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Some Campus Protesters Despise America as Much as They Do Israel
As New York police cleared an anti-Israel encampment at New York University on the morning of May 3, officers discovered rudimentary signs proclaiming “Death to Israeli real estate” and “Death to America!”
The latter is an Islamist rallying cry popularized during the 1979 Iranian revolution. In addition to a hatred of Jews and Israel, some of the rhetoric and conduct that emerged from campus protests shares a similar militant antipathy toward the United States.
While the incidents might appear relatively few in number, Americans would be wise to recognize what this potential trend might mean for the Democratic Convention in August and campus life in the fall, and the country more broadly.
At the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) — America’s first public university — anti-Israel protesters replaced the American flag with a Palestinian flag on April 30, amid chants of “There is only one solution! Intifada revolution!”
On April 19, crowds at Yale mocked America and cheered as protesters removed and tried to burn the US flag flying in front of a war memorial honoring Americans who made the ultimate sacrifice.
Protesters at Yale repeated the same chant heard at UNC.
At the University of Michigan, organizers shared pamphlets with students declaring, “Freedom for Palestine means Death to America.” To the antisemitic and anti-American messaging, the pamphleteers added an anarchist element: “Ultimately, our main task as revolutionaries in the United States remains to be the unmaking of the American empire.”
The toxic combination of antisemitic, anti-Israel, and anti-US sentiment at campus protests should sound familiar to Americans.
The parents and grandparents of many campus protesters will remember 9/11. Osama Bin Laden, the Islamist terrorist responsible for orchestrating the most devastating terror attack on the US homeland in its history, called the killing of “Jews and Americans” one of “the most important duties.”
That’s just what Hamas did on October 7. Among the 1,200 killed and 240 abducted on that day were dozens of Americans, some of whom remain hostages. That doesn’t stop campus protesters from supporting Hamas, and championing its goals.
Some campus protesters have even supported the Houthi militia, another Islamist terror group and benefactor of Iran. Protesters at Columbia, Brown, and UCLA shouted “Yemen, Yemen, make us proud, turn another ship around!” referring to Houthi attacks on vessels in the Red Sea — including American vessels. The Houthis chant their mantra, “Death to America, Death to Israel, curse the Jews, and victory to Islam.”
After the UNC Chancellor and administrators, escorted by police officers, brought a new American flag to replace the Palestinian one, protesters tried pulling that flag down, too. But with a patriotic spirit reminiscent of the New York City firefighters who raised the flag above Ground Zero on September 11, 2001, members of Pi Kappa Phi fraternity rushed to lift the Stars and Stripes above the ground, protecting it for hours as anti-Israel protesters pelted the guardians with objects.
The fraternity brothers at UNC have shown us the way. We will need more young Americans willing to do the same.
Antonette Bowman is a research fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
The post Some Campus Protesters Despise America as Much as They Do Israel first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Germany: 5 Killed, Scores Wounded after Saudi Man Plows Car Into Christmas crowd
Magdeburg Christmas market, December 21, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Christian Mang
i24 News – A suspected terrorist plowed a vehicle into a crowd at a Christmas market in the German city of Magdeburg, west of the capital Berlin, killing at least five and injuring dozens more.
Local police confirmed that the suspect was a Saudi national born in 1974 and acting alone.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz expressed his concern about the incident, saying that “reports from Magdeburg suggest something bad. My thoughts are with the victims and their families.”
Police declined to give casualty numbers, confirming only a large-scale operation at the market, where people had gathered to celebrate in the days leading up to the Christmas holidays.
The post Germany: 5 Killed, Scores Wounded after Saudi Man Plows Car Into Christmas crowd first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Syria’s New Rulers Name HTS Commander as Defense Minister
A person waves a flag adopted by the new Syrian rulers, as people gather during a celebration called by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) near the Umayyad Mosque, after the ousting of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, in Damascus, Syria, Photo: December 20, 2024. REUTERS/Ammar Awad/File Photo
Syria’s new rulers have appointed Murhaf Abu Qasra, a leading figure in the insurgency which toppled Bashar al-Assad, as defense minister in the interim government, an official source said on Saturday.
Abu Qasra, who is also known by the nom de guerre Abu Hassan 600, is a senior figure in the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group which led the campaign that ousted Assad this month. He led numerous military operations during Syria’s revolution, the source said.
Syria’s de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa discussed “the form of the military institution in the new Syria” during a meeting with armed factions on Saturday, state news agency SANA reported.
Abu Qasra during the meeting sat next to Sharaa, also known by the nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Golani, photos published by SANA showed.
Prime Minister Mohammed al-Bashir said this week that the defense ministry would be restructured using former rebel factions and officers who defected from Assad’s army.
Bashir, who formerly led an HTS-affiliated administration in the northwestern province of Idlib, has said he will lead a three-month transitional government. The new administration has not declared plans for what will happen after that.
Earlier on Saturday, the ruling General Command named Asaad Hassan al-Shibani as foreign minister, SANA said. A source in the new administration told Reuters that this step “comes in response to the aspirations of the Syrian people to establish international relations that bring peace and stability.”
Shibani, a 37-year-old graduate of Damascus University, previously led the political department of the rebels’ Idlib government, the General Command said.
Sharaa’s group was part of al Qaeda until he broke ties in 2016. It had been confined to Idlib for years until going on the offensive in late November, sweeping through the cities of western Syria and into Damascus as the army melted away.
Sharaa has met with a number of international envoys this week. He has said his primary focus is on reconstruction and achieving economic development and that he is not interested in engaging in any new conflicts.
Syrian rebels seized control of Damascus on Dec. 8, forcing Assad to flee after more than 13 years of civil war and ending his family’s decades-long rule.
Washington designated Sharaa a terrorist in 2013, saying al Qaeda in Iraq had tasked him with overthrowing Assad’s rule and establishing Islamic sharia law in Syria. US officials said on Friday that Washington would remove a $10 million bounty on his head.
The war has killed hundreds of thousands of people, caused one of the biggest refugee crises of modern times and left cities bombed to rubble and the economy hollowed out by global sanctions.
The post Syria’s New Rulers Name HTS Commander as Defense Minister first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Sweden Ends Funding for UNRWA, Pledges to Seek Other Aid Channels
View of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) building in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. Photo: Abed Rahim Khatib / Flash90.
i24 News – Sweden will no longer fund the U.N. refugee agency for Palestinians (UNRWA) and will instead provide humanitarian assistance to Gaza via other channels, the Scandinavian country said on Friday.
The decision comes on the heels of multiple revelations regarding the agency’s employees’ involvement in the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led massacre in southern Israel that triggered the war in Gaza.
Sweden’s decision was in response to the Israeli ban, as it will make channeling aid via the agency more difficult, the country’s aid minister, Benjamin Dousa, said.
“Large parts of UNRWA’s operations in Gaza are either going to be severely weakened or completely impossible,” Dousa said. “For the government, the most important thing is that support gets through.”
The Palestinian embassy in Stockholm said in a statement: “We reject the idea of finding alternatives to UNRWA, which has a special mandate to provide services to Palestinian refugees.”
Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel thanked Dousa for a meeting they had this week and for Sweden’s decision to drop its support for UNRWA.
“There are worthy and viable alternatives for humanitarian aid, and I appreciate the willingness to listen and adopt a different approach,” she said.
The post Sweden Ends Funding for UNRWA, Pledges to Seek Other Aid Channels first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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