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You're listening to Fox News Radio. I'm Ben Domenech. In the aftermath of the attacks by Hamas on the Israeli people on October the 7th, we've seen a marked increase in anti-Semitic incidents around the globe, but particularly here in America on college campuses and in major cities.
I wanted to speak to someone who's been reporting about that to find out what was going on. I also wanted to follow up with someone who's recently been to Israel to see what the reaction has been after the beginning of the war in Gaza. So this week I spoke with Haley Cohen, who is a reporter and writer for Jewish Insider, and also to Seth Sklar, who has recently taken a trip to Israel to give me his personal thoughts about what he saw on the ground.
Just a quick note about the audio. As you can probably hear, one of my adorable small children has brought home a bit of a virus that I've been dealing with the past couple of days. Trust me, I sound worse than I actually am. But thank you for getting through it and still listening.
From the Fox News Podcast Network. Hey there, it's me, Kennedy. Make sure to check out my podcast, Kennedy Saves the World. It is five days a week, every week. Download and listen at foxnewspodcast.com or wherever you listen to your favorite podcast. So my name is Seth. I live here in New York.
a Jewish New Yorker, as many of us are, a proud New Yorker, a proud American, very patriotic here in America. And when October 7th happened, when the, quote, event occurred, I had this strong desire to go to Israel ever since that day. Even though I am a New Yorker and I've lived in New York my entire life, 45 years, I turned 45 years old last year.
um friday um and i'm i love america and i love new york i have this um strong connection to israel obviously being jewish and i consider it even though i live in america it is my homeland it's been the homeland for my people and it's the homeland of the jewish people and i had this
Strong, strong desire to go to Israel ever since October 7th. I have two sons living in Israel. They are studying there post high school. One is 18 years old and one is 21 years old. In addition, I have three nephews, two nephews and one nephew who married my niece, considering my nephew, who are serving in the IDF.
At the time, one immediately after October 7th, one was stationed down south, guarding and searching the various Kibbutzim that were attacked, search and rescue. And I had two nephews up north near the Lebanon border. One is really on the border in infantry. He does tank infantry, which means that if they were going to Lebanon, he surrounds the tanks on foot. And the other one is intelligence infantry.
and the intelligence unit up in the north. So obviously the attack, besides being a citizen of the world, I think this attack not just didn't affect obviously Jews in Israel or the people of Israel, and not just the Jews in America, it affected the entire civilization. Any human being can see the atrociousness of this attack.
And so it was very personal to me as an American, as a New Yorker, as a Jew. And I had this strong desire to go there. And logistically, it took a couple of weeks, but I was lucky enough to go and visit Israel last week and spend about seven days on the ground there to get a real feel of what was going on, to visit my sons, to visit my nephews, to go to army bases, to go to hospitals,
to visit with families who unfortunately lost their sons in the war, and to make it much more, even though it was personal to me, to really make it personal to me. So I want to just hear a little bit about your experiences there and what you saw, especially things that you saw or learned while you were there that you feel aren't necessarily being widely reported or talked about here at home in America.
So I think it's very important to note the resolve and the unity of the people of Israel and the overall camaraderie that's going on there right now. For lack of a better word, brotherhood. I'm sure your listeners know that before October 7th, there was a lot of traction in Israel over judicial reform. Bibi, his policies, which not to get into in this interview, but, you know, he was being attacked from the left.
with some of the things he was trying to institute. And there were, I would say, protests or riots going on, if not every day, every other day, somewhere in Israel protesting the government. And immediately after October 7th, basically the entire country came together with one united cause. It's very similar to those of us who were, especially here in New York, but I guess across the country. I was in New York City when 9-11 happened and didn't make a difference if you're on the right, on the left.
