Mideast War blowback

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President Joe Biden on Friday praised the speech delivered by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., a day earlier in which he said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has "lost his way" and called for new elections in Israel.

“He made a good speech and I think he expressed a serious concern shared not only by him but by many Americans," Biden told reporters in the Oval Office when asked what he thought about Schumer's remarks.

Biden, who said that Schumer contacted his staff in advance of making the speech Thursday, said he wouldn't elaborate further on the comments.

The speech by Schumer, the highest-ranking Jewish official in the U.S. ever, was the most significant criticism by a U.S. leader against Israel since its war with Hamas began after Oct. 7.

While some Democrats praised Schumer's speech Thursday, it also drew countering viewpoints from other members of his party, as well as criticism from Republican lawmakers.

Although I have disagreements with Israel’s government, I respect the Israelis’ right to decide for themselves when to call elections and whom to choose as their leaders," Rep. Brad Schneider, D-Ill., said in a statement. “I pray that when the time comes, Israelis of all faiths and backgrounds will come together to elect leaders who will strengthen democracy and build on the unbreakable bonds between our two nations, just as I pray we Americans will do in November.”

Former Rep. Ted Deutch, D-Fla., now president of the American Jewish Committee, wrote in a statement that while the organization appreciates Schumer's defense of Israel, "We do not believe it is appropriate for U.S. officials to try to dictate the electoral future of any ally."

Netanyahu's rival Benny Gantz, for example, posted on X, that Schumer "is a friend of Israel, and though he erred in his remarks, plays an important role in assisting the State of Israel, including during these difficult times."

"Israel is a robust democracy, and only its citizens will decide its future and leadership. Any external interference on the matter is counter-productive and unacceptable," he wrote

London’s biggest screening party for the Eurovision Song Contest finals has been canceled, the venue Rio Cinema and organizer Eurovision Party London have said.

“Following discussion with the organizers of Eurovision Party London, we have collectively decided not to screen the Grand Final of the Eurovision Song Contest this year while Israel remains in the competition,” the Rio Cinema said in a statement on X. “The Eurovision Party London has been a beloved partner of The Rio Cinema for many years, and we will continue to work with them in the future. We firmly believe that the Eurovision Song Contest has the power to bring people together across the world, and when its core values of inclusivity, equality and universality are upheld, it can be a genuine force for good. With its own slogan in mind, we hope that we can all be United By Music again soon. We will continue to organize fundraising events for the charities we support, including Doctors Without Borders and Medical Aid for Palestine.”

The move comes after 400 celebrities and industry executives signed an open letter supporting Israel’s inclusion in this year’s contest"

The Biden campaign and allied Democratic groups swiftly denounced Donald Trump on Monday after the former president told a conservative radio host that Jews who vote Democratic were sacrilegious.

The comments from Trump came during an interview with Sebastian Gorka, his one time campaign aide, who pressed him on criticism prominent Democrats have had for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during the Israel-Hamas war.

“I actually think they hate Israel,” Trump told Gorka. “Any Jewish person that votes for Democrats hates their religion … They hate everything about Israel, and they should be ashamed of themselves because Israel will be destroyed.”

The comments, some of the most direct that Trump has offered around the domestic political fallout of the Israel-Hamas war, evoked earlier statements the former president has made questioning the “loyalty” of American Jews.

Jonathan Greenblatt, the chief executive of the Anti-Defamation League — a Jewish advocacy group, called Trump’s remarks “defamatory.” The White House derided them as “toxic” and President Joe Biden’s campaign accused Trump of “attacking Jewish Americans at a time of rising antisemitism.”

Hate crimes in Toronto, Canada, have increased by 93% since the October 7 massacre when compared to the prior year, and most of the incidents were antisemitic, Toronto Police Chief Myron Demkiw said on Monday morning in an update to the Toronto Police Services Board.

“It has been 163 days since the Middle East crisis began, and the impact of the geopolitical unrest abroad continues to affect people worldwide, including in Canada and right here in Toronto,” said Demkiw. “We are laser focused on the task at hand: keeping the city safe.”

Police have responded to 989 hate crime calls since October 7; there have been 304 since the beginning of 2024. This marks an increase of 225 calls from the same time the previous year. There have been a total of 84 confirmed hate crimes since the year began, an 83% increase compared to 2023.

Anti-Jewish crime accounted for most targeted hate crimes in 2024
Anti-Jewish crime accounted for more hate crimes than any other category in 2024 and preceding years. February was the month with the highest number of antisemitic incidents in the last three years, according to the police. There have been a total of 47 antisemitic hate crimes in Toronto since the year began.

