Some Things Every American Should Know

It has been quite distressing to see all the pro-Palestinian and even pro-Hamas demonstrations on college campuses.  But it is not always an accident.  Arab countries, especially Saudi Arabia and Qatar, have contributed billions to our universities.  As has the Chinese Communist Party.  Anybody think they have an interest in instilling American or Western values.  Anybody think they are sending all this money our way just to be nice?  The CCP has established Confucius Institutes.  At Georgetown University they have the Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian understanding.  Funded by the Saudis.  

The Department of Education reported that Arab sources donated about $8.5 billion to US colleges and universities between 1986 and 2021.  At least, that is what was reported by US schools.  And one site reports that "donors from Arab states have quietly made contributions to American universities to create centers and chairs to propagate their views.  The Arab lobby succeeded in hijacking the field of Middle East Studies and now has faculty across the country who use their positions to advance political agendas that are typically pro-Arab (often specifically related to the Palestinians), anti-Israel, and uncritical of radical Islam."  So guess what America's youth are being taught?  Nothing positive about Israel, the only Western style democracy in the Middle East.

Cornell, Stanford, UC Berkeley and University of Texas (Austin) all have relationships with the King Abdullah (former leader of Saudi Arabia) University of Science and Technology, with each getting $25 million or more over a five year period.  MIT, Harvard and Carnegie Mellon are also recipients of Arab largesse.  Qatar, a country that openly supports Hamas, has contributed billions to our academies.  

Let us not forget the professor at Cornell who referred to the atrocities committed by Hamas on October 7 as "exhilarating" and "energizing."  The brutal murder of unarmed civilians, even children and babies, was exhilarating and energizing for this professor.  Just how sick can it get.  

And we know that Leftist thinking which has infected the media and Hollywood and the Democrat Party, tends to support the anti-Israel narrative.  Here is former President Obama:  "What Hamas did was horrific, and there's no justification for it.  And what is also true is that the occupation and what's happening to Palestinians is unbearable."  After saying there was no justification for the atrocities committed by Hamas, Obama gave them a justification.  

Meanwhile, these young people, who likely know nothing about the history of the Middle East, who seem to not know what the Holocaust was, are getting increasingly brazen and threatening in their attacks on Jews.  The President of AIPAC (the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee) has a home in the Brentwood section of Los Angeles.  AIPAC is the largest pro-Israel lobbying group in the country.  Pro-Palestinian demonstrators vandalized his driveway, threw smoke bombs at his home, and carried a banner reading "Fuck UR holiday!  Baby Killer!"  

Meanwhile, a teacher at the Hillcrest High School in Jamaica Hills, Queens, NYC, had to hide inside a locked office for two hours.  Why?  After posting that she stands with Israel, "hundreds of teens stormed the hallways, where they chanted, waved Palestinian flags and screamed that the teacher needs to go."  (As reported by Fox News.)  The teacher has worked in the NYC schools for 23 years, and said she "was shaken to my core."  

But these threats and disruptions are not isolated incidents.  Pro-Palestinian protesters have taken over bridges in order to disrupt traffic.  They attempted to disrupt the 97th Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.  They defaced the White House gate.  They interfered with the operations at Grand Central Station in NYC.  The list goes on and on.  How soon before we see serious injuries and deaths.  (Of course, there was already the death of a Jewish man in Thousand Oaks, California, at the hands of a pro-Palestinian protester - a professor at a local college no less.)

Meanwhile, in a poll out this month, 37% of Jewish college students said they feel a need to hide their identity.  54% said they felt scared.  This is America in 2023.  But it made me think of the meme sent to me by my younger daughter the first weekend of this month, with the end of daylight saving time:  "Don't forget to turn your clocks back to 1938 Germany time this weekend."  November, 1938, was when the Nazis organized a series of what have been described as pogroms, resulting in the vandalism and destruction of Jewish homes, businesses and synagogues.  It came to be known as "Kristallnacht," the night of broken glass.  

I have often said that, outside of Israel, the United States has been the best country in the world for the Jewish people.  I don't want to think that we have set our clocks back to 1938 Germany time.  But it behooves all of us as Americans, Jews and non-Jews alike, to pay attention and to speak up and against the rise in antisemitism and outright Jew hatred. 

Progressive Thinking is a Threat to Israel, America and the World

Nicholas Kristof is a self-described progressive, and a regular Op-Ed writer for the New York Times.  He has even won two Pulitzer Prizes.  Unfortunately, he lacks moral clarity.  In the Sunday, November 12th edition of the paper's Opinion section, he had this article:  "President Biden, Please Do More to Build Peace."  So far, so good.  Everyone wants peace.  But at what cost?

