Mideast War blowback

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Here is the X video referred to in the article. Oddly, the woman doing the harassing is also asking employees to call the police. Something doesn't add up here.

A newly released survey from Mosaic United, conducted with Israel’s Ministry of Diaspora Affairs and Combatting Antisemitism, reveals that Jewish teens in the United States are significantly more likely to hold critical views of Israel and sympathize with Hamas compared to their peers in other countries.

According to the findings, 37% of American Jewish teens expressed sympathy for Hamas, a stark contrast to just 7% of Jewish teens globally. Similarly, 42% of US Jewish teens believe Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, compared to only 9% of their international counterparts.

These disparities highlight a worrying divergence in how American Jewish teens perceive Israel, influenced by differences in culture, community, and education.

The survey also emphasized the correlation between Jewish educational engagement and positive attitudes toward Israel. Teens who participated in Jewish camps, day schools, or supplementary schools, or who had personal encounters with Israelis (mifgashim), were far less likely to harbor anti-Israel views.

Among those with a strong Jewish background, only 6% sympathized with Hamas, compared to 65% of teens with little to no Jewish educational experiences.

While 60% of 14-year-olds expressed sympathy for Hamas, this figure dropped to just 10% among 18-year-olds, suggesting that ongoing engagement and education can foster a deeper understanding of Israel’s complexities.

In a packed city courtroom Wednesday, the four University of Rochester students accused of posting what officials have labeled antisemitic posters across campus made their initial appearance dressed in striped jumpsuits after spending the night in jail.

They said nothing, not guilty pleas were entered on their behalf, and the judge immediately released them on their own recognizance.

The foursome is charged with felony criminal mischief for plastering “wanted” posters across campus earlier this month that accused various faculty and staff — including UR President Sarah Mangelsdorf — of racism, censorship and supporting genocide related to the war in Gaza.

UR students and faculty, as well as a bevy of local activists, filled the courtroom gallery. Many bore keffiyehs, a traditional Palestinian scarf, draped over their shoulders.

“This is shameful,” said Basem Ashkal, a Palestinian immigrant who has long supported the protests in the Rochester area. “The college should be a place to speak out, not to be darkness.”

The students — Naomi Gutierrez, 19, Samantha Escobar, 21, Jefferson Turcios, 21, and Jonathan Bermudez, 19 — are, by all accounts, first-time offenders with resumes boasting of academic success, community service and leadership. All are charged with second-degree criminal mischief, a class D felony that carries a maximum sentence of seven years in prison.

The case has garnered international media attention, including from CNN, the Washington Post, and the Times of Israel.,Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-New York, condemned the students’ alleged actions as “loathsome” last week, speaking on the Senate floor, describing the posters as an attempt to intimidate and calling for “those wrongdoers (to) be held accountable.”

The posters refer to Mangelsdorf as a “liberal posturing, bourgeois feminist.” One poster also accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s brother Iddo Netanyahu of “war crimes” related to his serving in the Israel Defense Forces during the October 1973 Yom Kippur War. Netanyahu is a radiologist who in online physician rating sites is linked to a former Hornell practice affiliated with St. James Hospital, which joined the UR Medicine network in 2018.

"Dr. Iddo Netanyahu is a physician who practiced radiology in the Hornell area more than a dozen years ago. He was an independent contractor, and was never employed by St. James Hospital or the University of Rochester," read a statement from UR.

Other posters connect staff directly or indirectly to development of Israeli military technology, and settlements in the West Bank.

Mangelsdorf issued a statement last week calling the matter “disturbing, divisive and intimidating” and said it runs counter to “our values as a university." UR Department of Public Safety Chief Quchee Collins, in a statement Tuesday, described the posters as “antisemitic” and the students’ actions as “deplorable.” The department assessed whether the matter constituted a hate crime, he said, but thus far has been advised it does not.

he posters, in their entirety, were transcribed and published by The Campus Times, the UR’s student newspaper. None of the posters, as reported, mention Jewish identity directly, and not all the posters’ targets are Jewish.

Zora Gusso, a Jewish activist who came to support the students on Wednesday, said she read the posters and didn’t feel they were threatening.

“This will have a chilling effect on one of our most important democratic features,” Gusso said. “Students have always been on the forefront of what’s right and just.”

The criminal charges have little to do with the content of the posters but are based on the intent to cause damage to property at a value exceeding $1,500. UR has said the posters were applied to walls, floors, chalkboards and other surfaces with a strong adhesive that resulted in damage, when the posters were removed.

Many protesters in attendance Wednesday expressed outrage that the students were jailed overnight over the nonviolent charge.

