Israel's War Against Hamas - Updates

[rylah]

Gaza's construction workers volunteer taking down the tunnels?

 

[Sixties Fan]

Part 1

The main groups that comprise the bulk of organizers and demonstrators who have supported the Hamas barbarism against Israel are:

1) Radical Islamic groups that, like the Islamic Republic of Iran after the 1979 revolution, regard Israel as the “Little Satan” and America as the “Big Satan.”

2) American revolutionary groups who used to be affiliated with Communism but now call themselves radical socialists or workers parties. Their goal is to overthrow our government and they attach themselves to every disruptive movement in the hope of garnering support and creating distrust for American democracy.

3) Old-fashioned anti-Semites who hate anything associated with Jews and concoct conspiracy theories that blame “the Jews” for all evils.

4) Useful idiots who have little or no knowledge of the issues but march in lockstep with all “woke,” “hard left,” and “anti-colonial” causes on the theory that “if it’s left, it must be right.”

Recall that these protests began before Israel counterattacked against Hamas. They were in full bloom on October 8, even while the bodies of 1,200 murdered Israelis, including babies burned alive, were still being gathered and counted, and the roughly 240 hostages taken by Hamas to Gaza identified. These demonstrations were not against Israeli military actions in Gaza; they had not begun yet. More joined them after that.

Who Supports Hamas?

So when you watch an anti-Israel demonstration on television, please understand who is behind it and what are their ultimate goals, because the next target is American democracy -- and you.

www.jewishpress.com

 

[Sixties Fan]

Part 2

The original responses to the Hamas barbarism in the hours and days following the morning of October 7 set the tone and began the organizational actions that followed. Many of the protests that now demand a unilateral ceasefire — including the attempts to shut down Christmas celebrations — are orchestrated by some of the same radical groups that organized the pro-Hamas demonstrations before Israel went into Gaza. Demonstrations and protests by groups such as the Students for Justice in Palestine, Jewish Voice for Peace or the National Lawyers Guild seem anything but spontaneous and grassroots responses to “Israel’s military actions in Gaza.” They are not demonstrations against what Israel does; they are protests against what Israel is, namely the democratic nation-state of the Jewish people.

To be sure, Israel’s legitimate military efforts to destroy Hamas terrorists and the weapons that they have hidden among civilians, and the resulting civilian deaths, have allowed the anti-Israel organizers to recruit more useful idiots who believe they are protesting only against Israeli actions with the chant “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” Many of these undereducated and over-propagandized students have no idea what bodies of water they are referring to, or that this chant demands the end of Israel and any Jewish presence in the Middle East. The radical organizers, however, know exactly what that chant and others mean: a demand to “clean” the Middle East of “dirty Jews.”

The larger point is that the well-organized and externally funded demonstrations are directed as much against the United States and its values as against Israel and its actions. Without the useful idiot students who join any protest they think is directed against the “colonial” and “oppressor” targets of “intersectionality,” these demonstrations would be relatively small and limited to long-term professional haters of Jews and America.

But these useful idiots make these well-funded and organized protests larger and allow the media to convey the false impression that they are spontaneous. The media insists on calling these protests “pro-Palestinian.” Nothing could be further from the truth. When it sounds indelicate to say “pro-Hamas” — a terrorist organization — the signs change to “pro-Palestine.” There is nothing to indicate how the Palestinians would actually be helped by the disappearance of Israel and leaving them, like the Iranian people, to the tender mercies of a corrupt, repressive state.

They had voted for Hamas in the first place because they hoped it would be better. Hamas had promised to be better. It was not. Even most of its leaders chose not to live in Gaza: they are now billionaires who, until October 7, had been hiding in five-star hotels in Qatar and Turkey. When they got word that Israel might hold them accountable, they reportedly dispersed.

Where are the calls for anything that would actually help the Palestinians or make their lives better: freedom of speech, equal justice under the law, freedom of the press, better job opportunities, and an end to government corruption and abuse?

The protests are exclusively anti-Israel, anti-American, pro-Hamas, and pro-terrorism. Many of the useful idiots join the protests to support a ceasefire, without realizing that a unilateral ceasefire now would constitute an invitation to Hamas to repeat their barbarism over and over again, as their leaders have promisedthey would do.

