WATCH: CUNY law school graduate’s antisemitic commencement speech met with huge applause

The antisemitic, vitriolic commencement speech by CUNY law school graduate and anti-Israel activist Fatima Mousa Mohammed earlier this month “is even worse that last year’s hate spewed by Nerdeen Kiswani,” tweeted S.A.F.E. CUNY, adding that “CUNY Law, under state investigation, tried to hide this video.”

Mohammed’s hate speech was met with enthusiastic applause.

S.A.F.E. CUNY advocates for Zionist Jews systemically discriminated against and excluded by CUNY and its union.

“Imagine being so crazed by hatred for Israel as a Jewish State that you make it the subject of your commencement speech at a law school graduation. Anti-Israel derangement syndrome at work,” tweeted New York Congressman Ritchie Torres.

SJP Activist Fatima Mousa Mohammed at CUNY School of Law Commencement Speech: America Is an Empire with Ravenous Appetite for Destruction, Violence; Israel Murders Young and Old, Encourages Lynch Mobs; Great Empires of Destruction Have Fallen – So Will Israel and America pic.twitter.com/w7g1TI6Dar

— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) May 29, 2023

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BRICS Considering Large Expansion as Emerging Economies Rally to Join Group

The foreign ministers of the BRICS group of major emerging economies will meet in South Africa on June 1-2 to discuss pressing geopolitical issues, including the bloc’s first enlargement in over a decade as it seeks to position itself as a representative of the “Global South” and provide an alternative model to the Group of Seven

How and why Kiev regime propaganda ‘sank’ Russian Navy’s ‘Ivan Khurs’ ship

The reasoning behind the attack was likely manifold and since the ship is providing security to the TurkStream and Blue Stream, it’s certainly not outside the realm of possibility that the Kiev regime was trying to jeopardize the two key Black Sea natural gas pipelines.

‘Super scary’ – Jenin terrorists shoot, hit houses in Israeli town

Terrorists unleash hail of bullets on Israeli town across the Green Line; multiple homes, vehicles struck, but no injuries reported.

By World Israel News Staff

Terrorists from Jenin fired across the Green Line on Sunday afternoon and struck homes and cars in the Israeli town of Gan Ner in what was the third incident of its kind in recent months.

Gan Ner is located in the Gilboa Regional Council in northern Israel, about a mile away from a checkpoint leading into a Palestinian Authority-controlled area of Judea and Samaria.

The town is visible from the city of Jenin, which has long been a hotbed of terror.

On Sunday, Palestinian media reported that terrorists from the Islamic Jihad’s Jenin Battalion opened fire towards Gan Ner, unleashing a hail of bullets that struck houses and vehicles.

Pictures from Gan Ner on social media showed extensive damage to property, including bullet holes in windows, through doors, and even through a sofa in a resident’s living room. Multiple cars were also hit.

Noting that nobody was injured in the attack, Gilboa Regional Council head Oved Naor told Channel 12 News that “it is a great miracle, and only by luck, that residents who were at home at the time were not killed. This is a very disturbing incident.”

Ronen Salzman, whose home was struck by multiple bullets, told Channel 12 News that he was shocked by the damage to his home.

“I got home and saw holes in the living room,” he said. “At first I didn’t connect it to the shooting. I thought my son and his friends did it by mistake.”

Then, Salzman continued, “I saw an entrance and exit hole in the couch and realized it was a bullet hole. They hit the place where we sit during the day.”

Describing the situation as a “ticking time bomb,” Salzman urged the government to respond immediately.

“There is a terrorist organization here that manages to shoot houses. Do you want us to turn into the Gaza Strip 2? We no longer have [a decent] quality of life. These events are Russian roulette. Today it’s my house; tomorrow, it’s the neighbor’s house.”

Chen, a resident of Gan Ner, told Channel 12 that the attack was “super scary, I can’t get it out of my head.”

She added that she is afraid to walk the streets of her town because “who knows if this is a one-time incident or rather a planned series of terrorist attacks that could happen again in the near future and harm innocent people.”

In a separate incident also on Sunday, terrorists shot at Mevo Dotan in northern Samaria. No injuries were reported in the attack.

