Antisemitic protests a 'hallmark' of American democracy, ridiculous Passover statements, and more
“What the hell is going on?” is a weekly series in which we bring you the most bizarre, outlandish, and surreal developments from around the Jewish world during the past week.
Please consider supporting our mission to help everyone better understand and become smarter about the Jewish world. A gift of any amount helps keep our platform free of advertising and accessible to all.
You can also listen to the podcast version of this essay on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and Spotify.
U.S. universities were all over the news all last week.
On Monday, Columbia University in New York City cancelled in-person classes, according to CNN, “as tensions on campus remain high ahead of Passover following pro-Palestinian protests.”
Or, as one social media user more accurately described it, “because privileged, pro-terrorist nut jobs are advocating the genocide of Jews, and there’s every possibility someone will be killed.”1
Images included burning the American flag, matching tents (indicating these demonstrations are not grassroots movements), printed instructions on how to conduct illegal acts without being arrested, and posters of convicted terrorists.
As Michael Oren, a former Israeli ambassador to the United States, observed:
“Spontaneous encampments, new uniform tents, middle-aged protestors blocking the entrances to campus — the attack on American universities is clearly being financed and orchestrated. The FBI must investigate.”2
Visitors to Columbia’s encampments included Motaz Azaiza, who participated in the Palestinian invasion of southern Israel on October 7th and posted and glorified videos of Hamas terrorists invading Israel and kidnapping people; and the wife of the convicted financier of Palestinian Islamic Jihad — whereas Columbia professor Shai Davidai (a Jewish Israeli) had his access to the university rescinded just days ago.
Dr. Jill Stein, the head of the Green Party of the United States, also paid a visit to Columbia, saying she was there “confronting Zionists” and that “opposing genocide is a Jewish value.” (I am not sure what genocide she is referring to, maybe the one in Myanmar?)
After a Jewish man told her that “Israel is the only homeland of the Jewish people,” she responded: “The Jewish People have Poland” — you know, the country where some 3 million Jews were massacred from 1941 to 1945.
At the University of Southern California, anti-Israel protestors were shouting: “Intifada! Intifada!” When someone asked them what “intifada” means, they had no idea. At New York University, one anti-Israel protestor said she wishes she “was more educated” about what they were protesting.
As one social media user wrote: “Don’t be accusing Israel of being colonizers while you're living in a city with the word ‘New’ in the name.”3
At UCLA, a female teaching assistant was seen arguing with a student waiving an Israeli flag, and she claimed that a “genocide” is taking place. The student (correctly) told her that the Palestinian population has grown since 1948, making a “genocide” factually impossible, to which she looked around, dumbfounded, and then asked: “Who can help me here to answer this question?”
Video came out this week of Columbia University’s current president, Minouche Shafik, remarking at an event just two months after 9/11 that terrorism “is a form of protesting.”
To add insult to injury, the “Judaica” section at the University of Pennsylvania bookstore includes books with titles like “The One and the Many: The Early History of the Qur’an,” “Two Billion Caliphs: A Vision of a Muslim Future,” and “Animals in Islam.”
Meanwhile, at Princeton University a recruiting document showed that “pro-Palestinian” demonstrators know they are breaking the rules but do not expect serious consequences. The document says that they “have a trained security team, pro bono legal support, and faculty members on our side to negotiate with administration.”
At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Jewish students had to move their Passover Seder to a new location because a pro-terrorist mob was setting up camp outside the Jewish Center.
At Northwestern University, the president urged students to attend an anti-Israel lecture series as an alternative to setting up camps.
At the University of Michigan, anti-Israel protesters distributed flyers that said: “Freedom for Palestine means death to America.”
Unsurprisingly, those who publicly praised these pro-terrorist mobs last week include Islamic Republic of Iran’s Supreme Leader, Hamas, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (a secular Palestinian Marxist-Leninist and revolutionary socialist organization), and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
That’s right, Blinken called the blatantly antisemitic demonstrations — thronged by bullying, harassing, and calls for violence — “a hallmark of our democracy.”
But don’t just take my word that these demonstrations are profusely antisemitic. Here is what Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a Somali-born writer who grew up Muslim, had to say:
“Let’s stop referring the insurrection underway on our university campuses as Pro Palestinian protests. They are not pro Palestinian. They are anti-Jewish and anti-American. What you see are pro-Hamas operatives exploiting gullible students. They are flexing their Islamist muscles. Incompetent and weak university presidents who allowed this problem to get out of hand will not stop them. The Feds need to take control before they shed blood.”4
The United Nations continued to embarrass the world and reach new lows.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres excluded Hamas from a list of entities suspected of committing sexual crimes in conflict. If you are keeping score, this is the same Hamas which committed the most heinous mass rape and sexual violence on October 7th (and which is ongoing with the hostages).
And, according to a self-commissioned report about the notorious UN Agency for Palestine Refugees, the agency’s mechanisms to make sure it does not hire terrorists are as follows:
It asks potential employees if they are terrorists.
It checks their names against a list that does not include Hamas.
It double-checks with Hamas.
So-called “anti-Zionist” Jews continue to co-opt Judaism as part of some twisted effort to align with “pro-Palestinians” who so obviously hate Jews.
Naomi Klein used the Passover holiday to write an op-ed in The Guardian, saying: “We don’t need or want Zionism. We want freedom from the project that commits genocide in our name.”
The organization “Jewish Voice for Peace” (which is neither Jewish nor for peace) created a Passover mat on which the Hebrew was written backwards.
