Hard Facts: From the River to the Sea

"…the left doesn’t just have a Corbyn problem or a Tlaib problem or a Farrakhan problem. It has a big, fat Jew-hatred problem right in its ideological core.” NYU student, Tal Fortgang

You can listen to me read this essay here:

A militant from a Salafi group in Gaza 2015 with his rifle, the Quran and the flag of the Islamic State. Rival terrorist groups have wrestled in Gaza for a long time. Credit...Wissam Nassar for The New York Times

One-time or recurring donations can be made at Ko-Fi.

I can imagine it’s been difficult for liberals to admit that the meteoric rise of antisemitism can no longer simply be blamed on MAGA or Qanon wackos. Liberals are having to make the uncomfortable adjustment of looking at themselves.

The fact is, it’s in our most hallowed halls of academia where calls for “equity and inclusion” of everyone from Blacks to Trans, (excluding Whites and Asians of course); and claims of “language is violence” (studies show that “misgendering causes real, physical harm) have long been heard, that we are now hearing calls for the genocide of Jews.

Genocide? Isn’t that a bit of an exaggeration, you might say. Well, let’s see.

On December 5th, the presidents of Harvard, MIT and the University of Pennsylvania faced tough questions about a surge in antisemitism on U.S. college campuses from the House Committee on Education and the Workforce. The hearing shocked many, but it shouldn’t have. It merely unmasked how elites in our educational system really think—and have been thinking for a very long time.

Recently I listened to Glenn Greenwald’s December 7th episode of System Update, where he bent over backwards in support of “free speech” on college campuses as he discussed the hearing. As an ardent advocate of free speech, myself, I always admired Glenn Greenwald. But I was shocked when not once during the episode did he mention how these campuses have been censoring one side (conservative voices), while giving compete freedom of expression to the other side (liberals). But that’s not the worst of it.

And just let me interject here that I don’t like labels and resist labeling myself as liberal or conservative or otherwise. However, for most of my life, if I’d had to say I was something, I’d have considered myself more in the liberal camp. It has only been over the last three years that I’ve realized I’m much more of a conservative. But then, I’ve become so disillusioned with both sides, that I’m back to resisting labels entirely.

During Covid, it was a rude awakening to see how liberals were only too happy to censor anyone who questioned the vaccines, didn’t wear a mask, or thought maybe, just maybe hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin should be given a chance, voted for Trump—or didn’t vote for him but thought people should have the right to vote for him if they wanted to—, didn’t support Black Lives Matter or dared to say All Lives Matter, didn’t immediately put up a Ukraine flag and give unquestioning support to the billions of taxpayer money funneled into Ukraine when the war broke out (because anyone who didn’t support Zelensky must be a Putin-lover), I could go on and on. All those millions of people were reviled, were told they were murderers of grandmas (it happened to me), lost their jobs, were ostracized by family and friends, were even jailed.

More than once, I warned in my writing that it was a mistake to demonize one group of people without realizing that the next group on the list could be yours.

Well, here we are, and I don’t like saying I told you so, but, well, I did.

Yet still, so many liberals don’t get it. Greenwald comes to the defense of these college presidents in their refusal to condemn or take action against those calling for violence toward Jews on college campuses. Greenwald says he finds no proof that Jewish students at American’s top educational institutions are in any real danger. This is shocking. He’s smart enough and has enough resources to do a little research. Does he know he’s not telling the truth or is he just too blind to see it?

Greenwald denies that anyone is calling for the genocide of Jews. He says all they are calling for is an “intifada”. He gives the definition of intifada as an “uprising” against the state of Israel and how the first intifada was overwhelmingly peaceful. He says the term intifada isn’t inherently violent, but even if it is, it isn’t against “Jews” it’s against the “Israeli government”.

If Glenn Greenwald believes this, he is the naivest of journalists. Maybe he lives under a rock, I don’t know. Arab Muslims in the Middle East do not make distinctions between Jews and Israeli Jews. This is something the western media has conveniently made up to differentiate between Jews who are willing to submit to an intifada, and Jews who dare to fight for the right to have a Jewish state. Or Zionists. Zionists are the new Nazis. If enough people say it long enough (and they are, all over social media), it won’t be long before the masses feel justified in wiping all the Zionists out, which will just turn into all the Jews, because, why not finish the job.

Yes, yes, Greenwald says, in America, we have free speech. In America, people are allowed to express the view that Israel should be destroyed, just like they can say Iraq should be destroyed or Gaza should be flattened, etc. And of course, that’s true. But he takes it further by saying these are all just innocent protests. No one is actually intending to put their words into actions. I would like to know on what basis he speaks for all of these people? How does he know that?

