The "US Foreign Policy & International Politics" Thread (Ben Shapiro Oxford Hamas Debate)

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After Writing an Anti-Israel Letter, Harvard Students Are Doxxed

....A coalition of more than 30 student groups posted an open letter on the night of the Hamas attack, saying that Israel was “entirely responsible” for the violence that ended up killing more than 1,400 people, most of them civilians. The letter, posted on social media before the extent of the killings was known, did not include the names of individual students.....But within days, students affiliated with those groups were being doxxed, their personal information posted online. Siblings back home were threatened. Wall Street executives demanded a list of student names to ban their hiring. And a truck with a digital billboard — paid for by a conservative group — circled Harvard Square, flashing student photos and names, under the headline, “Harvard’s Leading Antisemites.”

Campuses have long wrestled with free speech. What is acceptable to say and what crosses into hate speech? But the war between Israel and Hamas has heightened emotions, threatening to tear apart already fragile campus cultures....Complicating it all: outside groups, influential alumni and big-money donors, who are putting maximum pressure on students and administrators. At the University of Pennsylvania, donors are pushing for the resignation of the president and the board chair, after a Palestinian writers’ conference on campus invited speakers accused of antisemitism.....At Harvard, a billionaire couple quit an executive board. Another donor pulled money for fellowships. And Lawrence Summers, a former Harvard president and Treasury secretary, criticized the leadership for a “delayed” response to the Hamas attack and the student letter.

“You kind of feel like you’re responsible” for the harassment, said one of the Harvard students, whose family’s personal information was released. “That’s how silencing works, right?”....They had agreed to be interviewed but insisted on anonymity, saying that they feared for their safety. They asked that even the smallest details of their personal lives — freshman? senior? — not be published.

One of the women found out from a friend about the billboard truck. It was parked just outside the university gates, plastered with a giant image of her smiling face. Customers sitting at a pastry shop, students looking out of their dormitory windows and commuters rushing to and from the train station could see her, along with a carousel of other students, being branded as antisemitic....“I threw up in Harvard Yard,” she said.....The truck is operated by Accuracy in Media, a conservative group that has also deployed such trucks at other campuses, including Stanford and the University of California, Berkeley.....The group is not done. It has purchased domain names for Harvard students associated with the letter and is setting up individual websites for them. Each site will call for the university to punish the students.....Students’ names were also exposed last week through a website featuring a “College Terror List, a Helpful Guide for Employers” compiled by Maxwell Meyer, a 2022 Stanford graduate.

The doxxing, however, has extended to family members.....“Every single member of my family has been contacted, including my younger siblings,” said the student whose smiling face was on the truck.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/writing-anti-israel-letter-harvard-185148055.html

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The New York Times loses gold verification badge on Elon Musk's X

...The social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, has removed the golden “verified” badge from the account belonging to The New York Times.....The golden badges, introduced earlier this year, distinguish news organizations and brands from individual users.....Musk attacked The New York Times in August, saying “if ever there was a time to cancel that publication, it is now.”

The New York Times was also reportedly the subject of a since-removed five-second delay for clicks leading to its website from X. Since the verification removal, traffic to The New York Times’ website has been slashed by 50%, The Washington Post reported, a fraction greater than the reduction in clicks leading to industry competitor Facebook from the site......The move coincides with Musk’s campaign to combat misinformation and free speech violations on the site, which he claims were common under prior ownership. He is responsible for reinstating previously banned accounts for former President Donald Trump and rapper Ye West.

Under his ownership, Musk has also championed the independent journalist, bolstering video-sharing capabilities to allow anyone to share information.....Major outlets put off by Musk’s changes to the site have abandoned it all together. In April, NPR briefly left X after it changed the outlet’s label to “government-funded” media. PBS followed suit after receiving the same designation.

https://abc6onyourside.com/news/nation-world/the-new-york-times-loses-gold-verification-badge-on-elon-musks-x-twitter

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‘A very unique battle’: How geography could shape Israel’s expected ground offensive in Gaza

...... one military geography specialist outlined to CNBC how the physical features of the Gaza Strip could influence any fighting.....Francis Galgano, an associate professor at the Department of Geography and the Environment at Villanova University in Pennsylvania, described Gaza as an essentially flat, “heavily urbanized” and “heavily tunneled” coastal enclave, similar in size to the city of Philadelphia....

