Thursday, November 16, 2023

Rally Against Antisemitism is Peaceful

Rally Against Antisemitism is Peaceful
Commentary by Sanford D. Horn
November 16, 2023

The oft-heard chants of “bring them home,” and “no cease fire,” that permeated the picture perfect Autumn air Tuesday in our nation’s capital presented a familiar tone conjuring up memories of another great gathering of the masses of G-d’s chosen people.

Myriad speeches given in support of an oppressed people simply wanting to live in peace; to live their lives without fear of intimidation, without fear of being silenced, without fear of being terrorized, and without fear of being slaughtered because we choose to live our lives freely as Jewish people around the world. Thousands of people carrying flags, banners, posters, and signs, then as now put forth that same message. The roughly 290,000 people who attended the rally against Antisemitism on Tuesday, November 14 did so peacefully, without incident.

Nearly 36 years ago, December 6, 1987, on a cold, bleak-looking, DC Sunday afternoon, about 250,000 people from around the globe, gathered in support of Soviet Jewry - a great concern for almost two million people trapped behind the Iron Curtain - refused permission to either live and worship as Jews, or leave the Soviet Union for the freedoms they yearned. Refuseniks, they were called in those days. 

“Those days,” like it occurred in ancient times. Perhaps to the multitude of young people rallying in Washington, DC on Tuesday, 1987 IS ancient times. That said, it warmed the heart verily to see such a throng of young people gathered to fight a seemingly never ending hate - the  vituperative evil of Antisemitism - prejudice against and/or hatred of Jews, simply because we are Jewish.

Jew hatred, in all its forms, verbal abuse, verbal and written tropes, mocking, bullying, threats via social media, physical threats, physical violence, vandalism, destruction of property and reputation, desecration of synagogues, Jewish cemeteries, Jewish owned businesses and homes, as well as murder, are fears Jews face on a daily basis. These fears are not just faced in far away places, chants of “gas the Jews” at an Antisemitic march outside the Sydney (Australia) Opera House, for example, but throughout the United States. This is most prevalent on the nation’s college and university campuses.

Since the October 7 invasion by the terrorist group Hamas of Israel and their slaughter of more than 1,400 innocent Israeli civilians, Antisemitism in the United States has not just risen, but pole vaulted an astronomical 388 percent. In “normal times” the Jewish people are subjected to nearly 60 percent of all hate crimes perpetrated in the United States - 60 percent upon a people totaling 1.7 percent of the nation’s population. 

While the feckless Biden administration, feckless on so many levels, has given lip service to condemning Antisemitism it does so with the condemnation of Islamophobia with the very next breath. The two are not interchangeable, and acts of Antisemitism are six times more likely to occur than acts of Islamophobia.

The rally to support Israel and to bring home the more than 240 hostages of Israeli, American, Italian, Mexican, and a cadre of other nationalities that took place on November 14, just like the rally for Soviet Jewry in 1987, demonstrated the best of behaviors - peaceful rallying and chanting, sans violence, vandalism, graffiti, or arrests. The polar opposite has been the behaviors exhibited during the dozens and dozens of campus protests supporting Hamas, calling for the evisceration of Israel and the deaths of all Jews. Their rallying cry of “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” calls for just that. 

This, along with false information still on the social media pages of members of the US Congress - Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) and Ilhan Omar (D-MN) - who still have yet to condemn the decapitation of Israeli babies by Hamas. Jews rallying in DC chanted “bring them home,” regarding the more than 240 hostages held by Hamas - many women and children - babies as young as, now, 10 months, and even an elderly Holocaust survivor.

Meanwhile, Hamas, the Palestinians who elected them in 2006, with nary an election since, and the thousands of campus denizens are calling for barbarism and death. Jewish students from coast to coast are frightened - afraid to go to class, dining halls, or just be on campus, either alone or in groups. (https://sanfordspeaksout.blogspot.com/2023/11/jew-hating-like-its-1938.html)

There is a kind of irony between the 1987 rally, in which I participated proudly as a University of Maryland senior - a volunteer to help the tens of thousands of visitors to their nation’s capital traverse the DC streets and Metro stations around the Mall where the rallies then and now occurred, and that of this past Tuesday.

In 1987 we rallied in support of Soviet Jews not allowed to leave the USSR. In 2023, while rallying against virulent Antisemitism on campuses, and for Hamas-held hostages to be released - given their freedom, there are hundreds of thousands of Gazans also not permitted to leave Gaza - by Hamas, not by Israelis. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF), as is their history, gives warnings to Gazans - telling civilians to leave northern Gaza - while the IDF roots out Hamas terrorists and searches for hostages, both above ground, as well as underground in the labyrinth  of more than 300 miles of tunnels engineered by Hamas. This sophisticated system houses caches of munitions, armaments, AK-47s, under homes, hospitals, and mosques, as well as in hospitals, in schools, even in mosques, knowing Israelis won’t attack hospitals, schools, or mosques. These tunnels contain bathroom and kitchen facilities, sleeping quarters, and evidence that hostages have been or are still being held there. These tunnels even have a ventilation system strong enough to not asphyxiate terrorists who are burning victims alive.