It’s concerning that Glenn Greenwald, a gay Jew who should know very well he wouldn’t last two minutes living in an Islamic state before he was jailed or killed, completely ignores that yes, there is violence against Jewish students happening right here in American and those students are speaking up about it and he, along with other liberal intellectuals, is not listening.

At 1:51 in the episode, this is what he says (and pay attention to his complete disdain in the way he frames it):

Now, there are these attempts to convince people that there are these hoards of Muslims and Arabs rolling around campuses calling for the killing of all Jews, chanting gas the Jews, murder all Jews, THIS IS NOT HAPPENING.

Really?

He then says that he repeatedly asked on social media for someone to give him an example of college students chanting ‘gas all Jews’ or ‘kill the Jews’. “It doesn’t happen,” he says.

Perhaps those exact phrases have not been said, therefore, he concludes, such sentiments are not being expressed. It’s like the press saying there’s no proof babies were beheaded by Hamas terrorists on October 7th therefore there is no proof anything else bad happened either. Greenwald is using the same propaganda techniques that he has so despised in others in the past.

It’s disturbing that not just Greenwald, but so many smart people refuse to acknowledge that the hostile environment that began with statements from pro-Palestinian student organizations justifying terrorism has spiraled into death threats and physical attacks, leaving Jewish students alarmed and vulnerable.

For anyone doubting it, here’s an excerpt from a November 3rd New York Times article:

On an online discussion forum last weekend, Jewish students at Cornell were called “excrement on the face of the earth,” threatened with rape and beheading and bombarded with demands like “eliminate Jewish living from Cornell campus.” (A 21-year-old junior at Cornell has been charged with posting violent threats.) This horror must end.

Jewish students at Cooper Union huddled in the library to escape an angry crowd pounding on the doors; a protester at a rally near New York University carried a sign calling for the world to be kept “clean” of Jews; messages like “glory to our martyrs” were projected onto a George Washington University building.

After the Oct. 7 attacks, more than 30 student groups at Harvard signed on to a statement that read, “We, the undersigned student organizations, hold the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence.” There was no mention of Hamas. The university issued such a tepid response, it almost felt like an invitation.

I would ask Greenwald and anyone else who is in such denial if keeping the world “clean” of Jews isn’t a call to “kill” all Jews even though the word “kill” wasn’t used? In fact, I’d say it’s even worse. It harkens back to the Holocaust and ethnic cleansing.

But Greenwald insists IT DOESN’T HAPPEN. He then tells us what’s really going on, again wanting to prove his unbiased reporting by including everyone in his attack, liberals and conservatives alike:

…there are a lot of people on the right who have spent years pretending to defend free speech on college campuses and to hate censorship but also people who are just part of the establishment—liberals and Israel supporters, basically—there’s an attempt to limit the free speech rights of Americans and people on American campuses in order to protect this foreign country of Israel and the way they’re doing that is by conflating criticism of Israel or a defense of a Palestinian people’s right to respond with genocide.

Yes, there are attempts to limit free speech. But to say that all these years the entire reason has been about protecting “this foreign country of Israel” is just, I don’t know, I am speechless. Let me repeat that.

All attempts to limit free speech have been about protecting Israel. — Glenn Greenwald

Israel is the evil one—not to say the government isn’t corrupt. What government isn’t. But, come on.

Amazing when Hamas’s Senior Leader, Ghazi Hamad himself makes no secret of their intentions towards Israel—meaning Jews:

“We Will Repeat the October 7 Attack Time and Again Until Israel Is Annihilated; We Are Victims - On October 7th, on October 10th, on October 1,000,000th, Everything We Do Is Justified.”

You can watch and listen to Ghazi Hamad say it here, posted by @MEMRIReports.

Just as an interesting aside, as you watch the video, you will notice the dark spot on Hamad’s forehead. I wondered about this spot that I saw on many of the men’s foreheads when I was living in Luxor, Egypt three years ago. I asked about it and was told it’s from bowing down during prayer and hitting their heads against the ground, a physical manifestation of their devotion to Allah. Mind you, I never saw a woman with this mark, but then, women shouldn’t mar their skin like that, nor does their devotion matter compared to that of men.

While everything Hamas does is justified, nothing Israel does is justified. In fact, shame on Jews if they do not walk submissively into the gas chambers, because despite Greenwald’s claims otherwise, this is exactly what is being called for with the total destruction of the Israeli state.

What does Glenn Greenwald and all the other misguided liberals like him not understand about this? If you annihilate Israel, you kill half of the mere 14 million or so Jews in the world and then, what do you think will happen to the other 7 million? Do you think the growing frenzy of antisemitism will be abated? That’s not how it works.

