Rutgers disinvites Rami Elghandour, producer of “The Voice of Hind Rajab”

Posted on May 7, 2026 by ArchitectGuy

JEWISH CHRONICLE
Rutgers cancels graduation speaker over tweet claiming Israelis ‘train dogs to sexually assault prisoners’
Jackie Hajdenberg
May 7, 2026

Administrators at Rutgers University have canceled a commencement speaker scheduled for next week, citing an “inflammatory claim” the speaker tweeted about Israel. Rami Elghandour, a Rutgers alumnus and a producer of an Oscar-nominated docudrama about a Palestinian girl who died in Gaza, was set to deliver the speech at the university’s School of Engineering on May 15. But the university, New Jersey’s public flagship, rescinded the invitation on Wednesday…A university representative specifically cited an April 20 tweet by Elghandour that accuses Israel of genocide and says the Israelis are “running dungeons where they train dogs to sexually assault prisoners.” READ MORE

JERUSALEM POST Cornell publishes footage defending president from claims he hit anti-Israel activists with car Cornell University published video footage on Sunday that it said exonerated its president from claims that he had hit two students with his car, after activists seeking amnesty for anti-Israel activists followed him to his vehicle after an Israeli-Palestinian conflict debate last Thursday. President Michael Kotlikoff said that, after he had introduced debate featuring Norman Finkelstein on the justness of Israel’s post-October 7 massacre response, he was followed and harassed by student and non-student activists. Two of them were reportedly previously banned from campus for disruptive protests and verbal abuse of Cornell staff.

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“Long before the 20th century, ancient Jewish texts recognized what much of the modern West still refuses to accept: Not every enemy can be reasoned with”

Posted on May 5, 2026 by ArchitectGuy

FUTURE OF JEWISH
The problem isn’t Israel’s wars. It’s how the West thinks about war.
Nachum Kaplan
May 3, 2026

…The Torah does not romanticize war; it regulates it, distinguishing between different kinds of enemies and demanding peace when possible and decisiveness when necessary. It recognizes that some conflicts can be resolved through negotiation and others cannot be resolved at all, only ended. It begins not with denial but with recognition: “When you go out to war against your enemies…” (Deuteronomy 21:10). Not if; when. Civilizations that pretend otherwise tend not to last very long. This is not the language of trauma, but of realism. Modern Western thinking, by contrast, has drifted toward a very different assumption: that all conflicts are, at root, misunderstandings. That violence is a failure of communication. That if grievances were addressed, dignity affirmed, and economic conditions improved, enemies would become partners. READ MORE

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“Maher Bitar’s appointment is the latest sign that Democratic Party elites are leaning into growing hostility to Israel in their party”

Posted on May 5, 2026 by ArchitectGuy

FREE BEACON
‘He Was Easily the Most Antagonistic to Israel’: Anti-Israel Activist Who Advised Biden, Schiff To Head Influential Democratic Foreign Policy Group Designed To Staff a Future White House
Adam Kredo
May 4, 2026

An anti-Israel staffer for Sen. Adam Schiff (D., Calif.) who was once pictured wearing a keffiyeh and dancing in front of a banner calling Israel an apartheid state is slated to head an influential Democratic foreign policy group designed to staff the next Democratic presidential administration, Axios reported on Monday. Maher Bitar, a Palestinian American who served as a senior official on former president Joe Biden’s National Security Council and who most recently served as chief counsel to Schiff, has been selected to lead a reconstituted version of National Security Action (NSA), a Democratic foreign policy vehicle…Bitar spent years leading anti-Israel organizations that promote the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement and, as a college student, led his campus’s branch of the anti-Semitic Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) advocacy group. READ MORE

CAMERA BLOG Omri Tubi: Antisemitism, Anti-Zionism and the New York Times’ Defense of Hasan Piker In his April 12 column, New York Times contributor Ezra Klein defended Hasan Piker and accepted him into the Democratic Party. Piker is a popular influencer with over three million followers on the platform, Twitch, and over 1.85 million on YouTube. He is also a self-described anti-imperialist Marxist who has spread extremist, antisemitic and anti-Israel vitriol…For example, Piker said that the U.S. “deserved 9/11;” that if someone cares about Medicare or Medicaid fraud, they should kill U.S. Senator Rick Scott (R-FL); that his favorite flag is Hezbollah’s flag; and that a liberal Zionist is like a “liberal Nazi.” Piker also compared Israelis to the KKK and argued that Hamas is “a thousand times better” than Israel. Additionally, Piker said that it “doesn’t matter” to him if Hamas raped Israelis on Oct. 7, 2023.

JEWISH INSIDER Pelosi backs anti-Israel Democrat who alienated Houston’s Jewish community Rep. Al Green (D-TX), a vocal critic of Israel competing in a closely contested runoff against a fellow House Democrat later this month, announced in social media posts on Monday that he had received a coveted endorsement from Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), the powerful former House speaker.

