As he continues his criminal trial known as the “hush-money” or “election interference” trial, photos emerge of an angry, tired looking or napping Trump – who will later emerge and denounce the judge or the court room thermostat.
There’s seemingly a growing consensus among many print and broadcast (minus Fox News) pundits that rather than boosting him in his 2024 election bid the trials and this trial in particular is causing him to diminish in stature. Why? Here are some reasons given for that contention:
Trump is sitting in a courtroom where he has zero control over the messsage of the event or its appearance in terms of imagery.
The photos of Trump napping – napping on more than one court date – haven’t helped foster an image of a strong Trump versus the candidate he has called “Sleepy Joe.”
Reports of Trump….breaking wind…put on Twitter by various people to the extent that it looked like confirmation didn’t bolster his image. Former CNN Anchor Don Lemon said he confirmed the reports. This tidbit sparked a sea of joke-filled Tweets on X.
Just like in his COVID news conferences, Trump’s regular statements before and after he leaves the courtroom may be creating an overexposure.
Many voters may not completely recall Trump’s term (reportedly there is a segment of the population that consider his term the good old days
) but Trump’s behaving going in and out of the courtroom and in the courtroom will likely remind many voters of what they didn’t like about his time in the White House i.e. the chaos.
News outlets and social media carry news of Joe Biden out campaigning while Trump is locked into being in a controlled courtroom and unable to get out and campaign to counter Biden.
How wrong they were. When the criminal trial actually began, reality hit home. Rather than dominate the proceedings or leverage his court appearance to appear in control and demonstrate no court could corral him, Trump day by day has become smaller, more decrepit and, frankly, somewhat pathetic.
…The judge is in control, not Trump.
…Trump’s apparent naps in court have generated mocking commentary on social media and the late-night comedy shows. Either he wants to demonstrate his disdain for the proceedings or he is exhausted mentally, physically and emotionally. In any event, the irony is not lost on anyone: The candidate who criticizes Biden’s energy has trouble staying conscious. (Meanwhile, the president set a vigorous campaign schedule crisscrossing Pennsylvania.)
When Trump emerged from court to show off pages of comments from loyal Fox News lackeys knocking the trial, he looked downright needy and rattled. By the end of each long court day in which the judge, prospective jurors and prosecutors recite bad things about him, a short rant outside the courtroom only underscores the power imbalance. He seems diminished.
Former Obama strategist David Axelrod summed up Trump’s predicament: “He has been reduced to a criminal defendant in a courtroom where someone else has absolute power and the rules very definitely apply. The weariness and vulnerability captured in those courtroom images betray a growing recognition that he could wind up as the thing his old man most reviled. A convicted criminal? No, worse. A loser.”
And:
The stature, control and importance Trump has grown accustomed to for most of his life seeps away each day. That might come as a shock — both to him and the political media. Both should have understood that was inevitable once Trump faced a judge and jury. They seemed to forget: Trump is an ordinary criminal defendant no matter his former job.
The trial has barely begun. One wonders how Trump will hold up. The time and energy expended in the courtroom, the humiliating lectures and the recapitulation of his misdeeds have already taken their toll. Whether he wigs out when witnesses such as Michael Cohen take the stand or keeps running afoul of the gag order (both strong possibilities), Trump’s temper tantrums only underscore his dilemma. Unable to mask his emotions in the midst of a narcissist’s worst nightmare, Trump has never looked so small, so weary and so feeble.
Can Biden use Trump’s courtroom commitments to gain a huge advantage?
Taking the stage to accept the endorsement of the North America’s Building Trades Unions, Biden gave a standard and uninspiring partisan stump speech, consisting of conventional Democratic talking points interspersed with some disjointed shots at Trump. Then, after inviting the crowd to chant, “Four more years,” Biden read aloud from the teleprompter the stage direction, “Pause.”
No big deal, really. But plenty of news coverage, overshadowing the national-security win that would otherwise have been the big Biden story of the day. It’s a reminder of the fact that while Biden is a pretty good president, he’s not a particularly good candidate.
I understand all the pressures on Biden to get out and campaign. But perhaps he and his staff should do more to resist those pressures? The routine campaign events add little to his message, and present opportunities for things to go wrong. And in fact they detract from the gravity of the moment, a gravity Biden had explained well that morning at the White House.
Stay in the Oval Office. Govern the nation. Highlight your deeds as president. Explain what you’ve done and what you’re doing. Explain why the alternative the other party is offering is so dangerous. But avoid in public some of the petty and uninspiring party politics.
Of course, of course: Don’t be unaware of politics. (Not that that’s likely.) So in private, think politically. But govern presidentially.
A new poll
shows Trump ahead in swing states. However, The Hill reports
that a series of polls shows Biden gaining on Trump:
President Biden is gaining on former President Trump in a series of polls, tying Trump in the race in a Quinnipiac poll released Wednesday and providing a sense of momentum to his campaign.
A Wednesday update to the aggregate polling kept by The Hill and Decision Desk HQ also saw Biden move into a tie with Trump when independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is factored into the race, a significant change from earlier data.
President Biden is gaining on former President Trump in a series of polls, tying Trump in the race in a Quinnipiac poll released Wednesday and providing a sense of momentum to his campaign.
A Wednesday update to the aggregate polling kept by The Hill and Decision Desk HQ also saw Biden move into a tie with Trump when independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is factored into the race, a significant change from earlier data.
While Biden still trails Trump in the polls in several key battleground states, he has closed the gap or pulled ahead in a handful of national polls released this month.
…The Quinnipiac University national poll released Wednesday found Trump and Biden deadlocked, even when factoring in third-party and independent candidates.