The extermination of every Jew on the planet is what will happen, as stated clearly in Islamic texts, as well as in speeches by Islamic leaders and by ordinary Muslims in the streets of Middle Eastern cities. I know because I experienced it. I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating, especially for those reading my writing for the first time. My family escaped out of Egypt right before the 6-Day War. I was ten years old, yet I will never forget Nasser’s voice screaming on loudspeakers in the streets “Death to America and its stooge Israel”. And when my dad tried to ask at the tourist office about us driving to Israel from Egypt, he was screamed at that Israel does not exist.

In fact, to this day, there is no map drawn by an Islamic state that recognizes the existence of Israel.

This is what Islam calls for. There’s no secret about it. Why would anyone seek to downplay this horrific fact or try to say it isn’t so?

Feel free to look up the verses.

Disregarding the fears of Jewish students in America is unconscionable.

There are so many examples of Jewish students being fearful. Here is one, written on Bari Weiss’s Substack in April 2022 by Tal Fortgang, an NYU student:

To the Antisemites Who Sit Next to Me at School, “My NYU classmates talk about the 'Zionist grip on the media' and tweet 'death to Israel.’

Fortgang writes: “…the left doesn’t just have a Corbyn problem or a Tlaib problem or a Farrakhan problem. It has a big, fat Jew-hatred problem right in its ideological core.”

I was greatly affected by a letter written to Bari Weiss by Blake Flayton back in August of 2022 titled My Post-Graduation Plan? I’m Immigrating to Israel. The list of reasons why he’s immigrating is long, but I’ve included them all for the record. You don’t have to read them all to get the idea.

When people ask me what the origin point is—when I knew I would leave—it’s not one particular moment, but a collection. Among them:

• The drunk girl at my alma mater, George Washington, caught on video in November 2019, saying, “We’re going to bomb Israel, you Jewish pieces of shit.” 

• The Hillel that was spray-painted with “Free Palestine” in July 2020, at the University of Wisconsin.

• The Chabad House set on fire in August 2020, at the University of Delaware. 

• The Jewish vice president of student government at USC who resigned in August 2020, after getting barraged with antisemitic hate.

• The University of Chicago students who, in January 2022, called on their fellow students not to take “sh*tty Zionist classes” taught by Israelis or Jews. 

• The Jewish fraternity at Rutgers that got egged in April 2022—during a Holocaust Remembrance Day commemoration.

• The Chabad menorah that was vandalized for the fourth time in two years, in May 2022, at the University of Cincinnati.

• The protester who hurled rocks at Jewish students in June 2022, at the University of Illinois.

• The swastikas that turned up in July and August 2022, at Brown.

• The Hillel that was vandalized in August 2022, at USC. 

• The innumerable, antisemitic incidents at San Francisco State University, which the Lawfare Project, a Jewish nonprofit, has called “the most anti-Semitic college campus in the country.”

• The two girls recently kicked out of a group that combats sexual assault, at SUNY New Paltz, because they had the temerity to post something positive about Israel.

• The universities, which bend over backward to create safe spaces for most students, increasingly making room for antisemites in lecture halls and at graduation ceremonies (see, for example, Duke, Indiana University, the University of Denver, Arizona State University and CUNY). 

• The proliferation of statements and articles and open letters proclaiming support for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement—a political movement that has as its stated goal the dismantling of the Jewish state—from Harvard to Pomona to Berkeley to the University of Illinois, along with the conviction, widespread on many campuses, that Jewish students should be barred from conversations about BDS, because, well, they’re Jewish.

@YasMohammedxx is a Muslim who wrote an excellent piece on X, where she compares the antisemitism, which she experienced growing up as a “religious demand”, to why secular people have so much hate:

I don’t even understand antisemitism, tbh. It was easy to understand it growing up because it was clearly a religious demand. But I can’t figure out why secular ppl have this much hate. Like if you’re going to be so bigoted that you’re gonna hate a ppl for their religion, you skipped past the ones that actually engaged in holy wars across the planet and you decided you’d hate on the only ones that DON’T proselytize and conquer and invade and colonize? What’s your problem with 0.2% of the planet? Too many Nobel prizes? Too many successful doctors, lawyers, artists, and scientists? What exactly is it that you hate about Jewish ppl? I don’t want to hear the lies that this has anything to do w Israel when you are out there screaming gas the Jews and Khaybar Khaybar etc. This is hate for Jewish ppl and we all know it. We just don’t know why.

Well, there are reasons why. No longer can anyone with intelligence and a sense of fairness blame it all on Trump as Pramila Jayapal (D. Wash) so pathetically tries to do in the same Capitol Hill hearing that Greenwald picks apart with such disdain:

“and um and just say that frankly I think there's been an explosion thanks to the previous president in part that has shattered the Norms of what is acceptable to say and we're dealing with some of the effects of that…”

Ivy League Colleges are consistently liberal and have been since long before Trump came on the scene.