Recall again that the protests against Israel began before there was any fire to cease – that is before Israel responded militarily to the Hamas barbarism. The ceasefire demand was added once Israel counter-attacked, as a way to broaden the base of the protest. The radical anti-Israel protesters, would not be satisfied with a ceasefire. They want to see the destruction of Israel and the victory of Hamas. Indeed, a recent poll suggested that a majority of young Americans would like to see the end of Israel and its replacement by Hamas.

Hamas, of course, would most likely not be satisfied with merely ending Israel. They want to end all non-Muslim democracies. Already Hamas has sent operatives to parts of Europe, where several were recently caught. There are probably Hamas operatives in the United States, as well.

Most importantly, what if the useful idiots who now march for Hamas in favor of Israel’s destruction become a fifth column in America and willingly join Hamas terrorists in targeting Jewish and other institutions in our nation. It was only a half-century ago that young Americans joined the Weather Underground and tried to blow up universities, military recruiting centers and army bases. If Hamas is not defeated in the Middle East, it is coming to a theater near you.

So when you watch an anti-Israel demonstration on television, please understand who is behind it and what are their ultimate goals, because the next target is American democracy — and you.

Who Supports Hamas?

So when you watch an anti-Israel demonstration on television, please understand who is behind it and what are their ultimate goals, because the next target is American democracy -- and you.

www.jewishpress.com

 

[Sixties Fan]

[ Hamas, PA, Fatah, PLO, all the same, waiting for Israel to be destroyed and doing everything to kill Jews ]

The PA uses the same criteria to pay civil servants and reward terrorists

The following two announcements by the PA, showing identical deductions and payments for PA civil servants and imprisoned Palestinian terrorists, prove what Palestinian Media Watch has exposed repeatedly: Terrorist prisoners and families of terrorist “Martyrs” are considered PA employees and receive salaries– not social welfare – just like civil servants.

Due to the PA’s economic crisis, the PA is making identical partial salary payments to the PA’s employees, terrorist prisoners, and the families of the dead terrorists. They will all receive 65% of their monthly pay, but at least 2,000 Israeli shekels, plus 14% of the money owed to them from past deductions.

It is important to note that while the deductions are the same, the terrorist prisoners’ salaries are much higher, reaching as much as 12,000 shekels/month, compared to the average civil servants’ salary, approximately 4,000 shekels/month.

Previous salaries to terrorists were likewise paid by the PA by the same criteria as the civil servants despite the economic crisis:

The PA also sent $1.7 billion to Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip this past year. It will never be known how much of that money went to arm Hamas, and build its terror tunnels, which facilitated the October 7 atrocities:

PA Prime Minister Muhammad Shtayyeh: “We did not relinquish the Gaza Strip, and we will not relinquish the Gaza Strip, because they are our people… We are giving the Gaza Strip $1.7 billion from the Palestinian [PA] budget per year, which we spend on the Gaza Strip.”

[Al-Araby TV (Qatar-based), YouTube channel, Dec. 10, 2023]​

Western donors: Look how the PA is using your money to support terror! | PMW Analysis

PA Funds Terror

palwatch.org

 

[bendog]

Part 1

The main groups that comprise the bulk of organizers and demonstrators who have supported the Hamas barbarism against Israel are:

1) Radical Islamic groups that, like the Islamic Republic of Iran after the 1979 revolution, regard Israel as the “Little Satan” and America as the “Big Satan.”

2) American revolutionary groups who used to be affiliated with Communism but now call themselves radical socialists or workers parties. Their goal is to overthrow our government and they attach themselves to every disruptive movement in the hope of garnering support and creating distrust for American democracy.

3) Old-fashioned anti-Semites who hate anything associated with Jews and concoct conspiracy theories that blame “the Jews” for all evils.

4) Useful idiots who have little or no knowledge of the issues but march in lockstep with all “woke,” “hard left,” and “anti-colonial” causes on the theory that “if it’s left, it must be right.”

Recall that these protests began before Israel counterattacked against Hamas. They were in full bloom on October 8, even while the bodies of 1,200 murdered Israelis, including babies burned alive, were still being gathered and counted, and the roughly 240 hostages taken by Hamas to Gaza identified. These demonstrations were not against Israeli military actions in Gaza; they had not begun yet. More joined them after that.

