In the United Kingdom, the National Union of Students (NUS) and its various chapters provide recreational and extracurricular activities on university campuses and serve as student representatives. The NUS is, in addition, an expressly political organization with deep ties to the Labor party. It has also been infected by the same anti-Semitic currents that for some time seized hold of Labor. Last year, it elected as its president Shaima Dallali, who mixes Islamic anti-Semitism into her expressions of hatred of Israel—a habit shared by at least one of her recent predecessors.

Liam Hoare takes a close look at the general climate for Jewish students at British universities, the problems of the NUS, and the results of the recent investigation into the organization commissioned by parliament:

“For at least the last decade, Jewish students have not felt welcome or included” in the NUS, wrote the investigator, Rebecca Tuck. Most significantly, she wrote: “There have been numerous investigations and reviews which have made recommendations to rectify this problem, but their implementation has been inconsistent and institutional memories short-lived.”

She blamed the NUS for failing to show solidarity with Jewish students when faced with anti-Semitism—specifically Israel-related anti-Semitism. A Jewish delegate who attended a 2021 NUS conference for marginalized groups said he felt “very isolated and uncomfortable the whole time and completely on edge” due to Israel-related anti-Semitism. “I am not a Zionist, I even lean anti-Zionist, and even I found the undue focus on Israel and completely one-dimensional discussion of Israel to be completely over the line,” the student told Tuck.

Even when NUS has tried to show support for Jewish students, it has fallen short. Tuck pointed to a period in the spring of 2021 when anti-Semitic incidents spiked on British college campuses during an escalation of tensions between Israel and Hamas and other Palestinian terror organizations. A freshman at the University of Leeds, for example, answered his cell phone to a threatening, pre-recorded message that stated: “I want to shoot all your family, I know your father, I want to put a bullet in your head. I hate you; I hate the Jews.”

Tuck’s report is nonbinding, but the NUS has accepted its findings “in full” and “apologize[d] wholeheartedly and unreservedly to Jewish students.” . . . The question remains whether this time change will be lasting or whether the cycle of hostility toward Jewish students will begin anew.

Yesterday, the Iranian foreign minister flew to Geneva to meet with European diplomats. President Trump, meanwhile, indicated that cease-fire negotiations might soon begin with Iran, which would presumably involve Tehran agreeing to make concessions regarding its nuclear program, while Washington pressures Israel to halt its military activities. According to Israeli media, Iran already began putting out feelers to the U.S. earlier this week. Aviram Bellaishe considers the purpose of these overtures:

The regime’s request to return to negotiations stems from the principle of deception and delay that has guided it for decades. Iran wants to extricate itself from a situation of total destruction of its nuclear facilities. It understands that to save the nuclear program, it must stop at a point that would allow it to return to it in the shortest possible time. So long as the negotiation process leads to halting strikes on its military capabilities and preventing the destruction of the nuclear program, and enables the transfer of enriched uranium to a safe location, it can simultaneously create the two tracks in which it specializes—a false facade of negotiations alongside a hidden nuclear race.