The Harvard Crimson’s annual spring faculty survey show that 37 percent of the 1,100 professors polled indicate that their political views are “very liberal” – an increase of eight percent since last year. Forty-five percent of respondents characterize their political views as “liberal,” while only one percent indicate that their views are “conservative” and no faculty identify as “very conservative.” Moreover, only 16 percent of Harvard faculty members classify their political views as “moderate.” 

The truth is, liberals are as much to blame as anyone else, more so when it comes to the one-sided education of our best and our brightest students.

In case you haven’t seen it, here’s the unedited House hearing, rather than just one of the shortened versions people post on social media.

We’ve seen this playbook over and over by now. We should be able to look back to the BLM riots and recognize what’s happening now and be sick of it. Remember when “Black Lives Matter” was all the rage and if you dared to say “All Lives Matter” you were a racist?

As Nancy Pelosi and other leaders took the knee, wearing the traditional Kente cloth (just, why?), Representative Karen Bass gushed, "The world is witnessing the birth of a new movement in this country."

What new birth, you might ask? One that conditioned its citizens to blindly condemn one group while elevating another. One that allowed for antisemitism to fester in the shadows and now thrive in the limelight.

Speaker Pelosi was “called out for that rubbish” of wearing Kente cloth by African author Obianuju Ekeocha who said Ms. Pelosi was using the material to “signal your virtue”.

What do we see now? The keffiyeh has replaced the Kente cloth. Whatever happened to cultural appropriation?

Search keffiyeh scarf on Amazon. Here’s a popular one, described as “Luxns Military Shemagh Tactical Desert Scarf / 100% Cotton Keffiyeh Scarf Wrap for Men And Women” for the price of $14.99

There’s a big difference between Kente cloth and the keffiyeh scarf. Historically the Kente fabric was worn in a toga-like fashion by royalty among the Akan, originating in the Ashanti region of Ghana. In modern day Ghana, the wearing of Kente cloth has become widespread to commemorate special occasions, with highly sought-after Kente brands led by master weavers in demand.

It was Yassar Arafat who popularized the keffiyeh and turned it into a symbol of Palestinian resistance. American youth think they can put on a cause as easily as they put a piece of cloth around their necks—bought for $14.99 on Amazon and conveniently delivered to their doorstep.

Arafat was a terrorist who knew how to market himself and his cause. What does it actually mean to wear a keffiyeh. What is the cause that students are promoting?

Here’s a timeline of Arafat’s life of terror. It’s long but like the college student’s list, I’m putting it here as a record. You don’t have to read all of it to get the idea:

– Aug 4, 1929: Born in Cairo. Arafat, then named Muhammad Abdel Rahman Abdel Rauf al-Qudwa al-Husseini, is fifth child of prosperous merchant, Abdel Raouf al-Qudwa al-Husseini.

– 1933: Arafat’s mother dies. He and his infant brother are sent to live with uncle in Jerusalem.

– Late 1950’s: Arafat co-founds Fatah, the “Movement for the National Liberation of Palestine.”

– Jan. 1, 1965: Fatah fails in its first attempted attack within Israel — the bombing of the National Water Carrier.

– July 5, 1965: A Fatah cell plants explosives at Mitzpe Massua, near Beit Guvrin; and on the railroad tracks to Jerusalem near Kafr Battir.

– 1965-1967: Numerous Fatah bomb attacks target Israeli villages, water pipes, railroads. Homes are destroyed and Israelis are killed.

– July 1968: Fatah joins and becomes the dominant member of the PLO, an umbrella organization of Palestinian terrorist groups.

– Feb. 4, 1969: Arafat is appointed Chairman of the Executive Committee of the PLO

– Feb. 21, 1970: SwissAir flight 330, bound for Tel Aviv, is bombed in mid-flight by PFLP, a PLO member group. 47 people are killed.

– May 8, 1970: PLO terrorists attack an Israeli schoolbus with bazooka fire, killing nine pupils and three teachers from Moshav Avivim

– Sept. 6, 1970: TWA, Pan-Am, and BOAC airplanes are hijacked by PLO terrorists.

– September 1970: Jordanian forces battle the PLO terrorist organization, driving its members out of Jordan after the group’s violent activity threatens to destabilize the kingdom. The terrorists flee to Lebanon. This period in PLO history is called “Black September.”

– May 1972: PFLP, part of the PLO, dispatches members of the Japanese Red Army to attack Lod Airport in Tel Aviv, killing 27 people.

