#Barak ravid

[the-garbanzo-annex-jr]

by Dion J. Pierre

Columbia University locked down its campus on Thursday, following an anti-Hillel protest staged by a front group for Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) outside the Kraft Center for Jewish Student Life.

“SIPA, SIPA, you can’t hide, you invest in genocide!” the mob chanted, according to The Columbia Daily Spectator, as they held signs calling for the university to “abolish” the Birthright Israel program, which grants Jewish students a free trip to their ancient homeland.

As The Algemeiner previously reported, this assault on Columbia’s Jewish life, perpetrated by a group which calls itself the Palestine Working Group (PWG), appears to have been prompted by an event held by the university on Thursday, in which Israeli journalist Barak Ravid spoke as a guest of the Kraft Center — where the Hillel chapter serving both Columbia and Barnard College students is located — and the School of International and Public Affairs’ (SIPA) Institute of Global Politics (IGP).

Reputed to be the largest Jewish collegiate organization in the world, Hillel International is a “home away from home” for the 180,000 students at over 850 colleges who avail themselves of its religious services, relationship building opportunities, and recreational activities. PWG, along with another group called Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD), insists, however, that “Hillel is complicit in manufacturing propaganda and consent for the Zionist entity’s imperialist and colonial projects.”

On Friday, Columbia University — which has come under fire for its alleged failure to combat the incubation of antisemitism and jihadist extremism on its campus — denounced the attacks on Hillel.

“The Kraft Center for Jewish Student Life, the home of Columbia and Barnard’s vibrant Hillel, is a vital part of our campus, providing a welcoming space for our students to explore and celebrate Jewish culture and identity,” Columbia University said in a statement that was not attributed to any one official. “We appreciate the many contributions the Kraft Center and Hillel and make to supporting our Jewish community and building our university community. Any efforts to intimidate the Kraft Center, Hillel, and our Jewish community and all forms of antisemitism are unacceptable and inimical to what we stand for as a university.”

[vyorei]

[plitnick]

What the latest Libya debacle tells us about U.S. and Israeli indifference to Libyan lives

After Israel broke confidence by reporting secret talks with the Libyan foreign minister, the repercussions are still being felt in that troubled and divided country. While Israel acted shamefully, the lion’s share of the blame, as usual, belongs to the Biden administration. This piece at Mondoweiss looks at the context and just how despicable U.S. actions, as well as Israel’s and the Libyan…

[rayhaber]

İsrail Savunma Kuvvetleri'nden Gazze Operasyonu Açıklaması

İsrail Savunma Kuvvetleri’nden Açıklama İsrail Savunma Kuvvetleri (IDF), Gazze’deki operasyonları sırasında gerçekleştirilen bir saldırıda üç teröristin etkisiz hale getirildiğini duyurdu. Açıklamada, “IDF’nin Gazze’deki operasyonları sırasında 3 terörist ortadan kaldırıldı. Teröristlerden birinin Yahya Sinwar (Hamas lideri) olma ihtimali araştırılıyor. Bu aşamada teröristlerin kimliği tespit…

[arthropooda]

[gray-warden]

Just in case anyone forgot, we provide this government with $9 million dollars every day

[papasmoke]

The framing of the calls to boycott the dinner as if they were being led by American protestors as opposed to, say, Palestinian journalists in Gaza telling their American counterparts not to go, strikes me as disingenuous & intentionally misleading. A couple paragraphs of the article is also just stenography for the White House's reasoning for giving an award to IDF veteran & Biden admin toady Barak Ravid with no analysis on how that ties into the broader complicity of the Biden admin in the targeted killings of over 130 journalists in Gaza.

[mariacallous]

Israeli journalist Barak Ravid drew gasps this month when he told the Jewish Federations of North America’s General Assembly, “We are much closer to Israeli settlements being built in Gaza than hostages coming home from Gaza.” This is hardly news to anyone paying attention to Israeli governmental policy, but it introduced an unwanted chill into a conference that aimed to focus on “Jewish unity” and unspecified “support for Israel.”

Like other American Jews with strong connections to Israel, and dozens of friends and family members there, I have spent many a sleepless night worrying about the fate of the country, and furiously WhatsApping loved ones there to check on their safety. We may want to believe that Israeli leaders are trying to do what is best for their country and its residents. When we see news of yet another teenage soldier killed in Gaza or Lebanon, we want to believe that their sacrifice is not in vain but is making Israel safer.