It is Israeli troops helping Gazans flee Hamas. It is Israeli troops assisting with the humanitarian aid that, once they are gone, much of the aid will end up in the hands of Hamas, and not civilians.

Sadly, the supporters of Hamas, Palestinians, and so-called Palestine, are so radically indoctrinated with lies told by professors and the so-called mainstream media, their level of Antisemitic vitriol and violence stems from ignorance of epic proportions. Ignorance of real, true history about Israel, the Biblical, ancestral, historical homeland of the Jewish people. Ignorance of the facts that Israel is neither a colonizer nor an apartheid state. Ignorance of the fact that there was a cease fire on October 6, shattered by Hamas. And ignorance of the facts that if Israel were to lay down its weapons, Israel would cease to exist, but if Hamas set down their weapons, there would be peace.

Israel loves life and wants peace - witness the Abraham Accords during the Trump administration; while Hamas opposes peace, and worships death - witness their murderous behavior, or read their charter calling for the eradication of Israel and the deaths of the entirety of the Jewish people.

Peace and freedom - the rallying  cries of the 1987 rally, and the 2023 rally. Sadly, a difference between the two, while then Vice President George Herbert Walker Bush spoke at the 1987 rally, neither Joe Biden nor Kamala Harris would show their faces - either in person or via video from Air Force One. Biden chose Xi Jingping of the Chinese Communist Party over the Jewish people of the United States of America. Air Force One waits for the president, not the other way around. Had Biden or Harris opted to be there they would have been welcome. His lack of leadership (on this and so many key issues) sends a message loud and clear to the myriad college and university presidents - some of whom are Jewish - who have sat on their hands as Antisemitism runs rampant under their domain, while the slightest microaggression regarding pronouns et al, are punished with impunity. The time is now to step up, squash Antisemitism like the cockroach it is, and deliver a strong message that never again is NOW.

Sanford D. Horn is a writer and educator living in Westfield, IN. He last visited Israel with his wife in 2019.

Tuesday, November 7, 2023

Setting the Record Straight

Setting the Record Straight
Commentary by Sanford D. Horn
November 6, 2023

As the war against Israel enters its second month, following the October 7 invasion into, and slaughter of 1,400 Israeli civilians, tens of thousands rallied for so-called Palestine over the weekend in the nation’s capital - rife with vandalism and graffiti - including on White House property. The anti-Semitic, pro-Hamas rally included shouts and chants of “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” and “Globalize intifada.” 

To support such a notion, as US Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) does, as she still refuses to condemn Hamas decapitating Israeli babies, is to support the evisceration of Israel and the death of the entirety of the Jewish population. Tlaib, as did fellow Squadite US Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) posted on her social media pages the proven lies that Israel was responsible for bombing Al Ahli hospital in Gaza killing 500 civilians. None of that actually happened. The truth was known within hours, yet the false accusations remain on the two US House members’ social media pages.

To support so-called Palestine is to support Hamas - the Arab/Muslim population of Gaza voted overwhelmingly in 2006 for Hamas to be its governing body. That was their one and only free election, as none have been held since. Israel evacuated Gaza in 2005 leaving its infrastructure intact for the Gazan/Arab/Muslim people as Israel is not a colonizer, as is also falsely reported ad-infinitum. To support Hamas is to support, as is written in their own charter, the eradication of Israel and the murder of the Jewish people. (Hezbollah has the same goals written into their charter as well.) To support Hamas is to support the Islamic Republic of Iran. 

The Islamic Republic of Iran is the puppetmaster pulling the strings of Hamas and Hezbollah. The Islamic Republic of Iran is also the training ground for thousands and thousands of Hamas and Hezbollah terrorists. (Hezbollah operates out of Lebanon and fired 30 rockets into northern Israel, some reaching the outskirts of Haifa.) This is the same Islamic Republic of Iran whose government under Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is feverishly working to build nuclear bombs - not for defense, but for offense. Israel’s Iron Dome, on the other hand, is for defense. This is the same Islamic Republic of Iran that consistently refers to the United States of America as the “Great Satan” and to Israel as the “Little Satan” as its supporters regularly chant “Death to America” and “Death to Israel.” Those who want you dead do not wish to negotiate a two-state solution, they only seek the Final Solution as did the Nazis during the Holocaust. 

And again, those calling Israel a colonizer, have never learned actual history. The land designated as Palestine by the British turned into what would have been the original two-state solution - Israel for the Jewish people - a return to their Biblical, historical, ancestral homeland, and Transjordan for the Arab/Muslim people - who subsequently rejected that plan. Jordan is Palestine. These were not colonies, but individual nations. This was not and is not about land, for if it had been, the Jewish people would have a genuine beef as the original Palestine, designated as the Jewish homeland, would eventually be divided into the two nations referenced above, with the Jewish people receiving but 20 percent of that land, and the Arab/Muslims the motherlode of 80 percent. This is not about land, but about a people who willingly fled what became Israel - they were never expelled, to become, what they have labeled themselves for 75 years - refugees. None of the 48 Arab/Muslim nations expressed a willingness to take in these “refugees,” why should Israel, or worse yet, why should the United States as some members of the Hamas-supporting Squad in Congress have demanded. 