“While we saw a reduction in calls for service for hate crimes in December and January, we have seen a significant increase in February, with a 67 percent rise in calls,” said Demkiw. “Of the 84 hate crimes so far in 2024, 56 percent are antisemitic. Last month saw the highest number of antisemitic occurrences in the last three years.”

Demkiw said that the second-highest bias category was crimes targeting LGBTQ+ people, followed by anti-black racism and Islamiphobia. The police said that there have been five anti-Muslim, anti-Arab, or anti-Palestinian hate crimes this year, an increase of one from the same time last year

“While underreporting of all forms of hate crimes is a concern, I know from talking to people in the community that Islamophobia is a significant concern, and given our statistics, I am concerned about significant underreporting in this regard,” said Demkiw.

“There was a spike in hate-related graffiti in October and November 2023, and although the numbers began to decline over the following few months, there was another peak in February 2024,” said the police.

A federal appeals court panel on Monday affirmed a lower court’s dismissal of First Amendment claims brought by a group of self-proclaimed Zionist Jewish professors at the City University of New York system, who say they were forced to associate with a public sector union they describe as antisemitic and anti-Israel.

The group of tenured professors and adjunct lecturers of accounting, math and business who work at several CUNY schools brought their civil rights challenge against the Professional Staff Congress two years ago in the Southern District of New York, where U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer dismissed the case as barred by precedent from the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1984 decision in Minnesota State Board for Community Colleges v. Knight, which held that exclusive-representative collective bargaining does not unconstitutionally compel speech or expressive association.

On appeal, the professors argued that the lower court’s reliance on Knight was misguided and should not foreclose on their First Amendment claims, but the Second Circuit panel found that the professors’ interpretation of the underlying case was "far too narrow."

"In Knight, the court explained that excluding non-union members from ‘meet and confer’ sessions to discuss policy questions separate from collective bargaining ‘in no way restrained [the employees’] freedom to speak on any education-related issue or their freedom to associate or not to associate with whom they please, including the exclusive representative,'” the panel wrote in its unsigned per curiam opinion.

“Therefore, restricting attendance at these meetings to the exclusive representative violated neither the plaintiffs’ free speech nor associational rights,” the appeals panel concluded.

Nathan McGrath, president and general counsel for the Fairness Center, said the professors look forward to petitioning the U.S. Supreme Court to hear their case.

“New York law says our clients, most of whom are Jewish, must rely on a union that has taken a public stand against Israel to negotiate on their behalf," he wrote in a statement Monday afternoon. "It’s hard to imagine a clearer illustration of the harm caused by exclusive representation."

The group of six CUNY teachers claimed the trade union that represents some 30,000 faculty and professional staff at the City University of New York campuses, the Professional Staff Congress, infringed on their free speech and associational rights by forcing them to accept what they view as a “hostile political group” in support of Palestine as their exclusive agent for speaking and contracting with their government employer.

On appeal the professors sought to distinguish Knight, which primarily dealt with public employees’ ability to participate in union meetings, from their own argument that being forced to accept the bargaining power and representation of union officials violates their First Amendment free association rights.

"The professors — all but one of whom are Jews and Zionists — want nothing to do with PSC because, among other reasons, PSC supports the so-called ‘Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions’ (“BDS”) movement that the professors believe vilifies Zionism, disparages the national identity of Jews, and seeks to destroy Israel as a sovereign state,” the professors wrote in their appeals brief.

The professors’ grievance with the collective bargaining body over its stance on Israel predates the current war in Gaza sparked by the Oct. 7 coordinated attacks on Israel by Hamas: It stems from the union’s adoption of a June 2021 resolution, titled "Resolution in Support of the Palestinian People,” which the professors deemed “antisemitic, anti-Jewish, and anti-Israel."

During oral arguments last fall, the appeals panel signaled that it was hesitant to breathe new life into the professors’ complaint.

An art teacher in Berkeley, California told her class of second-graders to write "Stop Bombing Babies" on sticky notes to be plastered by the door to a Jewish teacher's classroom, according to a complaint filed by the Brandeis Center and the Anti-Defamation League late last month.

The complaint, which alleges a breach of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act (1964), claims the Berkeley Unified School District (BUSD) failed to take action to end "nonstop bullying and harassment of Jewish students by peers and teachers" since October 7, when Hamas committed a mass terror attack against Israel and killed some 1,200 people.

The federal action was filed by both the ADL and the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law. The action came after a record number of complaints, including a letter signed by 1,370 Berkeley community members to the Berkeley Superintendent and Board of Education.

BUSD schools have placed Jewish students in separate classrooms instead of addressing the issue of antisemitism, the ADL claimed.

