DV Journal

To what extent was the Biden administration responsible for the events leading up to the attack by Hamas on October 7?

Before the war, the administration was busy trying to hammer out an unprecedented Israeli-Saudi normalization agreement while downplaying the Palestinian question.

President Biden’s efforts to conclude a landmark Israeli-Saudi peace deal were intended to build upon the Abraham Accords signed in Washington in 2020, sponsored by the Trump administration. The accords normalized diplomatic relations between the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Israel. Morocco and Sudan also joined the accords later.

Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), sought a hard bargain from the United States in exchange for the proposed deal with Israel. Riyadh demanded a mutual defense treaty with Washington and a green light for an ambitious civilian nuclear program, including the enrichment of uranium on Saudi soil.

Saudi Arabia’s re-establishing diplomatic relations with Iran, orchestrated by China in March 2023, raised alarm bells in the White House. Given the animosity between Washington, Tehran and Beijing, a trilateral Israeli/Saudi/American treaty would counter Iran’s regional ambitions and check China’s growing influence in the Middle East. Moreover, it was hoped that such a spectacular foreign policy breakthrough would pay off domestically by elevating Biden’s popularity before the elections.

Ultimately, were those formidable concessions, especially committing its military to defend an unpredictable Saudi royal autocracy, congruent with America’s vital national interests? Further, should the United States have sanctioned nuclear proliferation in the world’s most volatile region? Certainly not on both counts.

The Trump and Biden administrations were captivated by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s vision of the pathway to peace with the Arab world. In his address to the U.N. General Assembly in September 2023, Netanyahu declared that “I’ve long sought to make peace with the Palestinians. But I also believe that we must not give the Palestinians a veto over new peace treaties with Arab states.” He continued, “The Palestinians could greatly benefit from a broader peace. They should be part of that process but they should not have a veto over it.”

The Saudi position on peace with Israel was outlined by the resolutions of the 2002 Arab League summit in Lebanon. It called for a complete Israeli withdrawal from all the territories it occupied in the 1967 war and for the establishment of an independent Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza. Israel, however, rejected it as a basis for negotiations.

Once the White House approached Riyadh about a possible deal with Israel, the 2002 plan was no longer relevant. MBS dismissed the centrality of the Palestinian issue in any future deal as envisioned by Netanyahu.

Unquestionably, the Biden administration bought into this half-baked scheme. Publicly, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that “normalization (with Israel) cannot come at the expense of the Palestinian cause.” 

Such a statement, however, was issued for public consumption only. It had no real policy relevance. There was no way that Netanyahu’s Israel would make any meaningful concessions to the Palestinians. The administration was aware of that, yet it went along with the proposed treaty while disregarding its potentially dire consequences.

This cynical triple deal was meant to satisfy each player’s interests; MBS, a ruthless dictator, exploited Washington’s anxiety about China and demanded an alliance; Biden aspired to re-establish a “pax Americana” in the Middle East; and Netanyahu planned to celebrate the “deal of the century” by making peace with the most prominent Arab state. This untenable diplomatic ménage à trois collapsed on October 7. Hamas’ leaders were fully aware that once an Israel-Saudi agreement was inked, Netanyahu’s goal to crush the Palestinians’ aspirations for an independent state would be realized with MBS’ blessing.

The attack by Hamas was partly an attempt to derail the Israeli-Saudi deal, and it succeeded in aborting it. Biden acknowledged this saying, “One of the reasons Hamas moved on Israel … they knew that I was about to sit down with the Saudis.”

“Guess what? The Saudis wanted to recognize Israel.”

After the October 7 attack, the administration’s vocal support of an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel has become a core component of its conflict resolution strategy once the war is over.

Advocating peace and promoting a two-state solution is certainly laudable at this juncture. But given the deep-seated mutual hatred, the rejectionist disposition of both parties, the fresh scars left by the continuing violence and the humanitarian trauma in Gaza, peace is nothing short of a pipedream.

Still, Biden’s misguided diplomatic adventure, peddled by Netanyahu and cheered by MBS, has exposed America’s gullibility and ineptitude to pursue a coherent policy worthy of a superpower trying to steer clear of the deadly Middle East quicksand.

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Republican U.S. Senate candidate Dave McCormick has made no secret of his support for Israel or belief that the U.S. should stand by its key ally.

The Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania native put those beliefs into action this week, traveling to Israel to meet with members of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and tour a site of the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attack.

