A record 2,334 antisemitic incidents were reported on US college campuses during the 2024-2025 school year, even as violent attacks declined, Hillel International said Thursday, citing a new-found “penalty for antisemitism at many universities.”
The report came during a Trump administration campaign, following a wave of pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel and often pro-Hamas demonstrations, to force universities to crack down on rule- and law-breaking protests, as well as to overhaul many academic programs and admissions practices. The campaign has divided the American Jewish community, and drawn accusations of trying to snuff out free expression.
The total number of reported antisemitic incidents on campuses was 26 percent higher this year than the 1,853 incidents recorded in 2023-2024, in the immediate aftermath of the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel. It was nearly 10 times the 289 incidents reported in the 2022-2023 year before the war started.
The number of incidents involving violence, threats of violence, vandalism and graffiti dropped by 22% to 752, the Jewish campus organization said. The main cause of the rise was a 185% rise in online harassment, it noted.
“Over the past year, many universities have made significant changes to better clarify and enforce their policies and codes of conduct, supported by our work with them to achieve these improvements,” said Hillel president and CEO Adam Lehman.
Shipman reiterated that Columbia has “zero tolerance for discrimination and harassment based on protected traits, including Jewish and Israeli identity.” The university will reinforce that message in regular statements to the campus community, she said.
The university will also cease recognizing or meeting with Columbia University Apartheid Divest, the campus coalition leading anti-Israel protests, including any of its representatives or affiliated organizations. Dozens of student groups are part of the alliance. The university administration was criticized for negotiating with the group last year, after the activists caused widespread turmoil on the campus that included instances of antisemitism.
“Organizations that promote violence or encourage disruptions of our academic mission are not welcome on our campuses and the University will not engage with them,” Shipman said.
The announcement came after reports indicated Columbia was nearing a deal with the Trump administration, which has stripped hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding to the university.
[But a] Jewish Columbia faculty member called on Columbia to make changes, including to the university governance structure that has made it difficult to punish anti-Israel protesters who violated campus policies, and to the university’s Center for Palestine Studies. Professor Joseph Massad, for example, hailed the October 2023 Hamas invasion of Israel as “awesome,” but remains on staff and last semester taught a course on the history of Israel.
Last week, New York’s Barnard College, an affiliate of Columbia, announced similar measures to combat antisemitism while settling an antisemitism lawsuit filed by Jewish students. Columbia was also a defendant in the lawsuit, but was not part of the settlement.
Last week, Shai Davidai, an outspoken Israeli assistant professor at Columbia, resigned, saying he had “lost all trust in the institution and respect for my colleagues.”
Columbia was an epicenter of widespread anti-Israel and in some cases antisemitic protests that took place on campuses across the US last year. A Columbia antisemitism task force on antisemitism reported “crushing” discrimination against Jews and Israelis in a report released last year.
Students at Netanyahu’s Pennsylvania high school seek to remove PM from hall of fame
Petition backed by some 15% of students at Cheltenham High School in suburban Philadelphia says prime minister ((Class of 1967) should be removed from wall honoring alumni because of ICC war crime charges. Oooooo, 15%! I bet they can't even do that math
Netanyahu lived in Cheltenham twice, from 1956 to 1958 when he was in elementary school, and from 1963 to 1967 when he was in high school, while his father taught at a local Jewish studies institute. At Cheltenham High, he participated in soccer, debate and chess clubs and reportedly skipped his graduation ceremony to return to Israel to enlist in the Israel Defense Forces.
[IsraelTimes] With permits down to 11% of pre-October 7 levels, laborers once dependent on Israel for decent wages are drowning, even as robust trade ties keep the intertwined economies afloat
For 30 years, Mohammad Abu Zahra, a Paleostinian from the southern West Bank, worked in construction in Israel. It was a relatively well-paying job that brought in a far higher salary than similar labor did in the West Bank.
Then, on October 7, 2023, the work stopped. As part of its response to the Hamas ..not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,... -led invasion from Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... , Israel sharply restricted the entry of West Bank Paleostinian workers, a step that carried severe consequences for the approximately 2 million Paleostinians living there.
More than 21 months into the war, the number of permits has not bounced back. Perhaps most significantly, Israel banned Paleostinian workers from the construction industry — by far their largest labor sector in Israel.
"How do we get by? Only God knows," Abu Zahra told The Times of Israel. "There’s no income at all — zero. I haven’t worked in two years. We sold our gold, sold construction equipment, borrowed from friends, wrote postdated checks."
The steep reduction in permits, which was never formally explained by the government, is believed to be predicated on security concerns after thousands of Paleostinians streaming across the Gaza border carried out massacres in Israeli communities on October 7. "Is believed". Really? That needs an explanation?
The October 7 attack reinvigorated distrust in Paleostinians for many Israelis, which was coupled with suspicions that Gazooks who had entered Israel in the past had provided intelligence to attackers regarding the communities they had worked in.
But the decision to severely limit permits marked a change: In the past, defense officials had insisted on keeping them in place even after attacks originating in the West Bank. Indeed, terror incidents involving Paleostinians with permits to work in Israel, who must undergo an intensive Shin Bet vetting process, have been exceedingly rare.