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‘Death to Arabs’ defamation: Ben-Gvir sues ex-minister for podcast remarks

Ben-Gvir and his Otzma Yehudit party sue former left-wing politician who said they promote violence against Arabs.

By Lauren Marcus, World Israel News

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and his Otzma Yehudit party filed a defamation lawsuit against left-wing former politician and one-time defense minister Moshe “Boogie” Ya’alon, seeking 200,000 shekels ($53,000) in damages.

The lawsuit focuses on remarks Ya’alon made on the Haaretz podcast against the right-wing lawmaker, in which he claimed that Ben-Gvir promotes an extremist agenda and insinuated that he has an army of thugs supporting him.

“I see the ‘Death to Arabs’ slogans of Itamar Ben-Gvir, and the group that follows him,” Ya’alon said during the podcast.

In a media statement shortly after the lawsuit was filed, Ben-Gvir’s attorney, Yishai Gifman, said that Ya’alon’s words constitute defamation.

His statements were made “with the intention of harming the plaintiff,” Gifman said. “The remarks imply that [Ben-Gvir] supports the idea of ‘death to Arabs’ and that he has actually supported these chants, and that he has a ‘gang’ of followers [promoting this phrase], and that’s based on a lie.”

Gifman acknowledged that Ben-Gvir has taken a hard line against Arab terrorism and crime in Israel’s Arab sector, but stressed that the minister does not believe in discrimination towards the entire community.

It must “be made clear that [Ben-Gvir] repeatedly emphasizes at every opportunity that he does not include all Arabs, and that he advocates the death penalty for terrorists as opposed to all Arabs,” Gifman added.

Ben-Gvir and the Otzma Yehudit party “were directly harmed by the defendant’s advertisements, which aimed to harm the plaintiffs, blacken their names and bias public opinion against them. [Ya’alon] did this in a systematic way, with thought and intent to [do damage.]”

“If the failed former MK Ya’alon thinks that the immunity granted to him by the Knesset is eternal, he is bitterly mistaken,” Ben-Gvir said in a media statement.

“Ya’alon’s collection of lies and defamations will have a price. The days are over when the extreme left tells lies about the right-wing elected officials and they remain silent. We will meet in court.”

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Faith and Values: Revisiting The Long Gray Line

“The Army has always had its ups and downs, we’re heading for a down… but you have to have faith.” These words of encouragement from a general to a young captain in the waning years of the Vietnam War, published in Rick Atkinson’s The Long Gray Line, are entirely relevant today. The novel, published over thirty years ago, offers poignant insight into problems facing a military and, in particular, its veterans in the wake of an unpopular and mishandled war.

The book’s narrative, running from pre-war patriotism to post-war despondency, contains a noteworthy therapeutic element for veterans of both the Vietnam War as well as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Yet, the overall encouragement is in keeping faith through troubled times, maintaining your character and values, and recognizing the imperishable significance of service to something greater than yourself.

The Long Gray Line follows the lives of the West Point class of 1966, nearly all of whom grew up in an era of national post-WWII reverence for the military. As they begin their education at West Point in 1962, the men of ’66 are filled with patriotism, pride, and a hunger for the adventure their fathers shared two decades earlier. Atkinson’s novel details their vigor and energy during their time at West Point and as they begin adulthood— service in Vietnam ever-looming— followed by their struggles as the civilian population grows increasingly hostile to the war effort, eventually turning on the soldiers themselves. In many ways, Atkinson’s work foreshadows the experience of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans who witnessed 9/11 and came of age in service to the nation over the last two decades.

The young men in The Long Gray Line serve harrowing combat tours and witness the deaths of more classmates than almost any other West Point class. Yet, if that were not enough, their homecoming is unlike that of any prior generation. Returning home from the jungles of Vietnam, they find a nation amidst drastic upheaval, far different from the America that reverentially celebrated Memorial Day parades in their youth. Far from unified, the country they come home to is divided among fundamental cultural lines: rural and metropolitan, young and old, white and black. The Army the men served or still serve is collapsing as a result of lowered standards, relaxed discipline, and a break from the core values taught at West Point. The weight of the rejection from the American populace and questions about the justification and conduct of the war leads each character down a different path to personal peace. And in this space, Atkinson masterfully addresses the question veterans continually grapple with: “Was it all worth it?”

