Jew World Order

Editor’s Note: This latest installment of The Shift was written before the riot at the U.S. Capitol on January 6. For more on that, including responses from Israeli leaders who have been perhaps Donald Trump’s greatest allies, see this article by Phil Weiss.

A Setback at Fordham

Fordham Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) have been fighting to get recognized as an official campus club for five years. The school claims that they rejected the club because SJP chapters often disrupt campus operations and “the promotion of BDS was the cause of many of the safety and security issues.”

The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) and Palestine Legal launched a lawsuit against the school back in 2017, on behalf of SJP. In 2019, Justice Nancy Bannon ruled in favor of SJP. “The consideration and discussion of differing views is actually part of Fordham’s mission, regardless of whether that consideration and discussion might discomfort some and polarize others,” she wrote in her decision.

Fordham appealed the ruling and last month a New York appellate division court reversed the decision. CCR and Palestine Legal put out a statement on the decision. Here’s part of it:

In a hasty decision short on analysis, a New York appellate division court reversed a thorough, well-reasoned ruling by the trial court that Fordham University violated its own policies when it refused to recognize a Students for Justice in Palestine club.

This is a shameful decision giving Fordham cover to censor students who are calling for Palestinian rights.

We plan to seek review by the highest court in New York so that Fordham students can keep organizing for Palestinian rights on campus as SJP, as they have been for the last year and a half.

After the murder of George Floyd, and the BLM protests that gripped the country, Fordham adopted a plan to address racism. “As painful as that admission may be, we must face up to it. Therefore, let me be clear: anti-racism, diversity, and inclusion are institutional and mission priorities at Fordham,” declared University President Joseph McShane.

If Fordham is truly committed to these values, why is it working so hard to reject a group that advocates for Palestinians?

A Victory at Tufts

There was also a big campus win recently. The student body at Tufts University approved a referendum to end their “Deadly Exchange” program, where school police officers travel to Israel to be trained by the country’s military. The vote was 2,245-665, with 161 abstaining.

In addition to calling for an end to that training, the referendum demands an apology from Tufts for sending its former police chief on such a trip. It also calls for anyone who has participated in “Deadly Exchange” to be prohibited from joining the school’s police department.

“We believe that this referendum has the potential to lead to institutional change, which is pivotal in protecting the safety of all students on this campus,” said a Tufts student and SJP member in a statement. “The past six months have shown us exactly how dangerous militarized policing is, and we believe that Tufts campus should be a space of safety for all of its students.  A referendum is the most effective avenue to achieve change as it is a reflection of the collective beliefs of the Tufts student body.” 

The vote has predictably been attacked by pro-Israel groups, including The Real Reform at Tufts Campaign who called it a “modern-day antisemitic blood libel.”

Odds & Ends

🏛️ The House overwhelmingly voted to override Trump’s veto of the National Defense Authorization Act. Just 20 Democrats rejected the $740 billion military spending bill: Reps. Blumenauer, Bonamici, Clarke, DeSaulnier, Espaillat, Gabbard, García, Gomez, Huffman, Jayapal, Kennedy, Khanna, Lee, McGovern, Meng, Ocasio-Cortez, Omar, Pocan, Pressley, and Tlaib.

🇮🇷 Some foreign policy experts are concerned that Trump might attack Iran on the way out the door.

🗽 A top staffer to Queens Borough President Donovan Richards suddenly stepped down after tweets critical of Israel resurfaced. Michael Hurwitz (who is Jewish) had tweeted support of Ilhan Omar’s AIPAC comments and called Israeli politician Naftali Bennett a “cancer to Judaism.”

🇵🇸 Dave Zirin has a piece at The Nation on the women’s boxing team growing in Gaza.

🏛️ Marie Newman, the new Representative for Illinois’ 3rd district, shared a Guardian article about Israel excluding Palestinians from their COVID vaccine rollout. “This virus does not see or care about nationality, borders, or religion — its devastating impact is everywhere,” wrote Newman. “The Netanyahu administration has a moral and humanitarian obligation to ensure that both Israelis and Palestinians have access to vaccines.

🇺🇸 Is there any chance of the Biden administration finally shutting down Guantánamo? Carol Rosenberg, Charlie Savage and Eric Schmitt reported on the situation in the New York Times last month:

President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. is not expected to repeat President Barack Obama’s splashy but ultimately unmet promise in 2009 to close the prison within a year, according to people familiar with transition deliberations. A law prohibits bringing detainees to a domestic prison, as Mr. Obama had proposed doing, and Mr. Biden said during his campaign that congressional consent is needed to close Guantánamo.

But the new administration will be forced to confront several difficult decisions, such as what to do about the building holding the 14 former C.I.A. prisoners, which is falling apart.

🇺🇸 David Klion has a piece at The Nation calling on Biden to end the forever wars: “None of this will come easily to Biden or his administration, but the American public, exhausted by the pandemic and two decades of war, is in no mood for military adventurism. The trillions of dollars the United States has squandered on the Pentagon since 9/11 could have been spent on universal health care, housing, and infrastructure at home and on diplomacy and nonmilitary aid abroad.”

Stay safe out there,

Michael