Whoever owns the Empire State Building sold out to Qatar

Robert Spencer at Front Page points to how the management at NYC's Empire State Building is celebrating Qatar National Day, and what makes this bad is that it's a country that's bankrolled Islamic terrorism just as much as Iran, and just as disturbing is that Qatar's got a huge ownership in the veteran NYC tower:

Who loves Hamas? After Hamas jihadis murdered 1,200 Israelis on Oct. 7, growing numbers of leftists do. Can we now add the Empire State Building to the list?

The iconic New York landmark announced on X Sunday: “Tonight from midnight until sunrise, we will shine in burgundy and white to celebrate Qatar National Day.” Back in 2016, Qatar shelled out $622 million to buy 9.9 percent of the Empire State Building, and so if the building’s managers wants to honor one their principal shareholders, that’s their business. The timing in this case, however, is particularly ghastly, and raises questions about the propriety of having not-quite-friendly states owning a piece of American landmarks.

It was just over two months ago, on Oct. 7, that Hamas leaders including its top leaders Ismail Haniyeh and Khaled Mashal and others, were caught on video happily watching news of the Hamas massacres in Israel, and then prostrating themselves in prayers of gratitude to Allah for the killing of Jews. They were in a plush office in Doha, the capital of Qatar.

Hamas’ “Political Bureau,” as opposed to its military, i.e. terrorist, wing, has been located in Doha since 2012. Haniyeh and Mashal live not in Gaza, but in sumptuous digs in Doha. Reuters reported that “a bipartisan group of 113 U.S. lawmakers on Oct. 16 sent a letter to President Joe Biden asking him to put pressure on countries who support Hamas, including Qatar. They asked that Qatar, a major non-NATO U.S. ally and a channel for U.S. dialogue with the Taliban since a U.S. pullout from Afghanistan, to expel Hamas leadership. ‘The country’s links to Hamas…are simply unacceptable,’ the letter said.”

It is emblematic of the Biden regime’s America-Last leadership that the principal response to that letter appears to be the lighting of the Empire State Building in Qatar’s colors for its national day. What’s more, Qatar never should have been allowed to buy a piece of the Empire State Building in the first place. Investigative journalist Daniel Greenfield reminds us of what the 9/11 Commission Report said about Qatar’s role in the 9/11 jihad attacks. The Commission noted that one of the key masterminds of the attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, like Haniyeh and Mashal, lived in Qatar.

What makes this chilling is that it undermines the ability to combat Islamisation effectively, and if Qatar's bought into the Empire State Building's ownership, there can be no doubt they've invested in plenty more notable properties and locations around the USA, and other parts of the globe. It's disgraceful how various businesses care so much more about moneymaking at all costs, they're virtually willing to throw all common sense to the winds by doing deals with enemy countries. Which in cases like these are going to end up becoming very costly. Those who care must stop doing deals with enemy countries like Qatar.

After October 7, some leftists hopefully changed their view of Muslims

In this Wash. Free Beacon article, they interview a leftist "peace activist" who appears to have changed after her experience with the jihadists from Gaza who also invaded her household on October 7:

Irit Lahav, 57, was a peace activist who believed in the decency of the Palestinian people. Then, on Oct. 7, ordinary Gazans joined in a terrorist attack that left more than one in four of her neighbors in Kibbutz Nir Oz dead or abducted.

For many members of Nir Oz and other Israelis, the atrocities of Oct. 7—and particularly the broad participation of the Gazan public in the day—destroyed their faith in coexistence with the Palestinians.

Lahav, a manager at a travel company, long participated in peace demonstrations. In recent years, she volunteered for an Israeli charity called Road to Recovery, driving Palestinian children from the border of the Gaza Strip, less than two miles from her home, to Israeli hospitals for life-saving medical care.

"We thought that Palestinians are good people. All they want is peace and prosperity," Lahav told the Washington Free Beacon in an interview from a hotel in this Red Sea resort city where she and most of her community were temporarily relocated. "It's just that Hamas is forcing them to be in this aggressive situation."

When terrorists first shook the door of her safe room on Oct. 7, Lahav was sure that she and her 22-year-old daughter were about to be killed. But a makeshift lock she had fashioned out of an oar and a vacuum cleaner thwarted three separate break-in attempts. The women lay in the darkened room for about 10 hours listening to sounds of automatic gunfire and grenade explosions. At one point, they heard a group of teenagers robbing their house.

Later, Lahav learned from other Nir Oz survivors that Gazan women and children as young as 10 years old had followed Hamas terrorists into the kibbutz, looting, helping the armed terrorists, and apparently enjoying themselves.

"Basically it was sort of an invasion of a community," Lahav said. "That's why for me, I cannot say this was a Hamas action. No, for me, this was a Palestinian action. A whole community had come to our kibbutz, took our things, stole stuff, killed people, and kidnapped others."

"Am I thinking about myself being foolish until now?" Lahav added. "Maybe. But more is that I'm disappointed in them, that they're so cruel, have no values, really lost their human values."

During Israel's ongoing war to destroy Hamas, 40 of the hostages taken from Nir Oz have been released, while 30 remain in Gaza. Several other hostages have been declared dead in recent weeks, bringing the total number of people killed from Nir Oz to 46.

While it's good to know she's changed her mind about what people like her still call a "palestinian people", it remains to be seen if any of these presumably no-longer-peace-activists recognize that Islam played a very horrific major role in the bloodbath of October 7. And what would Lahav say if "settlers" of background more religious than hers were the victims? Lahav should publicly renounce all associations with anyone who until now supported Islamic savages. And she'd do well to consider how many women in Europe, in example, have fallen victim to Islamofascism as well. Many on the left now owe a serious apology.

Turkish MP dies after delivering anti-Israeli tirade

Looks like a most antisemitic member of Turkey's pseudo-parliament paid for his vulgar screeds big time:

Turkish lawmaker Hasan Bitmez of the hardline Islamist Saadet Party (SP) died in the hospital on Thursday, two days after he collapsed during a fiery tirade against Israel at the Turkish National Assembly.

Bitmez, 54, collapsed at the climax of a 22-minute speech on Tuesday in which he criticized the government of Islamist President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his AKP Party for not taking a strong enough stance against Israel in the Gaza war.

[...] The parliament was reportedly debating the national budget at the time of his remarks. It is not clear from Turkish media reports if Bitmez’s anti-Israel attack was germane to the budgetary considerations at hand.

For many of these Islamofascists, nothing is ever enough. But here's one scumbag who sure wound up potentially facing the Lord's wrath due to his offensive tirade.

More news coverage of the horror of sexual violence Hamas inflicted on October 7

Here's another report (via Front Page), repulsive as can be, about the sexual violence the Hamas committed along with graphic gore on October 7 this year:

Israeli investigators probing the fallout of the brutal October 7 attacks have found evidence that men as well as women suffered sexual violence and rape at the hands of Hamas and Islamic Jihad attackers, activists have claimed.

Yael Sherer, a spokeswoman for Israel's Survivors of Sexual Violence advocacy group, said there was physical evidence as well as eyewitness accounts of sexual violence perpetrated against both sexes amid the attacks.

'There was sexual violence and rape in these communities in the south of Israel... we have a few living survivors - not a lot - of both genders. It didn't only happen to women, it happened to men as well,' she told BBC Radio 4.

'Aside from finding bodies of people who were murdered, a lot of the bodies were mutilated... terrorists made sure to disgrace these people and dishonor them,' she added.

It comes as Israeli police opened up the biggest investigation into sexual violence and crimes against women ever in the nation.

The leader of the investigation, Shelly Harush, said: 'It's clear now that sexual crimes were part of the planning and the purpose was to terrify and humiliate people.'

Police have collected thousands of statements, photographs and video clips that have been called unbearable to watch from a mother's perspective and include 'girls whose pelvises were broken they had been raped so much'.

The irony in this is that those Hamas jihadists who raped men were bound to be homosexual. In which case, there's definitely a contradiction when it comes to homosexuality and Islam. Is that why some of the most antisemitic LGBT ideologues aren't against the Religion of Peace?

Joe Sacco's anti-Israel graphic novel is going back to press

The UK Guardian, a very bad MSM outlet themselves, published a puff piece about Joe Sacco's GN titled "Palestine", which was intended as anti-Israel propaganda, and is now seeing new print, clearly for the sake of obscuring the Hamas' savagery on October 7, and pandering to the crowd of creeps supporting them:

An acclaimed nonfiction graphic novel about Gaza, which pioneered the medium of “comics journalism”, has been rushed back into print after surging demand since the fresh outbreak of the conflict two months ago.

Palestine, by Joe Sacco, was originally released in comic book form by the American publisher Fantagraphics 30 years ago, then published as a single volume by the company, and by Jonathan Cape in the UK in 2003.

It was created by Sacco, a Maltese American journalist and cartoonist from Portland, Oregon, as a record of his own journeys around Gaza in 1991, and has since then won a clutch of awards and been included on university courses as a primer for the whole conflict. Edward Said, the Palestinian American academic and critic, said in his introduction to the book: “With the exception of one or two novelists and poets, no one has ever rendered this terrible state of affairs better than Joe Sacco.”

Gary Groth, the co-founder of Fantagraphics, said that after the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October and the subsequent bombing of Gaza demand for the book had soared.

He said, “We blew out of our inventory of several thousand copies quickly and are reprinting now. Retailers and wholesalers began ordering the book in far greater quantities than in the recent past, which indicates that every element down the chain – consumers and retailers – are expressing demand for it.”

Well, this is certainly telling about Groth to boot, the same disgrace and shame who did a sugarcoated interview with Maurice Sendak years ago. Of course, one must also wonder where any and all comic retailers stand on a subject involving Stan Lee, Jerry Siegel, Joe Shuster, Jack Kirby, Joe Simon, Will Eisner and Gil Kane's Israeli brethren. If any are seeking to capitalize on the tragedy that struck many Jewish women and children in particular, that's offensive in the extreme, and they have no business associating even remotely with the creations of famous Jewish artists. Sacco, along with the article writer, makes clear he remains sympathetic to followers of Islam, and shows no sign of horror over what followers of the Religion of Peace in Gaza did to innocent and defenseless women and children. That's what really makes this Guardian article repulsive. Unshockingly, they didn't even see fit to mention that Edward Said falsified his history. None of which matters to Sacco, sadly, nor to Groth. I absolutely do not want to buy from Fantagraphics if this is the kind of graphic novels they're going to market.

And Sacco's GN didn't so much pioneer comics journalism as it did propaganda, and exploiting the medium for that specific goal. It's sickening to think how many GNs of this sort came down the pike in the past 2 decades that did more harm than good for the comics medium's image overall regarding political issues.

Anti-Zionism Is Antisemitism

To read the MSM newspapers is to realize just how out of touch mainstream outlets are to the ideological fanaticism that is the base of 9 out of 10 journalists' worldview.

Anti-Zionists are antisemites. Hands down. This is not a new debate. Give Hamas the means and they'll annihilate Israel without second thought, carrying out the wet dreams of leftists worldwide. 

It's sick and disgusting, and I'm tired of it.

FWIW, at NYT, "Is Anti-Zionism Always Antisemitic? A Fraught Question for the Moment":

From the halls of Congress to America’s streets and universities, a once largely academic issue has roiled national discourse, inciting accusations of bigotry and countercharges of bullying.

The brutal shedding of Jewish blood on Oct. 7, followed by Israel’s relentless military assault on Gaza, has brought a fraught question to the fore in a moment of surging bigotry and domestic political gamesmanship: Is anti-Zionism by definition antisemitism?

The question deeply divided congressional Democrats last week when Republican leaders, seeking to drive a wedge between American Jews and the political party that three-quarters of them call their own, put it to a vote in the House. It has shaken the country’s campuses and reverberated in its city streets, where pro-Palestinian protesters bellow chants calling for Palestine to be free from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.

It surfaced in Wednesday’s Republican presidential debate, when Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor, said, “If you don’t think Israel has a right to exist, that is antisemitic.” The following night, lighting the national menorah behind the White House, Vice President Kamala Harris’s husband, Doug Emhoff, who is Jewish, warned, “When Jews are targeted because of their beliefs or identity, and when Israel is singled out because of anti-Jewish hatred, that is antisemitism.”

Zionism as a concept was once clearly understood: the belief that Jews, who have endured persecution for millenniums, needed refuge and self-determination in the land of their ancestors. The word still evokes joyful pride among many Jews in the state of Israel, which was established 75 years ago and repeatedly defended itself against attacks from Arab neighbors that aimed to annihilate it.

If anti-Zionism a century ago meant opposing the international effort to set up a Jewish state in what was then a British-controlled territory called Palestine, it now suggests the elimination of Israel as the sovereign homeland of the Jews. That, many Jews in Israel and the diaspora say, is indistinguishable from hatred of Jews generally, or antisemitism.

Yet some critics of Israel say they equate Zionism with a continuing project of expanding the Jewish state. That effort animates an Israeli government bent on settling ever more parts of the West Bank that some Israelis, as well as the United States and other Western powers, had proposed as a separate state for the Palestinian people. Expanding those settlements, to Israel’s critics, conjures images of “settler colonialists” and apartheid-style oppressors.

So for some Jews, the answer to the question is obvious. Of course anti-Zionism is antisemitism, they say: Around half the world’s Jews live in Israel, and destroying it, or ending its status as a refuge where they are assured of governing themselves, would imperil a people who have faced annihilation time and again.

“There is no debate,” said Jonathan Greenblatt, the chief executive of the Anti-Defamation League, which has been defining and monitoring antisemitism since 1913. “Anti-Zionism is predicated on one concept, the denial of rights to one people.”

Many Palestinians and their allies recoil just as fiercely: The equating of opposition to a Jewish state on once-Arab land — or opposition to its expansion — with bigotry is to silence their national aspirations, muffle political dissent and denigrate 75 years of their suffering.

Laila el-Haddad, a Palestinian activist and author, called it “a chilling attempt to punish and silence voices critical of Israeli policies.”

But perhaps nowhere is the question more fraught than among Jews themselves. Younger, left-leaning Jews, steeped in the cause of antiracism and terms like “settler colonialism,” are increasingly searching for a Jewish identity centered more on religious values like the pursuit of justice and repairing the world than on collective nationalism tied to the land of Israel.

Many older liberal Jews have also struggled with the Israeli government’s lurch to the far right, but they see Israel as the centerpiece and guarantor of continued Jewish existence in an ever more secular world.

“We’re living in an increasingly post-religious age, and any Jewish community that walks away from the Jewish people, and its most articulate expression of our times — the Jewish state, the state of Israel — is walking away from their own future,” said Ammiel Hirsch, the senior rabbi of Stephen Wise Free Synagogue in Manhattan and the founder of Amplify Israel, which seeks to emphasize the Jewish state in Jewish worship.

For Republicans, the issue is simple and convenient. The raising of anti-Zionism in the debate over antisemitism amid the Israel-Hamas war pushes aside the presence of white-nationalist bigots on the fringes of the Republican coalition — like Nick Fuentes, the avowed neo-Nazi who dined with Kanye West and former President Donald J. Trump last year — and instead forces Democrats to defend the pro-Hamas demonstrators on their own coalition’s fringes.

So on Tuesday, when G.O.P. leaders led by Representative David Kustoff of Tennessee, one of the House’s two Jewish Republicans, put to a vote a resolution condemning all forms of antisemitism and flatly stated “that anti-Zionism is antisemitism,” the 216 Republicans who voted yes included two who have been accused of antisemitism and white-nationalist flirtations, Representatives Paul Gosar of Arizona and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia. (The one Republican who voted no, Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky, has now been labeled antisemitic by the White House.)

For the broader Democratic community, by contrast, the debate has been wrenching, pitting allies against one another, splintering more conservative Jewish Democrats who absolutely believe anti-Zionism is antisemitic from progressive Democrats, especially Democrats of color, who argue just as strongly for the latitude to criticize Israel, and leaving a huge middle unwilling to draw bright lines.

Thirteen Democrats voted no, including Israel’s fiercest critics in Congress, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York. Ninety-five voted yes, but 92 Democrats voted “present,” among them prominent Jews like Jerrold Nadler of New York, Jamie Raskin of Maryland and Jan Schakowsky of Illinois.

6 teenagers in France convicted for roles in Islamist murder of Samuel Paty

Six teenagers have been convicted for the role they played in the jihadist murder of the teacher Samuel Paty, all because he wanted to discuss the monster known as Muhammed:

A French juvenile court on Friday convicted six teenagers for their roles in the 2020 beheading of a teacher by an Islamic extremist, an attack that shocked the country and shone a light on the real-world dangers of online hate speech.

Samuel Paty, a history and geography teacher, was killed near his school after showing his class cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad during a debate on free expression. Attacker Abdoullakh Anzorov, a young Chechen who had become radicalized, was killed by police.

The court found five of the defendants, who were 14 and 15 at the time of the attack, guilty of involvement in staking out the teacher and identifying him for the attacker. The sixth defendant, 13 at the time, was found guilty of lying about the classroom debate in comments that aggravated online anger against the teacher.

But here's the bad news:

One was given a six-month prison term but allowed to serve under house arrest with an electronic bracelet. The others were given special suspended sentences of between two and three years requiring them to stay in school or jobs. The sentences included special educative follow-up measures that also involved their families.

Lawyers for Paty’s family decried the sentences as too lenient. [...]

