Weekly roundup of world briefs

Damage from Iran’s Oct. 1 missile barrage tops $40m

(JNS) — The Islamic Republic’s Oct. 1 ballistic missile attack inflicted an estimated 150 million to 200 million shekels ($40 million-$53 million) in damage, according to an initial Israel Tax Authority assessment published on Sunday.

Since the attack, approximately 2,500 compensation claims have been submitted to the Israeli government, including some 2,200 instances of damage to buildings and 300 claims of damage to vehicles and their contents.

The Jewish state has vowed a significant response to Tehran’s second-ever direct attack, in which more than 180 ballistic missiles were fired at Israel. The Israeli military, with the assistance of the United States and Jordan, shot down most of the missiles, with the sole fatality in the attack being a Palestinian who was struck by falling missile debris near Jericho.

Jerusalem’s target list for its retaliatory attack against Iran will likely include military and energy infrastructure, but not nuclear facilities or assassinations, NBC News reported on Saturday, citing U.S. officials.

Jerusalem and Washington are closer to a consensus on the scope of the Israel Defense Forces’ planned retaliatory strike on Tehran, Axios reported on Thursday, citing three U.S. and Israeli officials.

Harvard ‘has no one to blame but itself,’ Torres says after donations dip

(JNS) — Harvard is “confronting a reputational crisis of its own making,” Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.) said on Saturday, responding to the disappointment of the university’s President Alan Garber with its fundraising efforts.

“More disappointing than Harvard’s fundraising is its failure to combat campus antisemitism. Therein lies the true disappointment!” tweeted Torres, adding that the university “has no one to blame but itself.”

More disappointing than Harvard’s fundraising is its failure to combat campus antisemitism. Therein lies the true disappointment!

Speaking ahead of the publication of Harvard’s 2024 financial report late last week, Garber told student paper The Harvard Crimson that some of this year’s donations have been “disappointing compared to past years.

“There are also some indications that we will see improvements in the future,” he said. “I can’t get more specific than that right now.”

Garber was appointed to lead the university until at least 2027, after filling in as the interim president following Claudine Gay’s resignation in January. Gay presided over the Ivy League institution during seething campus tensions over the war between Israel and Palestinian terrorists.

She submitted her resignation following remarks on antisemitism that caused public outrage. Testifying to the House Committee on Education on Dec. 5, Gay said that whether calls to commit genocide against Jews violated Harvard conduct was “context dependent.”

On-campus tensions intensified with an anti-Israel encampment that lasted for 20 days in April and May. The encampment was peacefully dispersed in the wake of an agreement between Harvard and the activists.

Three days after the college’s fall semester began, Harvard students again rallied for a pro-Palestinian protest on Sept. 6. The protest was led by a group named Harvard Out of Palestine, which subsequently held a meeting with Garber and other officials, The Harvard Crimson reported.

Spanish PM urges EU to suspend free trade agreement with Israel

(JNS) — Spain’s prime minister on Monday urged the European Union to suspend the bloc’s free trade agreement with Israel over its military campaigns in Gaza and Lebanon.

Pedro Sanchez requested a response from member states to the requests from Madrid and Dublin to halt the EU-Israel Association Agreement, claiming that Jerusalem actions during the war may violate the agreement’s human rights clause.

The socialist politician also stated Spain’s opposition to Israel’s request for United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon peacekeepers positioned in Southern Lebanon to move out of harm’s way while the Israel Defense Forces conduct combat operations against Hezbollah terrorists embedded nearby.

España condena de forma rotunda la declaración de Netanyahu. No habrá retirada de la FINUL.

“Spain strongly condemns [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu’s statement. There will be no withdrawal of UNIFIL. It is time for the international community to wake up and act decisively. The international order must be based on the rules that we all give ourselves, not on the strength of a few,” said Sanchez.

The Jewish state has been fighting Hamas in Gaza over the past year after the terrorist group led a mass cross-border attack, killing 1,200 people and kidnapping 251 others. 

Jerusalem has recently escalated its response to Hezbollah’s constant cross-border aerial attacks from Lebanon, with the war goal of returning tens of thousands of displaced Israelis to the north.

IAF downs two drones approaching from Syria

(JNS) — The Israeli Air Force on Monday intercepted two unmanned aerial vehicles approaching Israel from Syria.

