A new report from a Stanford committee focused on addressing antisemitism and anti-Israel bias determined that antisemitism is “widespread and pernicious” at the elite Palo Alto, Calif., university, capturing the atmosphere on campus in its eye-catching title: “It’s in the air.” The 148-page document is the first official account to be released publicly by the committee, which was created by Stanford President Richard Saller in November weeks after the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks in Israel set off a wave of antisemitism on American campuses. 

Comprising Stanford faculty, staff, students and alumni, the 12 members of the committee detailed the hostile conditions faced by Jewish and Israeli students on campus since October. They described an environment of intimidation and fear, with students and Jewish faculty facing a complex mixture of exclusion and harassment. The report’s authors outlined instances of antisemitism across campus — in the classroom, on social media, in residential life and at campus protests. 

In recent interviews, independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has returned to bizarre and widely denounced claims he first made nearly a year ago that the COVID-19 virus was “ethnically targeted” such that Ashkenazi Jewish and Chinese people were more immune, and Caucasians and Black people less so.

Kennedy doubled down on the claims in a recent interview, News Center Maine, an NBC affiliate, reported earlier this week. “This is a scientific study. It’s not a racist statement. It’s just the truth,” Kennedy said in a brief clip included in the News Center Maine segment. 

Amid a renewed row between Israel and the United States over the U.S.’ withholding of an arms shipment to Israel, Senate Republicans are introducing legislation seeking greater oversight over, and an ability to block, such actions by the administration.

Sens. Jim Risch (R-ID), Pete Ricketts (R-NE), Tim Scott (R-SC) and Marco Rubio (R-FL) are leading the Maintaining Our Ironclad Commitment to Israel’s Security Act, a bill first introduced on a bipartisan basis in the House, where it garnered support from nine of the 24 Democrats on the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

There’s very little that unites Squad lawmakers Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) with conservative House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA). But all three, along with a wide swath of political leaders including the White House, found themselves briefly aligned last week when they condemned protesters who celebrated Hamas and Hezbollah outside the Nova music festival exhibit in Manhattan — and described the demonstration as antisemitic.

Days later, The New Republic published an article arguing that it was “disinformation” to say that the protests outside the Nova exhibit and other recent anti-Zionist actions in New York were antisemitic. Referring to a tweet from President Joe Biden that condemned “horrific acts of antisemitism,” the magazine’s newly hired associate writer for breaking news, Talia Jane, who uses they/them pronouns, said Biden was wrong: “None of the instances Biden cited were antisemitic.” 

Democratic Majority for Israel’s political arm, DMFI PAC, is wading into three hotly contested upcoming House primaries in New York, Arizona and Wisconsin, the group announced exclusively to Jewish Insider on Wednesday.

The new slate of endorsements includes John Avlon, a former CNN commentator hoping to flip a swing seat on Long Island held by Rep. Nick LaLota (R-NY), and Rebecca Cooke, a small business owner running to unseat Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-WI) in western Wisconsin. 

A senior State Department official suggested, in testimony before a Senate Foreign Relations Committee subcommittee hearing on the Middle East on Tuesday, that circumstances might force Israel to accede to the Palestinian Authority becoming the new governing authority in Gaza despite its strong objections. 

Barbara Leaf, assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs, also denied that Hamas had fully rejected a cease-fire proposal put forward by the U.S. and Israel and said the terrorist group cannot be fully defeated through military means, while pushing back against accusations that Israel is blocking humanitarian aid from moving into Gaza.

A bipartisan group of Senate lawmakers met on Tuesday on Capitol Hill with U.S. business leaders and Rachel and Jon Goldberg-Polin, whose son, Hersh, is being held in Gaza — an unusual group that came together to strategize on potential paths forward amid stalled hostage-release negotiations.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), a lead organizer of the meeting, said he was hopeful that the private sector leaders would apply pressure for stronger action against Iran and the International Criminal Court. He said that the executives who attended the meeting were largely interested in focusing on the hostages.

A French court on Tuesday overturned a ban that had blocked Israeli companies from participating in the Eurosatory defense exhibition, on the second day of the event, which ends on Friday.

The Paris Commercial Court reversed all bans on the entry of Israelis to the event, determining that they are discriminatory.