condemning their fellow Jews. Karl Marx (the descendant of rabbis on both sides) did much to inspire Communist Jew-hatred. The Hellenized Jews of Judea fought against the Maccabees. The pro-Roman faction of Jews helped Rome destroy our Temple in 70 C.E.. Today, Jewish Voice for Peace and similar groups help the Jew-haters.
Ask those who fervently condemn Israel’s self-defense efforts: why do the thousands of Arabs killed in Yemen not elicit your “advocacy” and compassion? How about the hundreds of thousands of Arabs killed in Syria under Bashar al-Assad? What about the Muslim Uyghurs in China?
Israel is a bastion of Western democracy in the Middle East. It is the only Jewish state in the world, and it is surrounded by 22 Arab Muslim countries. It is this Jewish sovereignty and independence that Jew-haters cannot accept.
If my “liberal” peers continue buttressing Hamas, if our nation’s academics perpetuate their resentment of Jews and Israel, if university leaders continue to look the other way when Jews are harassed, if the DEI bureaucracy continues to act like Jews are not the most victimized group, we are all in for a dystopian future.
This is not a war about some border dispute between Israel and Palestinians. It is a war for Western democracy, a war in which too many American “liberals” are backing the wrong side.
My “liberal” peers have been converted to a Marxist, antisemitic, anti-Western, morally bankrupt, fact-averse, backward ideology. These armies of “progressives” will seek leadership of our nation. The future of the Western world demands that decent people–the silent majority — stand up and speak out.
For Jews who hope for continued happiness and success in the United States, this is a war worth fighting. No more complacency. Make your voice heard. Hold your elected officials accountable. Stand up for yourselves. No one will respect us unless we respect ourselves.
Alex Wecht is a senior at Boston University, where he serves as the Vice President and Editor of BU’s student-led philosophy journal, Arché, as co-president of the Pre-Law Society, and as a Hillel Jewish Student Leader.
The post Jew Haters & Terrorist Apologists: A Campus Perspective first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
A pro-Israel rally at the University of Toronto was headlined by Columbia University professor Shai Davidai
Around 200 people gathered for a pro-Israel demonstration at University of Toronto’s downtown campus at King’s College Circle—which was the site of one of Canada’s largest pro-Palestinian encampments during May […]
The post A pro-Israel rally at the University of Toronto was headlined by Columbia University professor Shai Davidai appeared first on The Canadian Jewish News.
RSS
‘Not Welcome’: New Pro-Hamas Campaign Aims to Abolish Hillel Campus Chapters
A statue of George Washington tied with a Palestinian flag and a keffiyeh inside a pro-Hamas encampment is pictured at George Washington University in Washington, DC, US, May 2, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Craig Hudson
The campus group National Students for Justice in Palestine (NSJP) is waging a campaign to gut Jewish life in academia, calling for the abolition of Hillel International campus chapters, the largest collegiate organization for Jewish students in the world.
“Over the past several decades, Hillel has monopolized for Jewish campus life into a pipeline for pro-Israel indoctrination, genocide-apologia, and material support to the Zionist project and its crimes,” a social media account operating the campaign, titled #DropHillel, said in a manifesto published last week. “Across the country, Hillel chapters have invited Israeli soldiers to their campuses; promoted propaganda trips such as birthright; and organized charity drives for the Israeli military.”
It continued, “Such actions reveal Hillel’s ideological and material investment in Zionism, despite the organization’s facade as being simply a ‘Jewish cultural space.’”
DropHillel claims to be “Jewish-led,” although only a small minority of Jews oppose Zionism, and the group has been linked to and promoted by Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapters.
Hillel International has provided Jewish students a home away from home during the academic year. However, NSJP says it wants to “weaken” it and “dismantle oppression.”
The idea has already been picked up by pro-Hamas student groups at one college, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, according to The Daily Tar Heel, the school’s official student newspaper. On Oct. 9, it reported, a member of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) unveiled the idea for “no more Hillel” during a rally which, among other things, demanded removing Israel from UNC’s study abroad program and adopting the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement. Addressing the comments to the paper days later, SJP, which has been linked to Islamist terrorist organizations, proclaimed that shuttering Hillel is a coveted goal of the anti-Zionist movement.
“Zionism is a racist supremacist ideology advocating for the creation and sustenance of an ethnostate through the expulsion and annihilation of native people,” the group told the paper. “Therefore, any group that advocates for a supremacist ideology — be it the KKK, the Proud Boys, Hillel, or Heels for Israel — should not be welcome on campus.”
The #DropHillel campaign came amid an unprecedented surge in anti-Israel incidents on college campuses, which, according to a report published last month by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), have reached crisis levels.
Revealing a “staggering” 477 percent increase in anti-Zionist activity involving assault, vandalism, and other phenomena, the report — titled “Anti-Israel Activism on US Campuses, 2023-2024” — painted a bleak picture of America’s higher education system poisoned by political extremism and hate.
