J Street U: Protesters Must Be Protected by the First Amendment, J Street U
“The Trump Administration’s arrest, detention, and threat of deportation of Columbia protest leader and permanent legal resident Mahmoud Khalil, in violation of existing law and without due process, is an affront to the constitutional right to free speech to which everyone, not just American citizens or ideological allies, is entitled.”
A Growing Number of Jewish Groups are Condemning Mahmoud Khalil’s Arrest, The Jewish Telegraphic Agency
“J Street and several other liberal Jewish groups, like a wide array of Democratic politicians, say they’re concerned by the legal implications of detaining and trying to deport a lawful resident of the United States based on his protest activity. That tactic, several worried, could come to also be used against Jews, as it has elsewhere.”
These Are the 21 Slates Us Jews Can Vote for in the World Zionist Congress Election, South Florida Sun Sentinel
“Hatikvah: The Progressive Slate — Endorsed by the umbrella organizations for Renewal and Reconstructionist Judaism, the National Council of Jewish Women and the liberal Israel lobby J Street, Hatikvah, or “the Hope” focuses on religious pluralism, protecting Israeli democratic norms, promoting human rights and opposition to Israeli settlements.”
U.S.-Israel Tensions Over Hamas Meetings Simmer Ahead of Gaza Talks, Axios
“Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told Axios on Monday that President Trump ‘fully backs and supports’ the talks his hostage envoy Adam Boehler held with Hamas. But the administration is also signaling it doesn’t want those talks — and Israel’s anger over them — to block other paths to a Gaza deal.”
Trump Warns That Arrest of Palestinian Activist at Columbia Will Be ‘First of Many’, AP
“President Donald Trump warned Monday that the arrest and possible deportation of a Palestinian activist who helped lead protests at Columbia University will be the first ‘of many to come’ as his administration cracks down on campus demonstrations against Israel and the war in Gaza.”
Rights Groups Call on Israel To Restore Gaza Electricity, The Washington Post
“Rights groups on Monday condemned Israel’s decision to cut off electricity to the Gaza Strip. The move Sunday came nine days after Israel halted all aid into Gaza in an apparent effort to pressure Hamas on negotiations after the first phase of a ceasefire deal expired on March 1.”
Judge Temporarily Blocks Deportation of Arrested Palestinian Columbia Student, Reuters
“A U.S. judge on Monday ordered that Palestinian Columbia student Mahmoud Khalil not be deported for now as part of U.S. President Donald Trump’s crackdown on some anti-Israel protesters, and set a court hearing in the case for Wednesday.”
Israel Strikes Former Assad Regime Bases in Southern Syria, The Times of Israel
“Israeli jets conducted several strikes on Syrian military assets in the southern Daraa province Monday, the latest string of strikes targeting the ousted Assad regime’s infrastructure since the country was taken over by Islamist insurgents. The Israel Defense Forces said it hit assets in southern Syria whose ‘presence… poses a threat to the State of Israel and to IDF operations,’ in order to ‘eliminate future threats.’”
Support for Israel in the United States is Dropping, Substack
Former Director of Jewish Outreach and Policy Advisor for the Harris Campaign Ilan Goldenberg writes, “It is really when Netanyahu returned to office in December 2022 with an extremist right wing coalition that Democratic and Independent support started to dramatically drop. Netanyahu quickly returned to his old playbook of inserting himself into U.S. politics in support of Trump.”
Despite IDF Efforts to Obscure It, Soldiers’ Burden and Doubts Hinder Israel’s Reconquest of Gaza, Haaretz
Amos Harel writes, “All the polls have consistently shown that roughly 70 percent of Israelis support completing the hostage deal even if it entails heavy concessions to Hamas. And for the first time, there seems to be a chance that some reservists won’t report for duty if resuming the fighting is controversial.”
This Is the Greatest Threat to Free Speech Since the Red Scare, The New York Times
Michelle Goldenberg writes, “If someone legally in the United States can be grabbed from his home for engaging in constitutionally protected political activity, we are in a drastically different country from the one we inhabited before Trump’s inauguration.”