The Biden campaign had routinely brushed off polling earlier in the year that showed Trump well ahead of the sitting president, arguing a significant number of voters had not yet fully realized that Trump was going to be the GOP nominee and that Biden’s numbers would stabilize as more Americans began paying attention to the election.
Jim Kessler, co-founder of the left-leaning think tank Third Way, pointed to the president’s strong and vigorous State of the Union address in early March as a turning point for Biden at a moment when many average voters finally started to tune into election season.
If this isn’t about the Republicans, what is? It’s really a theatre reference. When a show is failing, they send in the clowns to distract. Entertain.
Think about it. If the shoe fits…there really is hope for this sad, angry group of failures. No rehearsal necessary. A One-Act Show.
Clowns.
There’s hardly one of these characters who doesn’t fit the bill. No rehearsal needed. You have your perverts, morons, cowards, make believers, big mouths and cheats.
To start with, there’s the Lead Clown, with one foot in jail. His failures are legendary. Physically, he’s rotund, with different hair color, style and makeup every day.
His persona changes constantly with the weather. As he changes, so do the SWIVEL HEADS. One day they’re for something, or someone the next day they’re opposed to that person or idea.
You could say it’s entertaining but it’s really not funny.
The Swivel Head has no backbone, so they’re extra easy to identify. The largest part of their anatomy are their mouths. They usually go nonstop but say very little.
They’re so desperate for a leader, they genuflect when they see or hear Donald Trump. That’s really funny. A guy who’s failed in almost every enterprise he’s been involved in, they elevate to the next thing to a Deity.
In thinking about it, he’s so inept, he probably couldn’t even make it as a Buffoon Clown.
In spite of that, Trump the Clown dominates the news. With the Republicans, the Democrats, the Media, the Publishing Industry, the Court System, almost everything. In fact, he’s almost as well known and popular as Taylor Swift.
As a businessman he’s anything but astute. He’s short of money and there’s a golden opportunity staring him right in the face and he’s not taking advantage of it.
He tried Baseball Cards and people really didn’t flip over them. Foot in the Mouth Disease occurred with his gold-plated sneakers. They ended up giving fans athlete’s feet. Painful.
I hate to do this. The poor clown needs help. And direction. He’s created the Circus. He’s got the mouth. The platform. The potential audience. Fools for fans. And the fools seem to be ready and willing to dance to his tune.
Exactly. Take note of this. Music. He should do a song and dance routine. THE BLONDE BOMB SHOW. It could be explosive.
Two Atlanta police officers manhandle an Emory professor. Screen capture from CNN video.
A CNN crew filmed an Atlanta policeman
shouting “you people are fascists” after he threw Emory University economics professor Caroline Fohlin to the ground.
Her crime? She asked, “What are you doing?” to four officers who were piled onto a slight woman. One officer had pressed her head to the ground with his knee. Then he put his hand on her neck.
The police presence happened when Emory University, a private institution, requested help dispersing protesters from an area of campus known as “the quad.” A Georgia State Patrol trooper rode into the quad on a motorcycle
.
Emory is one of many campuses that are experiencing students protesting Israeli violence in Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu claims the protesters are anti-Semetic. He conflates Israeli violence — killing mostly women and children in Gaza — with Hitler. The protests, he said, are “reminiscent of what happened in German universities in the 1930s
.”
Netanyahu called and U.S. university presidents listened.
Emory University economics professor in still photos
Professor Caroline Fohlin (1) sees four Atlanta police officers manhandling a slight woman (2).
Professor Fohlin shouted “what are you doing?” after seeing one officer is holding the woman down by pressing on her neck.
A burly White officer with a crew cut then grabbed Professor Fohlin.
He dragged her about 15 feet, across the walkway. Then he threw her to the ground, partially onto grass.
He called for assistance. The second officer, a Black man, shoved her to the ground using his hand splayed across her upper back.
The abusive officer then began verbally attacking Professor Fohlin, shouting:
“You people are fascists. You are Hitler. You are [mumble] dogs… May you never live another day… You are a rabid dog. You are fascist.”
Someone get his body camera, assuming he’s wearing one.
The fatal shooting marked the first known police killing of a climate activist on U.S. soil. Paez Terán’s family released an independent autopsy in March, which they say showed that Tortuguita was sitting cross-legged with their hands in the air when police shot them.
Though Hollywood movies about courtroom dramas often glamorize the closing arguments given by lawyers, in reality the opening statement is likely the most important single event of a trial.
Such was the case
in the hush money trial involving former President Donald Trump and alleged payments to porn star Stormy Daniels
when lawyers for both sides presented their opening statements
on April 22, 2024, in New York.
In this case
, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg
charged the former president with 34 felony counts
of falsifying business records as part of an effort to influence voters’ knowledge about him before the 2016 presidential election. Trump entered a plea of not guilty.
During his opening argument
, prosecutor Matthew Colangelo told the jury that Trump was part of a conspiracy to conceal negative information about him in order to help get him elected. “Then he covered up that conspiracy by lying in his New York business records, over and over and over again,” Colangelo said.
For Trump’s defense, lawyer Todd Blanche was direct. “President Trump did not commit any crimes.”
Blanche explained that Trump was “not involved and unaware” about the specifics of the hush-money payments because he left it all to Michael Cohen, his former lawyer and fixer who is expected to testify for the prosecution. Blanche described Cohen as being a “criminal” who was “obsessed” with Trump and looking to take personal revenge.
How will these contrasting opening arguments play on the jury?
Academic psychologists tell us that between 65% and 75% of jurors make up their minds
about a case after the opening statement. What’s even more incredible is that 85% of those jurors
maintain the position they formed after the opening statement
once all evidence is received and the trial is closed.