“The geography of this is that [Israeli forces are] going to cut Gaza off from the rest of the country and then they are going to move into Gaza City and then you’re in urban warfare,” said Galgano, who retired from the U.S. Army in 2007 as a lieutenant colonel after 27 years of service in tank and cavalry units..... “operational environment” for Israeli forces in Gaza would be crowded city streets, tall buildings, basements and a network of underground tunnels in what is already a “very compressed geographic area.”......“...... it becomes a war of the geologist. Geologic information becomes essential because you’re trying to figure out rock formations,” Galgano said......“Where are the tunnels? How do we locate them? Using ground penetrating radar and what can we do to destroy them rather than necessarily sending soldiers in......”

“..... this intersection of geology and warfare so I think that will be really a key to this whole thing. It is probably where they have got most of their hostages hidden, it’s where their supplies are hidden, their command posts will be hidden under there,” Galgano said..... 155 people are being held hostage by Hamas since the Oct. 7......“There’s a lot of discontinuities underground, you’ve got layers of shale and sandstone ... These are all different layers of different densities and they either enhance or degrade ground penetrating radar or other remote sensing systems that you’d want to use to detect them,” he continued......“It really is a cat-and-mouse game,” Galgano said. “The Israeli’s know the geology of the area and in the end, it is a finite border and there are only so many places that are really prime real estate for tunneling. So, I think ultimately the Israelis will get this under control but it’s going to take an effort....”

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/10/16/israel-hamas-war-how-geography-could-shape-a-ground-incursion-in-gaza.html

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Israel Security Agency creates new unit to hunt, kill every Hamas terrorist in Oct. 7 surprise attacks: report

....The Shin Bet, Israel's version of the FBI, calls the unit NILI, according to a new report...Israel's version of the FBI has reportedly launched a new unit dedicated to tracking down and killing every Hamas terrorist who took part in the surprise Oct. 7 attacks from Gaza. ....The Israel Security Agency, known as Shin Bet, established a new unit known as NILI, an acronym in Hebrew for "The Eternity of Israel Will Not Lie," according to the Jerusalem Post.

The new unit, which will operate separately from other command and control units focused on taking out strike cells and high-ranking Hamas officials, is tasked with tracking down and eliminating every person who played a role in the atrocities, according to the report.....It will specifically target members of a special Hamas commando unit within the terror organization's Nukhba wing. which Israel believes carried out the attacks.....Those assigned to the unique mission reportedly include both field operatives and intelligence personnel.

More than 20 towns and villages in southern Israel were ambushed in the sweeping assault by Hamas militants launched from the Gaza Strip on Oct. 7, according to The Associated Press. More than 1,400 people in Israel have been killed in Hamas' initial assault, and roughly 200 others are said to have been taken to Gaza as hostages. 

https://www.foxnews.com/world/israel-security-agency-creates-new-unit-hunt-kill-every-hamas-terrorist-oct-7-surprise-attacks-report

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Freed 85-year-old grandma reveals what it’s really like in Gaza tunnels where hostages are held

.....In the midst of massacres and kidnappings, an 85-year-old Israeli grandmother abducted and freed by Hamas terrorists has revealed what it was like being held in the terrifying maze of tunnels under Gaza.....Kibbutz resident Yocheved Lifshitz, one of an estimated 220 hostages taken violently by Hamas on October 7, endured a nightmarish two weeks as a prisoner in what she called a “spider’s web” of tunnels underneath the Gaza Strip before being released late Monday with another woman, 79-year-old Nurit Cooper.

“They went rampant in our kibbutz,” she said of the terrorists who invaded her home at the Nir Oz kibbutz in southern Israel.......“They blew up the electronic fence, that special fence that cost 2.5 billion dollars to build but didn’t help with anything,” Lifshitz added.....“Masses mobbed our homes. They beat people, took some hostage. They didn’t distinguish between young and elderly, it was very painful.” She described how abductors grabbed and laid her out on a motorcycle before speeding off with her through thick bushes.....Lifshitz said she was beaten with sticks ribs during the ride: “The young men hit me on the way. They didn’t break my ribs but it was painful and I had difficulty breathing.”