Kristof:  "I'm fine with Israel taking out Hamas's military leaders or destroying tunnels in a surgical way, but not with it leveling large sections of Gaza..."  First of all, Israel does not give a damn about what you are "fine" with, Mr. Kristof.  Secondly, Hamas needs to be completely eradicated.  It is not enough to only take out their military leaders.  Their political structure cannot be allowed to continue to exist.  Otherwise, they will rebuild their military and Israel will be facing the same problems over and over and over again.  Nothing short of complete victory or an unconditional surrender by Hamas will solve the problem.

Kristof:  "Israel has a responsibility to value Palestinian lives even if Hamas doesn't."  Israel does more than any other country to protect civilians.  They make phone calls into Gaza to warn people.  They drop dud bombs on the roofs of building to warn people.  They drop leaflets out of airplanes to warn people.  Your premise is utter nonsense, Mr. Kristof.

Kristof:  "The Biden administration has already encouraged Israel to rachet its assault on Gaza several notches toward the surgical end by using smaller bombs and allowing humanitarian pauses."  This reminds me of a skit on Saturday Night Live years ago when a "reporter" was asking the "defense secretary" (may have been a Dick Cheney player) why smart bombs sometimes kill innocent people.  To which the Cheney player merely slapped the top of his head in disbelief.  But that "reporter" is Kristof.  

And just what does Kristof think happens with these "humanitarian" pauses?  Here is what I think happens.  Hamas regroups and rearms.  Hamas takes the humanitarian aid for themselves and their fighters.  They have already announced publicly that they are not responsible for the people of Gaza.  They believe the UN has that responsibility.  We know they use the people of Gaza as human shields, and then someone like Kristof falls for it and blames Israel when civilians die.  And just how "humanitarian" does Kristof think Hamas is?  They murdered civilians of all ages.  They raped women.  They took as hostages people of all ages.  

 Kristof:  "I'm skeptical that the Israeli Army can actually eradicate extremist forces from Gaza, so it seems to me that what's unfolding there now - with American complicity as we supply Israel with bombs and artillery shells - is neither militarily nor morally sustainable."  You're skeptical, Mr. Kristof?  I bet the leaders of the newly formed state of Israel, in 1948, were skeptical that they could defeat the five Arab armies that attacked them.  Israel was outgunned and outmanned.  But Israel won.  I bet Eisenhower had a healthy dose of skepticism about the chances of success on D-Day.  Maybe Kristof thinks the US should supply Hamas with an equal number of bombs and artillery shells in order to satisfy his mistaken sense of fairness.    

Kristof:  "Looking ahead, the next initiative must be a major push by Biden for an Israeli-Palestinian peace"... but "both sides lack credible leaders to get there."  What nonsense.  The Arabs of Palestine have been offered their own state numerous times,  Starting in 1947 when the UN voted to partition the British Mandate in Palestine into a Jewish state and an Arab state.  They refused.  They have been offered a state numerous times since.  They refused.  They don't want a state as long as Israel exists.  They want all the land "from the river to the sea."  And you, a two time Pulitzer Prize winner, fall for all their propaganda.  

Here's Kristof's hope in the meantime.  The State Department should again declare the "settlements" to be in violation of international law.  And this gem:  "The United States could also abstain at the United Nations Security Council on a resolution calling for humanitarian pauses, instead of vetoing it as happened last time."  After all, "How many dead Gazan children are too many," Kristof asks.

So what are the common themes in all of Kristof's comments?  First, Israel is at fault, or at least equally at fault with Hamas.  Second, as is typical of leftwing "progressive" thinking, no demands are to made of the bad guys.  No, appeasement is the answer.  Appease them with more and more of these "humanitarian" pauses - because this Pulitzer Prize winner does not understand that such pauses are for the benefit of a terrorist organization.  

Third, these progressive leftists do not believe in winning wars.  Just imagine if Kristof had the ear of Roosevelt or Truman or Eisenhower?  Just take out the Nazis' military leaders, but allow their political structure to remain.  Allow the Nazis to remain in power?  What could go wrong there?  Well, Hamas has revealed themselves to be the new Nazis, slaughtering men, women and children and even babies for the sole reason that they are Jewish.  Hamas can no longer be allowed to exist.  Unfortunately, there will be civilian deaths in the meantime.  

And wouldn't it be nice if Kristof had any concern for the devasting impact October 7 had on the people of Israel.  1200 murdered.  240 taken hostage.  200,000 having to leave their homes in the south and the north as well, because Hezbollah joined in the fight.  The economic and psychological consequences of October 7 are of no apparent concern to Kristof, because "how many dead Gazan children are too many."  Here is the answer, Mr. Kristof - one is too many.  But that cannot deter Israel from doing what it must to defeat Hamas.  Were it otherwise, Israel would have to sit back and just accept attack after attack after attack.