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“Grief is a badge we wear,” Rachel said. She made the point that it shows we know love, that we have loved deeply, that another person’s existence had become inseparable from our own

Posted on May 5, 2026 by ArchitectGuy

TIMES OF ISRAEL
The Weight of Words: Hearing Rachel Goldberg-Polin Speak
Peter Himmelman
May 4, 2026

…Early on, Rachel described feeling as though she had left this world entirely after Hersh’s abduction and murder. A friend was extremely helpful,” she said. “A Breslov Chossid — you know, long peyos, beard, the real deal — and also a psychiatrist with a medical degree from Brown…..He did not attempt to coax her back down into ordinary language or refute her feeling of existing elsewhere. “He told me,” Rachel said, “that I wasn’t entirely in this world anymore. That part of me was now in Olam Haba.”…What is Olam Haba? It refers to the “World to Come,” the world beyond the one we presently inhabit, beyond the rote and the overly familiar, beyond the normal shapes of trees, the ordinary sounds of birds, the commonness of water — or even of words themselves. READ MORE

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“Doctors Without Borders” joins “Amnesty International” demonizing and libeling Israel

Posted on May 5, 2026 by ArchitectGuy

JPOST
‘No longer a trustworthy humanitarian organization’: NGO Monitor releases report on MSF’s failings
DANIELLE GREYMAN-KENNARD
April 29, 2026

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has abandoned its principles of neutrality and impartiality in its coverage of the Gaza war, relying on Hamas-provided figures while downplaying the group’s role, according to a new NGO Monitor report. The report comes a year after MSF’s former leadership raised the alarm that the NGO was stepping too far from its initial mission. Alain Destexhe, the former secretary general of MSF International, warned that “MSF is no longer neutral; its humanitarian language now serves a political cause,” according to Atlantico. Destexhe had earlier published a report in December 2023 highlighting MSF staff’s infatuation with Hamas, which violates its principles. He found that over 40% of statements by staff, including senior figures, praised the terror group and the October 7 massacre, and that some boasted of participation in tunnel construction and weapons production. READ MORE

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“Invoking President George Washington’s seminal letter to the Hebrew Congregation in Newport, Rhode Island, and Revolutionary era financier Haym Salomon, President Trump paid tribute to the role Jewish Americans have played in the United States since its earliest days”

Posted on May 4, 2026 by ArchitectGuy

CHABAD.ORG
Shabbat‘Shabbat 250:’ President Proclaims National Shabbat Honoring America’s 250th Birthday
May 4, 2026

For the first time in American history, a sitting president has called on the nation to observe a Shabbat. As part of the White House’s Jewish American Heritage Month proclamation, signed on May 4, President Donald Trump designated the period from sundown Friday, May 15, through nightfall Saturday, May 16, as a national Shabbat, dubbed “Shabbat 250.” “In special honor of 250 glorious years of American independence and on the weekend of Rededicate 250 — a national jubilee of prayer, praise, and thanksgiving — Jewish Americans are encouraged to observe a national Sabbath,” the President wrote. “From sundown on May 15 to nightfall on May 16, friends, families, and communities of all backgrounds may come together in gratitude for our great Nation. This day will recognize the sacred Jewish tradition of setting aside time for rest, reflection, and gratitude to the Almighty.” READ MORE

WHITE HOUSE Proclamation for Jewish American Heritage Month 2026 This month, we celebrate the contributions that Jewish Americans have made to our way of life, we honor their role in shaping the story of our Nation, and we remember that religious devotion, learning, and service to others are enduring pillars of a thriving culture.  Through every trial and triumph, the contributions of Jewish Americans have shaped our past, have strengthened our communities, and will continue to inspire American greatness for generations to come.

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“This is a glorious beat down on Mamdani and his radical cronies”

Posted on April 30, 2026 by ArchitectGuy

JNS
Mamdani-endorsed NYC Council candidate trounced in special election
Debra Nussbaum Cohen
April 29, 2026

Lindsey Boylan, whom New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani endorsed and who has called the Israeli prime minister a “war criminal and a danger to Israel” and accused the Jewish state of “genocide,” conceded the special election in the New York City Council’s third district on Tuesday night…Some news outlets have reported that Carl Wilson’s win could mean that his the council would overturn the mayor’s recent veto of a bill that would call on the New York City Police Department to make a plan for a “buffer zone” free of protest obstruction around educational institutions. READ MORE

JTA Zohran Mamdani vetoes school ‘buffer zone’ bill against wishes of major Jewish groups Mayor Zohran Mamdani vetoed a “buffer zone” bill insulating “educational facilities” from protests on Friday morning, drawing the ire of a number of Jewish organizations that supported it. The bill, introduced by Jewish City Council member Eric Dinowitz, was part of a legislative package proposed in response to a pair of pro-Palestinian protests outside synagogues in the fall. In a statement — and an accompanying video — Mamdani said Dinowitz’s bill, Intro 175-B, posed concerns about limiting people’s right to protest, including “college students demanding their school divest from fossil fuels or demonstrating in support of Palestinian rights.”

