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Inside the Campus Playbook To Build a Nationwide ‘Unity Intifada’ in Support of Hamas

By
Sholom Schreirber
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Pro-Hamas students set up n encampment of the campus of Columbia University in New York. Credit: AP/Stefan Jeremiah

By: Adam Kredo

Just a day after Hamas’s Oct. 7 rampage through Israel, the nation’s largest anti-Israel campus group snapped into action, issuing a call for “unity intifada” at colleges across the country and mobilizing its network of pro-Palestinian agitators for a “national day of resistance” that would “normalize” terrorism against Israel, according to a strategy document reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon.

The materials provide insight into National Students for Justice in Palestine’s (NSJP) campus playbook and suggest the anti-Israel umbrella group anticipated a conflict in the Middle East and was prepared to unleash its army of adherents on college campuses across America.

“National liberation is near—glory to our resistance, to our martyrs, and to our steadfast people,” the document states. It includes a series of directions and guides to help students learn the “how-tos for the protest day of action and troubleshoot any support needed.” NSJP also ran “how to organize a protest” workshops and “highly encouraged” its network to organize “a sit-in, disruption, or educational event.” At every step in the process, NSJP was prepared to help its campus protesters foment anti-Israel unrest and “normalize the resistance,” according to the planning materials.

The organization makes it clear that students are part of a global “unity intifada,” stating: “We as Palestinian students in exile are PART of this movement, not in solidarity with this movement.”

The toolkit was cited as evidence in a landmark court case filed last week against NSJP by Israeli victims of Hamas’s terror attack. The case—which also named American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), a parent group for NSJP branches across the country—alleges that both organizations are providing material support to Hamas through their campus protests. The toolkit is cited as evidence the groups serve as chief “collaborators and propagandists for Hamas.”

“On October 8, the day after Hamas’s terrorist attack, AMP and NSJP were prepared and responded to Hamas’s ‘call for mass mobilization’ by disseminating a manifesto and plan of attack which includes materials that appear to have been created before the attack,” the lawsuit states.

The court case and toolkit are drawing congressional interest, with Rep. Tom Emmer (R., Minn.), the House majority whip, telling the Free Beacon the materials illustrate how campus protesters consider themselves under Hamas’s banner.

“By these students’ own admission, they’re not just standing in solidarity with this pro-Hamas, anti-Semitic movement—they ARE the movement,” Emmer said. “Perhaps they’d be happier studying at Terrorist University before pursuing their careers in Gaza.”

The “day of resistance toolkit” was meant to prepare students for a large-scale Oct. 12 protest against Israel on campuses across the country. It provides resources for students to foment unrest and organize protests and encourages its anti-Israel army to defend Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack that killed more than 1,200 and left numerous others hostage in the Gaza Strip.

“On the 50th anniversary of the 1973 war, the resistance in Gaza launched a surprise operation against the Zionist enemy which disrupted the very foundation of Zionist settler society,” the toolkit states. “The resistance has taken occupation soldiers hostage, fired thousands of rockets, taken over Israeli military vehicles, and gained control over illegal Israeli settlements.”

It goes on to amplify calls by Hamas for Palestinians across the globe to rally in their defense, urging students to serve as the terror group’s champions in America.

“We witness a historic win for the Palestinian resistance: across land, air, and sea, our people have broken down the artificial barriers of the Zionist entity, taking with it the facade of an impenetrable settler colony and reminding each of us that total return and liberation to Palestine is near,” NSJP wrote in the toolkit. “As the Palestinian student movement, we have an unshakable responsibility to join the call for mass mobilization.”

Students were instructed to call in for a national “day of resistance” planning session on Oct. 9 of last year and document the events being held on a database maintained by NSJP. “These will be posted and publicized on our social media,” the group wrote.

The group says its aim is to dismantle Zionism and boost the “Palestinian resistance.”

“National Students for Justice in Palestine is calling for a national day of resistance from the student movement for Palestine liberation on college campuses across occupied Turtle Island (so-called U.S. and Canada) and beyond,” the toolkit states. “We must continue to resist directly through dismantling Zionism, and wielding the political power that our organizations hold on our campuses and in our communities.”

Students are also urged to attend NSJP’s “how to organize a protest” session and contact the group for personal consultations on ways to disrupt their campuses.

“Challenging Zionist hegemony and popularizing our resistance is a critical part of advancing our national movement!” the group wrote in a section outlining the various types of protests students can organize. “Make sure people on your campus know what’s happening in Palestine, and are armed with a framework which advances national liberation.”

Additional sections of the toolkit instruct campus allies to frame Hamas’s terrorism against Israel as “a prolonged war for liberation.”

“The Palestinian people have the right to resist colonization and oppression,” the toolkit states in its “messaging and framing” section. “The Palestinian people have the right to return to their homeland and free themselves from the complete land, air, and sea siege they’ve been subjected to; this requires resistance, and it is both morally just and politically necessary. These events are the natural and justified response to decades of oppression and dehumanization.”

It also justifies Hamas’s attack on innocent Jews, stating: “Settlers are not ‘civilians’ in the sense of international law, because they are military assets used to ensure continued control over stolen Palestinian land.” The Gaza Strip, it notes, is “the cradle of resistance.”

The toolkit provides hashtags that should be used on social media to promote various protests and also includes “day of resistance” images that students can personalize to promote their various activities on campus.

Arsen Ostrovsky, an attorney and CEO of the International Legal Forum, one of the groups spearheading the court case against NSJP, said the materials demonstrate that AMP and NSJP “do not merely assist Hamas’s ongoing terror campaign abroad—they perpetuate it in the United States, as their agents on campus.”

“Within hours of the massacre, NSJP answered Hamas’s call to action for ‘mass mobilization,’ including by disseminating a toolkit to its affiliates on campuses across the United States, with materials that appear to have been created even before the attack, echoing Hamas’s terminology on how to advance and support their goals, including ‘armed struggle’ and ‘confrontation by any means necessary,'” Ostrovsky said.

(FreeBeacon.com)

Rhodes Scholarship Recipient Is Leading Harvard’s Anti-Israel Encampment

By
Sholom Schreirber
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‘We’re here to stay … until Palestine is free,’ says Asmer Asrar Safi. Credit: (via asmersafi.me)

‘We’re here to stay … until Palestine is free,’ says Asmer Asrar Safi

By: Jessica Costescu

A Pakistani Rhodes Scholar at Harvard College is one of the key organizers of the school’s anti-Israel encampment.

Asmer Asrar Safi, a Harvard senior and international student from Pakistan, has distinguished himself as a primary organizer of the ongoing encampment, which has successfully maintained its presence for over two weeks. Months earlier, in November, Harvard congratulated Safi on being named a Rhodes Scholar, highlighting his intention to study “progressive political messaging” at the University of Oxford. Harvard students interested in applying for the Rhodes Scholarship must first receive the Ivy League school’s endorsement, a selective process in which half of Harvard’s prospective applicants are rejected.