....The terrorists also stole her watch and jewelry on the way to the hiding place.....“They brought us to the entrance to the tunnels. We arrived in the tunnel and walked for kilometers on wet dirt,” she added.....“There is a giant system of tunnels, like spider’s webs.”......“I have been in the tunnels, and once you go down you very quickly lose all sense of direction and all sense of time,” said Daphné Richemond-Barak, an assistant professor at Israel’s Reichman University ....“The consensus is that you only really send your soldiers in the tunnel as a measure of last resort, maybe to get hostages.” 

Much was made of photos showing Lifshitz shaking hands with a Hamas gunman and seeming to say “Shalom” to him just moments before she was released to International Red Cross officials at the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt.....But Lifshitz, with the help of her daughter Sharone who translated some of what the older woman said during the news conference, conceded that the captors took good care of the hostages — making sure they were well fed and medically supervised......“They made sure we wouldn’t get sick, and we had a doctor with us every two or three days. They divided us into groups according to place of residence, took care of all our needs. To their credit, they kept us very clean. They made sure we ate, we ate the same food they did — pita bread with white cheese, processed cheese and cucumber.”

https://nypost.com/2023/10/24/news/what-its-really-like-in-gaza-tunnels-where-hostages-are-held/

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‘Son of Hamas’ in interview: Terrorists brought wrath of God with October 7 attack

....Mosab Hassan Yousef, the disowned eldest son of the co-founder of Hamas, told British talk show host Piers Morgan on Thursday that he was not surprised by Hamas’s brutality during the October 7 shock attack, but he was taken aback by its scale......“Wiping out entire communities, messing with a nuclear power, the most powerful country in the region, a country with a great trauma from the past, with a memory of a Holocaust, and all the Nazis did in the past century. They opened the gates of hell on the Palestinian people,” said Yousef ...“Since its establishment, Hamas has one goal in mind, which is annihilating the State of Israel,” said Yousef. “It’s not a secret that Hamas wants to destroy the State of Israel. They cannot accept Israel or accept Israel’s right to exist.”

....Yousef is the son of Hamas co-founder Sheikh Hassan Yousef. He was dubbed “Green Prince” (also the title of a 2014 documentary based on his autobiography) for his efforts to help the Shin Bet thwart terror attacks during the Second Intifada in the early 2000s. The 45-year-old was born in Ramallah and vividly remembers the foundation of Hamas in 1986, he said.....To interviewer Morgan, Yousef described being imprisoned by Israel for over two years and witnessing Hamas torturing its own members in prison.....“They killed, actually, and tortured hundreds of prisoners. And this is when I start asking myself the question, what if Hamas becomes the ruler at some point? What will they do to our people? And many years later, Hamas became the ruler of Gaza. And I wasn’t surprised by their brutality,” he said.....He predicted that once Israel removes Hamas from power in the Gaza Strip, as it has vowed to do following the October 7 terror onslaught, Palestinian residents would celebrate and thank Israel for ending their oppression and “lust for power.”

“We have to separate between what is the so-called Palestinian cause and Hamas cause. Hamas’s cause is a sick one. It’s coming from the pit of hell, and they need to be removed from power. This is my message as an ex-Hamas member, as a son of one of Hamas founders, enough of this. If we don’t stop them now, the next war is going to be deadlier, and only God knows what will happen next,” he said.....“Unfortunately, now Hamas left Israel, and the free world as well, with no choice but to fight them and put an end to their violence. Many civilians are dying. I understand this. Their blood is on the hands of Hamas and Hamas only,” he said.....“I am the legitimate representative of the Palestinian children. The child within me speaks: I don’t want somebody coming from London or somebody coming from the other side of the world to tell me what is the struggle of the Palestinian children. The Palestinian society has been hijacked by criminals and anybody who takes their side is participating in their crime,” he said....

https://www.timesofisrael.com/son-of-hamas-in-interview-terrorists-brought-wrath-of-god-with-october-7-attack/

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Cornell on high alert after hateful messages threaten to ‘slit the throats’ of Jewish students

....Cornell University was put on high alert after a series of “horrendous, antisemitic” messages — including threats to rape and gun down Jewish students and even behead babies — were posted on a public forum, school officials said.....The upstate New York Ivy League school said campus cops were taking precautions — and had alerted the FBI to “a potential hate crime” just days after “F—k Israel” graffiti was also scrawled on campus sidewalks.....The “series of horrendous, antisemitic messages threatening violence” had specifically named 104 West, “the home of the Center for Jewish Living,” university president Martha Pollack said Sunday.