Antisemitic incidents in BUSD
The release detailed a number of antisemitic incidents, including mob attacks against Jewish students. The incidents have reportedly forced many Jewish students to remove their Stars of David and cease wearing items associated with Judaism.

Jewish students have been questioned on what “their number is,” a reference to tattooed numbers placed on Holocaust victims in concentration camps.

Other students have heard their peers say “kill the Jews” in the classrooms and hallways of their education facilities.

Teachers have also facilitated the antisemitic incidents, the complaint alleges, as individual teachers reportedly utilized class time to go on antisemitic, pro-Hamas rants. Some teachers have also orchestrated class walkouts, leaving students unattended and off school property without permission from parents.

Condemning the incidents
“The eruption of anti-Semitism in Berkeley’s elementary and high schools is like nothing I’ve ever seen before,” said Kenneth L. Marcus, chairman of the Brandeis Center and the former US Assistant Secretary of Education for the George W. Bush and Donald Trump administrations.

“It is dangerous enough to see faculty fanning the flames of anti-Semitism on college campuses, but to see teachers inciting hate in the youngest of grades while Berkeley administrators sit idly by as it continues to escalate by the day is reprehensible. Where is the accountability? Where are the people who are supposed to protect and educate students?”

The House Education Committee formally requested a wide range of documents from the University of California, Berkeley on Tuesday as part of lawmakers’ growing investigation of antisemitism on college campuses.

In a letter to UC Berkeley leaders, Rep. Virginia Foxx, the Republican chair of the committee, said lawmakers are investigating the school’s “response to antisemitism and its failure to protect Jewish students.”

“We have grave concerns about the inadequacy of UC Berkeley’s response to antisemitism on its campus,” Foxx wrote, citing a list of incidents that have taken place since the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel.

In a statement, UC Berkley told CNN: “UC Berkeley has long been committed to confronting antisemitism, and to supporting the needs and interests of its Jewish students, faculty, and staff.”

UC Berkeley joins a growing list of universities drawing Congressional scrutiny.

Foxx’s committee has previously requested documents from Harvard University, Columbia University, the University of Pennsylvania and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Foxx previously said Harvard has “absolutely failed” to comply with her committee’s unprecedented subpoena for documents to that Ivy League school.

The letter to UC Berkeley on Tuesday gives the school until April 2 to turn over a trove of documents, including reports on antisemitic incidents since early 2021; disciplinary action; minutes from meetings of UC leaders; and information on foreign donations.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke virtually to Republican senators during a closed-door meeting Wednesday and found a welcome reception.

But Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., declined a request by Netanyahu to address the Senate Democratic caucus, a spokesperson for Schumer said, adding: “Sen. Schumer made it clear that he does not think these discussions should happen in a partisan manner. That’s not helpful to Israel.”

The split-screen highlights the polarizing American views of Netanyahu and Israel's conduct in Gaza, which has led to cracks in what was once rock-solid bipartisan support for Israel's government. Tensions are escalating between Netanyahu and top Democratic leaders in the U.S. amid a growing and deadly war in the Middle East that began after the Hamas attack on Israelis on Oct. 7.

Schumer addressed questions about Netanyahu at his weekly press conference Wednesday, saying the Israeli prime minister has only himself to blame for the cracks in U.S. solidarity with his government.

“When you make these issues partisan, you hurt the cause of Israel,” Schumer told reporters, standing by his call last week for new elections in Israel.

The roots of Democratic angst with Netanyahu trace back to the era of former President Barack Obama, when the Israeli leader took a publicly confrontational attitude with the president and aligned with the GOP. In 2012, Netanyahu's rhetoric fueled a belief that he was seeking to boost Republican nominee Mitt Romney in the election. In 2015, Netanyahu accepted an invitation from House Republicans to address Congress and criticized Obama’s diplomatic negotiations with Iran.

At the time, Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the No. 2 Democrat, privately warned Netanyahu he was hurting his own country by meddling in a U.S. political dispute.

“I brought it up to him personally — told him it used to be a bipartisan cause, the future of Israel. He’s making it a one-party monopoly in terms of his alliances,” Durbin recalled to NBC News this week. “That’s a serious mistake for Israel.”

On Wednesday, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said he told Netanyahu directly that he disagrees with Schumer.

“I made it clear to him that it’s not the business of the United States to be giving a democratic ally advice about when to have an election or what kind of military campaign they’re conducting,” McConnell told reporters. “We obviously have a lot in common. But it seems to me the bipartisan support for Israel seems to be cracking on the political left of this country.”

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., said Netanyahu was asked about Schumer’s comments about a new election in Israel.

