The problem with today’s protests at colleges and universities

March 11, 2025

Protests have been in the news over the last few months. They are not new things. Going back to the 60s and 70s, protests were reasonably common occurrences, and not unusual since then.

Some examples of what gave birth to protests were objections to the Vietnam War, and seeking an end to racial injustice and gender inequality.

The civil rights movement began in the 50s, but continued into the 60s and 70s. It was focused on racial equality, and ending segregation, and it involved nonviolent protests, sit-ins, boycotts, and marches.

Disagreement with the Vietnam War produced many protests and demonstrations, especially on college campuses. Other topics found sympathetic ears on college campuses, too. Major focuses were freedom of speech, and complaints about the status quo, which involved the women’s liberation movement, and the gay rights movement.

In the 60s there arose a rejection of traditional values, emphasis on peace and love, the hippie culture and alternative lifestyles.

For the most part, these protests and demonstrations were peaceful, but there were
some exceptions. And, they were protests of objectionable policies and ways of life that people didn’t like. 

Going back just a few years, we saw many protests based upon policies and events that were far less peaceful than those of the 60s and 70s. Property, both personal and public, was damaged and destroyed. And injuries to and the deaths of individuals occurred.

The recent campus protests have been mostly peaceful and involved students protesting, setting up tent encampments on campuses, and even taking over campus buildings. In some situations, both students and faculty members were actively protesting, as well as some college employees going on strike.

There are organizations representing and coaching the protesters. And these organizations and the protesters are making demands on the schools. Some of the demands are that schools sever financial and academic ties to Israel and companies involved in the current conflict, to disclose investments, and to cease accepting research funding. They also want the U.S. to end military support for Israel.

Protesters have damaged furniture and computers at one campus library, and shattered windows during their occupation of the buildings at another.

Several universities saw student protesters replace American flags with Palestinian flags on campus flagpoles. However, administrations and law enforcement personnel took down the Palestinian flags and put the American flags back up.

The major difference between these recent protests and those of the 60s and 70s, however, is that while actions and policies are part of the basis for the recent protests, the major factor is the high degree of hatred the protesters have for one group of people.

In the conflict between the Iranian terrorist proxy group Hamas and Israel, the college student protesters take the side of those living in Gaza and Hamas. Hamas is who the Palestinians selected as their government. The protesters express their objections to the nation of Israel, and hatred for Jews that live there. And because there are Jews living and attending colleges and universities in the United States, they are also the targets of the protester’s hatred.

Colleges and universities have begun to take steps to halt this unacceptable rule-breaking, and in some cases illegal activity. There have been many protesters arrested, some have been suspended or expelled, while others have been evicted from campus housing, and some have been financially charged for damages to campus property and facilities.

And while some, or hopefully all, of the protesters may get their just rewards for their breaking of rules and laws, will they ever understand or pay a price for their disgusting anti-Semitism?

“The Federal Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism announced that it will be visiting 10 university campuses that have experienced anti-Semitic incidents since October 2023,” reported the Department of Justice’s Office of Public Affairs website. “Created pursuant to President Trump’s Executive Order on Additional Measures to Combat Anti-Semitism, the Task Force set as its first priority to eradicate anti-Semitic harassment in schools and on college campuses.”

The Task Force is aware of allegations that these schools have failed to protect Jewish students and faculty members from discrimination, potentially in violation of federal law, said Leo Terrell, Senior Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, and leader of the Task Force.

The 10 universities are: Columbia University; George Washington University; Harvard University; Johns Hopkins University; New York University; Northwestern University; the University of California, Los Angeles; the University of California, Berkeley; the University of Minnesota; and the University of Southern California.

Terrell said that the Task Force will meet with various groups to gather information about what has been happening, including university leadership, impacted students and staff, local law enforcement, and community members. 

“The President, Attorney General Pamela Bondi, and the entire Administration are committed to ensuring that no one should feel unsafe or unwelcome on campus because of their religion,” Terrell said. “The Task Force’s mandate is to bring the full force of the federal government to bear in our effort to eradicate anti-Semitism, particularly in schools.”

Anti-Semitism, or any sort of racial hatred or discrimination, is the precise opposite of what America is about. And it must be eliminated.

