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Sonoma State University President Placed on Leave After BDS Capitulation
Illustrative: A pro-Hamas encampment at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, US, May 6, 2024. Photo: Brian Snyder via Reuters Connect
Sonoma State University in California placed its president, Mike Lee, on leave on Wednesday following his decision to adopt the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel — a concession to anti-Zionist protesters he was reportedly not authorized to make.
Lee agreed to adopt key aspects of BDS on Tuesday as part of a deal negotiated with the university’s Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapter, according to an email shared and cheered by the group.
The email shows that Lee agreed to subject “all” the university’s financial endeavors to SJP’s scrutiny, implement a full academic boycott of Israel — including shutting down study abroad programs in the Jewish state — create a “Palestinian” curriculum within the department of ethnic studies, and issue a statement calling for a “permanent cease-fire in Gaza.”
In a letter which described Lee’s actions as “insubordinate,” the California State University (CSU) system, of which Sonoma State University is a part, announced the next day that Lee would be stepping away from his duties temporarily.
“That message was sent without the appropriate approvals,” CSU chancellor Mildred García said of Lee’s campuswide email concerning the agreement with campus protesters. “The board’s leadership and I are actively reviewing the matter and will provide additional details in the near future. For now, because of this insubordination and consequences it has brought upon the system, President Lee has been placed on administrative leave.”
García added, “I want to acknowledge how deeply concerned I am about the impact the statement has had on the Sonoma State community and how challenging and painful it will be for many of our students and community members to see and read.”
Lee’s capitulation to the school’s anti-Israel protesters would, if it stands, amount to a major victory for BDS, a movement that aims to expel Jews and Zionists from higher education, experts have said.
The Algemeiner has asked the university to confirm whether Lee’s agreement was nullified due to the reasons Garcia described.
Nonprofits organizations that raise awareness of campus antisemitism condemned Lee’s action on Tuesday, drawing parallels between the modern anti-Zionist movement and the student Nazi movement in Germany during the rise of Adolf Hitler in the 1930s.
“This academic boycott of Israel campaign, whose explicit goal is to purge campuses of Zionism and Zionists, is reminiscent of Nazi Germany and its successful purge of Jewish students and faculty from its universities,” said Tammi Rossman-Benjamin, executive director of campus antisemitism watchdog AMCHA Initiative. “Academic BDS directly subverts the educational opportunities and academic freedom of students and faculty at Sonoma State University, and its implementation creates an intolerably hostile and unsafe campus for Jewish students and faculty who — like the vast majority of Jews worldwide — identify with the Jewish state and the Jewish people.”
Following García’s announcement, StandWithUs (SWU), an education nonprofit currently litigating several civil rights complaints alleging maltreatment of and discrimination against Jewish students, commended CSU’s virtually immediate decision to remove Lee from power.
“We hope this case sets an example for all universities that face pressure from anti-Israel extremists,” said Roz Rothstein, co-founder and chief executive officer of SWU. “Instead of caving to the demands of hate groups and their supporters, campus leaders must enforce their policies and stand up to antisemitism.”
The US House of Representatives has launched an investigation into 20 nonprofit organizations that are currently funding anti-Zionist student groups, including SJP, that mounted hundreds of pro-Hamas demonstrations on college campuses, an effort aimed at uncovering long suspected links to terrorist organizations and other hostile foreign entities.
As part of the inquiry, US Reps. Virginia Foxx (R-NC) and James Comer (R-KY) wrote to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Tuesday, asking her to share any “suspicious activity reports” generated by the activities of SJP, as well as Jewish Voice for Peace, American Muslims for Palestine, Tides Foundation, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, and other groups.
The inquiry comes amid widespread suspicion that an eruption of anti-Zionist protests on college campuses, in which students illegally occupied sections of section and refused to leave unless their schools agreed to condemn and boycott Israel, was fueled by immense financial and logistical support from outside groups. Foxx and Comer said in their letter that the investigation’s findings will inform recommendations for new federal laws requiring increased transparency and reporting of foreign contributions to American colleges and universities.
Foreign links to the anti-Zionist student movement have been the subject of numerous comprehensive studies.