But this is not a moment for surprise or for more rousing shows of vague “support for Israel.” It is a moment for anyone who cares about the future of the country and the people who live there to sound the alarm and wake each other up.

The settler movement has achieved a full takeover of the Israeli government, and they make no secret of their intentions: to resettle Gaza and officially annex the West Bank. Israeli leadership views the election of Donald Trump as clearing the path for this goal. Israel’s Finance Minister Betzalel Smotrich said as much explicitly earlier this month. This past Sukkot, Likud members of Knesset took part in a conference on resettling Gaza held in a closed military zone meters from the strip, with the IDF protecting participants while pushing back hostage families who had come to protest.

High level Israeli officials have testified that Netanyahu has entirely abandoned the hostages and torpedoed any attempt to free them. Instead, he is continuing the war to advance his political survival and to allow for the reoccupation and resettlement of Gaza. One of his high level aides has been arrested on suspicion of passing information to a German newspaper, allegedly at the  prime minister’s behest, in order to sway public opinion against a hostage deal. Even former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, fired apparently for supporting such a deal, has said publicly that there is no reason for the war to continue and that Israel is on its way to military occupation of Gaza.

There is increasing evidence that the army is implementing the “Generals’ Plan,” which aims to displace all 300,000-400,000 residents of Northern Gaza by preventing any humanitarian assistance from entering, bombarding the territory, preventing residents from returning and re-establishing an Israeli military occupation, followed inevitably by resettlement.

Meanwhile, Gaza itself has become a humanitarian disaster. More than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed — yes, including militants and terrorists, but also including thousands of children and entire families. The U.N. estimates that women and children make up 70% of those killed. Large-scale hunger and disease will likely only grow worse if and when Israel implements its recently passed laws that would prevent UNRWA,  the main U.N. agency serving Palestinians, from operating there. In the West Bank, settlers carry out near daily violence against Palestinian villagers and farmers, with near complete impunity, often with the protection or assistance of the army.

The news that the International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant (along with Hamas’s Mohammed Deif, who is likely dead) engendered the expected cheers from the global left and defensive outrage from the Jewish and Israeli establishment. But for anyone who cares about Israel’s future, these arrest warrants should be cause for deep sadness and alarm. It is a tragic moment when the prime minister of the Jewish state has sunk so low — and brought the country so low — that he can credibly be accused of war crimes, while simultaneously torpedoing any internal inquiry that could have staved off the ICC warrants.

In early 2023, it seemed like the electoral ascendency of Israeli extremist parties, combined with the mass anti-government protests that rocked Israel, might shock mainstream American Jewry out of their usual uncritical support. A September 2023 protest against Netanyahu’s speech to the United Nations drew thousands of Israeli expats and American Jews, including prominent rabbis and communal leaders. Even some legacy Jewish organizations, not accustomed to criticizing Israel, registered their disapproval of the attempted judicial overhaul.

The horrific massacres of Oct. 7 moved many American Jews back into the more familiar narrative of “Israel under attack.” The shocking willingness of some pro-Palestine activists to justify or deny Hamas’s atrocities and to dehumanize Israelis, coupled with a rise in violence against Jews and Jewish institutions, channeled communal energy into fighting antisemitism. And the real threat from Iran, including direct missile attacks as well as more than a year of rocket fire from Hezbollah before this week’s truce, has generated existential fear for Israel.

Mourning and fear must not distract us from the reality that the biggest existential threat to Israel, and indeed to Judaism itself, is coming from Israel’s governing coalition. Israel is not an object of worship or vehicle for Jewish identity. It is a real country with an increasingly authoritarian government committed to perpetual war and settlement. This is both a moral travesty and a danger to the state and to Judaism.

More than 50 years ago, the religious Israeli philosopher Yeshayahu Leibowitz warned, “A calf doesn’t necessarily need to be golden; it can also be a people, a land, or a state.” Jews wearing kippahs and tzitzit who ransack Palestinian villages, sometimes even violating the basic laws of Shabbat to do so, who recite Shema while burning down a mosque, or who build a sukkah in a Palestinian village or in the middle of Gaza, have replaced worship of God with worship of power and sovereignty. They would happily destroy the actual state of Israel in order to achieve their dangerous vision of Jewish control over the entire biblical land of Israel, no matter the human or political cost.

