Mideast War blowback

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A half dozen national security-focused House Democrats sent a letter to President Biden on Tuesday demanding he double down on efforts to make an “immediate and significant shift” in Israeli military strategy.

The group said the administration’s pressure campaign to temper the Israeli military strategy in Gaza has not been effective, and the lawmakers demanded stronger action using “all our leverage.”

We are deeply concerned by [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s] current military strategy in Gaza. The mounting civilian death toll and humanitarian crisis are unacceptable and not in line with American interests; nor do they advance the cause of security for our ally Israel,” the letter reads.

“We also believe it jeopardizes efforts to destroy the terrorist organization Hamas and secure the release of all hostages,” the lawmakers continued.

The statement was signed by Reps. Jason Crow (D-Colo.), Mikie Sherrill (D-N.J.), Chrissy Houlahan (D-Pa.), Seth Moulton (D-Mass.), Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.) and Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.). All are members of the House Intelligence, Armed Services or Foreign Affairs committees.

The letter marks a rise in tensions between Biden and Congress over Israel, as support for the Biden administration’s response to the conflict wanes.

The lawmakers compared the Israeli operation to the failed U.S. “war on terror” in Afghanistan, where a continued American military operation saw the Taliban return to power 20 years after the conflict began.

“We know from personal experience that you can’t destroy a terror ideology with military force alone,” the letter reads. “And it can, in fact, make it worse.”

I never understood hating someone because of what they are, how they look, race or religion, etc…
I can understand hating actions.

Pro-Palestinian protestors obstructed traffic Wednesday near the entrances of two of the country’s largest airports — Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) and John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) — on what is expected to be one of the busiest travel days all year.
At JFK, the Port Authority Police Department (PAPD) made 26 arrests for disorderly conduct and impeding vehicular traffic, a PAPD spokesperson said.

The spokesperson also said the Port Authority offered free bus rides to the airport for travelers whose travel plans were delayed as a result of the protest.

“At about 11:30 this morning, PAPD was notified of protest activity on the Van Wyck Expressway inside JFK Airport,” the spokesperson said in a statement.

After the arrests were made, the spokesperson added, “The roadway was reopened at 11:50.”

“During the disruption, the Port Authority dispatched two airport buses, offering rides to travelers involved in the backup to allow them to reach the airport safely,” the spokesperson said.

Videos on social media circulated Wednesday morning of protestors holding hands across two parallel roadways, blocking traffic on both, holding banners that said “Free Palestine,” “Genocide then//Genocide now,” “Right to return” and “divest from genocide.”

The videos showed some people getting out of their cars and walking away from the area.

On the other side of the country, similar protests took place. Images of protests at LAX also flooded social media, with claims that sandbags were purportedly aligning the roads near the airport, preventing people from entering.

Harvard University President Claudine Gay resigned Tuesday after facing intense scrutiny for equivocal testimony she gave at a congressional hearing on campus antisemitism as well as widening allegations of plagiarism in her academic work.

"It is with a heavy heart but a deep love for Harvard that I write to share that I will be stepping down as president," Gay said in a letter to the Harvard community. "This is not a decision I came to easily. Indeed, it has been difficult beyond words because I have looked forward to working with so many of you to advance the commitment to academic excellence that has propelled this great university across centuries."

But after consulting with the university's board, Gay added, "it has become clear that it is in the best interests of Harvard for me to resign so that our community can navigate this moment of extraordinary challenge with a focus on the institution rather than any individual."

Gay's six-month tenure is the shortest in the university's 388-year history, according to the Harvard Crimson student newspaper. She was the first Black person and the second woman to lead the institution.

The Harvard Corporation, the school’s highest governing body, announced that Alan M. Garber, the school's provost and chief academic officer, would serve as interim president until a permanent successor is named. The corporation's members said Gay will return to a faculty position.

Gay drew fierce criticism last month after she and her counterparts at the University of Pennsylvania and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology appeared to sidestep the question of whether calls for the genocide of Jews violate the school's conduct rules.

Gay then faced allegations of plagiarism in her political science scholarship. The Harvard Corporation ordered an investigation that "revealed a few instances of inadequate citation" but found no violation of Harvard’s standards for research misconduct.

Billionaire investor Bill Ackman, as well as conservative activists such as Christopher Rufo, continued to put pressure on Harvard via posts on social media. The Washington Free Beacon, a conservative publication, published an unsigned complaint Monday that referred to new allegations of plagiarism, exacerbating the crisis.

Hundreds of cease-fire activists on Wednesday interrupted California lawmakers’ return to the Capitol, forcing the state Assembly to adjourn for the afternoon.

The protesters filled the chamber’s gallery and began chanting and singing “cease-fire now” soon after the Assembly gaveled open its first floor session of the year. They demanded lawmakers call for an end to the Israel-Hamas conflict that has killed thousands of civilians.