“He was very direct, he said he thought that Sen. Schumer’s remarks were wholly inappropriate and outrageous,” Hawley said. “And obviously he took great offense.”

Said Tuberville, “We’re more embarrassed than he is”

US House Speaker Mike Johnson confirms the legislative chamber’s Republican caucus is considering inviting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Prominent Jews among progressive donors warning Biden against ‘unconditional’ support for Israel Byto address Congress, amid a deepening divide between the premier and Democrats over the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.

“It’s one of the things that we have in mind, and we may try to arrange for that,” Johnson tells reporters. “I think it’s very important for us to show solidarity and support for Israel right now in their time of great struggle, and we certainly stand for that position and we’ll try to advance that in every way that we can.”

Johnson says he had a “lengthy conversation” with Netanyahu this morning “and reiterated to him the House Republicans’ strong support for Israel.”

A number of prominent Jewish donors are included in a letter from more than 100 Democratic funders calling on US President Joe Biden to pull back his “unconditional” support for Israel’s war effort, and warning that it may harm his reelection prospects.

“Because of the disillusionment of a critical portion of the Democratic coalition, the Gaza war is increasing the chances of a Trump victory,” says the letter, which was sent Monday and first reported by The New York Times.

The letter comes amid growing pressure on Biden over Gaza from a swell of progressive voters, who have voted “uncommitted” in significant numbers in several primaries. The protest votes raise the prospect that progressive voters may stay home or decline to vote for the president in November, potentially facilitating a victory for former president Donald Trump.


“As donors and activists, we have committed much time and treasure in helping increase the turnout of likely Biden voters, particularly among young voters and voters of color.” the letter says. “Many of these voters are now questioning whether the Democratic Party shares their values.”

Among the signers are George and Liana Krupp, the father and daughter who steer the Krupp Family Foundation, which funds progressive Jewish organizations as well as the Council of American Jewish Museums. George Krupp, who has given $600,000 to Democrats this cycle, according to the Times, told the Times he remains committed to electing Biden to office.

Other prominent Jewish names include Barbara Dobkin, a philanthropist who has given to Jewish and Israeli feminist causes; Carol Winograd, who has funded progressive Jewish groups including J Street and Bend the Arc; Tamara Abrams, a Bay area climate activist who has served on the board of the East Bay Jewish Community Center; Margery Goldman, a philanthropist who has funded Israeli-Palestinian peace groups; and Marsha Rosenbaum, who has been at the forefront of advocating for drug reforms.

The letter says Israel has the right to defend itself from Hamas after the terror group’s October 7 attack on Israel, which it said included war crimes.

“We cannot imagine the pain that the hostages and their families endure every day,” the letter says. “We also acknowledge that Israel has the right, as does every country, to defend its citizens, and we sympathize with the stated joint goals of eliminating Hamas and freeing the hostages.

But the letter goes on to charge Israel with “indiscriminate” bombing and “systematically” destroying “nearly all civil structures in Gaza.” It calls for conditions on US defense assistance to Israel and adds, “Regrettably President Biden has provided what appears to be unconditional support for the Israeli operation.” It says Biden’s pressure on Israel to minimize civilian casualties has been ineffective.

A survey by the Pew Research Center published Thursday shows how Americans are split — particularly along religious lines — over Israel’s conduct in Gaza and the reasons for the war itself. The poll is among the most comprehensive yet of how Americans’ opinions on the conflict differ depending on religious affiliations.

The poll found 38 percent of U.S. adults said they think Israel’s conduct has been acceptable, and slightly more than 34 percent said it has been unacceptable.

The difference in opinion over Israel’s conduct is starker along religious lines, with 62 percent of American Jews saying Israel’s war conduct is acceptable and 5 percent of American Muslims saying so, according to the survey, which polled 12,693 adults in the United States last month. Muslims and Jews were “oversampled” compared with their portion of the general population to provide a large enough sample to draw insights from each group. But they were not overrepresented in the survey, which was weighted to account for the oversampling and had a margin of sampling error of 1.5 percentage points.

A vast majority of American Jews — 89 percent — said Israel had valid reasons for the war, which began after Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, killing about 1,200 people and taking scores of hostages. Among U.S. Muslims, 18 percent saw Israel’s reasons for going to war as valid, the survey found. Meanwhile, according to the survey, 22 percent of Americans overall said the war will make Israelis safer than before, while 27 percent said it will instead make them less secure.

The poll also found differing opinions based on age, with younger people more opposed to Israel’s actions when compared to older adults. For example, among adults ages 18 to 29, 34 percent said Hamas’s reasons for fighting Israel are valid, while 30 percent said they are not. Among people 65 and older, 64 percent said Hamas’s reasons are not valid, while 17 percent said they are.

