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The Cries of Byai Phu
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un speaks during the 8th Congress of the Workers’ Party in Pyongyang, North Korea, in this photo supplied by North Korea’s Central News Agency (KCNA) on January 13, 2021. Photo: KCNA/via REUTERS/File Photo.
JNS.org – Civilians forced to sit in the open for two days, with no sustenance, under a blazing sun. Soldiers handing bottles filled with their own urine to those begging for water. Men bearing tattoos deemed to be politically offensive screaming in agony as their skin is burned off with lighted petrol. Soldiers, many of them drunk, demanding shovels to bury the bodies of those whom they executed. Women, men and children beaten brutally when answering questions barked at them by the soldiers, irrespective of what actually came out of their mouths.
I wish I could give you the details of the demonstration this weekend that’s been organized to protest these foul atrocities, but there isn’t one. These horrors didn’t afflict Palestinians in Gaza, and they weren’t carried out by Israeli troops. They occurred in the village of Byai Phu in the state of Rakhine in the far west of Burma, the East Asian country renamed “Myanmar” following a military coup in 1989. An account of these atrocities—not the first time something like this has happened during the brutal civil war that’s raged for three years and likely not the last—was tucked away in the corner of the BBC News website last week, which I happened to stumble on.
Everyone, it seems, has heard of Rafah, but few people know of Byai Phu, and those who have heard of it now will probably forget its name within a day or two. Yes, life is cruel, and for millions of people around the world, it’s an unceasing struggle to keep themselves and their families alive and afloat amid economic crisis, war and political repression. But that rather trite observation cannot, must not, be the final word.
Instead, let me speak plainly and bluntly. The cause of Palestine has become emblematic of the sickness at the heart of Western culture. It has become a fixation and an obsession, fueled by the ludicrous notion that the presence of a Jewish state and the absence of a Palestinian one “from the river to the sea” is the only explanation for the persistence of conflict and strife in today’s world. The terrible vice that is tunnel vision has become a virtue, something sacred, and challenging this dogma will get you “canceled” in progressive circles.
For the Iranian terror proxies in the Middle East, this state of affairs is cause for delight. “[S]ignificantly, the U.K. youth showed greater interest unfolding of the war on Gaza than in other global conflicts,” the pro-Hezbollah website Al-Mayadeen observed in its report of a June 5 opinion poll showing that 54% of Britons between the ages of 18 to 24 believe that Israel has no right to exist, compared with 21% of the same age group who think the opposite. The same article crowed at the statistic that 38% of young Brits are “very interested” in the war in Gaza, while only 19% feel the same about Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine.
We’ve periodically seen similarly worrying polls about how Israel is regarded throughout the first quarter of the present century. But what’s different, and what makes the question “why?” more urgent now than before, is that Israel is facing a proximate existential threat from Iran and its regional allies. What’s also different is that the world’s authoritarian states are much more emboldened now than they were 20 years ago, bolstered by the puerile notion among many Westerners that there is no essential difference between a country like the United States and one like North Korea.
If you were to ask the same audience whether they believe North Korea, which I’ve described in the past as “not so much a country, but a concentration camp with a seat at the United Nations,” has the right to exist, my informed guess is that the answer would either be “yes” or bemusement that the question was being asked in the first place. They wouldn’t know and wouldn’t care that North Korea is an artificial entity carved out at the close of the Korean War, or that the state exists to service its unchallenged dictator, Kim Jong-un, and his inner circle. Equally, the fact that one of the most grotesque forms of torture practiced in North Korea involves detainees being forced to watch their families being beaten and raped wouldn’t disturb too many of these Palestine Firsters, especially as North Korea vocally supports the Palestinians.