The drones were downed before crossing into Israeli territory, according to the military.

Last week, Syrian state media reported that an Israeli airstrike targeted a residential building in Damascus, killing seven people and wounding 11 others.

According to Ynet, the target of the strike was Haj Samer, a senior official in Hezbollah’s Unit 4400, responsible for transferring weapons to the terrorist group from Iran and its proxies.

According to the Saudi state-owned Al Arabiya TV channel, the building targeted was frequented by Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Hezbollah officials.

On Sept. 23, Israeli fighter jets intercepted a drone over the southern Golan Heights that had crossed the border from Syria, the fifth such incident in 24 hours.

The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an Iran-backed militia, took credit for the attack, claiming the target of the attack had been a base belonging to the IDF’s Golani Brigade.

In September, at least a dozen Hezbollah operatives were wounded in the Damascus area when their pagers exploded as part of an alleged Israeli attack that also injured more than 2,700 terrorists in Lebanon, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Israel rarely admits to attacks on Syrian territory, although in February Jerusalem revealed that it had attacked more than 50 targets belonging to Hezbollah and other Iran-backed terror groups in Syria since Oct. 7.

Israeli strike kills Radwan missile unit commander

(JNS) — The commander of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force’s anti-tank-missile unit was killed in an airstrike in the Nabatieh area in Southern Lebanon, the IDF announced on Monday afternoon.

Muhammad Kamel Naeem was responsible for planning and carrying out many terrorist attacks, including anti-tank missile attacks against Israeli civilians, the army said.

The latest IDF data published earlier this month shows that more than 800 Hezbollah terrorists have been killed, including 90 commanders, since the Iranian proxy joined the war in support of Hamas on Oct. 8, 2023. (The official tally does not include last month’s deadly communication device explosions targeting Hezbollah operatives, which Jerusalem has not taken responsibility for.)

Man arrested after alleged assault outside Maryland Jewish center

(JNS) — A man was arrested after an alleged assault with a wooden stick outside the Silver Spring Jewish Center, an Orthodox synagogue in Maryland’s Kemp Mill neighborhood, on Monday.

According to statements from witnesses and photos shared on a local Jewish group chat, the man struck two Jews who left the building. The synagogue is part of a complex that includes a day school and nursery, for children from age 2 until second grade. The latter has an armed guard.

Images shared on the chat show a man holding a wooden stake with a pointed edge walking on the street and, subsequently, being handcuffed by multiple Montgomery County Police Department officers wearing blue gloves.

Posts on the chat suggested that the victims were OK. Some posters wrote that the man had mental health issues.

JNS sought a copy of the incident report from Montgomery County police and asked the department for comment on whether Jews are safe in the county, which has a large Jewish population.

US State Department urges American citizens to leave Lebanon immediately

(JNS) — The U.S. Embassy in Lebanon and the U.S. State Department are urging U.S. citizens to exit the country immediately.

“The commercial airport remains open, and there is availability on commercial carriers. Please check flight options at Beirut-Rafic Hariri International Airport,” the State Department said in a Monday alert. “Since Sept. 27, the U.S. government has added thousands of seats in extra capacity to accommodate U.S. citizens and their family members.”

According to the alert, “much of this capacity has gone unused. Please understand that these additional flights will not continue indefinitely.” The State Department can provide loans for exiting as well as emergency passports.

“U.S. citizens who choose not to depart at this time should prepare contingency plans should the situation deteriorate further,” the U.S. Embassy in Lebanon said. “These alternative plans should not rely on the U.S. government for assisted departure or evacuation.”

UK sanctions Iran’s top military leaders, two suppliers of cruise missile components

(JNS) — The United Kingdom imposed sanctions on seven individuals and two organizations for their involvement with Iran’s military.

“Despite repeated warnings, the dangerous actions of Iran and its proxies are driving further escalation in the Middle East,” Foreign Secretary David Lammy said on Monday. “Following its ballistic missile attack on Israel, we are holding Iran to account and exposing those who facilitated these acts.”

London announced sanctions on Farzanegan Propulsion Systems Design Bureau (FPSDB), a designer and manufacturer of engine technology that can be used in cruise missiles; and the Iranian Space Agency, a developer of space launch vehicle technologies with applications for missiles.