Under the law, police have the option on a nonviolent felony to issue an appearance ticket or arrest the students and have them brought before a judge. UR chose the latter. A university spokesperson did not immediately respond Wednesday to a request for comment.

“I think it was an inappropriate use of discretion,” said Monroe County Public Defender Julie Cianca, whose office provided counsel for the students’ initial arraignment.

A fifth person remains under investigation and has not been named. As for the four who were arrested:

Gutierrez is a double major in data science and politics, philosophy, and economics. She also runs her own nail technician business, nanaxnails.

Escobar, a senior in clinical and translational sciences, was president of the University’s Spanish and Latino Student’s Association (SALSA), of which the other three are current or past officers. She is also a Posse Scholar, an organization that “identifies, recruits and trains individuals with extraordinary leadership potential."

And Turcios, also a Posse scholar awarded a full-ride scholarship back in 2022, was named to UR’s Emerging Leaders Program in 2023, and highlighted by UR’s Center for Community Engagement (CCE) in August for his work with multiple nonprofits. He also serves as a research assistant in pediatrics, a student aid for the Department of Public Safety, and a tutor with CCE. He is pursuing a degree in brain and cognitive sciences and health, behavior and society.

Bermudez, a Greece Olympia graduate, is a sophomore majoring in biology, and first-generation college student who recently organized a second annual domestic violence awareness event, "The Color of Bruises.”

A vehicle has been destroyed by fire and nine cars and three buildings vandalised with anti-Israel graffiti in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, sparking outrage and condemnation from politicians including the prime minister.

New South Wales police said they had discovered the graffiti after they were alerted to the blaze in Woollahra about 12.30am on Thursday. The burning vehicle had also been tagged with graffiti, while another car was damaged from proximity to the fire.

Two apartment complexes and the Australian chef Matt Moran’s Chiswick restaurant – all within a 50-metre radius – were also vandalised. Police valued the total property damage to the premises and cars at about $90,000 to $120,000.

Two people were captured on CCTV running from the scene, both wearing face masks and dark hoodies, Det Acting Supt Adam Solah said.

They were parked across the street and around the corner from Sydney’s Turkish consulate. The Turkish consulate said it had not been vandalised and was assisting police with inquiries.

The Kurdistan Workers’ party, abbreviated to PKK, has been fighting for autonomy in south-east Turkey in a conflict that has killed tens of thousands of people since the 1980s. It is considered a terrorist group by Turkey and the country’s western allies.

Solah said police would investigate the reference to the PKK while inquiring into the vandals’ motives but it was too early in the investigation to determine why those vehicles and premises had been targeted.

Three people were arrested after pro-Palestinian, anti-NATO protesters smashed windows, clashed with police officers, and set vehicles ablaze on Friday evening.

The protest coincided with the arrival of approximately 300 delegates from NATO member states and partner countries attending a high-level summit, running from Nov. 22 to 25 in Montreal, focused on Ukraine, climate change, and the alliance’s future. The protest also came as the second day of the wave of student-wide pro-Palestinian protests across Montreal.

An initial group of protesters gathered at Émilie-Gamelin Parc downtown at around 4:30 p.m. before marching toward the Quartier des Spectacles, according to Manuel Couture, a spokesperson for the Montreal police. By 5:30 p.m., another group had converged at Place des Arts, and the two demonstrations merged.

The protesters then marched down St-Urbain St. At 6:10 p.m., tensions escalated as demonstrators set an effigy of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on fire in the middle of the crowd. As the march continued, objects — including small explosive devices and metal items — were hurled into the street, targeting police officers. By 6:40 p.m., protesters had smashed shop windows near St-Urbain and René-Lévesque Blvd., and set two vehicles ablaze.

Couture said police deployed chemical irritants and conducted crowd-dispersal manoeuvres to regain control. Three protesters were arrested for allegedly assaulting police officers and obstructing police work.

Couture said that the protesters had dispersed by 7 p.m.

According to fliers posted on social media, Friday’s protest was organized by Divest for Palestine, an anti-capitalist group describing itself as a “collective of citizens, activists, and civil society groups involved in the Palestinian struggle.”

An Instagram post by the group said the protest was endorsed by dozens of organizations, including student groups such as Divest McGill and the Concordia Research and Education Workers Union, as well as other groups like Independent Jewish Voices Montreal and Montreal Antifa.

The protest came amid heightened tensions following Thursday’s pro-Palestinian demonstrations at Concordia University, where protesters flooded the Hall Building and clashed with pro-Israel counter-demonstrators outside.

