"Drop Hillel" - a new antisemitic campaign on American college campuses

The anti-Israel, antisemitic movement has a new goal - driving Hillel off university campuses. There is a new organization, called "Drop Hillel," which as usual claims to be led by Jews, but I have my doubts. Notice the other Instagram accounts signing onto this message - including National SJP (which praised the October 7 terrorist attack on Israel), Cuny4Palestine (one of the most radical pro-Palestinian student groups), and teachingpalestine.

"Drop Hillel" blames Hillel for all the supposed harm done by Israel - including "material support to the Zionist project and its crimes." I can't help but feel that this is intended to parallel the wording of laws in the US that prohibit "material support" of terrorist groups, so that Drop Hillel is call Hillel a terrorist group.

In actuality, Hillels support a wide variety of types of Jewish life on campuses - religious activities, socializing, sharing meals, interfaith efforts, etc. If Drop Hillel managed to get college administrations to kick Hillel off campuses, this would immediately result in a deep drop in support for Jewish religious and social activities and for Jewish students. 

Drop Hille is an antisemitic organization (even if it is organized by Jews), and seeks to destroy the basis for healthy Jewish life on college campuses across the United States.

Local pro-Hamas organizations to demonstrate on October 5, 2024

I just saw an announcement that our local pro-Hamas groups are having a demonstration on Saturday, October 5. Sponsors include Ithaca Committee for Justice in Palestine, and a newly-founded affiliate, Jews for Mutual Liberation, Ithaca DSA, and Party for Socialism and Liberation - Finger Lakes. 

Several Cornell organizations are also co-sponsors - JVP Cornell, Cornell SJP, Cornell Coalition for Mutual Liberation. CML at Cornell was the main organizer of the protests and encampments last year and continuing this year. 

Does the "One Year of Resistance" include the orgy of murder, rape, torture, and hostage-taking on October 7?

The "Jews for Mutual Liberation" will be sharing a tashlich ritual - I wonder if it will be like the one that the Detroit JVP group is doing?

Pro-Palestinian group "Within Our Lifetime" supported the Hamas attack from the beginning on October 7, 2023

 

On October 7, 2023, the very day of the Hamas attack on Israel, the pro-Palestinian group "Within our Lifetime" posted this statement on their Instagram page, and it's still there: "By any means necessary. With no exceptions and no fine print." From the very beginning they supported murder, rape, torture, and kidnapping of Israeli and foreign civilians. I hadn't realized how vile this group was. 

And they're planning another rally for tomorrow in New York City, with a slogan that echoes the name that Hamas gave to their terrorist attack - "Flood New York for Palestine." One of the cosponsors is "Jews Against White Supremacy" - in this case a more accurate name might be "Jews against Jewish existence."

They are calling to "end all attacks on our people." Well, if their heroes, Hamas, had not attacked Israel on October 7, Israeli soldiers would have remained on the Israeli side of the border, and there would be no Israeli planes bombing Gaza. (This is not an endorsement of the Israeli tactics in Gaza, which have now killed over 21,000 people, most of them civilians just as innocent as the people murdered by Hamas).

On October 7, this is what "Jews Against White Supremacy" posted on Instagram:

According to them, the Hamas terrorist attack was "decolonisation in action."

The Hamas attack was "Land Back" and decolonisation in action. 

No, it was rape, murder, torture, and kidnapping in action. 

And then, three days later, on October 10, they post that "There are absolutely devastating scenes in Gaza right now as Israel is annihilating the Palestinian people." And they supported, and continued to support, the Hamas attack on Israel, they urged "by any means necessary" from their safe places in the US, Canada, and other western countries - knowing that they would not suffer from the utterly devastating Israeli attacks on Gaza. When will it occur to them that the unconscionable course of action they supported and still support would do nothing but lead to death and destruction? This is "performative activism" at its worst.

Was the Hamas attack on Israeli civilians "exhilarating"?