Who Supports Hamas?

So when you watch an anti-Israel demonstration on television, please understand who is behind it and what are their ultimate goals, because the next target is American democracy -- and you.

www.jewishpress.com

I don't think the US progs are somehow former communists. They weren't even alive in the 70s, and the Bern is definitely not on board with some "forever" cease fire with terrorists. Imo they are idiots who actually stand in the way of getting anything done, not unlike Maga and the Freedom caucus.

And in the ME, I don't see any Palestinians not celebrating Hamas' wins and decrying the IDF killing senior Hamas leaders.

But then, I don't see any Israelies opposing Likud's continuing ethnic cleansing of land they fundamentalist xenophobes claim God gave to them. As if God plays any part.

 

[toomuchtime_]

I don't think the US progs are somehow former communists. They weren't even alive in the 70s, and the Bern is definitely not on board with some "forever" cease fire with terrorists. Imo they are idiots who actually stand in the way of getting anything done, not unlike Maga and the Freedom caucus.

And in the ME, I don't see any Palestinians not celebrating Hamas' wins and decrying the IDF killing senior Hamas leaders.

But then, I don't see any Israelies opposing Likud's continuing ethnic cleansing of land they fundamentalist xenophobes claim God gave to them. As if God plays any part.

You don't see Israelis opposing the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians because there is no ethnic cleansing of Palestinians going on. On the other hand, the so called Palestinians appear to have no other goal but the ethnic cleansing of all the Jews from the region, and this has been their goal since 1920.

The undeniable fact is that this conflict has only one cause, the consistent refusal of the Arabs to live in peace with Jews/Israel for .the last 100 years.

 

[surada]

Oh, I forgot, fck #Hamas

.

Greg

History of Gaza - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

 

[surada]

You don't see Israelis opposing the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians because there is no ethnic cleansing of Palestinians going on. On the other hand, the so called Palestinians appear to have no other goal but the ethnic cleansing of all the Jews from the region, and this has been their goal since 1920.

The undeniable fact is that this conflict has only one cause, the consistent refusal of the Arabs to live in peace with Jews/Israel for .the last 100 years.

www.juancole.com
Yes, Mr. DeSantis, Palestinians are Indigenous, Descended from the Canaanites, and Palestinian Identity is not New
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) - Here is Part 2 of my argument with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis concerning his uninformed and bigoted comments about Palestinians. Part I is here Who are the Palestinians? Nowadays, they are the Arabic-speaking inhabitants of the area stretching from the Jordan...
www.juancole.com www.juancole.com

What we now call Palestinians are for the most part descendants of groups who have been in the Near East for four thousand years, at least.

A branch of the Canaanites became Jews, while others became Nabataeans and Phoenicians.

Rome conquered this region beginning in the first century BCE and then extended its holdings into Nabataea (106 AD), Syria and Lebanon. From the 300s the Roman state increasingly backed Christianity, so that most Levantines adopted that religion, though large numbers of Jews held out.

From the 630s the Near East began coming under Arab Muslim rule and over hundreds of years many people converted to Islam, including many Jews and Christians. So some of the ancestors of today’s Palestinians were themselves Jewish converts to Christianity or Islam.

“Palestine” as a term for a geographical unit and sometimes a regional identity appears in Arab Muslim sources. The “Jund Filastin” (Filastin is the Arabic transcription of Palestine) was a military district of Syria (Sham) in the Umayyad and Abbasid Empires. The chroniclers of later empires that ruled this area referred to it as “Filastin.” There were mints for coins there and the word occurs on some medieval coins

 

[toomuchtime_]

www.juancole.com
Yes, Mr. DeSantis, Palestinians are Indigenous, Descended from the Canaanites, and Palestinian Identity is not New
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) - Here is Part 2 of my argument with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis concerning his uninformed and bigoted comments about Palestinians. Part I is here Who are the Palestinians? Nowadays, they are the Arabic-speaking inhabitants of the area stretching from the Jordan...
www.juancole.com www.juancole.com

What we now call Palestinians are for the most part descendants of groups who have been in the Near East for four thousand years, at least.