More often than not, it is too late by closing arguments to win over the jury.
This phenomenon comes as no surprise to veteran trial lawyers. They are aware of two theories that define how jurors – indeed, people generally – process information: the concepts of primacy and recency
.
These ideas suggest that jurors best remember what they hear first and what they hear last. It is vitally important, then, for lawyers on both sides to start their opening arguments with a bang.
The psychology of jurors
I have taught a course on trial advocacy
for the past two decades at Harvard Law School. Part of my curriculum is to teach budding lawyers how to deliver effective opening statements.
If the idea is to win over the jury by the end of the lawyer’s opening statement, how, in practice, is that done?
Trial lawyers steeped in the research know that juries respond to a well-considered theory
of the case, punctuated by a pithy theme.
A theory of the case is a brief, three- to five-sentence statement akin to what is known as an “elevator pitch.” The theme is a short, pithy summary of the theory of the case that is easy for a juror to remember. Often the theme is the first sentence out of the lawyer’s mouth, followed by a fuller description of the theory.
Indeed, in my class at Harvard, the very first skill I teach is how to develop theories and themes. In order to effectively convey a theory in a case, many lawyers start their opening statements with “This is a case about…” and then fill in the specific details.
So it went on the first day of Trump’s trial.
“This case is about a criminal conspiracy and fraud,” Colangelo, the prosecutor, told the jury. “The defendant, Donald Trump, orchestrated a criminal scheme to corrupt the 2016 presidential election.”
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg speaks during a news conference about former President Donald Trump’s arraignment on April 4, 2023. Kena Betancur/Getty Images
In stark contrast, Trump’s defense lawyers said: “There’s nothing wrong with trying to influence an election. It’s called democracy.”
Though prosecutors have tried to put a “sinister” spin on this, Blanche said jurors will learn it’s not a crime.
In each example, the jury is given enough information to frame the evidence they will hear throughout the trial.
After both sides have finished their openings, data shows that more than two-thirds of the jury will have come to a decision that will persist through the remainder of the trial.
Why do juries tend to behave this way?
Research also has taught trial lawyers that if you connect the jury with your theory of a case at the beginning of the trial, jurors will process all the rest of the evidence – whether potentially helpful to the prosecution or to the defense – through the prism of that theory.
The importance of opening statements cannot be overstated. They set the tone and offer the jury a framework to understand the upcoming months of testimony they are about to hear.
Material used in this story
was originally published on April 22, 2024.
(This is an update of the original post published Sunday night)
Some American universities have become hotbeds of anti-semitism. Demonstrations aren’t just against Israeli policy but Jews as a group, with some notable exceptions. And the demonstrations’ aggressive nature is increasing.
Columbia University in New York City and Yale University in New Haven have been pitchforked into the headlines. Columbia is in the news due to its extended pro-Palestinian demonstrations characterized by one of the demonstrators as a university “take-over.”It’s so intense that the University’s main rabbi has urged Jewish students to leave the campus.
At Yale University, a demonstrator reportedly stabbed a Jewish student in the eye with a Palestinian flag. All of this comes against the backdrop of last month’s report by the Anti-Defamation League that gave a dozen American universities failing grades
on combatting or standing up to campus anti-semitism.
Pro-Israel professor denied entry to Columbia University campus but some equally outspoken pro-Palestinian/Hamas professors have not been denied entry.
Columbia has started virtual classes rather than in person classes.
Big donors are rethinking donations to Columbia.
Students were ordered to clear tent city at Yale. Those who didn’t leave were arrested.
An organizer of a Yale Jews for Ceasefire, a group involved in the Yale demonstrations, has explained why that group joined the protests and their emphasis on making protests peaceful with an eye on creating meaningful dialogue.
SEE BELOW FOR MORE COMPLETE UPDATES ON THE DEVELOPMENTS LISTED ABOVE
Columbia University is facing a full-blown crisis heading into Passover as a rabbi linked to the Ivy League school urged Jewish students to stay home and tense confrontations on campus sparked condemnation from the White House and New York officials.
The atmosphere is so charged that Columbia officials announced students can attend classes and even possibly take exams virtually starting Monday – the first day of Passover, a major Jewish holiday set to begin in the evening.
Tensions at Columbia, and many universities, have been high ever since the October 7 terror attack on Israel by Hamas. However, the situation at Columbia escalated in recent days after university officials testified before Congress last week about antisemitism on campus and pro-Palestinian protests on and near campus surged.
The latest crisis has opened Columbia President Minouche Shafik up to new attacks from her critics, with Republican US Rep. Elise Stefanik demanding she step down immediately because school leadership has “clearly lost control of its campus.”
Rep. Virginia Foxx, the Republican chair of the House Education Committee, sent a letter on Sunday to university leaders warning them of consequences if they do not rein in protests on campus.
“Columbia’s continued failure to restore order and safety promptly to campus constitutes a major breach of the University’s Title VI obligations, upon which federal financial assistance is contingent, and which must immediately be rectified,” Foxx wrote.
Underscoring concerns about student safety, Rabbi Elie Buechler, a rabbi associated with Columbia University’s Orthodox Union Jewish Learning Initiative on Campus, confirmed to CNN’s Jake Tapper on Sunday that he sent a WhatsApp message to a group of about 300 mostly Orthodox Jewish students “strongly” recommending they return home and remain there.
In his message, Buechler wrote that recent events at the university “have made it clear that Columbia University’s Public Safety and the NYPD cannot guarantee Jewish students’ safety.”