what your race was, what your religion was. There was one country, one people. And that's basically what the country of Israel is right now. There might be, which is basically what it was in America after October 7th. That sort of changed basically with the media and the press by probably October 9th. But Israel still has that resolve and they're committed to
destroying Hamas and obliterating Hamas. And that is the entire goal of the country, obviously, would bring the hostages home. But the major, major goal is just the safety of the country right now, the support of the IDF, the support of there's a strong, strong, strong support of the government. They're not focused on anything else right now. They're not focused on judicial reform. They're focused on the safety of the country.
bring the hostages back home and to make sure that Israel is a safe place for all of the citizens. They never could have imagined this was going to happen. And books will be probably books of many volumes will be written about how this happened. But they're not focused on that right now, let alone a few, you know, reporters from some publications. The focus right now is on the war, winning the war and, you
and obliterating Hamas. I will say that in my conversation, I went to many, many, many army bases and volunteered there and gave out supplies. One of the things I've been very involved with since the war began is boots. I run an organization here in New York. I won't say I run it, but me with a couple of friends that were very involved. And so far we've sent over 8,000 pairs of army boots, combat boots to Israel
direct to units on the ground there in israel so i had the opportunity to go visit with many of these units and to see what was going on and their spirits are unbelievably high and he even spoke to my nephew and he's upset right now that he hasn't had the opportunity to go in
because they each want to do their part. They feel like it's their responsibility. It's a privilege for them to go into Gaza right now or into wherever it may be and to protect their country and to protect their people. It's personal. It's not just that they were in America and there was an attack somewhere far off and they're being sent across. And why are they doing this? There's no questions of if,
we should or when we should or how we should. They all want to go in, they all want to do their part, and they all want to serve as best they can. - One of the things that we've seen here in America, unfortunately, in recent years,
uh is uh growing statistics showing uh through through polls and through other assessments uh that younger voters particularly younger voters on the left uh are perhaps the least sympathetic towards israel that we've seen here in america uh since uh you know since the founding of the nation and i think that this is something that uh is you know really disturbing in a lot of uh of different uh ways what are some of the things that you hear from the young people
Either, you know, Jews in America or those who you were speaking to in Israel about their feelings about this trend and how much it seems to have infected, you know, a lot of the discourse here. Obviously, those are also a lot of the same people who participate in the media and in the coverage.
Right. So I think the issue with young people here in America is the education system, let alone on the universities. I think it obviously precedes the universities going back probably to the elementary school and the high school level where there's this lack of education on specific. Forget about on American history, but definitely on Israeli history and on the foundation of the state.
And on the last 75 years and what Israel has been battling against. And I think that they just don't know all these young people who are protesting, you know, Palestine be free from the river to the sea. I don't know if they can locate. I don't even know if they know which sea and which river.
quite honestly. I don't know if they can locate the Jordan River on a map. The Mediterranean Sea, they might have heard of because it borders Greece or something. But I don't know if they can locate it. I don't know if they understand the dynamics there. I'm pretty sure they don't. And it's the education system. It's the academia, which is really just a branch off of the left-wing media, but
which is obviously clearly anti-Semitic. The left, there's no more, there are very, honestly, there's no more, but there's very few centrist Democrats who are very, very pro-Israel. The left wing has been obviously hijacked by the squad and that ilk. And that's the academic system. Look what's going on in Harvard, Columbia. And I can't understand why anyone would support these institutions anymore. These institutions have been, you know, fairly, you know, Jewish. A lot of Jews go to the Ivy Leagues or, you know, universities around the country.
And I think that these universities only understand one thing and they understand the dollar. And I think that money needs to be pulled back and people need to stop donating and sending their kids to these universities that are not going to stand up and protest against anti-Semitism. And it's not just universities. I'm not sure if you saw it over the weekend. I think it was last week in a conference.
in a high school in Queens. There were riots, you know, where one of the Jewish teachers had to lock herself in a closet in Queens, New York, which Queens, New York, there are probably tens of thousands of Jews.