– Sept. 5, 1972: Munich Massacre —11 Israeli athletes are murdered at the Munich Olympics by a group calling themselves “Black September,” said to be an arm of Fatah, operating under Arafat’s direct command.

– March 1, 1973: Palestinian terrorists take over Saudi embassy in Khartoum. The next day, two Americans, including United States ambassador to Sudan Cleo Noel, and a Belgian were shot and killed. James J. Welsh, an analyst for the National Security Agency from 1969 through 1974, charged Arafat with direct complicity in these murders.

– April 11, 1974: 11 people are killed by Palestinian terrorists who attack apartment building in Kiryat Shmona.

– May 15, 1974: PLO terrorists infiltrating from Lebanon hold children hostage in Ma’alot school. 26 people, 21 of them children, are killed.

– June 9, 1974: Palestinian National Council adopts “Phased Plan,” which calls for the establishment of a Palestinian state on any territory evacuated by Israel, to be used as a base of operations for destroying the whole of Israel. The PLO reaffirms its rejection of United Nations Security Council Resolution 242, which calls for a “just and lasting peace” and the “right to live in peace within secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force.”

– November 1974: PLO takes responsibility for the PDFLP’s Beit She’an murders in which 4 Israelis are killed.

– Nov. 13, 1974: Arafat, wearing a holster (he had to leave his gun at the entrance), addresses the U.N. General Assembly.

– March 1975: Members of Fatah attack the Tel Aviv seafront and take hostages in the Savoy hotel. Three soldiers, three civilians and seven terrorists are killed.

– March 1978: Coastal Road Massacre —Fatah terrorists take over a bus on the Haifa-Tel Aviv highway and kill 21 Israelis.

– 1982: Having created a terrorist mini-state in Lebanon destabilizing that nation, PLO is expelled as a result of Israel’s response to incessant PLO missile attacks against northern Israeli communities. Arafat relocates to Tunis.

– Oct. 7, 1985: Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro is hijacked by Palestinian terrorists. Wheelchair-bound elderly man, Leon Klinghoffer, was shot and thrown overboard. Intelligence reports note that instructions originated from Arafat’s headquarters in Tunis.

– Dec. 12, 1988: Arafat claims to accept Israel’s right to exist.

– September 1993: Arafat shakes hands with Israeli Prime Minister Rabin, inaugurating the Oslo Accords. Arafat pledges to stop incitement and terror, and to foster co-existence with Israel, but fails to comply. Throughout the years of negotiations, aside from passing, token efforts, Arafat does nothing to stop Hamas, PFLP, and Islamic Jihad from carrying out thousands of terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians. With Arafat’s encouragement and financial support, groups directly under Arafat’s command, such as the Tanzim and Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, also carry out terror attacks.

– Oct. 21, 1996: Speaking at a rally near Bethlehem, Arafat said “We know only one word – jihad. jihad, jihad, jihad. Whoever does not like it can drink from the Dead Sea or from the Sea of Gaza.” (Yediot Ahronot, October 23, 1996)

– April 16, 1998: In a statement published in the official Palestinian Authority newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadeeda, Arafat is quoted: “O my dear ones on the occupied lands, relatives and friends throughout Palestine and the diaspora, my colleagues in struggle and in arms, my colleagues in struggle and in jihad…Intensify the revolution and the blessed intifada…We must burn the ground under the feet of the invaders.”

– July 2000: Arafat rejects peace settlement offered by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, which would have led to a Palestinian state.

– September 2000: New “intifada” is launched. Arafat continues to incite, support and fund terrorism.

– Jan. 3, 2002: Israelis intercept the Karine-A, a ship loaded with 50 tons of mortars, rocket launchers, anti-tank mines and other weapons intended for the Palestinian war against the Israelis. The captain admits he was under the command of the Palestinian Authority.

– September 2003:  IMF report titled “Economic Performance and Reforms under Conflict Conditions,” states that Arafat has diverted $900 million of public PA funds into his own accounts from 1995 – 2000.

Below are some of the attacks since Sept 2000 perpetrated by groups under Arafat’s command:

– May 29, 2001:  Gilad Zar, an Itamar resident, was shot dead in a terrorist ambush by Fatah Tanzim.

– May 29, 2001: Sara Blaustein, 53, and Esther Alvan, 20, of Efrat, were killed in a drive-by shooting south of Jerusalem. The Fatah Tanzim claimed responsibility for the attack.

– June 18, 2001: Doron Zisserman, 38, shot and killed in his car by Fatah sniper fire.

– Aug 26, 2001: Dov Rosman, 58, killed in a shooting attack by Fatah terrorist.