“[H]e has a packed schedule while there,” a McCormick campaign spokesperson told DVJournal.

It may include visits with the families of hostages, top IDF leaders, and government officials. One site McCormick has already visited is the Kfar Aza kibbutz east of Gaza. Nearly 50 residents were murdered, and at least 20 others were reported missing after the Hamas attack. Some 1,200 Israelis were killed and and another 250 were kidnapped that day. At least 33 American citizens were killed, while others were taken hostage.

McCormick has made foreign policy a centerpiece of his campaign to oust Democrat Sen. Bob Casey, who is seeking a fourth term. The author of the recent book, “Superpower in Peril,” McCormick also holds a Ph.D. from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton, served as an undersecretary of the U.S. Treasury for international affairs under President George W. Bush, and was an Army officer and Gulf War veteran.

McCormick’s wife, Dina Powell McCormick, is also on the trip. A former deputy national security adviser in the Trump administration, Powell McCormick worked on Trump’s Middle East peace plan, the Abraham Accords, with the former president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.

It’s not known how long McCormick will be in Israel.

The Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia sees McCormick’s trip as a positive from an educational standpoint.

“We are always appreciative when individuals work to educate themselves with an in-person visit to Israel,” organization CEO and President Michael Balaban told DVJournal. “However, it is our policy, as a non-profit, not to comment on individuals running for office.”

McCormick’s visit may prompt Casey to make his own trip.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) said she and “at least four” other members of the Senate Intelligence Committee will be in Israel for the rest of the week. Casey is on the committee, but a spokesperson did not respond to requests about whether he’s part of the group. It plans discussions with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The McCormick-Casey contest will be one of the biggest races in Pennsylvania and the U.S. this year. Democrats have a one-vote majority in the Senate. Polls currently show McCormick trailing Casey by about seven points.

McCormick lost the 2022 Pennsylvania GOP Senate primary to Dr. Memet Oz, who was soundly defeated by Democrat John Fetterman months later.

McCormick has been dogging Casey over what Republicans see as less-than-wholehearted support for Israel in the wake of Oct. 7. During a recent podcast interview with DVJournal, McCormick said U.S. aid to the Jewish state is vital, and he urged Republicans to come to an agreement with the White House to fund Israel, Ukraine, Taiwan, and reform policies at America’s southern border.

“They have a supplemental with funding for Israel, Ukraine, Taiwan, and changes to the border. And the president is not involved. He has not been involved from the beginning. He is apparently MIA on everything,” McCormick said.

“I’m particularly worried about Israel getting the support it needs to be able to finalize the destruction of Hamas. All these things are essentially creating uncertainty in the world about America’s leadership. And this weakness has to be replaced.”

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In 2023, we were reminded that evil lurks in the world and is on the rise, and that we need strong leadership and moral clarity to deter and overcome it.

Over the last three years, the world has become an increasingly dangerous place for the United States and our allies as adversaries probe for weakness.

First, America’s enemies watched as our commander-in-chief botched our withdrawal from Afghanistan. Thirteen brave servicemen and women lost their lives and America was humiliated because of this failure of leadership.

Having witnessed President Biden’s weakness, Putin’s Russia invaded Ukraine, killing tens of thousands of Ukrainian civilians and destroying peace in Europe. Meanwhile, the Chinese Communist Party has continued one of the largest military buildups in history and escalated pressure on Taiwan and the Philippines.

Then, Hamas launched a barbaric assault against innocent Israelis that was the deadliest attack on the Jewish people since the Holocaust. Since then, Iranian-backed terrorist groups have attacked U.S. forces across the Middle East and paralyzed international shipping in the Red Sea. This is a stark reminder that the enemies of Americans, Israelis, and others who enjoy freedom and prosperity remain a significant threat.

At home, we’ve seen protests calling for the genocide of Jews, a dramatic rise in hate crimes, and leaders of our country’s most elite institutions failing to show moral clarity and the leadership needed to meet this moment.

The world is watching to see whether our leaders will stand up for the American people, and this has been a brutal wake-up call that all is not well for America and our closest allies.

We need leaders with the strength, the will, and the moral clarity to meet these challenges. Leaders who will make our enemies think twice about attacking America and our allies. Leaders who defend America’s interests. And leaders who will make serious, generational investments in rebuilding our military.

