The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law has filed suit against the regents of the University of California system, University of California, Berkeley, as well as the school’s president, chancellor and provost.

The claim states that it “targets the longstanding, unchecked spread of anti-Semitism at the University of California Berkeley, which, following the October 7 Hamas attacks, has erupted in on-campus displays of hatred, harassment, and physical violence against Jews.”

The suit claims that “court intervention is now needed to protect students and faculty and to end this anti-Semitic discrimination and harassment, which violates University policy, federal civil-rights laws, and the U.S. Constitution.”

Kenneth L. Marcus, the founder and chairman of the Brandeis Center, said Berkeley’s antisemitism problem began before the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack and “is a direct result of Berkeley’s leadership repeatedly turning a blind eye to unfettered Jew-hatred. The school is quick to address other types of hatred, but why not anti-Semitism?”

He challenged Berkeley’s reputation as “a beacon” of human rights, saying it is now on a “different and dangerous” path than his experience there when he was a law student.

“Making Jews renounce that core component of their identity to participate in a student organization is no different than asking members of the LGBTQ community to remain ‘in the closet’ as the cost of membership—a cost that is not imposed on other students who are free to participate fully in those organizations without disavowing or hiding their identities,” said Rachel Lerman, vice chair and general counsel at the Brandeis Center and a graduate of UC Berkeley Law School.

UC Berkeley Law dean Erwin Chemerinsky supported concerns about the university’s rising antisemitism. He wrote that “never in my life have I seen or felt the antisemitism of the last few weeks.”

Two Jewish, pro-Israel House Democrats introduced a resolution on Tuesday condemning a bill that would expel Palestinians from the United States as “un-American” and “bigoted.”

The resolution, sponsored by Reps. Greg Landsman (D-Ohio) and Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.), responded to a bill that Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-Mont.) introduced earlier in November. It would bar Palestinian passport holders from admission to the United States and revoke the visa and asylum status of some Palestinians who are already in the country.

“They’re trying to expel an entire community of people from the United States,” Landsman stated. “It’s un-American. It’s not who we are.”

Goldman added that “Calls to expel Palestinians from the United States are racist, xenophobic and have no place in the government of the United States.”

Alexa Helwig, Landsman’s communications director, told JNS that the two congressmen are seeking additional co-sponsors. Zinke’s bill, the Safeguarding Americans from Extremism (SAFE) Act, currently has 16 co-sponsors, all Republicans.

Zinke’s bill would bar further entry of Palestinians to the United States and also revoke the status of visa holders, asylum seekers and refugees who arrived in the United States after Oct. 1.

Zinke’s legislation is a necessary response to the Biden administration's failures to properly vet people entering the country, the congressman told JNS in a statement.

“We have seen radical Islamic terrorists use legal immigration pathways to insert their jihadists in the United States and Europe to conduct attacks and I am not willing to take that risk,” Zinke said. “I will not compromise on American lives.”

“Democrats are so desperate to distract from Biden’s foreign-policy failures that they’re trying to start identity and culture wars while Biden’s weak leadership has the world in full-scale ground wars on multiple fronts,” the congressman added.

The Biden administration’s plan to supply aid to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip displaced by the war between Israel and Hamas has moved forward with a new shipment of medicine, food and nutrition assistance.

A  U.S. Air Force C-17 delivered 24.5 metric tons of U.N. humanitarian supplies to Egypt for ground transport into Gaza and distribution by the United Nations. Medical supplies will replenish Gaza’s health system. Further flights of supplies will continue.

So far, the United States has provided 500,000 pounds of food assistance and plans for $100 million in aid.

USAID also notes that “the United States is also by far the largest donor to the U.N.’s humanitarian efforts in Gaza, including the largest contributor to UNRWA, the primary implementer on the ground in Gaza.”

UNRWA, or the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East, has previously received its share of criticism, with Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) calling the organization on Nov. 8, “an incubator of hate for young people especially, who then become 14-, 15-year-old terrorists because they’ve been taught since they were four to hate Jews and to hate Israel.”

Benny Gantz, leader of the Blue and White Party in the Knesset and a minister without portfolio in Israel’s special “War Cabinet” hosted a delegation of people from AIPAC (the America Israel Public Affairs Committee) in Jerusalem on Tuesday.

The delegation was led by AIPAC president Michael Tuchin.

“As an outspoken leader of his community,” said Gantz, “Michael’s home was targeted and vandalized on Thanksgiving Eve in an unacceptable hate crime.”

“Facing an alarming rise in antisemitism globally and bigotry towards the one and only Jewish state,” he added, “we must all act to protect Jewish communities around the world.”