But the kids probably don't know where Israel is, but they know that's a cool thing to do. It's a cool thing to do in America right now for the young people to protest against Israel. And I think that how that affects Israel, I think Israel understands that the main population, the mainstream population in America supports them. That if you would take out the, quote, quote, academia elite and some of the left-wing politicians, that they have the support of the majority,
strong majority of America, whether it's people like you and your listeners, whether it's, you know, the middle America, the average person in, you know, in, you know, from Midwestern to Southeast, you know, very strong support of Israel. So it's like anything else, any, any other topic where you have to take an intellectual perspective, if you can remove the, the quote, the coast and the New York and California and the academia, then, uh,
Israel, I believe, has strong support in America. It's just that it's the silent majority, like everything is. And they're very good at bullying. They're shutting... I mean, the problem is, you know, I'm sure you saw it. I'm not sure your listeners are across the country, but in New York yesterday, they shut down the Manhattan Bridge. A thousand people just go on the bridge and they protest and they're loud and they're vocal. And, you know, the pro-Israel movement
I don't want to use the word protest. I won't use the word protest. The pro-Israel rallies and the support, they're peaceful, and we don't make noise, and we don't scream. I'm not sure if you were at the rally in Washington, I think about two weeks ago. Yes, I was. Tomorrow will be two weeks. Right, it's an unbelievable thing, but there was no one spilling blood. There was no one throwing anything. There was no one yelling and screaming at police officers, and we're a peaceful bunch, and we don't get the attention we deserve because of that, and it's not a cool story, Ben.
That's why we need people like you who are going to put out these stories and show how bad anti-Semitism is across America and show how important Israel is. And I don't think it's nothing. I don't think the young people realize how strong the America-Israel relationship is and to have a democracy in that country. You look at some of the groups protesting in Israel, you'll see trans for Palestinians or queer for Palestinians. If a trans queer person walked into Gaza, they would be killed unnoticed.
on the spot they would probably be and if it was a male they would be castrated and they would be abused and they would be beaten to be beaten to death they don't have rights in gaza or in any of the palestinian territories you know where they do have rights they do have rights in israel they can go to israel and they can march in a gay pride parade and they could um you know do whatever they want and marry whoever they want and they can live happily ever after
And they don't understand that. They don't understand the importance of having an ally like Israel in the Middle East. And again, it goes back to the education system wanting to glorify who they will view as the poor Palestinians being oppressed, which they will say is by Israel, which all of us intellectual smart people know that it's the Hamas who have oppressed them for the last almost 20 years.
You know, just one more thing before I let you go, Seth. When you went over there, just tell me a little bit about what your experience was meeting some of the families who've been directly affected by this and talking to them about what they've gone through.
So there's, I met, I would say I would categorize in two types of families that I met, that I met rather. One was I visited and it's most heartbreaking thing you have to do is I visited families and, you know, in Jewish, we call it a Shiva visit. After someone passed away, there's seven, there's a seven day mourning period. And I went to pay two of those Shiva visits to two different families on two different occasions. And the, the,
Obviously, the parents are heartbroken. One was just a single father who lost his son. And obviously, the father's sitting there crying and he's heartbroken. But when you speak to him, there's a pride. They know they died for a cause. They know they died for a mission. They know they died for a reason. And they died trying to save the Jewish people.
And there are the government sets up and it's hard to, hard to explain. There are flags all over the place and there's the people who are serious. They're singing songs and they're bringing, you know, they're trying to bring comfort to the families.
But the father is, you know, he knows his son died and he was harboring. He'll never get over it, but he's proud of what his son did. And a mother who I visited who actually moved to Israel, I think about 15 years ago from here in Long Island, New York. And I was sitting with her and she was crying and
But she was dancing through the streets at the same time, you know, trying to give everybody else comfort that her son died for a reason. And, you know, hopefully in two weeks I'm making a wedding. My daughter is getting married. And she told me that I should make an announcement at the wedding that everybody should dance extra hard at the wedding in memory of her son because that's what her son would have wanted.
