Anti-Israel protesters march through the streets of the township of Lenasia in Johannesburg, South Africa, Oct. 6, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Ihsaan Haffejee

South African Chief Rabbi Warren Goldstein has invited a counterterrorism task force to his country to assist with the investigation into a recent attempted bombing of a Jewish community center in Cape Town and to make recommendations to protect places of worship, schools, and community centers amid a steep rise in antisemitism.

The move, announced this week in both a YouTube video and social media post, came about a month after the local Cape Town branch of the South African Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD), the umbrella group of the country’s Jewish community, said that an “improvised explosive device” had been thrown over the front wall into the community center and “failed to detonate.”

No one was hurt and no damage was caused in the incident. The facility, located in the neighborhood of Gardens, reportedly contains offices for many Jewish community organizations, including a women’s group, a youth movement, and a Jewish newspaper, among others.

The incident occurred on the same day that arsonists heavily damaged a synagogue in Melbourne, Australia, in what both law enforcement and political leaders called an antisemitic attack.

Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis confirmed at the time that city police were helping the South African Police Service (SAPS) investigate the matter and analyze closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage to find the perpetrator. He added that the case has been handed to South Africa’s Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation, known as the Hawks.

Now an international task force will be assisting the investigation and more broadly assessing the terrorist threat in South Africa, with the added goal of helping Jewish communities in other countries combat similar threats facing them.

“There have been a host of similar terror attacks against Jewish communities worldwide. Out of an abundance of caution, and with the heavy responsibility of my office, I have invited a counter terrorism task force to assist the investigation into the attack in Cape Town, as part of this global trend,” Goldstein said in a statement. “In carrying out its mandate, the task force is also working with the Security Advisory Council of the World Jewish Congress, and is being advised by an expert legal team.”

Goldstein noted that Iran, whose Islamist leaders openly seek Israel’s destruction and are widely regarded by Western governments as the world’s foremost state sponsor of terrorism, poses a particular threat to Jewish communities around the world.

“There is a growing terror threat from Iran against Jews worldwide, and the task force’s work in South Africa will assist all diaspora communities,” Goldstein continued. “I have asked the task force to write a report on their findings, including an assessment of the terror threat here in South Africa within the global context, and to make recommendations for protecting places of worship, schools, and community centers in South Africa and worldwide from the threat of terrorism.”

The task force is led by Andre Pienaar, co-founder of the Directorate of Special Operations (DSO), known as the Scorpions, an elite law enforcement unit created by President Nelson Mandela in South Africa.

Other task force members include Dean Haydon, former senior national coordinator for counterterrorism in the United Kingdom and former deputy commissioner of the Metropolitan Police; Admiral Mike Hewitt, former deputy director for global operations who also served the Joint Chiefs of Staff in the US Defense Department; and Maj. Gen. (Ret.) David Tsur, former commander of the counterterrorism unit in the Israeli Police (Yamam).

“This investigation is about bringing light into our world: to shed light on terror so that it cannot hide in the dark corners of society, to shed light on the threats so that we can counter them, to shed light on evil so that it may be defeated,” Goldstein said.

“By doing this, we make South Africa and the world not just safer for Jews but for all decent people,” he added. “History has shown that a society that is unsafe for Jews is unsafe for civilized values, and is not a place where people can truly thrive and flourish.”

Drawing inspiration from the book of Genesis, Goldstein framed the mission in terms of moral clarity and the pursuit of safety for all people.

“God’s very first act of creation was to say, ‘Let there be light.’ For goodness and human civilization to exist, there must be light — the light of moral clarity to distinguish between good and evil, the light of knowledge, information, and understanding,” he said. “This investigation is about bringing light into our world. To shed light on the darkness of terror so that it cannot hide in the dark corners of society, to shed light on the threats so that we counter them, to shed light on evil so that it may be defeated.”

The task force will deliver its findings and recommendations in a forthcoming report, with the goal of making actionable recommendations to safeguard Jewish community spaces.

Goldstein’s latest move came amid a surge in global antisemitism, with several countries reporting record levels of anti-Jewish hate crimes and other antisemitic incidents since the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’s invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, amid the ensuing war in Gaza.