The basis of pro-Hamas, anti-Israel protests is faulty and wrong

May 14, 2024

The anti-Israel, pro-Hamas protests on college and university campuses continue, complete with law-breaking and violence. The protesters attempt to defend their illegal and violent behavior by claiming their actions are protected by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

But like so much else that these confused young people believe, while the First Amendment protects free speech, free speech does not include vandalism, trespassing, violence, and illegal harassment of individuals and groups. Actions such as blocking people from entering campus buildings, or taking control of school facilities, or interfering with school activities are not speech. 

They are crimes. And those crimes turn what could and should have been peaceful protests into riots.

Such activities are what finally moved the administrations of some institutions to say, “enough is enough,” and bring in police to break up the protests, and even to arrest some of the protesters. Whether those charged with improper behavior will actually suffer the consequences of their behavior remains to be seen.

Once the authorities became involved, moving people out of the encampments and arresting them, what so often was suspected was proven to be true: many of the protesters/rioters are not students or in any way connected with the school where they gathered.

They quite frequently were members of activist groups that sponsored the encampments, and even in some cases were being paid to condemn Israel.

While they may have earned monetary fines, suspension or expulsion from school, notations in their school records, or even jail time, with the soft-on -crime attitude of so many incompetent prosecutors, they may only get a slap on the wrist.

Much of the emotion behind this criminal behavior results from ignorance and misinformation about Israel’s history and the action it took following the October 7 terrorist attack by Hamas that took some 1,200 innocent lives.

An authoritative look into this situation by Victor Davis Hanson, who is an historian at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, and was published by The Daily Signal, focuses on “10 Most Common Pro-Hamas Lies About Israel.”

One lie is the claim by the protesters that Israelis are “settlers” and “colonists.” Jewish students are even sometimes told to “go back to Poland.”

But it is no secret to anyone wanting to know the truth that the general region that is now the state of Israel has been occupied by the Jewish people for more than 3,000 years.

Of the charge that the Gaza Strip was occupied by Israel, Hanson wrote, “The Gaza Strip, adjacent Israel, was autonomous. The Israeli border is closed, but so is the Egyptian border. There have not been any Jews in Gaza for nearly two decades.

“So on Oct. 7, Gaza was not occupied by Israel. It was under the control of Hamas, designated by the U.S. government as a terrorist organization.

“After being elected to power in 2006, Hamas canceled all subsequent elections and ruled as a dictatorship. Gaza forbids Jews from entering Gaza and has driven out most Christians.”

Israel is also accused of targeting civilians. But Hanson points out that after the October 7 attack the Hamas terrorists ran back to Gaza and “hid in tunnels and bases beneath hospitals, schools, and mosques,” using Palestinians as screens against Israel’s counter-attacks, insuring that some of them would be killed.

“Outside assessors have concluded that Israel has not inadvertently killed a greater ratio of civilians to terrorists compared to most other urban fighting conflicts elsewhere,” Hanson wrote, “and perhaps even fewer than American engagements in Mosul and Fallujah.”

On the charge that Israel produced a response that was “disproportionate” to the Hamas slaughter, Hanson provides some numbers.

“Iran tried to send 320 missiles and rockets into Israel. Israel replied with three. Hamas launched 7,000 rockets into Israel and slaughtered 1,200 Israelis before the Israel Defense Forces responded in Gaza, often dropping leaflets and sending texts to forewarn [Palestinian] citizens.”

The only disproportionate aspect of this is the much higher effectiveness of Israel’s response to the Hamas terrorism.

The clearly incorrect suggestion that Israel is attempting genocide, to wipe out the Palestinian people, like the other lies Hanson lists, falls with a loud thump when faced with reality and the history of the Jewish people with Palestinians.

Hanson: “Before Oct. 7, some 20,000 Gazans a day requested to work in Israel — on the correct expectation of much higher wages and humane treatment.

“If Hamas had come out of its tunnels, separated from its impressed civilian shields, released its surviving Israeli hostages, and either openly fought the Israel Defense Forces or surrendered the organizers of the Oct. 7 massacre, no Gaza civilians would have died.

“According to Hamas’ questionable ‘genocide’ figures, roughly 4 percent of the Gazan population died during the Israeli military response to Oct. 7. At least a third to almost half of those deaths, according to various international observers, were Hamas terrorists.”

