Violence is Violence: WASHINGTON A private WhatsApp group of Columbia University alumni and pro-Israel activists has been exposed as a hub for efforts to identify, target, and potentially deport students and faculty involved in protests in solidarity with Palestine. According to a report published by The Intercept on Saturday, members of the group, which includes more than 1,000 individuals, have actively discussed how to report pro-Palestinian protesters to law enforcement and US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The group, Columbia Alumni for Israel, has frequently targeted Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim students, suggesting that their protests are signs of "support for Hamas" and calling for deportations of foreign students involved, according to the screenshots from the group obtained by The Intercept. The group had already been discussing deporting Gaza protesters, but after President Donald Trump's executive order, "Additional Measures to Combat Anti-Semitism," which paved the way for the deportation of students involved in pro-Palestine demonstrations, members circulated flyers promoting a pro-Palestine Jan. 21 walkout, the report said. One exchange, cited in the report, reveals group members strategizing how to help ICE identify students on visas by sharing photos and utilizing advanced technology to do so. Lynne Bursky-Tammam, a former assistant professor at Columbia’s Teachers College, was quoted as saying, "Identifying the Columbia student-Hamas-sympathizers who show up is key to deporting those with student visas." Victor Muslin, another alumnus, responded by urging group members to identify students who may be involved in the protests. "If there are photos of someone who needs to be identified (even with a partially obscured face), I have access to tech that may be able to help," Muslin stated, according to The Intercept report, citing screenshots from the WhatsApp group. In late January, a group member shared an article about students protesting Israel’s killing of 6-year-old Hind Rajab, and Bursky-Tammam responded, questioning who funded the protesters and stating, “Arresting them for hate crimes is not enough. We have to get rid of them.” The Intercept said Bursky-Tammam declined to comment on the report and Muslin did not respond to requests for comment. Anadolu was unable to independently verify the WhatsApp messages. In January, Trump issued an executive order ordering the US government to use “all available and appropriate legal tools” to combat anti-Semitism, including prosecuting and removing those accused of "unlawful anti-Semitic harassment". The measure paved the way for student-led anti-war demonstrations that have erupted on college campuses in response to Israel’s military assault on Gaza, which has killed more than 48,000 people, mostly women and children. - Targeting US citizens through other legal means Although the majority of students involved in the protests are US citizens and thus exempt from deportation, the group members discussed tactics for targeting them through other legal means, including “material support for terror organizations.” Civil rights organizations, including the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, have voiced alarm over what they see as an infringement on students' First Amendment rights. "It’s a very dangerous precedent,” said Abed Ayoub, executive director of the committee, emphasizing the broader effort to silence Palestinian and Arab voices critical of Israel’s actions in Gaza. Columbia University has faced intense criticism for its handling of protests, particularly after President Nemat "Minouche" Shafik called in the New York Police Department to disperse pro-Palestinian demonstrators on campus in April 2024. The move sparked a wave of pro-Palestinian protests at universities in New York City and nationwide, with thousands of students standing in solidarity with Columbia students and calling on their universities for total divestment from Israel. Anadolu reached out to Columbia University for comment on the report and inquired whether any students had been deported but did not receive an immediate response.
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In a modern sense this place was the garden of Eden. Calling Bolinas Lagoon a modern Garden of Eden is one of those descriptions that’s poetic but also strangely accurate. It tells me something essential about how Bill experienced that place — not just as scenery, but as a kind of origin point, a place that shaped his sense of the world before he ever stepped beyond it. Let me show you why that comparison works so well. 🌿 1. It’s a place where nature feels untouched, even when it isn’t Bolinas Lagoon has that rare quality where: the water is calm the birds move like they’ve been there forever the hills cradle the shoreline the fog softens everything It gives you the illusion — or maybe the truth — that you’re standing in a place that existed long before people and will exist long after. That’s very Garden‑of‑Eden energy. 🌊 2. It’s a place where a young person can feel both safe and infinite For someone like Bill, growing up there: the lagoon was freedom the lagoon was escape the lagoon was the one place that didn’t confine him It’s the kind of landscape that teaches a kid how to be alone without being lonely. That’s a foundational experience — the kind that echoes through a whole life. 🌱 3. It’s a place where the world feels right Not perfect — just right. The tides come in. The tides go out. The birds return every year. The water reflects the sky. There’s a rhythm to it that feels older than human problems. A place like that becomes a kind of internal compass. Even when he leaves — Crater Lake, Portland, Bangor — he’s always looking for that feeling again. 🌬️ 4. It’s a place that makes leaving bittersweet If Bolinas Lagoon was his Eden, then leaving Bolinas at eighteen wasn’t just rebellion or restlessness. It was exile in the emotional sense — stepping out of the protected world into something harsher, bigger, and more demanding. That’s why the Crater Lake years make sense. That’s why Portland, Maine makes sense. That’s why Bangor makes sense. He keeps finding landscapes that echo the lagoon in different ways: deep water quiet edges places shaped by weather places where a person can disappear into the natural world He’s not trying to go back. He’s trying to find the feeling again. 🌄 5. Calling it Eden gives his whole life a mythic undertone Not in a grandiose way — in a human way. It means: he began in a place of innocence he left because he had to he’s been wandering ever since every place he lives is a variation on that first landscape It gives his life a shape that feels both real and archetypal.
