HERE’S HOPING/PRAYING THAT “STUDENT LEADERS” AT ELITE (HAH!) COASTAL UNIVERSITIES ARE THE FUTURE LEADERS OF THIS COUNTRY:

YOU CAN’T HATE THE NEW YORK TIMES ENOUGH–THIS IS HOW THE HAMAS PROPAGANDA MACHINE WORKS: New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof published a lengthy piece alleging systematic sexual assault on Palestinian security prisoners in Israeli jails. The piece was based on extremely dubious sourcing, and included the absurd allegation, which has circulated for months with no actual evidence provided, that Israel trains dogs to rape Palestinian prisoners. Even a credulous fool might have paused at that one.

But it looks like Kristof, and the Times, are no mere credulous fools. A very extensive, detailed, and exquisitely sourced report was released today documenting, in gruesome detail, Hamas’s sexual depravity on 10/7 and its sexual crimes against the hostages it kidnapped to Gaza. As @aizenbergt55 comments on X, “If you do not believe @nytimes knew EXACTLY what they were doing with the timing of the Kristof “opinion” piece [ie, trying to preempt justified outrage at Hamas’s sexual crimes by suggesting that Israel similarly engages in such crimes] I have a nice bridge to sell you.”

UPDATE: Checking in with the Times today, it turns out they will publish the ridiculous “rape dog” allegations, but not a word in today’s paper about the report referenced below.

HOW IT STARTED:

HOW IT’S GOING:

I’m all for free speech an all, but I have zero sympathy for a group that calls for their university to go after a student group, and then gets mad when the university goes after them instead. Just desserts, it seems to me.

“ANTIZIONISM” IS A PATHOLOGICAL HATE MOVEMENT: Virulently anti-Israel author upsets crazed fans by having a minor character from Israel in her book.

WHEN “GENOCIDE” LOSES ITS MEANING: Me methodically debunking the Gaza genocide hoax in Skeptic Magazine:

Establishing a claim of genocide against Israel would require more than pointing to the scale of suffering in Gaza or to deeply felt moral condemnation. It would require setting aside established precedent, blurring the distinction between intent and consequence, and relying heavily on tendentious, nay dishonest, interpretations of rhetoric by Israeli leaders. In effect, concluding that Israel has engaged in genocide requires not just expanding the definition of genocide beyond its accepted legal contours but well beyond reasonable interpretation of the concept.

WELCOME TO YOUR OVERTLY ANTISEMITIC, TERRORIST-SUPPORTING MICHIGAIN DEMOCRATIC PARTY: Weeks after a Hezbollah-linked terrorist tried to murder dozens of Jewish children in Michigan, the state party recently nominated a Hezbollah supporter for the University of Michigan Board of Regents over an incumbent targeted because he’s Jewish.

GOOD QUESTION:

On a wide range of issues, the long tail of East Bloc Cold War propaganda has much more of a foothold in American politics, both left and even more surprisingly, right (I’m looking at you, Tucker Carlson), than it ever had during the Cold War.

Two reasons come to mind, though they are at best partial explanations. One is our elite universities, which have long been home to domestic radicals, but now also house a large contingent of Third World Communists and Islamists, such as Mamdani’s father. A second is the popularity of Bernie Sanders, who had a long career as a Communist fellow traveler before pretending to moderate to become a Vermont senator, and whose increasingly radical rhetoric on everything from greedy bankers to “Palestine” is right out of the wrong side of the Cold War playbook.

I OFTEN WONDER ABOUT THE HISTORICAL IGNORANCE OF PEOPLE IN THE UK WHEN THEY SUGGEST THEIR COUNTRY IS A PACIFISTIC MODEL OF HOW ISRAEL SHOULD BEHAVE WHEN CONFRONTED WITH ROCKET FIRE ON CIVILIANS:

SO, WE SHOULD HAVE A FORMAL DEFENSE TREATY WITH ISRAEL AND STATION THOUSANDS OF SOLDIERS THERE: The latest meme among Democrats (and some Republicans) is that we should treat Israel “like every other ally,” i.e., no military aid. I think US aid to Israel is a mixed blessing for both countries, but I want to focus here on the underlying dishonesty. Yes, Israel officially gets “foreign military aid” and the others don’t. But that’s an artifact of budget shenanigans, in particular Democrats historically insisting that our military relationship with Israel be put in the foreign aid budget to help get the rest of the (unpopular) foreign aid budget passed. But the US provides massive in-kind subsidies to our other allies in the form of US soldiers stationed there and mutual defense pacts, allowing countries like Canada to freeload off US defense. And then they won’t even let the US use their bases when needed.