If the lies and distortions of Israel’s obligatory response to Hamas’ terrorism isn’t bad enough, President Joe Biden gross failure to fully support Israel in its time of need is unforgiveable. This decision is one more item added to Biden’s long list of sometimes deadly catastrophes and failures of leadership.

Biden’s weak policies increase our risk of terrorist activity

December 5, 2023

No objective person can look at the chaos at the southern border and not be alarmed. Of course, the Biden administration’s Secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, insists that the border is closed.

However, the New York Times reported in October that “Migrants were caught crossing the southern border of the United States more times in the past year than in any other year since at least 1960, when the government started keeping track of the data.

“It is the third record-setting year in a row,” and there were “more than 2.4 million apprehensions in the 2023 fiscal year, which ended in September. That tops the previous record, set a year earlier, of more than 2.3 million, according to government data released on Saturday. During the 2021 fiscal year, there were more than 1.7 million apprehensions.”

Question for Mayorkas: If 2.3 and 2.4 million people can enter the country illegally in two consecutive years, and those numbers have set records for illegal entry going back 50 years, how many illegal entries constitute a situation where the border could reasonably be considered open?

No doubt the response will be: crickets.

And while states on the border are suffering immensely, and illegals are being transported around the country by the federal government, even the sanctuary states and cities are beginning to understand the pain of these lax federal policies, and want action to be taken.

Critics point out that while many or maybe most of these illegal aliens merely seek a better life, many of them have other intentions: trafficking children, women, and drugs; gang violence; and worse. 

In former President Donald Trump’s final 32 months in the White House, Border Patrol agents apprehended 1.9 million illegal aliens. By contrast, in the first 32 months of President Joe Biden’s tenure, the Border Patrol apprehended 6.3 million illegal aliens.

In addition to the millions of illegals apprehended, there have been 1.5 million “gotaways,” illegals that were spotted and counted, but not apprehended. As the number of those apprehended increases, so does the number of gotaways. We don’t know who they are or why they came. And we don’t know where they went.

Illegals on the terror watch list that have been apprehended have increased in number since fiscal year 2017, when two were caught. In 2018, there were six; in 2019 there were none; and in 2020 there were three.

And then the increases began. In 2021 - 15; in 2022 - 98; in 2023 - 169.

If that by itself isn’t bad enough, wait until you see which countries they are coming from.

From October 1, 2021 to Oct. 4, 2023 some 73,000 “Special Interest Aliens” entered the country from places including Afghanistan, Iran, Egypt, Pakistan, Turkey and Syria. 

In the first half of October of this year, more than 30 came from Iran and Pakistan each. More than 100 came from Russia. Almost 2,000 came from China.

Are any of these illegals associated with Iranian terrorist proxies, like Hamas or Hezbollah? And many of these illegals are military age males. And what about those from China, our most serious adversary?

This is the reality that the feeble and perilous Biden border policy has produced.

To call on their supporters to conduct attacks on our own soil,” Wray said.

“Terrorists and criminal actors may exploit the elevated flow and increasingly complex security environment to enter the United States,” said the fiscal year 2024 threat assessment by the Department of Homeland Security.

And, FBI Director Christopher Wray told reporters on a call in October that “Here in the U.S., we cannot and do not discount the possibility that Hamas or their foreign terrorist organizations could exploit the conflict to call on their supporters to conduct attacks on our own soil.”

The weakness demonstrated by the Biden administration on the southern border has not gone without notice around the world. Since the butchery carried out in the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel on October 7, Iranian terrorist proxies have attacked U.S. military installations in the region 75 times. The U.S. response has been meek and scarce. The only good news is that while some military personnel have been injured, none have been killed.

This sort of under-reaction will not deter future attacks; they invite more. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said at the end of October, two weeks after the attacks began, “Iran wants to hide its hand and deny its role in these attacks against our forces. We will not let them. If attacks by Iran’s proxies against U.S. forces continue, we will not hesitate to take further necessary measures to protect our people.”

Austin’s words had no effect on Iran and its terrorist proxies; the attacks have continued. And the tough talk threatening “further necessary measures” has not led to one significant retaliatory strike.

Biden hasn’t been moved to stand up to Iran and order an action to exact a substantial price from the world’s leading sponsor of terrorism. And until Iran is shown that we will back up our words with significant action, these attacks will continue, and likely get worse.

Where does the hate for Jewish people on college campuses come from?

November 14, 2023

NOTE: Updated version of column that should have run last week.