Safi is an organizer with the Harvard Out of Occupied Palestine coalition, an anti-Israel group leading the encampment. In an interview with the Boston Party for Socialism and Liberation, conducted on the first day of the encampment, Safi outlined the group’s demands—mainly that the Ivy League school divest from Israel and pledge not to punish anti-Israel protesters who have violated university policies. He went on to say that students at the encampment are there to stay until Harvard meets their demands.

“We have three demands,” said Safi. “The first is that Harvard disclose all of its investments in occupied Palestine. The second demand is that it divest from all said investments and reinvest them in the propagation of Palestinian art, academia, literature, and culture. And the third demand is that it drops all disciplinary and legal charges against individuals for their student activism and advocacy.”

“Our idea is to show the world that despite that repression, pro-Palestine students will keep coming out and keep speaking out for the people of Gaza,” Safi went on. “We’re here to stay and stand ground and demand divestment until Palestine is free.”

A week later, the now-suspended undergraduate Harvard Palestine Solidarity Committee—for which Safi is also an organizer—posted a video of Safi leading chants against the school administrators, including interim president Alan Garber. Safi’s Palestine Solidarity Committee is also the student group behind the infamous Oct. 8 statement that blamed Israel for provoking Hamas’s terror attack. The statement said the Jewish state is “entirely responsible for all unfolding violence” and the “apartheid regime is the only one to blame.”

Garber on Monday told protesters encamped on campus that they must disband or would be placed on “involuntary leave,” after nearly two weeks of chaos on campus. Four days later, according to the Palestine Solidarity Committee, Harvard began issuing suspension notices to student protesters, “effective immediately.” It is unclear whether Safi is among those suspended and, if so, how that affects his visa status, upcoming graduation, and Rhodes Scholarship.

Safi’s role in the anti-Israel occupation comes as the Rhodes Scholarship program is facing scrutiny over its apparent political bent. A recent analysis from the American Enterprise Institute found that just 1 of the 157 Rhodes scholars over the past five years expressed interest in a conservative issue. Centrist issues are similarly outnumbered. The AEI analysis found that immigrants’ rights received more interest from Rhodes Scholars than cybersecurity, mental health, and national security combined.

At Harvard, prospective Rhodes applicants must receive approval from a two-tiered endorsement committee before they are allowed to apply. After securing Harvard’s endorsement, Safi flew 7,000 miles to Pakistan for his interview and was subsequently selected as one of his nation’s two Rhodes Scholars. His Rhodes profile notes that at Harvard he majored in “Social Studies and Ethnicity, Migration and Human Rights, with a focus on the intellectual history of the interactions between Islamic and Marxist political thought in South Asia.”

Neither Safi nor Harvard responded to requests for comment.

Safi was listed last month as one of the two student organizers behind a petition that triggered a referendum asking students whether Harvard should divest from entities linked to “Israel’s occupation of Palestine.” In an interview with the Harvard Crimson, Safi said he helped draft the petition in response to similar resolutions from the Harvard Law School Student Government and Harvard Divinity School Student Association. Those resolutions call on the Ivy League school to divest from “illegal Israeli settlements,” and Safi said he hopes to “capitalize off of [the resolutions’] momentum.”

“One thing that we want to definitely emphasize is that Harvard has a responsibility to listen to us,” Safi said.

Safi’s anti-Israel activism at Harvard goes back to 2021, when he authored an op-ed for the Crimson. He accused Israel’s “apartheid regime” of imposing “a hegemonic, authoritarian rule over Palestinians.” That year, he also signed a divestment statement that called on the university to remove its “nearly $200 million in public, direct and indirect investments in companies that are involved in the illegal Israeli settlement enterprise.”

In 2022, meanwhile, Safi appeared in a series of now-archived Palestine Solidarity Committee videos in which he told listeners that it is their “duty” and “role” to “stand up, fight back, and stand in solidarity with Palestinians.”

“Given the precise state-sponsored nature of the violence that ensues against Palestinians every single day—and the fact of the matter is that the Israeli government sponsors a settler colonial project—it is very pertinent for us to understand about how particular this power dynamic exists,” Safi said in one video. “And as a consequence of that, it is very important for us to realize that it is our job as allies to stand up and speak up in solidarity with Palestinians across the world.”

(FreeBeacon.com)

Why Did NPR Assign a Reporter With Ties to Soros-Funded Groups to Cover a Story About Illegal Alien Voting?

By
TJV news
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(Twitter/NPR)

By Tyler O’Neil (Daily Signal) 

Are your own tax dollars funding an effort to discredit news about flyers encouraging illegal aliens to vote for President Joe Biden in U.S. elections?

National Public Radio’s recent efforts to “cover” the story suggest an attempt to delegitimize it. NPR assigned a reporter with ties to left-wing groups funded by billionaire financier George Soros to write the story. That reporter refused to answer a question about whether she was concerned about illegal aliens voting in the 2024 presidential election.

Last month, The Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project and the news site Muckraker exposed flyers posted at Resource Center Matamoros, just across the U.S.-Mexico border in Tamaulipas. (Heritage created The Daily Signal in 2014.)

The flyers, written in Spanish, urged migrants headed to the U.S. “to vote for President Biden when you are in the United States,” explaining that the resource center needs “another four years of his term to stay open.”

Gaby Zavala, the center’s founder, didn’t respond to The Daily Signal’s requests for comment, but she told other news outlets that she didn’t post the flyers. NPR told the story from Zavala’s perspective, quoting her before discussing the flyers.

“We have never encouraged people to vote for anyone,” Zavala told NPR, saying that she knows illegal aliens aren’t allowed to vote in U.S. elections.

Federal law prohibits illegal aliens from voting in federal elections. Some jurisdictions, such as Washington, D.C., allow them to vote in local elections.

The NPR article raises many questions about the vote-for-Biden flyers, suggesting that they represent a political ploy, rather than a legitimate discovery. It frames the Oversight Project’s executive director, Mike Howell, and Muckraker founder Anthony Rubin as troublemakers.

NPR’s article quotes Jared Holt, who used to write for the far-left website Right Wing Watch, warning that “claims like these … may very well be another possible avenue to try to delegitimize democratic processes in this country.”

The article also didn’t seriously address the “Vote Biden-Harris” sign found at a camp outside the center, nor a social media post showing balloons celebrating President Donald Trump’s loss to Biden in the 2020 election on Nov. 7, 2020.

A recent study estimates that 10-27% of non-citizens are registered to vote, and based on previous elections and federal data, at least 1-2.7 million non-citizens will vote in the 2024 election.

Not Concerned About Illegals Voting?

NPR, a publicly funded news outlet that recently faced renewed criticism for left-wing bias after parting ways with now-former business editor Uri Berliner, assigned the story about the pro-Biden flyers to a reporter who had just joined the outlet last month.

The reporter, Jude Joffe-Block, once volunteered for the discredited left-wing group Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, better known as ACORN.

