“Oct 7 2023”

For Americans like me, who’ve known their country at war only in the Middle East, one of the most interesting things about World War II is the lack of a postwar insurgency. After the Nazis and imperial Japanese surrendered, groups of disaffected soldiers did not lead violent campaigns to restore the defeated regimes (an end-of-war coup attempt in Japan failed rather quickly). The occupations of Germany and Japan were peaceful. Both countries became reliable American allies in short order. Hundreds of thousands of the defeated regimes’ erstwhile supporters––including senior officials, including war criminals––escaped serious punishment, rejoined society, and sometimes gained political influence. And still the peace was kept.

Canada’s decision to revoke JNF’s tax-exempt status seems politically motivated.

On Aug. 10, the Canadian branch of the registered charity, Jewish National Fund (JNF), received an email from the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA), notifying it that its charitable status had been revoked, effective immediately.

The grounds stated for revoking the status, which enabled JNF Canada to issue charitable receipts for income tax purposes, was that the organization had strayed from the objective for which it had originally been granted charity status.

Israel’s self-appointed “elites” governed Israel during the first few decades after its independence in 1948, and, after an unfortunate track record of calculating and assuming things incorrectly when it comes to Israel’s policies towards the Palestinians and other Arabs, are evidently dismayed that they have not been voted back into power. These Israeli “elites” are now blocking Israel’s streets to try to bring down Israel’s duly elected government. They seem to have forgotten their past mistakes and are still pushing for the same failed policies that have resulted in the deaths of thousands of Israelis.

The Black Student Union at the University of Michigan — Ann Arbor withdrew from a Pro-Palestinian coalition called “TAHRIR” due to “rampant anti-Blackness.”

“Members of our organization and our community have dedicated their time, energy, and well-being to the continued existence and strength of the coalition despite repeated instances of being erased, belittled, and berated,” reads the statement by the Black Student Union. “These community members did so with the belief that the work of the coalition would be furthered by their sacrifice — that it would be worth the vitriol they received. However, as Black people, we are not obligated to sacrifice ourselves for any organization that does not value or understand us. The anti-Blackness within the coalition has been too pervasive to overcome, and we refuse to endure it.”

Some police officials have accused the IDF and the Shin Bet of withholding security threat information overnight between October 6 and 7, which, if it had been shared with the police, could have saved the lives of 364 civilians who were killed at the Nova party and 44 hostages who were taken.

First reported by Channel 12 at the end of the weekend, acting police commander for the Negev area Eyal Azulai is quoted as saying that the police had always been unsure about the safety of the Nova party attendees and that if they had known about the enhanced security threat, they might have ended the party before the invasion took place.

American-Turkish human rights activist Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, 26, succumbed to her wounds on Friday after being shot in the head by Israeli forces during a weekly protest against settlement expansions in the West Bank, according to Palestinian Authority-run news outlet Wafa.

During the weekly protest in Beita, south of Nablus in the West Bank, IDF soldiers opened fire at the protesters using live ammunition, the report noted. Eygi was subsequently critically wounded in the head. The 26 years old activist was evacuated to Rafida Hospital in Nablus, where she later died.

h/t Patti Jo

The days leading up to a new academic year at a university are typically filled with a mix of excitement and anticipation for both faculty and students alike. Yet this year, it brought trepidation and even fear for many in the Jewish community. At my own university, faculty attended training sessions on coping with potential classroom intruders, including tips for de-escalation strategies and detailed security procedures. Students normally thinking about orientation programming were instead forced to ask themselves difficult questions about whether to conceal their religious or political beliefs, for fear of risking backlash or ostracization from fellow students and even faculty.

I don’t know that there is much hope for our universities.