As one social media user wrote: “Guys. Just because we want to eradicate the world’s only Jewish state and we march in solidarity with the organization responsible for October 7th, doesn’t mean we’re antisemitic. We have a whole tent of Jews hosting a river to the sea Seder.”5
A Canadian writer named Nora Loreto complained that her family was told that “because of our position on Israel’s genocide, we are not invited” to a Quebec synagogue’s Passover Seder, where Loreto and her family supposedly “have celebrated Passover … since the pandemic.”6
This is the same Nora Loreto who wrote in 2018 that she is “the least Jewish member of my household.”
As one social media user commented: “That synagogue has excellent judgment.”7
The Passover statements from U.S. politicians were interesting, to say the least.
A statement from U.S. President Joe Biden included two mentions of Palestinians, even though they have nothing to do with this Jewish holiday.
“We are also working to establish an immediate and prolonged ceasefire in Gaza as a part of a deal that releases the hostages and delivers desperately needed humanitarian aid to Palestinian civilians,” said the statement, as well as: “We will continue to work toward a two-state solution that provides equal security, prosperity, and enduring peace for Israelis and Palestinians.”
Naturally, Biden’s Ramadan statement made zero mention of the Jews — because only the Jews are subject to both-sides-ing. Or as one social media user put it:
“If you can’t wish Happy Passover without promoting your pro-Palestinian agenda, please refrain from saying anything at all. When we wished our Muslim friends happy Eid Mubarak and Ramadan, we didn’t mention Passover.”8
But that was not all from Biden. On Tuesday, he was explicitly and exclusively asked about the antisemitic protests on U.S. campuses, to which he replied:
“I condemn the antisemitic protests.I also condemn those who don’t understand what’s going on with the Palestinians.”
As one social media user pointed out, this would be like Biden commenting on World War II: “I condemn the Nazis, and I also condemn those who don’t understand what’s going on with the Germans.”9
Meanwhile, Ilhan Omar, the deeply antisemitic Congresswoman, posted on social media: “Happy Passover to our Jewish communities celebrating in Minnesota and around the world” — to which one satirical social media account responded: “It’s like a holiday greeting from the Pharaoh himself.”10
During an Arab League session on Monday, Essa Al-Nassr, a member of the Qatari legislative Shura council, delivered a speech marked by antisemitic rhetoric and calls for violence against Israel.
Al-Nassr’s remarks included accusing Jews of being “killers of prophets,” a well-known antisemitic trope.
He asserted, “There will be no peace nor negotiations with the Zionist entity for one reason: because their mentality does not recognize negotiations, but rather only… breaking promises and lying … They only recognize one thing, which is killings; since they are killers of prophets.”
In reference to the October 7th massacre, Al-Nassr hailed it as a “prelude to the annihilation of the corruption of the ‘second Zionist entity’ upon earth.”
Yet no one seems to be talking about Qatar, which hosts Hamas and likely knew about its October 7th plans. Why?
This past week, Hamas leaders were said to be looking for new headquarters outside of Qatar as pressure mounts for a hostage deal. Suggestions from social media included Dearborn, Michigan and Columbia University.
In other news, the Palestinian political faction Fatah (which runs the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank) charged that Hamas had deliberately killed aid workers, stolen aid, and manufactured a food crisis in Gaza, according to a Palestinian Media Watch investigation published last week.
Yet, for some strange reason, no “pro-Palestinian” demonstrators had anything to say about this.11
The U.S. told Israel not to enter Rafah in the Gaza Strip during Ramadan, a Muslim holiday. Israel agreed, even though the hostages had not been released and Hamas continued firing rockets at Israel.
On the eve of Passover last week, approximately 20 rockets were launched from Lebanon, by Hezbollah, into Israel.
And no one said anything.
What the hell is going on?
Brianna Wu on X
Michael Oren on X
The Mossad: Satirical, Yet Awesome on X
Ayaan Hirsi Ali on X
Eli Lake on X
Nora Loreto on X
Warren Kinsella on X
Anama on X
Dr. Eli David on X
The Mossad: Satirical, Yet Awesome on X
“Hamas kills aid workers to manufacture Gaza food crisis, Fatah charges.” The Jerusalem Post.
As I read this article, I shook my head over and over stunned at how the "patients" have taken over the asylum. Then I had to do a reality check realizing that these are people who get all the press and they are not a majority, just loud, obnoxious, and ignorant. The quote from Biden I found hilarious like something out of Babylon Bee. It was hard to believe an actual US president is so out of touch doesn't seem to understand what his words mean. Wouldn't it have been interesting if Jewish students (they wouldn't) did the equivalent of a Seder mat for Ramadan? We know how that would have been received. They would have been arrested, expelled, names and faces in the news, pick one or all three. That mat shows how flagrantly repulsive these students are, but with an anti-Semite at the head and professors on staff, it's ignored and even celebrated. Let's not forget Karim Khan of the International Criminal Court, who wants to bring "war crimes" against Netanyahu, Gallant, and a head of the army. He hasn't done one iota of investigation, but since when is there a need for investigation, a minor detail? Not when it involves trying to destroy Israel. I, for one, don't want to be on THAT side of history and neither do many, many Americans.
I woke up from an unsettling dream whose symbolism meant that EVERYTHING MORAL & LOGICAL IS NOW INVALIDATED, & there's not a damn thing one can do. It dawned on me that even though the Hamas-imbued unrest has been highlighted on college campuses, that just an echo of what some full adults are enacting all over the world, not merely on college campuses. In other words, college campuses are a "trickle-down" microcosm of the outside/adult world. As a gifted retired 35 year+ elementary school Teacher whose hidden agenda was to develop & inspire a proper moral compass in our youth, I shudder with trepidation that this casual shunning of moral compass could pervade our youngest citizens, and that the elementary classroom/playground becomes a microcosm of the tragically misinformed college campus.