Last week, the Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI) published a report showing a connection between the anti-Zionist group Shut It Down for Palestine (SID4P) — a group formed immediately after Hamas’ massacre on Oct. 7 — and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). NCRI explained that SID4P, which organized numerous traffic-obstructing demonstrations after Oct. 7, is an umbrella group for several other organizations which compose the “Singham Network,” a consortium of far-left groups funded by Neville Roy Singham and Jodie Evans. The report describes Singham and Evans as a “power couple within the global far-left movement” whose affiliation with the CCP has been copiously documented.
In 2022, the National Association of Scholars (NAS) revealed that one of the founders of Students for Justice in Palestine, Hatem Bazian, is also a co-founder of American Muslims for Palestine, an advocacy group which, NAS said, “retains ties to terrorist groups operating in the Palestinian Territories.”
NAS added that the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic Cultural Boycott of Israel — which has been influential is steering BDS against Israel in academia — is “structurally linked” to Palestinian terrorist organizations through the Council of National and Islamic Forces in Palestine — a member of the Palestinian BDS National Committee which comprises Hamas, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), Popular Front-General Command, Palestinian Liberation Front, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
“BDS, along with the formation of multiple NGOs and nonprofit organizations, offers the Palestinians new avenues by which to access funding in a post-9/11 international financial system designed to curtail funding for terrorism,” NAS senior fellow Ian Oxnevad explained.
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
The post Sonoma State University President Placed on Leave After BDS Capitulation first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Netanyahu Escalates Attack on Australia’s Albanese as Jewish Group Urges Calm
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a press conference, in Jerusalem, May 21, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun/Pool
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday stepped up his personal attacks on Australian counterpart Anthony Albanese over his government’s decision to recognize a Palestinian state, saying Albanese‘s political record had been damaged forever.
Diplomatic ties between Australia and Israel have soured since Albanese‘s center-left Labor government last week announced it would conditionally recognize Palestinian statehood, following similar moves by France, Britain, and Canada.
The decision prompted Netanyahu to launch a personal attack on Albanese, and he doubled down on his condemnation in an interview to be broadcast on Sky News Australia.
“I think his record is forever tarnished by the weakness that he showed in the face of this Hamas terrorist monsters,” Netanyahu said, after describing Albanese earlier this week as “a weak politician who betrayed Israel and abandoned Australia’s Jews.”
Sky News Australia released the comments ahead of the broadcast of the full interview on Thursday at 8 pm (1000 GMT).
Albanese on Wednesday played down Netanyahu‘s criticisms, saying he did not “take these things personally” and that he treated the leaders of other countries with respect.
Last week, Albanese said the Israeli prime minister was “in denial” about the humanitarian situation in Gaza, where Israel has been waging a military campaign against the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas.
The Executive Council of Australian Jewry in separate letters sent on Wednesday to both leaders urged them to discuss differences through diplomacy rather than public posturing.
“We write to express our deep dismay and concern at the recent ‘war of words,’” the letters said.
“If things need to be said publicly, they should be said using measured and seemly language befitting national leaders. Australia and Israel are mature democracies, and their governments need to act accordingly,” the council said.
Israel this week revoked the visas of Australian diplomats to the Palestinian Authority after Albanese‘s government canceled the visa of an Israeli lawmaker over remarks it considered controversial and inflammatory.
Israel’s military announced the first steps of an operation to take control of Gaza City on Wednesday, calling up tens of thousands of reservists despite many of Israel’s closest allies calling for it to reconsider.
The offensive began after Hamas-led terrorists stormed into southern Israel in October 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking 251 more hostage. Israel is currently considering a new ceasefire proposal.
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Iran Holds Military Drills After Big Losses in War With Israel
An Iranian missile is launched during a military exercise in an undisclosed location in Iran, Aug. 20, 2025. Photo: Iranian Army/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via REUTERS
Iran on Thursday launched its first solo military exercises since its June war with Israel, state media reported, seeking to reassert an image of strength after suffering heavy losses.
Navy units of Iran‘s regular armed forces fired missiles and drones at open water targets in the Indian Ocean under the “Sustainable Power 1404” drill, state television reported.