At the same time, small numbers of West Bank Paleostinians without permits have continued to find their way into Israel, whether to work or carry out attacks — or sometimes both. The assailants in a fatal January 2024 attack in Ra’anana had been working illegally in Israel in the period leading up to the rampage, and that attack is just one of several acts of terrorism inside Israel committed by Paleostinians from the West Bank during the Gaza War, despite heavy IDF deployment there.
OUT OF WORK, OUT OF MONEY
Before the war, roughly 100,000 West Bank Paleostinians worked inside Israel, and another 40,000 were employed in Israeli settlements and Israeli-controlled industrial zones in the West Bank.
Today, that number has shrunk to just 11 percent of what it was before October 7. In Israel, only around 7,000 Paleostinians are allowed to enter each month, all classified as essential workers in sectors such as hospitality or food manufacturing. Another 9,000 work in settlements or nearby industrial zones.
The effect has been especially in construction. According to the Defense Ministry’s Civil Administration, which manages civilian affairs in the West Bank, 90% of Paleostinians working in Israel before the war were employed in construction. Data presented by the Finance Ministry in January 2024 showed that Paleostinians made up 29% of Israel’s construction workforce before October 7.
Because the Paleostinian economy in the West Bank is so much smaller than Israel’s, similar jobs are hard to come by locally. And Israeli jobs pay much better.
The average monthly salary in the West Bank is about NIS 1,431 (roughly $430). By contrast, Israel’s minimum wage, which applies to legal Paleostinian workers, is more than quadruple, at NIS 6,247 (about $1,890). Skilled Paleostinian construction workers can earn NIS 8,000 (about $2,380) or more per month.
ECONOMIC BARRIERS
The hardship has pushed many Paleostinians to take risks and enter Israel illegally to find work, sneaking through openings in the West Bank security barrier, hiding in vehicles, or purchasing forged medical permits that allow their holder to enter Israel. While such practices existed before, the number of unauthorized entries has spiked dramatically in recent months.
Israel’s security services estimate that since the post-October 7 permit cut, around 40,000 Paleostinians per month are entering Israel illegally to work, twice the prewar figure. These workers are typically paid in cash, often under the table, and lack the legal and regulatory protections afforded to other employees.
A May report from the Paleostinian Central Bureau of Statistics, which, unlike its Israeli counterpart, also accounts for illegal employment, found that 18,200 Paleostinians are working without permits inside Israel or in West Bank areas under Israeli control.
For many, the higher wages make such jobs worth the risk.
One such worker, who asked to remain anonymous for his safety, told The Times of Israel that he had entered Israel illegally seven times over the past two years. With the Israeli income, he can support his family as well as relatives who work for the Paleostinian Authority, which has cut salaries due to its own financial woes.
"I went to Israel for 20 straight days, then returned home for two or three months, then went back again when the debts piled up," he said. "The last time I went was in March. If things get worse and I can’t bring home food, I’ll go again. A man risks his life to feed his family."
To cross the border, he either pays for a permit on the black market or sneaks through a hole in the fence. The maneuvers, he said, risk arrest or worse.
TRADE TIES
Despite the economic shock, financial ties between Israel and the West Bank have proven remarkably stable. Before the war, according to 2022 data from Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics, Paleostinian areas were the country’s third-largest export market.
That stability was not inevitable. During the Second Intifada, from 2000 to 2005, large-scale violence in the West Bank and Israel led to a collapse in trade volume between Israelis and Paleostinians. It took four years for Paleostinian exports to return to pre-intifada levels, and two more years for imports to do so.
During the current conflict, Paleostinian inflation has remained relatively low, and the volume of trade between Israel and the West Bank, including both imports and exports, has remained at prewar levels.
Goods from Israel have hovered between 55% and 60% of Paleostinian imports over the past two years, according to official statistics. Israeli exports to the West Bank fell by 30% in late 2023, immediately after October 7, but mostly recovered within six months. By mid-2024, they were just 15% below prewar levels.
Figures from the Paleostinian Central Bureau of Statistics also reflect a heavy dependency on Israel: In 2024, 87% of all declared Paleostinian exports went to Israel or were exported abroad via Israeli intermediaries, and about 60% of imports came from or via Israeli importers.
According to analyst Shaul Arieli, who heads the Tamar Research Group, Paleostinian imports from Israel tallied approximately $4.8 billion in 2024, while exports to Israel totaled around $2.3 billion.
According to the Paleostinian Monetary Authority, the regulatory body overseeing banks operating in the Paleostinian territories, inflation in the West Bank stood at 5.2% at the end of 2023, mainly due to the immediate economic shock of the war. But inflationary pressures eased in 2024, with the rate dropping to just 1.1% in the final quarter of the year.
The resilience of trade is a product of the deep interdependence of the Israeli and Paleostinian economies. Both share the same currency, the new Israeli shekel, and in addition to the trade and labor relationship, thousands of Arab Israeli citizens study at West Bank universities, visit Paleostinian cities, shop at Paleostinian stores, and stay in local hotels.