What is happening on a lot of the country’s college and university campuses these days is quite troubling. Back in the “good old days” young people went to college to study a subject with which they could get a job that would provide them with enough income to live a decent life. They went there to get educated, and the school faculty and administration were heavily focused on that mission.

In far too many schools these days, there are majors that do not prepare students to get a decent paying job, if they can even get a job in their major.

Many colleges are more focused on diversity, equity, and inclusion; everyone being identified by their chosen pronouns; making sure students are not offended in their classes, or elsewhere; presenting history lessons that are politically oriented; and being instructed on what to think, rather than how to think.

A new problem has taken over the news since the October 7 evil massacre of 1,400 innocent Israel and American civilians by Hamas terrorists from Palestine. 

Somehow, an existing anti-Israel sentiment on many campuses has resulted in the advocates of this mindset blaming Israel for retaliating for the Hamas savagery, instead of condemning the barbarians for murdering civilian men, women and children. Some of the children were babies and some of the men and women were elderly. 

The subsequent protests of hundreds or thousands of misguided students on several campuses has produced dangerous threats of violence against Jewish students, whether they are from Israel, or even America. 

College administrations have inexplicably been less than responsive to these threats and vile protests. Yes, allowing expressions of thoughts and feelings is permissible, even encouraged, particularly on college campuses where students are learning about adult life and their chosen major. Such speech is protected by the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment. 

But sometimes violent expressions of hatred toward a particular group of persons is not permissible, and supporting terrorism is unacceptable. Those activities should have been stopped immediately.

How did such a huge and violent hatred of Israel come to exist on so many campuses? A hatred so strong that the haters do not condemn savage terrorism, but condemn Israel for responding to it, as every nation has the right and duty to do.

Perhaps the following examples will help explain how this hatred came about.

A Cornell professor publicly expressed his opinion of Hamas terrorists committing these savage acts against civilians. It was “exhilarating” and “energizing,” he said. Unfortunately, some of his fellow faculty members then went public with condemnation of Israel for things it didn’t do. Truth plays second fiddle to political and ideological positions among many college faculty members.

People at other institutions, like Harvard, Brown, Duke, Yale, Georgetown, and Columbia, also jumped on the propaganda band wagon, blaming Israel for bombing a Palestinian hospital. Investigations found that the hospital was not bombed by Israel, but was hit by an off-course rocket fired by the Islamic Jihad, a terrorist partner of Hamas, both funded by Iran. 

At a rally at the City University of New York’s Graduate Center, an adjunct professor accused Israel of carrying out 75 years of “ethnic cleansing” and “genocide” against Palestinians. Later, New York City Councilman Charles Barron, a graduate of the school, claimed that Israelis had no claim over the land they have lived in since 1,000 BC.

Many people do not know what happened, or do not care, and continue to blame Israel, not Hamas.

Do these radical professors keep their political and ideological preferences out of their classroom activities, even though they are happy to publicly express them in ways students may have access to them? Are they part of the indoctrination of college students that has proliferated over recent years?

Deliberate efforts to influence students’ thinking processes by pushing their personal ideas onto students is not only a breach of professional integrity and a showing of low character, but is subversive when it includes un-American and anti-American ideas.

While college administrations have refused to respond, other people in positions of responsibility are critical of what is going on.

Last month, a bipartisan group of six U.S. Senators sponsored a resolution calling on higher education leaders to engage with Jewish students and to condemn speech that incites or celebrates violence against any people based on their religious beliefs, national origin or ancestry. 

Later, Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin issued this statement on Fox News Channel: “While we always want to protect our constitutional rights, I absolutely condemn what’s being chanted at these rallies, and I think we need leadership from our college campuses.” 

This ignorance of what happened on October 7, and the strong anti-Semitism are clear evidence that America’s values and traditions are under attack on many campuses.

Now, some colleges have finally begun to act. Columbia University has suspended two pro-Palestinian student groups from campus for repeatedly breaking rules on holding campus events.

Meanwhile, the tone-deaf Biden administration has been promoting a project to counter Islamophobia which, if it is a problem, it is a tiny one when compared to the huge problem of anti-Semitism. Last week, the White House finally added anti-Semitism to the program.

