Read the line in bold 6 lines from the top in the footnotes! |
“I don’t speak because I have the power to speak; I speak because I don’t have the power to remain silent.” Rav Kook z"l
Tuesday, April 30, 2024
The Chafetz Chayim Coined the Word "shoah" meaning Holocaust 20 Years Before the Holocaust
21 Furious DemonRats break with their party and demand resignations at Columbia University unless it breaks up the student protest camp
Some Democrats have broken rank with their colleagues and have begun calling for the resignations at Columbia University, furious at how anti-Israel protests have engulfed campus life for a third week.
The ongoing 'Gaza Solidarity Encampment' has been ongoing for nearly two weeks and has led to the arrests of hundreds of protestors.
The activists have often vacillated between pro-Palestinian and pro-Gaza chants to anti-Zionist messages laced with antisemitism.
This enraged a small number of Democrats who last week want as far as going to the university to call for it to take action against the targeting and harassment of Jewish students as a result of the encampments.
Now, some of those Democrats who visited the university are going further, writing to the trustees of Columbia University to request they 'act decisively, disband the encampment, and ensure the safety and security of all of its students.'
'The time for negotiation is over; the time for action is now,' Jewish Reps. Josh Gottheimer, N.J., and Dan Goldman, N.Y., wrote to the trustees.
'It is ultimately the responsibility of the Board of Trustees to act.'
Gottheimer and Goldman - who both led the Democrat trip to Columbia's campus last week - said if the Board of Trustees is unable to shut down the encampments they should resign.
Still, the two Democrats have yet to call on the University's President Minouche Shafik to resign as all New York Republicans and Speaker Mike Johnson have.
'For the past week, this encampment has been the breeding ground for antisemitic attacks on Jewish students, including hate speech, harassment, intimidation, and even threats of violence,' the letter stated.
'Instead of solving the root cause of discrimination and harassment that students faced on campus, the administration decided to segregate some students from campus altogether, which naturally created an unsafe environment on campus for all students.'
'If any Trustees are unwilling to do this, they should resign so that they can be replaced by individuals who will uphold the University’s legal obligations under Title VI.'
The letter was signed by 21 Democrat lawmakers in total.
Their tough stance comes while other members of the caucus have embraced the student protests at Columbia and elsewhere.
Progressive 'Squad' members Reps. Ilhan Omar, Minn., and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, N.Y., have gone as far as visiting some pro-Palestinian encampments to express their support and even take selfies with admiring fans.
'I had the honor of seeing the Columbia University anti-war encampment firsthand,' Omar posted on X after her campus visit.
'Contrary to right-wing attacks, these students are joyfully protesting for peace and an end to the genocide taking place in Gaza. I’m in awe of their bravery and courage.'
Notably, Omar's daughter, Irsa Hirsi, was one of the students arrested at Columbia University on April 18. Over a hundred other students and protestors were also arrested that day.
Hirsi's arrest was also accompanied by a suspension from her school - Barnard College - which the Democrat's daughter later pathetically described as leaving her homeless and hungry as we was temporarily not allowed to stay on campus or access her meal plan.
Many Democrats have not gone as far as supporting the demonstrations in the same fashion as the 'Squad' members, but a lot of them have demurred on whether the paralyzing protests are appropriate.
The letter sent Monday draws a line in the sand for Democrats, separating those who condemn the pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel protests and those who don't.
After the letter was sent, the University sent out a memo notifying students that the encampment would be cleared out by 2:00 p.m. Monday.
If students resisted, they would be suspended and not provided an opportunity to leave the semester in good standing with Columbia.
After the deadline to clear the encampment passed, videos of faculty linking arms to protect the protestors emerged, indicating they will prevent the university and law enforcement from breaking the tent city down.
'Columbia has surrendered to the radical pro-Hamas antisemitic mob instead of securing campus and protecting Columbia’s Jewish students,' Republican Conference Chairwoman Elise Stefanik, N.Y., said in a statement after the protestors were unmoved Monday.
'There can be no more extensions or delays. There can be no negotiations with self-proclaimed Hamas terrorists and their sympathizers.'
Gottheimer's office did not return a request for comment.
Sick Very Sick ..Gushing Drew Barrymore says Kamala Harris needs to be the 'Momala' of the U.S. in cringeworthy interview
In her bizarre interview with Vice President Kamala Harris, Drew Barrymore urged the vice president to be the 'Momala of the country.'