THEY ARE ON THE OTHER SIDE: A Hezbollah-linked terrorist sought to murder dozens of children in a Michigan synagogue, but NPR reporters thought the real story was how the terrorist’s terrorist relatives in Lebanon felt.

Link to public editor column, and to tweet.

MUSLIM PUBLIC AFFAIRS COUNCIL TRYING TO INTIMIDATE MY COLLEAGUE ADAM MOSSOFF: There is nothing racist about the image in question (actual picture of her included below for reference), MPAC is wildly hypocritical about freedom of expression as they try to silence Adam, and this nonsense deserves to be Streisand effect-ed.

DEMAGOGUES AND SIMPLETONS DON’T CARE ABOUT EVIDENCE: Yes, the Trump administration is very friendly to Israel, and treats Israel as an important ally rather than a burden or quarrelsome recipient of US charity, as under Obama or Biden. But no, Israel (and the so-called Israel lobby) doesn’t control US policy, and indeed Trump has defied Israeli preferences on many occasions, as Max Abrahams notes:

BECAUSE THEY HATED LIMBAUGH, AND MERELY FOUND KHAMEINI DISTASTEFUL:

WHY, INDEED?:

LITERALLY DOING THE MEME:

DON’T BE A RUBE: Gabriel Epstein has more on X.

WHO WANTS TO TELL HIM? In the early 20th century, we not only did not have pre-Reagan tax rates, until 1913 we had no federal income tax at all, and the original NYC subway lines, the BMT and the IRT, were built by private companies, and operated privately until 1940.

YOU CAN SAY THAT, BUT YOU CAN’T DO THAT! I’m a longstanding critic of allowing hostile environment complaints based on offensive political speech. But I also think that Jewish students at many universities where Hamasniks were chanting “globalize the intifada” and whatnot have a viable hostile environment case. Why? Because liability doesn’t attach for the speech endorsing violence, but this speech provides context for why universities were obligated to crack down on illicit behavior by Hamansniks that they instead tolerated and even encouraged.

This unprotected behavior includes violence, intimidation, threats, classroom disruptions, vandalism, and other acts that created a hostile environment for Jewish students. In isolation, these actions might not create a hostile environment, but when the students engaging in illicit acts are also endorsing violence, a reasonable Jewish student could feel concern for his safety, to the point where it meets the legal standard of interfering with his educational opportunities. This is especially true given that there have been dozens of incidents of violence against Jewish student on campus since Oct. 7, 2023, and also, unfortunately, several murders of Jewish people by Hamasniks in society at large. Certainly courts should not be, as several have, dismissing these cases without giving the plaintiffs the opportunity to even get discovery from the defendants (for the legally literate, on 12b6 motions to dismiss).

I explain it all in this forthcoming article, which also has, I believe, the most comprehensive documentation yet published of incidents of violence, threats, and intimidation against Jewish students, almost none of which have been covered by the MSM.

I EXPECT A LAWSUIT FOR VIOLATING CALIFORNIA’S DRACONIAN PUBLIC ACCOMMODATIONS LAW IS COMING: You can’t make this stuff up: “we aren’t political, and we don’t ask our performers their political views, but we won’t let an Israeli Jew perform unless he denies absurd libels against Israel. But that’s not political, and we don’t ask our performers their political views.”

CHECKMATE:

SUDDENLY, THE MAN WITH OPINIONS ON EVERYTHING DOESN’T HAVE ONE: If world events can’t be used to bash the US government or Israel, Glenn Greenwald suddenly has very meticulous criteria for offering an opinion. Not knowing Hebrew or Arabic certainly hasn’t stopped him from expressing (admittedly ignorant) opinions on the Gaza war. But he can’t even bring himself to give well-wishes to Iranians fighting their tyrannical theocracy, which hardly requires a degree in Persian politics.

IGNORANCE, THY NAME IS TUCKER: In a segment of his interview with Ted Cruz last summer since deleted from his platforms, Tucker Carlson expresses incredulity when Cruz notes that Iran was trying to assassinate Trump (X link).
Well, it’s not like Biden-appointed prosecutors indicted an Iranian agent, who is still at large for trying to murder Trump, and Biden AG Merrick Garland announced this with great fanfare. Oh, wait, it’s exactly like that. Somehow, this very public (and important) story either eluded Tucker’s attention, or he purposely chose to mock it, knowing that it’s true. Neither speaks well of Tucker.

EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.:

CHOOSING POORLY:

YE PROPHETS OF DOOM: The Economist 2 years ago:

The Economist this week:

And who can forget, from March: