Smith's motions to move the trial forward are part of the "wheels of justice," just at Trump's motions to delay are part of the wheels of justice. It's all part of the "process running its course." The process includes motions from from the prosecution that are beneficial to the prosecution as well as motions from the defense that are beneficial to the defense. Why would Smith want to move the trial forward? There may be many reasons that have nothing to do with the coming election. Perhaps some of his key witnesses have life-threatening illnesses. Witnesses can also suddenly die without warning. Or perhaps key members of his prosecution team have given notice that they will be leaving his office at the end of the year. Or he wants to prosecute the case while the evidence is fresh in his mind. And testimony becomes less accurate with the passage of time--three years have already passed since the crimes alleged against Trump have occurred.

Genocide, you are really stretching it. I didn't say kill, I did intone relocate. There are over 2.1 million Arabs living within the boundaries of Israel without any issues. Only palestinians and their useful idiots say "From the River to the Sea Palestine shall be Free". Religious freedom has nothing to do with this. In my entire comment I didn't say anything about killing. You are the AH for saying what you had said. You're really "EFFED" up if you got that from let them go to one of the 22 other Arab countries.

When calls for violence become "conduct," it is far too late. How can Jewish students in America live like this, in constant concern for their well-being? How can they constantly be on their guard?

Linda Dayan

Student pro-Palestine protest outside New York's Columbia University campus last month

"I've been starting to wonder if we're the frog who doesn't know it's being boiled alive," a friend told me in his Brooklyn home last week. We had grown up together in a Syrian-Jewish bubble in New Jersey – a place where we took our safety, our observance and our expressions of identity for granted. Now, like many other American Jews, he is hearing offhand comments from passersby about posters of hostages, cutting friendships with October 7 deniers and wrestling with the question of whether the country will continue to be safe for Jews.

One aspect of this is playing out at prestigious universities, and whether their presidents will be ousted after disastrous testimonies to Congress last week on Jewish safety at their schools. All eyes have been on Harvard President Claudine Gay. During the hearing, she'd responded to Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik's charged, aggressive line of questioning with the exhausted but firm tone of a mother whose toddler had requested their fifth post-bedtime cup of water.

Gay repeatedly acknowledged that chants at anti-Israel protests calling for a globalized intifada – which for Jews conjure images of bombed-out buses and which Stefanik defined as a call for Jewish genocide – are abhorrent to her. But such speech, she said, will not be disciplined until it "crosses into conduct." This rightfully terrified the Jewish community. When calls for violence become "conduct," it is far too late; the water has boiled.

Last Friday, Gay apologized for her remarks in an interview with the institution's newspaper, The Harvard Crimson. "Words matter," she said. "What I should have had the presence of mind to do in that moment was return to my guiding truth, which is that calls for violence against our Jewish community – threats to our Jewish students – have no place at Harvard, and will never go unchallenged."

The university's board announced Tuesday that Gay will continue in her post. She will not go the way of University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill, who resigned Sunday following the tremendous backlash to her comments from the same hearing. But all the academic firings in the world would not be enough to reverse campus tensions or restore the sense of safety for Jewish communities across the country.

Walking through the New York University campus, my friend and I voiced our relief that we were not in the midst of our degrees now, and our surprise that there were no signs or symbols of protest as we passed by Washington Square Park. My uncle, who wears a kippa in his daily life in New York City, told me it was the area he had been most nervous to go through. How can Jewish students in America live like this, in constant concern for their well-being? How can they constantly be on their guard?

I returned to Israel early on Monday, unpacked my bags, took a warm shower and tucked myself in for a midmorning nap. At noon, I was awakened by several converging rocket alarms. I shuffled out of bed, grabbed my keys and headed to the safest corner of my building, in time to hear a rapid succession of explosions in the sky. Such a comfort to be safe at home again.