Did the scant numbers of survivors of the Holocaust decry refugee status from Albania,  Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Soviet Union, and Yugoslavia? There literally was nothing for them to go home to, if there was even a home at all. Europe lay waste to the barbarism perpetrated by Hitler and Stalin. 

And while on the subject of lies the media likes to endorse, Israel is not an apartheid state. Its 1.5 million Arabs (700,000 in 1948) have equal rights - including women, to serve in the Knesset, to work as lawyers, as doctors, even serve on the Supreme Court. On the other hand, Jews in almost all Arab/Muslim nations had been reduced to Dhimmi status - second class citizens - in apartheid circumstances, and experienced rabid anti-Semitism. Textbooks in Arab/Muslim nations, as well as maps, would not even mention Israel. And what happened to the Jewish populations of these Arab/Muslim nations?

Nation 1948 Jewish Population      Recent Jewish Population

Afghanistan      5,000          0 (2021)

Algeria 140,000 50-200 (2021)

Bahrain               500-600 36 (2007)

Egypt 75,000   100 (2022)

Iran                 65,000+ (1956)        9,200 (2022)

Iraq      135,000          5-7 (2014)

Lebanon          5,000           100 (2022)

Libya        38,000              0 (2020)

Morocco     265,000       2,100 (2020)

Oman 0 (1900)              0 (1900)

Pakistan     2,000-2,500                  800 (2017)

Sudan  350              0

Syria     30,000                  100 (2022)

Tunisia   100,000               1,000 (2020)

Turkey     80,000         12,000-16,000 (2022)

Yemen     63,000              6 (2020)

What happened to all those Jewish populations? They were not welcome in those countries, thus relegated to Dhimmi status in those apartheid nations. Most fled to the new State of Israel, while many others either immigrated to the United States or ended up in France.

Still confused? Here’s a checklist to consider.

Subject                 Israel Palestinians/Hamas

Unilaterally invading the other NO             YES

Intentionally targeting civilians NO             YES

Warning civilians to get out of harm’s way YES             NO

Tearing down posters of hostages NO             YES

Taking hostages         NO             YES

Supporting charters calling for death NO             YES

Vandalism and graffiti of property NO             YES

Support from the United Nations NO             YES

Equal rights for women         YES             NO

Equal rights for minorities YES             NO

Equal rights for homosexuals YES             NO

Using its own people as human shields NO             YES

Beating up opposing protesters NO             YES

Intentionally raping and slaughtering women NO             YES

Intentionally decapitating babies NO             YES

Giving escort to safety to Gazan civilians YES             NO

Even Joe Biden is cognizant enough to say Hamas is worse than ISIS. Yet his former boss, Barack Obama, said both sides are to blame, despite the facts that Hamas unilaterally and without provocation, invaded Israel, slaughtered 1,400 Israeli civilians, and took more than 250 Israelis, Americans, and foreign nationals hostage. And there’s a demand for a cease fire? First of all, there was a ceasefire on October 6 until Hamas shattered it with their barbarism. And, if the same attacks occurred on American soil, on a per capita basis, there would have been roughly 48,000 murdered and roughly 7,000 hostages taken. Would the United States capitulate to calls for a cease fire? Probably not even under Biden.

“I want to make clear Israel’s position regarding a cease fire. Just as the United States would not agree to a cease fire after the bombing of Pearl Harbor or after the terrorist attack of 9/11, Israel will not agree to a cessation of hostilities with Hamas after the horrific attacks of October 7,” assured Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu. Nor should there be, at the very least, until all hostages are released and returned safely to their homes.

Netanyahu is absolutely right about not calling for a cease fire. He is also right about not listening to Biden, the perpetually useless and virulently anti-Semitic United Nations, the Hamas caucus of the Democrat Party, or the anti-Israel, pro-Hamas protesters. None of them are actually Prime Minister of Israel, responsible for the life and death decisions such as sending young men and women into a war - even a justified war. Israel does not start wars, but they do finish them - successfully. Israel has every right to defend its G-d given, Biblical, ancestral, and historical homeland and all its people. For the day Israel loses a war, they cease to exist. Every war is a fight for survival. Israel is the one and only one Jewish state on the planet and without Israel, what guarantee of a homeland do the Jewish people have? What truly safe space do the Jewish people have to take refuge, to live, and to prosper should the need arise. While the United States has been a haven and beacon for religious freedom since before its founding, the visceral, sinister spate of anti-Semitism is akin to precious little ever experienced in this country. If need be, without Israel where will the Jews of America go to live their best Jewish lives?

Sanford D. Horn is a writer and educator living in Westfield, IN. He and his wife last visited Israel in 2019.

