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Thoughts and Observations as the War Continues
US President Joe Biden holds a bilateral meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the sidelines of the 78th U.N. General Assembly in New York City, U.S., September 20, 2023. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
JNS.org – It has been a great zechut (“merit”) to be in Israel these months during “Operation Swords of Iron.” Yes, a zechut, as part of the dream of Israel is being here not only in the good times but the bad times.
Dreams have their ups and their downs. Ultimately, we believe—we know, we just know—that good will prevail, and Israel will be victorious.
As the war grinds on, I offer some humble thoughts and observations.
UNITY:
For years many have asked: What is a cause that would unite us as we were united in the movement to free Soviet Jewry? In the darkness of this war, we are living the answer. Jews with different political agendas and religious leanings have come together as never before, standing with Israel.
The unity is reactive, emerging as it has in response to the greatest assault against our peoplehood since the Holocaust. Nothing reactive endures and so the prayer that it becomes a proactive unity after the war is won.
SHOWING UP:
Today, Jews worldwide are wearing an army uniform. For hundreds of thousands in Israel, it’s the Israel Defense Forces’ green fatigues. For Jews in the Diaspora, it’s the blue-and-white Israeli flags waved by hundreds of thousands before the seat of government in Washington, D.C.; indeed, in cities throughout the world. For others, it’s calling friends and family in Israel to express support, or sending food and gear to IDF soldiers, or opening homes to Israeli residents of the south and north who seek shelter.
In the midst of the darkness, we, as a people, are emanating light. We are all on our own front, writing the illuminating manual on endless giving.
INVINCIBILITY:
Just a few months ago, we were commemorating the 1973 Yom Kippur War. In many of those 50th-anniversary ceremonies, there was an undertone of invincibility. We (and much of the world) thought Israel was invincible and could never be taken by surprise again.
But feeling invincible is the pathway to disaster. Now we see that we, like all people, are vulnerable. And recognizing vulnerability—even as we understand the strength of the enemy while still believing in our power—is, with the help of God, the pathway to victory.
TRUST AND VERIFY:
The United States has stood shoulder to shoulder with Israel. In the spirit of hakarat hatov, “acknowledging the good,” we say: “Thank you, thank you!” The United States and its president, Joe Biden, deserve our deepest gratitude.
Still, we wonder, will the United States pressure Israel as it did on the eve of the Yom Kippur War? Israel’s bowing to that pressure led to catastrophe. As the rabbis say, kabdeihu ve’chashdeihu—“give credit with caution”—a motto echoed by President Ronald Reagan, “Trust and Verify.”
WE ARE ALL UNDER ATTACK:
The goal of Hamas on Oct. 7 was not only to murder Israelis but attack Jews; forever shattering the canard that anti-Zionism is not antisemitism. If Hamas could have, they would have savagely murdered every Jew of all ages—man, woman, senior and child. We must feel, as the Passover Haggadah proclaims, as if we were personally butchered.
And so, we must beware of anyone in the streets of New York and Los Angeles or on college campuses who support Hamas. Such support poses an imminent threat to every Jew. Hamas’s slogan, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” is not simply a political cry; it is a genocidal slogan calling for wiping out a people from a land, which can inspire attacks. Words can lead to fatal deeds.
INTELLIGENTSIA:
Too often, those who seem to have the best academic credentials to know don’t know. During World War II and the Holocaust, many in the intelligentsia—professors, elite composers and artists—argued the righteousness and ethical superiority of the Third Reich. Today, too, elite faculty on North American college campuses can be heard justifying Hamas’s murders of Jews.
We must find the courage to speak truth to power, declaring for one and all to hear: “The emperor has no clothes.”
FIGHTING ANTISEMITISM:
It’s not simple to be a minority voice and speak up against anti-Semites. Many Jews are scared and concerned that fighting anti-Semitism will attract more attention to the Jewish community, thus inspiring more antisemitism.
The reverse is true. The more we speak out, the stronger we are; by showing strength, we are more protected rather than rendered vulnerable.
COPING WITH FEAR:
These days, many Jews are afraid. There is no shame in feeling fear as fear is a feeling, and feelings are neither right nor wrong; they just are. While we cannot control what we feel, we can control how we act. Counterintuitively, if we act and do and stand up for Israel, our fear will dissipate.