Individuals sanctioned include Abdolrahim Mousavi, commander-in-chief of the Islamic Republic of Iran Army; and Mohammad-Hossein Dadras, deputy commander-in-chief of the Iranian Army.

The United Kingdom also named Hamid Vahedi, commander of the Iranian Air Force; and Habibollah Sayyari, head of the Joint Staff of the Iranian Army. Mohammad Kazemi, an intelligence chief with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and Ali-Mohammad Naini, IRGC spokesperson, were also listed.

Houssein Pourfarzaneh, chief engineer of FPSDB, was also sanctioned.

Lammy said that “alongside allies and partners, we will continue to take necessary measures to challenge Iran’s unacceptable threats and press for de-escalation across the region.”

Venture capitalist to support Israeli academic institutions with million-dollar donations

(JNS) — David Magerman, a Jewish philanthropist and managing partner at Differential Ventures, is giving $1 million a piece to Tel Aviv University, Bar-Ilan University, the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology and the Jerusalem College of Technology. He said he plans more fiscal support to help students integrate into science and technology degree programs at Israeli academic institutions.

“My plan is to redirect my philanthropic efforts going forward largely to Israel,” he said in an interview with Fox News Digital. “I don’t see much value generated by giving to American universities.”

The University of Pennsylvania and Stanford University graduate added, “I think that liberal colleges in America are flawed institutions that are doing a poor job of preparing students for the real world.”

Magerman called on Jewish donors to stop funding Ivy League schools and rejected the idea that these institutions were capable of reform.

Hundreds of anti-Israel protesters mob New York Stock Exchange, chant ‘Free Palestine’

(JNS) — New York City Police arrested some 200 pro-Palestinian protesters on Monday morning after they participated in a sit-in outside the New York Stock Exchange on Wall Street, according to news reports.

Protesters chanted “Free Palestine,” “Let Gaza live!” and ”Up up with liberation, down down with occupation!” among other slogans.

No one made it inside the premises, according to the AP. 

The 200 people arrested out of hundreds more breached the security fence outside the exchange, where they sat down and waited to be detained. Footage also shows several protesters—many wearing red shirts with the words “Jews say stop arming Israel”—chained to the black metal fence outside before the exchange opened at 9:30 a.m.

The protest was organized by anti-Zionist, anti-Israel group Jewish Voice for Peace.

Beth Miller, political director of JVP, told the AP they were in attendance to “demand that the U.S. government stop sending bombs to Israel and stop profiting off of Israel’s genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.”

“As Gaza is bombed, Wall Street booms,” wrote the organization in a post on X.

The New York Stock Exchange declined to comment.

Pelosi: Bipartisan support for Israel ‘does not give license to so many dying’

(JNS) — Former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) told CNN that the United States needed to take action to push Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to reduce civilian casualties, referring not to Israelis but Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

“We all support Israel. It is in our national interest, our security interest to do so, our values interest to do so over time,” the longtime California representative said on Monday. “But right now, the leverage that we have given Netanyahu has been used in a way that is most destructive.”

Christiane Amanpour, chief international anchor for the cable-news network, asked Pelosi to explain what that “leverage” meant.

“Well, our support for Israel has always been bipartisan. And we want it to continue to be so in the Congress, in the House, the Senate, the White House as well as among the American people,” she said. “But it does not give license to so many people dying—not combatants, as I said—in the war.”

Pelosi told Amanpour: “We have to again try to strive to bring it to a two-station solution. I emphasize the word ‘solution’ because I’ve said that to Netanyahu; it’s not just a two-state situation, it’s a solution, one that really works out the security, the prosperity, the freedom for the Palestinian people as well as the security of the Israelis.”

Biden admin enabling Israeli ‘genocide’ of Palestinians, Ocasio-Cortez says

(JNS) — Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY.), a member of the so-called “Squad” in Congress, again accused the Jewish state of genocide on Monday.

“The horrors unfolding in northern Gaza are the result of a completely unrestrained Netanyahu government, fully armed by the Biden administration while food aid is blocked and patients are bombed in hospitals,” the politician, who is known as AOC, wrote. “This is a genocide of Palestinians.”

“The United States must stop enabling it,” she added. “Arms embargo now.”

The congresswoman also blamed U.S. President Joe Biden in her message marking the one-year anniversary of Hamas’s Oct. 7 terror attack in southern Israel.