Young people were the most critical of Israel’s conduct in Gaza, with 46 percent saying the way Israel is carrying out its response to the Oct. 7 attack is unacceptable. Twenty-one percent said it was acceptable, while 32 percent were unsure. For people over 65, more than half — 53 percent — said Israel’s conduct was acceptable, while 29 percent said it was not and 16 percent were unsure.

Queens College’s Hillel chapter says recent graffiti on campus targeting Jews was a threat to student safety and demanded action from the college administration.

The graffiti on buildings around campus included the messages, “You better start hiding, Jews,” “Israelis, I’m coming after you,” and “Hitler, please come back. Teach Jews a lesson,” according to a statement released by the college’s Hillel director, Jenna Citron Schwab.

The statement, issued Thursday, said the college’s Jewish community had experienced similar threats previously and had been warning college leadership for weeks about escalating antisemitism on campus.

“The vandalism threatens the safety of Jews,” the statement said. “Antisemitism has no place on our campus or in any society.”

The Hillel demanded that the college call out antisemitism, take steps to enforce its code of conduct to prevent antisemitic vandalism and punish the perpetrators.

The college’s president, Frank Wu, sent a statement to the campus community on Thursday saying that “antisemitic graffiti” was found in several bathrooms and police were notified.

In a follow-up statement on Friday, Wu said that the NYPD had classified one instance of graffiti as a hate crime and the others as criminal mischief.

A Queens College spokesperson told the New York Jewish Week that Wu meets often with Hillel representatives and that they are “working together to address antisemitism.”

Queens College has about 4,000 Jewish students, close to 30% of its student body of 13,510, according to Hillel international.

Tensions have been high at Queens College amid the Israel-Hamas war. A meeting between Muslim and Jewish students in November devolved into shouting. Muslim students at the meeting expressed support for Hamas’ October 7 terror attack on Israel, which launched the war, and castigated an imam who organized the talk.

Wu spoke out against the school’s Muslim Students Association in November after the group denied Hamas atrocities. His criticism drew backlash from pro-Palestinian supporters on campus.

Early casualties of War or Serious Conflict...as I have been told is : The Right of Free Speech .

[ Obviously , we are needing a better class of Graffiti ..] Need to bring back the older hippie type graffiti !
<<<<<< Flower Power & Images of Daiseys>>>>>>
AND Especially this one :Children and Living things do not survive War well.

It went "War is not healthy for children and other living things". And the posters and stickers did have a daisy.

And there was this much more graphic poster that was popular.

That you gor that correction..! ....for the life of me , could not recall it exactly, so had to paraphrase , i thought .
Senior moments ...

Sofie Glassman was standing in line in the cafeteria of East Meadow High School when she overheard some students say they wanted to throw a Jewish student in a gas chamber because they didn’t like him. While Glassman said she’s faced antisemitism nearly every day since kindergarten — she still remembers when a student said she wouldn’t play with her because she was Jewish — it’s escalated since October 7.

“Kids are always saying things like this, it’s just gotten worse. Students post things like ‘Zionists are colonists,’ or ‘Zionists are the worst thing you can be.’ There have been swastikas in the bathroom and in classrooms,” said Glassman, who is in her junior year.

Since the Hamas-led massacre in southern Israel on October 7, students are increasingly exposed to antisemitic jokes, seeing pro-Hamas content posted on social media or being excluded from groups because of their Jewish identity.

“Most of us who grew up in America faced little to no antisemitism. Since October 7, the mask is off. All of these blatantly antisemitic people have been emboldened. It’s clearly not a fringe minority anymore, it’s a vocal, large minority. And once the mask lifted, this hate is out there, unvarnished on display,” said NCSY international director Rabbi Micah Greenland.

Rabbi Nati Stern, the director of JSU and NCSY in Houston, said there’s been a sharp uptick in antisemitism both inside and outside school, particularly on social media. In his conversations with Jewish teens, he also finds they are feeling increasingly uneasy and isolated.

“A teen who they sit next to in history class, who they once thought was their friend, is now sharing, reposting and spreading antisemitic lies and tropes. They eat in the same lunchroom as their peers share pro-Hamas posts,” said Stern, who helps run JSU clubs in nine schools in the greater Houston area.

That you gor that correction..! ....for the life of me , could not recall it exactly, so had to paraphrase , i thought .
Senior moments ...

The OTHER quote, about 'free speech', actually goes "truth is the first casualty of war.".

That quote came from a U.S. senator who opposed US entry into WWI in 1917.