FREE PRESS The Editors: Mamdani, Scapegoating the Rich Won’t Fill a $5.4 Billion Budget Hole New York City’s wealthy pay 40 percent of its bills. The mayor just declared war on them…The mayor’s class-warfare rhetoric may drive away the wealthy with more force than the actual tax. Mamdani singles out billionaire financier Ken Griffin in the video, exclaiming the $238 million price tag of his penthouse and putting the building on camera. It’s as if to say, There’s the enemy, New Yorkers, looking down on you from his spare palace.

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“Protesters chant ‘Keir Starmer, Jew Harmer’; UK raises terror alert to ‘severe’ as anti-terror chief says attacks on Jews are ‘biggest national security emergency’”

Posted on April 30, 2026 by ArchitectGuy

TIMES OF ISRAEL
Starmer booed at site of Golders Green terror; promises to tackle antisemitism, extremism
Zev Stub
April 30, 2026

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer vowed on Thursday to deal with “the root causes of extremism and antisemitism” after the stabbing of two Jewish men in the heavily Jewish London neighborhood of Golders Green…The attack occurred at approximately 11:16 a.m. on Wednesday on Highfield Avenue. CCTV footage captured the suspect walking casually toward a 76-year-old man wearing a kippah who was waiting at a bus stop. The assailant suddenly lunged, grabbing the victim with his left hand while repeatedly swinging a knife at his upper body. Approximately 10 minutes later, a 34-year-old man was also stabbed nearby. Witnesses described the suspect as appearing to “hunt” for anyone visibly Jewish…The attack took place some 300 yards from the site of an arson attack earlier this month targeting four Hatzola ambulances parked outside a synagogue. READ MORE

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“Israel exists precisely because Jews learned, at unbearable cost, that eloquence without power is fragile, and law without force is often meaningless”

Posted on April 30, 2026 by ArchitectGuy

ARUTZ SHEVA
Israel is the ultimate response
Dr. Alex Grobman
April 23, 2026

Now that we have celebrated Yom Haatzma’ut, it is worth stating a truth that much of the West still does not understand: the greatest memorial to the Holocaust is not found in stone, glass, or ceremony. It is the sovereign State of Israel. Museums matter. Memorials matter. Testimony matters. But none of them can stop a pogrom, intercept a missile, rescue hostages, or defeat an army sworn to destroy the Jewish people. Israel can. That is why Jewish independence is not merely a political achievement…When Jews say “Never Again,” they are not reciting a line for memorial ceremonies. They are making a declaration of policy. This is also why so many in the West fundamentally misread Israel. They assume the conflict is mainly about borders, settlements, “occupation,” or competing national narratives. Those on our side imagine that with enough diplomacy, enough concessions, and enough hasbara, the hostility will subside and the Jewish state will finally be accepted. READ MORE

MELISSA BRODSKY SUBSTACK The Fire Is Here: An Open Letter to Jewish Organizations and Leaders  They came prepared. You came with a Insta quote graphic. An open letter to the organizations we trusted with our lives. After every attack you find the words. After every funeral you find the words. After every vigil…you find the words. Words aren’t the problem. You are. And you’ve had years of practice writing the perfect statement after Jews get hurt because you’ve never bothered to build a reason not to write one.  Jews are being hunted in Canada, the UK, Belgium, Australia, France, Spain, across Europe, and right here in the United States. Synagogues. Community centers. Malls. Restaurants. Early childhood classrooms. The street. The targets aren’t random and the pattern isn’t subtle. This is a coordinated, escalating, global campaign against Jewish people. And it’s working, in part, because the people and institutions that exist to stop it are too busy carefully crafting politically correct statements to actually fight back.

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“America’s team of real estate developers and financiers may beat Iran’s diplomats at the bargaining table”

Posted on April 29, 2026 by ArchitectGuy

TIMES OF ISRAEL
The US is negotiating with Iran like a venture capitalist
Ariel Beery
April 29, 2026

If there is one meme that sums up the mistake many make when thinking about the negotiations between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States of America, it’s the one best expressed by Mir Mohammad Alikhan’s description of the negotiating teams. He writes, “Irani: PhD, PhD, PhD, PhD, PhD,” to contrast with the other team: “American: Real Estate Developer, Real Estate Lawyer, Venture Capitalist.” Most people who read the tweet used it to make fun of the Americans for being outwitted at the negotiating table, echoing a sentiment shared by many if not most policy analysts and politicians. As someone who has experienced both the policy and private equity worlds (of which venture capital, or VC, is a subset), I’m pretty sure they are wrong, and it is the Islamic Republic that has been outgunned. READ MORE

AXIOS Israel sent “Iron Dome” system and troops to UAE during Iran war Israel sent the United Arab Emirates an Iron Dome air defense system with troops to operate it early in the war with Iran, two Israeli officials and one U.S. official tell Axios. The military, security and intelligence cooperation between Israel and the UAE has reached new heights during the war. The unprecedented deployment of the Iron Dome system during the war was not previously made public. This was the first time Israel had sent an Iron Dome battery to another country, and the UAE was the first country outside of the U.S. and Israel in which the system was used, a senior Israeli official said…“We are not going to forget it,” a senior Emirati official said of the assistance from Israel and Netanyahu at a critical moment.

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