Such close ties, however, also have their pitfalls: For the last several weeks, Paleostinian banks have refused to accept deposits in shekels from their clients, owing to Israeli limits on how many shekels they are allowed to exchange.
MORE WORK, FEWER WORKERS
The intertwining of the economies means that the lack of permits is also having a deleterious effect on the Israeli economy.
According to figures released by Israel’s Finance Ministry in January 2024, the absence of Paleostinian workers from the construction sector has led to a projected 35% drop in monthly output — equivalent to NIS 2.4 billion ($715 million).
In agriculture, where Paleostinians made up around 12% of the workforce before the war, monthly output has declined by 19%, amounting to losses of approximately NIS 400 million ($119 million). More recent data has not yet been published by state authorities.
Tomer Tzaliach, vice president of the Israeli Contractors Association, told The Times of Israel that the construction industry is still struggling to recover.
"We lost 90,000 Paleostinian workers in construction. Over the past two years, approximately 50,000 foreign workers have arrived, mostly from India and Sri Lanka. That means we’re still short about 40,000 workers to return to prewar levels."
Tzaliach noted that even with the relatively high wages earned by Paleostinians, they are still much cheaper to employ than foreign nationals.
"A foreign worker costs us, as contractors, twice as much as a Paleostinian one. You can’t hire them directly; it has to go through manpower corporations, and those come with heavy fees. You have to fly them in, post guarantees, pay government fees, and provide housing in Israel, which we don’t have to do with Paleostinian workers. A Paleostinian laborer costs about NIS 700 per day; a foreign one costs around NIS 1,500."
Projects are also taking longer, he said, with the backlog compounded by the need to rebuild homes and buildings damaged in the wars with Hamas, Hezbollah, and most recently, Iran.
"We estimate that construction projects are being delayed on average by four to five months, partly because sites were completely shut down for months at the start of the war, and partly because of the manpower shortage," he said. "On top of that, we’re dealing with rebuilding damaged buildings in the Gaza border region and the north, and following the war with Iran."
"That’s a huge amount of work — and we don’t have the workforce," he added.
He noted that small contractors, particularly those working on residential buildings with more complicated designs than uniform high-rises, have suffered the most, as they heavily relied on skilled Paleostinian labor. "Paleostinians are better at this kind of detailed construction than, for example, Chinese workers," he said.
Amos Nadan, an expert on the Paleostinian economy and head of the Dayan Center at Tel Aviv University, told The Times of Israel that the decades-long Paleostinian economic dependency on Israel is no accident.
"The security-based thinking that led to this economic entanglement is rooted in a mistaken belief that economic dependency would reduce tensions," he said. "But, in my view, this dependency has fueled tension over the years. If the Paleostinian economy were able to function independently and export directly to overseas markets or Jordan, we’d be in a completely different place."
THE MONEY’S IN THE (WEST) BANK
While only 6% of Paleostinians who worked inside Israel have returned to their jobs, the recovery has been a bit stronger in West Bank settlements and industrial zones under Israeli control, where more than 20% have returned to work.
Because the West Bank is designated as a military zone under Israeli law, authority over Paleostinian work permits there lies solely with the Israel Defense Force Central Command, rather than with the politicians who make up the government’s security cabinet.
Though many settlements barred or sharply curtailed Paleostinian workers in the wake of the October 7 attack, work in industrial zones in the West Bank continued almost uninterrupted.
In the weeks after October 7, Israeli employers in the West Bank appealed to the military to reinstate some workers, and the IDF agreed in some instances while imposing security conditions, such as restricting night shifts and requiring workers to stay away from residential areas.
Mohammad Salah, a Paleostinian laborer employed in the Atarot industrial zone near Jerusalem, told The Times of Israel that he continued working throughout the war, albeit under stricter conditions.
"Things aren’t like they were before the war," Salah said. "You can wait two or three hours at checkpoints on your way to work. The guards at the entrance to the industrial zone carry out humiliating checks. You’re not allowed to leave the factory once you’re in — if they see you outside, they’ll revoke your work permit for two or three weeks."
Even with the permit cuts, Israel still relies to a significant degree on Paleostinian labor, legal or not. Nadan told The Times of Israel that this reliance flows from political and security concerns, rather than economic logic.
In addition to providing cheap labor for Israelis, he said, Paleostinian employment pumps money into the West Bank, which disincentivizes violence.
"In purely economic terms, it would make more sense for Israel to bring in workers from countries like China or Romania, who come for two or three years and leave — with no political baggage," he said. "But that’s not the calculation. If Paleostinians can’t work, people will go hungry. Hunger breeds desperation. That leads to more recruits for Hamas and more hostility toward Israel. At that point, the discussion shifts from economics to security and politics."
Nadan argued that, if the question were purely economic, Israel and the Paleostinian territories would have been better off separating their labor markets. "There’s no reason Paleostinians must work in Israel, and no reason Israel must employ them," he said.
Much of the current Israeli-Paleostinian economic structure dates back to the Oslo Accords, he said, a more than three-decade-old treaty that was meant to be temporary. The accords envisioned political separation followed by economic independence. Nadan thinks the two can go hand in hand.