President Joe Biden and Senator Bob Casey will do none of these things.

Their every move has weakened our position on the world stage, undermining deterrence, and showing our adversaries that the United States may not be the superpower it once was.

Biden’s failures have had the support every step of the way of rubber stamp Senator Bob Casey.  Pennsylvania’s senior senator votes for the president’s disastrous agenda 98 percent of the time and repeatedly has failed to use his position of power when it matters most.

Pennsylvanians deserve better than weak, ineffective leaders who have proven themselves to be incapable of keeping America and our friends safe.

In the business world, when someone fails to deliver results, they’re fired. I learned that the hard way while CEO of an investment firm. My boss initially decided I was not cutting it in the job, and demoted me. I learned some hard lessons and later earned my way back to CEO and successfully led the company for a number of years.

Bob Casey should be held to the same high standard. Congress had a historically unproductive year, with the fewest bills signed into law in decades, and Casey has not seen a single significant piece of his own legislation become law in 17 years in the Senate.

The world is a scary place. We need leaders who are capable of protecting the American people and America’s role in the world.

My decades of leadership experience demonstrate I’m equipped for this dangerous moment, and I’d be honored to carry the torch as the new U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania.

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Philadelphia is a diverse city known as the birthplace of America. Despite these accolades, Philadelphia is unfortunately still not immune from the rising antisemitism that we’ve seen grow across the nation following the October 7 Hamas terrorist attack against Israel.

It’s time that we, as Philadelphians, face that fact head-on.

Less than a week after Hamas’s atrocities against Israeli civilians, the Philly Palestine Coalition released a statement that not only expressed solidarity with Hamas, but also asserted that “Israel is solely responsible” for the barbarity of October 7. Their embrace of victim-blaming would shock the conscience even if it were limited to Israelis – but it isn’t.

Recent protests organized by the Coalition in Center City made it clear that they hold American Jews just as responsible for Israeli military policy. Agitators vandalized a Jewish after-school center for children ages 5-12, and chanted accusations of genocide at an Israeli restaurant in what Governor Shapiro called “a blatant act of antisemitism”. Even the name of the protest, “Flood Philly for Gaza,” evoked Hamas’s name for its terrorist onslaught: “Al-Aqsa Flood”.

Many of the protesters were the same age as the Israeli civilians who were assaulted and murdered by Hamas on October 7. This did not seem to provoke empathy; in fact, Students for Justice in Palestine chapters at the University of Pennsylvania, Temple, Drexel, Swarthmore, Bryn Mawr, and Haverford all belong to the Coalition.

Hamas’s founding document lays out its vision for a Jew-free world, and its spokesmen have repeatedly issued calls for genocide, yet the Coalition refers to Israel as “a genocidal death machine… founded on blood and sustained through blood.”

As our Philadelphia neighbors, who cannot plead ignorance, cheered on antisemitic terrorism, how should we respond?

It cannot be with indifference, which Elie Wiesel called “the opposite of love”.

Makom Community, the vandalized Jewish after-school center, set an example with its response. Rather than ignoring the incident or shrinking into a defensive posture, they proudly covered the graffiti with a sign wishing passers-by a Happy Hanukkah and encouraging them to “let your light shine.”

Philadelphia’s annual Hanukkah celebration proceeded as scheduled, albeit with increased security.

A December 10 rally at Congregation Rodeph Shalom also showcased the power of solidarity and resilience. Speakers decried antisemitic incidents from campuses to downtown – but it was by no means a pessimistic event. Presenter after presenter emphasized the importance of positive, forward-thinking action.

Bipartisan legislators promised to support antisemitism education. Students applauded the dismissal of UPenn president Liz Magill after her failure to denounce calls to antisemitic genocide. Rabbi Eli Freedman punctuated the evening by asserting that the event’s message was one of hope and compassion, not hate or vengeance.

For Jews, the stakes of this moment go far beyond the vandalism that emerged from the Philly Palestine Coalition protests. As FBI Director Christopher Wray testified before Congress, Jews make up only 2.4 percent of the US population, yet are the victims of about 60 percent of all religious-based hate crimes.

Jews have been persecuted for millennia, and we can’t pass this latest wave of hate off as an aberration that will subside on its own. Our response, both as a Philly community and as a nation, should mirror the responses above. Antisemitism must be clearly identified, condemned, and addressed with an eye toward the long term.