And they're correct. They should be tried as adults, if they weren't, and in any event, this marks another judicial embarrassment where the establishment is trying to dodge serious responsibility.

More than 150 Hamas jihadists surrender to IDF in Khan Yunis

An important accomplishment made by the IDF in capturing a significant number of terrorists in the city of Khan Yunis:

Over 150 Hamas terrorists surrendered to the IDF in Khan Yunis on Thursday. Footage of the incident was published on social media.

The terrorists were checked by the IDF soldiers and transferred for initial questioning by the security forces.

This is a very good achievement. There'll be plenty of jihadists to put on trial soon, and hopefully, they'll be given the death sentence, something that's being debated now in the Knesset.

Amazingly enough, veteran filmmaker Steven Spielberg has commented on the issue:

Acclaimed Hollywood director Steven Spielberg spoke out on the Hamas massacre of October 7 for the first time last week.

In an address published by the USC Shoah Foundation last Friday, Spielberg said that he "never imagined I would see such unspeakable barbarity against Jews in my lifetime."

Spielberg, who is Jewish, founded the Shoah Foundation in 1994 to gather and preserve testimony from survivors and witnesses to the Holocaust. The Foundation has begun gathering testimony from survivors of the October 7 massacre under its Countering Antisemitism Through Testimony Collection program, which documents antisemitism in the post-Holocaust era.

According to Spielberg, this initiative is part of “an effort that will ensure that the voices of survivors will act as a powerful tool to counter the dangerous rise of antisemitism and hate.”

“Both initiatives — recording interviews with survivors of the October 7 attacks and the ongoing collection of Holocaust testimony — seek to fulfill our promise to survivors: that their stories would be recorded and shared in the effort to preserve history and to work toward a world without antisemitism or hate of any kind,” he said.

“We must remain united and steadfast in these efforts,” he said.

But does this means he's willing to produce films and/or documentaries in the forseeable future about this tragedy? Because if he doesn't, then he won't be accomplishing anything. Nor will it avail if he takes the same morally equivalent approach he did with Munich nearly 2 decades ago, which ultimately came at the expense of the Jewish victims of the terrorist attack in 1972 at the Olympics. If memory serves, he even sought approval from CAIR, whom it turns out is celebrating the October 7 horror:

Video emerged Thursday of Nihad Awad, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), celebrating the October 7 terror attack by Hamas in which 1200 people were murdered in Israel and more than 240 were abducted as hostages.

Awad’s speech on November 24 to the American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) convention in Chicago was reported at the time, but was largely overlooked; it resurfaced Thursday when shared by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI).

[...] The Biden administration also worked with CAIR, despite its radical and antisemitic history, in shaping the so-called “strategy” on antisemitism earlier this year. As Breitbart News reported, CAIR boasted that it helped protect extreme criticism of Israel within the White House’s strategy, which was a reversal of existing policy under previous administrations of both parties.

Will Spielberg be willing to condemn CAIR for their repulsive behavior, and even pan Biden's associations with them? Let's hope he and his institutions realize what a terrible PR error they'd be making if they didn't.

Update: the White House now says it's severing ties with Awad. Something they could've done long ago, and they surely knew CAIR was a repellent lot.

Update 2: Andrea Widburg at the American Thinker comments on the photographs of the jihadists who've surrendered, ideally stripped to underwear.

Update 3: also vital to note is that, as a doctor's revealed, at least 10 hostages of the Hamas were sexually abused in the tunnels:

At least 10 of the Israeli civilians released by Hamas, both men and women, were sexually assaulted or abused while in captivity, the Associated Press reported Wednesday.

In a report detailing allegations of severe and widespread sexual abuse by Hamas terrorists during their October 7 onslaught and later against hostages, a doctor who treated some of the 110 hostages released from captivity told the AP that at least 10 men and women among those freed were sexually assaulted or abused.

He did not provide further details, and spoke on condition of anonymity to protect the hostages’ identities.

The doctor’s comments corroborated similar accounts shared at a meeting on Tuesday. The meeting, held between the Israeli war cabinet and a group comprising recently freed hostages and family members of those still held in Gaza, featured firsthand testimonies from some of the released captives. These individuals detailed their experiences of sexual abuse during their captivity, participants said.

Read more if you have the stomach for it. This is exactly why the Hamas has to be brought down altogether, and all sane people must strongly condemn their savagery.

University presidents made themselves look horrific on the issue of anti-Israeli violence

3 university presidents were called in to testify about the crisis of antisemitism at their campuses, and all 3 actually made themselves look repulsive, because they wound up acting as apologists for it. Only now, after the initial testimonies, are they actually backtracking:

The presidents of Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania on Wednesday sought to contain the damage from congressional testimony a day earlier in which they struggled to say whether calls on their campuses for genocide against Jews would violate school policies.

The stuttering testimony before a US House of Representatives committee by Claudine Gay and Elizabeth Magill, the leaders of Harvard and Penn, respectively, stirred outrage — particularly among Jewish alumni and donors — and added fuel to calls to replace them. By Wednesday evening, an online petition calling for Penn’s board to sack Magill had garnered more than 4,500 signatures from students and donors.

In a video address released on Wednesday, a sober-looking Magill said she had erred by taking an overly legalistic approach when responding to the question posed by Elise Stefanik, the New York Republican representative, who pressed the academics to say plainly whether calling for the genocide of Jews on their campuses violated their codes of conduct of harassment policies.

What took place was worse than harassment. It was support for murder and sexual violence. Such behavior is serious enough to warrant police enforcement to arrest any and all offenders, and even the college presidents themselves should be arrested and imprisoned for failure to report/prevent crimes. Even the part about "legalistic" is DS. Why, if that's how they're going to address anti-Israeli hostility, who knows how they'd respond if 9-11 victims were the subject? Stefanik panned the so-called apology:

Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-NY, blasted the president's video, calling it a "pathetic PR clean up attempt."

"This pathetic PR clean up attempt by Penn shockingly took over 24 hours to try to fix the moral depravity of the answers under oath yesterday," Rep. Stefanik wrote in a post on X. "And there was not even an apology. By the way, the questions were asked over and over and over again."

"No statement will fix what the world saw and heard yesterday."

The Ivy League president said that a call for genocide of the Jewish people would be classified as harassment or intimidation, despite her previous comments saying that it would "depend on the context."

"Depend" is another pathetic wording Magill employed. In the meantime, all concerned should stop donating to these monster factories, should not take classes there, and should also file police reports against the management as much as against the offending alumna themselves. Seriously, there is grounds on which to prosecute university managements, and it's something that should also be done when it comes to cases like the transsexual male creep swimming against female swimmers at these institutions in the past year or so. Yes, Riley Gaines should by all means file a legal case against even the offender himself over that matter. Update: some local sources are speaking out against this academic abomination. For example, the Yad Vashem chairman:

"It's appalling but not surprising," he said. "I visited these institutions, spoke with presidents, provosts, and deans, as well as with the incredible Jewish leaders who are the silver lining there. These Jewish leaders feel ostracized. In a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion class, they put all the Jews in a separate room to 'protect' them. I spoke with the presidents and provosts, and they have no idea what is going on."

"The problem is in the faculty, which is developing, article by article, a policy that calls for the elimination of the Jewish state. Such a protocol is not logical, but it is doubtless driven by other things, such as the Qatari investments some of these institutions are receiving," he explained.

"The presidents of these universities respond by citing the First Amendment about freedom of speech. I say to them - if such a doctrine were to be developed calling for the ostracization of the LGBTQ+ community or targeting people of color, that too would be protected by the First Amendment, but that professor would be fired the following day. The same professor calling for the elimination of the state of Israel has a good chance of being promoted."

He added: "This is a cancerous process. I saw it starting five to ten years ago when there were reasonably easy steps that could have been taken against the BDS referendums. We are now in stage two cancer, and more aggressive treatments are needed - treatments I am not optimistic to see from the current administration. At stage three and four, it will be terminal - but for the universities, not for the Jews."

Dayan says that he believes that claims of history repeating itself are more than hyperbole. "For the first time, I see the similarities between what happened then and what is happening now. The people who burned books in Berlin in the 1930s were not the ignorant masses but the professors and students of the most prestigious universities in Germany. Virtually, the Zionist books in the university libraries are already being burned."

He sees distinct similarities between Hamas and the Nazis: "The cruelty displayed by Hamas is the same cruelty displayed by the Nazis, and the intentions are the same genocidal intentions. Whether to call them Nazis can be debated, but there can be no doubt about their intentions."

[...] Dayan believes that the denial of the massacre mandates action by his institution. "Denial of the Holocaust started in the 40s. Denial of Oct. 7th started on Oct. 8th. Denial of antisemitism and the state of Israel is growing as well and costing Jewish lives. Yad Vashem traditionally doesn't deal with modern antisemitism because six million Jews murdered in the Shoah are entitled to an institution that is exclusively for them. The situation now, though, calls for exceptional actions, and so now we will be active in combating modern antisemitism too."