Hamas attacks Israel, and Republican infighting stops the House

October 24, 2023

At about 6.30 a.m. — about dawn in Israel — on Saturday, October 7, the Jewish high holiday of Simchat Torah, the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas fired a huge barrage of at least 2,500 rockets across southern Israel. This served as cover for an unprecedented multi-pronged infiltration of fighters, as Palestinian gunmen crossed into Israel.

Some 1,400 innocent civilians, and around 250 military personnel, lost their lives in this attack, an attack aimed at civilians, not the military. About 250 people died at an outdoor music show. Others died in the streets and in their homes. 

Some were shot, others stabbed, and still others burned to death. Men, women, children and the elderly were summarily slaughtered, with some children killed in front of their parents. Parents were killed in front of their children. Babies were beheaded as their parents watched in horror. Another roughly 200 people were taken hostage by Hamas.

Obviously, this brought on a well-deserved response by Israel.

During the Israeli response, Hamas announced that Israeli forces had targeted a Palestinian hospital, and up to 500 innocent people were killed. And the news media jumped on this horrific story:

Hospital Strike Kills Hundreds – The Washington Post
Blast at Gaza Hospital Kills Hundreds – The Wall Street Journal
Blast Kills Hundreds at Gaza Hospital – The New York Times

The message being communicated supported the accusation of Hamas, against Israel. It was readily received, and acted upon by thousands.

Following the allegation by Hamas, Israel answered, not by confirming the allegation, not by challenging it, but by saying it was investigating the allegation.

And the investigation by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and the investigation by the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency have determined that no, the hospital was not hit by an Israeli missile or bomb, but by the failure of a rocket aimed at Israel by the Islamic Jihad, a terrorist partner of Hamas. Rockets fired by these terrorist groups have 20 percent to 30 percent failure rates.

Furthermore, the rocket did not hit the hospital and did not kill 500 people. It landed in the parking lot and, yes, there were some casualties, but numbers are not available.

Despite this important revelation, there is an enormous anti-Israel mood in our country. Protests began when Israel responded to the attack, and continued after the investigations showed Israel did not attack the hospital. Israel is blamed for starting the war, even though no country on Earth would just sit back after being savagely attacked, as Israel was.

And, there are anti-Israel protests in other countries, as well. 

Why are so many in America gathering for anti-Israel demonstrations, given the realities of this fighting? A country is viciously attacked by inhuman savages intentionally targeting and murdering civilian men, women and children, and thousands blame Israel for fighting back.

A lie posited by the terrorist group that carried out the attack that Israel intentionally bombed a hospital, killing 500 civilians is proven false, and yet thousands still blame Israel for this war.

At least two elected House of Representatives members — Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., and Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich. — have and are spreading anti-Israel propaganda, further riling people up. 

Omar, born in Somalia, calling for a ceasefire, tweeted that “the IDF reportedly blowing up” the hospital is “horrific.”

Palestinian-American Tlaib, tweeted that “Israel just bombed the Baptist Hospital killing 500 Palestinians,” blaming the Biden Administration for failing to “facilitate a ceasefire and help de-escalate.”

Both women jumped the gun and automatically accepted the Hamas allegation, lacking any proof, and neither had deleted their statements, as of last week.

Radical Muslims in Middle East nations have long vowed to eliminate Israel and every Jewish person on the planet. They also believe in the “death to America” idea.

On the other side of the political aisle, House Republicans are racking up thousands of negative points by keeping the House from getting anything done over the House Speaker debacle.

When Kevin McCarthy, R-CA, was elected Speaker, he agreed to a totally absurd measure: the idea that the Speaker could be removed from the position if only one of the 435 members of the House made the motion to vacate the chair, and a majority voted for the motion. In agreeing to this, McCarthy was trying to resolve the choice of a Speaker, which had gone through 16 unsuccessful votes.

Florida Republican Matt Gaetz stepped into that mudhole, making the motion to vacate the chair and McCarthy was removed with a vote that included eight Republicans. Eight Republicans constitute only about 3.6 percent of the Republican majority. But along with 100 percent of the Democrats McCarthy was removed, and chaos has ensued. 

Gaetz’ partners in crime are: Andy Biggs of Arizona, Ken Buck of Colorado, Tim Burchett of Tennessee, Eli Crane of Arizona, Bob Good of Virginia, Nancy Mace of South Carolina, and Matt Rosendale of Montana.