Accepting that whatever you may think of Israel’s government, Israel’s civilians did not deserve the violence they were subjected to is a necessary first step for anyone interested in building a diverse and welcoming community.

I look forward to a time when hate will not blind people to fundamental moral truths. Until then, happy holidays.

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After the head of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) gave a speech last month praising the Hamas terrorists who attacked Israel on Oct. 7, the Biden White House cut off all ties with the organization.

The fact that the Biden administration would be working closely with the group — founded by the terror-supporting Muslim Brotherhood and whose rhetoric has included antisemitic remarks — is surprising to some. But the White House isn’t alone. CAIR has another longtime ally:

U.S. Sen. Bob Casey.

The Pennsylvania Democrat has praised CAIR for “diversity and equality” and for its fight against “discrimination and prejudice.”

In the 2016 letter to the Philadelphia branch of CAIR in honor of its 10th anniversary, Casey said, “The work of CAIR to advance the well-being of Muslim-Americans and fight against rising discrimination and prejudice in our society stands as a testament to the bravery, work ethic and ideals of everyone involved.”

In 2019, Casey had a CAIR representative moderate an event, and he mentioned the group on Facebook in 2021.

After Nihad Awad’s most recent controversial comments, Casey’s relationship with CAIR was highlighted by national media outlets.

Speaking at the 16th Annual Convention for Palestine in the U.S. on Nov. 24, Awad said of the Oct. 7 attack, “Yes, I was happy to see people breaking the siege and throwing down the shackles of their own land and walk free into their own land that they were not allowed to walk in. And yes, the people of Gaza have the right to self-defense, have the right to defend themselves, and yes, Israel as an occupying power does not have that right to self-defense.”

The White House issued a statement condemning “these shocking, antisemitic statements in the strongest terms.”

Israel pulled out of the Gaza Strip in 2005 and removed all its citizens, leaving the Arab residents of Gaza to govern themselves. Gaza’s residents elected Hamas as their leaders, and the Iran-backed terror group has been in charge ever since.

The Hamas Oct. 7 terror strike on communities in southern Israel resulted in 1,200 casualties, the most Jewish deaths since the Holocaust. The brutal attack killed civilians, including children and babies, along with women and the elderly. Others were kidnapped and are being held hostage.

Casey’s likely GOP opponent next year, businessman Dave McCormick, was quick to criticize the three-term Democrat for his coziness with CAIR.

“Once again, weak Bob Casey has failed to act. He needs to apologize for his past association with this radical group. He should never have met with them or praised them in the first place. Now it’s time for him to apologize to the people of PA,” McCormick said on X (formerly Twitter).

“October 7th was a brutal and vicious attack on innocent Israeli civilians,” Casey told Fox News Digital. “I unequivocally condemn the antisemitic and hateful comments made by CAIR’s leadership and any comments that celebrate the despicable acts of Hamas terrorists.”

After the blowback, Awad claimed he was quoted “out of context.”

“What I actually said while discussing international law: Ukrainians, Palestinians, and other occupied people have the right to defend themselves and escape occupation by just and legal means. But targeting civilians is never an acceptable means of doing so, which is why I have again and again condemned the violence against Israeli civilians on Oct. 7 and past Hamas attacks on Israeli civilians, including suicide bombings, all the way back to the 1990s-just as I have condemned the decades of violence against Palestinian civilians,” Awad said in his explanation.

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Americans were appalled when Hamas seized 240 hostages during its October 7 attack on Israel. Among the hostages were several Americans, and the White House says there are seven Americans — one woman and six men — still unaccounted for.

People old enough to remember the Iranian hostage crisis or the Patty Hearst story know the political kidnapping of Americans is nothing new.

Consider, for a moment, how Washington handled an international hostage crisis in 1904.

Of the many odd people who’ve wandered into American history, Ion Perdicaris was among the strangest. His father immigrated from Greece in the early 1800s and married into a wealthy South Carolina family. Then, he doubled his fortune by investing in gas works up North.

Perdicaris was born into the lap of luxury in 1842. When the Civil War began, he hopped on a ship to Athens, handed over his American passport, and became a Greek citizen, hoping that would spare his family’s Southern property from destruction.

He eventually settled in Tangier, Morocco. There, he built a mansion called the “Place of Nightingales” filled with exotic animals. He studied Moroccan culture (which he loved), partied, wrote books, frequently went to New York on business, and even seduced a married Englishwoman — who left her husband and settled into Perdicaris’ mansion with her four children.