Benny Gantz is a former chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces and a former Israeli defense minister.

Sens. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) hosted a closed-press showing of raw footage from Hamas’s Oct. 7 terrorist attack on Israel in the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday morning, a senior member of Rosen’s staff told JNS.

About 40 Democrats and Republicans attended the senators-only screening, which ran 47 minutes and was compiled by the Israeli government, the staffer said.

Rosen and Rubio delivered brief remarks before the screening. The Nevada senator, who is Jewish, discussed the importance of bearing witness to Hamas’s barbarity and of providing more security aid to Israel to defeat the terror organization and secure the release of the other hostages.

Israeli Ambassador to the United States Michael Herzog spoke before the video was shown and attended the screening, per the Rosen staffer.

“On Oct. 7, Hamas launched the worst terrorist attack in Israel’s history—the single deadliest day for the Jews since the Holocaust. Given the effort by some individuals and organizations around the world to distort and deny what happened that day, it was important that, as policymakers, we bear witness to the full extent of the atrocities committed by Hamas,” Rosen said.

“As Congress considers a security assistance package, I hope my colleagues keep in mind why Israel needs our unwavering support to defeat Hamas and secure the release of the remaining hostages,” she added.

Rubio said it’s very important to avoid sanitizing “this issue over time because we tend to see these horrifying incidents lose their impact.”

“The one thing that struck me was how proud and gleeful these people were with what they were doing to civilians, children, people sitting at home having breakfast and kids at a rave party,” the Florida senator said. “I thought that my colleagues would want to see it. That’s why I held the viewing, for them to get clear insight into what happened.”

I opened a video on X, formerly known as Twitter, and there’s a fellow in uniform with red beret and camo uniform screaming into a microphone. My Arabic being non-existent, I was glad for the simultaneous translation identifying the screamer as one Gen. Yahya Saree, the spokesman for Yemen’s Houthi rebels, announcing an attack on Israel with a “salvo of ballistic missiles on various sensitive targets of the Israeli entity.” One of those targets being Eilat. The missile was destroyed while in the air.

Hyperbole in the Middle East is nothing new. Remember “Baghdad Bob,” Saddam Hussein’s “spokesman” known for such pronouncements as “There are no American infidels in Baghdad. Never!” A single missile does not a salvo make, and neither does the seizure of a Bahamian-flagged vessel registered under a British company, which is partially owned by an Israeli and leased out to a Japanese company at the time of the seizure. Yet, Saree couldn’t resist announcing that the Houthis “carried out a military operation in the Red Sea, the results of which were the seizure of an Israeli ship and taking it to the Yemeni coast.”

This begs the question: Who are the Houthis, and what do they want from Israel?

The “Houthis” are a group of Shi’ite Muslims belonging to the Zaidi sect in Yemen officially known as Ansar Allah (“Supporters of God”). The name is taken from that of their dead leader, Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi, who was killed by the Yemeni army in 2004. Naming their groups after dead leadership is a time-honored custom among terrorists.

Originating in Yemen’s northern governorate of Saada, they gained prominence about 20 years ago due to their opposition to the Yemeni government, and its ties to Saudi Arabia and the United States.

What has happened in Yemen in the past 20 years is complex. What at first started as a conflict with the government turned into an outright civil war in 2014 when the Houthis captured Yemen’s capital of Sana’a, driving the country’s elected government to the southern part of the country and eventual exile. They’ve also clashed with other groups in Yemen, including elements aligned with the internationally recognized government, leading to a protracted civil war.

The United States designated the Houthi movement as a foreign terrorist organization in January 2021 at the end of the Trump administration, citing their destabilizing actions, ties to Iran and attacks on civilian infrastructure in Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Of course, being the Mideast, the designation of the Houthis as “terrorists” became a matter of contention.

The U.S. terrorist designation was criticized by humanitarian organizations, as it potentially impeded the delivery of aid and worsened the humanitarian crisis in Yemen, where millions of people rely on such assistance. As a result, the Biden administration removed the Houthi designation as a terrorist organization in February 2021, although specific Houthi leaders remained under U.S. sanctions. Now, as a result of its long-range attacks against Israel, drone attacks against U.S. Navy ships in the Red Sea and the seizure of the cargo ship last week, the Biden administration is rethinking its lifting of the terrorist designation.

Humanitarian crisis or not, the Houthis have managed to attack Saudi Arabian targets with cruise missiles, drones and mortars. They’ve caused serious damage to Saudi oil refineries and killed Saudi soldiers. Not for a second should we believe that Iran does not have a hand in those attacks.

