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‘You Have to Fight’: Netanyahu Meets Delegation of Jewish American College Students Amid Surging Campus Antisemitism
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meeting with a delegation of Jewish American students at his office in Jerusalem to discuss rising antisemitism on college campuses on June 3, 2024. Photo: Screenshot
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with a delegation of American college students in Jerusalem on Monday to discuss rising antisemitism on university campuses, a wave of hatred that swept across academia following Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel.
“We’re facing a world struggle to fight slander against the Jewish people and the Jewish state,” Netanyahu told the group, which comprised current and recently graduated students from Tulane University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) — the prime minister’s alma mater, which he attended while serving in the Israel Defense Forces — Columbia University, Rutgers University, the University of Michigan, and Harvard University.
“The most important thing is you have to fight. And how do you fight lies? With truth,” he continued. “A lie can circle the earth 1,000 times before a single word of truth gets through, but we have no other choice. We fight by exposing the lies.”
MIT student Talia Khan, who achieved notoriety for exposing vicious antisemitic abuse perpetrated by anti-Zionist MIT faculty and students during a meeting with US lawmakers, spoke on behalf of the students, discussing the perils posed by growing support on campuses for Islamic antisemitism and terrorism.
“As a Jew, I know the importance of the State of Israel in the shadow of the Holocaust,” said Khan, who noted her father is a Muslim from Afghanistan. “As a woman of Afghan descent, I understand the importance of Western values and fighting the forces that are trying to set us back. As a patriotic American, it’s obvious that US interests are best served by providing our best and loyal ally Israel with the tools it needs to continue being a beacon of light and democracy.”
She continued, “For this reason, I ask you, Mr. Prime Minister, to help us become better partners in this war on terror. We all in this room, and many others that couldn’t make it on this trip, we’re all ready to dedicate our lives to protecting democracy, Western values, and Israel and America.”
The students were brought to Israel by Olami, a nonprofit organization which connects young Jewish people from across the world. Their trip so far has taken them to the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, as well as the site of the Nova Music Festival massacre where Hamas terrorists murdered hundreds of young people on Oct. 7.
“That was incredibly hard to see,” recent Tulane University graduate Yasmeen Ohebsion told The Algemeiner during an interview she agreed to take in taxi going from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv. “A survivor there explained her story. She was trapped under a trash container with 40 people piled on top of her. Only 10 people at the very bottom of the container survived, so she almost suffocated to death because there were limbs and dead bodies on top of her. That was very intense.”
The students have also traveled to the Kfar Aza kibbutz, where Hamas murdered over 50 people.
“We heard from a man who lost his daughter and his daughter’s boyfriend,” Ohebsion, who later led a discussion with Israeli President Isaac Herzog, continued. “I hugged him; he cried in my arms and broke down. He showed me the last text his daughter sent me before she was murdered. It was truly such a moving yet hard experience.”
US college campuses experienced an alarming spike in antisemitic incidents — including demonstrations calling for Israel’s destruction and the intimidation and harassment of Jewish students — after Oct. 7. In a two-month span, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) recorded 470 antisemitic incidents on college campuses alone. During that same period, antisemitic incidents across the US skyrocketed by 323 percent compared to the prior year.
The campus climate has, by numerous accounts, pushed Jewish identity underground. Since the tragedy of Oct. 7, more than one in three Jewish college students reporting feeling the need to hide their Jewish identity on campus, according to a survey conducted by Hillel International. A striking 37 percent of Jewish students said they have needed to hide their Jewish identity and 35 percent of respondents said there have been acts of hate or violence against Jews on their campus. A majority of those surveyed said they were unsatisfied with their university’s response to those incidents.
Speaking to The Algemeiner via iMessage, Khan said the Olami trip to Israel allowed American Jewish students and Israeli students to connect and process lingering trauma related to the events of Oct. 7.
“Sharing our stories and having mutual empathy for these different experiences after the horrors of Oct. 7 helped each side process their pain and begin to work on turning this pain into something productive,” Kahn wrote. “I think this helped us all see that we must not wallow in our sadness, but rather honor the victims of this horrific attack by spreading Jewish joy and love, and combating those who seek to dismantle democracy and Western values on all fronts.”