Fast forward to 1904. Morocco was led by a 26-year-old sultan who ruled like a tyrant at the head of a corrupt government. To say Morocco was a mess was putting it mildly. Sensing vulnerability, Britain, France and Germany came sniffing around, hoping to expand their empires. Which is where Mulai Ahmed er Raisuli enters the story.

Raisuli was the 33-year-old leader of a tribal confederacy bent on overthrowing Morocco’s government. Part pirate and thief, part heroic revolutionary, he was a Robin Hood combination of good and bad rolled into one. But on May 18, 1904, he bit off more than he bargained for.

Raisuli’s men kidnapped Perdicaris and his stepson, demanding $70,000 in ransom (about $2.25 million today).

President Teddy Roosevelt went ballistic. How dare a terrorist kidnap and hold a U.S. citizen hostage! (Because Perdicaris was so well-known in New York and the South, it was mistakenly assumed he was a U.S. citizen.)

Teddy dispatched seven battleships with hundreds of Marines. Their mission: If Morocco’s government didn’t end the hostage crisis pronto, the Marines would seize the customs houses, which bankrolled that nation’s economy. If Perdicaris was killed, they were to find, attack and destroy Raisuli’s gang.

As the warships steamed across the Atlantic, someone in the State Department stumbled upon an inconvenient fact: Perdicaris was a Greek citizen, not an American. Never one to let details stand in his way (this was, after all, the president who said, “I took the (Panama) canal zone and let Congress debate”), Teddy charged ahead as planned. Raisuli thought Perdicaris was an American when he seized him; that was good enough for the White House. (In fact, Washington kept Perdicaris’ nationality a secret for 29 years after the kidnapping.)

With the warships nearing Morocco, Washington furiously worked behind the scenes for a peaceful resolution. Britain and France pressured the sultan to give in to Raisuli’s demands. It looked like bloodshed would be avoided. But there was a problem.

1904 happened to be a presidential election year. While all this was going on, the Republican National Convention was underway in Chicago. Delegates were ho-hum about Teddy’s re-nomination. (Remember, the country had inherited him after McKinley’s murder three years earlier.) There was little excitement about the coming fall campaign.

Then, eight words changed everything.

After making a big show of flexing America’s military muscle, Teddy feared he would look weak accepting a peaceful settlement. Knowing Morocco’s sultan was about to meet the kidnapper’s demands, Secretary of State John Hay sent a bluntly simple communique to America’s ambassador in Morocco: “This government wants Perdicaris alive or Raisuli dead.”

When the message was read to the convention, the delegates went wild. This was the famous Teddy Roosevelt they knew, the cowboy who had charged up San Juan Hill with guns blazing. Now, he was displaying courage and guts again, standing tall in the face of terrorism. The country rallied behind him as “Perdicaris alive or Raisuli dead” became a national catchphrase.

So when Raisuli, who was very much alive, released Perdicaris unharmed on June 21, the message was clear: Teddy had triumphed over the bad guys. Roosevelt sailed to re-election that November.

It’s easy to dismiss this episode as a comedic farce. No one was harmed, the U.S. wasn’t out anything but the cost of the coal to send its battleships across the Atlantic, the sultan was overthrown four years later, and Perdicaris and Raisuli even became friends during their time together.

But there was a serious side to what history now calls the Perdicaris Incident. When lives are at stake, Americans respond positively when a president displays courage. And while people cheer saber-rattling, they also expect our leaders to seize every opportunity to peacefully end a crisis.

Perhaps most important, nobody messed with Teddy Roosevelt again for the remainder of his presidency.

Washington can learn a lot today from that crisis back in 1904.

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“We thought we were in the safest place in the world. But after 6 a.m., the gates of hell opened. An RPG was firing upon us, and I became terrified as nothing was going to prepare me for the sights I was about to see.”

Those were the words of Ofer Kisin, an Israeli survivor of the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attack, speaking at a Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia reception at the Kaiserman JCC in Wynnewood Sunday.

Some 1,200 Israelis were killed by Hamas terrorists in the attack, which also featured mass rape and mutilation of victims. In addition, terrorists kidnapped around 240 people, including Americans, and took them into Gaza as hostages. Hamas still holds 137 captives.

