Tuesday, December 19, 2023

Home Tomorrow. Brainless and Spineless. Legal Actions Against Campus Anti-Semitism. Horn Tooting. He Get's It.

Lynn's hip surgery went well.  She will be home tomorrow around noon.  Thanks for all your well wishes and prayers.  They worked.

Every time I look at her I wonder how can I be agnostic. 
I thought Biden was brainless but actually he is also spineless.
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The mainstream media should call the Goldie protest what it is: anti-Semitic harassment.

By Paul Snitzer

I looked recently at the Philadelphia Inquirer’s expert commentary on the Israeli-Gaza conflict, and asked whether it added anything useful to the discussion or if it instead was intended to confirm the assumptions and preconceived notions of a target audience.

Now let’s ask the same question, but as to the news-side coverage of the anti-Semitic protest that occurred on December 3 when a mob descended on the falafel restaurant, Goldie, at 19th and Sansom and began chanting “Goldie, Goldie, you can’t hide, we charge you with genocide.” The mob targeted Goldie after it was identified as a Jewish-owned business by the Philly Palestine Coalition in a boycott announcement made on Instagram. The hollow excuse given in the call for boycotting this “Zionist” restaurant – meaning owned by a Jewish and Israeli man — was that it was “stealing” and “appropriating” “Palestinian food.”

Although this call to boycott local businesses based on the religion and national origin of their owners was blasted out to thousands of Instagram followers on October 30, not a word was published about it by the Inquirer/Daily News for the next two months (based on a search of the archives maintained online). 

The Inquirer published its first news story about the Goldie protest late that same day, December 3. Although this article is apparently oddly not available on the paywall protected archive, the first version of it omitted any reference in its written text to the mob’s language “charging” the Philadelphia falafel maker with “genocide” (the updated version on-line also contains nothing in the text about the mob’s accusatory words but does include a tweet from Governor Shapiro who retweeted a video of the mob action). Instead, the article opened with the statement that “Protesters were critical of some local businesses” without describing the nature of the “criticism” the mob leveled.

We must speculate as to why the reporter would have omitted writing about these relevant and material facts to readers. One reasonable supposition is that the reporter recognized the chant for what it was — a despicable lie, intending to not only libel Goldie, but also to cheapen the very concept of genocide by absurdly “charging” a falafel maker in Philadelphia with this heinous crime (the word “genocide” was created post-WWII to describe Nazi policies of systematic murder during the Holocaust).

As the writer Yair Rosenberg wrote in 2022 after a conservative Utah man made claims similar to the chant of the mob at Goldie, “it’s hard to escape the fact that people just love accusing Jews of genocide.” Making “the Jews guilty of genocide doesn’t just obviate non-Jewish guilt for permitting Jewish genocide. It also justifies the next Jewish genocide.”

The mob at Goldie quickly became national news and the next article engaged in a lawyerly defense of the mob’s conduct. It described the conduct at Goldie as a “brief stop in an otherwise calm three-hour protest” and quoted an organizer who said “[w]e made a two-to-four-minute pit stop.” The news article quoted a Mennonite pastor from Germantown who said that the response to the anti-Semitic chant was a “distraction.”

Would the Inquirer have given similar coverage to a three-hour march through Philadelphia by an organization that included a “two-to-four minute” stop of vile racist chanting in front of an African American owned business? 

By December 5, the White House was involved, joining with Governor Shapiro in condemning the mob’s conduct. 

On December 6 the news reporters tried yet another angle to deflect attention from the mob’s actions, in an article titled “Goldie workers say they were fired for wearing Palestinian flag pins.” This roughly 1300-word article detailed allegations made by two former workers who claim they were fired for violating a new company rule against wearing signage on clothing while at work. These firing occurred in mid-November, according to the article, and they were not of interest to the paper for the next few weeks, up through December 3.

Obviously, but for the mob action in front of Goldie on December 3, the paper would not have had the least bit of interest in these firings. But, since the anti-Semitic chant in front of Goldie had brought discredit and national embarrassment to the narrative the Inquirer supports, any dirt it could throw against the business involved would have to do.