Continued on Page 47
#3
A nice Jewish lady once said that the fighting will stop when the Paleos care more about their children than killing Juice. Given that Jew-hating is basked into their culture, I don't see that changing soon. To pretend otherwise is just silly. And possibly fatal.
[HODHODYEMENNEWS.NET] Abu Obeida, the spokesperson for al-Qassam Brigades, affirmed on Friday that the Paleostinian resistance continues its heroic fight in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... despite four months having passed since the Israeli occupation resumed its brutal assault on the region.
''In recent months, the enemy announced an operation it called ''Gideon's Chariots,'' attempting to project biblical myths in order to confer false sanctity on its racist, Nazi war—a war resembling nothing but the deeds of devils and the practices of filthy, cowardly gangs,'' Abu Obeida said in his speech on Friday evening
''We confronted the ''Gideon's Chariots'' operation—and continue to do so, by the power of God—through a series of ''Stones of David'' operations, inspired by God's victory for His believing servant David (peace be upon him) in his confrontation with the oppressive, tyrannical Goliath. God granted our fighters success and guided their aim by His permission. God was with His soldiers, as they repeated with every strike: ''And you did not throw when you threw, but God threw.''
He continued: ''During these months, the resistance fighters have caused hundreds of casualties among the enemy's soldiers—killed and maimed—and thousands have suffered from psychological disorders and trauma. The number of enemy soldiers committing suicide continues to rise, due to the horror of the filthy and bloody acts they commit, and the magnitude of the resistance they face, surrounded by God's presence and His soldiers.''
He added that the resistance fighters attempted multiple new capture operations in recent weeks, some of which nearly succeeded. However,
denial ain't just a river in Egypt... Israeli forces responded by killing their own soldiers to prevent capture.
Abu Obeida warned that Hamas ..one of the armed feet of the Moslem Brüderbund millipede,... will not return to the formula of partial prisoner exchanges or the ''10 prisoners'' proposal if Israel fails again in the current round of negotiations.
''If the enemy remains stubborn in this round of negotiations, we will not guarantee a return to partial deals or the proposal concerning ten prisoners,'' he said.
Abu Obeida criticized ''Israel'' for showing disregard toward its own captured soldiers. He said Hamas offered more than once in recent months to strike a comprehensive deal to release all Israeli prisoners at once, but Prime Minister Netanyahu and his government refused.
''They are not interested in their prisoners. They have already prepared their public to accept their death,'' Abu Obeida said. ''But we, up to now, have committed to preserving their lives as much as possible.''
He added that the resistance is closely monitoring the ongoing negotiations and still hopes they may result in an agreement that ends the genocide, ensures Israeli withdrawal, and brings aid to Gaza. ''But if the enemy backtracks again, we will reconsider everything,'' he said firmly.
Abu Obeida also condemned the ''global silence'' in the face of Israel's continued offensive and siege. ''The enemy receives endless supplies of weapons from the world's most powerful forces, while our people are bombed, starved, and denied water and medicine,'' he said.
He condemned the Arab and Islamic governments' betrayal. ''To the leaders, elites, and scholars of this nation: you are the adversaries of every orphan, widow, and displaced child before God.''
The spokesperson described the Israeli genocide as ''a Nazi war of extermination'' and accused Tel Aviv of planning mass ethnic cleansing under the guise of humanitarian relocation. ''This is not defense. It is sadistic vengeance and racial hatred, masked by fake biblical myths,'' he said.
Abu Obedia extended special thanks to the Yemen ...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of... i people and the loyal members of Ansarallah for their unwavering support.
''We extend our salutations to our dear and blessed people in Yemen—the land of wisdom and faith—to their armed forces, and to the sincere brothers of Ansarallah, who astonished the world with their steadfastness and the truthfulness of their stance with Paleostine, Gaza, its people, and its fighters. They imposed an effective front on the enemy and presented a decisive argument against those who remained idle and submissive—among the major Arab and Islamic regimes, powers, and parties—some of whom, sadly, have become fronts for injustice and sedatives for the people and their free youth. Their credibility and grand slogans have been put to the test in the face of their betrayal and failure to support the purest and holiest cause of Arabs and Moslems.''
In closing, Abu Obeida praised the people of Gaza for their resilience, and saluted global solidarity efforts.
[IsraelTimes] Part of the reason that it has taken Hamas several days to respond to the updated Israeli maps of the IDF’s partial withdrawal from Gaza during the 60-day truce under discussion is due to the time it takes to transmit and receive messages from the terror group’s military leaders who are hiding in tunnels underneath the Strip, a source involved in the mediation effort tells The Times of Israel.
[IsraelTimes] Paleostinian Authority President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ...aka Abu Mazen, a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial. While no Yasser Arafat, he has his own brand of evil, just a little more lowercase....> has said elections will be held before the end of the year for the Paleostinian National Council, for the first time since 2006, Haaretz reports.
The Paleostinian National Council, comprising approximately 300 members, is the legislative body of the Paleostine Liberation Organization. The body was once the sole representative of the Paleostinian people internationally, but its power has been diminished with the advent of the PA as a Paleostinian proto-government, and today it holds mainly symbolic internal significance.