Ofer and Rony Kisin of Kerem Shalom told attendees they were celebrating the Simchat Torah holiday before the massacre.

Israeli Oct. 7 survivors (from left) Hila Fakliro, Shani Teshuva, Rony Kisin, Ofer Kisin.

Shani Teshuva of Kibbutz Zikim also shared her story. Teshuva said a 10-minute delay saved her life along with the strength of her children while living under constant rocket barrage.

“We felt really safe the night before as my 12-year-old daughter went out skateboarding with her friends, and on that morning, I went for a bike ride,” Teshuva said. “At 6:29 the next day, there was a rainfall of rockets. My husband and I got our kids and went into the safe room, where we all covered our kids on the floor. This went on all day as we were fighting for our lives.”

Later, as debris continued to fall, a cyberattack occurred. It resulted in all communication going out. Teshuva’s husband went to the emergency center, and the emergency team told him to check on people door-to-door while also checking on his family.

Teshuva’s narrative captured the community’s adversities in the attack’s aftermath and the uncertain situation.

“Everybody is afraid because we didn’t think this would happen again. Right now, we’re fighting for survival and bringing hostages back home,” Teshuva stated. “My family and I are currently evacuated and have no idea when we will return. We can’t make any important decisions on what’s next while we’re displaced.”

Hila Fakliro was a bartender at the Supernova music festival when Hamas terrorists attacked. Several hundred festival goers, mostly in their 20s and 30s, were enjoying the festival when terrorists began shooting them. The militants surrounded the revelers using motorcycles, trucks, and paragliders.

Chillingly, Fakliro heard terrorists laughing and singing while slaughtering innocent festival attendees.

“Around 6:30, my bar manager told another bartender and me to take cover as we were listening to the rockets go off for 45-50 minutes,” Fakliro said. “We then decided to go to my car, but something told me to leave the car as there was a massive traffic jam for people trying to escape.”

After hearing loud crying, Fakliro ran for about nine miles. She found a farm community and hid there for around five hours. She eventually made her way back to her apartment after hiding.

“I was panicked because if I wasn’t in my car, I had a feeling I was going to be dead,” Fakliro said. “I’m so thankful I’m alive and can share my story.”

“We don’t hate Muslims or any specific group of people. We hate Hamas, and they are a terrorist organization that wants us killed,” Rony Kisin said.

As for Fakliro, she hopes Hamas is finally defeated soon so she can return to her everyday life and continue to fulfill her dreams.

“I eventually want to get married and have children, but I unfortunately don’t feel safe bringing them into this world right now, given everything that’s going on,” Fakliro said.

While the survivors adapt to their current situation, they remain grateful for their visit to America and the opportunity to share their perspectives.

“After this trip, we will be going home with warm hearts and eternal gratitude for our time to tell our stories,” Teshuva said.

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Pro-Palestinian protesters took to the streets in Center City Philadelphia Sunday night, shouting their opposition to Israel, calling for “intifada,” and demanding a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war. Some went to the University of Pennsylvania campus, a site of earlier demonstrations. Others headed to Goldie, a Jewish-owned restaurant serving Israeli food on Samson Street.

They chanted, “Goldie, Goldie, you can’t hide. We charge you with genocide.”

The protest was organized by the Philly Palestine Coalition, which earlier this year called for a boycott of Zionist-owned businesses, including Goldie and other restaurants also owned by Israeli-born chef Mike Solomonov.

The protest drew quick condemnation from Gov. Josh Shapiro (D-Pa.). “Tonight in Philly, we saw a blatant act of antisemitism — not a peaceful protest. A restaurant was targeted and mobbed because its owner is Jewish and Israeli. This hate and bigotry is reminiscent of a dark time in history,” Shapiro posted on X.

Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) added his own post. “They could be protesting Hamas. They could be protesting Hamas’ systematic rape of Israeli women and girls or demanding the remaining hostages be immediately released. Instead, they targeted a Jewish restaurant. It’s pathetic and rank antisemitism.”

The protest in Philadelphia is just one of many from pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel activists, some openly antisemitic, in the wake of Israel’s military response to the Oct. 7 terror attack carried out by Hamas. It claimed the lives of some 1,200 people in Israel, injured thousands more, and resulted in some 240 people taken hostage.