NPR released video of Joffe-Block’s interview with Howell and Rubin alongside the article. In that interview, Howell and Rubin pressed the NPR reporter on her history, and she confirmed that she did voter registration for ACORN but tried to end the interview when asked about it.

“Are you concerned at all with illegal aliens possibly voting in our upcoming election?” Rubin asked.

“I am not answering any more questions,” Joffe-Block said.

ACORN spearheaded liberal causes such as affordable housing and voter registration, but it shut down in 2010 after scandals involving voter registration fraud and reported offers to help prostitution.

Multiple ACORN staffers were convicted of voter registration fraud in the lead-up to the 2008 presidential election. ACORN hired more than 13,000 part-time workers and sent them into 21 states to sign up voters in minority and poor neighborhoods.

The group bragged that it had submitted 1.3 million registration cards to local election officials, but election officials rejected 400,000 of those registrations for a variety of reasons. Many of those registrations involved fictional characters such as Mickey Mouse. Barack Obama had worked as ACORN’s lawyer before becoming president. Accusations of voter fraud at ACORN traced back to 2004.

Joffe-Block insisted that she did not register any illegal aliens to vote while working with ACORN. Yet her stances on immigration and voting rights suggest a willingness to turn a blind eye to the issue of illegal aliens voting.

Who Is Jude Joffe-Block?

Jude Joffe-Block has worked in journalism for 18 years, according to her LinkedIn profile. She often has covered immigration and election issues with a left-wing bias. She wrote a book condemning former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio and claiming that backlash against Arpaio helped change Arizona from a conservative state to a battleground state.

Joffe-Block had a fellowship with a nonprofit that takes millions from Soros-established foundations. She helped contribute to a voting rights report from a left-wing group, partially funded by Soros, that opposes voter ID laws.

Joffe-Block accepted the fellowship from the nonprofit New America in 2017. The fellowship helped her write the book “Driving While Brown: Sheriff Joe Arpaio versus the Latino Resistance,” which she published with co-author Terry Greene Sterling in 2021.

A New America webinar event described the book as providing “critical insights into effective resistance to institutionalized racism and the community organizing that helped transform Arizona from a conservative stronghold into a battleground state.”

Joffe-Block revealed more of her perspective in an interview with Arizona radio station KJZZ. She partially credited the efforts of “Dreamers” for the political shift.

“Dreamer” refers to an illegal alien who came to the U.S. as a child and would be protected from deportation under the proposed Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act, or DREAM Act. Although the bill failed in Congress in 2011, as president Obama directed his administration to enact some of its provisions in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA.

The DACA program faced legal challenges from the start and remains in legal limbo after Trump attempted to rescind it and his successor, Biden, attempted to resurrect it.

Joffe-Block suggested that Arizona shifted from a conservative state to a battleground state due to a backlash against Arpaio’s policies, just as—she claimed—California shifted blue in response to Proposition 187, a 1994 ballot initiative that aimed to deny social services to illegal aliens. Proposition 187 was approved by voters but died in the courts.

Joffe-Block said in the radio interview that Lydia Guzman, a Latina activist featured in her book, had been “involved in a mass naturalization effort to get immigrants registered to vote” in California. “People like Lydia were waiting for years to see if that would happen in Arizona,” she added.

“I think there are a lot of people—Lydia Guzman included—who felt on election night of 2020 that this long process, this long backlash, the organizing, the registering voters, the telling immigrants and Latinos that they had to vote out people who were opposed to them, that that had finally paid off,” Joffe-Block added. “This kind of organizing and the political power that happened, the young people that were brought into the process to help their parents and grandparents, all of that that happened, and some of them Dreamers, who were advocating for themselves and their families, as well.”

“I think that without that—that imminent threat that many of them felt to themselves and their families, to the integrity of their families, whether someone might be deported, that that really did inspire some of the organizing that has changed the state’s politics,” she concluded.

Joffe-Block didn’t explicitly state that Dreamers who registered to vote turned the tide in Arizona, but her remarks suggest that family members of illegal aliens, motivated in part by a desire to prevent deportation, organized the political movement responsible for propelling Democrats to victory.

She has also claimed that “people use the words Mexicans and illegals interchangeably.”

George Soros Connections

New America, the organization that incubated Joffe-Block’s book, has received hefty contributions from influential left-wing donors and foundations, most notably the Open Society Foundations established by Soros (and now run by the financier’s son, Alex Soros).

According to New America’s website, the Open Society Foundations has directed more than $6.5 million to the organization.

Other major contributors include the Ford Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Rockefeller Foundation.

The left-wing Arabella Advisors and the Tides Foundation set up nonprofits to allow donors to pour “dark money” into left-leaning projects without disclosing which projects these donors fund.

According to IRS tax forms accessed via ProPublica, the Arabella network group New Venture Fund sent New America more than $1.6 million between 2014 and 2021, while three other Arabella funds (North Fund, Hopewell Fund, and Sixteen Thirty Fund) sent it more than $500,000 in 2020 and 2021. The Tides Foundation sent New America $1.1 million between 2018 and 2022.

The Brennan Center

In August 2019, the Brennan Center for Justice credited Joffe-Block for contributing to a report on “Restoring the Right to Vote.” That report calls for repealing laws preventing felons from voting, saying the laws “serve no legitimate purpose.”

The report also claims that felon disenfranchisement laws “are rooted in the Jim Crow era and were designed to lock freed slaves out of the voting process.” It urges states to restore voting rights for felons automatically when they exit prison and urges law enforcement to educate inmates about their voting rights as they leave.

Yet the claim that felon disfranchisement has racist origins is false. As explained by Han von Spakovsky, a senior legal fellow at The Heritage Foundation, most states took voting rights away from those convicted of serious crimes long before the Civil War, when many black Americans were slaves and could not vote.

The Brennan Center also condemns election integrity efforts such as laws requiring ID to vote, restricting voter registration, and “purging voter rolls.”

The Brennan Center also has ties to Soros and the Left’s dark money network. Soros’ Open Society Foundations directed at least $4.8 million in grants to the center between 2016 and 2021, according to IRS records. The Arabella network’s New Venture Fund gave the center $1.6 million between 2014 and 2022, while the Tides Foundation funneled more than $1 million to the group between 2018 and 2022.

NPR did not respond to The Daily Signal’s multiple requests for comment for this story.

Zavala did not respond to questions about whether she is concerned that NPR would assign a reporter with ties to ACORN to defend her amid concerns that her center might have encouraged voter fraud.

WATCH: Israel Shares Footage of Gunmen in UN Compound in Rafah

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TJV news
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By Joel B. Pollak- Breutbart News

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) shared drone footage Tuesday of terrorists in a United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) compound in Rafah, near several United Nations (UN) vehicles, including gunfire by the terrorists.

It is unclear if the terrorists were threatening the UN personnel onsite, or working with them.