Today, more than ever, on campuses throughout America, students should openly wear their kippahs and chai necklaces, and make sure that their organizations proudly display Israeli flags on their campus buildings. Day schools should remain open, never bowing to threats. Jewish Community Centers and synagogues should be more welcoming than ever before. Yes, we must take precautions, working with police and our own Community Security Services. But we dare not cower to fear. Doing so grants victory to the enemy.
REMEMBERING OUR SOLDIERS:
During the war, my wife Toby and I have been inspired by so many, but none like our precious soldiers; may they all stay safe and come home in peace. Tragically, there have been many funerals—too many shiva homes where parents are mourning their heroic sons and daughters. The term used to describe an IDF soldier killed is chayal nafal, a “fallen soldier.”
In the same breath, those fallen soldiers have ascended, reaching higher and higher as they gave their lives for Israel. Much like police and firefighters in the United States on Sept. 11, 2001 who did not die falling but climbing the Twin Towers to save the innocent, IDF soldiers have done the same. They are soldiers who made the ultimate sacrifice in defense of the State—masaru nafsham al haganat ha’aretz.
Today, Jews in Israel and all over the world are not studying history, but living history: the history of barbaric attacks against our people, when Jews were slaughtered, decapitated, raped, tortured and taken hostage simply because they were Jews. This time, however, there is a difference. Today, there is a State of Israel, an IDF, and Jews and people of moral conscience everywhere who will never again be guilty of the sin of the silence that prevailed during the Shoah.
The post Thoughts and Observations as the War Continues first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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US Supreme Court Declines to Hear CUNY Professors’ Case to Cut Ties With ‘Antisemitic’ Union
Pro-Hamas demonstrators, many of whom are college students, in New York City on May 11, 2024. Photo: John Lamparski via Reuters Connect
The United States Supreme Court has rejected a petition for it to hear a right to work case brought by a group of City University of New York (CUNY) professors who sued to sever ties with the public sector union which represents them and they consider antisemitic, The Algemeiner has learned from a plaintiff in the case.
“For the past three years, our clients have bravely fought for their rights while enduring tremendous pressure to stay silent,” the plaintiffs’ attorney, Nathan McGrath, president and general counsel of the Fairness Center, told The Algemeiner in a statement on Monday. “They are disappointed that the court did not take their case, but they are pleased that their litigation has exposed union officials’ actions that they consider to be antisemitic.”
The professors — Avraham Goldstein, Michael Goldstein, Frimette Kass-Shraibman, Mitchell Langbert, Jeffrey Lax, and Maria Pagano — five of whom are Jewish, resigned from CUNY’s Professional Staff Congress (PSC-CUNY) after it passed a resolution during Israel’s May 2021 war with Hamas that declared solidarity with Palestinians and accused the Jewish state of ethnic cleansing, apartheid, and crimes against humanity.
The professors, however, were required to remain in the union’s “bargaining unit,” due to New York State’s “Taylor Law,” which requires state public employers to bargain collectively with unions. The plaintiffs argued this amounted to a denial of their right to freedom of speech and association by forcing them to be represented in collective bargaining negotiations by an organization they claimed holds antisemitic views. Beyond the plaintiffs, 263 other professors and staff have resigned from the union as well, according to the website of the Resign.PSC campaign, which accuses the body of having “violated its mandate” by weighing in on a contentious political issue.
“The core issue in this case is straightforward: can the government force Jewish professors to accept the representation of an advocacy group they rightly consider to be antisemitic?” said the plaintiffs’ petition for writ of certiorari, a legal document that allows a higher court to review a lower court’s decision. “The answer plainly should be ‘no.’ The First Amendment [of the US Constitution] protects the rights of individuals, and especially religious dissenters, to disaffiliate themselves from associations and speech they abhor.”
A New York district judge dismissed the professors’ suit in November 2022, ruling that several previous cases have affirmed the constitutionality of compulsory union representation. In appealing the decision, the National Right to Work Foundation, as well its co-litigant, the Fairness Center, argued that the judge’s argument is incorrect. The Supreme Court’s declining to hear the case affirms that ruling, however, and sees its 6-3 conservative majority forgo a chance to issue a landmark ruling which would have gutted the power of public sector unions across the country.
