specifically on that topic. now, this is expected to be a record breaking year for air travel. tsa says to get to the airport early. >> to avoid all the, you know, the long lines and everything, so that's why. >> it would help if more people did that, right? >> it would help, yep. >> i think with the amount of people that do travel, it's good to just give yourself some leeway. >> and sandra, as always, check with your airlines for any updates and good luck out there. sandra. >> sandra: good luck out there. that's the message, right? looks ok for now there in denver. we hope it stays that way. it is going to get busy as it always does. alicia, thank you so much and great to see you as we kick off a new hour, college campuses under the microscope. the federal government investigating more than a half dozen schools after a series of alleged antisemitic incidents. welcome, everyone, sandra smith in new york and john, we are closer and closer to the weekend, but a lot still to get to here. >> john: a lot still to get to, a busy second hour here. john roberts in washington. "america reports" hour two starts now. one of those schools is where you are, sandra, new york city. columbia university, pro palestinian protests have become a weekly occurrence. >> sandra: jewish students telling fox digital they cannot wait to graduate and are scared to go to class. many more students are protesting the school's decision to suspend two pro palestinian student groups for violating columbia's policy. >> columbia university has an immense history of fighting for anti-colonial and anti-imperialist movements and the banning is a dangerous precedent to set. >> completely unjustified, a blatant attack on free speech. >> i don't know why we would support their voices and not some others. >> john: molly line in boston with the latest on this. molly. >> john, facing what they call alarming nationwide rise and reports of antisemitism, as well as anti-muslim discrimination, the u.s. education department is taking what they call aggressive action, opening investigations at seven schools across the country, happening through the office for civil rights. so far, mays district, lafayette, cornell, columbia, wellesley, cooper union for the advancement of science and art, five allege antisemitic harassment, and two allege anti-muslim harassment. miguel cardona says the list will grow. >> there's a line, children need to be safe. they need to be protected and we as educators need to do everything in our power to make sure that they feel safe in their own skin. she shouldn't have to hide who they are to learn on campus. >> cornell and columbia are not commenting. university of pennsylvania says the school is cooperating fully and taking comprehensive action to respond to antisemitism. the wellesley incident involves an email sent to residents by dorm leadership declaring there should be no space, no consideration and no support for zionism in the wellesley college community. wellesley claims the school responded quickly to the incident while making clear antisemitism has no place at wellesley. not on the list, harvard, the fallout of students blaming israel for the hamas attacks continues. as alumni and donors slammed the president for not doing enough, she has announced the advisory board to combat antisemitism and condemned the phrase from the river to the sea. now more than 100 harvard faculty have sent a letter to president gay bowing to pressure from wealthy donors. >> john: molly, thank you. >> sandra: donna weintraub, board member of the jewish federation of northern new jersey. welcome to the program today. you and i were having a chat a moment ago about just how big this moment is, and i'll ask you about that. while bringing larry summers voice into all of this, a very important voice in this moment, saying it's a moment of moral and mortal peril in the world and in university communities like his own. he says this, those most directly charged with confronting prejudice, offices diversity, equity, and inclusion, have failed to stand with the jewish students. some have taken positions widely viewed as antisemitic. this is an unbelievable moment in this country. these kids are on campus, they feel threatened, scared to even go to class. your thoughts. >> it's not anything new, that's one of my thoughts. this is something that america has woken up to. this is something that people are starting to see on a volcanic eruption of what's happening for jewish students on campus but not new, it has been slow burn, a marathon for the past ten years. >> sandra: you just feel horrible for the students that are living through this moment that larry summers called a cancer of antisemitism. it is spreading. colleges have to take a stand. this is the education secretary under this president, cardona, on another network this morning talking about the spreading of hate on our college campuses. >> the level of intensity is really high and i think we need to match it with a level of response that meets the moment. we need to be listening to the students, let them know that they will be safe in the schools, we are not going to tolerate hate or threats on campus. >> sandra: the level of intensity is really high, we have to meet it with a level of response that meets the moment. are we doing that? >> i don't believe that we are and i also believe that he made mention, too, we have to believe our students, listen to the students. forgive me, listen to the students. the jewish community on campus seems to be the one community