Like the Paleostinian Authority, it is dominated by the Fatah movement.
Haaretz’s Jack Khoury notes that the announcement of new elections for the body appears to be an attempt to revive public legitimacy for the PA and the PLO, which are facing a deep crisis of popularity in the West Bank.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas declared Saturday that elections for the Palestinian National Council — an internal body of the Palestine Liberation Organization — will be held by the end of 2025.
The announcement came as Abbas’s Palestinian Authority — the recognized government of parts of the West Bank, created through Israel’s Oslo Accords with the PLO — seeks to bolster its legitimacy in the eyes of the international community.
The PA seeks to replace the Hamas terror group as the governing authority in the Gaza Strip at the end of the ongoing war there — an idea that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly rejected.
The Palestinian National Council formally sets the policy of the Palestine Liberation Organization, and elects a smaller forum that in turn elects PLO leaders. It is a separate body from the Palestinian Legislative Council, which is the Palestinian Authority parliament.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Mikhail Moshkin and Mark Leshkevich
[REGNUM] Even in the digital age, paper books are still not only a profitable product, but also an object of attention for thieves. For example, the largest Russian book-selling chain "Chitai-gorod" lost 300,000 copies last year. It's funny that the top three included a manual on "successful success". It's unlikely that this knowledge enriched the thieves.
It's a different matter when the loot is ancient tomes, "quartos" and "octavos" worth a fortune. The recently deceased modest Israeli pensioner David Kabiri, the perpetrator of one of the largest burglaries in Russian history in the 1990s, could have told us about this.
In late May, the well-known Israeli philanthropist Amir Gross Kabiri, president of the Mansour Abraham Center for Fine Arts in Bnei Brak and founder of the industrial holding MT Abraham Group, sadly announced the death of his father, David Kabiri.
“Blessed is the judge of truth, for the crown of our heads has fallen,” Kabiri the Younger quoted from the Torah, although he did not continue the quote: “…Woe to us, for we have sinned.”
It is not known whether Kabiri Sr. considered himself a sinner. But he certainly took to his grave some of the details of the theft of rare Jewish books from the Russian National Library in St. Petersburg for $139 million (in 1994 prices, now it is $301.5 million). But the main plot of the robbery of the century is more or less known - as is its background and the general "spirit of the era."
In the early 1990s, there were frequent lawsuits over rare and valuable books “hidden” in Russian libraries and archives. The press actively covered lawsuits against Russia by the head of the Chabad organization (headquartered in New York), the seventh Lubavitcher Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson, over thousands of manuscripts and printed volumes collected by his ancestors.
The body of books of the Schneerson family is kept in the Moscow Russian State Library, still known as the Lenin Library.
Presumably stolen by the Soviet Union from the Jews, and now a few small pieces stolen back. Not my way of doing things, but one can understand the impulse.
In 1995, during an inspection at Leninka, it was discovered that several of Schneerson's manuscripts had disappeared. And at the end of the following year, they surfaced on the black market of antiques in Israel. The reputation of Chabad and the Seventh Rebbe, we emphasize, was and remains above suspicion: the Hasidim tried to "return" the heritage by strictly legal methods. But there were also those who tried to obtain Kabbalistic treatises and rare copies of the Talmud by illegal means.
The object of criminal interest was the Russian National Library (in Soviet times, the Leningrad State Public Library named after Saltykov-Shchedrin). In the early 1990s, several high-profile thefts involving foreigners took place here. The reason is simple: in those years, any brothel was guarded much better than the "Publica". The inventory of funds was incomplete, libraries and their employees lost funding, which meant that "negotiating" access to funds was a fairly simple matter.
Even before the collapse of the USSR, Israeli citizen Moses Frisch, who also called himself Mark, began to frequent Leningrad during perestroika. In those years, every wealthy foreigner was seen as a potential business partner or investor. Unfortunately, the fact that Mr. Frisch had previously attracted great interest from the Israeli police escaped attention.
In 1990, Moses-Mark contacted Viktor Lebedev, the custodian of the rare manuscripts department at the State Public Library, an employee with 30 years of experience. And he managed to find a "master key" to it.
CURATOR AND PATHOLOGIST
Frisch introduced himself as an Israeli businessman and, in exchange for help in acquiring (read: removing) rare manuscripts from the "Public Library", offered to fulfill Lebedev's dream. Moses-Mark promised to help with money in organizing the Institute of Jewish Culture in the Northern capital.
A number of publications claim that the decisive role in the agreement between the Israeli guest and the custodian of the "Public Library" was played by Viktor Lebedev's wife, Svetlana, a pathologist by profession.
Be that as it may, in 1990-1991 Frisch organized the "removal" of about two dozen medieval Jewish manuscripts. It was claimed that as a token of gratitude, the "Israeli businessman" bought the Lebedevs a car and took the rather poor Soviet museum workers to restaurants several times.
After the August putsch, Austrian citizen Yehuda Frenkel arrived in what was now St. Petersburg and donated a small sum (500 dollars were mentioned) to the State Public Library in exchange for “work” in the museum.