The Gaetz Eight has shown the world that petty politics is more important to them than doing the job they were elected to do.

Israelis are being blamed for responding to the terrorist attack

October 17, 2023

Some of the reactions to the brutal terrorist attack on Israel last weekend are stunning. 

Rushing to the defense of the Palestinians who live in Gaza, people all over the world are condemning the Israelis for responding to these brutal attacks. They say that Israel started the war, and that the brutal attack against the Jewish people was warranted.

Quite a few Americans have taken that position, and many that hold that position are on college campuses. Given what goes on at many colleges and universities these days, maybe that isn’t so strange.

But, what exactly is Gaza? It is a Palestinian territory along the West Bank of Israel, which Israel gave up nearly two decades ago, and has been governed by the political and militant Islamist group Hamas. Since 2007, the area has been under blockade by both Israel and Egypt because of the presence of Hamas.

And many people accuse Israel of going after Palestinians in response to the attack. But Israel’s response isn’t against the Palestinian people, it is against Hamas terrorists, who are supported by Iran. The Palestinians in Gaza live with and are governed by Hamas.  

The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a think tank based in Washington, DC, polled Palestinians in East Jerusalem and in the Gaza Strip last summer. The results show that 64 percent of East Jerusalem Palestinians have at least a positive opinion of Hamas, as do 57 percent in the Gaza Strip.

News reports tell us that at least 1,300 people — including 265 soldiers — were killed in Israel in the terrorist attack, and more than 3,300 were injured. At least 29 Americans were killed, as were other non-Israelis, and an  unknown number of Americans may be hostages.

An estimated 260 innocent Israelis were murdered at a music festival by Hamas. And others were shot and burned in their homes and on the streets. Women, children and the elderly were murdered by the terrorists. These are not the legitimate victims of war. They were the deliberate targets of vicious barbarians, not normal human beings.

Students at several colleges and universities across the country held pro-Palestinian/anti-Israeli demonstrations following the beginning of the Israeli response to Saturday’s attack. There were also pro-Israeli factions present.

Lawrence Jones, a co-host of “Fox and Friends,” a weekday program on the Fox News Channel, spoke with pro-Palestinian protesters at Hunter College in New York City. He asked them how they could support the beheading of children and the raping of women in Israel by the Hamas terrorists. 

One of the female demonstrators responded, "I support decolonization and the liberation of Palestinian people and the end of a mass genocide in the Gaza Strip."

"Are you talking about the genocide of the kids being beheaded?" Jones asked. 

“That's false. That is actually false," she responded, claiming that "Israel is notorious for creating propaganda" so they can "massacre" Palestinians. The female protester then said, "I stand with the Palestinian people unequivocally." 

And when another female protester was asked about the brutality of Hamas, she answered, "That was already proven that didn't really happen," adding that "The U.S. military money that goes there, $4 billion a year should stop going to Israel to support their war crimes."

A male protester appeared unaware of the reports of Israeli children being slaughtered and women being raped and dragged through the streets. 

"The kids there were beheaded," Jones told him. "Wait, Jewish kids?" he responded.

Are these students completely denied news about what is going on, or do they avoid those news items in favor of their chosen narrative? Are they taught to be anti-Israel? They obviously not understand that by blaming Israel for starting the conflict that led to the brutal attack by Hamas, they are supporting terrorism, defending murder, rape, and unimaginable savagery.

Ben Shapiro, a conservative political commentator, who is Jewish, issued the following comment: “Every single part of the suffering occurring in Gaza is Hamas' fault. For those too slow to understand, I'll break it down into small words. Israel abandoned the Gaza Strip in 2005. It is now 2023. Hamas has ruled the Gaza Strip since 2006. 

“Hamas is in control of the Gaza Strip. Hamas is in control of its own civilians. Those civilians live under the rule of the Hamas government in the Gaza Strip. Those civilians are Hamas' responsibility. 

“Hamas is holding hostages. It is a war crime to place civilians in front of military targets. It is a war crime to shield your rockets with children. It is a war crime to put hostages in a war zone to try to prevent bombings. 

“All of these are war crimes. Every ounce of blood that is spilled, every building that is taken down, and every ugly photo you see from Gaza is the fault of Hamas. It's that simple. There is no duality about this.”

For various reasons, many people dislike the Jewish people. And their hatred blinds them to reality in situations like this, and they fall for the false narrative put forth to shift blame to the Jews when conflicts arise.