The South African Jewish community has repeatedly lambasted President Cyril Ramaphosa and his ruling African National Congress (ANC) for insufficiently combating antisemitism and being one of the harshest critics of Israel since the Hamas atrocities of last Oct. 7.

For the past year, the South African government has been pursuing its case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) accusing Israel of committing “state-led genocide” in its defensive war against Hamas in Gaza. In late October, South Africa filed the bulk of the relevant material to support its allegations, a move that the SAJBD slammed as a demonstration of “grandstanding” rather than actual concern for those killed in the Middle Eastern conflict.

South Africa temporarily withdrew its diplomats from Israel and shuttered its embassy in Tel Aviv shortly after the Oct. 7 Hamas pogrom, saying that the Pretoria government was “extremely concerned at the continued killing of children and innocent civilians” in Gaza.

Then in December 2023, South Africa hosted two Hamas officials who attended a government-sponsored conference in solidarity with the Palestinians. One of the officials had been sanctioned by the US government for his role with the terrorist organization.

This past May, members of South Africa’s Jewish community protested Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor’s call for students and university leaders to intensify the anti-Israel demonstrations that have engulfed college campuses across the US.

Later that month, Ramaphosa led the crowd at an election rally in a chant of “From the river to the sea, Palestine shall be free” — a popular slogan among anti-Israel activists that has been widely interpreted as a genocidal call for the destruction of the Jewish state, which is located between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.

Ramaphosa’s ANC has also supported a proposal by the City of Johannesburg to rename the street on which the US Consulate is located after notorious Palestinian terrorist Leila Khaled, who hijacked a Tel Aviv-bound plane in 1969 and attempted another hijacking, this time of an El Al flight, in 1970.

The government’s ardent opposition to Israel did not help its performance in elections last year, when the ANC lost its majority in parliament for the first time in South Africa’s post-apartheid democratic history. However, it still remained the largest party and retained power at the national level through a coalition.

The post Chief Rabbi Invites Counterterror Task Force to South Africa Following Bombing Attempt at Jewish Center first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

Supporters of Israeli hostages, who were kidnapped during the deadly Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas, react to news on the Gaza ceasefire negotiations, during a protest to demand a deal to bring every hostage home, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Jan. 15, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun

Negotiators reached a phased deal on Wednesday to end the war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, an official briefed on the negotiations said, after 15 months of conflict that has inflamed the Middle East.

The accord, which has not yet been formally announced, outlines a six-week initial ceasefire phase and includes the gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip and release of hostages held by Hamas in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel, the official told Reuters.

Phase one entails the release of 33 Israeli hostages including all women, children, and men over 50.

Negotiations on implementing the second phase will begin by the 16th day of phase one and it is expected to include the release of all remaining hostages, a permanent ceasefire, and the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.

The third phase is expected to address the return of all remaining dead bodies and the start of Gaza’s reconstruction supervised by Egypt, Qatar, and the United Nations.

The agreement follows months of on-off negotiations conducted by Egyptian and Qatari mediators, with the backing of the United States, and comes just ahead of the Jan. 20 inauguration of US President-elect Donald Trump.

Hamas, Gaza’s dominant Palestinian terrorist group, told Reuters its delegation had handed mediators its approval for the ceasefire agreement and return of hostages.

A Palestinian official, who asked not to be named, told Reuters earlier Hamas had given verbal approval to the ceasefire and hostage return proposal and was awaiting more information to give final written approval.

If successful, the planned ceasefire 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 defuse tensions across the wider Middle East, where the war has stoked conflict in the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, and Iraq, and raised fears of all-out war between arch regional foes Israel and Iran.

Even if the warring sides implement the current deal, it will still require further negotiation before there is a lasting ceasefire and the release of all the hostages.

MASSIVE TASK OF RECONSTRUCTION

If all goes smoothly, the Palestinians, Arab states, and Israel still must agree on a vision for post-war Gaza, a formidable challenge 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 had ruled Gaza since 2007, 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.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said he was cutting a visit to Europe short and flying home overnight to take part in security cabinet and government votes on the deal — meaning the votes would likely be by or on Thursday.

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.

As his inauguration approached, Trump repeated his demand that a deal be done swiftly, warning repeatedly that there would be “hell to pay” if the hostages were not released by the time he took office. His Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff worked with President Joe Biden’s team to push the deal over the line.