Part of the explanation for this is, of course, antisemitism, which artfully molds itself to fit in with the political agendas of every new generation. It’s also rooted in the notion that human beings aren’t fundamentally equal and equally deserving of the same human and civil rights, irrespective of where they happen to live. The nasty authoritarian streak that courses through progressive circles these days determines that the state—and not the individual—is paramount. If a persecuted or terrorized individual happens to be a citizen of a state damned as an ally of Western imperialism, then they deserve what’s coming to them. It’s not just Israelis, and by extension, Diaspora Jewish communities, that have suffered from this distinction; Ukrainians, Kurds and Burma’s various ethnicities are among those who have suffered from it, too. “All eyes” turn to Rafah because Rafah is being targeted by Israel, and Israel is, according to this schema, the link between police violence against black people in America, or Muslim communities in Europe, and the Palestinians, who—just like Jesus Christ—suffer for all of us.
By the end of this year, if not sooner, Israel may well find itself mired in a new war in Lebanon since Hezbollah shows no sign of ending its terror campaign to make the north of Israel an unlivable zone. There lies the rub; Israel’s first responsibility is to protect its citizens, but each time it does so, its reputation takes another pasting. As the tentacles of the Iranian octopus—Hamas, Hezbollah, Yemen’s Houthi rebels, Islamist militias in Syria and Iraq—squeeze around Israel’s neck, the bitter reality is that many of our own neighbors will enjoy the spectacle. The discourse of peace and equality has been replaced by a fetish for war (“resistance”) and hierarchies of race and religion (“liberation”).
That’s bad news for us, but even worse news for the people of Byai Phu.
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US Clamps Sanctions on Israel-bashing UN Rights Monitor Albanese
Francesca Albanese, UN special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories, attends a side event during the Human Rights Council at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, March 26, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Denis Balibouse
The Trump administration has imposed sweeping sanctions against Francesca Albanese, the United Nations Special Rapporteur for the Occupied Palestinian Territories, citing the UN official’s lengthy record of singling out Israel for condemnation.
In a post on X, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the sanctions under a February executive order targeting those who “prompt International Criminal Court (ICC) action against U.S. and Israeli officials, companies, and executives.” He accused Albanese of waging “political and economic warfare” against both nations and asserted that “such efforts will no longer be tolerated.”
“Today I am imposing sanctions on UN Human Rights Council Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese for her illegitimate and shameful efforts to prompt [International Criminal Court] action against U.S. and Israeli officials, companies, and executives,” Rubio announced on X/Twitter.
“Albanese’s campaign of political and economic warfare against the United States and Israel will no longer be tolerated,” declared the Trump administration’s top foreign affairs official. “We will always stand by our partners in their right to self-defense.”
Rubio concluded: “The United States will continue to take whatever actions we deem necessary to respond to lawfare and protect our sovereignty and that of our allies.”
The decision to impose sanctions on Albanese marks an escalation in the ongoing feud between the White House and the United Nations over Israel. The Trump administration has repeatedly accused the UN and Albanese of unfairly targeting Israel and mischaracterizing the Jewish state’s conduct in Gaza.
Albanese, an Italian lawyer and academic, has held the position of UN special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories since 2022. The position authorizes her to monitor and report on alleged “human rights violations” by Israel against Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.
Last week, Albanese issued a scathing report accusing companies of helping Israel maintain a so-called “genocide economy.” She called on the companies to cut off economic ties with Israel and warned that they might be guilty of “complicity” in the so-called “genocide” in Gaza.
Critics of Albanese have long accused her of exhibiting an excessive anti-Israel bias, calling into question her fairness and neutrality.
Albanese has an extensive history of using her role at the UN to denigrate Israel and seemingly rationalize Hamas’ attacks on the Jewish state.
In the months following the Palestinian terrorist group’s atrocities across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, Albanese accused the Jewish state of perpetrating a “genocide” against the Palestinian people in revenge for the attacks and circulated a widely derided and heavily disputed report alleging that 186,000 people had been killed in the Gaza war as a result of Israeli actions.
The action comes as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visits Washington, where he has received a warm reception from the Trump administration. Netanyahu has been meeting with US officials to discuss next steps in the ongoing Gaza military operation.