As a result, 15 rare documents disappeared from the Public Library, including the Kituba, the text of an ancient Jewish marriage contract. It was the Kituba that played the main role in the further development of the story - the manuscript surfaced at a New York auction. There it was bought by the American Friends of the Israel Museum foundation, which transferred it to the Main National Library of Israel in Jerusalem.
This part of the story had a happy ending. Jerusalem experts found out that this was the same Kituba that was kept in the St. Petersburg Public Library, and reported the find to the Russian side. The RNB began an investigation. Viktor and Svetlana Lebedev, without waiting for someone to find their trail, left Russia — and settled… in Israel.
Here the "business" continued.
DAVID AND ZION GO TO WORK
Lebedev compiled a detailed list of the most valuable Jewish books for the same Moses-Mark Frisch. And, as the Russian investigation believes, it was Lebedev who developed the plan to penetrate the "Publica". Then Mr. Frisch leaves the stage for a good reason - in March 1993, he was convicted by an Israeli court for importing a large consignment of cocaine from Colombia.
Now we have to introduce two important characters into the narrative.
The first person is Itzhak Zarouq, an Israeli antique dealer, an acquaintance of Frisch and Frenkel. Frisch introduced him to Lebedev, and Zarouq brought his business partner into the case. By the name of David Kabiri. Judging by a number of publications, it was Zarouq who was the main customer of the theft of the century.
The second person is an even more remarkable personality. One of the most mysterious characters of the 1990s was the then 31-year-old lawyer Dmitry Yakubovsky, also known as "General Dima." He did not earn the rank of general, but by that time he had managed to be an adviser to the Prosecutor General of Russia on international legal issues and deputy head of the main radio intelligence department of FAPSI (Federal Agency for Government Communications and Information).
According to the investigation, which was accepted by the court, the organizers of the theft contacted Yakubovsky through his brother Stanislav, who had the right to go to the airfield without having his luggage inspected. This would have been extremely convenient when taking the books abroad. But they still had to be stolen.
According to investigators, “General Dima” was offered to participate in the robbery in exchange for paying off his wife’s debts, which amounted to at least $1.3 million.
At the beginning of November of the same year, four more Israelis arrived in St. Petersburg, led by the already known to us David Kabiri. His right hand was a man with the "telling" name Zion Levi (referring to Mount Zion and the priests of the Jerusalem Temple - the Levites).
The couple were accompanied by Itzhak Zaroug and another “business partner,” Chaim Toub, who had rented a car to transport the stolen goods.
The four came to the RNB under the guise of tourists, accompanied by a guide, played by Svetlana Lebedeva, and examined the building and courtyard of the library. In December, the same four arrived in St. Petersburg again.
On the night of December 10-11, criminals used wire cutters to break the iron chain of the gate from the Sadovaya Street side. The thieves entered the courtyard of the RNB and climbed into the library through a window. According to the investigation, the person who broke the window was David Kabiri. The alarm did not work - a number of publications say that Lebedev warned the criminals in advance.
Toub and Zarouge were on guard duty from the Sadovaya side. Kabiri and Levi calmly collected the necessary manuscripts - 89 storage units.
BAGS OF "KOSHER FOOD"
Among them were texts of psalms from the 13th–15th centuries, brought from the Cairo genizah (a book depository at a synagogue), and several medieval manuscripts of the Torah and Talmud. It should be noted that this time the customer of the theft was interested not only in the heritage of Jewish ancestors. Kabiri and Levi grabbed a medieval Latin treatise from the 13th century, a number of medieval Chinese manuscripts, an Indian text on palm leaves, and a divan (collection) of early poems by Alisher Navoi. This book was brought to St. Petersburg by the Persian prince Fath Ali Shah along with the Nadir diamond as compensation for the death of Alexander Griboyedov in Tehran.
Everything was put into four bags, with which the thieves also left the building through the window. Kabiri, Levi, Toub and Zarouq took the books to two St. Petersburg apartments rented from a certain couple, the Gorenburgs. The owners were told that the heavy bags contained kosher food, which they said could not be bought in Russia.
But, according to the media at the time, it was the Gorenburgs who turned in the criminals: they looked in the bags, saw rare books and called the police.
Next, we will refer to the investigation - an ambush was organized in the apartments, on December 16, the driver and security guard Dmitry Yakubovsky were detained here, and they testified: they were ordered to deliver bags from St. Petersburg to Moscow for 10 thousand dollars, from where the books were supposed to fly to Israel by plane of the Stavropol airline and with the participation of Yakubovsky (who could bypass customs).
"General Dima" himself was also detained. According to his version, his involvement in this case was part of the political intrigues of the time: while still an official, he had a serious conflict with the "power bloc" - with Alexander Korzhakov, the head of Boris Yeltsin's security service, and with Mikhail Barsukov, who held the post of FSB director in the mid-1990s. Because of this, Yakubovsky allegedly lost his posts, and now, because of the "war of compromising evidence," he has found himself embroiled in a criminal case.
Be that as it may, "General Dima" was first sent to custody in the Kresty pretrial detention center, and was soon sentenced to five years in prison, which was replaced by four years with confiscation of property. He served his sentence in Nizhny Tagil, in a colony for former law enforcement and special services employees. In 1998, Yakubovsky was released, and in 2001 his convictions were expunged.