And I think it's that resolve that will keep the Jewish people going in Israel. It gives them the strength that we know that we're going to, even though people are dying, we're making weddings and kids are born at the same time. So that's one type of family that I meant. You know, it's their sons who are soldiers in battle and, you know, giving their life for the cause, for an important cause. The other family that I meant are displaced families.
Everybody's talking about the Gazans having to move from the north to the south and millions of Gazans who can't live in their houses anymore. But there are hundreds of thousands and hundreds of thousands of Jews from the north and from the south who can't live in their houses anymore. And they can't go to school anymore. And they don't have their clothing and they don't have their supplies. They're living in hotels in Jerusalem because Jerusalem is considered relatively safe because it's close proximity.
to the Arab territories. So they have nothing. You know, they're being supported now by, you know, donations and Americans and Israelis. And it's sad. It's sad. You know, no one is telling that story, the story of hundreds of thousands of Jews who can't live in their houses anymore because they were attacked. You know, everybody, most of the media, except for a few outlets such as yours, tell the stories of the Hamas and the Gazans who can't live in their houses anymore because Israel is attacking. But
But because of what happened on October 7th, there are hundreds of thousands of Jews who can't live in their houses anymore and they don't know when they're going to be able to go back. There is a very big fit on the northern border, which, you know, gets talked about, but it's very, very real. And the citizens there had to move south. And these people, the kids can't go to school, the parents can't go to work, and they
They're living in either shelters or hotels that gave the rooms to them. And they're heartbroken. And this is already two months, 50 days, close to two months already. And they do not know when they're going to be able to go back to their house. And that's a human interest story, which very few media outlets want to tell because, again,
They view us as the oppressor and like we deserved it. But these people didn't do anything then. These people were sitting in their house on October 7th, living their life. And then all of a sudden, you know, the hell storm started and they have no idea when they're going to go back to their house. And it's what are they going to do? What are they going to do? They're doing the best they can. They're trying to take care of their children, but they're displaced.
And this is not 10 families, Ben. It's not 20 families, Ben. This is hundreds of thousands of people, Israeli citizens, who can't live in their house because of what Hamas did. Seth, I want to thank you for taking the time to talk to me about this. I know it's deeply important to you and to so many of us around the world. My pleasure, and I thank you for the opportunity. More of the Ben Domenech podcast right after this. Haley Cohen, thank you so much for taking the time to join me. Yes, of course. Thank you for having me on.
So I wanted to get kind of an on-the-ground update from someone who has been following the different storylines relative to what we've seen take place basically in the months since the October 7th attacks on the American side and in terms of the really global outbreak, I would say, of
of antisemitic protests that we've seen happening on college campuses and in major cities around the world, but certainly here in America. I know that you've been paying attention to this and reporting about it. I wondered if you could give us kind of a 30,000-foot view of what we've seen since those October 7th attacks in terms of that outburst and in terms of the response.
Yes. So like you said, we're seeing increased anti-Semitism really everywhere since Hamas's October 7th attack in Israel. But on college campuses in the U.S. in particular, they've really become a warground and we're seeing a crisis unlike anything that we've seen before. I've spoken to Jewish students all across the country who are telling me they're scared to go to class.
they're being assaulted, they're receiving death threats on campus, they are taking off their anything that identifies them as Jewish, Jewish star necklaces, yarmulkes, anything like that. A survey was published on Monday by Hillel International, which is the foundation for Jewish campus life, and it found that one in three Jewish college students said
say they have felt the need to hide their Jewish identity on campus since October 7th. One in three? Yeah, one in three. That's an incredible figure. Anyway, please continue. Big number. The poll also found that 84% of students said that the situation is affecting them
with 68% expressing they have been feeling sad and 54% saying that they're scared. And as a result of that fear, we're seeing armed guards on college campuses at Jewish institutions for really the first time ever. In the past, Hillels and Chabad's on campus would employ armed guards
for big holiday dinners with hundreds and hundreds of students, if anything. And now on a typical Friday night Shabbat dinner where there's less than 100 students, at some schools, even every day now, they are employing armed guards to be on campus. So that is something that's really unprecedented. But there's just a need for it right now because a number of
protests on campus. And even just when students are walking to class, I think they're turning violent and students are just really feeling afraid. Tell me a little bit about the response from higher ed administrators to this. Obviously, we've seen
a number of different, you know, open letters, things like that, that expressed, you know, frustration on the part of, you know, alumni of various institutions. We've seen some tension there, you know, between, you know,
current administrators who are trying to, you know, make a space perhaps for protest or those who frankly are siding with them. And a lot of alumni who are frustrated with what they view as being, you know, insufficient efforts to protect current Jewish students who are on these campuses.