Sunday, November 5, 2023

Jew Hating Like it's 1938

Jew Hating Like it’s 1938
Commentary by Sanford D. Horn
November 3, 2023

For Jewish citizens in Germany and its “annexed” territories of Austria and the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia, 1938 could have been a hell of a lot better. Finishing what they started in 1933, the Nazis expelled all Jewish children from German schools. (https://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/judaism/holocaust/children_1.shtml) And then, adding literal injury to insult, any delusions of humanity were officially shattered with the rampage known as Kristallnacht. The literal translation is Night of Crystal, but it is more historically known as the Night of Broken Glass.

Now 85 years later, almost to the day, the world is called upon to remember that grizzly period, and precursor to the infinitely worse times to be inflicted upon the Jewry of Europe. During the night of November 9-10, a wave of anti-Semitic pogroms authorized and carried out by Nazis and their Brown Shirt thugs, as synagogues, homes, and businesses owned and/or operated by Jews were vandalized to the point of utter destruction - most with smashed windows, but many set aflame. Police stood by bearing witness to the malfeasance, and firefighters on hand only to extinguish any fire that reached the business or home of a non-Jew. 

Other orders included the removal of “all synagogue archives prior to vandalizing synagogues.” The German government blamed the Jews for the Kristallnacht pogroms and fined the collective Jewish community one billion Reichsmark (roughly equivalent to $400 million US Dollars in 1938). The Reich also confiscated all insurance payouts for property destruction, thus rendering the Jews personally financially responsible.

More than 1,000 synagogues were burned or damaged. More than 7,500 businesses were destroyed or looted. Nearly 100 Jews were murdered that night with many more over the succeeding days. “During the pogrom, some 30,000 Jewish males were rounded up and taken to concentration camps. This was the first time Nazi officials made massive arrests of Jews specifically because they were Jews, without any further cause for arrest.” (https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/kristallnacht) The majority of the arrested Jewish men were dispatched to Buchenwald, Dachau, or Sachsenhausen.

On November 12, 1938 the Nazi regime added additional restrictions on the Jewish population. Specifically, Jews were barred from economic life. This included, but was not limited to Jews being “forbidden to operate retail stores or carry on a trade. The law also forbids Jews from selling goods or providing services at any kind of establishment.” Jewish doctors were forbidden from treating non-Jewish patients. Jews were also barred from having a driver's license or even owning an automobile. 

And as stated above, further banishment of Jews from public life included expelling Jewish children from schools - those that were still attending at this late date. April 7, 1933 saw the passage of the “Law for the Restoration of Professional Civil Service.” Most Jewish professors lost their jobs - fired without cause. Those few retained had value to the Reich based upon the research being conducted. Just 18 days later, on April 25, 1933, the Reich passed the “Law against Overcrowding in Schools and Institutions of Higher Learning.” This set strict limitations on the numbers of Jewish students attending public and private schools, as well as colleges and universities. At their height, 75 percent of Jewish students attended public schools in Germany. It was at those very public schools where Jews faced increased anti-Semitism from peers - fellow students, and adults - teachers/administrators alike. Students were part of the Hitler Youth; teachers instructed students in “obedience to state authority, militarism, racism, and anti-Semitism.”  (https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/kristallnacht)

As a point of reference, on or about June 13, 1933 the Jewish population of Germany could be set at about 500,000 out of a total population of 67 million, or 0.8 percent.

But this is no ordinary annual commemoration, because 85 years later, anti-Semitism has reached fever pitch on college and university campuses all across the fruited plain of these United States. As of this date, more than 70 alleged institutions of higher learning have experienced anti-Semitic and/or pro-Palestinian/Hamas protest marches and/or rallies since the October 7 invasion into Israel, the historical homeland of the Jewish people, by Hamas and the slaughter of more than 1,400 Israeli civilians by Hamas. There are still more than 200 Israeli, American, and other foreign nationals held hostage by Hamas, presumably in Gaza. Hamas is an Islamic extremist terrorist organization whose charter literally calls for the evisceration of Israel from the planet, and the murder of all Jewish people. Hamas, like fellow terror organization Hezbollah, is a puppet of Iran. The Islamic Republic of Iran, the puppeteer, is the world’s largest state sponsor of terrorism. In fact, Iran served as the training ground for thousands of Hamas terrorists.

This is an “information Kristallnacht,” stated former George W. Bush press secretary Ari Fleischer on Wednesday October 25, on the Fox News noon program Outnumbered. “What’s happening on these campuses and what’s happening in the protests, is a modern day Kristallnacht - and that’s the warning. This is an information Kristallnacht in America. They don’t have to break glass and break into a store to show the future if America doesn’t stand up to them. And this is a time of choosing - for Americans of good heart. Why do we have people coming into this country who reject American values and carry out pro-Hamas protests. If people from Charlottesville came onto American campuses and protested, I assure you, every university would throw them out - from the Charlottesville protesters - the people who said that ‘Jews would not replace us.’ These protesters [current] are saying we will replace the Jews,” said Fleischer.