– Sept 6, 2001:  Erez Merhavi, 23, killed in a Fatah Tanzim ambush shooting near Hadera while driving to a wedding. 

– Sept 20, 2001: Sarit Amrani, 26, killed by Fatah terrorist snipers as she was traveling in a car with her husband and 3 children.

– Oct 4, 2001: 3 killed, 13 wounded, when a Fatah terrorist, dressed as an Israeli paratrooper, opened fire on Israeli civilians waiting at the central bus station in Afula. 

– Nov 27, 2001 – 2 killed 50 injured when two Palestinian terrorists opened fire with Kalashnikov assault rifles on a crowd of people near the central bus station in Afula. Fatah and the Islamic Jihad claimed joint responsibility.

– Nov 29, 2001: 3 killed and 9 wounded in a suicide bombing on an Egged 823 bus en route from Nazereth to Tel Aviv near the city of Hadera. The Islamic Jihad and Fatah claimed responsibility for the attack.

– Dec 12, 2001 – 11 killed and 30 wounded when three terrorists attacked a bus and several passenger cars with a roadside bomb, anti-tank grenades, and light arms fire near the entrance to Emmanuel in Samaria . Both Fatah and Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack.

– Jan 15, 2002:  Avi Boaz, 71, an American citizen, was kidnapped at a PA security checkpoint in Beit Jala. His bullet-riddled body was found in a car near Bethlehem. The Fatah’s Al-Aksa Brigade claimed responsibility for the murder.

– Jan 15, 2002: Yoela Chen, 45, was shot dead by an Al Aqsa Brigade terrorist

– Jan 17, 2002: 6 killed, 35 wounded when a Fatah terrorist burst into a bat mitzva reception in a banquet hall in Hadera opening fire with an M-16 assault rifle.

– Jan 22, 2002: 2 killed, 40 injured when a Fatah terrorist opened fire with an M-16 assault rifle near a bus stop in downtown Jerusalem.

– Jan. 27, 2002: One person was killed and more than 150 were wounded by a female Fatah suicide bomber in the center of Jerusalem. 

– Feb 6, 2002 – A mother and her 11 year old daughter were murdered in their home by a Palestinian terrorist disguised in an IDF uniform. Both Fatah and Hamas claimed responsibility.

– Feb 18, 2002 :  – Ahuva Amergi, 30, was killed and a 60-year old man was injured when a Palestinian terrorist opened fire on her car. Maj. Mor Elraz, 25,  and St.-Sgt. Amir Mansouri, 21,  who came to their assistance, were killed while trying to intercept the terrorist. The terrorist was killed when the explosives he was carrying were detonated. The Fatah al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades claimed responsibility for the attack.

– Feb 22, 2002: Valery Ahmir, 59, was killed by terrorists in a Fatah drive-by shooting north of Jerusalem as he returned home from work.

– Feb 25, 2002: Avraham Fish, 65, and Aharon Gorov, 46, were killed in a Fatah terrorist shooting attack south of Bethlehem. Fish’s daughter, 9 months pregnant, was seriously injured but delivered a baby girl.

– Feb 25, 2002: Police officer 1st Sgt. Galit Arbiv, 21, died after being fatally shot, when a Fatah terrorist opened fire at a bus stop in the Neve Ya’akov residential neighborhood in northern Jerusalem. Eight others were injured.

– Feb 27, 2002: Gad Rejwan, 34, of Jerusalem, was shot and killed by one of his Palestinian employees in a factory north of Jerusalem. Two Fatah groups issued a joint statement taking responsibility for the murder.

– March 2, 2002: A suicide bombing by Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade in an ultra-Orthodox Jewish neighborhood of Jerusalem killed 11 people and injured more than 50. 

– Mar 5, 2002: 3 were killed and over 30 people were wounded in Tel-Aviv when a Fatah terrorist opened fire on two adjacent restaurants shortly after 2:00 AM. 

– Mar 5, 2002: Devorah Friedman, 45, of Efrat, was killed and her husband injured in a Fatah shooting attack on the Bethlehem bypass “tunnel road”, south of Jerusalem.

– Mar 9, 2002: Avia Malka, 9 months, and Israel Yihye, 27, were killed and about 50 people were injured when two Fatah terrorists opened fire and threw grenades at cars and pedestrians in the coastal city of Netanya on Saturday evening, close to the city’s boardwalk and hotels.

–March 21, 2002: An Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade suicide bomber exploded himself in a crowd of shoppers in Jerusalem, killing 3 and injuring 86.

– March 29, 2002: Two killed and 28 injured when a female Fatah suicide bomber blew herself up in a Jerusalem supermarket. 

– March 30, 2002: One killed and 30 injured in an Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade suicide bombing in Tel Aviv. 