Here's some more on the Algemeiner:

Antisemitism on American college campuses is comparable to Stage 2 cancer, and if allowed to progress to Stage 4, academia will be “doomed,” the chairman of Yad Vashem, Israel’s national memorial to the Holocaust, told The Algemeiner a day after presidents of elite US universities refused to issue a condemnation of genocidal calls against Jews and Israel.

According to Dani Dayan, institutions of higher education are becoming increasingly filled with “pseudo-academic theories advocating for genocide of the Jewish people,” and the leadership of those colleges are supporting them, “either by action or inaction.”

Dayan said he explained to University of Pennsylvania president Elizabeth Magill — who drew outrage in September for refusing to cancel an anti-Zionist festival featuring speakers accused of promoting antisemitic conspiracies and violence against Israel — that antisemitism was a “cancerous process” that wasn’t stopped at Stage 1 by universities when it would have been “relatively easy” to do so.

“Now we are in Stage 2, which is much more difficult, and necessarily takes harsher steps,” he said.

“But if we don’t take those steps now, we will reach Stage 3 and Stage 4, which is terminal,” he added, clarifying the problem would be lethal “not for the Jews, but terminal for the university. They will be doomed if they continue this way.”

Well this is why any university that allows such repulsive ideologies to take hold cannot be bankrolled anymore by sane people's money, period. Nor can Jewish students continue to learn there. They'd do well to save their hard-earned money.

Update 2: since the the subject of the Holocaust during WW2 came up here, see also this article about Miss Puerto Rico Michelle Colón revealing she had relatives who were murdered during the Holocaust.

Update 3: rabbi David Wolpe resigned from the Harvard antisemitism investigation committee after Gay's catastrophous failure of responsibility.

Update 4: Magill has resigned on the 9th of December as president of UPenn. What she did was truly repulsive, and she should be ostracized by sensible people for excusing the seriousness of the topic.

Child hostage freed from captivity returns to school

One of the child hostages who was fortunate to be freed from Hamas captivity has returned to school:

Emilia Aloni, one of the youngest hostages taken by Hamas during the October 7 massacre, has returned to kindergarten Tuesday. This was the first day she attended since September 28, when classes were dismissed for the Jewish holidays.

In a heartwarming video recorded by Emilia's mother, Danielle, and released on social networks by the family and the Israeli Ministry of Education, the teacher is seen opening the gate for Emilia, saying: "Welcome, welcome, welcome – I feel like breaking into song! Wow, I love her!" After she hugs the 5-year-old girl, the other girls start hugging her too. One of them is heard telling Emilia: "I missed you for such a long, long time," and "I missed you. I saw you on TV."

One girl who's very lucky to be alive and well after those horrors.

Battle against Hamas has officially resumed

After at least a few acts of violence that violated the cease-fire agreements, the IDF has resumed its raid on Hamas enclaves:

The IDF has announced the renewal of fighting in Gaza, after the Hamas terror organization violated the terms of the operational pause.

An IDF spokesperson said that IAF aircraft are attacking Hamas targets in Gaza. A diplomatic source said, "We are renewing the fighting with all our might. There are no negotiations for the release of hostages."

At the same time, the IDF's Home Front Command updated the guidelines for the Israeli public, and in most cities in central Israel, schools will be open only in locations where a protected space is accessible within the required amount of time.

The pause was set to expire at 7:00a.m. Friday morning, but reports by the Wall Street Journal claimed that an agreement was reached on extending the ceasefire by a day. This report was not confirmed by Israel, and by Friday morning, Israel had not yet received a new list of hostages to be freed.

Based on the violence of the rocket attacks, and what happened at Jerusalem's main entrance road the other day, that's why there's no choice but to continue the combat against the monsters.

Hamas treated hostages poorly

Families of the rescued hostages told the press that the Hamas had unshockingly been nasty to them:

Family members of released Israeli hostages told reporters Sunday that the hostages had been forced to sleep on benches during their seven-week captivity; that they had to endure waits of up to two hours for the bathroom; and that they were sometimes denied food.

Adva Adar, granddaughter of freed Holocaust survivor Yaffa Adar, 85; and Merav Mor Raviv, cousin of Keren Munder, 54, spoke to reporters in a press conference organized by MediaCentral Jerusalem.

Repulsive, but unsurprising. One more reason why, besides hopefully saving all hostages, we must hope the IDF rids Gaza of the jihadist vermin.

Here's some more news:

The third group of Israeli hostages freed from Gaza on Sunday evening includes a four-year-old child whose parents were murdered by the Palestinian Hamas terrorists who attacked their community on October 7.

According to Israel’s Army Radio, the group of 14 hostages — 13 Israelis, plus one dual Russian-Israeli national — include ten of the 18 hostages taken from Kfar Aza, a community in which Hamas murdered 100 innocent people. Mothers and their children were among those released.

But four-year-old Avigail Idan — who holds dual U.S.-Israeli citizenship — will not be returning with her mother or her father, who were killed.

She is now an orphan. It is not clear if she knows what happened to her parents.

And this is another serious abomination. A child has been orphaned - she's not the only one - by monsters whom, lest we forget, both the Labor party representatives of the past and Ariel Sharon, made possible to take over Gaza.

First Israeli hostages of Hamas released from captivity

At least 13 of the Israeli and even several Thai/Filipino hostages taken by Hamas to Gaza were released and returned to families:

Images and video of the first reunions between the first group of Israeli hostages released on Friday and their families has been released by the Schneider Children’s Hospital near Tel Aviv.

The hostages, all women and children, as old as 85 and as young as two years old, were released by the Palestinian Hamas terror group as part of a deal after being brutally kidnapped amid the murder of their relatives and neighbors in the October 7 terror attack.

In one video released by the hospital, father Yoni Asher asks his daughter: “Did you think about Daddy? Did you think about good things?” She replies: “I dreamed about going home.” He replies: “Your dream came true! … Soon, we’re going home.” [...]

The Jerusalem Post reported that most of the freed hostages were in good physical condition, and had not been abused after the initial physical abuse of their capture, though they had to sleep on plastic benches. They received some news from Israel during their captivity, including news about the murder of their relatives in the October 7 terror attack.

Many of the first group of hostages were from Kibbutz Nir Oz, where a quarter of the population of 400 was murdered or kidnapped. 11 foreign nationals workers, including 10 Thai and one Filipino, were released along with the initial group of 13.

A second group of 13 hostages is set to be released Saturday, reportedly mostly from Kibbutz Be’eri, where over 100 were murdered.

These people are very fortunate to be released. Mainly because, as the following indicates, Joe Biden is not helping the situation. Here's more on the hostages who were freed. Now, we must hope that all hostages will be released, and that the IDF will be ready to continue combat accordingly.

Update: some more over here about the subject.

Update 2: a second group of hostages is now on their way home too.

Martin Gilbert, Israel

At Amazon, Martin Gilbert, Israel: A History.

Also, Martin Gilbert, The Story of Israel: From Theodor Herzl to the Roadmap for Peace. #CommissionEarned

What took place at the NY Jewish Comics Experience

The JTA/New York Jewish Week covered the new Jewish Comics Experience convention at Manhattan's Jewish History Center:

More than 400 comic book lovers flocked to Manhattan’s Center for Jewish History on Sunday for the first-ever Jewish Comics Experience, a pop culture convention that was billed as the “ultimate comics and pop culture event.”

Some 35 comics creators participated in the inaugural JewCE, including “Sin City” creator Frank Miller and underground comics legend Barbara “Willy” Mendes. Others participating were artists who specialize in depicting Torah stories, creators of Jewish superheroes, autobiographical writers who just happen to be Jewish and non-Jewish authors and artists who create Jewish content.

Seeing that Miller attended this convention, it raises some important and relevant queries: does this mean he's willing to own and defend Holy Terror once again, recalling how 5 years ago, he kowtowed to the far-left by not only expressing regret for conceiving Holy Terror in the first place, he even apologized for condemning the Occupy movement, and added insult to injury by attacking Donald Trump, all in the pages of a paper as anti-Israel as the UK Guardian. And despite the incredibly stupid apology, he was still disinvited from a British convention. It remains to be seen if he's sorry he acted so stupidly now. Otherwise, what's the use of his attending this convention? Lack of courage is exactly what leads to all these tragedies, including 9-11, and even the terrorist attacks in France back in 2015. Similarly, if the convention doesn't have the courage to raise the issue of Islamofascism itself, that'll be a serious weakness.

“It’s high time that Jewish creators are recognized for their contribution to comic culture, a culture that was for the most part created by Jewish people,” JewCE co-founder Fabrice Sapolsky told the New York Jewish Week.