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
The post ‘You Have to Fight’: Netanyahu Meets Delegation of Jewish American College Students Amid Surging Campus Antisemitism first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Revealed: Palestinian Authority Shows That Hamas Steals Money From Gaza Civilians
Palestinians gather to receive aid, including food supplies provided by World Food Program (WFP), outside a United Nations distribution center, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip, Aug. 24, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
How ironic is it that while the International Criminal Court (ICC) decided last week to blame Israel for the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, the Palestinian Authority (PA) is placing the blame on Hamas.
A reporter from official PA TV stationed in the Gaza Strip reported that Hamas steals 28% of Gazans’ salaries, as well as other money transfers:
Official PA TV host: “There are other crimes that are being committed against the civilians [in Gaza]. They are being financially extorted through [Hamas’] deduction of part of their money.
In other words, every employee, whether he is a PA employee, a state employee, or works for any other source, or someone who even wants to receive a transfer from his relatives abroad — they must pay a heavy sum…” [emphasis added]
[Official PA TV, Nov. 13, 2024]
Later in the story, a PA reporter revealed that the sum was 28% of employees’ salaries:
Official PA TV reporter in Deir Al-Balah, Gaza: “There is no trade in cash. The cash is worn out in the central and southern areas [of the Gaza Strip], and even in the north.
The [only] ones who have cash are certain groups. If you want to receive your salary in cash of more or less good quality, they [Hamas] deduct part of your salary. The deducted sum is 28%. They deduct more than a quarter of the salary.” [emphasis added]
[Official PA TV, Nov. 13, 2024]
An editorial by the official PA daily also criticized Hamas for continuously stealing the humanitarian aid that Israel is letting in for the benefit of Gazan civilians:
The aid that is arriving there [in the northern Gaza Strip] after many hardships … is exclusively controlled by the Hamas militias and others, until it arrives in the greedy free market of commerce that craves forbidden profit. [emphasis added]
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Nov. 10, 2024]
The editorial pointed out that the survival of the Gazan civilians is no longer connected to “surviving the missiles of the Israeli fighter jets,” but is simply a struggle of “seeking a loaf of bread at a sane price”:
The suffering of our people in the northern Gaza Strip is no longer the suffering of surviving the missiles of the Israeli fighter jets and drones and is not the suffering of seeking refuge, rather it is the suffering of seeking a loaf of bread at a sane price, and a cigarette at the cost of 1 [Israeli] shekel. [emphasis added]
Throughout the 2023 Gaza war, Palestinian Media Watch has exposed Hamas’ unscrupulous theft of international aid meant for Gazan civilians, turning the humanitarian efforts into terror support to sustain its war against Israel.
The author is a senior analyst at Palestinian Media Watch, where a version of this article was originally published.
The post Revealed: Palestinian Authority Shows That Hamas Steals Money From Gaza Civilians first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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IDF Forces Reach Litani River as Israeli Cabinet Set to Vote on Lebanon Ceasefire
Smoke billows over Beirut’s southern suburbs after an Israeli strike, amid the ongoing hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, as seen from Hadath, Lebanon October 19, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir
JNS.org — Israeli troops reached the Litani River on Tuesday, for the first time since the Israel Defense Forces’ withdrawal from southern Lebanon on May 24, 2000, the IDF reported.
Soldiers from the 91st Division carried out intelligence-driven raids on Hezbollah targets, engaged in close-quarters combat with terrorists, and uncovered and destroyed dozens of rocket launchers, thousands of rockets and missiles, as well as concealed weapons storage facilities, according to the military.
The raids near the Litani River involved forces from the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, including reservists from the 769th Brigade, the Golani Reconnaissance Battalion, and the Israeli Air Force’s Shaldag commando unit.
In the Wadi Saluki area of southern Lebanon, the Commando Brigade Combat Team carried out a targeted raid on terrorist infrastructure. The troops uncovered hundreds of weapons, underground facilities, and dozens of rocket launchers ready for immediate use.
Maj. Gen. Ori Gordin, the chief of the IDF Northern Command, also visited the Litani River during the operations.
