I thought we’d fixed this already
In 2021, under the chancellorship of Félix Matos Rodríguez, the City University of New York (CUNY), the largest urban public university system in the US, in a city whose Jewish population is second only to Tel Aviv, hired a woman by the name of Saly Abd Alla as its chief diversity officer.
Immediately prior to accepting that position, Abd Alla had served as the Director of Civil Rights for the Minnesota chapter of the Council on American‑Islamic Relations (CAIR), a vehemently anti-Israel organization that supports the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement and whose National Executive Director, Nihad Awad, has repeatedly celebrated Hamas' October 7th atrocities against the Jewish state.
"The people of Gaza only decided to break the siege, the walls of the concentration camp, on October 7th,” Awad said at the American Muslims for Palestine conference in November 2023.
“And yes, I was happy to see people breaking the siege and throwing down the shackles of their own land and walk free…” he continued.
CAIR was also named as a co-conspirator in the 2001-2009 Holy Land Foundation case, which found the then-largest Islamic charity in the US guilty of providing material support to Hamas, including the funneling of more than $12 million to the terror group.
So yeah, CUNY thought it'd be kosher to hire somebody who used to work there.
In late July 2022, amid skyrocketing reports of antisemitic incidents at CUNY’s Kingsborough Community College in Brooklyn, Professor Jeffrey Lax, chair of the school’s business department, formally requested that the university launch a probe into the campus climate, citing the inaction of the institution’s administrators.
The reports of antisemitism were by no means isolated but rather implicated members of the student body, faculty, staff, and union leaders.
Back in 2018, Lax himself had been cleverly but deliberately excluded from a meeting of the Progressive Faculty Caucus by members who scheduled it on a Friday night so that the Orthodox Jew wouldn’t be able to attend.
Incredibly, CUNY, under the leadership of Chancellor Félix Matos Rodríguez, appointed the former CAIR official, Abd Alla, to lead the investigation that Lax had requested.
Maybe Matos Rodríguez didn’t make the pick himself, but that doesn't mean he wasn't in charge of the whole operation. He was, after all, the doggone chancellor.
When Abd Alla reached out to Lax on September 9, 2022, to schedule an initial meeting, the educator responded by noting CAIR’s “aggressive” anti-Zionist policies and asked whether, given her employment history, she believed that a Zionist Jew falls under a “proper protected class designation” per CUNY’s discrimination policies.
He never heard back from her.
So, the following week, Lax followed up with CUNY’s vice chancellor for human resources, Doriane Gloria. She responded with a boilerplate version of the university’s general discrimination policies, but offered nothing with regard to Abd Alla’s ability to conduct the investigation without bias.
Lax then suggested that Gloria work with him to choose a mutually agreeable, pro bono third party to take the lead.
“Let me be extremely kind in suggesting that your office has already exercised, at best, extremely poor judgment in appointing the former director of an admittedly and openly anti-Zionist organization to investigate claims [of] Zionism discrimination,” Lax wrote.
Duh.
To her credit (I suppose), Gloria soon responded by informing Lax that the university would be exploring “alternative approaches to conduct such an investigation.”
So, in late January 2023, CUNY engaged StoneTurn, a New York-based investigations firm, to investigate the environment and complaints at Kingsborough.
StoneTurn concluded its investigation on February 28, 2023.
That was kinda quick, don't you think?
While it submitted its findings to CUNY that day, no conclusions or disciplinary actions have ever been released to the public.
Ever.
In November 2023, in the face of heightened campus tensions following the Hamas attacks a month earlier, Gov. Hochul (CUNY falls under state authority) called for a system-wide review of the university’s antisemitism policies, formally appointing former New York Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman to lead an “independent third-party review” of discrimination policies and complaint procedures across all 25 CUNY campuses.
Lotta' good that did.
Lippman's final report, submitted on September 24, 2024, included a toothless 13-point "action plan" with recommendations for reform.
No disciplinary actions were taken or even suggested.
So, fast forward to this week.
On Tuesday, Félix Matos Rodríguez, who is still, inexplicably, the CUNY chancellor, testified before the House Education & Workforce Committee during a high-profile hearing aimed at addressing allegations of antisemitism on CUNY campuses.
After Capitol police to removed the last of the “pro-Palestinian” protestors who’d repeatedly interrupted the proceedings with chants of “Free Palestine” and “There’s blood on your hands,” Matos Rodríguez got his chance to have a friendly chat with New York Congresswoman Elise Stefanik.
She rules!
Just as was the case with her questioning of Harvard's Claudine Gay and UPenn's Liz Magill in December 2023, Stefanik had no time for games.
Not surprisingly, she focused a great deal on CUNY’s incomprehensible decision to hire a chief diversity officer (or anyone, for that matter) who’d previously worked for the virulently anti-Israel CAIR, at one point insisting that Matos Rodríguez resign and suggesting that, if he fails to, Gov. Hochul should axe him.
“You hired Abd Alla as CUNY’s chief diversity officer, and this role includes overseeing antisemitism complaints and initiatives. Were you aware at that time that this senior administrator that you hired was previously employed by CAIR?” Stefanik asked.
The chancellor replied, “I was not directly responsible for that hire.”
Yeah, but that was over four years ago, bro.
Matos Rodríguez pointed out (claimed) that Abd Alla was hired to be the chief diversity officer “at the central office with no responsibility over cases that have to deal with students or faculty.”
Um, then why was she appointed to lead the antisemitism investigation at Kingsborough back in September 2022?
“Let me remind you, CAIR was a co-conspirator in the terrorist financing case and has ties to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization,” Stefanik continued, adding, “Is she currently still employed by CUNY?”
“She is.”
Wow.
“So, no action, just words here today,” she snapped.