Gideon Sa’ar, Minister of Foreign Affairs for Israel, commended the Rubio announcement with his own post on X/Twitter, exclaiming: “A clear message. Time for the UN to pay attention!”
The post US Clamps Sanctions on Israel-bashing UN Rights Monitor Albanese first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Hardball: Trump Administration Reports Harvard to Accreditor Over Antisemitism Allegations
US President Donald Trump speaks during a Cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, DC, July 8, 2025. Photo: Kevin Lamarque via Reuters Connect.
The Trump administration escalated its showdown against Harvard University on Wednesday, reporting the institution to its accreditor for alleged civil rights violations resulting from its weak response to reports of antisemitic bullying, discrimination, and harassment following Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 massacre across southern Israel.
The US Department of Education (DOE) announced the action on Wednesday. Citing Harvard’s admitted failure to treat antisemitism as seriously as it treated others forms of hatred in the past, the DOE called on the New England Commission of Higher Education to review and, potentially, revoke its accreditation — a designation which qualifies Harvard for federal funding and attests to the quality of the educational services its provides.
“Accrediting bodies play a significant role in preserving academic integrity and a campus culture conducive to truth seeking and learning,” said Secretary of Education Linda McMahon. “Part of that is ensuring students are safe on campus and abiding by federal laws that guarantee educational opportunities to all students. By allowing anti-Semitic harassment and discrimination to persist unchecked on its campus, Harvard University has failed in its obligation to students, educators, and American taxpayers.”
The DOE, McMahon added, “expects the New England Commission of Higher Education to enforce its policies and practices, and to keep the Department fully informed of its efforts to ensure that Harvard is in compliance with federal law and accreditor standards.”
As previously reported by The Algemeiner, Harvard’s Presidential Task Force on Combating Antisemitism has acknowledged that the university administration’s handling of campus antisemitism fell well below its obligations under both Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and its own nondiscrimination policies.
In a 300-plus-page report, the task force compiled a comprehensive record of antisemitic incidents on Harvard’s campus in recent years — from the Harvard Palestine Solidarity Committee’s endorsement of the Oct. 7 terrorist atrocities to an anti-Zionist faculty group’s sharing an antisemitic cartoon depicting Jews as murderers of people of color. The report identified Harvard’s past refusal to afford Jews the same protections against discrimination enjoyed by other minority groups as a key source of its problem.
Coming several weeks after President Donald Trump ordered the freeze of $2.26 billion in federal research grants and contracts for Harvard, the task force report found it was “clear” that antisemitism and anti-Israel bias have been fomented, practiced, and tolerated not only at Harvard but also within academia more widely.”
The university is now suing the federal government over the funding halt.
President Trump has spoken scathingly of Harvard, calling it, for example, an “Anti-Semitic, Far Left Institute … with students being accepted from all over the world that want to rip our Country apart” in an April post to his Truth Social platform.
In recent weeks, however, both Trump and McMahon had commended Harvard’s constructive response in negotiations over reforms the administration has asked it to implement as a precondition for restoring federal funds. The requested reforms include hiring more conservative faculty, shuttering diversity, equity, and inclusion [DEI] programs, and slashing the size of administrative offices tangential to the university’s central educational mission.
The administration has since changed its tone in the wake of a report by The Harvard Crimson that interim Harvard President Alan Garber has said “behind closed doors” that he has no intention of doing anything that would make Harvard more palatable to conservatives.
Earlier this month, the Trump administration’s Joint Task Force to Combat Antisemitism issued Harvard a formal “notice of violation” of civil rights law. Charging that Harvard willfully exposed Jewish students to a flood of racist and antisemitic abuse both in and outside of the classroom, it threatened to strip whatever remains of Harvard’s federal funding.
“Failure to institute adequate changes immediately will result in the loss of all federal financial resources and continue to affect Harvard’s relationship with the federal government,” wrote the federal officials comprising the multiagency Task Force. “Harvard may of course continue to operate free of federal privileges, and perhaps such an opportunity will spur a commitment to excellence that will help Harvard thrive once again.”