The Canadian coffee chain Second Cup terminated the contract with a franchisee in Montreal after she was filmed making a Nazi salute while wearing a keffiyeh during pro-Palestinian protests last week.

The woman, who ran a Second Cup café at the Jewish General Hospital in Montreal, was videoed making a Hitler salute during the mass protests in Quebec.

A new study published Friday highlights troubling levels of antisemitism in France, with 12% of the population and one in five citizens under 35 expressing they "would be glad if Jews left France."

According to the Ipsos poll, nearly half (46%) of French citizens agree with at least six out of 12 antisemitic statements presented. Among them, 23% believe that "Jews are not as French as others," with younger respondents more likely to view Jews as failing to assimilate.

The study also revealed that 52% of participants think "Jews are more loyal to Israel than to France," while 46% perceive Jews as wealthier than the average citizen. Half (49%) believe in the influence of a so-called "Jewish lobby" over political leadership, and 17% say there are too many synagogues in France.

Notably, the far-left La France Insoumise (LFI) party surpassed the far-right in harboring antisemitic views, with 55% of its supporters agreeing with antisemitic opinions. Additionally, 44% of LFI backers do not classify Hamas as a terrorist organization.

While 75% of French citizens expressed favorable views of Jewish people, only 26% held positive views of the Israeli government and just 21% viewed Israel favorably, down from 27% in 2020. By contrast, 40% of French citizens expressed favorable views of Palestinians, although Hamas received positive views from just 6%.

Regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, 52% affirmed Israel’s right to self-defense due to its geopolitical threats, while 87% held both sides responsible for civilian suffering in Gaza. However, 77% of respondents consider Hamas a terrorist organization.

Despite the negative findings, the study showed some hope, with 89% of French citizens agreeing that no act or statement could justify antisemitism.

Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, both Democratic senators in Georgia, are facing a backlash from the Atlanta-area Jewish community over their votes to halt certain arms sales to Israel on Wednesday.

AIPAC, the Atlanta JCRC and the local Anti-Defamation League and American Jewish Committee chapters joined 46 other Jewish organizations, including more than 20 Atlanta synagogues, in a letter to the senators on Thursday condemning their votes

Warnock is a Baptist pastor, who has drawn criticism for defending antisemites. Ossoff is Jewish.

The two voted in a way that “provides cover for those who seek to harm the Jews around the world,” which “further fuels the increase in antisemitism that has been surging in our communities and on college campuses,” the groups wrote in the letter.

The motions failed 18-79, 19-78 and 17-80, respectively, with all the votes in favor of the Sanders legislation coming from Democrats.

Warnock voted in favor of all three motions. Ossoff voted to cut off the sales of tank shells and mortar rounds.

Ossoff defended his votes on the Senate floor on Thursday.

“American support for Israel’s non-negotiable right to exist and to defend itself is rock solid,” he said. “Had these resolutions passed, however, perhaps Israeli politicians would have received the necessary message that has so far been disregarded, which is, ‘Yes, defend yourself. Yes, defeat your enemies,’ but have mercy for the innocent, restrain your own extremists and respect the interests of the United States.”

Ossoff, who won the election in a 2021 runoff by just 60,000 votes, faces re-election in 2026. Warnock will next face re-election in 2028.

“Even Reform synagogues and stridently left-wing Jewish organizations slamming Georgia’s senators,” wrote Jesse Arm, of the Manhattan Institute, sharing the letter to the senators.

“Secular Jews are one of the most progressive voting blocs in the United States, but even they support the Jewish state. There’s a limit to the Israel-bashing they’ll tolerate,” Arm added. “Stick a fork in Ossoff in 2026.”

Esther Panitch, a Democrat who is the only Jewish state representative in Georgia, wrote that she “cannot overstate how upset Georgia’s Jewish community—especially Democrats—is with our senators.”

Congressional Republicans and former Trump appointees have spent the last year building out their response to the movement protesting Israel’s war in Gaza, and now that Donald Trump is returning to the White House they warn that protest leaders, activists and those who help them raise money could face an onslaught of federal investigations and possible indictments.

An NBC News review of congressional hearings and letters, along with lawsuits filed by organizations led by former Trump officials, provides a preview of which federal laws a second Trump administration could use when pursuing investigations and potential prosecutions.

Judging from what has been pushed thus far, there are several legal measures most likely to be used once Trump returns to Washington. One would be deporting foreign college students in the U.S. on a visa after they’re found to have openly advocated for Hamas or another U.S.-designated terror group, or after they participated in an unauthorized campus protest and were suspended, expelled or jailed.