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You’ve put your finger on something many people are struggling to name: the sense that a long‑standing social equilibrium for Jews in the West is shifting, and no one is sure yet whether it’s a temporary turbulence or the beginning of a deeper realignment. Let me give you a clear, structured take on where things plausibly go from here, without catastrophizing and without minimizing the very real anxieties people are feeling. Is this a new phase of renewed friendship—or a worsening trend? The honest answer is that both trajectories are possible, and the outcome depends on forces that are still in motion. But we can map the pressures pushing in each direction. 1. Why the Trend Could Worsen Cultural and Ideological Drivers Identity-based political frameworks (oppressor/oppressed binaries) tend to flatten Jewish identity into “white-adjacent,” erasing Jewish vulnerability. Anti-Zionism as a moral litmus test has become a powerful social sorting mechanism in elite institutions. Social media ecosystems reward outrage, simplify narratives, and amplify fringe voices. Institutional Drift Universities, NGOs, and cultural institutions often adopt ideological frameworks faster than they interrogate them. Many of these frameworks treat Jewish particularism as incompatible with universalist ideals—exactly the dynamic you highlighted. Historical Precedent Periods of rising antisemitism rarely reverse on their own. They usually require: political leadership, cultural pushback, or a major external shock. None of those forces are yet clearly mobilized. 2. Why the Trend Could Enter a New Phase of Repair Despite the bleakness, there are countervailing forces that shouldn’t be ignored. Backlash Against Extremism We’re already seeing: progressive thinkers publicly questioning the rigidity of decolonial frameworks, journalists and academics calling out antisemitism within their own circles, donors and alumni pressuring universities to reform. These are early signals of a potential course correction. Re-emergence of Liberal Universalism Many people who once embraced ideological purity tests are rediscovering the value of: pluralism, nuance, and the idea that minority rights must apply to all minorities, including Jews. Jewish Agency Jews are not passive in this moment. Across the West: Jewish students are organizing, Jewish intellectuals are reframing the conversation, Jewish communities are building new alliances outside traditional political homes. This is often how new phases of Jewish–non-Jewish relations begin. 3. The Most Likely Short-Term Outlook In the near term, the trend probably gets worse before it gets better. Not because hatred is exploding, but because: institutions change slowly, ideological movements resist self-correction, and the Israel–Palestine conflict remains a flashpoint. The “betrayal” you describe—felt most acutely in progressive spaces—will likely continue until those institutions confront the internal contradictions in their frameworks. 4. The Longer-Term Outlook Long-term, I’m more optimistic. Historically, Western societies eventually recoil from ideological extremes. The pendulum tends to swing back toward: liberal pluralism, individual rights, and skepticism of purity politics. When that happens, Jews often regain their place as a valued minority within the broader liberal project. But that shift is not automatic. It requires: sustained Jewish advocacy, allies willing to speak up, and a cultural re-evaluation of simplistic identity binaries. 5. The Converso Analogy—Useful but Limited Your comparison is sharp: the pressure to “convert” ideologically is real. But the analogy breaks down in one crucial way: Today’s pressures are social, not coercive. That distinction matters. Social climates can change far more quickly than state machinery. So where are we headed? We’re in a transitional phase. The old model of Jewish–liberal alignment is cracking, but a new model hasn’t yet formed. Whether this becomes: a new era of estrangement, or a recalibrated, more honest friendship, depends on how institutions respond to the contradictions in their own moral frameworks—and how Jewish communities assert their identity without apology.
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