Though the event was planned long before Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel and the subsequent war, the continued violence in the Middle East and its reverberating effects was resonant across the convention. In myriad panel conversations and in one-on-one discussions, the situation in Israel, increased antisemitism across the globe and the acute need for Jewish joy were frequent themes. For many creators and attendees, “showing up” and supporting the Jewish community was at the top of mind, while others noted the camaraderie among individuals who all shared a a love of Jewish culture.

According to Miriam Mora, the co-founder of JewCE and the director of programming at the Center for Jewish History, the difficult moment made a Jewish comic convention more relevant than ever. “Comics are worth paying attention to because there’s no better way to lift up our community and to fight antisemitism than to educate people about Jewish contributions, Jewish identities, Jewish stories than to celebrate them,” she said.

Indie “comix” icon Mendes, best known for the classic comic “It Ain’t Me, Babe,” agreed. “We just need people to know how wonderful we are because there’s a lot of propaganda out there that we’re terrible,” she told the New York Jewish Week. “We need to counteract that with proof that Jews are wonderful, and that’s what this is all about — and that’s why I’m so happy to be part of the convention.”

On this, those attending did the right thing. After such a horrifying bloodbath that the Hamas jihadists committed, it's vital to convey a message of solidarity with the Jewish people, and uphold the memories of famous creators like Siegel/Shuster/Lee/Kirby. However, this convention, unfortunately, has traces of PC to be found in the coverage, if anything:

The history of Jews and comics is a long and rich one, beginning with the earliest comic book creators — nearly all Jews — to the continued presence of Jewish stories in both popular comics and more esoteric ones. For example, Marvel briefly had a Jewish Black Panther character, while, more recently, author Yehudi Mercato drew upon his Mexican-Jewish family for his middle-grade graphic memoir, “Chunky.” Meanwhile, some traditional Jewish texts have gotten the graphic novel treatment, including Mendes’ recent takes on the weekly Torah portion. [...]

That creativity was on full display Sunday as creators spoke at panels such as “Jewish Folklore in Comics,” “Queering Jewish Comics” and “Getting Past Ashkenormativity and Secularism in Comics.” Jewish publishers sold a variety of books and individual creators signed their work and mingled with fans. One table was run by the mother of a writer of a Holocaust education comic who couldn’t make the trip from Los Angeles.

It's regrettable they've continued sugarcoating BP material that builds on some atrocious storytelling, right down to Ta-Nehisi Coates' own propaganda. And Coates is one of the worst far-leftists to ever be welcomed into the entertainment industry. If he could speak as abusively as he did about 9-11, there's no telling what he could say about Jews. I wouldn't want to own any of his comics based on what a far-left ideologue he happens to be. And that part about "queering" is quite telling on its own. It echoes what only so many far-leftists have been pushing and indoctrinating at schools, even going so far as to distort the Bible with it. Does that sit well with them?

Now since we're on the subject, The Forward followed up on the news about Arnon Shorr and Joshua Edelglass's Brother's Keeper. I hope this GN's been highlighted at the convention, because, as noted again by the Forward:

“One of my friends pointed at the screen and he said, ‘We need this. We need this now. We need this yesterday,’” Shorr recalled. “I was too close to it, I think, to see it or to recognize it,” he said. But his friend helped him realize that “this is a reminder that we’ve been here before and we’ve survived this before.”

As Edelglass kept pace with the drawings and Tomić with the colors, Shorr tried to figure out how to make the book widely available sooner rather than later. They’d bring copies to JewCE as planned, but they also made the comic available to order in hard copy online and to purchase as an e-book. Shorr is also working with his parents to translate the story into Hebrew and is looking into options for sharing Brother’s Keeper in Israel. [...]

But sitting down to draw night after night in the days and weeks following Oct. 7 was therapeutic for Edelglass. “The story moves from battle and turmoil to great hope,” Edelglass said. And he and Shorr hope it can be a source of comfort and hope for readers as well.

Let's hope it'll be translated into Hebrew, and practically as many other languages as possible; everyone and anyone the world over who's a realist needs to know this kind of history. And again, let's hope the convention at Manhattan's History Center stands solidly by it. That said, it's still a shame said convention is pushing leftist propaganda, and the JTA once again sugarcoated how the Jewish Black Panther was crafted.

MSM outlets had reporters embedded with Hamas during terrorist attack

Some very horrific discoveries have been made about the AP Wire and Reuters, demonstrating just how evil journalists can be:

Photographers from the Associated Press and Reuters appear to have been embedded with Hamas terrorists as they executed terrorist attacks against Israel on October 7, according to a new report from Honest Reporting, a media watchdog.

Photos posted by the news agencies of the surprise terrorist attack on Israel include ones showing terrorists breaking the gates to Kibbutz Kfar Aza, where residents were caught completely off guard and dozens were murdered. Photos also show that photographers were on the scene as terrorists took civilians such as Shani Louk hostage, and attacking Israeli tanks on the other side of the Gaza border.

The photos raise serious questions about whether the news agencies had advance knowledge that the terrorist attacks were taking place. The four individuals credited by the Associated Press for images of the attacks — Hassan Eslaiah, Yousef Masoud, Ali Mahmud, and Hatem Ali — are all photographers based in Gaza, where it was revealed in 2021 that the Associated Press shared office space with the terrorist group.

One of the photographers, Hassan Eslaiah, has reportedly been pictured getting kissed by a top Hamas operative who is said to be one of the chief architects of the deadly terrorist attacks, which killed over 1,400 and have led to a massive war with Israel.

This is seriously offensive, and any and all reporters involved are guilty of participation in a crime, not to mention failure to report/prevent one. This whole catastrophe even led to the recent murder of a USA-born policewoman in the past week. The AP/Reuters reporters who were part of the massacre must be arrested and imprisoned for being party to a heinous crime. This recent horror practically makes clear journalists and photographers are more than fully capable of committing evil in their own ways, and if the 2 aforementioned news agencies won't weed out these monsters from their staffs, they should be boycotted and ostracized.

Update: speaking of the policewoman, it turns out a colleague of hers abandoned his post when this occurred, and enabled the tragedy to take place more easily. He's been removed from his position, as a result.

A history comic whose subject is even more relevant today

Arnon Shorr, a screenwriter and author originally from Haifa, wrote a column for Jewish Boston telling about a graphic novel he developed about Israel's war of indepdence in 1948, discussing how the armies of the Arab Legion attacked the country, and points out that, in the aftermath of the horrific jihad bloodbath the Hamas committed on October 7, it's even more relevant a subject than ever. The title of the GN he's publishing is "Brother's Keeper":

It sat on a hard drive for several years, until this summer, when an opportunity arose to collaborate once more with Joshua M. Edelglass, the illustrator of “José and the Pirate Captain Toledano.” I shared several story ideas with Josh, who immediately gravitated toward “Brother’s Keeper.” We decided we’d work together to reimagine the story as a single-issue (or “one-off”) comic book. The goal was to have something ready to debut in mid-November, at the Jewish Comics Experience, a new and exciting convention of Jewish comics at the Center for Jewish History in New York. So, in August, with only a few months to get the job done, I began to write.

I went back to old interviews that my uncle Yoav had recorded. My grandfather’s accounts of the battle and its aftermath are riveting, and revealed surprising details that I had forgotten over the years. I also found this very detailed description of the battle. I drew from every account that I could find to create a composite representation of this small piece of that old war. [...]

Ramat Rachel is a small kibbutz on a strategically significant hilltop just south of Jerusalem. In 1948, its residents found themselves surrounded on three sides by three very powerful Arab armies. The Egyptian army approached from the west, the Arab Legion came up from the south, and the Jordanian army, along with local Arab fighters, applied pressure from the east. They all wanted to drive the Jews out so they could attack Jerusalem from this high ground.

My grandfather was sent to help defend this kibbutz, and when that appeared impossible, he oversaw the evacuation and retreat.

When I wrote these scenes, they were fascinating pieces of history. It was hard to imagine an army attacking a kibbutz, with bullets and artillery shattering the bucolic quiet.

And then I was confronted by the grim horrors of Oct. 7, 2023.

What I wrote as history had suddenly become current events. A terrorist army rampaging through Israel, attacking kibbutzim along the Gaza border. Residents, once again, forced to flee.

The book was already written, and Josh was working hard on the illustrations. For him, the experience was even more surreal. He was drawing an attack on a kibbutz while watching one unfold on the news.

Initially, all of this seemed like a horrible coincidence. “Brother’s Keeper” is supposed to be historical. It’s supposed to reflect on something that happened a long, long ago. Never in my darkest nightmares did I imagine that it would become contemporary again.

And yet, here we are.

We continued our work on the book. With the Jewish comics convention about a month away, we had some hard print deadlines to meet.