A branch of the Canaanites became Jews, while others became Nabataeans and Phoenicians.

Rome conquered this region beginning in the first century BCE and then extended its holdings into Nabataea (106 AD), Syria and Lebanon. From the 300s the Roman state increasingly backed Christianity, so that most Levantines adopted that religion, though large numbers of Jews held out.

From the 630s the Near East began coming under Arab Muslim rule and over hundreds of years many people converted to Islam, including many Jews and Christians. So some of the ancestors of today’s Palestinians were themselves Jewish converts to Christianity or Islam.

“Palestine” as a term for a geographical unit and sometimes a regional identity appears in Arab Muslim sources. The “Jund Filastin” (Filastin is the Arabic transcription of Palestine) was a military district of Syria (Sham) in the Umayyad and Abbasid Empires. The chroniclers of later empires that ruled this area referred to it as “Filastin.” There were mints for coins there and the word occurs on some medieval coins

None of that, of course, has anything to do with what is happening today. The only fact about the Palestinians that is relevant to what is happening today is that the Palestinians have consistently refused to live in peace with Jews/Israel for over 100 years, and it is now clear that they will not in the foreseeable future.

 

[surada]

None of that, of course, has anything to do with what is happening today. The only fact about the Palestinians that is relevant to what is happening today is that the Palestinians have consistently refused to live in peace with Jews/Israel for over 100 years, and it is now clear that they will not in the foreseeable future.

You must support illegal immigration in the US.

 

[Sixties Fan]

Last summer, 29% of Gazans wanted to emigrate. The US calls Israelis who agree with them "irresponsible."​

Times of Israel reported:

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s two senior far-right partners endorsed the rebuilding of settlements in the Gaza Strip and the encouraging of “voluntary emigration” of Palestinians on Monday.

Speaking during their parties’ respective faction meetings in the Knesset, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich presented the migration of Palestinian civilians as a solution to the long-running conflict and as a prerequisite for securing the stability necessary to allow residents of southern Israel to return to their homes.

The war presents an “opportunity to concentrate on encouraging the migration of the residents of Gaza,” Ben Gvir told reporters and members of his far-right Otzma Yehudit party, calling such a policy “a correct, just, moral and humane solution.”

The “correct solution” to the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict is “to encourage the voluntary migration of Gaza’s residents to countries that will agree to take in the refugees,” Smotrich told members of his Religious Zionism party

I'm no fan of Smotrich or Ben Gvir. But what on Earth is wrong with allowing Gazans who want to emigrate to do so?

Not involuntary "transfer." Not Meir Kahane's plan to ship Arabs out on trucks. This is simply to allow those who want to leave to do so.

We know that hundreds of Gazans have risked their lives to reach Europe by boat. Obviously there is a desire by many to leave the sector.

The PCPSR poll of Palestinians from last June found that 29% of Gazans want to emigrate.

But the US reacted harshly:

The United States rejects recent statements from Israeli Ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir advocating for the resettlement of Palestinians outside of Gaza. This rhetoric is inflammatory and irresponsible. We have been told repeatedly and consistently by the Government of Israel, including by the Prime Minister, that such statements do not reflect the policy of the Israeli government. They should stop immediately.

We have been clear, consistent, and unequivocal that Gaza is Palestinian land and will remain Palestinian land, with Hamas no longer in control of its future and with no terror groups able to threaten Israel. That is the future we seek, in the interests of Israelis and Palestinians, the surrounding region, and the world.

If nearly a third of Gazans want to move elsewhere, is that irresponsible? Obviously not. But somehow when far-Right lawmakers in Israel agree with them,it becomes irresponsible.

Gaza is crowded and poor. Without a drastic change, it has a dim future. Ambitious Palestinians have been emigrating around the world since 1948. Many have established themselves and become successful. What is wrong with that?

Obviously Smotrich and Ben Gvir would be happy if 100% of Gazans would move elsewhere. But for all their faults, they are not advocating throwing the Palestinians into the sea, as Arabs have been threatening the Jews for 75 years. And neither are any of the other Israelis who have floated the idea of voluntary resettlement of Gazans to elsewhere in the world.