Professor Russell Rickford of Cornell speaking on Sunday, October 15 at a rally in downtown Ithaca about the Hamas attack on Israeli civilians the week before.

From the Cornell Daily Sun report on his speech:

Rickford stated that he was initially “exhilarated” by Hamas’s attack on Israel, in which 1,400 Israelis were killed. The United States and the European Union classify Hamas as a terrorist organization.

“Hamas has challenged the monopoly of violence. And in those first few hours, even as horrific acts were being carried out, many of which we would not learn about until later, there are many Gazans of good will, many Palestinians of conscience, who abhor violence, as do you, as do I. Who abhor the targeting of civilians, as do you, as do I,” Rickford said during the rally. “Who were able to breathe, they were able to breathe for the first time in years. It was exhilarating. It was energizing. And if they weren’t exhilarated by this challenge to the monopoly of violence, by this shifting of the balance of power, then they would not be human. I was exhilarated.”

He added: “What has Hamas done? Hamas has shifted the balance of power. Hamas has punctured the illusion of invincibility. That’s what they have done. You don’t have to be a Hamas supporter to recognize that,” Rickford said. “Hamas has changed the terms of the debate. Israeli officials are right — nothing will be the same again.”

This is sickening. I have heard Rickford speak at demonstrations in Ithaca in the last few years, and regardless of the reason for the demonstration, he always obsessively ties Israel to whatever evil the demonstration is protesting.

On Friday night, October 6, I was about to fall asleep at about midnight when I noticed an alert on my phone about an attack in Israel. I was surprised and went to my computer, and stayed up for several hours listening to the coverage on the Israeli network Kann, reading tweets and postings on Facebook. It was clear very early that the Hamas terrorists were attacking civilians. We didn't learn of all the attacks immediately, of course, but if you wanted to know, you could find information. 

The Cornell president issued a good statement:

In a University statement sent around 4:30 p.m. on Monday, President Martha Pollack referred broadly to faculty who have spoken positively about Hamas.

“I am sickened by statements glorifying the evilness of Hamas terrorism. Any members of our community who have made such statements do not speak for Cornell; in fact, they speak in direct opposition to all we stand for at Cornell,” Pollack said. “There is no justification for or moral equivalent to these violent and abhorrent acts.”

 This is her full statement:

Supporting one another as we stand against hatred (Follow up on events in Israel)
Oct. 16, 2023

Dear Cornell Community,

The despicable atrocities perpetrated by the Hamas terrorist organization in Israel last week left the world reeling with shock, horror, anger and grief. The brutal attacks shattered countless innocent lives, caused unimaginable pain and challenged our very understanding of humanity. The intentional targeting and killing of innocent civilians is the very definition of terrorism. I am sickened by statements glorifying the evilness of Hamas terrorism. Any members of our community who have made such statements do not speak for Cornell; in fact, they speak in direct opposition to all we stand for at Cornell. There is no justification for or moral equivalent to these violent and abhorrent acts.

I am outraged by them and, along with senior leadership of the Cornell Board of Trustees, I again condemn them in the strongest possible terms.

The Cornell community on our campuses and around the world includes students, faculty, staff and alumni who are Israeli, Palestinian and others who have close ties to the region. As the fighting there continues, the pain and suffering felt by all people throughout the region is and will be completely heart-wrenching. I am a grandmother and I weep for the Israeli babies who were murdered or kidnapped; I weep for the Palestinian babies now in harm’s way.

Please know that the safety of all members of our community remains a top priority. On the Ithaca campus, Cornell Police have increased patrols and police presence and are working with the Office of Emergency Management and with city, state and federal agencies to continually assess conditions. They are also in close coordination with the public safety teams on our campuses in New York City and beyond.

Our community must, as it always has, stand against hatred of all forms. I am inspired by our Jewish, Palestinian and Muslim students who were joined by others in holding peaceful vigils last week and who were generous in their expression of shared loss for all in the region. I hope that the Cornell community is able to find grace, care and empathy for one another, and to support one another in the very difficult days ahead.