What are some of the examples that stick out to you of the different responses that we're seeing, both from the Ivy League institutions and from state schools of the like? So, yeah, we're seeing anti-Semitism coming not only from students, but from administration and faculty as well.
At Columbia University, for example, there was recently a letter that 144 faculty members signed and it called Israel an apartheid state. It referred to Hamas's October 7th massacre as a, quote, legitimate military action.
And for a story for Jewish Insider, I reached out to Columbia's administration and they told me that they declined to comment on that letter from faculty. So, you know, a lot of administration is just either releasing statements that students kind of view as very weak and halting or the administration is really saying nothing at all. And oftentimes... Can I just interject on the Columbia front? I mean, Columbia...
Obviously, just because of its location and because of its prior, you know, people who have graduated from it in terms of prior student bodies and the like. I mean, it has an outsized level of support financially from Jewish students who are alumni, who, you know, are their buildings named after them. They are in a significant part of their support financially.
Has there been any backlash to them in particular over the fact that they had this kind of pushback and this kind of defense of something that seems indefensible?
Yeah, we're seeing that at many schools, especially many of the Ivy Leagues. Like you said, donors are Jewish and they are pulling out funds. And as a response, we have seen, you know, administration will condemn the attacks, but oftentimes they either won't use the word anti-Semitism or they'll couple it with Islamophobia.
And students and alumni are expressing frustration about this when the numbers of anti-Semitism alone are so high. They're asking, why can't the administration just condemn anti-Semitism on its own? Why does it have to, you know, become a both sides type of situation? What are you seeing from some of the big state schools that have been
you know, had to deal with this themselves, you know, particularly in, you know, high Muslim student population areas and the like. Yeah. I mean, I think, I think the worst we're seeing the most at Ivy league schools, but big state schools are dealing with it just in the same type of way.
Of course, there's a difference right now with private versus public schools in terms of what they're allowed to ban. And, you know, that in terms of Students for Justice in Palestine, which is the group that's leading a lot of these protests on campus that have turned very violent. National SJP, which is on more or less every college campus, sometimes it has a different name.
has called on its chapters to engage in conduct that supports Hamas in its call for the violent elimination of Israel and the Jewish people. So, you know, they're in no way hiding what they're about. And so at this,
Big state schools, for example, in Florida, Governor DeSantis recently banned SJP from state schools in Florida. And Brandeis, which is a private school, followed suit soon after. And both Florida and Brandeis cited SJP's open support for Hamas, which the U.S. designates as a terrorist organization in their reasoning for shutting down the group.
But of course, you know, with private schools, this has touched off a debate over whether a move like this can pass legal scrutiny. And so it's something that I know dozens of national Jewish groups and campus organizations are calling on universities to withdraw their recognition and funding for these groups. But it seems to be a very slow process and.
