On Monday night, an anti-Israel encampment remained in Harvard Yard, a few stragglers left after most students left town following final exams. By Tuesday, the encampment was removed; protesters reached an agreement with interim Harvard President Alan Garber. But now, just a week from the start of official university commencement festivities, Harvard has backtracked on its disciplinary action, ahead of the arrival next week of thousands of graduates’ family members, alumni and honorary degree recipients to the Ivy League university. The path Garber took is now a well-trodden one — remove the threat of disciplinary consequences and allow protesters to meet with university trustees or other senior leaders to pitch them on divesting their schools’ endowments from Israeli businesses, a concession that before last month would have been unthinkable at America’s top universities. In a matter of days it has become commonplace, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch writes.  

Set the stage: Northwestern University set the tone two weeks ago when President Michael Schill reached an agreement with anti-Israel protesters in exchange for them ending their encampment. Jewish leaders on campus found the agreement so offensive that the seven Jewish members of the university’s antisemitism committee — including Northwestern’s Hillel director, several faculty members and a student — stepped down in protest. Lily Cohen, a Northwestern senior who resigned from the committee, summed up their concerns: “It appears as though breaking the rules gets you somewhere, and trying to do things respectfully and by the books does not.” 

Getting results: Her observation has proven prescient as universities negotiate with anti-Israel protesters who break campus rules while they slow-walk reforms long sought by Jewish students — or even avoid meeting with Jewish community members altogether. Where universities fumbled over statements addressing the Oct. 7 attacks last fall in failed bids to satisfy everyone, many campus leaders at schools including Princeton, Johns Hopkins and the University of Wisconsin have now conceded it is easier to give in to protesters than to stand firm against their rule-breaking.

Behind closed doors: At many more universities, top administrators — including university presidents — have met with demonstrators, giving them a chance to air their concerns even when they didn’t reach an agreement. University of Chicago administrators held several days of negotiations with encampment leaders before the talks fell apart and police cleared the protesters. The George Washington University President Ellen Granberg met over the weekend with student protesters who lectured her about “structural inequality” at GW and likened the university’s code of conduct to slavery and Jim Crow-era segregation, according to a video recording of the meeting.

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Bonus: Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA), a Harvard alumnus, slammed the school’s administration for what he deemed its “moral and institutional failure” in reaching an agreement with protesters. Fetterman said he was “dismayed by Harvard’s pandering to the fringe and its willingness to tolerate the pervasive antisemitism.”

Democratic leaders in Washington said yesterday that they are pushing hard to minimize the number of Democrats who vote this week for a House Republican bill that seeks to force the administration to abandon its efforts to restrict U.S. aid to Israel, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports. The announcement by House Democratic leaders was made on the same day as congressional aides told reporters that the Biden administration had told key lawmakers he would send more than $1 billion in additional arms and ammunition to Israel.

Whip notice: “The legislation would constitute an unprecedented limitation on President Biden’s executive authority and administrative discretion to implement U.S. foreign policy,” a whip notice distributed by Democratic Whip Rep. Katherine Clark’s (D-MA) office reads. “This is not a serious legislative effort. It is another partisan stunt by Extreme MAGA Republicans who are determined to hurt President Biden politically.”

WH response: White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre likewise said on Monday that the White House “strongly, strongly oppose[s] the bill,” and the White House said Tuesday that it would veto the bill if it passes. “This bill would undermine the President’s ability to execute an effective foreign policy. This bill could raise serious concerns about infringement on the President’s authorities under Article II of the Constitution,” the White House statement said.

Potential supporters: House Democratic leadership did whip against previous GOP bills to provide unilateral aid to Israel; one bill picked up 46 Democratic votes in favor while another, with Internal Revenue Service cuts, received a dozen Democratic supporters. At least 26 House Democrats have publicly expressed concerns about the arms sales halts, amid growing backlash from moderate Democrats to the policy.

Opposition: Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY), a Jewish Democrat who voted for one of the stand-alone Israel aid measures, strongly decried the new bill, suggesting that Democratic support will be limited. “Despite [the administration’s] long record of support for Israel, House Republicans yet again intend to use Israel as a political cudgel, which weakens Israel and undermines Israel’s leverage in this conflict — continuing a despicable and shameful pattern of using Israel and Jews as political pawns,” Goldman said in a statement.