As we reflect on the pain of all those affected, and mourn the loss of innocent lives, I pray for the safe return of all hostages, and that our collective humanity will prevail over hate.

Sincerely,

Martha E. Pollack
President

 Update - Denunciation of Rickford's words by the president of Cornell.

Statement of President Pollack and Board Chair Kayser on Prof. Russell Rickford comments
Oct. 17, 2023

We learned yesterday of comments that Professor Russell Rickford made over the weekend at an off-campus rally where he described the Hamas terrorist attacks as “exhilarating.” This is a reprehensible comment that demonstrates no regard whatsoever for humanity. As we said in yesterday’s statement, endorsed by senior leadership of the Board of Trustees, any members of our community who have made such statements do not speak for Cornell; in fact, they speak in direct opposition to all we stand for at Cornell. The university is taking this incident seriously and is currently reviewing it consistent with our procedures.

Martha E. Pollack

President

Kraig H. Kayser, MBA ’84
Chairman of the Cornell University Board of Trustees

 Update, October 19 - statement from Rickford in the Cornell Daily Sun

I apologize for the horrible choice of words that I used in a portion of a speech that was intended to stress grassroots African American, Jewish and Palestinian traditions of resistance to oppression. I recognize that some of the language I used was reprehensible and did not reflect my values. As I said in the speech, I abhor violence and the violent targeting of civilians. I am sorry for the pain that my reckless remarks have caused my family, my students, my colleagues and many others in this time of suffering. As a scholar, a teacher, an activist and a father, I strive to uphold the values of human dignity, peace and justice. I want to make it clear that I unequivocally oppose and denounce racism, anti-semitism, Islamophobia, militarism, fundamentalism and all systems that dehumanize, divide and oppress people.

Update, October 22 - Rickford has taken a leave of absence for the rest of the semester (report from the Cornell Review).

History Professor Russell Rickford, who has come under fire for calling the Hamas attacks in Israel “exhilarating” and “energizing,” has taken a leave of absence.

According to an email acquired by the Review, Rickford will not teach his survey course on post-civil war African American history for the remainder of the semester. A Friday email from Professor Tamika Nunley to the class’ students indicates that she will teach the class while Rickford is on leave:

Professor Rickford will be taking a leave of absence and I will assume teaching responsibilities for this course for the remainder of the semester.

Cornell Media Relations confirmed Rickford’s leave, saying: “Professor Russell Rickford has requested and received approval to take a leave of absence from the university.” The Cornell history department, when asked for comment about Rickford’s status, only referred to the university’s statement condemning the professor....

Rickford’s – seemingly temporary – departure comes amidst immense pressure on the university to dismiss him for his comments....

Meanwhile, the university has issued a statement denouncing Rickford by name after issuing a general statement condemning those who “glorify the evilness of Hamas terrorism.”....

Neither Cornell nor the history department have indicated whether Rickford will face further action upon his return from leave.

This story has been updated with Cornell’s confirmation that Rickford requested the leave of absence.

Trump's dinner with Nick Fuentes, Holocaust denier

 It's been confirmed by Axios that Trump had dinner with both Fuentes and Kanye this week.

Former President Trump dined and conversed with white nationalist Nick Fuentes and rapper Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, at his Mar-a-Lago resort on Tuesday night, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

Why it matters: Trump's direct engagement with a man labeled a "white supremacist" by the Justice Department, one week after declaring his 2024 candidacy, is likely to draw renewed outrage over the former president's embrace of extremists.

• Fuentes, who frequently promotes racist and anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, had been spotted with Ye at Mar-a-Lago, but reports erroneously suggested he did not have dinner with the former president.

What they're saying: "Kanye West very much wanted to visit Mar-a-Lago. Our dinner meeting was intended to be Kanye and me only, but he arrived with a guest whom I had never met and knew nothing about," Trump said in a statement.