Stumping for President Biden, Harris joined Barrymore for an episode of her daytime talk show, which aired on Monday. Over the course of the interview, the two discussed many topics, including Harris's polarizing laugh.
Then, during a cringeworthy moment, Barrymore dubbed the vice president 'Momala.'
'I've been thinking that we really all need a tremendous hug in the world right now,' Barrymore said.
Barrymore, who had slid uncomfortably close to Harris on the couch, continued pleading with the vice president to become a 'mother' to the whole US: 'But in our country, we need you to be Momala of the country.'
Harris smiled and seemed unsure how to respond to the new moniker.
'Yeah, I mean,' the vice president said without finishing her thought.
Then Barrymore leaned forward and held Harris's hands while the audience applauded. The actress stared into the vice president's eyes with a soulful look, while Harris appeared to grow slightly uncomfortable.
At another point in the interview, Harris defended her laugh, and she implied that those who make fun of it are exhibiting a form of sexism.
'You were asking me earlier about what it means to be like, the first woman [vice president],' Harris told Barrymore.
'And you know, it's funny because people still gotta get used to this, right?'
Harris then claimed that an example of lingering misogyny with the public adjusting to having a woman vice president is when people bring increased attention to her laugh or mannerisms.
'I mean, my staff for example, sometimes they'll show me little things that just amuse me. Like, apparently some people love to talk about the way I laugh,' Harris said.
Barrymore, crowding the vice president on the couch, said enthusiastically: 'Oh, yes. OK. I love your laugh.'
Harris has been deemed unlikable and even the Democratic National Committee conducted focus groups on the vice president to understand why voters do not like her, according to a report this month.
Some voters in the focus groups cited her laugh and others in the group questioned whether President Joe Biden even likes her.
The 59-year-old's approval rating rests somewhere in the mid-30s – a historic low for the modern vice presidency as she spent the first three years in office struggling with bad headlines.
'I have my mother's laugh,' Harris detailed to Barrymore. 'And I grew up around a bunch of women, in particular, who laughed from the belly. They laughed, they would sit around the kitchen and drinking their coffee, telling big stories with big laughs.'
'You know, I'm never gonna be like,' Harris said before faking a dainty chuckle into her hand.
The Democrat continued her story: 'It's just I'm not that person. And I think it's really important for us to remind each other and our younger ones: don't be confined to other people's perception about what this looks like, and who you should – how you should act in order to be right.'
'It's really important. It's, it's important,' she concluded.
Barrymore, who is known for her empathetic interview style, replied with: 'I love your laugh, and I love that message.'
Hamas Takes Control of Columbia's "Hamilton Hall"
Pro-Hamas protesters on campus at Columbia University seized the historic Hamilton Hall on campus and are refusing to leave until all of their demands are met.
Earlier on Monday, school officials began suspending pro-Palestinian student activists who refused to dismantle a protest camp after the Ivy League school declared a stalemate in talks seeking to end the polarizing demonstration.
University President Nemat Minouche Shafik said in a statement that days of negotiations between student organizers and academic leaders failed to persuade demonstrators to remove the dozens of tents set to express opposition to the war in Gaza.
Around 12:30am local time, Hamas supporters began breaching Hamilton Hall, which was the site of a historic protest against racial injustice in the US in the 1960s.
'We will not leave until Columbia meets every one of our demands,' one Hamas screamed from a balcony in the building. The group has demanded that the university divest from Israel.
According to the Columbia Spectator, the student newspaper, Hamas stooges who made it inside the building threw their belongings aside before beginning their immediate efforts to barricade themselves inside.
Images from the mass demonstration show sleeping bags, coats, rucksacks and blankets strewn across the ground and piled up in front of doors.
The students stormed the building located along the South Lawn, which has been the scene of the university's anti-Israel encampment for over a week.
They quickly climbed the stairs, dragging down tables and chairs from classrooms which they then used to barricade the doors from the inside.
The building was locked down in less than five minutes, according to the student publication, and protesters allowed no one to enter.
Protesters blocked security cameras inside the building with black trash bags and tape, and according to a source from within the building, at least three facility workers remained inside until 1am.
'Several individuals, including the Facilities workers, left the building around 1:10 a.m. after protesters removed the barricades blocking one door, rebolting it after the workers left,' the student paper reported.
One of the workers yelled, 'They held me hostage' as he left the building and smacked somebody's camera, according to the newspaper.