Thirty Hezbollah terror targets struck in southern Lebanon
Since Tuesday morning, the IAF has struck 30 Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon, the military announced in the afternoon. The strikes targeted weapons storage facilities, anti-tank missile depots, and arms caches belonging to Hezbollah’s Aerial Defense unit in the Bint Jbeil area.
Storage facilities associated with the “Nasser” unit, responsible for many terror attacks against northern Israeli communities and IDF troops, were also targeted, as was the launcher used to attack the Western Galilee area on Monday, according to the military.
Strikes on Dahieh continue
On Tuesday, the IAF targeted six Hezbollah sites in the terror group’s stronghold of Dahieh, south of Beirut. Over the past week, 30 Hezbollah targets have been hit in the Dahieh district, including operational hubs of the terrorist group’s intelligence unit and Unit 4400, which oversees weapons smuggling from Iran to Lebanon via Syria.
The IDF highlighted that, despite Hezbollah’s practice of embedding its infrastructure within residential neighborhoods, using the population as human shields, the military took extensive precautions to minimize harm to civilians. Measures included issuing advance warnings before the strikes.
On Tuesday, the IDF issued evacuation orders for approximately 20 buildings in Dahieh in preparation for strikes on Hezbollah assets.
Lebanese media also reported an Israeli strike in central Beirut on Tuesday, which was carried out without warning, potentially targeting a high-profile individual. The IDF confirmed that it was carrying out strikes on Hezbollah terrorist targets in Beirut, noting that further details would be provided later.
Hezbollah coastal commander killed
The IDF announced on Tuesday that Ahmad Sabhi Hazima, the commander of Hezbollah’s operations unit in the coastal sector, had been killed in an airstrike in the Tyre area.
According to the IDF, Hazima was responsible for orchestrating numerous terror attacks, including plans to infiltrate Israeli territory and launch anti-tank missiles at communities in the Western Galilee prior to the “Northern Arrows” operation.
Previously, Hazima served as deputy to the former coastal sector commander, who was killed on Nov. 17.
“This operation significantly weakens Hezbollah’s ability to plan and execute terrorist activities from southern Lebanon targeting Israeli civilians along the northern border,” the IDF stated.
Israeli Security Cabinet to vote on Lebanon ceasefire
According to the reported terms of a draft ceasefire agreement expected to be approved by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Security Cabinet during its meeting on Tuesday at 5:30 pm local time, all IDF soldiers are to withdraw from southern Lebanon over a 60-day transition period.
Hezbollah will relocate its “heavy weapons” north of the Litani River, while the Lebanese Armed Forces are to deploy near the border areas.
A key unresolved issue is Israel’s insistence on maintaining operational freedom in Lebanon should Hezbollah violate the truce by rearming or attempting to reestablish its forces south of the Litani River.
The agreement reportedly includes a US-led oversight committee to monitor implementation and address violations. Israel has pledged to limit military action against Hezbollah violations to situations where the Lebanese Armed Forces fails to neutralize the threat, and only after consulting with the United States.
United Nations Resolution 1701, which brought an end to the 2006 Second Lebanon War but was never fully enforced, mandated the complete demilitarization of Hezbollah south of the Litani River and prohibited the presence of armed groups in Lebanon except for the official Lebanese Army and UNIFIL.
Iran-backed Hezbollah has launched near-daily attacks on Israel for over a year, firing thousands of rockets, missiles and suicide drones at the Jewish state.
The post IDF Forces Reach Litani River as Israeli Cabinet Set to Vote on Lebanon Ceasefire first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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IDF Soldier Wounded During Hamas Oct. 7 Massacre Succumbs to Wounds
Israeli soldiers respond to an alert of an apparent security incident, in Ashkelon, southern Israel, Oct. 10, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen
i24 News — The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said on Tuesday that Sergeant First Class Yona Betzalel Brief, who was wounded fighting Gazan terrorists on Oct. 7, 2023, had died after succumbing to his wounds.
The 23-year-old combat medic from from Modi’in-Maccabim-Re’ut was critically wounded and spent more than a year in hospital care.
The post IDF Soldier Wounded During Hamas Oct. 7 Massacre Succumbs to Wounds first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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