• A Trump spokesman did not provide comment on additional reporting about the dinner. Fuentes did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Behind the scenes: A source familiar with the dinner conversation told Axios that Trump "seemed very taken" with Fuentes, impressed that the 24-year-old was able to rattle off statistics and recall speeches dating back to his 2016 campaign.

• Paraphrasing the conversation, the source said Fuentes told the president he preferred him to be "authentic," and that Trump seemed scripted and unlike himself during his recent 2024 campaign announcement speech.
• Trump responded, “You like it better when I just speak off the cuff," the source said. Fuentes replied that he did, calling Trump an "amazing" president when he was unrestrained. "There was a lot of fawning back and forth," the source added.

Fuentes told Trump that he represented a side of Trump's base that was disappointed with his newly cautious approach, especially with what some far-right activists view as a lack of support for those charged in the Jan. 6 Capitol attack.

• Trump didn't disagree with Fuentes, but said he has advisers who want him to read off teleprompters and be more "presidential." Notably, Trump referred to himself as a politician, which he has been loathe to do in the past.
• Fuentes also told Trump that he would crush potential 2024 Republican rivals in a primary, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. Trump asked for Fuentes' opinion on other candidates as well.

Trump at one point turned to Ye and said, "I really like this guy. He gets me," according to the source.

• "To be honest, I don't believe the president knew who the hell [Fuentes] was," the source added.

See also the New York Times article on the dinner: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/25/us/politics/trump-nick-fuentes-dinner.html

Racists and antisemites once banned by Twitter will be coming back

Elon Musk has decided that accounts once banned from Twitter because of their racism and antisemitism will once again be allowed on the site. A thread from Michael Edison Hayden, Senior Investigative Reporter and Spokesperson for the SPLC (Southern Poverty Law Center) about people likely to reappear: David Duke, Mike Peinovich, and Andrew "Weev" Auernheimer. 

Link to start of the thread: Michael Edison Hayden on racists returning to Twitter 

 

Headstones in Jewish cemetery in Grand Rapids, MI covered with "Trump" and "MAGA" graffiti today

For those who remember the end of the election campaign in 2016, there are some horrifyingly similar incidents happening now. 

A Jewish cemetery in Grand Rapids, Michigan, was desecrated today, just before Trump's last rally of the election campaign there. Headstones were covered by graffiti in red paint reading "Trump" and "MAGA."

Antisemitism is alive and well in Ithaca, New York

 

Defaced sign on a friend's business in downtown Ithaca. "End White Silence," and the word "Kike" written over "Silence."

Ithaca is a liberal small city in a conservative area of upstate New York. There have been some right-wing demonstrations here lately, mostly for "Blue Lives Matter." I've seen other racist graffiti in downtown in the last few months, and recently the "Black Lives Matter" mural on nearby streets was defaced (see entry below). In Ithaca in the 1980s, there were some antisemitic incidents when a notorious antisemite and Holocaust denier was living here (he's no longer here, thank goodness).

I hope we can find out who did this and call them out for their antisemitism and racism.

Antisemitism - right-wing or left-wing?

It's not only leftists like Jeremy Corbyn who post pictures of an antisemitic mural. Today a Republican state representative from Louisiana posted a photo of the same mural. I wonder who he got it from.

Public opinion controls politics. #midweekmeme #mccormick4la pic.twitter.com/h
OE0q2supr

— State Representative Danny McCormick (@McCormick4LA) September 2, 2020

He deleted it, but this is the screenshot.

 

The attempted massacre at the synagogue in Halle, Germany

I feel deeply affected by the attempted murder of Jews at prayer in Halle, Germany, on Yom Kippur, and by the murder of two people on the streets of Halle simply because the killer came upon them when he failed to get into the synagogue.