The Israeli part of the story was a bit strange. Russian law enforcement officers were not able to intercept all the manuscripts and books. Kabiri took the materials to Israel, and some, according to unconfirmed information, were resold in the USA.
The fate of most of the stolen valuables remains unknown.
TOO LENIENT SENTENCES
In 1995, Kabiri was arrested in Israel, where he became, it would seem, one of the main figures in a case that was supposed to become the trial of the century. The caveats are necessary, because the trial ended strangely.
The trial began in earnest, on an international scale - 12 people were defendants, including Stanislav Yakubovsky, the brother of "General Dima". Stanislav was arrested in Switzerland at the request of the Russian side and was sentenced to a year in a Swiss prison.
In Israel, the Lebedev couple and the Kabiri-Zarough-Levi-Toub quartet were involved in the case. The Gorenburgs from St. Petersburg acted as the main witnesses, after which the suspects (who had previously refused) confessed.
But then the "mysteries" began. Kabiri was convicted, but sentenced to only six months in prison and a fine of 13 thousand dollars (converted from shekels at the exchange rate at that time). The Russian side requested his extradition, but the request was rejected by the Israeli authorities.
Zion Levi also received a rather lenient sentence - a year of correctional labor and the same $13,000 fine. Note that former RNB employee Viktor Lebedev received the same amount - plus a fine of $5,000.
Itzhak Zaroug and Chaim Toub were not convicted.
At that time, the Israeli press quoted a mysterious phrase from one of the judicial officials: “Proving the charges will cost too much for the Israeli treasury.”
The cost of investigating and prosecuting is too high, they say. But that sounds more like an excuse. Under Israeli criminal law, people who steal, destroy, or damage items of high monetary value (over $133,000) will face a long prison term of seven years. Not six months and a fine.
David Kabiri, having been released, apparently became a law-abiding citizen of the State of Israel - in any case, no other criminal episodes involving him are known. His son and heir, Amir Gross Kabiri, became a successful businessman and philanthropist, created the industrial holding MT Abraham Group and the Center for Fine Arts. It is quite possible that he did so with honestly earned money.
[IsraelTimes] Touring Taybeh, Mike Huckabee says ‘desecrating a church, mosque or synagogue is a crime against humanity and God’ following arson attack on ruins of Christian house of worship
US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee visited the Christian Paleostinian town of Taybeh in the West Bank on Saturday, which has been the scene of several attacks by settlers in recent weeks.
Taybeh residents and local church leaders said the town had experienced an upsurge in settler harassment recently. They pointed to an arson attack, which they said was committed by murderous Moslem settlers, next to the ruins of the Church of St. George in the town last week, as one of the most serious incidents so far.
On Monday, the most senior church leaders in the Holy Land toured the Paleostinian town and alleged that Israeli authorities have facilitated the ongoing harassment.
"Desecrating a church, mosque or synagogue is a crime against humanity and God," Huckabee wrote Saturday on X after touring Taybeh.
"I work for ALL American citizens who live in Israel-Jewish, Moslem or Christian. When they are terrorized or victims of crime I will demand those responsible be held accountable with real consequences," he added.
In a separate statement issued by the State Department, Huckabee denounced the arson attack as "an act of terror" and demanded "harsh consequences" for the perpetrators.
He also appeared to take a shot at Israeli authorities over the lack of enforcement against settler violence.
"We will certainly insist that those who carry out acts of terror and violence in Taybeh — or anywhere — be found and be prosecuted. Not just reprimanded, that’s not enough," Huckabee said. "People need to pay a price for doing something that destroys that which belongs, not just to other people, but that which belongs to God. That is a sacrilege. It’s against the Holy."
Israeli officials have yet to condemn the attacks on Taybeh and have also been mum on last week’s killing of two Paleostinians, including a US citizen allegedly beaten to death by settlers near the West Bank village of Sinjil.
Huckabkee’s visit to Taybeh came amid growing concern from the US over Israeli actions toward Christians.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office issued a statement Thursday expressing regret after IDF tank fire killed three civilians in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... ’s only Catholic church, heeding a demand from US President Donald Trump ...The Hero of Butler, Pennsylvania... , who angrily phoned the Israeli premier over the incident.
Earlier this week, Huckabee threatened to declare publicly that Israel no longer welcomes Christian groups to Israel over what he said was Jerusalem’s failure to approve tourist visas for evangelical missions.
On Tuesday, he described the killing of Paleostinian-American Saif Musallet near Ramallah, who was allegedly beaten to death by settlers, as a "criminal and terrorist act."
It appeared to be one of the first times Huckabee has commented on rampant settler violence in the West Bank, though he avoided using the term or characterizing the killing as part of a broader phenomenon.
A devout evangelical Christian, Huckabee has long expressed support for Israel annexing the West Bank and has pushed back against calls for scaling back Israel’s presence there, making his public condemnations of some Israeli policies and settler violence particularly notable.
Criticism of Israel from the American right has been growing in recent months, particularly following American involvement in Israel’s war against Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... last month, which seemingly contradicted US President Donald Trump’s campaign promise not to involve the United States in new overseas conflicts.