“I’m certainly disappointed that the Supreme Court did not take our case, but if our openly antisemitic PSC-CUNY union thinks this fight is over, they should think again. We’re just getting started,” CUNY Law professor Jeffrey Lax told The Algemeiner. “It is outrageous that the same PSC delegate leaders who chant ‘Zionism out of CUNY’ and who virulently support BDS and the illegal, Jew-harassing campus Gaza encampments then argue that they should bargain for our terms of employment at CUNY. In reality, it’s not merely cruel and despicable, it is downright mutually exclusive to openly argue that Zionist Jews should not work at CUNY and at the same time feign to represent the interests of those same Zionist Jews, like me, in negotiating the terms of our employment.”
Allegations of antisemitism at the City University of New York have caused a burst of legal activity in recent years.
Last year, the US Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) resolved half a dozen investigations of antisemitism on CUNY campuses, a consortium of undergraduate colleges located throughout New York City’s five boroughs.
The inquiries, which reviewed incidents that happened as far back as 2020, were aimed at determining whether school officials neglected to prevent and respond to antisemitic discrimination, bullying, and harassment. Hunter College and CUNY Law combined for three resolutions in total, representing half of all the antisemitism cases settled by OCR. Baruch College, Brooklyn College, and CUNY’s Central Office were the subjects of three other investigations.
One of the cases which OCR resolved, involving Brooklyn College, prompted widespread concern when it was announced in 2022. According to witness testimony provided by the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law — which filed the complaint prompting the investigation — Jewish students enrolled in the college’s Mental Health Counseling (MCH) program were repeatedly pressured into saying that Jews are white people who should be excluded from discussions about social justice.
The badgering of Jewish students, the students said at the time, became so severe that one student said in a WhatsApp group chat that she wanted to “strangle” a Jewish classmate.
As part of an agreement with the federal agency, CUNY will, among other steps, “reopen” past internal investigations of antisemitic conduct, report to OCR on its progress, and train its employees to conduct “thorough and impartial investigations” of any bigoted conduct reported by them. CUNY also agreed to issue climate surveys, a series of questions posed to students to measure their opinions on discrimination at their school and administrators’ handling of it.
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
The post US Supreme Court Declines to Hear CUNY Professors’ Case to Cut Ties With ‘Antisemitic’ Union first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Israeli Prime Minister’s Office Denies Hamas Agreed to Gaza Ceasefire Deal
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Jerusalem, Feb. 18, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office denied on Wednesday that Hamas had agreed to the Gaza ceasefire proposal from Qatari mediators, after an Israeli official said the Palestinian terrorist group had given its approval.
Israeli media channels had reported that, following the green light from Hamas, the deal would be formally announced on Thursday and would come into effect on Sunday with the release of the first of the hostages.
However the prime minister’s office said Hamas had not communicated its answer to the proposal.
“Contrary to reports, the Hamas terror organization has not yet returned its response to the deal,” the prime minister’s office said.
Meanwhile, negotiators in Qatar resumed talks on Wednesday hoping to hammer out the final details of a complex, phased ceasefire in Gaza aiming to end a conflict that has upended the Middle East.
Officials from mediators Qatar, Egypt, and the US as well as Israel and Hamas said on Tuesday that an agreement for a truce in the Palestinian enclave and the release of hostages was closer than ever.
But a senior Hamas official told Reuters late on Tuesday that the Palestinian terrorist group had not yet delivered its response because it was still waiting for Israel to submit maps showing how its forces would withdraw from Gaza.
During months of on-off talks to achieve a truce in the devastating 15-month-old war, both sides have previously said they were close to a ceasefire only to hit last-minute obstacles. The broad outlines of the current deal have been in place since mid-2024.
If successful, the phased ceasefire — capping over a year of start-and-stop talks — could halt fighting in Gaza that is still ongoing between Israel and Hamas, which launched the war with its invasion of the Jewish state on Oct. 7, 2023.
That in turn could ease tensions across the wider Middle East, where the war has fueled conflict in the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, and Iraq, and raised fears of all-out war between Israel and Iran.