No one would be too upset if Saudi Arabia offered Israeli Jews a million dollars to move elsewhere. Nearly one in three Gazans don't even need a monetary incentive - they'd move for free if only a country would let them in to become citizens.

Something that would be considered human rights in any other context is considered vaguely racist when Jews support it. And that is the real bigotry.

Last summer, 29% of Gazans wanted to emigrate. The US calls Israelis who agree with them "irresponsible."

Blogging about Israel and the Arab world since, oh, forever.

elderofziyon.blogspot.com

 

[Sixties Fan]

WATCH: Hamas caught hiding weapons under blankets and posing as civilians | World Israel News

Terrorists were caught hiding an RPG under blankets, firing it from a house, and wearing civilian clothing.

worldisraelnews.com

 

[bendog]

We went through all this when Arafat turned down a Pale state without the right of Palestinians to return to the places their great grandparents fled during the Arabs' first shot at running the Jews into the sea.

I don't like likud. And frankly I don't understand why US Jews send kids over there for cultural enrichment. But the situation is gaza is a result of Arafat's decision. And I havent seen anything about the Palestinians still not teaching kids stuff that is just not going to happen. And I suspect they teach kids to procreate to create more "refugees."

And after November, I don't think the Israelis will ever grant a work permit to any Palestinian who is not also an Israeli citizen.

If Trump hadn't pulled Jan 6, I'd be tempted to vote for him over a prog.

 

[rosends]

And frankly I don't understand why US Jews send kids over there for cultural enrichment.

though I know that this wasn't the crux of your post, I think that there is much to defend the practice. I'm glad both my kids went for their gap year (among other trips there).

 

[Sixties Fan]

[ A religion and culture started with lies, continues with lies ]


In addition to the war Israel is fighting in Gaza against Hamas’ terror, Israel is also fighting a war against the Palestinian Authority’s libels and lies. Palestinian Media Watch has documented for decades that the PA is a master when it comes to inventing libels about Israel, and the current warfare has triggered the PA’s creativity for hate.

The newest PA libel published in its official PA daily, is that Israel deliberately is “spreading lethal epidemics and infectious diseases” among children in the Gaza Strip. According to the Palestinian Human Rights and Democracy Media Center SHAMS, Israel does this to “kill as many civilians as possible, and particularly children”:

“The Human Rights and Democracy Media Center SHAMS announced that these days the Israeli occupation is deliberately using a new silent weapon, through a systematic and deliberate policy of creating a hothouse for the spread of lethal epidemics and infectious diseases among children in the centers of uprooted people in the Gaza Strip, in order to kill as many civilians as possible, and particularly children.”

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Dec. 29, 2023]​

PMW has exposed additional libels published by PA and Fatah during the war:

• Israel wanted Hamas attack to happen just as the US wanted Sept. 11, 2001 attacks - Fatah official libels Israel and the US
• PA Oct. 7 massacre denial: Israelis “killed their civilians, committed all these crimes, and burned the bodies”
• Israel used Hamas’ massacre on Oct. 7 as an excuse to launch “preplanned war” - Abbas’ advisor
• Oct. 7 Hamas terrorists were “summarily executed” by Israel, as per Al-Haq “human rights” organization’s wild accusation
• Israel stole organs from the corpses in Gaza
• Outrageous PA libel: Israel itself committed the October 7 massacre to justify the attack on Gaza
• PA: Israel’s “attack” on Gaza is part of greater “satanic plan” against entire Arab world
• Ignoring evidence, PA repeats libel that Israel bombed Gazan hospital

PA lies and libels: âIsrael deliberately⦠spread(s) lethal epidemics and infectious diseases among children in Gazaâ | PMW Analysis

PA lies and libels: Israel intentionally spreads diseases in Gaza

palwatch.org

 

[Sixties Fan]

[ How many "Leaders" does Hamas, PA and others have? Who is the boss? Yeah, justified by Allah and Islam's learned disdain of Jews]

Not long after Hamas terrorists invaded southern Israel to rape and massacre scores of civilians before dragging hundreds of hostages back to the Gaza Strip, senior Hamas leader Ghazi Hamad spoke with Lebanese news outlet LBCI.