So far, not many schools have done so. You know, one of the big tensions, obviously, that's at the center of this is that in recent years, you know, there was a real push from, I would describe it as kind of the center right in defense of,
free speech on campuses, you know, against what they viewed as being a kind of malign influence to try to shut down various aspects of academic freedom, you know, that they were trying to, you know, shut down the speech from professors and from, you know, even other students that was viewed as being out of step with
what a lot of people advocating, you know, quote unquote, woke agendas wanted to achieve within these various institutions. But now they face a situation where, you know, that same type of free speech argument is being used to justify, you know, not just, you know, the embrace of a particularly offensive idea, but in this case, the embrace of,
you know, really a genocidal idea, something, a terrorist organization, you know, the, the tenants of a group that has as its political and, and adversarial aim, the destruction of an entire people and an entire state, how are colleges and these academic institutions dealing with the fact that they're now kind of caught between
The freedom aspect of the argument and one that actually wants to eradicate, you know, a people and their state. And and really, you know, if you if you read it as I do, you know, the the actual students on their campus who who are representatives of that.
Yeah, exactly. And, you know, free speech, they want to protect free speech. But at the end of the day, university presidents aren't prohibited by the First Amendment from condemning the kill the Jews type of language that we're seeing from SJP. What we're seeing at some colleges is they are.
They kind of have temporary bans on SJP and they're using reasons other than First Amendment, terrorism, those type of reasons that we saw in Florida and at Brandeis. So Columbia last... So what reasons are those like? Are they kind of safety reasons? Yeah, it kind of seems like safety reasons. Columbia last week banned SJP. It's a temporary ban just for the remainder of the fall semester. That's less than a month left.
But they cited SJP. They have a policy at Columbia that on-campus groups need at least 10 days, need to get permission at least 10 days in advance to plan an on-campus event. And they said that SJP did not do that. So it is banned for the rest of the semester. So they're giving kind of ticky-tack fouls.
As opposed to actually dealing with the hard issue that they're facing. Yeah, exactly. But, you know, for a school like Columbia, it wasn't really expected that they would even ban SJP at all. So I think a lot of people were happy to see some sort of action taken and said it was a step in the right direction and
Of course, we'll see what happens after the fall semester, whether SJP is allowed back on campus or what happens. So there's a ton, obviously, of taxpayer dollars that flow into these institutions. And obviously, there's also the taxpayer sort of element of this that goes through the nonprofit side of things, endorsing and supporting, obviously, the different entities that are all funding these different entities across various campuses, right?
What have you seen, if anything, from the congressional level or from, you know, governors other than, you know, you mentioned Ron DeSantis, any kind of governmental authority that basically says, hey, look, you know,
we were fine with this tax money flowing in your direction when you weren't calling for a new Holocaust. But now that you're doing that, we might want to reconsider it. Yeah, exactly. Actually, just earlier today, Kathy Hochul in New York kind of announced the whole plan and she is devoting another $3 million of funding to ensure that every college campus in New York has threat assessment management teams,
So we're seeing these type of actions from governors. But really, I mean, DeSantis was the first one to really, you know, pull out funding in such a strong way. I know in Virginia there's an ongoing investigation, but I don't think that's been finalized. So it seems like in a lot of states, governors are, you know, more just...
adding more funding into making sure that Jewish students are safe, but they're not necessarily willing to call for a complete... They're adding more to keep the safety, but they're not necessarily pulling the rug out from underneath a lot of these entities, it sounds like. You know, one of the things that I think is very concerning about this is that
We've seen in recent years the tracking of a lot of different reports of white nationalism on campuses and in communities across the country, ones that certainly have risen up to the level that the FBI and the DOJ have looked into them.
Is there going to be any kind of task force or, you know, assigned look into the kind of things that seem to be on a daily basis being reported? Swastikas and graffiti, you know, written in places that are clearly designed to intimidate Jewish students and the like. You know, has there been anything like that for the Biden administration yet? And is there anybody pressing for something like that?
Yeah, so actually just last week, the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights opened a discrimination investigation into half a dozen universities that have faced a wave of anti-Semitism complaints. One of those universities was Cornell, where last month a student threatened in a series of messages to murder and rape Jewish students.
So I spoke with a student named Talia, who's a junior at Cornell, who addressed the House Committee on Ways and Means last week. And she spoke about her experience on campus since October 7th about receiving death threats at Cornell.