Finally, many of the above articles also discussed, with a straight face, whether the owners of Goldie had committed a sin by making donations to United Hatzalah, an Israeli volunteer ambulance and rescue service that was heavily involved with rescuing and treating individuals injured during the 10/7 attacks, and retrieving the bodies of those killed. President Biden met with the President of United Hatzalah on October 18. 

The tendentious suggestion of these articles being that United Hatzalah was not sufficiently pure of any association with the Israeli military, and, therefore, by committing the sin of supporting the “tainted” ambulance and rescue service charity, Goldie deserved the punishment inflicted on it by the mob. Could this herring be more red? Not to the Inquirer, apparently.

The last word in this matter goes to Senator John Fetterman, who wrote that the protestors “could be protesting Hamas’ systematic rape of Israeli women and girls or demanding the remaining hostages be immediately released” but instead “they targeted a Jewish restaurant. It’s pathetic and rank antisemitism.”

Such plain spoken truths cannot be reported in the Inquirer, unfortunately. 

Paul Snitzer is a businessman and lawyer residing in the Philadelphia metropolitan area.

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Short collection related to 10/7 and the impact it continues to have:

Story of a Tanzanian worker killed on 10/7:

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.Even I could win these cases.
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A Legal Strategy Against Campus Antisemitism

Under Title VI, Jewish students can hold schools accountable for creating a hostile environment.

By Gil Mandelzis

The presidents of Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology were equivocal, evasive and legalistic when they testified before Congress last week about antisemitism on campus. One reason is that their institutions, along with many others, face serious legal risk as a result of the hostility and intimidation to which their Jewish students have been subjected.

These students are afraid to go to their campus Hillels, many of which have been vandalized or threatened. They are anxious about sleeping in Jewish fraternity houses. Some are afraid to wear kippot or Stars of David. These institutions—which claim to support free speech, diversity, equity and inclusion—are complicit in cultivating a climate hostile to Jews. In doing so, they have not only betrayed their stated values but run afoul of the law.

Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act prohibits educational institutions that receive federal money from creating a discriminatory or hostile environment for any student on the basis of race, color or national origin. A December 2019 executive order, a September 2023 White House statement, and Education Department guidance letters issued in May and November 2023 make clear that includes antisemitism.

The latter letter, from Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Catherine Lhamon, affirms schools’ obligation to protect students from conduct that is “objectively offensive and is so severe or pervasive that it limits or denies a person’s ability to participate in or benefit from the recipient’s education program or activity.” Ms. Lhamon’s Office of Civil Rights is investigating dozens of colleges for potential violations—including Harvard and Penn.

At Harvard, more than 30 student organizations signed an Oct. 7 letter asserting that Israel was “entirely responsible” for Hamas’s terrorist massacre and kidnapping of civilians. The university responded by creating “a task force to support students experiencing doxxing, harassment, and online security issues following backlash,” as the student newspaper, the Harvard Crimson, reported. But acts of intimidation against Jewish students continued with no protection or interference from school leaders. A Jewish student who tried to record video of an Oct. 18 “die-in” was surrounded by protesters demanding that he leave. (Organizers of the event told the Crimson that “student marshals” used “the ‘non-violent, de-escalatory practice’ of public pressure to deter the man.”)

Although Harvard’s President Claudine Gay testified last week that “we are deeply committed to free expression,” that commitment has been selective, suggesting a pattern of discrimination. Last year the university disinvited feminist philosopher Devin Buckley from an English department colloquium after learning that she “takes a public stance regarding trans people as dangerous and deceptive.” In contrast, the school welcomed Palestinian writer and poet Mohammed El-Kurd, who tweeted “God rid us of the Zionists.” In 2021 Harvard students were instructed to remove a banner portraying Nicki Minaj in a bikini top saluting an American flag from their dorm window because it might be “offensive.” In 2023 signs proclaiming “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”—a phrase widely recognized as a call for the annihilation of Jews—were displayed freely.