But I felt as though the book we were working on had fundamentally changed. I wasn’t sure exactly how, but it seemed suddenly more significant. A friend who stopped by for coffee one morning was able to articulate what I couldn’t. When he saw a few of the illustrations, he declared, “We need this. Now!”

He went on to explain: Most of us weren’t born the last time a kibbutz was attacked. Many of our parents weren’t born yet, either. Part of the pain of the Oct. 7 attacks was that we had never experienced anything like it before.

Then my friend pointed at the illustrations I had shown him. He said, “But we have been through this before. We’ve survived this before.”

The moment he pointed that out, I realized that my grandfather’s story was no longer “just a story from a war.” It suddenly had meaning.

It wasn’t the meaning I intended. It certainly couldn’t have been my grandfather’s meaning. How could we have imagined we’d need such a reminder again?

And yet, there it is.

My grandfather, surviving an attack on a kibbutz in 1948, reminds us of what we can overcome in 2023.

Josh and I had no plans for an immediate wide release of this comic book. We expected to print a bunch of copies to sell at the convention, and then to figure out a release plan from there.

But now, the story carries a new, urgent purpose. We are working very hard to make the book available as broadly as possible when it debuts in New York on Nov. 12, 2023.

The guy's doing the right thing to raise the issue at a time when a horrifying incident struck Israel anew. Surely most important, however, is that the publishers and the conventions had better make absolutely certain they stand by his production rock solid, and not cower in the face of any threats that could be made against them by antisemitic sources. The same could be said regarding comics and GNs discussing September 11, 2001.

I'm very glad Mr. Shorr made the effort to develop a GN like this. There's been far too much censorship of subjects involving Islamofascism ever since 9-11, and that includes subjects involving Israel. The time's come for more of all concerned to prove they have the guts to produce comics tackling these vital issues and focus upon them convincingly. For now, let's hope the aforementioned convention along with the publishers are going to stand by Mr. Shorr from A to Z.

Veteran actress laments the sorry state in the USA after the Hamas massacre

Veteran actress Mayim Bialik spoke about the terrible antisemitism that's now poisoned the USA following the Hamas bloodbath on October 7:

Mayim Bialik said that “nothing has prepared” her for the anti-Semitism she’s seeing across America — and made it clear that there was “no excuse” for any of it — following the Hamas terrorist attacks on Israel that resulted in the deaths of more than 1,400 Israelis.

The 47-year-old actress posted an emotional 10-minute video on TikTok — which was shared on X — in which she speaks out as a Jewish American against the anti-Semitism she’s witnessing, blasting it as “unacceptable.”

“Imagine if there was a massacre of an ethnic group or a religious group, the equivalent of 50,000 Americans,” she said. “And imagine if what happened after that was that all over the world, there were marches of tense of thousands of people calling for further massacre of those people … That’s what it feels like right now as a Jewish person.”

“There has not been an experience in my lifetime that has prepared me for this,” she added. “I have heard from many people my whole life that anti-semitism is growing. That the Holocaust, while we say we’ll never forget, many have forgotten. And the swiftness with which the global population has seized upon the massacre of Jewish civilians living inside of a border. The swiftness with which the world has stepped up to redefine terrorism, to redefine statehood, to redefine the right of a people to exist.”

“Nothing has prepared me or any of us for this,” the “Jeopardy!” host continued. “Because it is clear, we get it. It is clear that there is a strain of antisemitism that is alive and well. It is thriving at my Alma Mater where the chant ‘We want a Jewish genocide’ was echoed in the quad in front of Royce Hall.”

Bialik, who got her doctoral from UCLA, said students of all backgrounds were chanting on that very campus, calling for a “Jewish genocide” — and she responded, calling it “unacceptable” and “not normal.”

“We should not normalize it,” the actress said. “There is no excuse for calling for a genocide of an entire people. Period. Full stop.”

Her son wants to go to college, yet there's only so many that're epically failing to condemn antisemitism, let alone Islamofascism, and as a result, very few that'd make a good choice, if at all. But now that there's younger folks who're studying without getting college degrees as a way to start a career, do folks like him really need to go to college at all? Something to ponder.

And, when it comes to said colleges, some of the terrible cases included Cornell, where a student was arrested and charged with making threats of violence:

A student who allegedly made threats of a mass shooting and antisemitic violence at Cornell University has been criminally charged, Fox News reported on Tuesday.

According to the report, court documents show that 21-year-old Patrick Dai, a junior at Cornell, has been federally charged in connection with the threats following an investigation by the Joint Terrorism Task Force.

Earlier it was reported that a suspect is in custody for posting the threatening statements.

The menacing messages, posted over the weekend on a forum about fraternities and sororities, alarmed students at the school in upstate New York and led to students being advised to stay away from the school’s kosher dining hall.

“We can confirm that a subject has been identified as a suspect in the antisemitic threats made against our Jewish students on Sunday and is currently in custody,” Joel M. Malina, vice president for university relations, said in a statement.

[...] Notably, the threats to Jewish students at Cornell came amid an escalation in anti-Israel sentiments and incidents on campuses in the US.

Last Wednesday, Jewish students at Cooper Union College in New York City were forced to lock themselves inside the library as a mob of anti-Israeli protesters blocked the doors.

About 40 minutes later, security escorted the students out of the building via a tunnel.

According to this followup news, the student is now facing 5 years in prison for his horrific behavior:

Patrick Dai, 21, a junior student at the university originally from Pittsford, New York, was arrested on a federal criminal complaint charging him with posting threats to kill or injure another using interstate communications, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Northern District of New York.

The complaint against Dai alleges he posted threatening messages to the Cornell section of an online discussion site, which included calling for the deaths of Jewish people and carrying out a mass shooting of the 104 West building, which is a Cornell University dining hall that caters predominantly to Kosher diets, located next to the Cornell Jewish Center.

“In another post, Dai allegedly 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 to behead any Jewish babies,” authorities said in a news release. “In that same post, Dai threatened to ‘bring an assault rifle to campus and shoot all you pig jews.'”

Dai faces a maximum term of five years in prison, a $250,000 fine, and a term of supervised release of up to three years if convicted.

He's apparently a Chinese-American student, and one could wonder if he's also sympathetic to China's communist party. Of course, let's consider that one of the reasons he got where he is now could be due to indoctrination at colleges themselves. If they're capable of disseminating propaganda that bad, there's no telling how much worse it gets anywhere.

Update: another case of evil university staffers to ponder is a woman calling herself "non-binary", working at CUNY, who tore down posters of kidnapped Israelis:

A “non-binary” college educator went viral after attacking a bystander who recorded her ripping down posters of Israelis who were taken hostage by Hamas.

Callen Zimmerman, a biological female who identifies with “they/them” pronouns, was listed as an adjunct professor within the City University of New York (CUNY) system until backlash resulted in her online biography being taken down.

The disturbing footage, taken by a couple of onlookers, shows Zimmerman tearing down signs of missing civilians who were kidnapped by Hamas terrorists during the October 7 attack on Israeli soil. In the video, she tells them to “go colonize somewhere else.”

When the camerawoman attempts to follow Zimmerman across the street to capture what she is doing, the academic can be seen reaching and hitting her.

This serves as another example of how only so many LGBT ideologues are antisemitic, and ironically have no issue with Islam's opposition to their lifestyles. And the woman is even desensitized to violence, in addition to clearly hating her own gender.

The official entry begins, and could last a considerable amount of time

The IDF's official entry into Gaza has begun, and will obviously not end within a fortnight:

They’re heading into Gaza. Israeli forces, which have been amassing along the border for days, finally went into the Hamas-controlled area to wipe out the terror group. This operation goes beyond past ground assaults—Israel seems poised for the long haul, occupying the area until every Hamas terrorist is eliminated.

The IDF announced today that the next phase has begun and that ground troops are now operating in Gaza.

Make no mistake, this will be a long war. It could last years, as there are reportedly 40,000 Hamas terrorists waiting in terror tunnels to attack IDF forces. Israeli military units had conducted raids into Northern Gaza ahead of the main assault, taking out terrorists, defensive structures, and anti-tank positions. The latest incursions involved tanks and heavy equipment that laid the groundwork for the larger invasion force. This massive operation comes in the wake of Hamas' brutal invasion earlier this month.

With Iran's assistance, the invasion comes after Hamas launched a devastating and barbaric terror attack from Gaza on October 7. Over 1,000 Israelis were murdered. Torture, rape, and kidnapping were also inflicted upon the civilian population, where we saw whole families slaughtered by these radical Islamic animals. Babies were beheaded and set on fire.

It's firmly clear this operation will last a considerable length of time. But the end result will hopefully be one we can be relieved and proud of, and the tunnel network is one of the biggest problems other than the troglodytes dwelling there that must be eliminated. And we must avenge the sadistic murders that occurred on October 7.

