At Berkeley, Jews Are Becoming the Protesters Rather than the Protested

March 21 2024

Since the February anti-Semitic riot at Berkeley, Jewish students are no longer waiting passively for administrators to protect them and dole out justice to the rioters but are taking matters into their own hands. So David Schraub, a law professor and frequent commentator on American Jewish matters who earned a PhD at Berkeley, reports.

“A few other developments have occurred since [the riot], both of which entail Jews becoming the protesters, rather than the protested,” he writes.

First, my friend and former colleague Ron Hassner has begun a sit-in in his own office, refusing to leave until the Berkeley administration takes action regarding a series of demands he’s made regarding how to address campus anti-Semitism. Second, a large group of Berkeley Jewish students marched on Sather Gate, where a different group of pro-Palestinian students had been blocking passage as part of their own protest (and reportedly have been haranguing Jewish students in the vicinity).

This marks a significant change from how Jews on campus have acted in the past:

This is an interesting example of Jews adopting what I termed a “protest politic”—seeking change via the medium of a protest (as opposed to, say, a board resolution, letter to the editor, or political hearings). . . . While I personally am averse to protests (not on general political or tactical grounds; it’s a temperamental preference), it does seem that acting via protest—sit-ins, marches, or even disruption—[is] a way of marking yourself as being of a particular political class on campus and so a way of being taken seriously.

Read more at Debate Link

More about: Anti-Semitism, Berkeley, Israel & Zionism, Politics & Current Affairs

Expand Gaza into Sinai

Feb. 11 2025

Calling the proposal to depopulate Gaza completely (if temporarily) “unworkable,” Peter Berkowitz makes the case for a similar, but more feasible, plan:

The United States along with Saudi Arabia and the UAE should persuade Egypt by means of generous financial inducements to open the sparsely populated ten-to-fifteen miles of Sinai adjacent to Gaza to Palestinians seeking a fresh start and better life. Egypt would not absorb Gazans and make them citizens but rather move Gaza’s border . . . westward into Sinai. Fences would be erected along the new border. The Israel Defense Force would maintain border security on the Gaza-extension side, Egyptian forces on the other. Egypt might lease the land to the Palestinians for 75 years.

The Sinai option does not involve forced transfer of civilian populations, which the international laws of war bar. As the United States, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and other partners build temporary dwellings and then apartment buildings and towns, they would provide bus service to the Gaza-extension. Palestinian families that choose to make the short trip would receive a key to a new residence and, say, $10,000.

The Sinai option is flawed. . . . Then again, all conventional options for rehabilitating and governing Gaza are terrible.

Read more at RealClear Politics

More about: Donald Trump, Egypt, Gaza Strip, Sinai Peninsula