 However, Israel’s foreign minister, Israel Katz, said that the UN was working with the terrorists, and called on UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini to resign (as Katz has done in the past).

The IDF released a statement:

During IDF operational activity in eastern Rafah on Saturday, terrorists were identified in UNRWA’s central logistics compound alongside UN vehicles.

In the footage, a number of terrorists and gunfire can be seen near UN vehicles and in the area of UNRWA’s logistics warehouse compound in eastern Rafah, which is a central point for the distribution of aid on UNRWA’s behalf in the Gaza Strip.

Following the event, representatives of the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) conveyed the findings to senior officials in the international community and called on the UN to conduct an urgent investigation into the matter.

In addition, COGAT representatives warned the UN against the presence of terrorists in the area, and the seriousness of the danger that exists in the presence of the terrorists in the logistics center compound with regard to the continued protection of the organization’s facilities.

The IDF will continue to act in accordance with international law to distribute aid to the residents of the Gaza Strip.

Israel considers UNRWA to be corrupted by links with terrorists, and says that it perpetuates the conflict by indoctrinating Palestinians to see themselves as “refugees.”

Israel has been operating in Rafah for eight days, slowly confronting terrorists in the last Hamas stronghold in Gaza.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, “The Zionist Conspiracy (and how to join it),” now available on Audible. He is also the author of the e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.

Citing safety concerns, Nashville hotel cancels pro-Israel summit

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TJV news
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Downtown Nashville. Credit: paulbr75/Pixabay.

(JNS) A Nashville hotel has pulled out of hosting a pro-Israel event, stating that it had received “threats.”

The Israel Summit—scheduled for May 20 to May 22 at the Sonesta Nashville Airport Hotel—is being coordinated by HaYovel, a Christian organization that facilitates volunteer service work in Israel, and the Israel Guys, a pro-Israel media initiative that grew out of HaYovel.

The inaugural event, which is expected to draw about 500 people, is billed as a “gathering of pro-Israel supporters who unconditionally support Israel’s right to be sovereign in the entirety of the land of Israel, including Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, and the Gaza Strip.”

As many as 400 participants have already booked rooms at the hotel, which has now canceled their reservations.

Speakers for the event include Knesset member Ohad Tal; former U.S. Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann; journalist and author Caroline Glick; International spokesperson for the Jewish community of Hebron Yishai Fleisher; National Religious Broadcasters president Troy Miller; the Land of Israel Network’s Rabbis Jeremy Gimpel and Ari Abramowitz; Israel365 CEO Rabbi Tuly Weisz; and many others.

The summit also includes a concert featuring Israeli musician Yair Levi, a veteran of the Israeli Defense Forces’ Shayetet 13 unit, Israel’s equivalent to the Navy SEALs. The concert is scheduled for May 21 at 6:30 p.m.

Israel365, a co-sponsor of the event, said the hotel consulted with local police who “were concerned that the hotel, their guests, local businesses and attendees to the Israel Summit would be in physical danger due to the threatening nature of the calls and messages they received.”

Palestine Hurra, a Nashville-based organization that is “dedicated to the total liberation of Palestine, from the river to the sea,” and dismantling “the occupying Zionist apartheid state,” posted an “urgent call to action” for its members to call the hotel and tell them “we will not allow genocidal racists to hold a conference in our city.”

The call stated that “they choose to come here and celebrate the death of civilians and recruit new Zionists. Call relentlessly until this event is shut down!”

On May 10, the hotel contacted HaYovel and used the “force majeure” clause of the contract to cancel the event. The contract had been signed on Jan. 31.

On May 13, First Liberty Institute sent a letter to the hotel, urging it to fulfill its commitment. First Liberty Institute is the nation’s largest law firm dedicated exclusively to defending and restoring religious liberty for all Americans.

“It is un-American—and illegal—to cancel a gathering due to religious beliefs and quite frankly it is morally wrong,” said Hiram Sasser, executive general counsel at First Liberty Institute. “The Sonesta and others cannot surrender to terror in violation of federal and Tennessee law. If this hotel chain surrenders to pro-Hamas, terrorist beliefs, where does it stop? The hotel must make the choice of standing with American ideals or pro-Hamas terrorists. We hope the hotel will quickly reverse its decision.”

In its letter to the hotel, the institute said the threats the hotel reported “presumably … were antisemitic and anti-Israel in nature and in line with the hateful rhetoric currently seen on some of America’s college campuses.”

‘Pretext for religious discrimination’

Sasser stated that the force majeure clause is only if it were illegal or impossible to use the facilities, not for “unsubstantiated safety threats,” and that the cancellation “bears the unmistakable and distinctly unpleasant odor of pretext for religious discrimination.”

Miller, who will be leading an NRB fact-finding mission to Israel just after the summit, said he was disappointed to hear about the news, “where I and fellow Christian and Jewish leaders planned to express our support and solidarity with Israel.”

He said, “It is a sad day for our country when a peaceful, educational and informative gathering can be sabotaged by activists and abruptly canceled by the host venue on short notice. Whether this action sprung from corporate hostility or intimidation by hecklers, the result is that HaYovel has been denied a public accommodation due to its religious beliefs.”

Miller urged the hotel to honor its contractual commitment.

In February, the NRB held its annual conference at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel with numerous pro-Israel events. One of them was the launch of Keep God’s Land, one of the co-sponsors of the summit. The group promotes Israel’s maintaining sovereignty in the territories.

Luke Hilton, the marketing director for the Israel Guys, told The Washington Times that the summit will still go on—at the Sonesta or another location.

The pro-Israel Christian group Eagles’ Wings started an “Urgent Petition to Uphold Rule of Law,” to guarantee the right of freedom of peaceful assembly.

The petition is directed to Tennessee Sen. Marsha Blackburn and Bill Hagerty, and Rep. Andy Ogles, all Republicans; Gov. Bill Lee; and Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell.

13% of Biden voters have dumped him over Gaza war

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President Joe Biden in Tel Aviv, Oct. 18, 2023. Photo by Miriam Alster/Flash90.

By David Rosenberg, World Israel News

President Joe Biden’s policies vis-a-vis Israel and the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip are costing him a significant number of voters in the upcoming presidential election, a new poll finds.

On Monday, The New York Times published a poll surveying registered and likely voters in six key battleground states which decided the 2020 presidential election and which are expected to be decisive in this November’s race.

The poll, conducted by Siena, surveyed 4,097 registered voters, screening also for likely voters, in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin – all states Biden narrowly won in 2020 and are considered to be in play in 2024 – from April 28th through May 9th.

Former President Donald Trump led Biden among registered voters in five of the six battleground states, with the president holding a narrow lead in Wisconsin.

Among likely voters, Trump led Biden in every state – including Wisconsin – except Michigan.

According to the poll, 51% of likely voters say they trust Trump to handle the Israeli-Palestinian conflict better than Biden, compared to 36% who said Biden would do a better job. The numbers were similar among registered voters, with 50% saying they trust Trump over Biden, compared to 35% who trust Biden over Trump.