Hamas-led Palestinian terrorists started the conflict when they murdered 1,200 people and kidnapped 251 hostages to Gaza during their invasion of and massacre across southern Israel last Oct. 7. Jerusalem responded with a military campaign aimed at freeing the hostages and dismantling Hamas’s military and governing capabilities in Gaza.
Under the ceasefire plan being discussed, Israel would recover around 100 remaining hostages and bodies from among those captured in the Oct. 7 attacks. In return it would free Palestinian detainees, who were largely imprisoned in Israel for terrorism activities.
The latest draft is complicated and sensitive. Under its terms, the first steps would feature a six-week initial ceasefire.
The plan also includes a gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces from central Gaza and the return of displaced Palestinians to the north of the enclave.
The deal would also require Hamas to release 33 Israeli hostages along with other steps.
The draft stipulates negotiations over a second phase of the agreement to begin by the 16th day of phase one. Phase two includes the release of all remaining hostages, a permanent ceasefire, and the complete withdrawal of Israeli soldiers.
Even if the warring sides agree to the deal on the table, that agreement still needs further negotiation before there is a final ceasefire and the release of all the hostages
If it all goes smoothly, the Palestinians, Arab states and Israel still need to agree on a vision for post-war Gaza, a massive task involving security guarantees for Israel and billions of dollars in investment for rebuilding.
One unanswered question is who will run Gaza after the war.
Israel has rejected any involvement by Hamas, which ran Gaza before the war, but it has been almost equally opposed to rule by the Palestinian Authority, the body set up under the Oslo interim peace accords three decades ago that has limited governing power in the West Bank.
Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa said on Wednesday that the Palestinian Authority must be the sole governing power in Gaza after the war.
Israel says 98 hostages are being held in Gaza, about half of whom are believed to be alive. They include Israelis and non-Israelis. Of the total, 94 were seized in the Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel and four have been held in Gaza since 2014.
The post Israeli Prime Minister’s Office Denies Hamas Agreed to Gaza Ceasefire Deal first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Irish Jewish Community Opposes President’s Presence at Holocaust Event
A man walks past graffiti reading ‘Victory to Palestine’ after Ireland has announced it will recognize a Palestinian state, in Dublin, Ireland, May 22, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Hannah McKay
i24 News — Representatives of the Irish Jewish community oppose President Michael D. Higgins giving the main speech at the Holocaust remembrance ceremony scheduled for Jan. 26 in Dublin, on the eve of the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, according to a report Tuesdsay in The Irish Times.
Maurice Cohen, president of the Representative Council of the Jewish Community in Ireland, slammed Higgings: “It’s not his criticisms of Israel; it’s his false criticism of Israel.”
He cited a controversy over an alleged leak of a presidential letter by the Israeli embassy, when it actually appeared on the Iranian embassy’s website. Cohen added that, despite this, he maintains good personal relationships with the president.
The Chief Rabbi of Ireland, Yoni Wieder, accused the president of not sufficiently recognizing or combating the rise of antisemitism in the country.
Higgings “neglected even to acknowledge the scourge of contemporary antisemitism in Ireland, let alone do anything to address it.”
“It is so important that Irish politicians and public figures come together to honor the memory of victims of the Holocaust. Yet the awful irony is that many of them are turning a blind eye to a troubling increase in anti-Jewish hatred in Ireland today.”
“Given President Higgins’s grave insensitivity to Irish Jews, we are deeply disturbed that he will yet again cause further insult,” said Oliver Sears, from the Holocaust Awareness Ireland organization. The event, he said, is a “sombre, precious, and inviolable” one for the Jewish community.
A spokesperson for the president, meanwhile, reiterated Higgins’ claim that he is committed to fighting antisemitism, referring to a speech in Manchester last April where he lamented the Irish Jewish community being unfairly being asked to “choose a side” in the Middle East conflict. The presidency also attempted to smooth over certain controversies, including Higgins’ comments concerning Egypt and an Israeli proposal to settle Palestinians there, and not Israelis as some had interpreted.
Higgins has given a speech at the annual event six times in past years, and is still expected to participate in the ceremony.
The post Irish Jewish Community Opposes President’s Presence at Holocaust Event first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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