“It deeply pains me to say that I would strongly recommend you return home as soon as possible and remain home until the reality in and around campus has dramatically improved,” the message reads.
The White House condemned “in the strongest terms” the ongoing anti-Israel protests at colleges across the U.S., including at Columbia University in New York City, on Sunday, saying they have no place anywhere in the U.S.
“While every American has the right to peaceful protest, calls for violence and physical intimidation targeting Jewish students and the Jewish community are blatantly antisemitic, unconscionable and dangerous – they have absolutely no place on any college campus or anywhere in the United States of America,” White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates said. “And echoing the rhetoric of terrorist organizations, especially in the wake of the worst massacre committed against the Jewish people since the Holocaust, is despicable. We condemn these statements in the strongest terms.”
At Yale, a Jewish student was stabbed in the eye by a demonsrator who used a Palestian flag:
“Tonight at Yale, I was assaulted by a student today at an anti-Israel protest. He stabbed me in the eye with a Palestinian flag. Now I’m in the hospital. This is what happens when visibly Jewish students try to attend and document these rallies,” Sahar Tartak, a sophomore, tweeted after the incident.
Tartak, who is studying history and is the editor-in-chief of the independent Yale Free Press college newspaper, was attempting to film the pro-Palestinian encampment set when she and a friend were confronted by five activists who formed a wall and would not let them pass.
“One of them takes their Palestinian flag and waves it in my face, and then jabs it in the face,” Tartak told The Jerusalem Post.
Tartak reported the incident to the campus police, who called an ambulance. She went to the hospital and was discharged without suffering permanent damage.
She said that protesters pushed her and her friend repeatedly. Earlier documentation that Tartak posted to X showed the demonstrators commemorating the recently deceased Walid Daqqa, a Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine terrorist who was convicted of murdering an Israeli soldier in 1984.
An Israeli assistant professor at Columbia University’s business school has been denied entry to the main campus, according to posts on social media, amid a week of tense anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian protests.
In a post on X, formerly, Twitter, Shai Davidai says the reason he was refused entry to campus was because the university “cannot protect my safety as a Jewish professor.”
“This is 1938,” he adds, referring to the dismissal of Jewish staff from universities in Nazi Germany in the years leading up to the Holocaust.
In video footage of a confrontation between Davidai and Columbia University COO Cas Holloway, the assistant professor claims he is being denied entry because of his Jewish identity.
“I have not just a civil right as a Jewish person to be on campus, I have a right as a professor employed by the university to be on campus,” he says.
“You cannot let people that support Hamas on campus and me, a professor, not go on campus,” he can be heard saying in the video.
University President Minouche Shafik issued at 1:14 a.m. on Monday her first statement to the Columbia community since authorizing the New York Police Department to sweep the “Gaza Solidarity Encampment,” expressing that she is “deeply saddened by what is happening on our campus.”
She also announced a same-day shift to virtual classes as a means to “deescalate the rancor” and “give us all a chance to consider next steps,” encouraging students living off campus to refrain from coming to campus and faculty and staff who can work remotely to do so.
“The decibel of our disagreements has only increased in recent days,” Shafik wrote. “These tensions have been exploited and amplified by individuals who are not affiliated with Columbia who have come to campus to pursue their own agendas. We need a reset.”
At Barnard, Executive Vice President for Strategy and Chief Administrative Officer Kelli Murray announced in a 6:37 a.m. Monday email to the community that Barnard classes would also shift online for the day. Barnard President Laura Rosenbury is yet to communicate directly with the Barnard community about Thursday’s arrests, suspensions, or the ongoing campus protest activity. Her last community email was on April 15, regarding the appointment of Provost Rebecca Walkowitz.
Her statement came after an increase in reports of antisemitic incidents on and off campus amid ongoing protests. President Joe Biden condemned antisemitism at universities across the country in a Sunday statement, and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) characterized the spike in reports of antisemitic incidents at Columbia as “outrageous and un-American” in a Sunday post on X.
On campus, students continue to demonstrate in support of the University’s divestment from companies with ties to Israel, removal of NYPD presence, and the reversal of disciplinary action taken against protesters involved with Wednesday’s “Gaza Solidarity Encampment.”
Billionaire donors like Robert Kraft and Leon Cooperman are weighing their support for Columbia University amid rising campus tensions over pro-Palestinian protests.
Friction at Columbia has escalated in recent days, amid reports of antisemitic speech on and around the campus, where students have set up a tent encampment to protest Israel’s bombardment of Gaza.
Kraft, who has donated millions to the school, condemned the protests on Monday, hours after Columbia President Nemat “Minouche” Shafik announced that classes would be held virtually “to deescalate the rancor” of the protests.
“I am not comfortable supporting the university until corrective action is taken,” Kraft said in a statement. “It is my hope that Columbia and its leadership will stand up to this hate by ending these protests immediately and will work to earn back the respect and trust of the many of us who have lost faith in the institution.”
Kraft is the chairman and CEO of the Kraft Group and the founder of the Foundation to Combat Antisemitism (FCAS). He also owns the New England Patriots. In 2000, Columbia opened the Kraft Center for Jewish Student Life in his name and in 2007, the school dedicated an athletic field to him “for his extremely generous contributions.”
FCAS and The Kraft Group did not immediately respond to a request for clarification as to whether Kraft’s statement meant he would officially pause his financial contributions to Columbia.
Protesters demanding Yale University divest from military manufacturers and expressing “solidarity with Gaza” amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas were arrested Monday after officials said they refused to disband an encampment on campus. Demonstrations then spilled out into the streets of New Haven, Connecticut.