– April 12, 2002: Six  killed and 104 wounded when a female Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade suicide bomber blew herself up at a bus stop on Jaffa road at the entrance to Jerusalem’s Mahane Yehuda open-air market. 

– May 27, 2002: Ruth Peled, 56, of Herzliya and her infant granddaughter, aged 14 months, were killed and 37 people were injured when a Fatah suicide bomber detonated himself near an ice cream parlor outside a shopping mall in Petah Tikva.

– May 28, 2002 – Albert Maloul, 50, of Jerusalem, was killed when shots were fired by Fatah terrorists at the car in which he was traveling south on the Ramallah bypass road.

– May 28, 2002 – Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade terrorists killed Netanel Riachi, 17,  Gilad Stiglitz, 14, and Avraham Siton, 17,  three yeshiva high school students playing basketball.

– June 19, 2002: Seven people were killed and 37 injured when a Fatah suicide bomber blew himself up at a crowded bus stop and hitchhiking post in the French Hill neighborhood of Jerusalem.

– June 20, 2002: Rachel Shabo, 40, and three of her sons – Neria, 16, Zvika, 12, and Avishai, 5 – as well as a neighbor, Yosef Twito, 31, who came to their aid, were murdered when a terrorist entered their home in Itamar, south of Nablus, and opened fire. Two other children were injured, as well as two soldiers.  The PFLP and the Fatah Al Aqsa Brigades claimed responsibility for the attack.

– July 25, 2002: Rabbi Elimelech Shapira, 43, was killed in a Fatah shooting attack near the West Bank community of Alei Zahav. 

– July 26, 2002: St.-Sgt. Elazar Lebovitch, 21, of Hebron; Rabbi Yosef Dikstein, 45, of Psagot, his wife Hannah, 42, and their 9-year-old son Shuv’el Zion were killed in a Fatah Al Aqsa Brigade shooting attack south of Hebron. Two other of their children were injured.

– July 30, 2002: Shlomo Odesser, 60, and his brother Mordechai, 52, both of Tapuach in Samaria, were shot and killed when their truck came under Fatah fire in the West Bank village of Jama’in. 

– Aug 4, 2002: 2 killed and 17 wounded when a Fatah terrorist opened fire with a pistol near the Damascus Gate of Jerusalem’s Old City. 

– Aug 5, 2002: Avi Wolanski (29) and his wife Avital (27), of Eli, were killed and one of their children, aged 3, was injured when terrorists opened fire on their car as they were traveling on the Ramallah-Nablus road in Samaria. The Martyrs of the Palestinian Popular Army, a splinter group associated with Arafat’s Fatah movement, claimed responsibility for the attack.

– Aug 10, 2002: Yafit Herenstein, 31, of Moshav Mechora in the Jordan Valley, was killed and her husband, Arno, seriously wounded when a Fatah terrorist infiltrated the moshav and opened fire outside their home. 

– Sept 18, 2002: Yosef Ajami, 36, was killed when Fatah  terrorists opened fire on his car near Mevo Dotan, north of Jenin in the West Bank.

– Oct 29, 2002: Three people, including 2 fourteen year olds, were shot to death by a Fatah terrorist.

— Nov 10, 2002: Revital Ohayon, 34, and her two sons, Matan, 5, and Noam, 4, as well as Yitzhak Dori, 44 – all of Kibbutz Metzer – and Tirza Damari, 42,  were killed when a Fatah terrorist infiltrated the kibbutz, located east of Hadera near the Green Line, and opened fire.

– Nov 28, 2002: 5 killed and 40 wounded when two Fatah terrorists opened fire and threw grenades at the Likud polling station in Beit She’an, near the central bus station, where party members were casting their votes in the Likud primary.

– Apr 24, 2003 – 1 was killed and 13 were wounded in a suicide bombing outside the train station in Kfar Sava. Groups related to the Fatah al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and the PFLP clamied joint responsibility for the attack.

– May 5, 2003 – Gideon Lichterman, 27, was killed and two other passengers, his six-year-old daughter Moriah and a reserve soldier, were seriously wounded when Fatah terrorists fired shots at their vehicle in Samaria. 

– May 19, 2003: 3 were killed and 70 were wounded in a suicide bombing at the entrance to the Amakim Mall in Afula. The Islamic Jihad and the Fatah al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades both claimed responsibility for the attack.

– Aug 29, 2003:  Shalom Har-Melekh, 25, was killed in a Fatah shooting attack while driving northeast of Ramallah. His wife, Limor, who was seven months pregnant, sustained moderate injuries, and gave birth to a baby girl by Caesarean section.

