The amount of tips, information and other content I'm receiving from students on campuses around the country – Jewish students in particular – has been overwhelming. There aren't enough hours in the day to publish, highlight, or even respond to everything. What cannot be repeated often enough is that the disgusting hate rallies we are seeing on a daily basis are being organized by people who openly and immediately justified or celebrated Hamas' massacre of Jews on October 7. These gatherings aren't a response to Israel's response to the terrorist attack, or to Israeli policy. These gatherings stand in solidarity with Hamas, straight up, because their participants do not want Israel to exist. An uncomfortable number of them would prefer Jews not exist.
That's not a smear. That's what they're telling us, out loud:
"We don't want Israel to exist. We don't want these Zionist counter protesters to exist." -one of the so-called "peace keepers" at the UW-Seattle pro-Hamas, anti-Semite rally. 📸@kattressa pic.twitter.com/PPw83I3qSe
— Jason Rantz on KTTH Radio (@jasonrantz) October 25, 2023
They "don't want Israel to exist." They don't want the [you know who] "Zionist counter protesters to exist." As we've been saying a lot lately, when people tell and show you who they are, believe them. Is it any wonder that Jason Rantz, who shared that video, told me this week that he's "never felt more uncomfortable – purely because I'm a Jew." In California, hundreds of "Ethnic Studies" faculty members inside the state's university system wrote a letter issuing a condemnation "in the strongest possible terms." This was, of course, not a denunciation of Hamas massacring 1,400 Jews in cold blood. It was a denunciation of university system administrators using the word "terrorism" to describe and condemn the Hamas terrorists' terrorism. These people object to truth, effectively or intentionally in defense of Hamas – pure and simple:
Ethnic studies faculty in the University of California system sent a scathing letter to UC administrators condemning the use of the word "terrorism" to describe the Hamas attacks saying it contributes "to a climate that has made Palestinian students and community members unsafe" pic.twitter.com/He8gUIRx1O
— Gabe Stutman (@jnewsgabe) October 25, 2023
"When you hear ethnic studies curricula coming to a K-12 school near you, this is the worldview that comes with the programming," Josh Kraushaar observes. If this is not terrorism, the word is meaningless (content warning, again):
Forensic pathologists, including Israeli staffers as well as volunteers from abroad, were visibly disturbed by the evidence before them. Despite every effort to remain objective and detached—as called for by the profession—many broke down into tears throughout the day. During the initial press conference, the forensics team showed images from their investigations. Among the images were those of charred hands with marks that revealed where the victims’ hands were bound behind their backs with metal wire before being burned alive. Perhaps the most disturbing image in the slideshow was a completely charred mass of flesh, which at first glance could not be seen as ever having belonged to a human. It was only after a CT scan was done that experts could see the inhumanity of the image.Two spinal cords—one belonging to an adult, one to someone young—a parent and child bound together by metal wires in a final embrace before being set alight...“[Doctor] Kugel also explained that the age range of the victims spans from 3 months to 80 or 90 years old. Many bodies, including those of babies, are without heads. Asked if they were decapitated, Kugel answered yes.”
More: "There is evidence of mass rape of so brutal that they broke their victims' pelvis – women, grandmothers, children." These professors and faculty members deny this is terrorism and complain that employing that accurate, if inadequate, term "has contributed to a climate that has made Palestinian students and community members unsafe" and "stoke anti-Muslim, anti-Palestinian sentiments." The true victims, you see. I once again renew my recommendation to "pro-Palestine" individuals and groups who do not wish to be associated with the savagery of terrorists: Loudly condemn the savagery and the terrorists. Don't minimize it. Don't deny it. Don't defend it. Don't celebrate it. Don't complain about calling terrorists "terrorists." I ask again, how many "pro-Palestine" rallies have prominently featured any of the above? How many have prominently just the opposite?
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It's completely unfair and terrible to broadly smear Muslims as terrorists. But it's essential to correctly label the terrorists as such. Notice how certain "progressives" are now trying to conflate these groups, blurring or eliminating crucial distinctions. If their goal is to protect peace-loving Muslims from unjust and undeserved bigotry, this attempted language policing is extraordinarily counter-productive. If, however, they're actually trying to shut down criticism of Hamas, and defend Jew-slaughter, the dishonest and manipulative statement above makes perfect sense. Draw your own conclusions. Meanwhile, the appalling moral sludge being pumped out at colleges and universities right now is literally endless:
Stanford Palestinian activists have released their List of Demands and it includes some amazing stuff
— Max Meyer (@mualphaxi) October 25, 2023
"Full round trip covered by University upon the signing of a ceasefire for students to visit their family and friends and grieve properly."
Upon the signing of a ceasefire...… pic.twitter.com/J0HjvTk4vZ
A Jewish student passes along this note from a sociology prof to her class, encouraging participation in the walk out and lamenting that she couldn’t cancel class & join in the “good trouble” against “Israeli oppression and apartheid.” Jewish @NorthwesternU students feel very… https://t.co/Z4JD2uAWgv pic.twitter.com/15fskjURcm
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) October 25, 2023
Literal fake news, distributed at @NorthwesternU, straight-up literal terrorist propaganda -- regurgitating the debunked hospital lie, citing Hamas statistics as fact, and grossly abusing the word 'genocide.' It includes an ad suggesting the real student newspaper is sponsored… https://t.co/SjYjJijgs5
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) October 25, 2023
Cornell University was littered with graffiti overnight. From sidewalks to trees, the beautiful Ithaca campus was desecrated with anti-Israel rhetoric. University staff are actively working to remove the spray paint. pic.twitter.com/Fg56kUzaev
— Sam Aberman (@samaberman) October 25, 2023
Dear @UofA_Arts - are you okay with your postdoctoral fellow Sina Rahmani saying that he hopes that former US diplomat Brian Hook is killed?
— Gabriel Noronha (@GLNoronha) October 24, 2023
It is very public knowledge that Mr. Hook has been under Iranian assassination threat for years as Mr. Rahmani knows. CC: @RuthlessPodcast pic.twitter.com/nABQOcB2f5
I'll leave you with a few positive developments because I feel like I owe that to you, and for my own mental health. First, on the "campus madness" front, after Tuesday night's egregious display of outright pro-terrorism anti-Semitism, George Washington University fully condemned the messages and those responsible:
George Washington University responds to the heinous 'Glory to Our Martyrs/River to the Sea' displays on campus last night: "These images included antisemitic phrases that have caused fear and anxiety for many members of our Jewish and broader GW community, and we wholly denounce… pic.twitter.com/kaq8Kxrj9P
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) October 25, 2023
And finally, this, on the geopolitical front:
Saudis are intercepting Houthi missiles aimed at Israel. UAE condemning Hamas. There is a flicker of light in a very dark time.
— Richard Goldberg (@rich_goldberg) October 25, 2023