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Upper chamber: Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) and 17 GOP co-sponsors introduced companion legislation in the Senate on Tuesday.

The race is set for Maryland’s high-profile contest to replace retiring Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD), with Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks beating Rep. David Trone (D-MD) in a tight primary on Tuesday and advancing to the general election fight against Republican former Gov. Larry Hogan, Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs reports.

Primary play: Alsobrooks, who had the support of nearly all of the state’s Democratic establishment, beat Trone by over 10 points despite his more than $60 million in campaign spending. Trone had argued on the campaign trail that he was the stronger general election candidate, but Alsobrooks accused him of using his wealth to influence the contest and lacking appeal with base voters. In the GOP primary, Hogan beat Robin Ficker, a disbarred attorney who was running to Hogan’s right, by more than 30 points. 

Hogan’s prospects: Hogan’s entry transformed the race into one of the most competitive contests of the cycle. Cardin’s seat has been held by Democrats since the late Sen. J. Glenn Beall Jr. retired in 1977, while Sen. Chris Van Hollen’s (D-MD) seat has remained in Democratic hands since Sen. Charles Mathias’ retirement in 1987. Hogan has a very narrow path to victory in November, which will rely in part on lower Black voter turnout for Alsobrooks, a high crossover of Jewish Democrats splitting their ticket to vote for Hogan and President Joe Biden and a decent showing in Montgomery County. 

Gearing up: Asked to react to news of Alsobrooks officially becoming his opponent immediately after the race was called, Hogan told JI he had not heard the news but that, “We look forward to the campaign … We look forward to engaging on the issues.”

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In recent weeks, as headlines have painted an increasingly grim picture of life for Jewish students on many American college campuses, a group of Boston-area Jewish students banded together to try to inject some positivity into that gloomy narrative. The result is a just-announced music festival taking place on Thursday at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge with a slew of artists who have been outspoken about their support for Israel and the Jewish community in recent months, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.

Main event: The four-hour event will feature performances by the Israeli singer Idan Raichel; rapper and reggae artist Matisyahu and his son, LAIVY; singer-songwriter John Ondrasik of Five for Fighting; rapper Kosha Dillz; and a DJ from the Nova music festival. There will also be food trucks on-site, including kosher options.

Joyful Judaism: “Through the power of music and rhythm, the event aims to unite attendees, honor those who have passed, and support those facing challenges while celebrating joyful Judaism,” reads the event description. Tickets are free for college students, and cost $36 for anyone else who wants to attend. The event came together in less than two weeks, after MIT graduate student Talia Khan, the president of the MIT Israel Alliance, created a GoFundMe with the support of MIT Chabad to raise money to organize the event and cover the cost of student tickets. As of Tuesday night, the campaign has raised $32,000. 

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On the surface, Brook Parker-Bello has little in common with the hostages kidnapped from Israel and held in Gaza since Oct. 7. She is an actor, author and activist from Los Angeles who was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Obama White House for her work fighting sex trafficking. But Parker-Bello felt a deep connection with those who experienced the Oct. 7 terror attacks firsthand. As a teenager, she was kidnapped and trafficked for years between Nevada, California and New York until a police sting ended her abuse. “I know what it’s like to be in mental anguish and psychologically distraught, dealing with PTSD, depression, anxiety and challenges that are really hard to understand, and that sometimes rear their heads later,” Parker-Bello told Jewish Insider’s Ruth Marks Eglash in an interview following her recent visit to Israel.

The value of face time: Now, she is working on a documentary set to be released later this year that captures the essence of her trip set in the context of her own life experiences. Parker-Bello, founder and CEO of More Too Life, an organization that advocates and supports victims of human trafficking and sexual violence, told JI that only by visiting Israel in person, can “you begin to understand what is really taking place there and you see stuff that you might not hear or see in the media.” The author and entrepreneur, who is also creating an online mental health support platform for victims of human trafficking and sexual violence, added, “When you’re meeting individuals face-to-face, you can also encourage them.”

Confused reaction: Parker-Bello told JI that she had spent a lot of time in the Jewish state previously and that she was not only “in tears” following the brutal Oct. 7 terror attack, but was also confused and frustrated by the reaction of organizations and activists who usually stand up for women’s rights. “I was uncertain why people were reacting like that; it was sort of a conflict within a conflict and even early on people were beginning to take sides and not try to support or understand the victims,” she said.

Read the full interview here.