Penn in late September sponsored and hosted the Palestine Writes Literature Festival, with featured speakers including Marc Lamont Hill, who was fired from CNN in 2018 after using the “river to the sea” slogan”; Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters, who according to the U.S. State Department has “a long history of using anti-Semitic tropes”; Noura Erakat, a Rutgers professor who has equated Zionism with Nazism; and Randa Abdel-Fattah, who has tweeted that “Israel is a demonic, sick project and I can’t wait for the day we commemorate its end.”

When alumni donors complained, then-President Liz Magill forcefully defended free speech. Yet Penn has repeatedly penalized law professor Amy Wax for racially provocative speech, and proceedings are under way that may lead to her firing. Meanwhile, a civil-rights complaint filed by the Brandeis Center alleges that Penn professors who participated in the September festival “posted vitriolic anti-Israel and pro-Hamas statements and cartoons” to social media, apparently prompting no disciplinary action by the university.

On both campuses, as on many others, there is a pervasive pattern of accepting, even supporting, the expression and promotion of objectively offensive views against Jews while condemning and disfavoring others.

Following a nationwide surge in reports of harassment, hate crimes and anti-Semitic incidents and threats on college campuses over the past two months, Ms. Gay and Ms. Magill joined others in forming task forces to combat antisemitism. Their testimony last week suggests this was a dodge. Neither of them, nor MIT’s Sally Kornbluth, would say categorically that calling for the genocide of Jews would violate her school’s code of conduct. Amid a public outcry, Ms. Magill resigned on Saturday. But that’s insufficient. The problem at Penn and other schools is deeply embedded in their institutional cultures.

Jewish students have filed administrative complaints or lawsuits against Penn, New York University, Wellesley and the University of California, Berkeley, alleging anti-Semitic discrimination in violation of Title VI. Others are likely to follow. These actions can force universities to take meaningful action to protect all of their students.

Discovery in these cases will reveal the discrepancies in how schools have handled other instances of discrimination versus those relating to Jewish students. It will expose the conversations and email exchanges within student groups and among faculty. It will shine a light on what was taught and tolerated in their classrooms and who is funding these programs.

These schools have failed to protect Jewish students and faculty on campus. A successful suit will ensure that a school’s code of conduct protects all students; that colleges will forcefully condemn harassment of Jews and others based on their ethnic backgrounds; that schools provide education and training about antisemitism and are as intolerant of it as they are of other forms of discrimination; that universities institute fair guidelines for what events are allowed on campus; and that all groups are protected equally.

Mr. Mandelzis is founder and CEO of Capitolis, a financial technology company.
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Hamas Calls for Violence Against Americans — and So Does This Michigan Imam

Could the war in Israel spread to the United 

States?

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Every once in a while I feel justified in tooting my horn.


I have been consistent in writing:


1) Biden would go wobbly, using any rationale he could grab, to prevent Israel and Bibi from accomplishing their goal of the destruction of Hamas.


I have no factual basis other than Biden has obsequiously embraced Obama's desire to allow Iran to go nuclear knowing this would keep The Middle East pot boiling, work against America's diplomatic and security interests while accommodating Iran's demoniacal desire/ability to threaten Israel's existence as the sole Jewish nation on earth.


2) Biden, by flooding America with illegals, is allowing Obama to accomplish his pronounced goal of transforming America as well as placing the Democrat Party in the position of becoming  a perpetual election winner.


The current flood of illegals has reached irreversible proportions and continues to threaten the very continuance of  America as a viable republic.


I find it demoniacally humorous that radical and disingenuous black Congressional members have attacked Texas' Governor Abbot for calling out The Guard claiming  president Biden has failed his responsibility. 


There is a growing number of cultural Marxist  black citizens seeking to re-segregate our nation knowing this will continue America's destabilizing  as well as weaken our reputation among our allies.


We are not a racist nation but have been on the wrong side of the racial ledger during our history/


3) Finally, I have repeatedly maintained, Democrats will do anything to retain power.  To accomplish this psychotic goal they have perfected the cynical use of "projection," ie. blame their adversaries for their own actions and misdeeds.