This “information Kristallnacht” includes Hamas’s own admission that October 7 is merely the tip of the iceberg. Hamas, worse than ISIS, if that is even possible, has promised to repeat the terror attacks of a month ago, in their own words, from their own “political bureau.” In an interview on LBC TV (Lebanon) on October 24, Ghazi Hamad said "Israel is a country that has no place on our land. We must remove that country, because it constitutes a security, military, and political catastrophe to the Arab and Islamic nation, and must be finished. We are not ashamed to say this, with full force. We must teach Israel a lesson, and we will do this again and again. The Al-Aqsa Flood is just the first time, and there will be a second, a third, a fourth, because we have the determination, the resolve, and the capabilities to fight. Will we have to pay a price? Yes, and we are ready to pay it. We are called a nation of martyrs, and we are proud to sacrifice martyrs.”

When asked by the interviewer, “Does that mean the annihilation of Israel?” the response from Hamad: “Yes, of course. Everything we do is justified.” (MEMRI-TV [The Middle East Media Research Institute])

Does this sound like a cease fire makes sense? It begs the most fundamental of questions: Does Israel have a fundamental right to exist? Do the Jewish people have a fundamental right to exist? Israel, the known, proven, historical homeland of the Jewish people, roughly the size of New Jersey, is the only Jewish state on the planet. With the extreme and exponential rise in anti-Semitism in the United States, the land promising a guarantee of freedom of religion in the First Amendment of the US Constitution, if the Jewish people are not safe in the United States, and without its own Biblical/historical homeland, what becomes of the Jewish people?

Quite frankly, anyone supporting Hamas, which also means supporting the Islamic Republic of Iran, and those chanting “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” calling for the eradication of Israel and the slaughter of the Jewish population, should be expelled from school. Any foreign national attending school on a student visa, with these same views, should have their visa revoked, and should be deported to their home country. This is not free speech. Speech designed to incite violence, such as these protests, and signs such as “Please keep the world clean” depicting a Star of David in a trashcan, are not protected speech. The names of these anti-Semites should be made public so potential employers know who they are considering for gainful employment and to represent their company or firm.

But these protests and rallies are going on with the silent, tacit approval of dozens and dozens of college and university presidents, provosts, boards of directors, and boards of governors. And this complicit behavior is being fomented by and in Washington, DC. The Biden administration, whenever it mentions anti-Semitism, feels compelled to refer to Islamophobia as though they are interchangeable. On Wednesday, October 25, the House voted to pass H. Res. 771, to support Israel and condemn Hamas by an overwhelming margin of 412 in favor, 10 opposed, and six cowards voting present. Of the 10 nay votes, nine are Democrats and the lone Republican being Thomas Massie (R-KY) who has made more than one borderline, if not actual anti-Semitic remarks during his House tenure. The nine Democrats include so-called Squad members Jamaal Bowman (NY), Cori Bush (MO), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY), Ilhan Omar (MN), and Rashida Tlaib (MI) virulent anti-Semites, as well as Andre Carson (IN) who should be an honorary squad member, Al Green (TX), Summer Lee (PA), and Delia Ramirez (IL). Those voting Present, all Democrats, include squadite Ayanna Pressley (MA), Gregorio Casar (TX), Joaquin Castro (TX), Chuy Garcia (IL), Pramila Jayapal (WA), and Nydia Velazquez (NY).

These are the 16 House members, 15 Democrats and one Republican, who don’t have the moral temerity to condemn the rape and butchering of girls and women, the decapitation of babies - BABIES - in their homes and beds, the kidnapping of more than 240 men, women, and children, including an elderly Holocaust survivor, and the slaughter of more than 260 young men and women attending a music festival. The dead and the kidnapped represent Israelis, Americans, Italians, Mexicans, and countless other foreign nationals. These House members, some more than a little outspoken, are sending messages of approval to the tens and tens of thousands of students protesting, rallying, shouting anti-Semitic, anti-Israeli, even anti-American epitaphs on the campuses from Brown in Rhode Island to the University of Southern California, and from the University of Florida to the University of Washington-Seattle, and, sadly, all points within. 

And beyond the shielded walls of the campuses, in cities across the nation, radical Muslim, Hamas supporters are tearing down posters of pictures of the myriad kidnapped regardless of where they call home. In its infinite stupidity, The New York Times defends the Muslims tearing down these posters of the Hamas-held hostages from Israel, the United States, and elsewhere by attempting to equate the suffering of Muslims/Arabs with that of Jews/Israelis in the current strife. There is no moral equivalence, and the history speaks truthfully to that question.

Jewish students at Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in New York City experienced a shocking display of anti-Semitism being chased through a building having to take refuge in a library for nearly an hour with anti-Semitic slogans being shouted at them while trying to get through the barricade into the library. Adding to their harrowing experience, the Jewish students were told, for their safety, they should hide in the library attic. The ATTIC? Anyone having Anne Frank flashbacks? Shameful. Has anyone heard any public comments from President Laura Sparks?