The character of a military chaplain, Reverend James Ford, provides the answer. His story is interwoven throughout the book as he counsels cadets at West Point, visits them in Vietnam, presides over their funerals, and struggles with feelings of futility in the war and its aftermath. It is Ford’s narrative that provides precisely what is needed in times of uncertainty and despondence: a dose of faith and an acknowledgment of purpose. He stands, as the chapel does at West Point, on a hill in the background, overlooking the campus and its cadets, reminding the soldiers of the higher calling to serve and of the seven Army values learned at West Point: loyalty, duty, respect, selfless service, honor, integrity, and personal courage.

It is these values, and a deeply instilled sense of fraternity, that binds the men of ’66 to each other and their nation. In this brotherhood of shared values they can fully understand the honor of their service within the context of a mismanaged war and find purpose for life going forward. Even at a time when, as Atkinson puts it, “church, family school – all the traditional temples of moral instruction – had been weakened.”

For veterans who served in Afghanistan or Iraq, The Long Gray Line will feel familiar. The similarities are stark, particularly the sentiment that everything the modern Army is experiencing has happened before. But after Vietnam, the men who kept faith with the Army’s values became the men who rebuilt the institution into the world-class military of the 1991 Gulf War. Notably, as several of the book’s main characters grapple with how to rebuild an Army and preserve the character of West Point, they join together to build a monument in Washington D.C. to the Vietnam War dead. The monument, in its minimalist design, is drastically different than any other on the mall, focusing the onlooker’s attention solely on the names of the dead, removing the politics, politicians, and the war’s leaders from thought.

The graduates of ’66 lived through the firestorms of combat and the cultural and political storms that gripped their nation in the 70s. “Honor,” Machiavelli warned, “is impossible in a defeated country.” Yet the men of ’66 along with many veterans of modern wars, show just how wrong Machiavelli was as they hold true to the Army values regardless of the bleak circumstances.

Today’s Army is imperiled by a crisis of leadership and morale, just as it was post-Vietnam. Recruitment is struggling, retention is increasingly costly, and American support for the military is plummeting. Most worryingly, veterans, once the military’s best advocates, are less likely to recommend service to friends and family. The army is no stranger to this kind of crisis, and as Army Chief of Staff Fred C. Weyand said in the later years of the Vietnam War, “Americans have a long and proud tradition of irreverence toward and distrust of their military.” How a military works through these issues to rebuild itself, and how individual men and women find value in service to a sometimes-ungrateful nation are the evergreen lessons of Atkinson’s novel.

It may take a visit to a large stone chapel, a conversation with a chaplain, or simply a recommitment to the values we know are true, but the nation can endure and thrive with the help of a few veterans who keep the faith. As Memorial Day is upon us, and veterans across the nation take time to remember fallen friends and their service, The Long Gray Line may offer exactly the encouragement needed to recommit to core values.

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Six-Story Apartment Building Collapses, Search for Survivors Underway

A historic six-story apartment building in Davenport, Iowa, experienced a collapse on Sunday, resulting in seven people rescued and an unknown number of people injured.

Emergency responders conducted a secondary search of the property in case any people had become buried in the rubble. At the time of the collapse, reports indicated a large natural gas leak and water leaking from each floor.

In addition to the seven rescues, more than a dozen people were helped to safety. Officials have yet to rule out the possibility of fatalities, as some people remain unaccounted for. The Mayor of Davenport, Mike Matson, said that structural experts were scheduled to examine the building and it is not yet known whether the residents will be able to return to the property.

Rich Oswald, the city’s director of development and neighborhood services, stated that the building had been the subject of numerous complaints and that recent reports of bricks falling had been related to exterior brickwork that the owners had been ordered to repair and upgrade.

Documents show that entities called 324 Main Street Project and the Davenport Project had long been planning improvements to the building. Built in 1907, the building was once home to the Davenport Hotel and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.