For the last several days, a pro-Palestinian protest group called “Occupy Beinecke” erected a 24-tent encampment outside of Yale’s Beinecke Plaza. In a statement on Instagram, the group said the encampment was also in solidarity with the recent protests at Columbia University, which resulted in multiple arrests last week and this weekend. In Boston, MIT and Emerson College campuses also saw student protests.
At Yale, university and New Haven police officers removed the protesters camped outside the Schwarzman Center on Monday and blocked entry to Beinecke Plaza. The demonstration spilled onto the streets of New Haven, where Yale’s campus is located, about 80 miles north of New York City.
Video posted on social media showed students marching down Grove and College Streets, changing and cheering.
Police arrested 45 protesters on Monday. In a statement to CBS News, a Yale spokesperson said the university repeatedly asked the protesters to vacate the plaza and when many did not leave voluntarily, they were arrested. The spokesperson said the students who were arrested will also be referred for Yale disciplinary action, which includes a range of possible sanctions including reprimand, probation and suspension.
–The bulk of American Jews support Israel but Jews are divided over Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his goverment’s polices. In an email to The Moderate Voice an organizer of Yale Jews for Ceasefire
, a group involved in the Yale demonstrations, explains the group’s position, stress of peaceful demonstrations and goals:
This past week, in the long-standing spirit of anti-war, anti-apartheid movements throughout history, Jews for Ceasefire has joined together with students across campus in a week-long occupation of Beinecke Plaza to call for Yale’s divestment from weapons manufacturing and to imagine possibilities for collective liberation and a free Palestine. There have been so many inspiring moments—interfaith singing and prayer, teach-ins, hundreds gathered to protect each other from arrest, community members coming to show support. There have also been many challenging moments. While we object to and are deeply saddened by the accusation that this protest is anti-Jewish, we also recognize that members of our Jewish community have felt unsafe or uncomfortable because of the demonstrations, as we have heard in conversation with our peers and as Rav Jason shared in his email to the Jewish community today. Part of what collective liberation means to our organization is radical empathy—holding space for those feelings and responding to those who feel that way with compassion. At the same time, we feel it is critically important to highlight the fact that Jewish voices have been welcomed and included in the organization and realization of this event. We are deeply grateful to all of the organizers for their curiosity about our perspectives and for creating the opportunity to learn from each other and build community.
Protest is hard. It inspires, creates power, and spurs us into action. At the same time, it is messy, divisive, and can develop beyond our control. We are all attempting to learn as we go, and sometimes we fall short. Last night, a counter-protester said she was poked in the eye with a flag. Such an action, whether or not it was intentional, is unacceptable. We are fundamentally committed to maintaining a non-violent and welcoming protest environment in which all community members can make their voices heard. In pursuing this standard, just as we are committed to ensuring the safety of our participants from the risk of videotaping and doxxing, we are also committed to making sure that engagements between counter-protesters and protesters do not escalate. Our marshals, students wearing orange safety vests who are specifically trained to de-escalate situations and protect people, are committed to everyone’s safety. In the future we will have more marshals on site, and we will communicate more clearly to untrained protesters not to engage with counter-protestors in any way. We are working to implement these changes in order to avoid any similar altercations going forward. We hope that through all of these actions—both through the protest itself and through recognizing and responding to harm when it happens—we might build a world where compassion leads, or as we sing: olam chesed yibaneh.
These events have sparked a furor on social media.
Jewish House members Josh Gottheimer, Dan Goldman and Jared Moskowitz will meet with Jewish students at Columbia on Monday — ahead of the Passover Seder — to show solidarity. https://t.co/7vHta6OCwA
This is what the Jewish ppl are contending with.This is the horror we face.
Horror as female Jewish Yale student claims she was stabbed in the EYE with a Palestinian flag on campus during protest – as the alleged victim speaks out | Daily Mail Online https://t.co/cTngktSIED
The state of affairs in Columbia and Barnard can’t be allowed to go on. Anyone who intimidates Jewish students and supports terrorism must be expelled. Immediately. If universities can’t keep Jewish students safe, they must be closed.
BREAKING: New CJAA email blasts @Columbia
University leaders, AT WHAT POINT WILL THE ADMINISTRATION ENFORCE the… RESTRICTIONS THAT YOU, President Shafik, ASSURED CONGRESS WERE IN EFFECT? Warns, THE WORLD IS WATCHING.@EdWorkforceCmtepic.twitter.com/nWOd0lsk61
— Columbia Jewish Alumni Assoc. (@CU_JewishAlumni) April 21, 2024
The reality in which the names of Jewish philanthropists adorn buildings on campuses on which their own grandchildren feel unwelcome or unsafe is intolerable.
It’s time for the Jewish community to tie our giving to the safety of Jewish students on campus.
Sickeningly @Columbia
is allowing the Hamas supporters to stay encamped and even be comfortable with tents for another WEEK. While Jewish students have been attacked and advised to stay away from campus. Absolutely disgusting pandering. pic.twitter.com/6YnOfd8Zuk
No student should live in fear on campus. The antisemitism and hate toward Jews, including threats of violence, that we are witnessing is unconscionable. Colleges and universities, along with their leadership, must do better.
World War II Army Sgt. Joe Hayashi, Medal of Honor recipient.
One month ago, on the occasion of National Medal of Honor Day, we recognized eighteen service members of the Jewish faith
who have been awarded the nation’s highest military decoration for bravery in combat, recipients going as far back as the Civil War.
What makes such a high honor even more estimable is the fact that several of the Jewish heroes, their survivors, their supporters had to struggle against prejudice, constitutional bias and antisemitism before they were eventually awarded the honor they so richly deserve.
Sadly, such has also been the case with other groups or military service members: African Americans, Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans, and so on.