Another measure would be to pursue federal prosecutions of demonstrators who block synagogue entrances or disrupt Jewish speakers at events. A third approach is to charge protest leaders and nonprofits that aid in fundraising for protest groups with failing to register with the U.S. Justice Department as an “agent of a foreign principal.” And a fourth avenue is to open investigations into protest leaders who are in direct contact with U.S.-designated terror groups while advocating on their behalf.

The multifaceted law enforcement approach is a marked departure from the Biden administration’s response to the protest movement. Some of the nation’s leading civil rights groups told NBC News that they are gearing up for a flood of legal battles to protect the protesters.

“Trying to predict what Trump will do is a fool’s errand. We have to be prepared for the most extreme version of what he’s threatened,” said Ben Wizner, the director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Speech, Privacy and Technology Project. “We have to take him both literally and seriously.”

‘A new sheriff in town’
Biden administration officials have told NBC News that prosecuting speech-related crimes related to the anti-war protests is not a high priority for the current Justice Department, nor is seeking out student protesters on foreign visas a top concern for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

“President Trump will enforce the law,” said Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, in an email to NBC News. Ernst recently asked the FBI to open an investigation into a pro-Hamas student group at Columbia University called Columbia University Apartheid Divest. A member had threatened “Zionists” on social media, which the organization had initially distanced itself from after a strong public outcry but later supported in an Instagram post. CUAD also has handed out pro-Hamas flyers that circulated around campus featuring masked men holding weapons.

“There is a new sheriff in town,” Ernst said. The FBI has yet to respond to Ernst’s request, her office said. An FBI spokesperson did not immediately respond to request for comment. A Columbia University spokesperson said CUAD is not a recognized organization by the school and the flyers were under investigation. Members of CUAD declined to comment

Reed Rubinstein, who held high-ranking positions in both the Justice Department and the U.S. Education Department in the first Trump administration, is now a senior vice president at America First Legal, a public policy law firm in Washington, D.C., founded by former Trump adviser Stephen Miller. (Miller is expected to return to the White House as a deputy chief of staff for policy.)

Under Rubinstein, America First Legal has in the past year filed four lawsuits that provide a glimpse into how the Trump administration could differ from its predecessor. America First Legal alleges in the suits that the State Department, the Justice Department, the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Education have protected pro-Hamas extremists.

In court papers and in letters to several federal oversight officials, America First Legal has also said it believes the Justice Department should have forced several leaders of pro-Palestinian groups to report themselves under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, known as FARA, which requires individuals acting as “an agent of a foreign principal” to register themselves with the Justice Department.

It has also accused the Department of Education of not following Title VI regulations, which prohibits schools that accept federal funding from allowing on-campus discrimination based on race, shared ancestry or ethnic characteristics including being Jewish.

“There’s a difference between lawful speech and unlawful conduct,” Rubinstein told NBC News. “Law enforcement has an obligation to act.”

Although the lawsuits haven’t progressed in court, they provide a possible road map for how Trump-minded prosecutors could respond to the protest movement.

So far, only the Education Department has responded to the allegations, court papers show, and said the agency doesn’t have sufficient evidence to respond to the claims that policies aren’t being enforced. The Justice Department didn’t respond to a request for comment. Spokespeople at the State Department, the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Education all said they can’t comment on pending litigation.

Rubinstein in an interview brought up an additional law he expects a second Trump administration could enforce. Known as the FACE Act, the law prohibits people from using force, threats or intimidation while blocking entrances of places of worship. Earlier this month, protesters with SJP Chicago gathered at the Chicago Loop Synagogue to demonstrate against an Arab Israeli speaker who had served in the Israeli military. Videos posted to social media showed demonstrators blocking the synagogue’s entrance, banging on the windows and getting inside.

“You do not have the right to deny somebody the ability to congregate in a church or synagogue,” Rubinstein said. “We would like to see the Department of Justice do its job.”

A spokesman for the FBI’s Chicago office said its policy is not to confirm or deny the existence of an investigation. The Chicago Police Department said it arrested two protesters and charged them with trespassing and one with property damage, both misdemeanor charges.

SJP Chicago did not respond to a request for comment. But in an Instagram post, it said protesters were not being anti-Jewish. “Zionist have scrambled to throw together a narrative that these acts were anti-semetic and fueled by hate (what’s new).”