At Columbia University, also in New York City, Joseph Massad, a professor of politics and history, expressed publicly and in an article (publication not to be promoted here), his exhilaration by the Hamas attacks on Israel and the slaughter of more than 1,400 Israeli civilians. Massad called it “awesome…, a stunning victory” for Hamas. A petition to have Massad fired garnered 45,000 signatures. A letter of solidarity with Massad received a scant 600 signatures. In addition to rallies both pro- and anti-Israel, one Israeli student was beaten. (www.nypost.com) More than 100 professors signed a letter supporting Palestinian students, calling the invasion of Israel a “military action.” Columbia president Nemat Shafik has been silent on these matters.

It’s “devastating. I’m in my environment, in my home, and I’ve been told now, that this acceptance that I was feeling, is conditional,” said Columbia University graduate student Noa Fay. “The propaganda has become so insidious. Social media is the reason, if not one of the reasons why we are seeing what we are seeing. This is what happens when you get your education and your information on Instagram and Tik Tok,” she said. “We don’t get educated, we become susceptible to infiltration, and I’ve heard people use the word ‘brainwashed,’” said Fay.

Columbia University is no stranger to controversy, having hosted former president of the Islamic Republic of Iran Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for speaking engagements. Ahmadinejad is a Holocaust denier, calling it “a myth,” and repeatedly calls for “Israel to be wiped off the map.” He served from 2005-13 . (www.britannica.com)

A cousin of United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced on social media she is withdrawing from New York University due to the increased amount of anti-Semitism and a sense of not feeling safe on and around campus. “We don’t feel safe. It’s honestly scary,” she said via an Instagram video, according to The Jerusalem Post.

Projections shining anti-Israel messages on the outside of the library at George Washington University have read, “Your tuition is funding genocide in Gaza,” “GW the blood of Palestinians is on your hands,” “Divestment from Zionist genocide now,” and “Glory to our martyrs.”

GW issued a statement. “The projections on the university’s library violated university policy and leadership intervened to ensure these projections were removed. The statements made by these individuals in no way reflect the view of the university. We are reviewing this incident and will take any appropriate steps with respect to the individuals involved in accordance with university policies.” (Fox News Outnumbered October 25, 2023)

On October 29, the Cornell Daily Sun reported “Posts online threaten Jewish students and Center for Jewish Living…,” and “...including one that threatened a shooting at 104 West,” which is home to the Center for Jewish Living and the kosher dining hall.

Some of the texts included: (sic) “”israel” deserved 10/7… the genocidal fascist zionist regime will be destroyed. rape and kill all the jew women, before they birth more jewish hitlers. jews are excrement on the face of the earth. no jew civilian is innocent of genocide…. Posted By hamas warrior Oct. 28, 2023 9:17:49 AM”

Another text reads: (sic) “jewish people need to be killed if you see a jewish “person” on campus follow them home and slit their throats. rats need to be exterminated from Cornell…. Posted By jew evil Oct. 28, 2023 5:39:06 PM”

And yet one more text reads: (sic) “watch out jews. watch out pig jews. jihad is coming. nowhere is safe. your synagogues will become graveyards. your women will be raped and your children will be beheaded. glory to Allah…. Posted By hamas soldier Oct. 28, 2023 7:34:27 PM”

“Students are just absolutely terrified to see the threat calling out the Jewish buildings,” said Jeremy Zarge, co-president of the Cornell Center for Jewish Living. “Students are afraid to walk around campus, afraid to go about their daily lives,” Zarge said.

“Even with police, it’s still frightening, but we’re trying to go about our daily lives, and we’re trying to continue to be proud and strong as our Jewish selves, but it’s still scary,” said Molly Goldstein, co-president of the Cornell Center for Jewish Living.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul spoke at Cornell on October 30 in a show of support for the embattled Jewish community. “No one should be afraid to walk from their dorm or their dining hall to a classroom. When speech crosses over into hate speech and into hate crimes, that’s when we have to make sure that students know we’ll step up and protect them,” she said. Why wait? Students should feel safe and secure on their campuses 24/7. “If you’re going to engage in these harmful actions, hate crimes, breaking our laws, you will be caught, and you will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” said Hochul.

Let’s see how true Hochul’s words are. On Tuesday, October 31 the Broome County Sheriff’s Department reported the arrest of Patrick Dai, 21, from Pittsford, NY, a junior attending Cornell. According to the Justice Department, Dai threatened to “stab and slit the throat of any Jewish males he sees on campus, to rape and throw off a cliff any Jewish females, and behead any Jewish babies.” Dai also threatened to bring “an assault rifle to campus to shoot all you pig Jews,” the Justine Department reported. The FBI tracked Dai via his IP address, who then allegedly admitted to authoring the threatening online posts. Dai is charged with “posting threats to kill or injure another using interstate communications.” Dai could face a maximum sentence of five years in prison, a fine up to $250,000, and up to three years supervised release, according to the press release issued by the US Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of NY. Dai, like any of those tearing down posters of hostages, and calling for the evisceration of Israel and the death of the Jewish people should all be charged as domestic terrorists.

“Universities have a legal responsibility to ensure that the environment is not hostile and target Jewish people. We are working at the Lawfare Project to provide pro-bono legal counsel to students and professors who are suffering Title VI Civil Rights violations right now,” said Brooke Goldstein, attorney and founder of the End Jew Hatred movement.

