Harvard president criticized after testimony on campus anti-Semitism

 MagnifyPost.com

"The president of Harvard University on Wednesday faced criticism and calls for her resignation over her comments at a Capitol Hill hearing on campus anti-Semitism.

"The deadly conflict between Israel and Hamas militants has ignited tensions on many American college campuses, with protests flaring.

"At Harvard, donors have specifically called for President Claudine Gay to offer more explicit support for Israel, and condemnation of student groups who have voiced support for the Palestinian people.

"On Tuesday, Gay testified before the House Education Committee at a hearing dedicated to holding campus leaders accountable for anti-Semitic incidents.

"Republican lawmaker Elise Stefanik likened student calls for a new intifada — an Arabic word for uprising that harks back to the first Palestinian revolt against Israel in 1987 — to inciting “genocide against the Jewish people in Israel and globally.”

"When Stefanik asked Gay if such calls would violate Harvard’s code of conduct, the Harvard president said: “We embrace a commitment to free expression even of views that are objectionable, offensive, hateful.”

"When speech crosses into conduct that violates our policies, including policies against bullying, harassment or intimidation, we take action.”

"Stefanik called on Gay to immediately resign, while Republican Senator Ted Cruz called the comment “disgraceful.” . . .

Harvard President Faces Uproar Over Refusal to Punish Students for ‘Intifada’ Chants - The American Spectator | USA News and Politics "Harvard University President Claudine Gay has faced fierce criticism in recent days for not pursuing public disciplinary action against students who last week engaged in “intifada” chants, which call for violence against Jews and Israel. On Nov. 27, for instance, Harvard sophomore Kojo Acheampong led students in chanting, “Long live Palestine; long live the intifada; intifada, intifada; globalize the intifada.” And on Nov. 29, students disrupted classes with bullhorns to levy their anti-Semitic chants, including “globalize the intifada,” as part of their “week of action.”

"In a congressional hearing Tuesday on how colleges have handled the rush of anti-Semitism on their campuses, GOP Rep. Elise Stefanik pressed Gay on whether Harvard has a policy of permitting students to participate in “intifada” chants. Gay refused to answer but suggested that such chants are permitted speech at Harvard. (READ MORE: Billionaire Donors Revolt Against Harvard)

"Gay said, “We embrace a commitment to free expression, even of views that are objectionable, offensive, hateful. It’s when that speech crosses into conduct that violates our policies against bullying.” Stefanik answered, “Does that speech not cross that barrier? Does that speech not call for the genocide of Jews and the elimination of Israel?” When Stefanik continued to ask Gay whether “intifada” chants violate Harvard’s code of conduct, Gay responded, “We embrace a commitment to free expression.”

"Harvard Hillel, a Jewish organization at Harvard, last week described the “intifada” chants as “abhorrent antisemetic [sic] calls” and asserted that they call “for genocide and anti-Jewish violence throughout the world.” Such chants, it claims, “are not protected by the University’s free speech guidelines” — and neither are “interruptions of classes.' ” . . .

The Doomsday Cult Needs To Recalculate Its Many Failed Predictions –

 If not for the “worst” and best among the skeptics, the climate faithful would have free rein to make our lives worse with insect diets, carbon passports, EV mandates, energy shortages and exorbitant prices that cause death, primitive heating methods and a number of other prohibitions and requirements – and have nothing to show for it. 

 Issues & Insights   "Five years ago, then-California Gov. Jerry Brown said, with great certainty, that “in less than five years, even the worst skeptics will be believers.” While we’re not sure why some skeptics are in his mind worse than others, it’s clear that he was wrong.

"Wrong as the prediction of the end of snow was wrong. Just as wrong as Prince Charles, Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Al Gore, celebrated activist James Hansen and the tiresome, we’ll-have-no-coal John Kerry declaring we have fewer than 100 months or 12 years or 10 years or four years or 500 days to save Earth from the menace of man-made global warming.

"We’ve had a half-century of various failed climate and ecological predictions, 18 of them “spectacularly wrong,” yet the carbon-obsessed doomsayers continue to insist that a planetary tragedy is imminent. The difference between them and the end-of-the-world cults that have to recalculate the day of the apocalypse when their prophecies come and go without incident is that much of the Western world has bought into the climate zealots’ hysteria.

"In addition to the many botched timeline predictions, there is also the temperature dashboard warning light message. Once we reach a global temperature that is 1.5 degrees Celsius higher than that of the preindustrial era (whatever that was), we will have arrived at a disastrous threshold. Never mind that there is no such thing as a measurable global temperature, or that the temperature record is unreliable, or that the 1.5 degrees was not established by science but a number agreed upon in order to forge a climate agreement.

"And never mind that somehow we have essentially hit that 1.5 degrees Celsius tipping point (the climate holocaust should materialize any day now, right? – the lunatics at the Guardian of course say we’re on the verge of catastrophe) and at the same time, the Associated Press reports “the world is heading for considerably less warming than projected a decade ago.” 

"Regarding the latter, for any rational group of people, that would be cause for a thorough reevaluation." . . .

Hamas fighters surrender in droves, and their photos tell an interesting story -

 Andrea Widburg  "Since the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas ended, Israel has been pushing forward relentlessly to destroy every Hamas stronghold, whether above or below ground. In Khan Younis, one of Hamas’s last redoubts, the Hamas fighters finally decided against martyrdom and surrendered en masse. There are a few notable things about the surrendering of Hamas troops, and they destroy some of the propaganda we’ve heard so much about.

"First, here are the stills and video of the surrendered Hamas men:" . . .