Rabbi Lance Sussman, author and rabbi emeritus of Keneseth Israel in Elkins Park, said he supports free speech. “However, targeting individuals and businesses solely based on their personal identities borders on harassment and a violation of their rights. There are many ‘public squares’ and spaces in our area to share one’s message. Good citizenship is a multidimensional responsibility.”

“Hamas seeks to carry out a genocide against Israel—that is their explicit intent, and intention is one of the two criteria that the Jewish refugee from Nazi Europe included when coining the term genocide to describe the Holocaust. Were Hamas to surrender, there would be no more Palestinian bloodshed precisely because Israel has no genocidal intentions. The perversion of language and ethics is truly Orwellian,” said Rav Shai Cherry, senior rabbi at Adath Jeshurun in Elkins Park.

Michael Solomonov, a chef and restaurateur who co-owns Goldie and several other Philadelphia eateries, declined to comment.

Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) said, “Additionally, I called Michael Solomonov this morning to share that I’m buying lunch for my SEPA team at Goldie in solidarity with him and his team.”

Dave McCormick, Casey’s Republican opponent, said, “This ‘protest’ is despicable — antisemitism, plain and simple. I call on everyone who cares about our Jewish community to support Goldie’s. There are more supporters who care than antisemites who hate.”

Shapiro added, “I’ve communicated tonight with @Mike_Solomonov and his team at Goldie to share our support, and Lori and I look forward to breaking bread there with them again soon.”

In the aftermath of the October attack, Solomonov, who immigrated to the U.S. from Israel, donated a day of the proceeds from all his restaurants to the Friends of @unitedhatzalahofisrael, a volunteer emergency medical services program in Israel.

The Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia also condemned the protests. “As we have said before, this tactic only serves to intimidate, isolate, and scapegoat Israeli and Jewish businesses, further contributing to the alarming levels of hate against Jews nationwide,” it said in a statement. “We stand with Gov. Shapiro and other local officials in denouncing this protest for what it is: blatant antisemitism. We call on the community to counter this hatred by increasing their support to Jewish-owned and pro-Israel businesses by purchasing gift cards from them as gifts for the holidays.”

The Philadelphia Free Palestine Coalition announced Sunday’s protest on its Facebook page.

Bryan Fuller wrote on it to the group: “My two best friends are Islamic. My husband is Hindu. I have hundreds of Jewish and Islamic friends. We are celebrating my husband’s 46th birthday at a restaurant owned by an Islamic couple so our two best friends can eat halal meat. I am disgusted by your actions last night. I have always supported Gaza and Israel. Your HATE is unbearable to watch. As a devout liberal, you do not represent me and the majority. Israel is often wrong. So is Gaza. The hate you showed last night towards a Jewish business is disgusting. I would NEVER target an independent business because of the acts of people I don’t agree with. I will personally frequent every establishment you attempt to destroy. So will my Islamic, Jewish, and Christian friends. Hate has no home!”

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(This article first appeared in Broad + Liberty)

The School District of Philadelphia says it is not offering teachers a professional development course on the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict after a screenshot detailing such an offering was widely circulated on social media sites earlier this week.

The district’s careful and terse wording in response to Broad + Liberty’s request for comment did not make clear whether the course was axed in response to political concerns, or if the district had ever intended for such a course to be available.

The screenshot shows the professional development “event” carried the title, “Decolonizing the Curriculum: Brief History of Palestine and the Creation of Israel: Contextualizing the Current Conflict and Genocide.”

The course description said, “This professional development will help teachers better understand the history of the on going [sic] conflict of Palestine and Israel, the colonization of Palestine, and the current genocide in Gaza and the West Bank,” wrongly implying that Israel was carrying out a genocide as opposed to being the target of one.

“Yesterday [Monday], the title of a professional development training was posted to the District’s internal portal for employees,” Monique Braxton, the district’s deputy chief of communications, said in an email. “The title was not an accurate depiction of the Districts position relating to the Middle East and was immediately removed.”

Broad + Liberty followed up by asking if the seminar was still available, or if the only issue was re-wording the course title and description.

“The professional development course isn’t being offered,” Braxton said in response.

The controversy comes as the current Israel-Hamas war nears its eighth week.

The Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia was quick to condemn the language, even if the course was not an offering.

“The Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia strongly condemns the anti-Israel language used to describe a School District of Philadelphia professional development course on the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” said Jason Holtzman, director of the Federation’s community relations council.