Three decades ago, Prime Minister Netanyahu famously accused the left of “forgetting what it means to be a Jew.” But it is Netanyahu and his allies who have forgotten the basic foundations of Judaism. These include pidyon shevuyim — redeeming captives — considered one of the most important commandments, and the most basic commitment of a Jewish state, not to abandon its own people.

Some American Jews believe that we have no right to comment on matters of Israeli security, or that any criticism of Israel fuels antisemitism. And yet, too much of the American Jewish community gives a pass to organizations that have supported Netanyahu’s drive toward autocracy and settlements, and even refused the pleas of hostage families to call for a deal that will end the war in Gaza and bring their loved ones home. American Jews must not stand by as Israel descends into authoritarianism and messianism which are doing irreversible, generational damage. Supporting Israel can no longer mean sporting flag pins, attending “unity” rallies, or trying to shut down any speech critical of Israel.

Rather, support for Israel and its people must mean standing with the Israelis desperately working to save their country from fanaticism, never-ending war and the settler agenda. Painful though it certainly is, supporting Israel today requires setting aside our disbelief that Israeli leaders could act with total disregard for the wellbeing of Israelis, let alone Palestinians. It means no longer giving Netanyahu and his ministers the endless benefit of the doubt.

American Jews can begin by sending our charitable dollars to the brave Israeli civil society organizations rather than to groups that explicitly or implicitly promote settlement and anti-democratic legislation. It means putting pressure on both the Netanyahu government and the U.S. administrations — outgoing and incoming — to end the war. We can demand that the U.S. follow its own laws and require Israel to adhere to the same guidelines for military aid that other countries do, including ensuring transparency in how aid is used. This includes enforcing the deadline for increasing the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza.

Such measures are not an abdication of the security of Israelis, but rather a means of pressuring Netanyahu to end the war and bring home the hostages, allowing Israel to move toward internal investigations and new elections. And we can insist that our communal organizations stop burying their heads in the sand and instead push back on the Israeli government’s dangerous agenda.

It’s time for American Jews to take a strong moral stance for human life and human rights. This would be the truest expression of support for Israel and Israelis, as well as Torah and Judaism.

[eretzyisrael]

by Barak Ravid

One of the main questions raised during a meeting President Biden and Vice President Harris had with their national security team on Monday was whether there is a hostage-release and ceasefire in Gaza deal Hamas would ever agree to, U.S. officials said.

Why it matters: Biden and his top advisers were shocked after Hamas killed six hostages, among them U.S. citizen Hersh Goldberg-Polin, and have started to rethink the way forward in the negotiations over the deal.

At the same time, Hamas' new demand to increase the number of Palestinian prisoners released as part of the deal raised even more concerns and questions among U.S. negotiators about whether an agreement is possible, U.S. officials said.

"We still think the deal is the only way to save the lives of the hostages and stop the war. But the executions not only increased our sense of urgency but also called into question Hamas' willingness to do a deal of any kind," a U.S. official said.

Behind the scenes: U.S. officials said one of the main arguments made in the meeting was that after Hamas murdered the hostages, including an American, the U.S. shouldn't push for a proposal that gives Hamas additional concessions and instead focus on applying more pressure and accountability measures against Hamas.

A concern raised in the situation room meeting was that the U.S. could press Israel to reduce Israel Defense Forces deployed along the Egypt-Gaza border or on other issues, only to discover that Hamas doesn't agree to other parts of the deal. That could mean the new offer would only become the foundation for future negotiations that would be more favorable to Hamas, a U.S. official said.

During the situation room meeting, Biden was briefed about the Department of Justice plan to publish indictments against Hamas leaders, which have been sealed since February, one U.S. official said.

On Wednesday, Hamas officials continued to stress that the U.S., Qatar and Egypt need to pressure Israel to agree to its demands.

Driving the news: White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told the families of the U.S. hostages on Sunday that Biden is considering presenting an updated and final proposal for the hostage-release and ceasefire deal this week and asking Israel and Hamas to respond.

But in recent days, the White House appears to be less enthusiastic about that option. Biden's advisers are still holding talks with Qatar and Egypt on the updated proposal but U.S. officials say they don't want to predict the timeline for presenting it.

"The text is basically done except for two paragraphs and the annexes of the prisoner exchange and two maps of IDF deployment in Gaza during the first phase of the deal," a U.S. official said.

"We all feel the urgency but what happened last weekend changed the character of the discussion. But we do want to try and get something together," the U.S. official said.