Why do LGBT ideologues support anti-Israelism?

It's an important question made all the more worth pondering when creeps like a "non-binary" cast member of Sarah Jessica Parker's Sex & the City sequel on TV, And Just Like That, participated in an antisemitic rally:

And Just Like That star Sara Ramirez was spotted carrying a trans rights flag as they joined thousands of protesters at a 'free Palestine' rally in Brooklyn on Saturday.

The 48-year-old non-binary actor wore a keffiyeh - a monochrome patterned scarf which is a patriotic symbol of Palestinian identity - with a black North Face jacket, cap and dark sunglasses as they marched through the Bay Ridge neighborhood.

The use of LGBT paraphernalia at pro-Palestine protests has baffled many, since the Islamic Middle Eastern state follows sharia law, and as noted by Amnesty International, it is not safe for the queer community.

To be sure, many such practitioners are aware of that, and their reasons for taking LGBT lifestyle is more for the purpose of destroying western society as a 5th column. That's quite possibly the explanation for why these scum are willing to sell their souls to the Religion of Peace's antisemitic agendas. By contrast, look at what happened abroad:

A march in London on the same day saw what appeared to be a group bearing the Palestinian flag tear down an LGBT flag, sparking a conflict.

Palestine is not an LGBT-friendly nation. An Amnesty report last year highlighted how 'authorities failed to prevent and investigate homophobic and transphobic threats and attacks' in the country.

Outlining an example of homophobia in the nation, the report said: 'On 9 July (2022) security forces stood by and watched as a mob beat youths and children participating in a parade organized by Ashtar Theatre in Ramallah that included rainbow flags.

'The attack came amid a wave of incitement to violence and hate speech against LGBTI people and feminists that the authorities failed to investigate.'

If they're alluding to the PLO, of course they wouldn't. What does one expect from an autocracy? But shame on the UK Mail for sticking with the position there's such a thing as an Arab/Islamic state by the name of "palestine" when that's not the case. Though admittedly, it's not a surprise in Britain this kind of propaganda could still prevail. Also disgraceful is the use of the word "patriotic", which the PLO symbols most definitely are not.

And that somebody who's presumably a woman disrespecting her own gender would be involved so blatantly in an antisemitic march is just the tip of the iceberg, because And Just Like That, the sequel to Sex and the City, builds on some alarming antisemitic stereotypes itself:

“Sex and the City” (SATC) fans appropriately expressed outrage after SATC’s reboot “And Just Like That” (AJLT) made an offensive joke about the Holocaust on Holocaust Remembrance Day. They further charged that the show was permeated with overdone “woke-ism.”

But other deeply disturbing things about AJLT received little to no notice. First, AJLT repeatedly promoted the dangerous George Soros-funded Israel-bashing propaganda organization Human Rights Watch (HRW). This became even worse in the just-aired AJLT Season 2, which also displays giant HRW signs in numerous scenes.

The show also included a joke portraying Israel’s Mossad as random assassins; propagated the false “Muslim ban” myth; disparaged Jews’ physical appearance and behavior; and mocked concerns about kosher food. It thus compounded the negative, antisemitic portrayals of Jews and Israel in the series “Suits,” “Quantico” and too many other shows.

This is extremely harmful to Jews in an era of skyrocketing antisemitism, which is often manifested as Israel-hatred.

And that's just the beginning. The show turns out to be stunningly politicized, maybe even more than the original TV series was. Although, if the following alludes to the original series, something very disturbing turned up there too:

SATC portrayed the Jewish character Harry Goldenblatt as so physically unattractive that, during the early part of his relationship with the gorgeous character Charlotte York, Charlotte is repulsed and embarrassed to be seen in public with Harry.

Related episodes focused on Harry’s hairy back, Harry sloppily eating and then spitting out a bagel into his hand and Harry leaving skid marks on the sofa from sitting on it naked. Even after Charlotte falls in love with Harry’s humor, warmth, compassion (and sexual ability), and converts to Judaism so he will marry her, Charlotte yells at Harry: “Do you know how lucky you are to have me? Do you know how we look? Do you know what people out there think when they see us together? Do you?”

Harry leaves after that outburst, and Charlotte is then set up with two other Jewish men, described as “a meeskite and a faigela”—Yiddish terms for an ugly man and a gay man. Charlotte then attends a Jewish synagogue singles event populated with unattractive singles and only one good-looking Jewish man. The good-looking man leaves the event after Charlotte rejects him, and the other women then lament that “all that’s left is the fatties and the baldies.”

The other significant Jewish character, Carrie’s gay friend Stanford Blatch, is short, bald and portrayed as unattractive.

By contrast, virtually every non-Jewish SATC event attendee and date is good-looking—often extraordinarily so. Years ago, I saw SATC taping an outdoor scene in New York City’s Bryant Park. Even the extras were remarkably attractive.

AJLT continues SATC’s habit of disparaging Jewish character Harry Goldenblatt’s looks. In AJLT’s season one, episode one, Harry asks, “What? Bike helmet not a good look on a 58-year-old Jew?”

Harry’s physical abilities are also disparaged in stereotypical fashion. After Charlotte knocks Harry over during a tennis game, Harry says: “I’m OK, I’m OK. Just an old Jewish guy tryin’ to play sports.”

I guess if the homosexual character is Jewish, it's okay to depict somebody like that as ugly too, huh? Not to mention that depicting a Jewish man as gay is also an insult to Jewish manhood. Wow, this makes me glad I never saw it. I do recall reading some movie reviews of the 2 film expansions in the late 2000s, where it was told there were some crude jokes made to boot, and have to wonder what anybody sees in a TV show where the women were reportedly meant to be absurd metaphors for homosexual men?!? All this does is make clear Hollywood really is a repulsive place to be - and regrettably has been for a long time. And now, SATC and its sequel have a cast member who's going miles out of her way to align with antisemitic movements. When the TV show is as horrific as the above makes clear, you can't be shocked if any of its contributors are by extension. Let's also not forget one of the original series' actors, Chris Noth, was accused of sex offenses a few years ago, which only tarnishes the TV program even more. We can only hope more people will be willing to boycott AJLT now that it's been exposed as the atrocity it sadly is.

Update: here's another example of a LGBT advocate who was arrested at one of Jewish Voice for Peace's anti-Israeli rallies in Florida.

A very difficult military campaign ahead

A vital point is made why destroying the Hamas, and freeing hostages, if possible, will be very hard:

Israel is preparing to invade Gaza, a task that will require its military to engage in grinding warfare through an urban setting and defeat a Hamas organization that is stronger than ever, experts told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Israel’s objective is to wipe out all remnants of the Iran-backed terrorist organization whose members brutally murdered 1,300 Israelis, mostly civilians, in an unanticipated intrusion on Oct. 7, Israel’s leaders say. While the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) is better armed than Hamas and has trained for exactly the kind of operation it plans to execute in Gaza, the coming fight will present new challenges it has not yet dealt with in combat, experts said.

Michael Knights, a researcher at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP), explained the challenges the IDF will face before achieving its war aims. Gaza is packed with secretive tunnels, deteriorating buildings that can be used as strongpoints for attack and thousands of “fanatical” fighters, he said, not to mention civilians.

“Any environment like this — ruins, dents, building quality, lots of civilians— it’s complicated. Then you’ve got hostages, then the three dimensional component [of] tall buildings and really extensive underground spaces,” Knights said. “And then you’ve got an enemy that is probably more advanced than anything we’re seeing outside of the Ukraine environment.”

Hamas is a “fanatical defending force that is actually very well armed,” Knights told the DCNF.

The operation will be like “moving through a minefield” while under fire the entire way through the city, he said.

Without any doubt, it'll be severely dangerous. But for the sake of safety, that's exactly why the enemy's reign can't be allowed to continue.

Update: in the meantime, Naomi Ragen makes a sad point that nothing will be the same now.

Hamas planned to use chemical weapons

Israeli president Isaac Herzog reported details were found of plans by Hamas to use poisonous chemicals:

Israeli security forces found instructions for producing cyanide gas on the body of one of the Hamas terrorists who participated in the Oct. 7 attacks, Israeli President Isaac Herzog revealed on Sunday.

Speaking with Sky News, Herzog said that troops found a USB flash drive with instructions for preparing a device to disperse the poisonous gas, once used for mass murder in Nazi gas chambers.

"This is material that was found on the body of one of those sadistic villains. It's Al-Qaeda material, official Al-Qaeda material," Herzog told the British TV network.

"When dealing with ISIS, Al-Qaeda and Hamas, this is what we're dealing with," added the Israeli head of state.

Late last week, the Israeli Foreign Ministry's weapons of mass destruction non-proliferation department informed embassies around the world of "Hamas's intention to use chemical weapons" in a classified cable, according to Axios.