The true story must be told, and be heard.

Israel’s right to defense and the rise of a woke culture

It is hard to understand why so many people dislike Israel, and believe that Israel is responsible for the recent fighting. Many of those Americans who dislike Israel are Democrats, which is especially odd, since Jewish voters in America lean heavily Democrat.

Are they cowering in the face of strong opposition from the Left’s anti-Semitic faction, which includes Black Lives Matter, Antifa, the notorious Squad of Congresswomen, and others?  

Israel gets the blame for the deaths of innocent Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip. However, that narrative ignores important facts. 

First, Israel did not start the fighting. Israel was attacked by Hamas terrorists, firing rockets from Gaza, and is merely defending itself. Hamas, along with other Arab terrorist groups, believes Israel has no right to exist, and is working to bring about that reality. The terrorist organization has fired what now totals more than 4,000 rockets into Israel.

When you are attacked, you must respond. And Hamas, that wonderful organization that boldly and purposefully puts the safety of the Palestinians living in Gaza at risk, set up its offensive weaponry in populated areas, knowing that Israel would, out of necessity, respond with retaliatory attacks. And it knew that when the Israeli response happened to kill civilians, used as shields by the terrorists, Israel would be blamed by the gigantic anti-Semitic faction around the world.

Prior to the recent cease-fire, more than 200 Palestinians reportedly had died in the war, and roughly two dozen Israelis have been killed. Why the large difference?

Because Israel has a defense mechanism called the Iron Dome that intercepts and destroys many or most of the terrorists’ rockets before they can do any damage, although some do get through. Some 16 percent of Hamas’ rockets reportedly fell short of their target, and landed in Gaza, and may have killed Palestinians. 

And the Palestinian death toll is a fraction of what it could be because of Israel’s efforts to keep civilians as safe as possible, even warning occupants of certain targeted buildings that an attack is imminent so that they could escape, and by carefully picking its targets.

All the while Israelis get the blame for Palestinian civilian casualties who were put at risk by Hamas terrorists firing rockets at Israel from Palestinian neighborhoods.

* * *

In today’s upside-down America, math is now both racist and something which no longer requires accuracy and correct answers.

An opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal describes the situation: “If California education officials have their way, generations of students may not know how to calculate an apartment’s square footage or the area of a farm field, but the ‘mathematics’ of political agitation and organizing will be second nature to them. Encouraging those gifted in math to shine will be a distant memory.”

A proposed new curriculum framework for math is now being considered by the state’s Instructional Quality Commission. The new framework recommends that teachers use a manual titled “A Pathway to Equitable Math Instruction: Dismantling Racism in Mathematics Instruction,” which The Journal commentary called “a troubling document.”

“This manual claims that teachers addressing students’ mistakes forthrightly is a form of white supremacy,” the article states. “It sets forth indicators of ‘white supremacy culture in the mathematics classroom,’ including a focus on ‘getting the right answer,’ teaching math in a ‘linear fashion,’ requiring students to ‘show their work’ and grading them on demonstrated knowledge of the subject matter. ‘The concept of mathematics being purely objective is unequivocally false,’ the manual explains. ‘Upholding the idea that there are always right and wrong answers perpetuates objectivity.’ Apparently, that’s also racist,” the article continues.

While 2+2 still equals 4, and the multiplication tables are still accurate, that is not as important as being sure that those who aren’t good math students don’t feel bad about it. 

This is just one more component of the new woke attack on a merit-based selection process. The anti-merit faction would prefer to have a fair distribution of genders and ethnicities providing medical care, piloting airliners, manning classrooms at all levels, leading and serving in the military, holding management positions, etc. Yet a student who was behind his/her classmates in math or science, or any subject, will likely not do as good a job as a teacher as someone who had a high ability and a love for the subject.

As woke-ism progresses, no doubt this foolish concept will creep into other subject areas, as well.

Does this really make any sense in a country where having a thriving society, and the country’s very survival, depend upon having very capable people in all important positions?

Woke-ism is a truly bizarre development. The number of people who favor it is shocking. But the scariest thing is how foolish and non-sensical these concepts are. If America does not get its feet back on the ground very soon, our future is very uncertain. We need to pay much more attention to what China and Russia are doing, and be less concerned with trying to guarantee equitable outcomes among unequal people.