This week’s Department of Defense (DoD) News’ highlighted Medal of Honor recipient is one such hero: Army Sgt. Joe Hayashi, a California-born son of Japanese parents who emigrated to the U.S from Japan at the beginning of the century.
Sgt. Hayashi was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for bravery during a World War II battle near Tendola, Italy on 20 and 22 April 1945.
According to Katie Lange at DoD News
, “It wasn’t until about a half-century later that a Congressional inquiry revealed that many Nisei service members like Hayashi had been passed up for the nation’s highest honor for valor due to racial bias and ethnic discrimination.”
She contimues: “That wrong was finally remedied on June 21, 2000 — 55 years after Hayashi’s death — when his medal was upgraded to the Medal of Honor and he was promoted to Sergeant.”
On June 21, 2000, President Bill Clinton presented the Medal to Hayashi’s remaining family during a White House ceremony that also honored 21 other Asian-American military heroes whose medals were being upgraded. “Sadly, only seven of the recipients were still alive. Eleven had died in combat, and the rest had passed in the years after the war,” Lange adds.
According to the Congressional Medal of Honor Societ
y, 35 Asian/Pacific Islanders have earned the nation’s highest military honor in wars and battles since 1872, including 24 during World War II, 3 during the Korean War and 5 in the Vietnam War.
Here is Lange with the rest of Army Sgt. Joe Hayashi’s remarkable story:
Hayashi was born Aug. 14, 1920, in Salinas, California. His parents, Chiukichi and Toyo Hayashi, had emigrated from Japan nearly two decades earlier. Hayashi had two sisters, Chiye and Kiyo.
When Hayashi was 4, his father was killed in a work-related accident. His mother then moved the family to Pasadena, California, remarried and had three more children.
Hayashi grew up as a typical American child. He played football and baseball, was a member of the Boy Scouts and loved to play outside. A slight man — Hayashi was recorded as being 5’3″, 125 pounds — he was also adept at car mechanics, which is what he chose to do for work after high school.
In October 1940, Hayashi registered for the draft. Seven months later, he enlisted in the Army. He was initially stationed in California, but after the Pearl Harbor attacks, which led to a deep distrust of Japanese Americans, he was transferred to Fort Sheridan, Illinois. Due to that same distrust, Hayashi’s mother, stepfather and half-siblings were all forced to live at an internment camp in Wyoming until the war’s end.
Hayashi was already in the military, but when the war started, other Japanese Americans — known as Nisei — were barred from service. They still wanted to serve, though, and were eventually able to in a few units, including the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, which was activated in February 1943 and was composed of all Nisei men. Hayashi was reassigned as a drill sergeant in the unit as part of the 3rd Battalion’s Company K.
The 442nd trained at Camp Shelby, Mississippi, before deploying to Italy in June 1944. Hayashi stayed behind with a cadre to continue training soldiers. Soon after, however, he volunteered to join the fight and was shipped to France in November 1944.
In March 1945, the 442nd joined in on the Po Valley Campaign. Their mission was to be a diversion for enemy troops to break them up and weaken their defensive line, known as the Gothic Line. The 442nd ended up being incredibly successful in this endeavor; not only did they force enemy troops from that area, but they pushed them far behind the Gothic Line.
Members of the Army’s 100th Infantry Battalion, 442nd Regimental Combat Team, in northern Italy during World War II. (Photo by Smithsonian Asian Pacific Heritage Center)
By mid-April, nearly all of Germany’s forces in the area were trying to retreat. The 442nd followed them and had moved to within 10 miles of a strategically located rail center, where the Germans were preparing to make a last stand. At this stage of his career, Hayashi held the rank of staff sergeant; however, at some point while overseas, he was demoted to private after apparently defending fellow soldiers who had left their unit during heavy fighting, according to a June 2000 article in the Billings Gazette out of Billings, Montana. That’s why, in his Medal of Honor citation, he’s listed as a private.
On April 20, 1945, Hayashi’s unit was ordered to find enemy machine gun nests along a strongly defended hill near the small village of Tendola, Italy. Hayashi led his men to within 75 yards of enemy positions before they were seen and fired upon.
Hayashi dragged some of his wounded comrades to safety before returning to danger and exposing himself to small-arms fire so he could direct deadly mortar fire onto the hostile positions. With the remaining men in his squad, Hayashi then attacked the hill and took over the enemy position. There, they discovered that the mortars Hayashi helped direct had destroyed three enemy machine guns, killed 27 enemy soldiers and wounded several more.
Meanwhile, the town of Tendola was still being held by about 50 Germans. So, two days later, Hayashi’s unit attacked in a firefight that lasted into the night with house-to-house combat. Hayashi eventually maneuvered his squad up a steep, terraced hill to get within about 100 yards of another enemy machine gun nest. Under intense fire, Hayashi crawled toward it and threw a grenade, which killed one enemy soldier and forced the other members of the gun’s crew to surrender.
From there, Hayashi noticed four more enemy machine gun nests taking aim at members of his platoon. He threw another grenade that destroyed one of them, then crawled to the right flank of a second and killed four enemy soldiers there.
Hayashi tried to follow the remaining members of the crew who were running away. Sadly, he was hit by gunfire and killed.
Hayashi’s courage and leadership were integral to his company’s success. They took control of that enemy position a day later, and within a few days, Germans had begun surrendering en masse since their retreat route was cut off. By May 2 — 10 days after Hayashi died — fighting in Italy ended as German forces formally surrendered.
Lange concludes:
The 442nd went on to become one of the most decorated military units in American history. Because of its success, the draft was reinstated in internment camps back in the U.S. Many of the men who served in the 442nd went on to have distinguished careers in science, higher education and government.