The cable reportedly instructed ambassadors to share the file with their host governments privately. "This discovery indicates that Hamas intended to use chemical warfare agents as part of its series of terrorist operations against the civilian population," read the missive.

Cyanide is one of the most dangerous chemicals around, and it's to be hoped the authorities now have a grip on this situation, and will make sure such evil plans cannot be committed.

USA government trying to delay Israeli ground incursion into Gaza

When the USA government, as currently led by Democrats, is the one doing this, something is terribly wrong:

The US government has pressed Israel to delay its imminent ground offensive in the Gaza Strip to allow for the release of more Hamas hostages and aid into Gaza, CNN reported on Sunday, citing two sources briefed on the discussions.

“The [administration] pressed Israeli leadership to delay because of progress on the hostage front” and the need to get trucks of aid into Gaza, one person familiar with the discussions said.

The National Security Council did not immediately respond for comment.

When US President Joe Biden was asked Saturday if he was encouraging Israel to delay the invasion, he responded: "I'm talking to the Israelis."

In the meantime, the President on Sunday took to social media in an attempt to cool off Israel's battle plans. "Israel has the right to defend itself. We must make sure they have what they need to protect their people today and always," Biden wrote on X.

"At the same time, Prime Minister Netanyahu and I have discussed how Israel must operate by the laws of war. That means protecting civilians in combat as best as they can," he added.

The President continued, "We can’t ignore the humanity of innocent Palestinians who only want to live in peace. That’s why I secured an agreement for the first shipment of humanitarian assistance for Palestinian civilians in Gaza. And we cannot give up on a two-state solution."

The persistence in talking about 2-state solutions is another serious problem that can't be approved of. And nobody should underestimate that Biden and company are doing everything they can to sabotage the war and rescue efforts. The Israeli government must not let this be the case.

Update: see also this article, telling what it's like now for a lot of Israelis in view of the new, horrifying reality (via Front Page Magazine).

Update 2: Vanity Fair, leftist as they are, notes that Anthony Blinken avoided questions about whether they're trying to delay a ground raid. It goes without saying that's very disgraceful.

Update 3: a writer named Tova Herzl says the Hamas' National Socialist-style sadism makes clear they don't care about political solutions.

Dave Chappelle was not worth supporting at all

A few years ago, the comedian Dave Chappelle came under attack for a show where he wanted to do jokes about LGBT ideologues. Now, it's clear that, if his career is still intact, it's because of ideologies considered ranking above even that:

Comedian Dave Chappelle went on a pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel rant at a show in Boston on Thursday evening — and was cheered by the crowd, causing Jews present in the audience to walk out.

A source posted on Facebook:

Hello my friends. This is my first FB post in nearly 7 years. With that said, it is also the only social media platform I have, so I hope people still use FB.

I would like to share with you an experience I had last night. [My wife] and I went to the Dave Chappelle-Standup Comedy show at TD Garden with three other couples. What started out as a funny and joyful evening for the 8 of us ending with disgust and fear.

Towards the end of his act, Chappelle mentioned the war in Israel and how he as a Muslim denounces Israel for its treatment of the people in Gaza and started to add in lots of false and unsubstantiated claims. A gentleman towards the front yelled out “You should shut the F up”. Chappelle lost it on the man yelling, “You do not tell me to shut the F up at MY show”. Chappelle then started on a tirade of his beliefs leaving comedy behind and focusing purely on the politics.

While that was awful in itself, what made my heart sink and started to invoke fear was when the crowd of nearly 20,000 people started yelling out “Go Palestine. Go Hamas.” and other related hatful jargon. The audience was cheering Chappelle on during his tirade. I was sick. We were sick. I turned to my friends and wife and said I think it is time to go. We walked out and met up with many other Jews leaving the show. Never in my life have I felt so unsafe and so fearful of what I was witnessing. The words alone were horrific, but we were vulnerable in a public forum. How could we know what would happen? Could violence against the Jewish members in the audience break out?

Here in Boston, how was there so much hate for Jews. How could a comedy show provide such a mechanism for people to verbally shout our their hatred for Jews? The unfortunate icing on the cake was that all cell phones and communication devices had to be locked up so there is no video or audio evidence. With that, I am hoping social media can spread this word.

If you have made it this far and know how to use social media better than me, please share and see if we can get this to the Boston Globe. Thank you.

Unfortunately, chances the Globe will say anything about this are minimal, and if memory serves, they're owned by the awful New York Times. The Wall Street Journal did give a report though:

Chappelle first condemned the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas militants, but criticized what he said were war crimes in Gaza, according to people in attendance.

The comments came up when Chappelle said he didn’t think students should lose job offers for supporting Palestinians. An audience member’s command for the comedian to shut up drew an emotional response from Chappelle, who criticized the Israeli government for cutting off water and other essentials to Gaza and accused it of killing innocent people, according to the attendees.

Some audience members cheered Chappelle on and shouted “Free Palestine,” while others yelled, “What about Hamas,” the attendees said. Some in the crowd got up and left.

Boston is becoming one of a number of places in the USA where I once wanted to visit, and no longer do. Chappelle's vulgar tirade also explains why he opposed Donald Trump 5 years before. The Netflix management said they screwed up defending Chappelle because of his alleged stance on LGBT issues. No. This latest atrocity in Boston is why. When somebody takes the side of the barbarians - and the audience takes his side in turn - it destroys everything, because he makes himself no different - and easily worse - than the perverts.

Giving Gazans work permits within Israeli parameters enabled them to plan the massacre

One of the reasons the Hamas was able to conduct such a horrific attack on October 7 was because of the work permits Israel made the grave mistake of providing:

Among the litter of guns, korans, and maps discarded by the Hamas terrorists whose bodies lie alongside bullet-riddled vehicles and dusty roads are green Gaza IDs with work permits. Normally residents of the Hamas territory can’t enter Israel, but work permits allowed over 20,000 Gazans to enter Israel. When some returned, it was as Hamas rapists and killers.

The Hamas invasion succeeded so well because the terrorists had an intimate knowledge of the communities they were targeting because they had worked there or had intelligence from those who had worked there. The attackers had detailed maps and building layouts. One woman whose husband and son were murdered said that the Hamas terrorists knew the names of the people, how many children they had and even which of them owned dogs.

Last year, Secretary of State Blinken addressed a J Street even and told the anti-Israel lobby that the Biden administration had pushed Israel to “improve the lives of Palestinians” by, among other things, “issuing thousands of work permits for Palestinians in Gaza”.

The number of exits from Gaza into Israel rose sharply under the Biden administration and the left-wing Bennett-Lapid government which handed out an unprecedented number of work permits.

In 2021, there had been a total of only 7,500 exits a month from Gaza, but by July 2022, there had been 35,370 exits.

The massive increase was due to the work permits that the Biden administration had sought and that Bennett, Lapid and Gantz had willingly provided. Prime Minister Naftali Bennett made the decision to increase the number of work permits from 5,000 to 15,000. Defense Minister Benny Gantz assessed the security situation and approved the move which embedded Hamas terrorists into Israel. By late 2022, the number had expanded to 17,000.

While Lapid and Gantz, along with Biden and Blinken, obviously have to shoulder much guilt, even Bennett - and Ayelet Shaked - have to shoulder much blame for enabling this, by pulling a coup d'etat, all because they didn't like Netanyahu, and come to think of it, they clearly didn't like Donald Trump either. Now, untold damage has occurred by enabling terrorist moles to gather information for planning the massacre that could've been avoided if they really cared about safety. Now, it's crystal clear they don't. And, lest we forget, even Israeli employers must be utterly ashamed of themselves for employing these monsters to begin with.

In another related subject, an insurrection led by pro-Hamas demonstrators took place at Capitol Hill, and unlike the pro-Trump protestors on January 6, 2021, nobody's calling these criminals for what they are:

About one hundred pro-Palestinian insurrectionists occupied a federal House office building in Washington, DC, on Wednesday, chanting “ceasefire now” and “let Gaza live.”

The insurrectionists, many who wore face masks and dressed in black and flew a banner demanding that Israel stop defending itself from rocket attacks against civilians, occupied the ground floor of the Cannon Office Building, one of three main buildings where congressional staff and lawmakers work.

Rep. Rashida Tlaib was leading the protest:

No shock at all. And the Democrats will continue to be okay with this, and do nothing to expel her from their repulsive ranks.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) was on the scene and noted a double standard between the pro-Palestinian insurrectionists and the protestors on January 6. “There’s an insurrection happening now on Capitol Hill,” her video caption read of the event. “They are claiming they want peace but they want money to go to terrorists.”

Some news reports noted that the far-left Jewish Voice for Peace was involved. No shock that self-haters would participate either. What next, will Neturei Karta turn up? And what are the chances that nobody who took part in this left-wing insurrection will ever be prosecuted?