In Israel, the return of the hostages may ease some of the public anger against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his right-wing government over the Oct. 7 security failure that led to the deadliest single day in the country’s history.

Gaza’s conflict spilled over across the Middle East, with Iranian-backed proxies in Lebanon, Iraq, and Yemen targeting Israel in solidarity with the Palestinians.

The deal emerged a few months after Israel eliminated the top leaders of Hamas and Lebanon’s Iran-backed terrorist group Hezbollah in assassinations that gave it the upper hand.

The post Israel, Hamas Reach Deal Meant to End Gaza War, Free Hostages, Official Says first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

The B. Altman & Company Building housing the City University of New York Graduate Center in New York City. Photo Credit: Beyond My Ken/Wikimedia.

Three years ago, almost to the day, I joined five brave professors at the City University of New York (CUNY) in filing a lawsuit against the union that represents us.

Why? For starters, as a Zionist Jew, I was appalled when the union’s delegates chanted “Zionism out of CUNY!” at an anti-Israel rally.

And I was disgusted when the union passed a resolution supporting the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement that called Israel an “apartheid” state.

My fellow plaintiffs and I aren’t members of the union, but it imposes its tainted services on us, nonetheless.

New York’s Taylor Law cruelly forces us to accept this hate-infested union’s representation, even while the union’s members and delegates openly chant that they want to expel Zionists from the university.

That’s right — this union is supposed to protect our jobs, but it is doing its best to destroy them.

The union has just ratified a new contract, which will affect our terms and conditions of employment and the campus environment for Jews.

Despite the findings by multiple investigations — the US Department of Education Office of Civil Rights, the report by Judge Lippman commissioned by New York’s governor, an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission determination — of the massive antisemitism problem at CUNY, the union has been silent on the issue, and so is the new contract.

Does the contract propose reforms that will protect Zionist Jews from the violence and harassment that we have suffered on campus? No it does not.

Does it rectify what I see as the expungement of Jews from senior leadership positions at CUNY? Not by my read.

Does it demand measures to prevent violent and campus-disrupting anti-Israel encampments? No — probably because the union defended them.

However, because the union has pushed us out of its membership by spouting hateful attacks against our religion and heritage, my fellow plaintiffs and hundreds of other Jews have zero influence over the contract’s details.

We’ve been driven out, then denied a vote on an agreement that affects our careers and our safety.

So much for democracy and a union’s duty of equal and fair representation of all groups.

Union officials don’t want Zionist Jews in their membership ranks? Fine. They shouldn’t be speaking or negotiating for us either. We don’t need or want their “representation.”

A similar conflict existed 3,500 years ago in Egypt.

A tyrannical Pharaoh abused Jews, treating them like an underclass and exploiting their labor — until someone stood up.

Moses made a famous demand of that unaccountable leader: Let my people go.

I say the same to the leaders of the Professional Staff Congress.

They don’t want us, but they are forcing us to labor under the conditions they set. And they have argued that representing every last professor at CUNY is “fundamental to a union’s power.”

By their own admission, they are demanding the right to represent Zionist Jews not for our benefit but for theirs.

Unfortunately, on Monday, the US Supreme Court denied our appeal to address this ongoing injustice, meaning our antisemitic union will remain free to enhance its own power by mistreating groups it considers to be undesirable.

The Court has chosen not to intervene, but that doesn’t mean our representatives can’t get involved. It’s happened before. Just ahead of a Supreme Court decision in 2018 that affected public employees’ rights, lawmakers passed a significant change to the Taylor Law. They should do so again.

And Congress has a role, too. If Federal legislators really want to address the evil and insanity that is transpiring on our campuses, they must recognize that Marxist and antisemitic faculty unions are behind so much of it. A powerful first step would be passing Senator Bill Cassidy’s (R-LA) proposed Union Members Right to Know Act, a bill that would prevent unions from promoting antisemitism and other hateful ideologies.

For our union at CUNY, after years of litigation and discrimination, it’s time.

Let my people go.

Jeffrey Lax is a professor of law and chair of the business department at CUNY, a co-founder of S.A.F.E. Campus, and a plaintiff in Goldstein v. PSC/CUNY.

The post Professor to CUNY’s Faculty Union: Let My People Go! first appeared on Algemeiner.com.