“While we recognize the district’s efforts to remove this course from its portal, misinformation posted on the web has a permanent footprint that emboldens antisemitic and anti-Israel rhetoric. We urge the district to firmly denounce the problematic nature of the language used in this course to make it clear that they are committed to building a safe schooling environment for Jewish students and teachers,” he concluded.

The controversy emerges as rhetoric, particularly by educators at all levels, has been scrutinized in the wake of the October 7 surprise terror attacks by Hamas.

Earlier this month, Colonial School District board member Dr. Jamina Clay resigned after public outcry over a social media post.

Dr. Clay, however, “will continue to serve as assistant superintendent for the School District of Philadelphia, where she oversees ten schools,” according to 6 ABC.

“The Board of Education Policy 320 states that ‘employees are protected by the First Amendment when speaking on a matter of public concern that is not part of their job duties.’ The views and opinions expressed in Dr. Clay’s Facebook post do not reflect the position, opinion or views of the School District of Philadelphia,” said a spokesperson for SPD in response to the Clay issue.

The latest TikTok dustup made me realize that the newest iteration of an alphabet generation–I think it’s now up to Z, although given the acronym for sexual minorities and how that expanded beyond LGBT, we could be out of Aramaic characters–are not serious people. They are ignorant of history, preoccupied with irrelevant things like pronouns and however many “spirits” they have, and are just incredibly annoying.

Before I really get into it, a caveat: I am four decades removed from those halcyon years when you don’t need to pay for your rent, your food, your tuition, or the consequences of your actions. I myself was a rather tame young woman who could run for political office without worrying that some scandal of her past would frustrate those efforts. The worst thing I ever did was kick a horse after bucking and throwing me onto the very hard soil of northern Montgomery County. Believe me, Bluebell deserved it.

So perhaps I am not objective when I say that the vast majority of these kids are pampered and pretentious little darlings who play at human rights activism in the same way they used to play with their Barbie dolls: It’s a diversion, more than anything else. And when they are actually presented with a true human rights crisis, they can’t understand why anyone would disagree with their take on the topic.

Which brings me back to TikTok. The intrepid independent journalist Yashar Ali shed light on a bizarre phenomenon that started in the past few days, only weeks after a group of bloodthirsty Palestinian terrorists massacred 1,200 innocent Jews in cold blood. We’ve already seen how some of these Gen Z darlings have screamed out their antisemitism through the streets of large cities, showing solidarity with Hamas when they weren’t ripping down the posters of missing, kidnapped Israeli babies.

We’ve read the letters that they have signed onto, pledging support for the erasure of Israel and the annihilation of its inhabitants “from the river to the sea.” We have even seen them suggest that Israel is lying about how many people were killed and that this was just some psyops to allow it to commit a “genocide” against the Palestinians in Gaza.

But what Yashar Ali uncovered is even worse than these repellent displays of inhumanity. There is now a trend on TikTok of American youth urging their comrades to read Osama Bin Laden’s “Letter to America” because they find it both elucidating and wise. We are talking about the same Bin Laden who orchestrated the massacre of 3,000 Americans on 9/11. It is true that most of these kids were either infants or weren’t even born when the Twin Towers came down almost a quarter century ago.

But that is absolutely irrelevant. I was born exactly 20 years, minus three days after Pearl Harbor, and I understand everything that happened, every aspect of the attack by Japan, every reason why we were pulled into World War II, and even why it was necessary to drop the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I know all of this because I studied history, a history that is apparently no longer taught in some schools.

These children, who find value in Bin Laden’s words, would be laughable if this weren’t such a horrific commentary on the quality of those who will lead us into the future. They absorb the hateful rhetoric of an Islamist who despised the United States because it somehow validates their hatred of Israel, their innate antisemitism, and their disgust with their native land.

And instead of understanding that Bin Laden would have strangled the breath out of anyone who actually used “pronouns” and raised that increasingly mottled rainbow flag, they think he has lessons to teach and accomplishments to emulate.

To say that I am disgusted with these children is an understatement. I passed “bemusement” a long time ago, well before 1,200 Jews were assassinated simply because of who they were. I mocked the trans activists who whimpered and whined about the cruelty of a world that didn’t understand their viscous form of “gender fluidity.” I laughed.

But I’m not laughing now. I am repelled and disgusted, and I truly hope that him/his and she/her figure out what the hell is going on before they find themselves on the wrong side of a genocide.