Of late, they have begun to destroy democracy by weaponizing politics and attacking Trump as a dictator, a rapist,  a crook all the way to calling him Hitler. Now 4 radical Democrat members of the Colorado Supreme Court voted to have Trump's name removed from nomination so as to deprive voters their constitutional right to select a candidate of their choice.


These renegade Jurists have done so by accusing Trump of violating section 2 of the 14th Amendment for engaging in acts of insurrection, blah, blah , blah.


I believe The SCOTUS should find this act unconstitutional even though  Chief Justice Robert is averse to intruding The Court where he feels it appropriate for the legislature to have responsibility and jurisdiction. That said, this  action, by Colorado Jurists, is so offensive, repugnant and patently illegal, I have every reason to believe it will be a 5-4 decision at the very least. It should be a resounding 9 to 0 if the liberal jurists care about their true responsibilities at this time in our nation's history.  They need to send the strongest measure of comity.

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Biden get's it.

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What the Biden administration doesn't get about Palestinian hatred toward Jews

Changes in leadership in the Palestinian Authority or a renewed Palestinian Authority are irrelevant. What do we care if it's Mahmoud Abbas or Salam Fayyad, if in the streets of Nablus, Jenin and Tulkarm, the crowds want to hand over their weapons to Hamas? Why should we care if there is an old or "renewed" Palestinian Authority, if with every slaughter and killing and shooting in our streets, they dance and celebrate on the roofs and hand out sweets?

Israel ignored Hamas' rhetoric for years; the Palestinian Authority is just as bad


Someone needs to brief the Biden administration that beyond the strong support for the war goals, there is currently national consensus in Israel on two other issues:  The first –  that after the war, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will have to step down (on that the Americans are actually well-informed); the second – a Palestinian state poses a grave danger to Israel. The fact that Netanyahu has chosen to rile up against this threat at this moment (Saturday night) does not mean that the wall-to-wall opposition to this vision will go with him once he is no longer in office. It runs across the board; it's here to stay.


The broad opposition among Israelis to a Palestinian state – it would be good for the Americans to know – stems not only from the fact that it takes chunks of biblical land and the historic homeland from the Jews,  to which many here are bound with every fiber of their being. The settlement enterprise, in which half a million Jews now live, is a clear expression of this. But the broad opposition to a Palestinian state is not, despite what the Americans wrongly assume, a function of any particular Palestinian leadership leading the Palestinian Authority. This rejection is on a much more fundamental level.


 


The opposition to a Palestinian state stems first and foremost from a deep understanding – shaped by decades of terror, attacks, and bloodshed – that the hostility, hatred, and commitment to perpetuate the struggle against the Jews and the State of Israel as the state of the Jewish people comes from the grassroots level, from the Palestinian public en masse.


The Palestinian leadership is a reflection of Palestinian society, which rejects our very existence here. Hundreds of surveys and thousands of statements over many decades attest to this. The Palestinian public has been wedded to the notion of a "right of return" to Lod, Ramla, Acre, and Jaffa, which means the elimination of the State of Israel and refuses to recognize Israel as the state of the Jewish people.


There are large swaths in Palestinian society who cling to the most extreme interpretation of Islam, and find there an obligation, justification, and permission to murder Jews for being Jews and "infidels." These are only some of the reasons why 72% of Palestinians in the West Bank (according to Dr. Khalil Shikaki's latest survey) support the Oct. 7 massacre, and most of them, despite everything they know today, still support Hamas.


The doctrine that prevails in the Palestinian education system, from kindergarten to universities, of a world without Israel, without a Jewish state, a doctrine that sanctifies "martyrs" and glorifies terror, is first and foremost a reflection of what the Palestinian household espouses today. Palestinians absorb hatred, distortion, lies, and incitement with their mother's milk. This too comes from there.


Therefore, changes in leadership in the Palestinian Authority or a renewed Palestinian Authority are irrelevant. What do we care if it's Mahmoud Abbas or Salam Fayyad if, in the streets of Nablus, Jenin, and Tulkarm, the crowds want to hand over their weapons to Hamas? Why should we care if there is an old or "renewed" Palestinian Authority, if, with every slaughter and killing and shooting in our streets, they dance and celebrate on the roofs and hand out sweets?