Forty-five percent of likely voters said they sympathize more with Israel in the current conflict, compared to 21% who said they sympathize more with the Palestinians, 18% who said both sides equally, and 17% who did not know.

Thirteen percent of Biden voters from 2020 in the six battleground states now say they have decided not to vote for Biden in the rematch against Trump in November because of Biden’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war.

Among those former Biden voters who have turned on the president over his Israel policies and the Gaza war, the vast majority said they sympathize more with the Palestinians than with Israel, with just 17% saying they sympathize more with Israel than the Palestinians.

After faulting ‘fog of war’ for cloudy Hamas casualty numbers, UN’s new stats still don’t appear to add up

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Farhan Haq, deputy spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres answers questions at a press conference on May 13, 2024. Source: YouTube/United Nations.

( JNS) A day after a U.N. spokesman attributed a nearly 100% overcounting of Gazan women and children casualties to “the fog of war,” the global body now says that the overall death toll in Gaza due to the war remains the same.

After extensive media coverage of his response to JNS last week—that the “fog of war” was to blame for overcounting fatalities in Gaza for children and women, which the United Nations then reduced by about 42% and about 50% respectively—Farhan Haq, deputy spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, sought to clarify the U.N. position during a Monday press conference.

“I don’t think the numbers are meant to get back to the previous breakdown of numbers,” Haq told JNS, of the new figures. “As we have made clear, those are not the verified numbers, which is what the new ones are.”

“What is clear is that the numbers in all categories will rise as the unidentified corpses are identified,” Haq added. “That’s part of a process of ensuring that all the death tolls in all categories are properly verified.”

It wasn’t clear what an “unidentified” death meant. The Hamas-run Gazan health ministry stated on April 6 that it had “incomplete data” for more than 11,000 of the Gazan fatalities it claims to have documented. That means it lacked a key data point about each, including identity number, full name, date of birth or date of death.

The numbers don’t appear to add up.

U.N. Office of the Coordinator of Humanitarian Affairs cited Hamas figures when it reported on May 6 that there have been 34,735 fatalities, including more than 9,500 women and more than 14,500 children.

Two days later, OCHA cited the same Hamas figures and reported that of 34,844 casualties, 24,686 were “identified,” including 4,959 “identified” women and 7,797 “identified” children.

Taken together, the May 6 and May 8 OCHA announcements suggest that there are at least 4,541 “unidentified” women and at least 6,703 “unidentified” children—or at least 11,244 “unidentified” women and children combined.

‘This isn’t math’

But how could there be both 11,244 “unidentified” women and children and, per OCHA’s May 6 figures—24,686 “identified” deaths out of 34,844, presumably the rest “unidentified”—10,158 “unidentified” deaths?

According to those figures, that would mean there are no “unidentified” male fatalities. Hamas claims that adult males make up 40% of all the “identified” casualties. It would also mean that there would be no “unidentified” casualties among the elderly—a category Hamas claims makes up 8% of all “identified” casualties.

Anne Bayefsky, director of the Touro Institute on Human Rights and the Holocaust, and president of Human Rights Voices, told JNS that the United Nations has “systematically blasted false numbers of Palestinian casualties across the globe since Oct. 8.”

“Their source has always been Hamas knowing full well that Hamas has a vested interest in lying about the numbers,” she said. “They run civilian and combatant casualty figures together knowing full well that it is legal to kill Hamas combatants and the lawfulness of civilian casualties depends on entirely different standards. Which they misrepresent, too.”

The global body’s “so-called ‘humanitarian’ figures count the Israeli humanitarian need at zero,” she added. “This isn’t math. It’s antisemitism.”

David Adesnik, senior fellow and director of research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told JNS that it has been known for months that the Gazan Media Office “makes impossible assertions about the number of women and children killed in Gaza.”

‘Did Ashley Biden Call Childhood Showers With Her Father Probably Inappropriate?’: Snopes Changes Answer From ‘Unproven’ To ‘True’

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[Screenshot/YouTube/Today]

By Nicole Silverio (Daily Caller)

Fact-checking outlet Snopes changed its answer on whether Ashely Biden accused her father of inappropriate behavior from “unproven” to “true” after she authenticated the contents in a legal document.

Biden’s diary was stolen and sold to Project Veritas for $40,000 several weeks before the 2020 election. The president’s daughter detailed her suffering from being “hyper-sexualized” as a child, notably mentioning showers with her father at a young age that she deemed “probably not appropriate,” according to circulated photographs first published by the National File. (RELATED: Did Ashley Biden Shower With Her Father? Here’s The Evidence)

Snopes updated its “unproven” rating to “true” on April 29 after reviewing an April 8 letter from the president’s daughter to Chief U.S. District Judge Laura Taylor Swain, who sentenced Aimee Harris for conspiring to transport and sell the diary. The outlet also updated the headline of the fact check Tuesday to “Did Ashley Biden Call Childhood Showers with Her Father ‘Probably Inappropriate’ in Leaked Diary?” from “Did Ashley Biden Accuse Joe Biden of Inappropriate Behavior in a ‘Leaked Diary’?”

“The wording of both the headline and the claim of this fact check have been revised for more specificity,” the outlet said in an editor’s note.

“I will forever have to deal with the fact that my personal journal can be viewed online,” Biden wrote in the letter. “Repeatedly, I hear others grossly misinterpret my once-private writings and lob false accusations that defame my character and those of the people I love. Her actions were not only re-traumatizing to me, but constituted a horrific trauma in and of themselves. This ongoing harm is a direct result of Ms. Harris’ intentional actions.”

The fact check deemed this letter to be direct proof of the diary’s authenticity, leading to the change.

Audio of a phone call between Biden and Project Veritas circulated online in 2023, indicating that the diary belonged to the president’s daughter. Biden requested the diary be returned and admitted to the book belonging to her.

Snopes said in March 2023 that the phone call was evidence that the diary belonged to her, though Project Veritas reportedly withheld the publication of the document, as its former founder James O’Keefe said they could not confirm that it belonged to the president’s daughter, according to the updated fact-check.

This quote—in broken English, no less—is not in Ashley Biden’s diary. Hoaxes like these have been floating around for months—they must stop. Her exact quote is attached.
We spent 2 months transcribing the diary: https://t.co/Boc2cWNyIx
The original: https://t.co/AWXD8X0aXV https://t.co/c7E8zvaT64 pic.twitter.com/cPaf2gcfZ3

— Marco Polo (@MarcoPolo501c3) January 16, 2023

The photograph detailing the alleged father-daughter showers was later revealed to be transferred from Project Veritas to the National File in October 2020, according to The Intercept. The diary came into the possession of two people as they moved into an apartment previously occupied by Biden, according to The Associated Press.

Both Harris and Jonathan Kurlander pleaded guilty in August 2022 to conspiring to transport the diary across state lines and selling it. A New York federal judge sentenced Harris to one month in prison and three years’ probation.