"What you should immediately notice is that they’re not being slaughtered or tortured. In this regard, the Israeli approach is very different from what happens when Arabs get their hands on enemy soldiers that they don’t intend to keep alive as hostages for bartering. In 2000, when West Bankians got hold of two Israeli soldiers, they ripped them apart and showed their blood-stained hands to the cheering crowd. In warfare, the Arabs are indistinguishable from stone-aged tribes.

"The Hamas prisoners have been stripped down to their undies, which is the most obvious way to protect against any of them having concealed weapons or explosives. Their semi-nudity allows one to see the other notable thing, which Bonchie pointed out at Red State:

The war against Hamas is now two months old, with the initial attack from the terrorists coming on October 7th. During that time, we've been assured that everyone is starving in Gaza due to the evil siege being carried out by Israel. In that picture, though, I see a whole lot of man boobs and beer guts. What does that tell you? It tells you that Hamas has been stealing aid and keeping its fighters well-fed as they cower underground.

"Yes, they’re fat. That being the case, you can recognize the lie behind the claim coming from Hamas and its fellow travelers that the men detained are civilians:. . .

Since a friend who has nothing to do with Hamas has reported that his 13 year old nephew, brother & father have all been kidnapped by the Israeli military in Gaza, this is likely the mass arrest of random Palestinian civilian men and boys under the guise of a "surrender." https://t.co/vAHQBe6Wyz

— Omar Baddar عمر بدّار (@OmarBaddar) December 7, 2023

. . ."If these fat men are civilians, the claimed food shortages have been greatly exaggerated. Alternatively, if they are, indeed, Hamas fighters, then Gaza operates on the North Korean principle, which is that you feed the soldiers and starve the citizens. Either way, it’s not a good look for Hamas.

"There’s one more thing to keep in mind, which gives me the opportunity to show you a Twitter thread I’ve been hanging onto about the claimed casualties in Gaza, which ascend daily in ways that only credulous supporters (including the world’s media) could accept. As Aizenberg points out, it’s not just that the numbers are crazy. It’s also that the women and children are doing all the dying. If these people are, in fact, civilians, while the women and children are starving and dying, their husbands, fathers, brothers, and sons have been living high on the hog. (And yes, I used the “hog” expression on purpose.)"

The author gives us both sides of the argument as to whether these men are fighters or shopkeepers.

World, National...State: the growth of Islamism

 

‘They Forgot to Be Afraid’   . . ."The cacophony overhead masked the sound of gunfire and bulldozers breaking down fences. Snipers took aim at the cameras overlooking the border, while remotely operated drones dropped small bombs on automated watchtowers and cellular transponders. The timing was so precise that “all our screens turned off in almost the exact same second,” one soldier in a command center told investigators. Within minutes, the most powerful military in the Middle East was blind." . . .

Harvard's President Erases Jews

. . ."Why would Gay struggle with such a question? The answer was revealed late in the hearing. Rep. Kathy Manning, Democrat of North Carolina and the former chair of the Jewish Federations of North America, said the following to Gay: “I understand that you have condemned the phrase ‘from the river to the sea.’ But I also know that the Harvard School of Public Health has a course called The Settler Colonial Determinants of Health that introduces students to the concept of settler-colonialism and its health-equity implication. It uses case studies in the United States and Palestine and talks about poorer health outcomes for indigenous and other non-settler communities. President Gay, are you aware that Jews are indeed indigenous to the land of Israel and have lived there for 2,000 years?”

"Gay: “I do know about the long history.”

"Manning: “So what is Harvard doing to educate members of the community about these phrases and other false accusations that Israel is a racist, settler-colonialist, apartheid state even as Harvard is actually teaching courses with the underlying premise that Israel is a settler-colonialist state?”. . .

Newsom Cancels Public Christmas Tree–Lighting amid Planned Pro-Palestinian Protests (capoliticalreview.com)    "California governor Gavin Newsom will conduct tonight’s Christmas tree–lighting at California’s state capitol virtually, amid threats from pro-Palestinian protesters.

"The Sacramento Regional Coalition for Palestinian Rights announced that it would protest at the state capitol on Tuesday night — the same night Newsom was set to direct the annual Christmas tree–lighting ceremony. The group told KCRA Channel 3 that it wants to “out governor Gavin Newsom for hiding from the public because he doesn’t want to face their anger at his shameful stance in regard to the genocide in Gaza.”  Genocide? That was Hamas goal with their attack!

“Governor Newsom decided to cancel the tree-lighting ceremony rather than face the public that is enraged by his shameful silence on the genocide in Gaza. This certainly doesn’t add up with his past stance with Native Americans,” Yassar Dahbour of the Sacramento Regional Coalition for Palestinian Rights said.

"According to the local outlet, California Highway Patrol’s permit calendar originally slated a tree-lighting ceremony for Tuesday evening but had removed the event from the calendar as of Tuesday morning. The ceremony will now be held remotely, and California Highway Patrol has barricaded the area where the tree is located. Signage around the capitol building warns that trespassers will be arrested and prosecuted.". . .Click here to read the full article on National Review

How to impress your Jewish friends on Hanukkah (or is it Chanukah?) |

 Adam Sandler shows the hows and whos of Hanukkah

. . ." Say it, don't spell it

"Guess what — Jews don't actually care how you spell Hanukkah. Most days I can't even spell it without the help of Google. Ya know, get it wrong by missing an "n" or adding a "k." The Hebrew? ( חֲנֻכָּה,) Forget about it.

"But please, if you do wanna wish me a happy one, try to avoid using the "ch" sound, like cheese. Cha-NOO-Ka. Wrong. Just wrong. Adam Sandler was just joking, OK?"  

13 Hanukkah Facts Every Jew Should Know - Chabad.org