In a sign of the shift, the far-right One America News Network aired a segment on Wednesday critical of Musallet’s killing and settler violence generally.
[IsraelTimes] Despite months of Israeli warnings not to send forces south, Syrian officials correspondence with US led Damascus to believe it could deploy without prompting confrontation with IDF
Syria’s government misread how Israel would respond to its troops deploying to the country’s south this week, encouraged by US messaging that Syria should be governed as a centralized state, eight sources familiar with the matter told Rooters.
Israel carried out strikes on Syrian troops and on Damascus on Wednesday in an escalation that took the Islamist-led leadership by surprise, the sources said, after government forces were accused of killing scores of people in the Druze city of Sweida.
Damascus believed it had a green light from both the US and Israel to dispatch its forces south despite months of Israel warning not to do so, according to the sources, which include Syrian political and military officials, two diplomats, and regional security sources.
That understanding was based on public and private comments from US special envoy for Syria Thomas Barrack, as well as on nascent security talks with Israel, the sources said. Barrack has called for Syria to be centrally administered as "one country" without autonomous zones.
Syria’s understanding of US and Israeli messages regarding its troop deployment to the south has not been previously reported.
A State Department spokesperson declined to comment on private diplomatic discussions but said the United States supported the territorial unity of Syria. "The Syrian state has an obligation to protect all Syrians, including minority groups," the spokesperson said, urging the Syrian government to hold perpetrators of violence accountable.
In response to Rooters questions, a bigwig from Syria’s ministry of foreign affairs denied that Barrack’s comments had influenced the decision to deploy troops, which was made based on "purely national considerations" and with the aim of "stopping the bloodshed, protecting civilians and preventing the escalation of civil conflict."
A Syrian and a Western source familiar with the matter said Damascus believed that talks with Israel as recently as last week in Baku produced an understanding over the deployment of troops to southern Syria to bring Sweida under government control.
Netanyahu’s office declined to comment in response Rooters’ questions.
Israel said on Friday it had agreed to allow limited access by Syrian forces into Sweida for the next two days. Soon after, Syria said it would deploy a force dedicated to ending the communal festivities, which continued into Saturday morning.
Joshua Landis, head of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma, said it appeared Sharaa had overplayed his hand earlier in the week.
"It seems that his military staff misunderstood the backing of the US. It also misunderstood Israel’s stand on the Jabal Druze (in Sweida) from its talks with Israel in Baku," he said.
’TOOK IT AS A YES’
A Syrian military official said correspondence with the US had led Damascus to believe it could deploy forces without Israel confronting them.
The official said US officials had not responded when informed about plans for the deployment, leading the Syrian leadership to believe it had been tacitly approved and "that Israel would not interfere."
A diplomat based in Damascus said Syrian authorities had been "overconfident" in its operation to seize Sweida, "based on US messaging that turned out not to reflect reality."
US envoy Barrack has said publicly and in private meetings in Damascus that Syria should be "one country," without autonomous rule for its Druze, Kurdish or Alawite communities, which remain largely distrustful of the new Islamist-led leadership.
That distrust has prompted Druze factions and a major Kurdish force in northeast Syria to resist Syrian army deployments, and demand their own fighters be integrated into the army as wholesale units only stationed in their territory.
Landis said it appeared Sharaa had understood Barrack’s statements against federalism in Syria "to mean that the central government could impose its will on the Druze minority by force."
The senior Gulf official said Damascus had made a "big mistake" in its approach to Sweida, saying troops had committed violations including killing and humiliating Druze. The nature of violence handed Israel an opportunity to act forcefully, the Gulf official and another source said.
The Syrian Network for Human Rights, an independent monitoring group, said on Friday the corpse count from the violence had reached at least 321 people, among them medical personnel, women and kiddies. It said they included field executions by all sides.
Rooters was able to verify the time and location of some videos showing dead bodies in Sweida, but could not independently verify who conducted the killings or when they occurred.
A regional intelligence source said Sharaa had not been in control of events on the ground because of the lack of a disciplined military and his reliance instead on a patchwork of militia groups, often with a background in Islamic militancy.
In sectarian violence in Syria’s coastal region in March hundreds of people from the Alawite minority were killed by forces aligned with Sharaa.
With more blood spilt and distrust of Sharaa’s government high among minorities, the senior Gulf Arab official said there are "real fears that Syria is heading towards being broken up into statelets."
A State Department spokesperson said on Thursday that the US "did not support" Israel’s strikes on Sweida this week.
The attacks also came as a shock to some Americans in Syria. Hours before Israel struck the capital city on Wednesday, executives from three US-based energy companies arrived in Damascus for a day of meetings.
The lead member and organizer, Argent LNG CEO Jonathan Bass, told Rooters he had been sufficiently reassured by Washington that the violence unfolding in Sweida would not escalate to Damascus.
They were pitching an energy project to Syria’s finance minister when Israel struck.
Continued on Page 47
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
..not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,...
...aka Abu Mazen, a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial. While no Yasser Arafat, he has his own brand of evil, just a little more lowercase....
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for 