If You’re Not Caught Up On Ashley Biden’s Diary I Suggest You Watch This. Ashley Biden’s Diary Phone Call Never Before Released To The Public

“After years of public speculation and internal deliberation, we are finally releasing our conversation with Ashley Biden about her diary… pic.twitter.com/goUdV5I6Ps

— Wall Street Apes (@WallStreetApes) September 4, 2023

James O’Keefe told Fox News in Nov. 2021 that he was “in a state of shock” after the FBI woke him up in a “pre-dawn raid.” He said that “ten FBI agents with a battering ram, [and] white blinding lights” came to his home despite Project Veritas never publicly releasing the diary’s contents due to authentication issues.

“Project Veritas gave the diary to law enforcement to ensure it could be returned to its rightful owner. We never published it,” O’Keefe said. “Now, Ms. Biden’s father’s Department of Justice, specifically the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, appears to be investigating the situation, claiming the diary was stolen. We don’t know if it was, but it begs the question: In what world is the alleged theft of a diary investigated by the President’s FBI and his Department of Justice? A diary?”

Update: The leading quote of the Caller’s headline, ‘Did Ashley Biden Accuse Joe Biden Of Inappropriate Behavior?’, has since been updated to reflect the changes to Snopes’ own headline.

Famed Journalist Says Press ‘Shouldn’t Be Neutral’ On Trump, Warns Of ‘Assassinations’ During 2nd Term

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Screenshot/YouTube/Nicholas Kristof]
(Daily Caller) Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Nicholas Kristof wrote in his new book that the American press should not remain “neutral” when it comes to covering former President Donald Trump because of the alleged threat he poses to democracy.
In a CNN interview about the book, Kristof argued the media erred by treating Trump as “just another candidate” in 2016 and should instead take an active stance against him, the same way the media should have when covering McCarthyism or segregation, CNN reported.
“Likewise, in the civil rights movement, it didn’t work to quote Martin Luther King Jr. in one paragraph and George Wallace in the next. It took reporters going down South and, at considerable risk, conveying the brutality of Jim Crow segregation. Likewise, I think in 2016 we in the media treated Trump as just another candidate when, in my view, he was quite different. We were fair but perhaps not truthful, and I think our paramount responsibility is to convey the truths we know. But doing that with humility and effectiveness is really hard to pull off,” Kristof said during a CNN interview.
In his book, he warns about Trump and his allies’ alleged attempts to “undermine democracy” and establish “populist authoritarianism,” according to CNN. Kristof also argues that, in a second term, Trump could weaponize the federal government “to punish or intimidate news organizations” and even carry out “assassinations.”
“I’ve seen how countries can unravel and how democracies can become more despotic, and I do think that many Americans don’t appreciate the risks. We tend to think that change will be linear. Sometimes it zigs or zags,” Kristof told CNN.
President Joe Biden’s administration, Democratic politicians and the corporate media have all portrayed Trump as a potential dictator and threat to democracy. Biden has reportedly pushed to focus his campaign on fighting for democracy rather than focus on Democrats’ winning issues, such as abortion, ahead of the 2024 election.
Former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who lost to Trump in 2016, compared the former president to Adolf Hitler and accused him of showing “dictatorial tendencies” during a Nov. 8 segment on “The View.” A CNN analyst said in 2019 that Trump’s speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) “sounded a lot like” the Nazi dictator. MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow also brought up Hitler while commenting on Trump’s inaugural address.
MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough claimed in Feb. 2020 that Trump would lock up “every journalist he didn’t like” if he could get away with it.
Trump himself said during a December interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity that he would only be a dictator on “day one” of his second term. He later told Time that the comment “was said in fun, in jest, sarcastically.”
A PBS Newshour/NPR/Marist poll found that 53 percent of independent voters believe a Biden win in 2024 would “weaken America” more than a Trump victory, while 42 percent believed Trump would harm democracy.

Hezbollah anti-tank missile kills Israeli civilian, hurts five soldiers

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Two Israelis were wounded by a Hezbollah rocket in Kiryat Shmona, close to the border with Lebanon, Feb. 13, 2024. Photo by Erez Ben Simon/TPS.

(JNS) Hezbollah terrorists fired an anti-tank missile on Tuesday that killed an Israeli civilian and wounded five soldiers in the northern community of Adamit, according to the Israel Defense Forces.

The military said one soldier was moderately wounded and four others were lightly hurt in the attack.

The fatality was not immediately identified.

On Monday, four Israeli soldiers were wounded—one moderately—by Hezbollah anti-tank fire from Lebanon. The other three troops were lightly injured after two missiles hit Kibbutz Yiftah, south of Kiryat Shmona in the Upper Galilee.

Last week, the IDF announced the death of Staff Sgt. Haim Sabach, 20, who was killed by a Hezbollah missile at a military post near the northern kibbutz of Malkia.

Days earlier, two reserve soldiers were killed in a Hezbollah drone attack on a military position close to the northwestern Galilee town of Metula. The IDF said it had failed to intercept the explosive-laden drone.

The casualties were identified as Master Sgt. (res.) Dan Kamkagi, 31, from Kfar Oranim and Master Sgt. (res.) Nahman Natan Hertz, 31, of Elazar.

Hezbollah has carried out near-daily attacks on northern Israel since joining the war against the Jewish state in support of Hamas following the Gaza-based terrorist group’s massacre of some 1,200 people in the northwestern Negev.

Israel has threatened a major military offensive in southern Lebanon to push Hezbollah north of the Litani River—some 18 miles from the border—if a diplomatic solution is not found.

Efforts to calm tensions, including those of the United States and France, have been unsuccessful.

Iran Repeats Lie of Anti-Nuclear Fatwa After Lawmaker Boasts It Already Has Nukes

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Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Tabriz, Feb. 17, 2022. (Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP)

Frances Martel(Breitbart)

The Foreign Ministry of Iran insisted in a briefing on Monday that the nation’s terrorist regime would not pursue nuclear weapons development and would abide by international law on weapons of mass destructions (WMDs).

The remarks followed commentary in Iranian media by a prominent member of Parliament who claimed that Iran already possessed nuclear weapons, but its authorities were lying about it to appear to be abiding by the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), or 2015 Iran nuclear deal. The lawmaker, Ahmad Bakhshayesh Ardestani, made his remarks shortly after a visit to Iran by the head of the U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, who lamented upon returning to Europe that the current state of nuclear inspections in Iran was “completely unsatisfactory.”

Adding to concerns that Iran may be preparing to declare itself a nuclear state, a senior adviser to “supreme leader” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Kamal Kharrazi, recently claimed that Tehran could soon change its “nuclear doctrine” in response to Israel’s self-defense operations against the Iran-backed terrorist organization Hamas.