It’s the third time in recent months that cease-fire demonstrators have disrupted a major political event in California, highlighting a widening rift between progressive activists and more mainstream Democrats over the conflict.
Assembly leaders initially tried to quell the outburst but quickly recessed and walked off the floor. The protesters hung large black and red posters from the gallery overlooking the area where lawmakers sit, and at least 100 protesters also filled the Capitol rotunda outside the chambers.

A number of Jewish organizations across the state were behind the effort, including Jewish Voice for Peace, If Not Now and the International Jewish anti-Zionist network, spokesperson Liv Kunins-Berkowitz told POLITICO.

And while many of the protesters were Jewish, their presence also highlighted deepening divisions among Democrats.

Earlier Wednesday, Legislative Jewish Caucus released an unusually lengthy and pointed letter deploring rising antisemitism following the Oct. 7 attacks — including by some allies, like “some capitol advocates and labor unions,” whom they accused of condemning Israel while remaining silent on Hamas’ aggression.

“We find ourselves asking fundamental questions — including about the security of our families and our community — that we could not have imagined several months ago,” the letter said.

The caucus said they would seek a legislative package that includes bills addressing campus antisemitism and “ensuring our K-12 schools are not teaching children propaganda about Jews and Israel,” echoing Jewish officials’ criticism of an unauthorized Oakland teach-in event.

As protesters chanted in the rotunda hundreds of feet away, state Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), delivered a Senate floor speech warning that an anti-Israel backlash had fed “a poisonous and hostile environment for Jewish students” around California.

In remarks to reporters, Wiener and a Jewish Caucus colleague, Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel (D-Los Angeles), reprimanded the demonstrators for halting the democratic process.

But they stressed a deeper sense of dread among Jewish residents that rhetoric could quickly escalate to violence, with Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office briefing them Tuesday night on an uptick in bomb threats against Jewish sites like synagogues.

“People who are not part of the Jewish community really don’t understand how this is impacting us, why this is causing so much fear and so much anxiety,” Gabriel said, noting his synagogue now features armed guards and metal detectors.

Legislative staffers cleared the Assembly floor as they prepared to lock down the chamber.

Assemblymember Isaac Bryan (D-Los Angeles) called the demonstration “a powerful showing of civil disobedience.”

Republican Leader James Gallager said the disruption crossed the line from free speech into disorder.

“It’s something we’ve seen all too often of late,” Gallagher said. “People have free speech, people can express their ideas freely, but when we’re shutting down government business to get across your agenda, I just don’t think that’s the right way to go about it.”

The NYPD reported 31 antisemitic hate crimes in December, a spike over the same month last year but a drop compared to October and November, when anti-Jewish attacks shot up following Hamas’ Oct. 7 invasion of Israel.

The total for December represented more than double the figure from December 2022, when there were 14 anti-Jewish hate crimes. It was also far higher than the the average of 18 incidents tallied during the first nine months of the year.

But the 31 antisemitic incidents in December were far fewer than the 62 anti-Jewish crimes recorded in November and the 69 in October, indicating that the recent wave of antisemitism in the city may have crested.

Antisemitic crimes accounted for more than half of the 59 total hate crimes reported to police across the city last month. There were also 11 hate crimes motivated by sexual orientation, four anti-Muslim hate crimes, four anti-Asian hate crimes and nine more across several other categories.

A high school girls’ basketball game in Yonkers was canceled this week when players on the home team shot antisemitic slurs at their Jewish opponents, who needed security guards to escort them off the court to safety.

The girl’s varsity teams from The Leffell School, a private Jewish school in Hartsdale, and Roosevelt High School, a public school in Yonkers, faced off in the non-league game Thursday evening.

“I support Hamas, you f–king Jew,” a Roosevelt player snarled at a Leffell opponent, according to The New York City Public Schools Alliance, a group of parents and teachers fighting antisemitism.

From the outset, there was hostility and aggression with “substantially more jabs and comments thrown at the players on our team than what I have experienced in the past,” senior player Robin Bosworth wrote in an op-ed for Leffell’s student-run newspaper, The Lion’s Roar.

At the end of the third quarter, her teammates were getting injured by the rough plays, and “players on the opposing team started shouting ‘Free Palestine’ and other antisemitic slurs and curses at us,” wrote Bosworth, also editor-in-chief of the school paper.

“I have played a sport every athletic season throughout my high school career, and I have never experienced this kind of hatred directed at one of my teams before,” Bosworth said.

“Instead of responding to hatred with more of the same, we chose to separate ourselves from the situation and leave with dignity and pride in who we are and what we believe in,” she continued.

Lion’s head coach John Tessitore consulted with his squad and decided to end the game, according to Michael Kay, Leffell’s head of school.

“Our team was playing on the road, and during the course of the game, a small number of players on the opposing team directed hurtful, antisemitic comments toward members of our team,” Kay wrote in a letter to the school community.

About an hour into the game, a timeout was called, livestream footage shows, though no audio is heard. The Leffell players and Tessitore appear exasperated and he consults with the referees and the other team’s coach.