An expected flood of legal battles
Some of the nation’s leading free speech and civil rights groups say they are gearing up to fight a new Trump administration and any attempts to go after protesters or their funders. Since 9/11, organizations including the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), along with the ACLU, the Council on American-Islamic Relations and the Knight First Amendment Institute have represented Muslim Americans and pro-Palestinian activists in cases involving free speech, surveillance or abuse.

Edward Ahmed Mitchell, CAIR’s deputy executive director, argued that the Biden administration failed to enforce FARA against leaders of pro-Israel groups. Mitchell said both Trump and President Joe Biden single out pro-Palestinian activists with either a lack of enforcement or with too much enforcement.

“Just as Americans who peacefully marched, protested and lobbied against segregation, the Vietnam War and South African apartheid were not deterred when government agencies spied upon, smeared, arrested and brutalized them,” Mitchell said, “the college students, human rights activists and everyday Americans peacefully opposing the Gaza genocide have not been deterred by such government abuses and, God willing, will not be deterred by such abuses in the future.”

Both CCR and the ACLU told NBC News that their concerns go beyond what the administration could do to crack down on just the protests. They pointed to the possibility that a Republican-led Congress could pass a bill currently under consideration that would strip away the tax-exempt status of nonprofits that a Trump appointed treasury secretary designates as providing material support to “terrorist supporting organizations.” CCR also said it worries a second Trump administration could wrongly level accusations of failing to register as foreign agents against protest leaders and nonprofits that aid protest groups with collecting donations. CCR is also watching whether a Trump Justice Department will charge certain activists accused of supporting Hamas and other U.S.-designated terror organizations with violating a U.S. anti-terror law that prohibits advocating for terror groups while in coordination with them.

“We are prepared for the Trump administration coming in and changing the game, particularly around the question, ‘Where does speech fit into this?’” said Vince Warren, CCR’s executive director. “To the extent that the Biden administration drew a line between speech and actionable conduct, we don’t think that the Trump administration will do that at all.”

CCR is also concerned about the plans laid out in Project Esther, an initiative backed by the Heritage Foundation, the conservative think tank that published Project 2025. Project Esther urges law enforcement to use a plethora of federal and state laws to dismantle what it terms the “global Hamas Support Network” using racketeering laws — used to break up the mafia — along with anti-terrorism and anti-hate speech laws.

“They will throw any type of spaghetti up against the wall,” Warren said.

The Knight Institute said although it expects the new Trump administration to aggressively police speech, it is prepared to fight back. Earlier this month, Knight successfully rebuffed the Biden Treasury Department, which had blocked a New York based nonprofit from organizing an overseas conference with Hezbollah members, arguing it can’t work with people sanctioned for ties to terrorism groups. The agency reversed course and settled the case earlier this month after Knight argued that an academic exchange of ideas could not violate anti-terror laws.

“If there’s one thing the First Amendment protects, it’s the right of Americans to criticize their own government’s policies,” said Jameel Jaffer, the Knight Institute’s executive director.

Impact on college campuses
Kenneth Marcus, who ran the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights during the Trump and George W. Bush administrations, now leads the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, one of the leading civil rights organizations focused on Jewish students. Over the past year, the center has sued a growing list of universities arguing officials failed to stop what it sees as widespread antisemitism on campus.

Marcus said he has met with Department of Education officials requesting an expansion of civil rights enforcement to protect Jewish students on campuses. The Department of Education didn’t respond to questions regarding Marcus’ concerns.

“We know that President Trump has repeatedly expressed concern about the campus situation,” Marcus said.

During the presidential campaign, one of the 20 promises in the preamble to the Republican Party platform was to “deport pro-Hamas radicals and make our college campuses safe and patriotic again.”

NBC News reported in August that the Biden administration said it was not targeting visa revocations for foreign students who may have engaged in speech-related offenses or participated in unauthorized campus protests and had not terminated any university or college student visas due to protest activity related to the Israel-Hamas war.

Trump’s return to Washington could lead to possible attempts to revoke student visas for foreign students who openly support Hamas or other U.S.-designated terror organizations, Marcus said. Marcus also anticipates more intervention from the Justice Department when Jewish students say they are being targeted on campus.

At a campaign stop in September, Trump said that at the start of his second presidency, he would inform universities that if they allow violence and threats against Jewish students, they “will be held accountable for violations of the civil rights law.”

“My administration will move swiftly to restore safety for Jewish students and Jewish people on American streets,” Trump said.

For the second year in a row, the demonstrators jumped the barriers and ran into West 55th Street just before 9:30 a.m.

The protesters sat on the ground, locking arms and chanting, "Free, free Palestine!"

Others held a banner behind them that said: "Don’t celebrate genocide! Arms embargo now."