“We have no decision to build a nuclear bomb, but should Iran’s existence be threatened, there will be no choice but to change our military doctrine,” Kharrazi said on Thursday. Kharrazi specified that an incident that would cause Iran to pursue nuclear weapons openly would be an attack by the government of Israel on its nuclear facilities. The Iranian regime considers Israel to be an illegitimate country and openly calls for the genocide of its people.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kan’ani insisted on Monday that no such change was imminent, citing the false alleged “fatwa” Khamenei issued against nuclear weapons.

“Iran remains committed to international treaties regarding the prohibition of weapons of mass destruction and has made no change in its nuclear doctrine,” the state outlet PressTV paraphrased Kan’ani as saying. “Kan’ani said Iran’s principled stance on weapons of mass destruction is based on a fatwa (religious decree) issued by Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei which has banned such arms.”

Kan’ani went on to condemn Israel for not being a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

Such a fatwa, or Islamic religious edict, does not exist, but Iran regime sympathizers have used rumors of its alleged existence for years to defend allowing Iran to expand its nuclear development. Years of investigations have resulted in no evidence that Khamenei ever documented the issuing of such an edict. On the contrary, a letter by Khamenei’s predecessor, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, surfacing in 2006 showed that Khomenei ordered Iran to develop nuclear weapons in 1988.

Despite the lack of evidence that such a fatwa ever existed, and evidence that Iran actually ordered the development of nuclear weapons, President Barack Obama used the alleged “fatwa” as a critical propaganda point to promote the JCPOA.

Kan’ani’s remarks appear to be an attempt to limit the impact of Ardestani’s, which carry some weight given that he was recently re-elected to his seat in Parliament, which is impossible in Iran without approval from Khamenei. In an interview with the Iranian outlet Rouydad 24, Ardestani claimed that, not only was Iran pursuing nuclear weapons, but that it already possessed them.

“In my opinion, we have achieved nuclear weapons, but we do not announce it. It means our policy is to possess nuclear bombs, but our declared policy is currently within the framework of the JCPOA,” Ardestani said, according to a translation by the dissident site Iran International. “The reason is that when countries want to confront others, their capabilities must be compatible, and Iran’s compatibility with America and Israel means that Iran must have nuclear weapons.”

Ardestani claimed it was “natural for the containment system to require that Iran possess nuclear bombs,” as Iran has made enemies of states that possess nuclear weapons. Ardestani also suggested Israel possessed them, a longtime source of speculation that Israel has never confirmed.

Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said in remarks this weekend, also apparently meant to temper the effect of Ardestani’s declaration, that Iran remained committed to “establishing a Middle East free of nuclear weapons.” Iran has yet to explain why it is enriching uranium at rates far beyond what is necessary for the development of a peaceful nuclear energy program, however. The IAEA affirmed in January that Iran had “enough nuclear material for several nuclear weapons.”

How far into the process of developing nuclear weapons Iran has gone is a matter of intense speculation, but the regime’s lack of transparency makes accurate estimates difficult even for the IAEA. Grossi, the head of the IAEA, complained a week ago, following a visit with senior Iranian nuclear officials in the country, that the regime is actively obstructing the ability of his agency to do its job.

“The present state is completely unsatisfactory for me. We are almost at an impasse and this needs to be changed,” Grossi said following his trip to Iran, lamenting the current “political conditions.”

 

Follow Frances Martel on Facebook and Twitter.

 

Israel celebrates 76 years of independence

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Israelis enjoy a barbecue on Independence Day, April 26, 2023. Photo by Ayal Margolin/Flash90.

(JNS) Today marks the 76th anniversary of the modern State of Israel, as Israelis rejoice but remain mindful of the war raging on against in the Gaza Strip and on the Lebanese border.

Independence Day in Israel, celebrated on the 5th day of the Hebrew month of Iyar (this year it is on the 6th so as to avoid desecrating Shabbat for Memorial Day), commemorates the signing of the Israeli Declaration of Independence.

 

The declaration was announced and signed by David Ben-Gurion and signed by members of the Provisional State Council on May 14, 1948—by coincidence the date in May on which this year’s celebration also occurs. It was hailed as the first instance of Jewish sovereignty over parts of the Land of Israel since the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem nearly 2,000 years earlier.

The signing was followed by the War of Independence of 1948-49, in which Arab countries attempted to destroy the young state.

This year’s celebrations are mixed with sorrow as the war in Gaza and the rocket attacks in the north continue.

Remarking on the dichotomy, Likud Knesset member Dan Illouz told JNS, “On this Independence Day, we remember October 7—a day mirroring the tragic pogroms our ancestors deemed routine. Yet, our reality is a contrast, defined by the valiant defense of hundreds of thousands of IDF soldiers, realizing dreams of a strong, self-reliant Israel.

“This empowerment, once unthinkable to our forebears, underscores our progress. As we celebrate our resilience and sovereignty, we keep a vigilant watch over the fate of our hostages, remaining committed to their return.”

Due to the war, many celebrations that are normally scheduled were canceled. For example, the popular flyover, whereby Air Force planes fly across the country, was canceled.

Instead of the torch-lighting ceremony that normally takes place at Mount Herzl, it will take place at “Gaza Envelope” towns and IDF bases that Hamas invaders attacked on Oct. 7.

Transportation Minister Miri Regev, who is responsible for organizing state events, canceled fireworks shows across the country.

 

As in years past, the Israel Prize ceremony will be held, but this time in Sderot, near Gaza, instead of Jerusalem.

Nevertheless, various small events will take place in communities throughout Israel.

Independence Day is celebrated immediately after the end of Memorial Day, creating a distinction between the pain suffered and the triumph and ultimate reward for the sacrifice of those who fell—independence.

This year’s Memorial Day was particularly painful due the mass casualties suffered in the past year. According to the Defense Ministry, 1,599 Israeli soldiers and civilians have died since last Memorial Day.

This figure includes 765 Israel Defense Forces soldiers (61 of whom succumbed to their wounds from previous years) and 834 civilians, of whom 822 were killed on or after the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks by Hamas in southern Israel.

 

Zip-Tied Columbia Graduate Shreds Diploma Onstage For Palestine

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Columbia University graduate shredded her diploma during Sunday’s commencement ceremony, Fox News reported.

The student tore up her diploma as she walked across the stage during the School of Social Work’s commencement in a gesture of solidarity with Palestine, according to Fox News. The event, live -streamed for viewers, showed the graduate walking+ on stage with her wrists zip-tied together and raising her arms dramatically. She wore a keffiyeh, the typical attire of pro-Palestine demonstrators, over her light blue graduation robe.

Immediately after receiving her diploma, she turned to the audience and shredded it, video posted to Twitter and shared by Visegrád 24 shows. She then threw the pieces over her head and onto the floor and removed her cap to reveal a message taped inside, though the camera did not capture its content. Other graduates joined the protest, wearing Arabic garments and zip-ties to resemble Palestinian prisoners. One student’s cap bore the name of Hamas leader Mazen Jamal Al-Natsheh, while two others received applause for displaying a “Free Palestine” sign during the ceremony, Fox News reported.