Sometimes they do calm down, but it's always temporary, always driven by a fleeting, usually material interest – employment or living conditions. Then they return to wickedness, evil, blood terror incitement, and hatred. After all, the Palestinian public cannot be replaced, nor do we aim to do so. It is what it is. This is what we have to deal with. But a Palestinian state in our backyard, a stone's throw from Kfar Saba, Netanya, Lod, Jerusalem, and Tel Aviv? Inside us? No thanks; and this has nothing to do with Netanyahu.

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Israel’s 75th Day of War

By Sherwin Pomerantz


On Wednesday, day 75 of Israel’s war with Hamas, the fighting goes on both in the north and south of Israel although thankfully, the last rocket alert in Israel was at 11 PM Tuesday night. 


This could be because the Hamas political leader in Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh, is in Egypt now for negotiations about a new hostage release deal coupled with a pause in the fighting.  Discussions seem to be centering around the release of an additional 40 hostages (primarily women, the sick and the aged) along with a pause in the fighting and the release of a significant number of Palestinian political prisoners.  No doubt there is a lot more pressure on Prime Minister Netanyahu to go down this route as a result of our regrettable killing of three Israeli hostages last week after their presumed escape from the clutches of Hamas.


Meanwhile the list of casualties continues to grow with new names of the dead published each day.  Our troops have now reached the enter of Khan Yunis in the strip where the Hamas leadership is thought to be headquartered.  Yet Israeli intelligence indicates that the leadership is quite mobile and not waiting for a visit by the IDF


Regarding how Hamas operated, Ahmed Kahlot, director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Gaza’s Jabalya neighborhood, told Israel’s Shin Bet internal security agency during an interrogation that Hamas used the hospital for military purposes.  Hamas was given privileges to use the hospital for military actions including hiding its key members, moving terrorists around, and holding a captured soldier.  Despite the risk to patients and staff, Kahlot said that Hamas terrorists “hide in hospitals because for them a hospital is a safe place. They won’t be targeted when they are inside a hospital.


In the hospital, Hamas had access to special offices with private phone lines for its terror leaders, interrogators, and security as well as space to hold the captive IDF soldier.  Not only does the terrorist organization use the hospital for military purposes, but it often compelled hospital staff to aid in Hamas’ anti-Israel activities.  Ahmed Kahlot said he was recruited by Hamas in 2010 and added, “I know 16 employees in the hospital – doctor, nurse, paramedic, or clerks… who also have different positions in al-Qassam,” referring to the armed wing of Hamas.  Hamas even has its own ambulances with special colors and without license plates for transporting supplies, corpses, and hostages.   The hospital director echoes much of the criticism other Gazans have expressed of Hamas, “The leaders of Hamas are cowards. They left us in the field while they hid in secret places… They have destroyed us.”


Sadly this war has redefined the concept of resiliency.  For us in Israel, resiliency means that given the war footing in which the country has been operating for now over 10 weeks, those of us who are not “at the front” as it were, continue to maintain some reasonable semblance of daily life.  This, of course, concomitant with the amazing level of volunteer activity that generated from the first day of the fighting.  Everyone is looking out for everyone else and the volunteer community is providing incredible support both to our troops and to the close to 250,000 Israelis who were evacuated from border communities both in the north and the south.


For Hamas, resiliency means continuing to sacrifice their own people in the pursuit of the unattainable goal of eliminating Israel and expelling the almost 7 million Jews who live here and have built the country into the second largest tech hub in the world after Silicon Valley.  If we accept the figures of Hamas, to date over 20,000 of Gaza residents have been killed since the start of hostilities and the only thing they have to show for their sacrifice is a physically destroyed entity and over two million despondent people.


Bill Maher, in his last HBO program of the season last Friday night, provides the best analysis of the insanity of this entire situation which can be found here….


If you have not already seen this, I recommend you take the 8 minutes and watch it…..I could not have said it better.  Would be useful if our enemies would watch it as well, of course.





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