“People like me in the counter-terrorism world and in the… pro-Israel advocacy world have been warning for the last 10 years about the infiltration of our academia by pro-terror and terror-affiliated groups. Students for Justice in Palestine… who are pro-terror or terror-affiliated are operating with impunity and the Department of Education and the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI are not doing enough to contain this. Because this is not just a threat for Israel of Jewish people - this is a national security threat for the United States of America - our academia is radicalized and they’re radicalizing them to be anti-Jewish, anti-Israel, and anti-American. These same people who are cheering for dead Jewish babies, are also the same people who were cheering on 9/11 and they’re going to be cheering when there are further attacks, G-d forbid, on the United States,” said Goldstein, also founder of the Lawfare Project.

Interestingly, the overwhelming majority of the anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian/Hamas protesters, on and off campuses, are so liberal, so progressive that they are seen carrying signs at these rallies saying ridiculous things like “Allah loves equality,” “Queers for Hamas.” These are the same far-left progressives demanding safe spaces on campus away from conservatives, demanding charges against anyone misgendering them with the wrong pronouns, but they will side with Hamas terrorists, worse than ISIS, against the only safe space they would experience in the Middle East - Israel, the historical homeland of the Jewish people.

Do these supporters of Hamas not realize that Hamas, like Iran, would kill the homosexuals, the members of the transgender community - they have a history of dropping homosexuals off of the rooftops of buildings to their demise. Do these liberal, progressive anti-Israel protesters think feminists and the female protesters would be treated equally or even fairly? A 16 year old girl, Armita Geravand, and a 22 year old woman, Mahsa Amini, both suffered fatal injuries through encounters with “officers enforcing the mandatory Islamic dress code” in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Geravand died October 1, and Amini died September 16, 2022 having been beaten by so-called “morality police.” The dress code has been in place since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. These two young women were caught sans hijabs. (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/28/iranian-teenager-armita-geravand-dies-after-alleged-hijab-encounter-with-officers-reports-say) Are these the terrorists with whom the anti-Israel protesters have aligned themselves?

Hamas does not recognize the rights of their own people to have freedom, security, property, the rule of law - beliefs cherished in Israel and by Judeo-Chrisitan civilization. Another sad irony is that these protesters would be welcomed in Israel, live more productive and safer lives there, which is the most democratic, egalitarian, free nation in the Middle East. There are about 1.5 million Arabs living in Israel. Arabs have voting rights, they can be elected to the Knesset (Parliament), work in the professions, even serve on the supreme court. Women have equal rights, as do gays and lesbians, demonstrative of Israel not being an apartheid state. How many of the 48 Arab/Muslim nations can make the same claim? Israel is the antithesis of the Arab/Muslim world, but it is painfully obvious the anti-Israel protesters have been severely indoctrinated to believe the lies that are imparted rather liberally, in the schools, by the so-called mainstream media, and via the radical Islamic propaganda machine, instead of learning true facts and history. People may have differences of opinions, but they may not have their own set of facts and manufactured history. And thus an “information Kristallnacht,” as Ari Fleischer said, absolutely drives that point home. In The Guardian, September 16, 2020, Harriet Sherwood noted “nearly two-thirds of US young adults are unaware six million Jews were killed in the Holocaust.”

For greater detail on real facts and history: https://sanfordspeaksout.blogspot.com/2023/10/israels-911-biden-has-blood-on-his-hands.html  

Students for Justice in Palestine, with chapters on more than 200 campuses across North America, have rejected the notion that they support Hamas. They are even more insidious, actually calling themselves Hamas. Their values include the requirement to “struggle against state violence, colonialism, capitalism, and imperialism, in all of their forms.” 

Fascinating. Israel does not brutalize its citizenry. In fact Israel goes out of its way to warn civilians of their foes to seek shelter out of harm's way. Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad, al-Qaeda, and other terrorist organizations do just the opposite in using its most vulnerable as human shields, turning women and children into suicide bombers, paying families to have their children martyred. Israel is neither a colonizer nor an apartheid state, more often than not, surrendering land for peace, but this is not about land or peace. The current strife is about survival as a people in its homeland. For all the talk and demands of a cease fire, there was a ceasefire on October 6, 2023 that was unilaterally and without provocation, shattered by the Islamic Republic of Iran’s pawn, Hamas who invaded Israel, slaughtered more than 1,400 innocent civilians, at which point, global anti-Semitism called for restraint by Israel. Israel, who was attacked mercilessly - women and children butchered in their beds; a pregnant woman whose stomach was sliced open, her baby murdered in front of her, and finally to be slaughtered herself by the Hamas terror agents. Yes, these words depict difficult to hear scenes, and even more difficult to see, but the depravity of Hamas must be made known and understood. This is not hyperbole - there is video evidence of this, and many other acts of barbarism committed by Hamas - video filmed by Hamas terrorists. This is what Students for Justice in Palestine supports and celebrates.