“These drills take place around a month after the Iran-Russia drill under the name Casarex 2025 which took place in Iran‘s northern waters [Caspian Sea]. The Sustainable Power drills … are in Iran‘s southern waters,” state TV said.
Israel attacked Iran in a 12-day air war which the United States briefly joined, pounding key nuclear installations and killing top military commanders and nuclear scientists.
Israel largely destroyed Iran‘s air defenses during the war and much of its stockpile of ballistic weapons is believed to have been damaged by Israeli strikes.
Since then, the Islamic Republic has said it is ready to counter any future attacks.
“Any new adventure by the enemy will be faced with a strong slap,” the Defense Ministry said in a statement on Thursday.
US President Donald Trump has threatened to strike Iran again if it revives nuclear facilities including uranium enrichment plants.
Tehran suspended negotiations with Washington aimed at curbing the country’s nuclear ambitions after the Israeli and US airstrikes. Iran denies any intent to develop atomic bombs.
Iran believes the moment for “effective” nuclear talks with the US has not yet arrived, its top diplomat said on Wednesday, though Tehran would not completely cut off cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog.
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Jewish Comedian Jeff Ross Cooks in One Man Show on Broadway
Jeff Ross in his one-man show on Broadway.
Jeff Ross is best known for roasting celebrities like Tom Brady, making jokes that some could interpret as mean. But his one man show on Broadway, Take a Banana for The Ride, shows a lot of heart.
Ross describes cutting brisket as part of his family’s kosher catering business, having a big Jew-fro, and losing all his hair in one week due to alopecia. He also described having surgery and going through chemo, thankfully recovering from stomach cancer.
He jokes that he could roast himself because he has thick skin. Ross is his middle name, and his last name is Lifschultz.
Ross calls comedy his superpower, and it certainly is. He talks about his uncle, Murray, liberating a concentration camp and how he was bullied and took karate lessons and became the second youngest black belt in America.
He jokes that Jesus was the only Jewish carpenter, and another joke about him is the edgiest in the show, which is far less profane than his roasts. The title of the show comes from his grandfather, Jack, who told him to take the yellow fruit with him on his bus trips from Brooklyn to Manhattan to do standup comedy.
Ross mentions his friend told everyone on a text chain to get a colonoscopy, and when he got one, a stage III tumor was found. He had surgery and seven inches of his colon was removed. Ross also reads a love letter his father wrote to his mother. While Ross is funny, with his usual excellent timing, that he would choose to show such vulnerability is remarkable. He even speaks of two birth defects.
Pictures of his relatives come up behind him, as well as the three comedy pals he lost in recent succession, Jewish comics Gilbert Gottfried and Bob Saget, as well as Norm Macdonald. He makes a joke about his sister, Robyn, that some might find surprising and you’ll want to hear about a surprising gift he got from his father for Hanukkah. He says the first comedy writing he did was a card he wrote to his mother to try to cheer her up when suffering from leukemia. Marsha would die when her son was 14, and his father died when he was 19.
Ross speaks of going to Boston University, where he starred in The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
Comedy likely saved Ross at a time of sorrow, and he regrets that his parents never got to see him perform — but says they gave him the gift of humor.
Ross has a funny song about all the things Jews created, including Hollywood, kugel, and cosmetic surgery.
At the end of the show, Ross goes out to people in the audience who are dealing with hardships, insults them and gives them a banana. Ross delivers a performance that is hilarious, warm, and worthy of an award, which I expect he will win. It’s only running for eight weeks and it is worth seeing not only because of Ross’ star-power, but because of his humanity.
Judging only from his roasts, one would think Ross was as cold as ice. But it’s a revelation to see this other side of him. And while he doesn’t have kids, it’s clear he loved one dog that passed away and another that is still alive. Ross reveals he wears a ring made from a bolt of a Nazi U-Boat.
Take a Banana For The Ride is a Jewish story, but also a universal one that is heartwarming, inspiring, and surprising. Don’t miss it! And just like you stay to watch the credits at the end of a movie, there’s a surprise at the end of his show.
The author is a writer based in New York.