A Man's Look at the Charedi world he loved and betrayed
Tuvia Tenenbom (center) is seen alongside some Charedi fans. |
“Haredi women, like any other humans, want to look attractive. You can be modest, cover most of your body, and yet look sexier than any woman in a bikini.”
However, this is a problem for haredi men “because spillage of men’s seed is a great, great sin – the biggest sin ever.”
According to Tuvia Tenenbom, this explains why ultra-Orthodox men are taught not to look at women except for their wives. It also explains the title of his newest book, Careful, Beauties Ahead!
Scion of an ultra-Orthodox (haredi) family in Bnei Brak, Tenenbom left the milieu of the yeshiva as a young adult and has lived mainly in New York and Germany. In Germany, his fair looks and facility with the language enabled him to pass for a non-Jewish local.
That ability and his knack for gaining strangers’ trust and asking questions that elicit telling responses about deep-seated attitudes (particularly toward Jews and Israel), assured the success of his previous books: I Sleep in Hitler’s Room; Catch the Jew!; Hello, Refugees; The Lies They Tell; and The Taming of the Jew. I recommend all of them for both their entertainment value and shock value.
Disappointed after having plumbed the depths of humanity in Europe and the United States, Tenenbom came back after several decades to explore “the spiritual world that I ran away from; a world that I loved, and a world that I betrayed.”
Wearing his trademark suspenders and red eyeglasses, the avuncular journalist planted himself for several months in Mea She’arim, the quintessentially haredi Jerusalem neighborhood where signs warn female pedestrians not to walk around immodestly dressed.
Internet rips Self-Hating Leftist Jew USC professor Sarah Kessler as she cancels final exams, tells students to join Pro=Hamas protest
The controversial decision came to light through an email, publicly posted by The Post Millennial, sent by Kessler to her students, where she criticized the university's handling of the protest and voiced her solidarity with the demonstrators.
In her email, Kessler expressed her disapproval of the university administration's decision to mobilize the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) to shut down the protest, which resulted in the arrest of 93 individuals, mostly USC students and faculty members.
She wrote, "How are we supposed to engage in 'normal' finals-week behavior while our university administration is criminalizing its students merely for opposing war and mass death and protesting its draconian policies? How are you supposed to take exams with LAPD helicopters loudly circling overhead?"
The professor then announced her decision to cancel the final project for her class, stating, "I'm canceling the Final Project. You don't have to do it. Everyone will get a good grade. I told you from the start I don't care about grades anyway."
She encouraged her students to visit Founders Park on campus, where students and faculty were collaborating to educate each other in an "organic way that doesn't involve exams, grades, and GPAs."
The aftermath of the Gaza camp protest saw USC taking measures to ensure campus safety, including calling off upcoming graduation ceremonies and implementing strict security protocols.
The university also banned unregistered guests from campus and prohibited social gatherings and disruptive behaviors for the remainder of the semester, as reported by Fox News.
Kessler's actions sparked outrage on the internet, with many condemning her decision. One X user remarked, "I hope this left-wing idiot will be fired and prosecuted. It would also be good to ban her from teaching altogether." Another echoed similar sentiments, stating, "Disgrace to her profession. (Actually becoming a very low bar now.)"
A user weighed in, stating, "No legit professor would abdicate their true instructional responsibilities." Another person added, "This is a disservice to the students. Fire her." One user commented, "Insanity, gross irresponsibility, she should be fired."
Another user asserted, "People like this should never be allowed to perform an activity that could influence a child/young adults decisions." "This professor entirely lost her mind," wrote one user. A user stated, "Un-acceptable conduct for a college professor."
Four out of five Americans favor Israel over Hamas, most back Rafah operation: poll
Americans favor Israel in its war against Hamas by a margin of four-to-one and nearly three-quarters support a military operation in the southern Gaza city of Rafah.
Four out of five voters (80%) back the Jewish state in its nearly seven-month-old war against the Islamic terrorist group, with the highest levels of support concentrated among older age groups, according to a Harvard CAPS/Harris survey released Monday.
Meanwhile, 72% of voters say they back an Israel Defense Forces military operation in Rafah to “finish the war,” with 28% saying Israel should “back off now and allow Hamas to continue running Gaza.”
The poll was released as college students and faculty have erupted in protests supporting Hamas and denigrating Israel and Jews on campuses across the country, erecting encampments at many prominent universities including Columbia and NYU.
President Biden, 81, has taken flack from his progressive base for his handling of the conflict.