that is not listened to on most university campuses across the country. students have explained what their triggers are, explained what certain slogans mean and they are told time and time again that it's not so, and that that's not what that means. we are the one community that does not get to identify for ourselves what antisemitism sounds like to us, what the triggers are for our community, and administrators across this country at universities and colleges alike, liberal and not liberal, large school, small school have turned a blind eye to it, or deaf ears for many of these institutions who heard about it years ago in smaller numbers but certainly jewish students have been vocal at least the past decade. >> sandra: we are talking about solutions and how do we come out of this moment. an israeli activist pulling funding for the anti-israel student groups, listen. >> how can it be the college fees and taxpayer dollars are funding hate groups that cheers on the burning alive of jewish families. every college in this country should ban sjp and never let them back. we would not fund kkk chapters in the colleges, we should not fund these either. >> sandra: eli lake was on the program last hour and said something really important about being skeptical of involving the federal government in free speech issues in this moment. listen. >> i think that there are dangers of involving the federal government in this kind of question because the definition of antisemitism at times can be nebulous. maybe the best tool right now is what we have already seen, wealthy alumni, student groups themselves taking on some of these people. >> sandra: talking to you on the set right now, i'm sure the viewers can see how deeply personal this is and emotional you are about it. how do we get out of this moment? >> for one, it's not for me to say how we get out of this moment. but i think that university administrators need a take a long hard look at themselves and wonder why it is that antisemitism has erupted on campus more so than anywhere else. it's not to say that it's not terrible, i myself was yelled at on a train in d.c. the other day, this is not something that's unheard of. but it's erupting on college campus. not every campus, certain campuses are having a better time of it, and i hate to say a better time of it, but certainly that where it's not as bad, but we can start there. >> sandra: the probing of the schools the education department will new take on, will this help? >> nobody checking and balancing what the professors are teaching in a classroom. a jewish student that sits in a classroom has to listen to the professor give their perspective of something as opposed to the facts on the ground. not only hurts them in terms of their identity being attacked, but it also impacts them as a student on campus, and impacts them as an academic on campus. if you don't feel safe in your classroom. i spent 15 years on a board of education in the town i live. every student deserves safe for their full self to bring themselves to academics. they are hindered to do the best they can do as a student on campus. >> sandra: appreciate you joining us live on set, donna, we will catch back up with you again soon. >> thank you for having me. >> john: israeli defense force says soldiers have destroyed an islamic jihad stronghold in gaza where the terror group was making and storing weapons. israelis also found hamas mortar shells inside a kindergarten, they say. jeff paul, what's it like where you are there tonight, jeff? >> john, from what we are seeing and hearing here on the ground in southern israel, this war is only intensifying. a short while ago, rockets were fired from gaza into tel aviv and standing out here, the sounds of that outgoing artillery that gaza is firing into gaza is a constant. so it's safe to say that israeli forces are tightening their grip in and around northern israel. the idf saying they are moving deeper into gaza where they destroyed islamic jihad training facility. and also continued the search of the al-shifa hospital, where they say a tunnel was found in the hospital complex, in addition to the guns and military equipment they said israeli soldiers discovered. idf found two bodies of hostages taken by hamas on october 7th. the body of 65-year-old judit weiss and the body of a 19-year-old soldier was also recovered. its only putting more pressure on the israeli government to make a deal for the release of hostages. families of israelis taken hostage continued the march from tell aviv. >> seven of my family members were kidnapped in gaza. my mother, my sister, my sister husband and their children, 8 and 3 years old. how can you put a price on a 3-year-old girl? we need them back now at any price. >> inside gaza, humanitarian crisis is only deepening. phone and internet service remains cut off for a second day and because of that, the u.n. said it could not bring in aid without a line of communication. food and clean water is becoming more scarce and so is medical aid. and while israel announced that it will allow two tanker trucks of fuel to enter daily, it will not be enough and might only get worse, john, as israel hints they might be moving the battle from the north to the south saying they will go wherever hamas goes, john. >> john: they just dropped leaflets in khan younis telling them to get out. >> sandra: officials investigating the death of jewish protestor paul kessler, the district attorney explained why prosecutors have not charged the suspect with a hate