Stefanik then asked Matos Rodriguez if he was aware that Mahmoud Khalil, the one-time leader of the anti-Israel protests at Columbia University, was being represented by Ramzi Kassem, the head of CUNY Law School's Creating Law Enforcement Accountability & Responsibility (CLEAR).
Doing himself no favors, Matos Rodriguez replied, "CUNY CLEAR? I'm not familiar with them."
Maybe you should be, "Chancellor."
“This is the chief pro-Hamas agitator that led to the antisemitic encampments at Columbia, the rioting and violent takeover of Hamilton Hall, the harassment and physical assault of Jewish students,” Stefanik said in describing Khalil.
She continued, “You allow the head of the clinical legal organization and a professor to be the chief legal aid to Mahmoud Khalil and do his legal defense fund?”
Matos Rodríguez responded, “Those decisions are made in the clinics and are made in the individual campuses.”
Friendly reminder, Felix: As the university's chancellor, you're in charge of the 'individual campuses'.
Stefanik also cited an episode from November 2023 when officials at CUNY's Hunter College, on Manhattan's Upper East Side, failed to remove a swastika from the main building for several hours.
When Stefanik pressed Matos Rodríguez on that episode, for some reason, he thought an appropriate response was that his "understanding of that was that the swastika was placed outside."
How the hell does that make any difference?
In fact, in this case, it only makes it worse.
Quick aside. In the case of Hunter College, "just outside" means on Lexington Avenue, in the middle of New York City, as opposed to being tucked away on a prototypical college campus. In other words, not only students, but the general public got to walk past an iconic symbol of hatred that was displayed for hours.
"We have a 'custom' of erasing also deplorable symbols," the chancellor continued. "In that particular case, there was a delay because it had to be referred to the NYPD for the anti-hate investigation."
He'd barely finished uttering his last syllable before Elise called BS.
She then pointed to a November 13 email from Interim Vice President for Administration Gustavo Ordonez in response to a plea from Leah Garrett, the school's chair of Jewish Studies.
Garrett's original message bore the subject line "URGENT SWASTIKA POSTER IS STILL THERE."
Ordonez responded, "Apologies but it's not that simple."
"Was this administrator disciplined?" Stefanik demanded.
"We, we, we — any case that we have, we'll investigate and the appropriate action will be taken," Matos Rodríguez struggled.
Remember, this was going on two years ago.
"So, what was the appropriate action taken against this administrator in this case?" she asked.
The dude actually had the balls —20 months later, mind you— to fall back on "we are working with the New York City Police Department."
Enough!
“You have failed the people of New York,” Stefanik fairly barked. “You have failed Jewish students in New York State, and it is a disgrace.”
After the hearing, in a joint press conference with Brooklyn Councilwoman Inna Vernikov, Stefanik insisted that Matos Rodríguez had to go and added that Gov Hochul is part of the problem.
"The scourge of antisemitism has skyrocketed on her watch," she insisted.
"She needs to call on this chancellor to resign. She needs to fire him today."
Vernikov agreed.
"With one phone call, she can make sure the chancellor gets removed," she insisted.
Well, maybe not so much.
Unfortunately, Matos Rodríguez enjoys an impressive degree of support from CUNY's trustees, who are appointed by the governor and the mayor, so he's not likely to be looking for work anytime soon.
"Antisemitism has no place at CUNY," he testified.
However, comma, if it finds one, it doesn’t seem like the university will be all that quick to evict it.
As it turns out…
Remember last month, not too long after the B-2s landed back at Whiteman AFB following June 22's Operation Midnight Hammer, when some unknown fly in the ointment leaked a "low confidence" preliminary battle damage assessment from the Defense Intelligence Agency that concluded that the US strikes had only delayed Iran's nuclear program by months rather than years?
Do you remember the reaction from Team Trump?
White House Press Secretary condemned the report as "flat-out wrong," and blamed the leak on a "low-level loser."
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, while confirming the authenticity of the report, called it preliminary and low-confidence, and announced an FBI investigation into the leak.
CIA Director John Ratcliffe and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard countered the leaked report by citing "new intelligence" that indicated that the damage was "severe and multi-year."
President Trump labeled the report "very inconclusive" and insisted that the strikes had set Iran's program back "by several years."
He unloaded on the "fake news" for their coverage of the report, accusing them of maligning the military and undermining morale.
He accused congressional Democrats of orchestrating the leak, claiming on Truth Social that “The Democrats are the ones who leaked the information on the PERFECT FLIGHT… They should be prosecuted.”
Now, while I tend to agree that anyone responsible for leaking any classified information should face the consequences, it turns out that the "low confidence" report seems to have had some merit.
The latest intel evidently indicates that only one of the three nuclear sites was damaged enough to impede progress there significantly.
The other two appear to have been degraded just enough to delay nuclear enrichment by maybe several months.
The uranium enrichment facility at Fordow, which, if you'll remember, was considered the most heavily entrenched and protected, was the most severely damaged, setting enrichment there back by up to two years.
The Natanz nuclear facility sustained moderate damage, but intelligence officials now conclude that operations could resume within months.
The Isfahan Nuclear Technology Center suffered noticeable, though not catastrophic, damage, and work could resume there within months if Iran were to choose that course of action.
The good news is that we still have some GBU‑57 bunker busters left over. Not a lot, mind you. Probably only about 6.
Anyway, word has it that while Trump is intent on limiting US involvement in the region, if Iran starts rebuilding centrifuges or enrichment infrastructure, the administration is prepared to consider additional precision strikes.
Brian O'Leary is a retired Marine Corps colonel who served for 30 years, including combat deployments to Somalia and Iraq, and command of an infantry battalion in Afghanistan. Additionally, he has spent 25 years in the financial services industry. Brian earned his BA in English from Penn State University and his MA in National Security Studies from the US Army War College.
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