And now, with Israel being targeted by the Houthis, what does she do? Does Israel merely fend off missile and drone attacks from Yemen or respond militarily? While Yemen is a great distance from Jerusalem, it’s within range of the Israel Air Force. Having publicly stated that they have sided with Hamas and have joined the “axis of resistance,” perhaps it’s time that Israel not just wait for the next “salvo” but destroy missiles and drones on the ground before they are launched.

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres labeled the past two months as “one of the darkest chapters” in the history of the Palestinians.

While voicing his opposition to the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks perpetrated throughout southern Israel by Hamas, he insisted that it “cannot justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people.”

In his statement on Tuesday, Guterres advocated for “a long-term humanitarian ceasefire, unrestricted access for lifesaving aid, the release of all hostages, the protection of civilians and an end to violations of international humanitarian law.”

He said last month that “it is important to also recognize the attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum” and that “the Palestinian people have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation.”

Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen responded at the time, “Mr. Secretary-General, in what world do you live?” and canceled a meeting with him.

“I will not meet the U.N. secretary-general. After Oct. 7, there is no place for a balanced approach,” said Cohen. “Hamas must be erased from the world.”

U.N. Women regularly issues statements condemning specific instances of violence and abuse of women worldwide. But it took this agency of the United Nations, which purports to advocate for gender equity and female empowerment, nearly 50 days to condemn Hamas terrorists for raping and sexually assaulting Israeli and other women, which video footage and witnesses documented on Oct. 7.

“Me, too, unless you are a Jew!” was among the rallying cries, as some 100 women protested on Monday morning outside the New York City headquarters of U.N. Women.

“We came here to demand from them to speak up and to condemn the horrific acts that Israeli women, Muslim women, Jewish women, Thai women, American women, German women went through on Oct. 7 by Hamas terrorists,” Shany Grubot-Lubaton, one of the protest organizers, told JNS.

“It seems like they forgot that they’re fighting for all women,” she said of the U.N. agency. “If they’re not fighting for all women, then they’re fighting for none.”

Almost immediately after it posted on Instagram—“We condemn the brutal attacks by Hamas on October 7 and continue to call for the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages”—U.N. Women deleted it.

It replaced the post on Instagram and X with a broader statement: “We met with Israeli women’s organizations and heard about the work of the civil commission for crimes against women and children. We remain alarmed by gender-based violence reports on 7 Oct. and call for rigorous investigation, prioritizing the rights, needs and safety of those affected.”

The second post mentioned neither Hamas nor Jewish victims.

Those gathered on Monday were dressed in white with red paint symbolizing blood splattered near their groin and other areas. The protesters carried signs demanding “Believe all women” and “Rape is rape.”

One sign—“Your silence is loud”—was directed at Sima Bahous, a Jordanian woman who serves as the executive director of U.N. Women.

Bahous remained silent in response to a JNS request for comment.

‘Shame on them’

Granot-Lubaton told JNS that she is disappointed that the international community supporting women’s rights and safety, which Jewish women have backed on many issues for many years, is failing to come to the aid of Israelis.

“Last Saturday was the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, and they did not speak up,” she said. “They had all these conferences and roundtables and events, but not one word against these horrible acts that’s been just recently committed on Israel land and it’s a real shame on them.”

Granot-Lubaton told JNS that it is painful to be abandoned.

“We stood with the U.N. Women in every fight they had—for Iranian women, for abortion rights. We’ve always stood together as women for women’s rights,” she said Granot-Lubaton. “Now we stand alone, and this is a heartbreaking moment.”

Yaala Ballin, one of the protesters, told JNS that the group isn’t asking U.N. Women to take sides in the war. “We don’t see this as part of the conflict,” she said. “This has to be a separate issue.”

The U.N. agency’s coldness is “insulting” and “infuriating,” she stated.

“These international organizations can be crying out for both sides who are hurt in this, but we don’t see that,” said Ballin, who added that U.N. Women’s belated call for an investigation into Oct. 7 rings hollow.

“I think they’re doing the very minimal they can do in the midst of speaking about all the other things that are going on,” she said. “It’s just not enough.”

‘What is so hard?’

Lizzy Savetsky, a well-known U.S. Jewish activist, attended Monday’s demonstration and directed her anger at U.N. Women.

“You exclude me. I am appalled by your indifference. Shame on you for abandoning us,” she said. “Jewish women deserve the same protection as every other woman in the world.”

Granot-Lubaton said a delegation of leaders from Israeli women’s rights organizations will visit the United Nations next week. A simultaneous demonstration in support of Israeli women is planned to take place outside the building.