The vile threats were made throughout the weekend on Cornell’s Greekrank forums, which rank fraternity and sorority chapters, according to the student newspaper, the Cornell Sun....one of the posts called for people to follow Jewish students home and slit their throats — while others called for female Jewish students to be raped and for Jewish babies to be beheaded in front of their parents.

....Another post, titled, “if i see another jew” by a poster called “hamas” wrote, “if i see another synagogue another rally for the zionist globalist genocidal apartheid dictatorial entity known as “israel”, i will bring an assault rifle to campus and shoot all you pig jews [sic].”....The post continued: “Jews are human animals and deserve a pigs death. ....Earlier this month, a professor called the Hamas attack on Israel that left 1,400 dead “exhilarating” and “energizing.” Russell Rickford, an associate professor of history, is now on a leave of absence until at least the end of the semester....

https://nypost.com/2023/10/29/news/cornell-on-alert-after-messages-threaten-campus-jewish-community/

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[iam90sbaby 2,621]

Just when the WW2 rhetoric was starting to get old to people this happens. 

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[Gepetto 1,372]

https://www.ynetnews.com/article/byxkduzmp

Brooklyn man charged after using force to tear down hostages posters

Mohamed Khalil, 21 faces charges of harassment, disorderly conduct, resisting arrest, and obstruction after trying to pushing past people who appeared to be posting the leaflets on a utility pole

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10 hours ago, Gepetto said:

https://www.ynetnews.com/article/byxkduzmp

Brooklyn man charged after using force to tear down hostages posters

Mohamed Khalil, 21 faces charges of harassment, disorderly conduct, resisting arrest, and obstruction after trying to pushing past people who appeared to be posting the leaflets on a utility pole

 

Good find there @Gepetto

Thanks for contributing to the thread and hope you continue to keep adding to it as well. All the best. 

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BEFORE JOINING WHITE HOUSE, KARINE JEAN-PIERRE SLAMMED NETANYAHU FOR ALLEGED WAR CRIMES AGAINST GAZANS

.....Jean-Pierre applauded Democrats for skipping the AIPAC convention back in 2019, calling out its “racist, Islamophobic” rhetoric.....DURING THE 2020 presidential campaign, Karine Jean-Pierre applauded the decision by every Democratic candidate to skip the annual conference put on by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, better known as AIPAC. She slammed it for “racist, Islamophobic” rhetoric and for inviting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to speak. Netanyahu, Jean-Pierre correctly noted, was facing allegations of war crimes and a raft of corruption charges......Though Netanyahu still faces those allegations, and many more, Jean-Pierre has defended Netanyahu’s bombardment of Gaza in her current role as press secretary for President Joe Biden..

...“Netanyahu not only has personal charges levied against him—he’s been indicted on both bribery and fraud charges—but under his leadership of Israel, according to the United Nations, Israel may have committed war crimes in its attacks on Gazan protesters,” Jean-Pierre wrote in a March 2019 column in Newsweek......“It’s time to call a spade a spade,” she continued. “AIPAC is not progressive. You cannot call yourself a progressive while continuing to associate yourself with an organization like AIPAC that has often been the antithesis of what it means to be progressive.”....Jean-Pierre at the time was a spokesperson and senior adviser to the liberal group MoveOn, a former Obama administration official, and a commentator for MSNBC.....

.....Jean-Pierre herself has been dubbed “anti-Israel” by critics. When she was named to replace Jen Psaki as White House spokesperson, her Newsweek column resurfaced. “Amidst all the celebration of Biden’s new press secretary checking multiple boxes in identity politics,” Donald Trump’s ambassador to Israel David Friedman told Haaretz, “the mainstream media forgot to mention that she hates Israel.” ...... Richard Grenell, the former acting director of National Intelligence under Trump, also said to Haaretz: “Has there ever been a White House spokesperson so hostile to Israel?”

https://theintercept.com/2023/11/02/karine-jean-pierre-israel-netanyahu-aipac/