During the interview, Hamad said: “Israel is a country that has no place on our land,” explaining that it was the job of Hamas to “remove that country.”

Questioned about the October 7 atrocities, Hamad responded:

“We must teach Israel a lesson, and we will do this again and again. The Al-Aqsa Flood is just the first time, and there will be a second, a third, a fourth, because we have the determination, the resolve, and the capabilities to fight… Nobody should blame us. On October 7, October 10, October one million — everything we do is justified.”

Hamas Says It Wants Oct. 7 Massacre Again and Again... Why Won't the Media Believe Them? | HonestReporting

Not long after Hamas terrorists invaded southern Israel to rape and massacre scores of civilians before dragging hundreds of hostages back to the Gaza

honestreporting.com

 

[Sixties Fan]

 

[Sixties Fan]

Israel’s Vital Tech Sector to Gain From Return of Army Reservists - Algemeiner.com

Israel's wartime economy will get a much-awaited boost as the military gradually releases reservists fighting in the Gaza Strip so they can return to their jobs and jump-start softening growth. Since the Oct. 7 attacks by the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, more than 300,000 Israelis were...

www.algemeiner.com

 

[Roudy]

www.juancole.com
Yes, Mr. DeSantis, Palestinians are Indigenous, Descended from the Canaanites, and Palestinian Identity is not New
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) - Here is Part 2 of my argument with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis concerning his uninformed and bigoted comments about Palestinians. Part I is here Who are the Palestinians? Nowadays, they are the Arabic-speaking inhabitants of the area stretching from the Jordan...
www.juancole.com www.juancole.com

What we now call Palestinians are for the most part descendants of groups who have been in the Near East for four thousand years, at least.

A branch of the Canaanites became Jews, while others became Nabataeans and Phoenicians.

Rome conquered this region beginning in the first century BCE and then extended its holdings into Nabataea (106 AD), Syria and Lebanon. From the 300s the Roman state increasingly backed Christianity, so that most Levantines adopted that religion, though large numbers of Jews held out.

From the 630s the Near East began coming under Arab Muslim rule and over hundreds of years many people converted to Islam, including many Jews and Christians. So some of the ancestors of today’s Palestinians were themselves Jewish converts to Christianity or Islam.

“Palestine” as a term for a geographical unit and sometimes a regional identity appears in Arab Muslim sources. The “Jund Filastin” (Filastin is the Arabic transcription of Palestine) was a military district of Syria (Sham) in the Umayyad and Abbasid Empires. The chroniclers of later empires that ruled this area referred to it as “Filastin.” There were mints for coins there and the word occurs on some medieval coins

there is no such a thing as a Palestinian people, or a Palestinian culture, or a Palestinian language, or a Palestinian history. There has never been any Palestinian state, neither any Palestinian archaeological find nor coinage. The present-day "Palestinians" are an Arab people, with Arab culture, Arabic language and Arab history. They have their own Arab states from where they came into the Land of Israel about one century ago to contrast the Jewish immigration. That is the historical truth. They were Jordanians (another recent British invention, as there has never been any people known as "Jordanians"), and after the Six-Day War in which Israel utterly defeated the coalition of nine Arab states and took legitimate possession of Judea and Samaria, the Arab dwellers in those regions underwent a kind of anthropological miracle and discovered that they were Palestinians - something they did not know the day before. Of course, these people having a new identity had to build themselves a history, namely, had to steal some others' history, and the only way that the victims of the theft would not complain is if those victims do no longer exist.

 

[Sixties Fan]

Numerous professors who teach courses on the conflict are noting a remarkable surge in demand for the spring semester, with classes reaching unprecedented enrollment levels and substantial wait lists. Although most of these courses are not newly introduced—given the time required for development—existing offerings are undergoing revisions to incorporate fresh insights into the ongoing conflict, augment historical context, and provide lessons on discerning information about the war from diverse sources.

THE TROUBLE WITH HARVARD

Derek J. Penslar, the William Lee Frost Professor of Jewish History at Harvard University, will be teaching a class on the conflict next fall. Currently, Harvard experiences heightened tensions, particularly noteworthy for pro-Hamas student protests and the inaction of the administration, resulting on January 2 in the resignation of university president Claudine Gay.