And regarding that Hillel survey that I mentioned earlier, she said that those numbers are not surprising at all. When students are receiving death threats for being Jewish, of course they're scared on campus.
So there was that hearing. They listened to students such as this Cornell student. But I know that Jewish community leaders have still expressed concern that the Department of Education is just really not responding with the urgency that they feel anticipated.
anti-Semitism that this crisis deserves. And sort of similar to how college administrations are responding, you know, when the Biden administration has released a plan to combat anti-Semitism, it was also coupled with combating Islamophobia. You know, when they're pushing for this, when they're pushing for more responses,
What are their demands? What are their, you know, the set of kind of bullet points of things that they would, these different groups would like to see in terms of response from the administration or from other government officials to try to push back on this in a more aggressive way?
I think they just want the administration to be responsive to what's going on. Like I mentioned with Columbia, when faculty wrote this letter and basically just saying what Hamas did in Israel was okay and the administration just had no comment at all. So students and parents want to feel safe and the administration is listening and taking action. At
Cornell, when that incident happened, the student who was making those death threats was found quickly. It was addressed. But on many campuses, perpetrators are just running free. They're still allowed to attend classes after literally beating up Jewish students at protests. You know, a lot of times action is just not being taken. And all colleges have DEI, diversity, equity and inclusion offices for this reason.
But we are seeing that they're really not helping Jewish students. And a number of schools are now setting up their own anti-Semitism task forces and advisory groups. It really does seem to me to be an indictment of the DEI approach, if this is a situation that they're failing to address in a mindful manner. I mean, you know, this seems to be something that is a
you know, a very easy, you know, and clear issue where they would be able to make an immediate response. And the fact that they aren't is really, to me, it seems to be an indictment of the approach if it's not one that, you know, if it's one that's more responsive, let's say, to a small but loud minority of
of groups on campuses as opposed to addressing an issue where the American people, if you poll them or if you look at these other kind of assessments, are clearly on the side of defending these Jewish students and their right to be able to go to class and to participate on campus free of the kind of abuse that you're talking about.
Yeah, absolutely. And a story I'm working on right now for Jewish Insider is reaching out to the DEI offices at all of the Ivy Leagues and kind of just point blank asking, what are you doing to help Jewish students? Why do you need to set up a whole new anti-Semitism task force? You know, isn't that what a DEI office is there for in the first place? Yeah.
And the story is still in progress. I can't talk too much about it, but I can say that so far I have not received very many responses from these Ivy League colleges at all. They're just not willing to answer the question. Who do you think has been really good on this issue in terms of the higher ed community? Anybody who's who's addressed it really well, either an administrator or president or anybody in the kind of university system who's had a really good automatic response?
Yeah, I mean, going back to Florida, University of Florida, President Ben Sasse was one of the first administrators to right away condemn the Hamas terrorist attacks. You know, he used the word anti-Semitism. He didn't both sides it. And I think that when I'm speaking to students all over the country, they're all mentioning the Florida statement and saying, you know, that their administration did not do the same thing and that they wish they had. And I think that's kind of been like the go-to statement
correct statement because it was it came out right away. It came out days after October 7th. We've seen somewhat similar statements from administration coming out now coming out in late October. But these are statements that are like second, third statements that are kind of just seem like they're coming out by force because, you know, like we said before, donors are pulling out students and parents are angry. So it feels a bit more forced.
But I think Florida was really the first one to get it right the first time. You know, in the national political scene, the ramifications of this crisis and this tragedy have been very negative for the president. We've seen a number of polls that have come out since October 7th that show a dramatic
dramatic decline in support for President Biden among younger voters, 18 to 29, you know, as much as 10 points, 12 points in a couple of different polls. Now, most people are interpreting that as saying that, you know, these younger voters are more sympathetic to the Palestinian side of the argument. What I'm curious is whether you believe that's actually true,
Or whether you think that it's kind of motivated by both that,
There are some younger voters who are more sympathetic to that. And then there are some younger voters who believe that perhaps the president should be standing up more forcefully for Israel or doing things differently generally. It's just it's a marked issue in terms of, you know, him going down from about, you know, the low 40s, the mid 40s in terms of approval on foreign policy to the low 30s, you know, in the latest NBC poll, for example.