For their heroic actions in combat and steadfast loyalty in the face of ethnic discrimination, members of the 442nd and their families — including Hayashi’s — were also honored in 2011 with the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest civilian award for service given out by the U.S.
World War II veterans in the Congressional Gold Medal parade in Waikiki, Hawaii, Dec. 17, 2011 where World War II Japanese American veterans of the 100th Infantry Battalion, 442nd Regimental Combat Team and Military Intelligence Service were honored for their service. (Photo by Air Force Sgt. Michael Holzworth)
Hayashi was initially buried at a U.S. military cemetery in Italy, but his family requested he be brought home in 1948. He was reinterred with full military honors in March 1949 in Evergreen Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles.
At the Nishi Hongwanji Temple in L.A., a bronze plaque bears Hayashi’s name, along with the names of 15 other L.A.-area Nisei service members who were killed in the war.
SAN DIEGO — Notwithstanding the generous financial support and leadership in the Jewish community of her grandparents and parents, a growing number of pro-Israel Jews are angry at Congresswoman Sara Jacobs (D-San Diego) for what they say have been her numerous stands against Israel and in favor of Israel’s adversaries as demonstrated by her voting, advocacy, and even dating.
Jacobs voted Saturday, April 20, in favor of funding for a $95 billion package incorporating aid for Israel, Ukraine, and Taiwan, but her explanation why she cast that vote prompted a backlash from supporters of Israel.
Jacobs wrote that the Israel aid bill “will help address the preventable, catastrophic famine that has started in northern Gaza and assist the 1.5 million displaced Palestinians who need immediate food, water, first aid, and shelter in Rafah. While I’m deeply concerned about further military assistance to Israel, I couldn’t in good conscience vote against this lifesaving humanitarian assistance when millions of people around the world are suffering. I’m proud that Democrats demanded including humanitarian assistance as a condition of supporting any package. Going forward, the U.S. must enforce existing law and policy and withhold further offensive weapons to Israel, given the reports of restrictions on humanitarian assistance and significant civilian casualties.”
In response, Jean Gaylis, an active member of the Jewish community, wrote to San Diego Jewish World: “It’s imperative that SD and CA Jews really understand Sara Jacobs and her ‘strategy’ when she votes….given her relationship with her partner and her past voting record.”
Jacobs’ romantic “partner” is Palestinian-Mexican-American former congressional candidate Ammar Campa-Najjar, who sought unsuccessfully the East County seat now occupied by Republican Darrell Issa and also lost a bid to become mayor of Chula Vista.
As related by Wikipedia, “Campa-Najjar’s grandfather Muhammad Youssef al-Najjar, known as ‘Abu Youssef,’ has been the subject of significant controversy. In 1965, while working in Kuwait, Abu Youssef founded Fatah along with Yasser Arafat and other exiled Palestinians. He was long believed to have been affiliated with the Munich massacre [of Israel’s Olympic athletes.] He was among those targeted in Mossad assassinations following the Munich massacre. On April 9, 1973 al-Najjar and his wife were killed in their Beirut, Lebanon apartment in Israeli raid on Lebanon. The attack occurred while their children were home. The Israeli commando team was led by future prime minister Ehud Barak. Campa-Najjar and Barak met in Washington, D.C. in October 2019.
“In February 2018, a book published by Ronen Bergman, Rise and Kill First, challenged the historical assumption that those targeted in Operation Wrath of God were actually behind the Munich massacre. In 2019 in response to this new information, Campa-Najjar withdrew some of the condemnations he had made against his grandfather.”
An angry letter to San Diego Jewish World from Diane Berdugo said, in part: “Sara Jacobs, was one of 43 Democrats that voted against the Congressional declaration that ‘From the river to the sea’ chant is antisemitic.”
Prior to last Saturday’s vote on aid to Israel, Dan Pritsker tabulated Jacobs’ voting record and her stance on various congressional letters affecting Israel. As shown below, it is a mixed record, supportive of Israel in some cases but growing more and more critical of the Jewish state as time went on. It also shows opposition to measures to curb the power of Israel’s arch-nemesis, Iran.
Jacobs serves on two committees that regularly impact Israel: the House Foreign Relations Committee and the House Armed Services Committee.
Date Bill Description Jacobs’ vote or stand
7/18/23 H.Res.57 Expressing the sense of Congress supporting the State of Israel Yes
10/25/23 H.Res.771 Standing with Israel as it defends itself against the barbaric war launched by Hamas and other terrorists Yes
11/1/23 H.Res.559 Declaring it is the policy of the United States that a nuclear Islamic Republic of Iran is not acceptable No
11/2/23 HR6126 Israel Security Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2024 No
11/7/23 H.Res.845 Censuring Representative Rashida Tlaib for promoting false narratives regarding the October 7,2023, Hamas attack on Israel and for calling for the destruction of the State of Israel No
11/28/23 H.Res.793 Calling on Hamas to immediately release hostages taken during October 2023 attack on Israel Yes
11/28/23 H.Res.888 Reaffirming the State of Israel’s right to exist. Yes
12/4/23 HR5961 No Funds for Iranian Terrorism Act No
12/5/23 H.Res.894 Strongly condemning and denouncing the drastic rise of antisemitism in the United States and around the world. Not Voting (Present)
12/13/23 H.Res, 927 Condemning antisemitism on University campuses and the testimony of University Presidents in the House Education Committee. No
1/12/24 HR340 Hamas International Financing Prevention Act. No
1/23/24 Petition Denouncing South Africa’s Claims Against Israel at International Court of Justice. Refused to sign
1/31/24 HR6679 No Immigration Benefits for Hamas Terrorists Act. Yes
2/14/24 H.Res.966 Condemning rape and sexual violence committed by Hamas in its war against Israel Yes
4/5/24 Petition Letter calling on President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken to pause sending more weapons to Israel. Signed
4/17/24 H. Res 883 Expressing he sense of the House of Representatives that the slogan “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” is antisemitic and its use must be condemned. No.