In Wednesday’s announcement, US Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Harvard’s conduct “forfeits the legitimacy that accreditation is designed to uphold.”
“HHS and Department of Education will actively hold Harvard accountable through sustained oversight until it restores public trust and ensures a campus free of discrimination,” he said.
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
The post Hardball: Trump Administration Reports Harvard to Accreditor Over Antisemitism Allegations first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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IDF Strikes Hezbollah Sites in South Lebanon as Terror Group Pushes to Rebuild Amid US Disarmament Talks
IDF operating in southern Lebanon. Photo: IDF Spokesperson
Israeli forces uncovered and destroyed Hezbollah weapons caches in southern Lebanon on Wednesday, as a new report indicated that despite ongoing U.S.-led efforts to secure a disarmament deal, the Iran-backed group is making repeated, largely concealed attempts to rebuild its military presence in the area.
Troops carried out several operations targeting Hezbollah infrastructure in southern Lebanon on Wednesday morning, destroying weapons depots, explosives and multibarrel launchers concealed in forested terrain, the IDF said, in violation of the November ceasefire, which requires Hezbollah to withdraw its forces 20 miles from the Israeli border.
A new report released this week by the Alma Research and Education Center found that Hezbollah is focused on rebuilding in three areas: operational deployment, weapons acquisition, and financial recovery.
“Hezbollah didn’t give up its resistance narrative and motivation,” Alma’s director, Lt. Col. (Res.) Sarit Zehavi, told The Algemeiner.
“It wants to rebuild its capabilities and infrastructures, whether it’s the villages that will be used as human shields or the military infrastructure in South Lebanon and in Lebanon in general.”
According to Zehavi, Hezbollah is attempting to return Radwan fighters to positions south of the Litani River as part of a wider plan to restore its elite forces to operational readiness. The IDF on Monday killed Radwan commander Ali Abd al-Hassan Haidar in a targeted strike. The action came hours after US Special Envoy for Syria Thomas Barrack met with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri in Beirut to discuss a long-term deal that would include an Israeli withdrawal and complete disarmament of Hezbollah.
Barrack described the Lebanese response to the proposal as positive. Later, he issued a blunt warning to Hezbollah in response to a vow by the terror group’s leader, Naim Qassem, not to lay down its arms. “If they mess with us anywhere in the world, they will have a serious problem with us,” Barrack said in an interview with Lebanese news network LBCI. “They don’t want that.”
Zehavi said it was premature to predict the outcome of the diplomatic efforts. She warned that the challenge of disarming Hezbollah remains enormous and emphasized that the Lebanese Armed Forces have not demonstrated the capability or willingness to confront the group.
“It’s too soon to be optimistic or pessimistic,” she said, noting that no firm commitments have emerged from the Beirut talks.
Hezbollah’s efforts to smuggle and manufacture weapons have been complicated by both Israeli strikes and the regional realignment over recent months. While Israeli strikes have disrupted many supply routes, according to Zehavi, Syrian authorities have intercepted far more Hezbollah-bound weapons than the Lebanese Army, which claims to have uncovered 500 arms caches but has provided no evidence.
The financial front marks the third aspect of Hezbollah’s rebuilding effort. Last week, the group halted cash payments to Shiite civilians whose homes were damaged in the war, citing liquidity problems. Zehavi attributed the shortfall to disruptions in Iran’s funding networks — an outcome of the 12-day war against the regime in Tehran — and said the constraints would likely hamper Hezbollah’s ability to compensate its base and sustain operations.
“I hope they will continue to have problems with the cash flow, that way it will be very difficult for them to recover,” she said.
The post IDF Strikes Hezbollah Sites in South Lebanon as Terror Group Pushes to Rebuild Amid US Disarmament Talks first appeared on Algemeiner.com.