The brief interruption had spectators booing and then cheering as NYPD officers intervened.

The parade was delayed for about five minutes as the 21 protesters were removed from the road.

More than 60 MPs from seven parties have written to British Foreign Secretary David Lammy urging him to impose sanctions on Israel over "repeated violations of international law".

The letter, sent to Lammy on Wednesday night and seen by Middle East Eye, was organised by MPs Richard Burgon and Imran Hussain, both formerly Labour MPs but currently independent.

It was signed by former shadow home secretary Diane Abbott, former shadow chancellor John McDonnell, Green Party co-leader Carla Denyer and numerous Labour, Liberal Democrat, Plaid Cymru and Scottish National Party MPs.

It was also signed by the five MPs in the pro-Gaza Independent Alliance, including former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.

Several peers, including Baroness Sayeeda Warsi - formerly a Conservative peer in the House of Lords, but now an independent - also signed the letter.

It cites the advisory opinion issued in July by the International Court of Justice, which labelled Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories as unlawful and demanded that it ends as soon as possible.

"The court also found that all states, including the UK, have obligations to not recognise as legal the situation arising from the unlawful presence of Israel in the occupied Palestinian territory and to not render any aid or assistance in maintaining this," the letter reads.

"We write to urge the UK government to impose sanctions and take other concrete steps to give effect to the landmark opinion issued by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Israel’s continuing illegal presence in the occupied Palestinian territory."

The letter notes that the ICJ found that states must prevent any actions, including trade, treaty or investment relations with Israel, that assist in the maintenance of Israel's occupation.

It calls on the government to ban trade with illegal settlements, review all current and pending trade relations with Israel and suspend all arms transfers to Israel.

"The UK government has repeatedly stated that it is committed to international law. Acting in support of the ICJ advisory opinion would be a critical step in demonstrating that commitment."

’Legal and moral obligation to act'
The Labour government suspended 30 out of 350 export licences for arms sales to Israel in September.

Last month, Foreign Secretary Lammy announced fresh sanctions against three Israeli settler outposts and four organisations he said were responsible for "heinous abuses of human rights" against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

But this letter calls for Britain to go significantly further.

Richard Burgon MP said: "We cannot allow Israel to tear up the rule book of international law and simply go unpunished. Words alone from our government are simply not enough.

"Our government has a legal and moral obligation to act. It needs to impose widespread sanctions to get Israel to end its war crimes and stop violating international law."

Imran Hussain MP said: "The arrest warrants issued for war crimes must be just the start of renewed efforts to force Israel to abide by international law, stop the war crimes and end its illegal occupation of Palestine.

"By imposing widespread sanctions on Israel as the ICJ ruling demands, our government would be taking a stance in defence of the international rules-based order and making clear that Israel will no longer get away with trampling all over international law."

A controversial debate held by the Oxford Union that discussed whether Israel is an “apartheid state responsible for genocide” devolved into a yelling match between speakers and attendees on Thursday. The event took place under tight security, as protesters demonstrated outside the building.

After the debate, the union voted on the proposition, “This House Believes Israel is an apartheid state responsible for genocide,” with 278 votes in favor and 59 votes against.

The Oxford Union is a student society located in Oxford, England, and is made up almost entirely of students at the prestigious Oxford University, widely regarded as one of the best institutes for higher education in the world.

Thursday’s debate featured several prominent speakers on both sides of the topic, including pro-Israel advocates Natasha Hausdorff, a British lawyer, Jonathan Sacerdoti, a British journalist who covers the UK and Europe for i24 News, as well as Arab-Israeli activist Yoseph Haddad, and former Hamas member-turned Israeli spy Mosab Hassan Yousef.

Arguing against Israel were US political scientist and anti-Israel activist Norman Finkelstein, Israeli-American activist and author Miko Peled, Palestinian-American author Susan Abulhawa, and Mohammed El-Kurd, a Palestinian writer and poet.

According to Oxford University’s student newspaper, Cherwell, the debate featured intense heckling and argument, with one audience member calling Sacerdoti a “sick Motherf***er” and a “genocidal maniac” while the journalist was giving his position.

Cherwell reported that Peled said during the debate, “What happened on October 7th was not terrorism – these were acts of heroism of a people who were oppressed,” and called for a Palestinian state “from the river to the sea.”

For her part, Abulhawa told the crowd that she “came to speak directly to Zionists: we let you into our homes when your own countries turned you away. You killed and robbed and burned and looted our lives, you carved out our hearts.”