[girlactionfigure]

🔘 HOSTAGE BODIES RECOVERED - MORNING NEWS

ISRAEL REALTIME - Connecting to Israel in Realtime

🇮🇱SIX HOSTAGE BODIES RECOVERED.. The bodies of the hostages Alex Danzig, Avraham Monder, Yoram Metzger, Nadav Poplewell, Haim Peri and Yogev Buchstab were recovered from the Strip overnight.  They were murdered in captivity by Hamas.

.. Recovered by Tzanchanim, Yaalom together with Shin Bet.

.. May their families finally be comforted among the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem, and may G-d avenge the blood of these holy martyrs.

.. Defense Minister: 6 bodies of the hostages were recovered in a daring and dangerous operation in the Hamas tunnels in Khan Yunis.

▪️109 remained in captivity, of which 35 have been declared dead.

⚠️ NORTHERN TOWN WARNING.. KDMC, Ein Zivan, Ortal, Marom Golan Sha'al, Ramat President Trump, Kele as well as in the Katzrin area: minimize movement, avoid gatherings, no public activities, stay near protected space, firefighters prepare for fires. (7:30 AM)   As well, the Upper Galilee council: all kibbutzim are asked to avoid congregating and stay near protected spaces. (9:30). As well as Kabari, Yechiam and Gaaton.  Katzrin city as well.

🔹HEZBOLLAH “WAITING OVER”.. Sources told the Lebanese channel "Al-Jadid" that Hezbollah's response to the assassination of a senior member of the terrorist organization Fuad Shukar was linked to negotiations between Israel and Hamas. According to the sources, "as soon as Hamas announced that it opposes the new proposal, Hezbollah was freed from the restriction they had placed on it - to wait so that it would not be accused of disrupting the negotiations."

.. The same sources claim that “a target was carefully chosen" and is one that will not drag the entire region into war.

⭕ ROCKET BARRAGE from HEZBOLLAH this morning, 55+ rockets.  

⭕ 13 rounds of ROCKET FIRE and DRONE FIRE by Hezbollah over the last day.

♦️LEBANON - AIRSTRIKE - TAYBE, SOUTHERN LEBANON.

♦️GAZA - An exchange of fire took place between our forces and the terrorists in the Hamed neighborhood of Khan Yunis.  Enemy killed and wounded in an attack on a building in the Nizirat camp.  Enemy eliminated in a vehicle attack from the air in the Alkhashashin, west of Rafah. Enemy killed and wounded in an airstrike against a building in Albridge.

♦️COUNTER-TERROR - JABBA.. south of Jenin overnight. Terrorists fired at IDF forces - the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Battalions took responsibility for the shooting.  A bomb was also thrown at a military jeep.

▪️PRESIDENT BIDEN.. at the DNC convention: "We need to stop the war in Gaza, many innocent people have been killed on both sides. We are working around the clock... to prevent a wider war, to return the kidnapped to their families, to increase the flow of humanitarian aid and food to Gaza. To end the civilian suffering of the Palestinians, to finally reach a ceasefire and end this war.”

▪️Reservist soldiers serving in the north and living in conflict line settlements were required this week to return their weapons - after contacting news Kaan 11, the instruction was canceled.

▪️CHAREDI RECRUITMENT.. the Orthodox Program for Regularization where the IDF failed: 150 ultra-Orthodox are on their way to Givati and Tzanhanim as combat soldiers.

🔸DEAL NEWS.. Barak Ravid: In the first phase of the deal, we are talking about the release of 150 life prisoners in exchange for the release of the 5 female observers. The list will be according to seniority in prison and Israel will have a veto on 65.  

[the-garbanzo-annex-jr]

by Dion J. Pierre

A Columbia University organization which calls itself the “Palestine Working Group” (PWG) is waging an aggressive campaign to gut Jewish life, calling for the abolishment of the campus’ Hillel chapter in a recent statement.

“Hillel is complicit in manufacturing propaganda and consent for the Zionist entity’s imperialist and colonial projects,” PWG said on Monday, issuing its invective on the Instagram social media platform. “The program works directly with Israeli universities and provides Columbia and Barnard students with funding to vacation to ‘Israel’ — an ethnostate responsible for the murder of over 180,000 Palestinians in the last year alone. Sever all ties with Hillel. Academic boycott now.”