It's really too hard for me to articulate my feelings - they are a mixture of fear, and anger, and a feeling that the world is irrevocably broken. I don't know why this event has finally given me that feeling. So much awful has happened in the last few years - including the attack on the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh last year (the anniversary is coming up on October 27). But that this attempted massacre occurred in Germany, of all places, which is a flawed country but has very much engaged in remembering the Holocaust and facing up to the horrific deeds of the Nazis against Jews and other victims, is simply too much.

(For me this is coupled with Trump's decision to stab the Kurds in the back and allow the Turks to invade the Kurdish area of Syria. To betray people our soldiers fought with to defeat ISIS, the genocidaires of the Yazidis. People who fought and died for the security of the US and for their own people. I never used to think that concepts of "national honor" meant anything - but now that we've lost ours, I feel it keenly).

Jews: overlapping target of Neo-Nazi and Islamist Terrorists

For those who fool themselves into thinking that Jews in Europe are only targeted by Neo-Nazis, see Anshel Pfeffer's latest column for Haaretz:

For the Jews barricaded in a synagogue in Halle, it made no difference if the shooter was a neo-Nazi or a soldier of the Caliphate. But for the left and right in Europe, the U.S. and Israel, Jewish bodies are political capital

Oct 10, 2019 7:39 PM 

Sometimes it makes sense to go back and read Mein Kampf.... 

In Mein Kampf, Adolf Hitler makes it clear that his particular obsession with Jews was not based on their being one of the inferior races. There were plenty of those, and the Germanic and Aryan races would fight them for domination of scarce natural resources and living-space. 

For Hitler, the Jews were a threat to the human race because they had brought to earth the notion that there was a way for humans to share the earth instead of killing each other for it. The Jews, according to Hitler, had imposed their values on the natural order and were a force working against humanity. "All world-historical events are nothing more than the expression of the self-preservation drive of the races," he wrote. "It is Jewry that always destroys this order," and "murders the future.".... 

Mein Kampf is clearly referenced in the video manifesto of the 27 year-old German man who tried to enter the Humboldt Street synagogue in Halle on Yom Kippur (Wednesday) and murder the Jews praying inside. Having failed to shoot open the armored door, he fled, killing two passersby. 

"Feminism is the cause of declining birth rates in the West, which acts as a scapegoat for mass immigration, and the root of all these problems is the Jew," he declared, livestreaming himself before arriving at the synagogue. 

The chain-reaction leading from feminism, to dropping birth-rates and mass immigration to Germany, all originates from the Jew. And since mass immigration in today’s Europe is a by-word for Muslims, then we are all in the firing-line together. The ideological manifesto of the Halle shooter is virtually identical to that of the mass-murderer of Christchurch who massacred 51 Muslims at prayer in New Zealand and of the shooter who murdered eleven Jews in a synagogue in Pittsburgh a year ago.

The updated version of Mein Kampf’s natural order of races fighting each other, to the death, is today’s "replacement theory," the conspiracy theory popular on the far-right with echoes on the less radical but more populist right-wing, which sees the hordes of Muslim immigrants invading western countries, depopulated by plummeting birth-rates, and replacing their white Christian majority. The liberal elites responsible for welcoming these immigrants have been contaminated by the Jews and their ideas. 

Unsurprisingly, not one of the mainstream Israeli politicians releasing statements at the end of Yom Kippur about the Halle shooting could bring themselves to call the hatred by its name. How could they? 

Their ideological allies, from Donald Trump in the U.S. to Viktor Orban in Hungary, regularly spout watered-down versions of the "replacement" theory. As do those very same Israeli politicians, when they talk of Israel’s own Muslim communities and the African asylum seekers who have found shelter here.... 

In the last eight years, all the Jews murdered in Europe for being Jews, were killed by Muslims. Because they represented something to them too. 

It’s not that the left is much better. Statements from left-wing politicians and commentators about how Jews and Muslims are now both targets of the far-right are just a bit too convenient. They obscure the fact that in the last eight years, all the Jews murdered in Europe for being Jews, were killed by Muslims. Because they represented something to them as well. 