Jacobs’ press secretary, Laura McIlvaine, commented: “Rep. Jacobs has issued over a dozen statements detailing her condemning the Oct. 7th attack including Hamas’ use of sexual violence, supporting Israel’s right to defend itself and providing defensive aid to Israel, and calling for the hostages to be released. She continues to believe that a two-state solution is the best path to long-term safety and security for Israelis and Palestinians. She’s also called for a permanent and immediate ceasefire to deliver much-needed humanitarian aid to Palestinians and to release the hostages. “
McIlvaine included the following statements issued by Jacobs in response to the Oct. 7 massacre by Hamas and the subsequent war in Gaza:
San Diego County’s Jewish community is diverse and includes a spectrum of opinions about Israel, its government, its relations with Arab and other Muslim countries, including Iran. There are supporters here of AIPAC and of JStreet, political action groups that often advocate for opposite U.S. policies toward Israel, AIPAC being the more Zionistic of the two. Just as there is a spectrum of Jewish religious practices, ranging from Chasidic to Humanistic, with many Jewish movements in between, so too do San Diego County Jews reflect a broad range of political opinions from right-wing Conservative to left-wing “Progressive.”
Part of the surprise over Jacobs’ voting record is the role that her grandparents, Qualcomm co-founder Irwin and Joan Jacobs, have played in the financing of Jewish institutions in the county, as well as the role her parents Gary and Jerri-Ann Jacobs have taken in community leadership.
To name just a few of Joan and Irwin Jacobs’ contributions to the Jewish community:
–The Jacobs Campus of the Lawrence Family Jewish Community Center.
–Joan & Irwin Jacobs Campus. Turk Family Center, Jewish Family Service.
–$500,000 Matching Fund for the construction of the Hillel Center at UCSD.
–Jacobs Family Community Hall, Congregation Beth El, San Diego
— Jacobs Technion-Cornell Innovation Institute, New York City
Congresswoman Jacobs’ father, Gary Jacobs, has served as president of the Lawrence Family JCC and of the Jewish Federation of San Diego. He also has served as president of the Jewish Community Centers of North America. He and his wife Jerri-Ann founded the Jacobs Teen Leadership Institute which sponsored trips for American Jews and Israeli Arabs and Jews to Spain and other centers where Muslims and Jews productively coexisted.
Donald H. Harrison is publisher and editor of San Diego Jewish World. He may be contacted via sdheritage@cox.net. This article is republished from San Diego Jewish World
which, along with The Moderate Voice, is a member of the San Diego Online News Association.
Newspapers in California have long claimed that Google is stealing the news by linking to articles when people search, and are demanding payment via a pending Assembly bill.
But when the alleged stealing stops — as happened Friday when Google began testing the removal of California news from search — those same newspapers were even more upset.
=The Riverside Press-Enterprise editorial board called it “a shameful attempt to fend off legislation that would force the search giant to pay for the news content that fuels its business.”
The headline in the San Jose Mercury News was “Google’s threat to cut off news in California is a bully tactic,” though the text of the editorial was exactly the same since both newspapers are among the many now owned by New Jersey-based Alden Capital.
It’s hard not to see the hypocrisy in this stance. Newspapers were once immensely profitable, but failed to transform their businesses when the internet arrived. Search traffic from Google, Facebook and Microsoft helped drive traffic to the papers’ belated websites, but publishers preferred to concentrate on old-fashioned printing.
The result has been a big decline in advertising, plummeting circulation, buyouts by investment firms like Alden and widespread layoffs of journalists. Now newspapers everywhere are looking for a bailout. Accusing Google of theft by linking to articles and demanding payment via legislation has been tried in Spain, Australia, Canada and now in Google’s home state of California.
Assembly Bill 886, the so-called California Journalism Preservation Act, would require the largest tech companies to pay whenever they send the public to newspaper, TV and other news sites via search. The exact language is in flux, but essentially the money would be allocated based on a publication’s share of total links.
Google calls the plan a “link tax,” while the bill calls it a “journalism usage fee” to get around legislative rules regarding new taxes. Publications would be required to use 70% of the payments to hire new journalists, but the remaining 30% represents a hefty profit margin, though recipients will likely plead “overhead costs.”
Here’s a modern analogy of what this bill would do. Let’s say you are an influencer on YouTube and post a video extolling some company’s new product. Both you and Google make money from the associated advertising. Should Google then have to pay the company for use of its name? Or is the company in fact benefiting substantially from your recommendation? The reasoning behind AB 886 suggests that Google should pay.
Independent news websites like Times of San Diego have a stake in this battle. As newspapers and TV reach increasingly smaller audiences, independents have arisen to take their place. While the bill would offer payment to every type of publication, legacy newspapers would benefit far more because Google has indexed their articles for over two decades.
There’s no expectation that business should be fair. Newspapers have a right to seek a new benefit any way that is legal. But as upholders of democracy, one might expect a concern for fairness. Is it fair for California to tax one of its most innovative companies to support a dying, legacy industry? Should Netflix have been taxed to prop up Blockbuster Video?
Amid all the talk about democracy and the future of journalism, it’s hard not to see the fundamental hypocrisy in AB 886 — and view it as just a another political shakedown of big tech companies.