Reputed to be the largest Jewish collegiate organization in the world, Hillel International is a “home away from home” for the 180,000 students at over 850 colleges who avail themselves of its religious services, relationship building opportunities, and recreational activities. PWG’s assault on it appears to have been prompted by an upcoming event at Columbia, in which Israeli journalist Barak Ravid will speak as a guest of the Kraft Center for Jewish Student Life — where the Hillel chapter serving both Columbia and Barnard College students is located — and the Institute of Global Politics (IGP).

“The Institute of Global Politics and the Kraft Center will be hosting Barak Ravid, a Zionist, pro-Trump journalist to discuss the ‘Israel-Hamas War,’ PWG said in its statement. “Evidently, Columbia doesn’t believe the Zionist entity’s demolition of Beit Lahia and the blockage of Khan Younis, in just this past week alone, justifies the use of the word genocide.”

PWG has since deleted the statement from its Instagram page, but not before it was widely shared on social media, where it has been lambasted.

“Hundreds of thousands of Jewish students visit Hillel to celebrate Jewish holidays, connect with their Jewish identities, and safely gather in community,” Jewish on Campus, a nonprofit organization, said about the outrage. “When students single out Hillel and attempt to exclude one of the lone Jewish organizations from their campus, their Jewish classmates are denied their right to live as Jews. A call to push Hillel off campus is antisemitism, plain and simple. We won’t be silent.”

[plitnick]

As the US-Israel relationship is questioned, its ‘shared fictions’ remain strong

Tom Friedman is back, at least for a minute. He stirred up a bit of a fuss last week when he wrote that the US was beginning a “reassessment” of its relationship with Israel due to the current government’s excesses. Well, it wasn’t necessarily so, but the fact that Friedman wrote it, and that both the US and Israel reacted to it is worth looking into. This piece at Mondoweiss does just that.

[mirkobloom77]

‼️🇵🇸🇮🇱🇺🇸 Compilation of Al Jazeera posts on the current pause from the US in weapon shipments to Israel

[Plain text: Compilation of Al Jazeera posts on the current pause from the US in weapon shipments to Israel]

🔹 Note: Take everything here with a pinch of salt. We all know of the US’s “ironclad support” for Israel.

🔸 Sources: Al Jazeera, unless specified. Non-Al Jazeera photos will have their sources below them.

‼️🇵🇸🇮🇱🇺🇸 US pause of Israel weapons shipment due to Rafah plans

[Plain text: US pause of Israel weapons shipment due to Rafah plans]

‼️🇵🇸🇮🇱🇺🇸 US says it didn’t approve Israel’s offensive in Rafah

[Plain text: US says it didn’t approve Israel’s offensive in Rafah]

🔹 Added since this is, as far as we know, the reason for the weapons delivery pause.

‼️🇵🇸🇮🇱🇺🇸 ‘We are reviewing other potential weapons systems’ to Israel: US

[Plain text: ‘We are reviewing other potential weapons systems’ to Israel: US]

‼️🇵🇸🇮🇱🇺🇸 Israel says US halting weapons shipment could jeopardise captives talks: Report

[Plain text: Israel says US halting weapons shipment could jeopardise captives talks: Report]

🔹 The rest of the photos in this post are opinions and commentary from AIPAC, Bernie Sanders and Israel’s UN ambassador. There is a post by Barak Ravid included, containing more information, but other than that, these are just miscellaneous comments.

‼️🇵🇸🇮🇱🇺🇸 AIPAC hits out at Biden’s decisión to delay arms shipment to Israel

[Plain text: AIPAC hits out at Biden’s decisión to delay arms shipment to Israel]

=

🔸 Additional sources: American Israel Public Affairs Committee and Barak Ravid

‼️🇵🇸🇮🇱🇺🇸 ‘Absolutely right’: Bernie Sanders backs US pausing arms shipment to Israel

[Plain text: ‘Absolutely right’: Bernie Sanders backs US pausing arms shipment to Israel]

‼️🇵🇸🇮🇱🇺🇸🇺🇳 Israel’s UN ambassador says US pausing arms shipments ‘very disappointing’

[Plain text: Israel’s UN ambassador says US pausing arms shipments ‘very disappointing’]

[arthropooda]

[fuckyeahmarxismleninism]

A video shared widely on 8 June shows that the Israeli army made use of the U.S.-built pier installed in central Gaza as part of a bloody rescue operation that saw the killing of at least 210 Palestinians in the Nuseirat refugee camp.

Furthermore, according to Israeli journalist Barak Ravid, a special U.S. military unit specialized in rescuing captives “supported the effort” that decimated the Nuseirat camp.