“The students who walk in my door are not necessarily the same ones as those who are in Harvard Yard screaming,” Prof. Frost told Inside Higher Ed. “More often than not, my students are curious and intelligent, and they usually do have a political view at one point or another. But they’re open-minded or else they wouldn’t bother taking my class.”

One should hope.

Michelle Murray, an associate professor of political studies at Bard College in New York, told IHE she had been preparing for the coming spring semester not knowing what to expect of her students in the aftermath of the October 7 Hamas massacre and the war that followed.

“I was observing students, on the one hand, being really hungry for knowledge and, on the other hand, kind of encountering a lot of terminology that’s circulating around in the discourse,” she said.

As a result, Murray and another professor developed a course designed to furnish students with the tools to conduct discussions about Gaza through key terminology. Her new course is titled “Keywords for Our Times: Understanding Israel and Palestine. Students will explore how words like ‘Zionism,’ ‘genocide,’ and ‘settler colonialism’ have been defined and applied by different groups of people.”

MAKE THIS SPRING THE ISRAEL-HAMAS SEMESTER

In early November 2023, Shira Schoenberg, a Boston Globe writer, contended that schools should allocate more time to educate students about the history of the conflict. Following Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel, four Dartmouth College professors, specializing in the Middle East or its predominant religions, engaged with 300 students in an auditorium, with additional attendees in an overflow room and through livestream.

During the hour-and-a-half session, they delved into topics such as why Egypt was not opening its border with Gaza, the principles of international law regarding resistance to an occupying power, and the question of whether Israel qualifies as an “apartheid” state. Notably, the professors, representing diverse ethnicities and ideologies, exemplified respectful civil discourse.

Professor Susannah Heschel (the daughter of the late Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel), head of Dartmouth’s Jewish studies program and a co-organizer of the forum, advised students against oversimplifying the events and encouraged them to delve deeper into the study of the Middle East, emphasizing the limitations of relying solely on platforms like TikTok for information (“We should not try to learn what’s going on from TikTok,” she cautioned).

Ezzedine Fishere, a former Egyptian diplomat, recommended that students consider their objectives when discussing the conflict: are they looking to advocate or to learn? He suggested that seeking to comprehend complexity and embracing diverse perspectives could prove beneficial.

ISRAELI VOICES

Smadar Ben-Natan, a former Israeli lawyer turned academic instructor, told IHE she is currently leading an undergraduate course and a graduate seminar on the “History of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict” at the University of Washington this spring. Her courses, which emphasize exploring diverse perspectives, are positioned to address the current moment and tackle challenging questions regarding colonization, self-determination, resistance, violence, and state violence. (The undergraduate course is at full capacity, with 45 students registered and additional students on the waitlist.)

While these courses were previously taught by another professor, Ben-Natan is now updating them in response to the ongoing conflict. She plans to incorporate an exercise at the conclusion of each graduate seminar class, prompting students to reflect on how the conflict influences their lives both on and off campus.

Finally, in Israel, the Rothberg International School at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem is offering a spring semester course titled, “The Israel-Hamas War: Beyond Campus Rhetoric.” The course starts on Sunday, January 7, and will be taught on Zoom by lecturers drawn from the faculty of the Hebrew University.

The course description goes:

“The Israel-Hamas war has seen an unprecedented international media, campus, and public outburst leaving many challenged to understand the conflict and its context. This course provides participants/students with the tools to understand and engage with the issues regarding this more than century-old conflict, and its more recent manifestation on campus, in visual culture, and across the media and social networks.​

“To this end, the course is divided into three complementary modules: the first presents the background to the creation of the state of Israel and the unfolding of the Arab-Israel conflict. The second covers international law and the pursuit of war. It addresses the terminology used to frame the rules of engagement in armed conflict and considers how it has been used in the current round of hostilities. The third module examines representations of the war in the news and on social media. It looks at the manipulation of images and documentation and unpacks the effects of different modes of dissemination and representation.”​

If I weren’t such a busy reporter, I tell you, I’d have registered.


(full article online)

The Most Popular Courses this Spring Semester: Israel v. Hamas

Students should consider their objectives when discussing the conflict: are they looking to advocate or to learn?

www.jewishpress.com