She told JNS that the United Nations should condemn the sexual violence that occurred on Oct. 7 “What is so hard?” she said. “They always say, ‘Believe all women,’ but then when it’s Israeli women or Jewish women, they don’t believe it.”

Why is anyone surprised by the sudden eruption of leftist antisemitism? The writing was on the wall. Unfortunately, Jewish leaders were blinded by their own egos, ignorance and a determination to avoid conflict with a politically correct mainstream ideology.

Yes, right-wing antisemitism is and always has been around, but it’s the poison of left-wing antisemitism that is coursing through the streets and the ivory towers of academia. This should have been our focus for years. Instead, it was ignored, with disastrous results.

The day after this war is over, Israel will certainly launch an inquiry into the failures that led to it. But the Jewish establishment in the United States also requires a reckoning.

The establishment’s failures are manifest. For years, millions upon millions of dollars were raised by organizations whose aim was to “fight antisemitism.” So pathetic was this “fight” that most people did not even know who was doing the “fighting.”

Almost two years ago, I conducted a study that asked participants, “Can you cite any specific, formal programs or efforts on the part of any organization, including Jewish organizations, to combat antisemitism?” Nearly 90% of the respondents, both Jewish and non-Jewish, said “no.”

There was a reason for the establishment’s atrophy. Antisemites with Nazi armbands and white hoods are easy to identify. But when they are among those who demonstrate for climate awareness, women’s rights, gender equality, and diversity and inclusion, it requires courage to call them out. The Jewish establishment lacked this courage.

Now, we see the results: An explosion of antisemitism in the streets and academia. This is an antisemitism of the elite, of the privileged upper-middle class. The more “elite” the university, the more progressive the environment, the more extreme the antisemitism.

The establishment and its organizations have not only failed to stem the tide but did not prepare the Jewish community for the assault. Like Israel, it neglected its defenses and the result was catastrophic.

My own research has revealed two fundamental reasons for this failure: First, a failure of nerve, which left few establishment organizations willing to fight what David Bernstein calls “woke antisemitism.” Second, these top-heavy organizations avoided any attempt to ascertain whether what they claimed was “effective messaging” actually worked.

Underlying all this was the ideological source of the problem: The progressive left and its support for the most radical and violent forms of Palestinian nationalism.

Having adopted the progressives’ ideology of “victim worship,” the Jewish establishment accepted that “strong is wrong.” As a result, they surrendered to the idea that Israel’s strength, by definition, made it an evil “oppressor” and the Jews in general benefit from “white privilege.” This took place even as those who supposedly oppose “white privilege” viciously oppressed the Jews.

The Jewish establishment was simply unwilling to admit to itself that the progressive causes that they often supported saw them as privileged enablers of Israeli “colonialism” and therefore a force for evil.

Moreover, the establishment consented to the brainwashing of Jewish youth, who were left defenseless against a brutal psychological attack they could not be expected to resist alone. The establishment’s response was to teach pithy “talking points” and hold falafel parties. Needless to say, this was insufficient ammunition against people energized by the zero-sum racist game of Palestinian antisemitic nationalism.

The establishment organizations also failed to employ the most basic methods of social science research. As a result, advocacy efforts often took place on campuses where there was no significant anti-Israel activity. On hostile campuses, the organizations used tactics that might have appealed to Israel-friendly students but were not effective in persuading the ignorant or the unaffiliated. In the end, having employed no standard research methods, no useful knowledge was gained.

Most of all, there was never any accountability. No one, including the donors who were paying for all this, ever asked for proof that anything the organizations were doing actually worked. No one really cared so long as their names were praised at gala awards dinners and in “urgent” press releases. Millions of unknown and unvetted users registered “views” and “clicks” on establishment material, but they never asked if the content viewed meant anything to anyone.

All these failures require us to ask hard questions because if a doctor is treating a patient who only gets sicker, it is probably time to get another doctor. We must ask what the Jewish establishment is worth if it cannot fulfill its most basic responsibility of protecting the Jewish community from antisemitism.

Over 10 years ago, I wrote, “Advocacy organizations (should) stop the ritualistic and often juvenile cheerleading and incorporate serious and impartial objective research into their activities. … Donors should instead insist upon … data to demonstrate if there is a problem; (and) if so, where the problem is; and if their contributions are doing anything other than making themselves feel good.”

Clearly, Jewish and Israel advocacy needs a serious rethink. And there must be accountability before another generation of young people is lost. Since it is very unlikely that the people responsible for this failure will own up to it, it is up to donors to wise up, challenge the failed establishment and look for new ways to deal with this ancient problem.