If the attacker on Yom Kippur had successfully broken down the door, then we would have more dead Jews in Halle to add to the twelve murdered over the past year by white supremacists in Pittsburgh and Poway. But the interesting thing with left-wing condemnations is that they tend to be much more eloquent when the perpetrator is white and comes from the far-right. 

Because a dead Jew is never just a dead Jew, it depends who killed the Jew. 

The left has long categorized Jews as being white and therefore privileged oppressors. We lose our privileged status only when the shooter is from the right. 

Anti-Semitism is binary, just not in the way that word is usually used in these situations. The left has long categorized Jews as being white and therefore privileged oppressors. We lose our privileged status only when the shooter is from the right, and proposes, as the Halle shooter did, to "kill as many anti-whites as possible, Jews preferred." 

In the 20th century our parents and grandparents were killed for being both rapacious capitalists and godless communists. In this century we are killed for both encouraging Muslims to emigrate to the Christian West and for being the vanguard of the imperialist Christian West dispossessing Muslims in the Middle East. Either way we are the targets. 

Facing the far-right, both Muslims and Jews are targets. And in the wave of Islamist attacks in recent years, Jews weren’t the only targets either. There were plenty of non-Jewish targets, including satirical cartoonists and pop concert-goers and people eating at restaurants and many bystanders. 

In the Venn diagram of Islamist and Neo-Nazi terror, Jews are the only overlapping target. 

But in the Venn diagram of these two waves of terror, Islamist and neo-Nazi, Jews are the only targets who overlap in the crosshairs of both sets of attackers. 

The man and woman murdered on Wednesday have yet to be identified as of time of writing and when their names are released, will remain significant only to their families and friends. Not being Jewish, their deaths are not politicized. 

For the 80 Jews in Halle, praying on Yom Kippur that the shooter would not break in, they had no idea if he was a neo-Nazi or a soldier of the Caliphate. 

And if those had been their last moments alive, they would not have known how their deaths would be exploited by the politicians, framed by the media, and claimed by Israel - or by multi-cultural Europe.

Miko Peled, who appeared in Ithaca in 2016, now speaking to neo-Nazis and Holocaust deniers in Britain

I wonder if it's occurred to the people who organized Miko Peled's talk in Ithaca in 2016 to feel a bit of shame in retrospect, considering that he's now appearing at venues in Britain organized by open neo-Nazis and Holocaust deniers? 

Peled is the son of an Israeli general who has decided that Israel is entirely responsible for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He spoke here on November 2, 2016, after giving a talk in Syracuse on September 16 to the Syracuse Peace Council. The Ithaca sponsors were a parade of the local leftist great and good:  Ithaca Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), Citizens for Justice in Palestine, Episcopal Peace Fellowship's Palestine/Israel Network, Veterans for Peace, Ithaca Catholic Workers, the Fellowship of Reconciliation, and the Multicultural Resource Center. He spoke at GIAC - the Greater Ithaca Activities Center.

See William Jacobson's report on his visit to Ithaca - https://legalinsurrection.com/2016/10/anti-israel-activist-miko-peled-to-appear-at-city-of-ithaca-youth-center/.

What's he been up to since then?

He just spoke at a church in Soho, as reported by David Collier - http://david-collier.com/church-antisemitism and http://david-collier.com/miko-peled-ian-fantom/. It turns out his talk was sponsored by a group called "Keep Talking," which was founded by a 9-11 Truther named Ian Fantom and a Holocaust denier named Nick Kellerstrom. Other antisemites also attended the meeting, among them Alison Chabloz, who has been convicted and jailed for Holocaust denial (illegal in Britain), and Stephen Sizer, the Anglican vicar who also blames Israel for everything and has cosied up with the Iranian regime.

I'm not holding my breath waiting for his local fans to apologize for bringing him here. Much of his antisemitic reputation was already known at the time he came to Ithaca, and it didn't stop any of them from bringing him. A pity.