Yeah, I think it probably is a little bit of both. I think in the initial days after October 7th, the Biden administration did seem to have a strong response in what they were saying, at least. But now that time's gone on a bit, we aren't necessarily seeing action follow up with their words, which is concerning. You know, back to campus front, I know that
Doug Emhoff and the Department of Education said that they're going to release a plan within a couple of weeks to address this. And it's been about a month and they haven't really released a plan. They went to a school, visited a Hillel, talked to Jewish students, which is all nice, but Jewish students still don't feel safe. They still haven't seen a concrete plan yet.
So, I mean, words are nice, but I think that students, voters, everyone is looking to the administration for action and really just wants to feel safe. And nobody who is Jewish does feel safe right now. So, I mean, time will tell. But right now, everyone is waiting to see more concrete steps. I'm curious, just personally.
I'm sure you know many people across the country who have experienced various things following the October 7th attack that are reprehensible, the kind of things that I'm sure anyone with Jewish friends has experienced of tales of them being accosted, confronted, harassed in the street, that type of thing.
Do you think that this is something that has kind of opened people's eyes up about the potential danger that was there that was kind of lying under the surface? For a lot of us, I think that we have operated under perhaps an illusion that this was something that was not an ever-present threat or something that would even really rise to the level of
being fearful about, you know, walking to, you know, various gatherings or participating in, you know, the different kind of traditions that everyone within the Jewish community participates in regularly. The idea of that being something that would lead to harassment in America in 2023 is not something that I think a lot of Americans would
thought would ever happen. Is that your experience as well? I'm curious, just on a personal level, you know, if this is something that has, you know, impacted you and your friends and family. Yeah, it absolutely has. I live in New York City, which has the largest Jewish population outside of Israel. And it's never, you know, none of my friends or I have really ever
Given it much thought, if we're wearing a Jewish star necklace, if, you know, men are wearing a yarmulke, everyone's felt very comfortable walking around outside in New York City. Of course, anti-Semitism has always existed, but I don't think people gave little things much thought. Like right now, there's these rumors going around, not sure if it's true, but people are saying, change your last name on Uber if you have a Jewish sounding last name, because
Some people, some Uber drivers allegedly were asking people if they were Jewish. You know, there's just it's hard to even necessarily know what's true. But there's just so much anxiety right now that things like this are just spreading like wildfire. And, you know, it used to be you would just not think twice before going to a Shabbat dinner at synagogue. And now my friends are calling the synagogues in advance to ask whether there's going to be security. You know, everything that happens.
Jewish people in New York City and all of America are doing now, they're thinking twice before they're doing it. I attended the rally in DC last week, the March for Israel, but I have a good number of friends who are just too scared to go to that. Knowing that there is going to be 300,000 Israel supporters in one place was terrifying to them. And it's a scary time for everyone. And yeah, definitely America feels different than it did before October 7th for Jews. Mm-hmm.
Haley Cohen, thank you so much for taking the time to join me. Thank you so much. Obviously, these challenges are not new, but they're issues that are going to be affecting us for the foreseeable future in increasing ways. The agreed upon ceasefire and exchange of hostages aside, there does not seem to be any near end to this conflict.
And the distrust is rising among Israelis about the effect that the efforts of Joe Biden and Anthony Blinken behind the scenes are having on their ability to stop Hamas and make sure that nothing like this ever happens again. I'm Ben Domenech. We'll be back next week with more to dive back into the fray. Listen ad-free with a Fox News podcast plus subscription on Apple Podcasts. And Amazon Prime members can listen to this show ad-free on the Amazon Music app.
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