The Palestinian poet El-Kurd argued that Zionism is “irredeemable and indefensible,” and said that if the union voted in favor of calling Israel an apartheid state committing genocide, “it means that this body is catching up to the moral clarity of the global majority. It is about time and about 70 years too late.”

Speaking against the proposition, meanwhile, Haddad was kicked out of the chamber for lack of decorum after calling the audience “terrorist supporters” when they booed him during his argument. As he was escorted out, the Arab-Israeli activist put on a shirt with the face of slain Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah with the caption, “Your terrorist is dead.”

Pro-Israel speaker Hausdorff called the debate a “dark moment in the Oxford Union’s history,” and said that the accusation of genocide against Israel is a “slur being alleged against the real victims of genocide in this case.”

Yousef, the disowned eldest son of the co-founder of Hamas who has become a pro-Israel activist, reportedly told the crowd, “Palestinians are the most pathetic people on planet Earth,” and insisted that Palestinians are “a false identity”.

The union has a track record of contentious debates on Israel. In 1962, for instance, it debated whether “The Creation of the State of Israel is One of the Mistakes of the Century.” Decades later, the students were still debating whether, as a 2008 motion put it, “This house believes that the State of Israel has a right to exist.”

Over the years, union members have also overwhelmingly backed motions accusing Israel’s supporters of “stifling Western debate.”

But anti-Israel activists haven’t had it their way on every occasion. In 2015, for instance, the US lawyer Alan Dershowitz won a debate on whether the BDS movement against Israel was wrong.

Saudi Arabia has abandoned its pursuit of an ambitious defense treaty with Washington in return for normalizing relations with Israel and is now pushing for a more modest military cooperation agreement, two Saudi and four Western officials told Reuters.

In a drive to get a wide-ranging mutual security treaty over the line earlier this year, Riyadh softened its position on Palestinian statehood, telling Washington that a public commitment from Israel to a two-state solution could be enough for the Gulf kingdom to normalize relations.

But with public anger in Saudi Arabia and the wider Middle East at fever pitch over Israel's military actions in Gaza, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has again made recognition of Israel conditional on it taking concrete steps to create a Palestinian state, two Saudi and three Western sources said.

Israeli Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu is still eager to secure normalization with the Saudi powerhouse as a historic milestone and a sign of broader acceptance in the Arab world, Western diplomats said.

But he faces overwhelming opposition at home to any concessions to the Palestinians following the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks and knows any gesture in the direction of statehood would fracture his ruling coalition, they said.

With both leaders shackled for now by their domestic powerbases, Riyadh and Washington hope a more modest defense pact could be sealed before President Joe Biden leaves the White House in January, the sources said.

A full-blown US-Saudi treaty would need to pass the US Senate with a two-thirds majority - and this would be a non-starter unless Riyadh recognizes Israel, the six sources said.
The pact now under discussion would involve expanding joint military exercises and drills to address regional threats, mainly from Iran. It would foster partnerships between US and Saudi defense firms, with safeguards to prevent collaboration with China, the sources said.

The agreement would promote Saudi investment in advanced technologies, especially drone defense. The US would increase its presence in Riyadh through training, logistics and cyber security support, and may deploy a Patriot missile battalion to enhance missile defense and integrated deterrence.

But it would not be the kind of binding mutual defense treaty that would oblige US forces to protect the world's biggest oil exporter in the event of foreign attack.

The Trump dilemma
The picture is complicated further, however, by the impending arrival of Donald Trump in the White House.

While Trump's plan to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict excludes any provisions for Palestinian statehood or sovereignty, he is a close ally of the Saudi crown prince.

Palestinian and some Arab officials worry that Trump and his son-in-law Jared Kushner - architect of the "Deal of the Century" and also a close ally of the crown prince - may ultimately persuade him to support the plan.

How the prince reconciles Saudi priorities with this shifting diplomatic landscape will be pivotal, defining both his leadership and the future of the peace process, diplomats said.

The current US administration has not given up hope for a deal on security guarantees before Biden leaves office in January, but a number of obstacles remain. One person in Washington familiar with the talks said there was reason to be skeptical about whether there was enough time to strike a deal.

US officials are mindful that the kingdom is still interested in formally cementing the guarantees it has been seeking, especially to gain access to more advanced weapons, but are uncertain whether it would prefer to get it done under Biden, or wait for Trump, the source said.

"We continue to discuss and have many lines of effort on the table (with the Saudis)," the US official said.