crime. >> looking at the statements, as well as the words that accompany the act, we cannot at this time meet the elements of a hate crime. but nevertheless, we will continue to explore and investigate that offense. >> sandra: involuntary manslaughter and battery against the 50-year-old college professor include special circumstances. >> john: ron desantis taking heat from an unlikely source, a conservative group that defends free speech. his push to boot students may close a line, the issue not going away for presidential candidates. we will talk to shannon bream about that in the minutes ahead. >> sandra: families who lost loved ones on 9/11 are trying to make sense of a new trend, digital influencers pushing osama bin laden's hate-filled letter to america. we will speak to two people who lost loved ones on that. >> for someone on tiktok to suggest it's america's fault or that bin laden, who killed thousands of innocent americans was right, is absolutely disgusting. 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"new york post" sums it up, world gone mad men, calling it a shocking new low. but more americans are getting news or what they think is news of platforms like tiktok. >> tiktok is the new google, where they get their information. >> that was the education secretary. so, with these videos flying around, how are september 11th families feeling about it all? let's bring in bret eagleson, 15 years old when his father was killed on 9/11, and terri strata lost her husband in the attacks. let me play one of these influencers, so-called influencers and what they said after finding this letter online and reading it. listen here. >> when i tell you tiktok is going to save this generation, the amount of things we have learned on this app in the past month alone that other people in other generations, they don't understand, they don't get it. tiktok is undoing all of that. >> i need everyone to stop what they are doing right now and read, literally two pages, read letter to america and come back here and let me know what you think. i feel i'm going through an existential crisis. >> john: it's not two pages, it's ten the way i printed it out, terri, what do you think of young people in america looking at what happened on 9/11 and bin laden's alleged justification for it and saying you have to go out, you have to read this. >> well, i find it appalling. i mean, it's hard to find words to describe just how upsetting this is to the entire 9/11 community to see these young people out there, you know, but the truth is, they are very misinformed and they are uneducated and ignorant on the subject. and the reason all of this is as far as i can tell from living through this nightmare for the past 20 years is that we have had spineless, and i mean spineless leaders in the white house and in the state department that choose to protect the kingdom of saudi arabia over the american people knowing the truth, and we have to remember that the truth is what will always be our best weapon, you know, against history repeating itself, and as long as we have government, our government officials that continue to protect the truth from being told, which is that the kingdom funded this terrorist attack, they funded al-qaeda, which spread this radical islamism, that this young group of people that were born before 9/11 are so unaware of because it's not taught in our schools, and the parents aren't aware of it and everybody should know, and our government needs to make some really strong changes really fast before this gets even worse than it is. >> john: bret, i printed out the letter and reread it to see if i missed a revelation the young people on tiktok have come across, and the one thing i was struck by is that this young woman who said you have to read this letter might have missed the part where bin laden basically says all civilians in the united states are fair game for terrorist attacks. >> yeah, i mean -- this is unbelievable. there are not enough horrible words to describe, not enough dangerous words to describe what is happening right now in america. this is an existential threat to this country. if we are going to have kids of that generation, children on tiktok trying to in some way whitewash what happened on 9/11 by justifying people like osama bin laden and it all starts in the education system and you know, kudos to certain governors, ron desantis went out of his way to make sure legislation passed that 9/11 is taught in the schools. in the country it's not a mandate or a requirement that 9/11 is taught as part of the curriculum. we need to reeducate america and to the tiktokers that are saying inflammatory remarks, you should all know that hamas and al-qaeda and people that you are supporting and giving credibility to would not hesitate one second to kill you or kidnap you and your family and hold you ransom simply based on the color of your skin or your gender identity or your nationalality or your religion. >> john: as i pointed out a second ago, that is spelled out here in this letter from bin laden. the wall street journal editorial board, you mentioned education, observed this about what's going on on tiktok. said it should be a cause for contemplation on university campuses that some young americans in 2023 could apparently read osama bin laden's justifications for 9/11 and see a reflection of what they have been taught about "settler colonialism." terri, do you worry about what's being taught on college campuses across america, particularly when we see this troubling r