Is woke-ism a new pandemic? Is it a greater threat to our future than COVID-19? It could very well be.

Israel continues to survive irrational hatred and violent attacks

Christians and Jews know from studying religious texts that the Hebrews lived in what is now Israel roughly 3,000 years ago, and many independent sources confirm their occupation of that land three millennia ago.

Even the Quran, the Islamic equivalent of the Bible, notes: “Sura 17, The Children of Israel (Banî Israel)” in the Khalifa translation, and perhaps others, as well.

Charles Krauthammer provided context in The Weekly Standard in 1998, commenting that “Israel is the very embodiment of Jewish continuity: It is the only nation on earth that inhabits the same land, bears the same name, speaks the same language, and worships the same God that it did 3,000 years ago. You dig the soil and you find pottery from Davidic times, coins from Bar Kokhba, and 2,000-year-old scrolls written in a script remarkably like the one that today advertises ice cream at the corner candy store.”

The land occupied by modern Israel is small, about the size of Wales or half the size of Costa Rica, and is located roughly on the site of the ancient kingdoms of Israel and Judah, except that these ancient kingdoms also included what is now the West Bank.

Israel is 263 miles long and varies from 9 miles wide at the narrowest point to 70 miles wide at the widest point. It is a little larger than Connecticut and a little smaller than New Jersey, and is home to approximately 8 million Israelis, 5.5 million of whom are Jews.

Israel is bordered on the west by the Mediterranean Sea, and its contiguous neighbors are Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon, with Iraq, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Iran not far away.

Israel is smaller than any of its neighbors, both in geographic size and population. The nations that surround it don’t like Israel or Jewish people. “Death to Israel” is in fact a common sentiment among those nations and their people. This sentiment is reflected in a BBC poll last year showing Israel as the fourth least popular nation on the planet, behind Iran, Pakistan, and North Korea.

This perception is based largely on the fact that there are more voices in the region where Israel and its enemies reside demeaning Israel – those would be the voices of the “Death to Israel” crowd – than there are Israeli voices telling the other side of the story. It is not so different than going to Boston and asking which American League team residents think is the most unpopular, and finding most named the New York Yankees, not the Red Sox.

As the saying goes, the more you tell a lie, the more it is believed, and with the help of dishonest reporting, the lie spreads far and wide.

In fact, while the enemies scream “Death to Israel,” Israel only asks for peace, and has made numerous concessions towards that goal, only to be slapped in the face with violent attacks.

The current fighting follows an unprovoked attack on Israel by Hamas. According to the Council on Foreign Relations, Hamas “is the largest and most influential Palestinian militant movement … [and] is a Sunni Islamist group and a U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization violently opposed to the state of Israel.”

The murders of three Israeli boys and the murder of one Palestinian boy initially stirred tensions, and Hamas unleashed a barrage of rockets on Israel to kick-start the conflict.

The differences in how the two sides operate could not be starker: Hamas fires rockets aimed at civilian-occupied areas; Israel targets Hamas compounds, militant command centers, weapons storage facilities and tunnels into Israel and Egypt.

Thus far, more casualties have occurred on the Palestinian side of the conflict, due in part to the Israeli Iron Dome defense system used to protect their citizens by intercepting rockets aimed at population centers. Hamas, however, is said to store rockets in homes and schools, and reportedly uses civilians as shields against attacks on the storage areas.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the two philosophies: “We are using missile defense to protect our civilians, and they're using their civilians to protect their missiles."

Such tactics help explain the greater number of casualties among Palestinians, and Hamas turns this into anti-Israel propaganda, helping to propagate Israel negative image worldwide.

Steven P. Bucci, who served America for three decades as an Army Special Forces officer and top Pentagon official, writes that “before the Israelis strike a building, every home in it gets a call on its landline phone, as do all the cell phones associated with the inhabitants of the building — the cells additionally get text messages — telling them that in a few minutes the building will be targeted. Finally, to make sure everyone gets the message, Israel drops a dud bomb—one containing no explosives—onto the roof of the structure. … There is no instance in modern military history where a force has taken greater measures to give the innocents as much chance to get out of the way.”

The broad hatred of Israel and love for its enemies is irrational. Despite this, Israel behaves honorably in defending itself against repeated attacks, holds its own against the haters, and survives.