– Jan 29, 2004: 11 people were killed and over 50 wounded in a suicide bombing of an Egged bus no. 19 at the corner of Gaza and Arlozorov streets in Jerusalem. Both the Fatah-related Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades and Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack.

– Mar 14, 2004: 10 were killed and 16 wounded in a double suicide bombing at Ashdod Port. Hamas and Fatah claimed responsibility for the attack.

– May 2, 2004: Tali Hatuel, 34, and her daughters – Hila, 11, Hadar, 9, Roni, 7, and Merav, 2 – of Katif in the Gaza Strip were killed when two Palestinian terrorists fired on an Israeli car at the entrance to the Gaza Strip settlement bloc of Gush Katif. Fatah and Islamic Jihad claimed joint responsibility for the attack.

How many students are being taught this history, right now at this crucial time, as they sit in their classrooms wearing their keffiyeh scarves? I would bet next to none.

Anyone who looks honestly at the history of the Palestinian cause will have to acknowledge it has been used as a cover to exterminate Jews, not to create a Palestinian state. Here’s a list of the many opportunities Arabs had to create a Palestinian state since the early 1900s and that they rejected.

• The Arabs said “no” to the 1937 Peel Commission that proposed a partition plan and the creation of an Arab state.

• They said “no” again to the 1939 British White Paper that Proposed an Arab state.

• It was “no” again to a 1947 United Nations plan that would have created an even larger Arab state as part of an overall partition plan.

  (In the nearly two decades from 1948 to 1967, when Israel did not control the West Bank, the Arabs could have, again, demanded an independent state from Jordan, which did not control it, but they never did.)

• In 1979, during the Israel-Egypt peace negotiations, Palestinians were again offered autonomy, but again, they refused.

• 1993 there was, and technically still is, the OSLO Agreement, but it was never followed, much less implemented.

• And in 2000, then-Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barack offered to create a Palestinian state, but then-Chairman of the Palestinian Liberation Organization Yassar Arafat rejected it.

• In 2005 Israel gave up all of its settlements in the Gaza Strip and several more in the northern part of Samaria, a “land of peace” deal that produced nothing but Hamas terror attacks in return.

• In 2008, Israel offered to give up nearly 94% percent of the so-called “West Bank”, but the Palestinian leadership rejected that, too.

Just looking at that last offer, in 2008, a 2015 Tablet article sheds light on what happened.

In 2009, journalist Mark Lavie found out about the deal and excitedly told his bureau chief at the AP in Jerusalem about it but was banned from writing about it. It didn’t fit the narrative the media was promoting.

Mark Lavie then gives a stinging critique of his profession:

The profession I joined in the 1960s wasn’t about helping anyone. It was about reporting and explaining the news. This new definition of journalism apparently requires choosing sides. This became clear to me as long ago as 1988, at the beginning of the First Intifada, when I saw a reporter jump out of her car in the middle of a Gaza riot and shout at the Palestinians throwing rocks at the vehicle: “Why are you doing this? I’m trying to help you!” Like most Western media sources, she wanted to frame the uprising—the Palestinians as people—as helpless victims, to pillory the Israelis as the cruel oppressors. Stories that didn’t fit that framework had a hard time seeing the light of day. Even a peace offer.

When at last the story was told, Lavie laments, “…the story of Israel’s generous peace offer and Abbas’s rejection is out there, finally, and making some waves. But, again, this is temporary, because the underlying bias, the framing of the conflict—strong, cruel Israel against weak, victimized Palestinians—has not changed.”

As long as journalists and educational leaders continue telling only one side of the story, nothing will ever change.

As I write this, I see that President Liz Magill has been forced to step down from her position at University of Pennsylvania.

Will this solve the problem? Certainly not. I can just imagine Glenn Greenwald’s next System Update episode, blasting this attack on Magill. And actually, rather than the pendulum swinging from first canceling one group to canceling another, it would be better if all voices were heard equally. A Palestine Writes Literary Festival, which was said to platform speakers with histories of antisemitism, should be allowed. So should speakers in support of Donald Trump. We should trust our youth that if they are presented with many sides, they will learn to use their critical thinking skills to make up their own minds, and they will do a good job of it. Some will choose to be conservative. Some will choose to be liberal. Some will choose to be neither. It’s good to have a balance.

It should not so difficult to acknowledge the pain and fear of students who are being attacked, silenced and threatened on college campuses simply because they are Jewish. It shouldn’t take a public hearing to point out that something should be done to protect them.

And people should be able to acknowledge that calling for the elimination of the state of Israel is the same as calling for the genocide of all Jews. If we cannot acknowledge this, then we have learned nothing from the Holocaust. In fact, we risk repeating it. Right here, in the United States of America.