'The big prize'
While the Saudi leadership strongly advocates Palestinian statehood, it remains uncertain, according to diplomats, how the crown prince would respond if Trump revives the deal he floated in 2020 to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The plan marks a dramatic shift in US policy and international agreements by overtly aligning with Israel and deviating sharply from the long-standing land-for-peace framework that has historically guided negotiations.

It would allow Israel to annex vast stretches of land in the occupied West Bank, including Israeli settlements and the Jordan Valley, and recognizes Jerusalem as the "undivided capital of Israel" - effectively denying Palestinian claims to East Jerusalem as their capital, a central aspiration in their statehood goals and in accordance with U.N. resolutions.

By legitimizing Israeli annexations, the Trump plan is viewed by many as a severe blow to the two-state solution and Palestinian hopes of statehood.

Saudi officials insist that the creation of a Palestinian state in accordance with previous international agreements, including East Jerusalem as its capital, remains an essential condition for long-term regional peace and stability.

Without it the cycle of violence will continue to jeopardize any normal relations, they say.
"How can we imagine a region integrated if we sidestep the Palestinian issue?" a senior Saudi official said. "You can't prevent the Palestinian right to self-determination."

And in some of the harshest criticism of Israel since the start of the Gaza war, the Crown Prince Mohammed called Israel's military actions in Gaza "collective genocide" in his address to an Arab and Islamic summit in Riyadh this month.

The potential for Saudi normalization with Israel, however, could be revisited in the future, perhaps once the dust settles after the Gaza war - and possibly under a different Israeli government, diplomats said.

Fawaz Gerges, a Middle East expert at the London School of Economics, said Trump would leverage all possible avenues to secure historic normalization between Saudi Arabia and Israel.
"For Trump, Saudi Arabia is the big prize," said Gerges.

"As to how normalization could happen despite repeated Saudi leaders insistence they will not recognize Israel until a real path to a Palestinian state is set, Trump could promise a ceasefire in Gaza in return for normalization and tentative promise to support a Palestinian state, without obliging Israel to make any real concessions to the Palestinians."

JFS pupils have spoken of their horror after their school bus was pelted with rocks and rubbish by teenagers from another school who shouted “f*ck Israel” at them.

Two of the buses used by the school were attacked by a group of around ten teenagers from another school as they made a stop in Edgware, north London.

Four teenagers also jumped onto one of the buses, swore at the JFS children and filmed them before getting out and throwing things at the bus.

“We heard what sounded like screaming from the bus behind us,” one 12-year-old boy, who only joined the school in September. "People in the back of the bus were screaming, “oh my God, they are throwing trash and rocks”.

“I was sitting at the front of the bus and everyone was completely terrified and hiding under our seats. It was really scary. They had big heavy rocks. There is a park nearby and they might have got the rocks from there.

“They were also swearing at us, saying, ‘F*ck Israel, nobody likes you. F*ck off you b*tches.’ They were filming us like they were enjoying it. There were lots of people in the street and no one tried to stop them. I hope that something like that won’t happen again because it made me scared.”

Gabi, an 11-year-old who was on the bus behind, described how four of the teenagers jumped on the double decker bus, which is run by Transport for London, when it made a stop.

"They came on and they did not look friendly,” she said. “They went upstairs and started swearing and showing the middle finger. I saw them when they ran downstairs – they were filming us – and then they got off and started throwing things at the bus. I don’t know where they got the rocks from – maybe they had them in their bags.

“None of us knew what to do. Some people got off the bus to maybe run away but it was far from my stop so I stayed on the bus. They were swearing at us and filming us. We don’t know what they are going to do with that video or why they did what they did.”

One parent who called the police, who came to his house to take a statement, said he was shocked at what had happened.

“Nothing prepares you for this as a parent,” he said. “It is hard to know what the right thing to tell your child is. I’ll discuss the Israel Palestine conflict with anyone but violence shouldn’t come into it, especially not against kids. It makes me wonder what sort of hate these children are being taught at school.”

The pupils are being supported by the CST. The organisation’s Dave Rich said: “This stop is near another school and there has been trouble before from children from this other school. We are supporting JFS and speaking to the other school to see if they can deal with it. All schools have a police officer attached and we are also speaking to them and have suggested they enhance police presence at the bus stop to ensure there is no more trouble.

“It must have been frightening for the kids. We are hoping the police can make sure this all calms down.”

In an email to parents, JFS said: “You may have seen an article in the JC about a recent incident involving one of our school buses.

"It appears to have involved four youths from a local secondary school boarding the bus and shouting anti-Semitic remarks. The local schools have been extremely cooperative, where previous incidents have been concerned, and this should be no different. We are in touch with the school involved and the Police are also investigating the incident separately.”