“As the year progressed, Jewish students and Jewish groups on campus came under unrelenting scrutiny for any association, actual or perceived, with Israel or Zionism,” the report said. “This often led to the harassment of Jewish members of campus communities and vandalism of Jewish institutions. In some cases, it led to assault. These developments were underpinned by a steady stream of rhetoric from anti-Israel activists expressing explicit support for US-designated terrorists organizations, such as Hamas, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and others.”
The report added that 10 campuses accounted for 16 percent of all incidents tracked by ADL researchers, with Columbia University and the University of Michigan combining for 90 anti-Israel incidents — 52 and 38, respectively. Harvard University, the University of California – Los Angeles, Rutgers University New Brunswick, Stanford University, Cornell University, and others filled out the rest of the top 10. Violence, it continued, was most common at universities in the state of California, where anti-Zionist activists punched a Jewish student for filming him at a protest.
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
The post ‘Not Welcome’: New Pro-Hamas Campaign Aims to Abolish Hillel Campus Chapters first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
‘Muslim for Trump’ Launches Initiatives in Key Battleground States, Says Candidate Will Bring ‘Peace’ to Gaza
Former US President Donald Trump is seen at a campaign event in South Carolina. Photo: Reuters/Sam Wolfe
The “Muslims for Trump” organization has officially launched initiatives to help elect Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump to the White House, arguing that he would be more likely to end the war in Gaza than Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris.
In a statement released on Monday, the group said it will focus on recruiting Muslim voters in key battleground states such as Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Georgia, and North Carolina. The organization both praised Trump for his supposed “peace-focused” approach to ending the war in Gaza and condemned Harris for helping facilitate a so-called “genocide.”
“After meeting with President Trump, it was clear to me he is the right leader for Muslims to get behind,” Rabiul Chowdhury, co-founder of Muslims for Trump and former co-chair of the “Abandon Harris Movement,” said in a statement.
Chowdhury added that during his discussions with Trump, the former president vowed to “ending the escalation of wars and bringing peace to war-torn regions.” In contrast to Trump’s promise to stop the “bloodshed” in Gaza, he claimed, Harris has “recklessly pushed us toward World War III.”
Chowdhury, a self-described “peace advocate,” urged the Muslim community not to fall victim to supposed “misinformation” campaigns by the media and Democrats that paint the former president as hostile to immigrants. He claimed that the former president’s focus is on “ending war, not dividing families through false immigration claims.”
Samra Luqman, chair of the Michigan chapter of Muslims for Trump, underscored the need to punish the Biden administration for what he described as supporting a “genocide” in Gaza.
“The goal of this election is to hold the Biden administration accountable for a genocide. No amount of fear mongering or scare tactics will persuade my community into forgiving the mutilation, live-burning, and genocide of over 200,000 people,” he said.
According to data produced by the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry, roughly 40,000 people have died in Gaza since the war began last October. Israel has said that its forces have killed about 20,000 Hamas terrorists during its military campaign.
Israel 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.
On the organization Muslims for Trump’s official website, it claims that the Abraham Accords, a series of historic, Trump administration-brokered normalization agreements between Israel and several countries in the Arab world, helped stabilize the Middle East. It also says that had Trump not lost the 2020 presidential race, the so-called “genocide” could have been prevented.
“Under Trump’s leadership, the Abraham Accords were brokered, fostering peaceful relations between Israel and several Arab countries. Supporters might argue that Trump’s diplomacy prioritized peace and stability in the Middle East, reducing the likelihood of large-scale conflicts like genocide,” the group wrote.
Over the course of his campaign, Trump has repeatedly touted his support for the Jewish state during his singular term in office. Trump has boasted about his administration’s work in fostering the Abraham Accords, promising to resume efforts to strengthen them if he were to win November’s US presidential election.
Harsh US sanctions levied on Iran under Trump crippled the Iranian economy and led its foreign exchange reserves to plummet. Trump and his Republican supporters in the US Congress have criticized the Biden administration for renewing billions of dollars in US sanctions waivers, which had the effect of unlocking frozen funds and allowing the country to access previously inaccessible hard currency.
Trump also recognized Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights, a strategic region on Israel’s northern border previously controlled by Syria, and also moved the US embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, recognizing the city as the Jewish state’s capital.
Despite Harris’s repeated efforts to woo Muslim voters, polling data indicates that the demographic has made a dramatic swing away from the Democratic Party. Polling data from the Arab American Institute reveals that Trump slightly edges Harris among Muslim voters by a margin of 42 to 41 percent. A report from the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) shows that Green Party candidate Jill Stein leads Harris and Trump with Muslim voters in the key swing states of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Arizona.
The post ‘Muslim for Trump’ Launches Initiatives in Key Battleground States, Says Candidate Will Bring ‘Peace’ to Gaza first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
You must be logged in to post a comment Login