 

“Thousands of Columbia graduates and their families have already celebrated at Class Day ceremonies that started on Friday and concluded successfully with virtually no disruption,” a Columbia spokesperson told Fox News Digital. “We join in the excitement of the remaining graduates who will celebrate their incredible achievements at their own Class Days and graduation events the rest of this week and as they start their next chapter.”

Columbia University previously announced the replacement of its main commencement ceremony with several smaller ones following clashes between protesters and the NYPD that led to over 100 arrests.

“Holding a large commencement ceremony on our campus presented security concerns that unfortunately proved insurmountable,” Columbia spokesperson Ben Chang said in a statement, according to Fox News. “Like our students, we are deeply disappointed with the outcome.”

Jewish population of Greater New York reaches 1.4 million

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shutterstock

(JNS)  Almost 1.4 million people in the Greater New York Area identified as Jewish in 2023, according to a study by UJA-Federation of New York.

The Jewish Community Study of New York 2023 covers the five boroughs of New York City (Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx and Staten Island), as well as Nassau, Suffolk and Westchester counties.

UJA said the eight-county New York area continues to be home to the greatest concentration of Jews in the United States, adding that the area has experienced “broad stability” in the number of Jewish adults and children for the past three decades.

Some 20% of New York Jews identified with the Reform movement, 19% said that they were Orthodox, 15% considered themselves Conservative Jews, and 47% did not identify with any Jewish religious denomination.

According to the UJA study, 37% of married couples involving Jews in the New York area are in a relationship with someone outside the Jewish people.

In 2023, an estimated 13,000 Jewish Holocaust survivors lived in the eight-county area, 92% of them lived in New York City. The largest number of survivors live in Brooklyn, accounting for 65% of the total.

“The 2023 Jewish Community Study of New York offers a comprehensive snapshot of our community,” said UJA CEO Eric S. Goldstein. “Particularly in this challenging moment, these insights will help guide funding decisions so we can reach people where they are and ensure the strength of our Jewish community and the institutions serving them.”

Billboard Thanking Biden in Jerusalem Now Criticizes Him

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breitbart

By Joel B. Pollak(Breitbart)

A billboard in a western Jerusalem neighborhood that once thanked U.S. President Joe Biden for his support has been changed to criticize Biden for pressuring Israel not to pursue Hamas terrorists and win the war in Gaza.

As Breitbart News noted in October, shortly after the outbreak of war:

On Emek Refaim — a street in the heart of the old German Colony, an area popular with Americans — a billboard thanking President Joe Biden for his support was the only face in sight Friday evening. Families gathered quietly for the Sabbath meal; some walked through the streets, the mothers pushing strollers, the fathers carrying rifles slung across their shoulders. There are fears that some of the Hamas terrorists who infiltrated Israel on Oct. 7 had lain low, and could strike again at any moment.

Biden had visited Israel just a few days before, the first U.S. president to visit Israel during wartime.

But today, Biden is viewed as hostile to Israel, after criticizing Israel’s war effort and withholding crucial weapons due to Israel’s operation in Rafah to defeat Hamas.

The sign now reads: “Dear President: The screams of our babies, women, men, and elderly who were murdered, slaughtered, and burned alive are calling you from the ashes — no more! Please DON’T!”

National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan claimed Monday that there had been “more heat than light” in media coverage of the differences between the Biden administration and the Israeli government over the conduct of the war.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, “The Zionist Conspiracy (and how to join it),” now available on Audible. He is also the author of the e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.

Admitted Liar Michael Cohen Pins Blame On Trump For Allegations At Heart Of Alvin Bragg’s Case

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. (AP Photo/File)

( Daily Caller News Foundation) Prosecutors on Monday finally called former President Donald Trump’s previous lawyer Michael Cohen to testify, a star witness who has a history of lying under oath.

Cohen, whose credibility has come under intense scrutiny due to his multiple admissions of lying under oath and public attacks on Trump, largely gave the answers prosecutors were seeking. He testified that Trump both directed him to make the payment for a nondisclosure agreement with porn star Stormy Daniels and agreed with the reimbursement plan beneath the falsifying business record charges at the heart of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s case.

The plan reimbursed Cohen for the $130,000 payment to Daniels and another fee he paid for tech services — doubling both amounts to account for taxes — and offered him an additional $60,000 bonus to make up for it being cut the prior year and distributing the money over 12 months in transactions described as payments for legal services pursuant of a retainer agreement.

Last week, former Trump Organization controller Jeffrey McConney testified that Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg instructed him to repay Cohen in this manner. The jury saw his handwritten notes outlining the plan, along with the invoices, ledger entries and checks associated with its completion, which together form the 34-felony counts in Trump’s indictment.

McConney, however, could not testify to Trump’s direct involvement: on cross-examination, he affirmed that he had “very few” conversations with Trump at all and none about this payment specifically.

Cohen testified that he and Weisselberg met with Trump in his office just before his inauguration in January 2017. It was during that meeting that Trump approved of the payments, Cohen said, affirming that Weisselberg stated in front of Trump that Cohen would receive a total of $420,000 over 12 months.

Cohen said that the funds were “designed to be” payment for future legal services. “What was it actually?” prosecutor Susan Hoffinger asked. “Reimbursement of my money,” Cohen said.

Cohen later noted that though he was given the title of personal attorney to the president, he did not expect there to be compensation. Rather, he would monetize the position through consulting agreements with other companies.

Cohen also affirmed that Trump told him to “take care” of the Stormy Daniels situation. He said that he would not have paid for the nondisclosure agreement, which he did by taking money out of his home equity line of credit rather than bank account to prevent his wife from noticing, without an understanding that he would be repaid.

Prosecutors displayed phone records on various key dates showing Cohen and Trump had spoken, and Cohen filled in the details regarding the content of the conversations.

Cohen also stated, as did National Enquirer publisher David Pecker during his testimony, that Trump’s concerns were about the 2016 campaign rather than his family. Other witnesses, like former White House communications director Hope Hicks, have testified that Trump was concerned about his family.

Prior witnesses have been unable to directly establish Trump’s involvement in the charges at the core of the case. But it remains to be seen whether the jury will buy Cohen’s claims and how he will hold up under cross-examination.

Cohen pleaded guilty to lying to Congress in 2017 over statements he made about efforts to build a Trump Tower in Moscow to the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. A federal judge also suggested in March that he committed perjury while testifying at Trump’s civil fraud trial.

While testifying at that trial, Cohen said he was not guilty of tax evasion, stating he had lied under oath to a federal judge when he pleaded guilty to it in 2018.

The judge instructed prosecutors on Friday to tell Cohen to stop talking publicly about Trump and the case. Trump’s defense attorneys have pointed out that both Daniels and Cohen routinely attack the former president on social media, though Trump is under a gag order that prohibits him from speaking about witnesses, preventing him from responding.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact [email protected].

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