As for their disdain of capitalism, that pairs well with the fact that Gazans elected Hamas as their ruling government in 2006, following the 2005 departure of Israelis from Gaza proving Israel is not a colonizer. Hamas has not held another election since. Israel seems to call for new elections every 10 minutes. The power structure of Hamas, economically and politically, begins and ends at the top. Less than a third of all the humanitarian aid sent into Gaza for their suffering people - yes, there are plenty of suffering Gazans who Hamas itself prevents from leaving Gaza - actually reaches the people. Hamas established roadblocks to prevent its own people from evacuating out of the northern part of Gaza to the southern part or even out of Gaza altogether in an effort to fit their narrative that the Israel Defense Forces are responsible for the deaths of more Gazan/Palestinians. This garners, for Gaza, media sympathy, and allows Hamas to engage in more heinous barbarism.

According to a Globes article, “Poor Gaza, Rich Hamas,” “the Hamas leadership built its wealth mainly through the booming tunnel industry, with Hamas officials imposing taxes, generally 20 percent on all goods smuggled through the tunnels.” Hamas has woven together an intricate, subterranean menagerie of 300 miles of tunnels under Gaza for which to carry out its terrorist machinations. Not to praise Hamas, but this sophisticated system is smart engineering - from a strictly structural standpoint, and not a commentary on its use, which, of course, is for demonic purposes. And that speaks to an enormous problem inside Gaza. Hamas is getting rich while starving its own people. Materials meant for Gazan infrastructure have gone straight into the tunnels. “Today more than half of the residents of Gaza live in severe poverty, but… there were reports of some 600 millionaires living in Gaza.”  (https://en.globes.co.il/en/article-Poor-Gaza-rich-Hamas-1001461154) 

The plight of the Gazans is not on Israel. Upon exiting Gaza in 2005, those who 
remained, and there are more than two million living in Gaza, again, many of whom would like to leave, are being prevented from doing so by Hamas. Under Hamas’s auspices the infrastructure, including greenhouses, were destroyed from within. Why? Why haven’t those with their engineering capabilities not built up Gaza? There’s prime beachfront real estate upon which hotels and resorts could be built for enormous profits, which can be turned into funding for legitimate schools.

Jared Kushner, son-in-law of former President Donald Trump, who spent many days and weeks in multiple Middle East countries working on the successful Abraham Accords, keenly noted that, “one of the ironies is that as an American Jew, you’re safer in Saudi Arabia right now than you are on a college campus like Columbia University.”

“I remember when I was in elementary school and I asked my teacher could something like the Holocaust ever happen again, and I remember she specifically told me, ‘I guarantee you, I promise you, nothing like this can ever happen,’ and I thought that was true. What we are starting to see today and ever since October 7, that might not be a guarantee anymore,” lamented Zarge at Cornell.

“A group that makes up 2.4 percent, roughly, of the American population, it should be jarring to everyone that that same population counts for something like 60 percent of all religious-based hate crimes. And so, they need our help,” said FBI Director Christopher Wray about the Jewish people. Wray also confirmed that terror threats have increased under Biden.

And thus made the remarks of Israeli President Isaac Herzog all the more poignant. “If it starts with Israel, if it starts with the Jews, it will never end there. Europe will be next and that is why we are fighting a battle on behalf of the entire world.”

Continue to pray for the survival of Israel and the safe return of all the hostages to their homes in whatever corner of the world they may live.

Sanford D. Horn is a writer and educator living in Westfield, IN. He last visited Israel with his wife in 2019.

There has been a 388 percent increase in anti-Semitism in the United States since October 7. At least 70 college and university campuses have held anti-Israel and/or pro-Palestinian/Hamas protests and/or rallies. These are many of those schools.

Appalachian State University Saint Xavier University
Arizona State University San Diego City C.C.
Boston University Stanford University
Brown University SUNY Binghamton
Columbia University SUNY Buffalo
Cooper Union SUNY Stony Brook
Cornell University Tulane University
CUNY Campuses University of California, Berkeley
DePaul University University of California, Davis
Emory University University of California, Santa Barbara
Florida Atlantic University University of Chicago
Florida International University University of Cincinnati
George Mason University University of Colorado
George Washington University University of Connecticut
Georgia Tech University University of Florida
Grinnell College University of Georgia
Harvard University University of Illinois
Howard University University of Illinois-Chicago
Illinois Wesleyan University University of Louisville 
Indiana University University of Mass-Amherst
Kent State University University of Michigan
Lafayette College University of NC Chapel Hill
Loyola University New Orleans University of Pennsylvania
Miami (OH) University University of Richmond
Michigan State University University of South Florida
Minnesota State University University of Southern California
MIT         University of Texas, Arlington
New Mexico State University University of Texas, Dallas
New York University/NYU Law University of Utah
Northeastern University University of Virginia
Northwestern University University of Washington, Seattle
Ohio State University Vanderbilt University
Penn State University Virginia Tech University
Purdue University Washington University, St. Louis
Rutgers University Yale University 

If anyone reading this column knows of a college or university that should be on this list, please contact me. Thank you.