The Roosevelt players are seen gathering and appear to exchange words from afar with the Leffell players. Security steps in between both teams and the refs make an announcement before both teams suddenly exchange handshakes and security escorts them off the court.

Roosevelt High School agreed to a voluntary forfeit, according to a spokesman for the Yonkers district.

Kay said that Roosevelt’s athletic director Kyle Calabro has since apologized and said “the follow-up would be swift and appropriate.”

On Friday, Roosevelt principal Edward DeChent also apologized to Kay and described the “investigative steps” that had been taken and “outlined a number of disciplinary consequences and educational responses” including the possibility of an in-person meeting between both teams.

Kay said that Roosevelt’s athletic director Kyle Calabro has since apologized and said “the follow-up would be swift and appropriate.”

On Friday, Roosevelt principal Edward DeChent also apologized to Kay and described the “investigative steps” that had been taken and “outlined a number of disciplinary consequences and educational responses” including the possibility of an in-person meeting between both teams.

Protesters calling for a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war blocked northbound traffic on Interstate 5 in Seattle for several hours Saturday.

Additional demonstrators on a nearby overpass cheered in support of the blockade, which began around 1:15 p.m., the Seattle Times reported. The state transportation department said on the social media platform X that traffic at one point was backed up more than 6 miles (9.7 kilometers), and the agency asked drivers to use alternate routes.

Demonstrators chanted “Free, free Palestine” and “Hey hey, ho ho, the occupation has got to go.”

Seattle police posted on social media at 3:40 p.m. that officers gave a dispersal order, though protesters disputed receiving any such orders. Stormy weather, including hail, moved through the area, and protesters left the freeway around 4:45 p.m., according to the Times.

Trooper Rick Johnson with the Washington State Patrol said via X that while people had abandoned the freeway, 12 vehicles were left behind. He said the roadway would reopen when they were towed.

Yonkers canned a high school girls basketball coach and booted a player off the team after an ugly antisemitic incident at a recent game against a Jewish high school, city officials said Sunday.

On Sunday, Yonkers Public Schools Interim Superintendent Dr. Luis Rodriquez and city Mayor Mike Spano issued a joint statement denouncing the hatred and apologizing for the vitriol the visiting team faced.

“The Yonkers Public Schools, along with the City of Yonkers, sincerely apologize to the students and community of The Leffell School for the painful and offensive comments made to their women’s basketball team during a recent game with Roosevelt High School,” the statement said.

Collectively, we do not and will not tolerate hate speech of any kind from our students and community,” the statement continued.

“The antisemitic rhetoric reportedly made against the student athletes of The Leffell School are abhorrent, inappropriate and not in line with the values we set forth for our young people.”

Dozens of arrests were made after pro-Palestinian protesters blocked traffic on the Brooklyn, Manhattan and Williamsburg bridges as well as the Holland Tunnel.

The bridges and tunnel were closed Monday around 10 a.m.

Just before 11 a.m., both the Holland Tunnel and Brooklyn Bridge had reopened to traffic.

The upper level of the Manhattan Bridge was open while the lower level remained closed due to protesters.

There were a few dozen protesters at each location.

Americans for Peace Now, a left-wing pro-Israel organization, is calling for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war, becoming the first American Zionist group to do so after more than three months of fighting.

“Continuing this devastating war poses unacceptable risks for Israel, Gazan civilians and the entire region,” James Klutznick, the group’s chairman, said Monday in a statement. “For the sake of the security and wellbeing of civilians in Israel and in Gaza, the Biden administration must push Israel to bring about an immediate cessation of hostilities and pivot from war to peacemaking.”

The statement came as a sign that American Jewish groups’ broad support for Israel in the wake of Hamas’s October 7 invasion has fractured. Up until now, the only Jewish groups to call for a ceasefire have been anti-Zionist or non-Zionist, and have focused their criticism on Israel since the outset of the current conflict. The rest of the Jewish organizational spectrum, from right to left, expressed support for Israel’s war effort.

The casualties in Gaza have eroded the Jewish consensus, as has the rhetoric of some far-right members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition. Last week, the Union for Reform Judaism, representing the largest American Jewish religious denomination, called on Netanyahu to rein in ministers who are calling for the removal of Palestinians from Gaza.

Americans for Peace Now is a member of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, the consensus-driven foreign policy coalition of American Jewish organizations that has one overriding mission: backing Israel. Other left-leaning groups in the Conference have not yet called for an end to the war.

J Street, the liberal Jewish Middle East policy group that serves as the central address for pro-Israel progressives, has likewise continued to express support for the war. But in recent weeks it has said Israel must do more to protect civilian life and has called on the Israeli government to rebuff calls to transfer civilians out of Gaza. A month ago, it issued a warning that if those changes do not occur, “J Street will no longer be able to provide our organizational support for the current military campaign.”

Sure wish the US gov. would pay attn . to the obvious wishes of their own people . being done en-masse .