Trump Picks a Side in Israel
A "complete and total endorsement" for Netanyahu, nine days before the vote.
Trump endorsed Netanyahu nine days before Israel votes. On Truth Social Sunday, the president gave Netanyahu his "complete and total endorsement" and warned that without him, "America will have to do this work ourselves." Shortly before, Trump had said he hadn't "even thought about" endorsing. Netanyahu's main rival, Gadi Eisenkot, replied that Israel's citizens "are the only ones who will decide." 1
Rioters in France hit a Paris synagogue and Jewish-owned shops in Marseille. Vandals broke into the Ohalei Yaakov synagogue in Paris's 19th district overnight Saturday, leaving prayer books and tefillin on the floor; the Torah scrolls appeared unharmed. SPCJ, the community's security service, saw no evidence that Jews were deliberately targeted in the cost-of-living riots. 2
An Israeli think tank says Israeli policy is making Diaspora life harder. The Tel Aviv University-affiliated Institute for National Security Studies built its report on 20 leaders from 15 Jewish organizations abroad. Israeli policy "provided antisemites with incendiary material," it says, though "Jews and Israelis are not to blame for antisemitism." 3
Pitt wrote its antisemitism report without asking Jewish students. The University of Pittsburgh's working group produced eight pages with no references to interviews or focus groups, and never approached the school's roughly 1,400 Jewish undergraduates, JTA reports. "Our charge from the chancellor and provost was not to provide data," said Katherine Blee, the faculty chair. Pitt says student input came through the group itself, whose only named student is a Hillel president. Harvard and Columbia each surveyed more than 500 Jews on campus. 4
Our view: a Hillel president on the committee is one student, and the other 1,400 deserved a survey. A university two miles from the Tree of Life building should have known to send one. 4
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