He has also pressured Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu against going into Rafah without a plan to protect civilians from harm.
On Sunday, the two leaders had a phone call, and Biden “reiterated his clear position” on Rafah, according to a readout from the White House.
However, two-thirds of voters in the Harris poll said Israel was already trying to avoid civilian casualties in the densely populated Palestinian enclave.
Respondents also gave Biden low marks for his handling of the Israel-Hamas conflict, with just 39% saying they approved of his response.
While Americans were overwhelmingly supportive of Israel, the Harvard CAPS-Harris poll flagged a deep schism by age.
Among registered voters between 18 and 24, only 57% backed Israel compared to 43% who favored Hamas.
Among voters between 55 and 64, however, support for Israel reached 91%, with 93% of those 65 and up backing the Jewish state.
Hamas, which governed the Gaza Strip, is designated as a terrorist organization by the US and many Western nations.
The group sparked the war on Oct. 7, 2023, with a gruesome attack on southern Israel that killed an estimated 1,200 people, including 33 Americans.
United Nations experts concluded that Hamas terrorists carried out gang rape and other acts of sexual violence during the attack.
When asked about the possibility of a cease-fire that would permit Hamas to rule Gaza and continue to hold dozens of hostages taken on Oct. 7, more than two-thirds of all voters (68%) opposed the idea.
However, voters ages 18 to 24 were in favor of the proposal by a margin of 57% to 43%.
The poll also showed Donald Trump leading President Biden in a three-way matchup with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., with the Republican getting 44%, Biden on 38%, and RFK Jr. getting 12%.
In a head-to-head showdown, Trump leads Biden by five percentage points, 48% to 43%.
With leaners included, the 45th president leads Biden 52% to 48% in the two-way race, and 45% to 41% in the three-cornered fight, with Kennedy getting 14%.
The Harvard CAPS/Harris was taken April 24–25 and surveyed 1,961 registered voters with a margin of error of plus-or-minus 2 percentage points.
Columbia's EMPTY THREATS Deadlines came and went. Promises were made and never kept.
Columbia University administrators seemed poised to take a brave stand against ongoing student protests Monday — and then totally wimped out, cowering in the face of student activists.
This morning, school president Minouche Shafik steadfastly announced on the school’s website that Columbia would not divest its endowment from Israel.
“The university will not divest from Israel,” Shafik courageously declared, while also acknowledging that negotiations to clear student protesters — who have been camped out on campus since April 17 — had been unsuccessful.
Ball in her court, Shafik laid down a new 2 p.m. deadline for the “liberated zone” to empty and the camp to be dismantled.
Hundreds of Pro-Israel Gather In front of Columbia to Show their Support of Israel... No Chareidim!!
Where are the Chareidim??
*BREAKING:* Israel has assassinated an Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps official in Tehran who was involved in targeting Jews in Germany.
To the Zionists, if any Jew anywhere in the world is targeted, its as if an Israeli in Isral was targeted.
Israel killed an IRGC terror commander in Iran who planned synagogue attacks in Germany, according to a report.
The report was publicized on Monday night on Iran International, a British-owned media outlet that broadcasts in the Persian language.
Although no further details have been released about the terrorist or who carried out the fatal operation, it was said he was responsible for “damaging Jewish centers in Germany.”
Two years ago, Germany reported that it suspected the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corp was behind three attempted terror attacks against synagogues.
The incidents involved shooting at a synagogue in Essen, Molotov cocktails thrown at a school next to a synagogue in Bochum and an arson plot against a synagogue in Dortmund.
The news of the killing of the IRGC commander is the latest in an ongoing conflict between Iran and Israel, which is characterized by unprecedented direct attacks between the two countries rather than through Iranian proxies such as Hezbollah and the Houthis.
On April 1st, Iran blamed Israel for the killing of Mohammad Reza Zahedi at an embassy in Damascus.
In retaliation, Iran released an historic 350 drones and missiles directly toward Israeli soil only to have 99% of them intercepted through the joint efforts of the IDF, US, UK and Jordanian forces.
Israel made a restrained retaliation which was thought to have been just a warning when it attacked a military base in Isfahan.
Iran didn’t acknowledge that Israel was behind the strike on the military base, but nonetheless, Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi threatened that if Israel launched a major attack against Iran, “there will be nothing left of the Zionists regime.”
Although the US discouraged Israel from striking back against Iran, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) urged US President Joe Biden to consider tough sanctions against Iran.